Amherst, MA---The Howard University men's basketball team will kick off the 2015-16 season when it travels to Amherst, MA to take on the Minutemen of UMass in the opening round of the Men Who Speak Up tournament on Saturday at 12 noon.  The game will be played at the Mullins Center.

The Bison are coming off a 16-16 season, the team's best in over a decade.  Howard returns a team that consists of four returning starters, all of whom are juniors and are battle tested after having played together for three years.

The Bison are led by junior sharpshooting guard, James "J-Byrd" Daniel, III, who led the team in scoring last year and is one of the top three-point shooting guards in the country.  The 5-11 native of Hampton, VA became the first male player in school history to score 1,000 points in his first two seasons at the collegiate level.

The Bison will also look to James "JT" Miller to add to the scoring.  The 6-5 junior guard from Clinton, NC, averaged almost 12 points per game last season while shooting 50 percent from the field.

The Bison are looking for a breakout season from Damon Collins, a 6-5 junior guard from Dallas, TX, had a good all-around season despite a hand injury that hampered him all season.  He is now healthy and should be a valuable asset.

In the Minutemen, a team that Howard has never faced, the Bison will have to find a way to slow down their guards, Trey Davis, Donte Clark and Jabarie Hinds, who combined for almost 28 points and 106 made three pointers.

It will be a short turnaround for the Bison who face Rutgers in New Jersey on Sunday at 1 pm in the next round.