SLIPPERY ROCK — Seven was not a lucky number for the Slippery Rock University basketball teams last season.

The Rock men finished seventh in the PSAC West with a 15-13 record — its worst finish in ninth-year coach Kevin Reynolds’ tenure — and is picked to finish seventh in the preseason coaches poll this year.

“This is the lowest we’ve been picked to finish since my first year here,” Reynolds said. “That season, we won 21 games and finished second in the conference.

“Hopefully, we can prove we’re better than the other coaches in the league think we are and we can do something like that again.”

The Rock women finished seventh in the West with a 13-15 overall record after being picked fifth in the preseason poll.

“We feel like we underachieved last year,” third-year coach and Mars resident Bobby McGraw said. “Now we’re picked fifth again this year and we’ve got one of the best point guards in all of Division II.”

While SRU’s women are buoyed by the return of All-PSAC West senior Lexi Carpenter at the point (17.5 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists per game), the men are dealing with new faces practically across the board.

Guards Jordan Marrow and Naquil Jones, who averaged just 9.6 points between them last season, are the only returnees. Both played sparingly a year ago.

No freshmen and only one sophomore — 6-foot-3 guard Dwight Whitlock — are on the Rock men’s squad. The rest of the team consists of transfers, including five from Marshalltown Community College.

“I’m real good friends with the coach there and he understands the type of program we have,” Reynolds said. “We don’t have the budget to go out and recruit players.

“We’ve got some thicker bodies this year, but no outstanding individual scorer. This will be one our bigger challenges, meshing this unit together and seeing what we have.”

The Rock men open the season tonight with an exhibition game at the University of Tennessee. Their home opener is Nov. 15 against Ohio University-Eastern.

Reynolds is 153-85 at The Rock with six PSAC Tournament appearances.

“We have to control the controllables,” Reynolds said. “That means team chemistry, training and playing hard.

“After these two exhibition games with Tennessee and Central Michigan (Saturday), we’ll have a much better idea of what we have.”

McGraw is fully aware of what he has on the women’s side and it all starts with Carpenter.

“Nobody in our league can stay in front of her and that makes it so much easier for our other players to get open,” McGraw enthused. “There’s only three other point guards in the Atlantic Region that put up numbers like Lexi last year.”

The other players on the court with her — at least to start the season — are Redbank Valley graduate and freshman guard Brooke Hinderliter, junior Mallory Heinle at 3-guard, junior CC Dixon at forward and 6-2 sophomore Morgan Henderson at center.

“CC is a transfer from California and she gives us a dimension we haven’t had here, a sizable forward with a lot of speed,” McGraw said.

“We just scrimmaged Fairmont State, a 20-win team with five senior starters, and we more than held her own. Brooke Hinderliter showed she belongs on the floor at this level.”

So, too, did Karns City graduate and Rock freshman LeeAnn Gibson, who is the backup forward behind Dixon.

“LeeAnn is a gritty player and was probably our biggest surprise in that scrimmage,” McGraw said. “I knew she’d be able to help us eventually when we recruited her, but she’s gonna help us much sooner than expected.”

Cassidy Wright, a senior guard and transfer from Arkansas-Pine Bluff, will also see plenty of action as a backup at all three guard spots.

SRU’s women open the season Nov. 11 against Johnson C. Smith on the road. The Rock’s first home game isn’t until Dec. 3 against West Chester.

“Team chemistry is probably our biggest strength,” McGraw said. ‘It’s tremendous.”