ELMIRA, N.Y. (WENY) - The college basketball season is here with the Elmira College programs set to begin the regular season next week. Tonight, we catch up with the men's team who enter this season under second-year Head Coach, Casey McGraw.

The Soaring Eagles will travel to Penn College on Tuesday, November 8th with their first two home games on the 11th and 12th for the Elmira College Alumni Classic.

Elmira was 6-19 last season, but they bring back key returners including Empire 8 Rookie of the Year, Bryan Adams, and Newfield grad, Quintel Clements along with a strong freshman class.

McGraw says he thinks they'll be able to space the floor a lot more and score more points as they've been working on their ability to shoot the ball better as a whole. He's excited for the blend of leadership and young players to come together and play for each other, but he says the success this season all starts with the senior class.

"They've handled every piece of adversity exactly how we'd want them to, with grace and with class and I think they're the main reason for the optimism," said McGraw. "The seniors, the juniors, the sophomores have bought in since day one last year and I think there are eleven new guys that came here for the right reasons with the right intentions and are really putting the program first."

"It's one of the main reasons I came back is that I believe not only in our coaches but in the young guys as well," said Clements. "We have a great opportunity to not only do something good this year but in the years to come, especially with Coach McGraw and Coach Piscioneri, the effort that they put into recruiting."

"We're very versatile" he added. Our big guys can do what our guards can do and our guards can do what our big guys can do. Compared to some of the teams that we've had in the past, we can really shoot the ball, and for me, someone that loves to pass, it's really exciting."

Elmira College's first two home games are set for Friday, November 11th vs Bard College at 7:30 PM, then they'll host Cazenovia College on November 12th with a 3:30 PM tip-off.

The full Elmira College Men's Basketball schedule can be found here.