By Andrew Ross

It’s only mid-January, but the men’s basketball team is already just two wins shy of matching last season’s win total (nine).

The Hornets are currently 7-9 (1-1 in conference play) and have impressive wins over Wake Forest, Delaware and Howard.

Delaware State is right in the middle

of the MEAC right now (above six teams and below six teams), and they will get their opportunity to make some noise as 13 of their final 15 regular season games are against conference opponents.

The other thing the Hornets have going for them is the fact that their re-maining schedule is made up of most of their home games. Delaware State has only played in Dover four times through their first 16 games, but they will have the luxury of playing at home seven times during the second half of the season.

It’s easy to give Keith Walker all the credit for the team’s success since this is his first full season as head coach, but the players deserve a lot of credit as well.

The Hornets are playing well as a complete unit, but two players in particular are really standing out: Amere May and Kendall Gray.

May returned for his senior year af-ter playing a season for St. Augustine’s College in North Carolina, and he is playing the best basketball of his career.

May has been the go-to scorer for the Hornets and is averaging 18.3 points per game on 39 percent shooting from the field. The season average is good for the second-best in the conference and he has already had season-highs in scoring of 48, 32 and 28.

Unlike May, Gray has played his entire collegiate career at Delaware State, and he is having a dominant season after having a breakout year last season.

Gray is currently averaging 11.9 points (56 percent shooting from the field), 12 rebounds and three blocks per game. The rebounds and blocks are both tops in the MEAC, and his field goal percentage is fourth-best. He really looks like the DeAndre Jordan of the MEAC.

Gray also leads the team in minutes per game – 33.9 – and is a strong candidate for the conference Player-of-the-Year award.

This team could do some great things this season, and they are going to go as far as their stars will take them.

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