ROLLA, Mo. -- Missouri S&T's men's basketball team cranks up its first campaign under new head coach Bill Walker Wednesday night and welcomes an old rival to town, as the Miners will face Lincoln University in a 7:30 p.m. contest at Gibson Arena.

The Miners and Blue Tigers, who are facing off in an S&T season opener for the fourth time ever, met up in a tight contest a year ago at Kansas City's Municipal Auditorium that Lincoln escaped with a 71-63 victory.   It will be the first of three games in a seven-day span for the Miners to open the 2019-20 campaign, as S&T will play at Missouri Western on Sunday and then hosts Lindenwood-Belleville next Tuesday at Gibson Arena.

Walker -- who played for the Miners from 1984-87 -- inherits a Miner team that finished at 5-21 a year ago and won just three times in GLVC play.  This year's S&T squad returns three players who averaged in double figures last year, led by guard CJ Hedgepeth (Evansville, IN/Harrison) who scored 12.4 points per contest and had 23 points in last year's matchup with Lincoln.

Dulan Scott (Chicago, IL/Farragut Academy) averaged 12.1 points per game last season and Jordan Newt (San Francisco, CA/Malibu), who missed all but eight games due to an injury, scored 14.3 points per contest during those eight contests and connected on 43.3 percent of his three-point attempts.

Missouri S&T returns eight players overall from last season and has seven newcomers on the 2019-20 roster.

ABOUT LINCOLN: While the Miners are opening their season Wednesday, Lincoln already has two games under its belt and split those two in the Central Regional Challenge at Municipal Auditorium.  After dropping a one-point decision to Sioux Falls on Friday, Lincoln topped Upper Iowa 61-59 Saturday behind14 points apiece from Cameron Potts and Jonell Burton.

Burton, who is the Blue Tigers' top returning scorer from a year ago, has averaged 15 points over the first two games of the season and Potts had 14 points in each of the two contests while shooting 59.1 percent from the field and dishing out a team-high 10 assists.

L'Kielynn Taylor has been a force on the boards for the Blue Tigers with an average of 14 rebounds per game and has 11 offensive rebounds thus far on the season.