There's always been something about playing early-season road games that West Virginia State men's basketball coach Bryan Poore has found valuable for his teams.
The chance to be away from home, getting his players out of their comfort zone of being on campus and having a chance to spend a lot of time around one another on the road and in hotel rooms all can help a team grow and come together.
That can especially be said this year. The Yellow Jackets have a young group hoping to gain chemistry as both WVSU and the University of Charleston prepare to face Salem International and Bluefield State in the Manchin Classic in Salem.
Charleston (6-1) will play the first game on Friday, taking on Bluefield State (1-6) at 2 p.m. before West Virginia State (3-3) and Salem International (0-7) tip off at 7 p.m. On Saturday, UC plays Salem and State plays Bluefield.
"I always like to get on the road early because I feel like a lot of times that gives you a chance to bond together," Poore said. "It's more difficult to win on the road, so you have to play a little better, but you get to be away and form that camaraderie with your teammates. It can be an important thing for a group like this with so many new guys."
The Yellow Jackets have gone through some early ups and downs. They're coming off a victory over Urbana and want to keep heading in the right direction.
West Virginia State is being led by a pair of talented freshmen in Ernest Jenkins and Jayson Hankins. Jenkins is averaging 18.2 points while making 48 percent of his 3-pointers, and Hankins averages 14.3 points and 7.2 rebounds. The Yellow Jackets will get things started on Friday against a Salem International team that has yet to win a game this season, but Poore said the Tigers look like an improved bunch under first-year coach Adam Williams.
"With how young our team is, anytime you can get out there and have a chance to string together a few wins, it's a huge help," Poore said. "I feel like we've played well and our guys know that. Now we have to try to take advantage of it and get a few more wins.
"With that said, Salem is a dangerous team. They haven't won yet, which makes them more dangerous because they're getting hungry for that first one. They have some athletic guys who can make shots and they play really hard."
UC will try returning to form after losing for the first time this season, 75-70 to Notre Dame College. Coach Dwaine Osborne hopes that first loss will put his team in the right frame of mind to keep improving in the areas where it has struggled at times this season.
"We felt like there were some things we've been trying to get them to fix that really showed up in that loss to Notre Dame," Osborne said. "I think it was an eye-opener for them. I believe we have addressed those issues and gotten better with them this week. Hopefully they'll get to see improvements there so that the hard work they've put in can start to pay off."
The six consecutive wins to start the season gave Charleston its best start since 2011 and put the Golden Eagles on the radar of the national rankings. UC received votes in last week's NABC Division II Top 25.
With dynamic scorers like Elliott Cole and Keir Anderson making strides as UC's go-to playmakers, and other veterans like Justin Coleman stepping up, Osborne feels that his team can use a couple of good performances in Salem to get moving in the right direction again as the Golden Eagles head into the heart of a tough nine-game road stretch.
"Our goal, first and foremost, is to go up there and win two games," Osborne said. "It's going to be good for us because these are two teams that will probably play some zone, which we haven't seen much of yet this year. It'll give us a chance to work on some things that we haven't gotten to face a lot yet and ultimately get us ready for when we pick back up in [Mountain East Conference] play."
Contact Michael Carvelli at 304-348-4810 or michael.carvelli@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @carvelli3.