CONWAY, Ark. _ When the University of Central Arkansas Bears open their 2015-16 season on Saturday afternoon, they will do so against one of the most experienced basketball teams in the nation.

    The Bears take on the Tulsa Golden Hurricane at 4 p.m. Saturday at the Reynolds Center in Tulsa. The Golden Hurricane, coached by Frank Haith, return nine seniors and four juniors to go along with two freshman.

    "We're opening with one of the oldest teams in the country,' said UCA head coach Russ Pennell, in his second season at UCA. "There are eightteams in the nation in Division I basketball with at least seven seniors, and Tulsa has nine.

    "They have as experienceda  team as we will face all season, and we do it in Game 1. I wish we would have played them next year. But they are pretty athletic, they are tough on the glass. I think if we can rebound with them, we'll have a chance. I think we have to be really solid defensively, and that's been one of our focal points, getting in the right position.'

    "We're going to have to be really good at that, but so are they.'

    At least Pennell's team is not as young and inexperienced as it was last year, a team that had 10 newcomers and only one returnee from the previous season. This addition of the Bears features three seniors and three juniors, including a trio of players who sat out last season after transferring to UCA.

    Those three _ junior guards Jeff Lowery and Derreck Brooks and senior forward Justin Foreman _ should all be in the starting lineup on Saturday.

    "I think the ingredients, or most of them, are there,' Pennell said. "Now we just have to have the experience of playing together. We are light years better than we were last year at this time. The big thing with me is, I want to see us be competitive. I want to see us be in games. And if you have a chance to win one down the stretch, that's great. You can't predict that stuff, but what you can do is play quality basketball.'

    UCA returns the Southland Conference Freshman of the Year in guard Jordan Howard, the fifth-leading scorer in the conference last season at 15.7 points per game. Howard connected on 77 three-pointers a year ago, the most ever by a UCA freshman and the fourth-best total in school history. He shot 38.9 percent from beyond the arc and had a high of 27 points against Northwestern State.

    Also returning inside is graduate center Jake Zuilhof, who averaged 9.4 points and a team-high 6.1 rebounds, while blocking a team-high 1.7 shots per game last season. The 6-foot-9 Zuilhof was sixth in the SLC in blocked shots, 10th in field-goal percentage (51.5 percent) and 12th in rebounding. Senior guard Mike Martin, UCA's second-leading scorer last season (11.5 ppg) and second-best three-point shooter (41 of 110, 37.3 percent) is back as well. 

    UCA's remaining experience comes from sophomore forwards Mathieu Kamba, Boo Milligan and Albert Christensson. That trio combined for 29 starts at year ago, led by 13 from Kamba. 

    The Bears played and won two exhibition games, against Lyon College and Central Baptist over the past two weeks. Brooks played only against CBC but had 29 points and 14 rebounds in 32 minutes of action. Foreman averaged 17 points, Kamba 12 and Lowery 10 in the two games.

    "I thought the best thing I saw was our poise, because in both games, stuff went wrong,' said Pennell. "And our guys never wavered. Last year we would have crumbled.  But they've showed some great poise so far. 

    "And I thought we executed. I can call plays this year, we can run stuff. Last year we had to be so vanilla. I would see something that I knew would work or help us, but we couldn't execute.'

    Pennell said his team is also considerably better at defending.

    "When I look at progression, that's what I see,' he said. "We've made a major jump defensively, even though CBC hit some shots. But in both of these games, their percentage was under 40 percent. And I think this week in practice, we've improved another notch defensively. And I think if we keep guarding well, we're going to score points. I don't think that will be an issue.'
 
    Tip-off is set for 4 p.m. on ESPN3, as well as The Bear 91.3 with Jeff Matthews.