Percy “Master P” Miller continued his mission to build buzz surrounding the University of New Orleans men’s basketball program, which got its first opportunity to play in front of fans during a Saturday exhibition game at Lakefront Arena.
Miller, who is in his first year as UNO’s president of basketball operations, scheduled an exhibition matchup against a Sacramento State program that also has a first-year leader in general manager Shaquille O’Neal. The two teams fought to a tie at the half, but UNO pulled away in the second half for an 89-76 win.
The contest featured new in-game entertainment along with a halftime performance from St. Augustine’s “Marching 100” band and hip-hop artist T99zy. UNO was able to entertain the crowd on the court with several dunks and three-pointers with a roster featuring 13 new players.
“I think there was a lot of excitement in our group,” UNO coach Stacy Hollowell said. “Got to give credit to Sacramento State, they got out and were disruptive on the perimeter, but I like what we did. A lot of guys contributed.”
Miller, who now goes by “Coach P,” has made an effort to bring added entertainment during games at Lakefront Arena and recently helped install a jumbotron scoreboard that was on full display Saturday.
“Even though we’re a college organization, the game has changed,” Miller said. “We had to bring some entertainment in here, bring some other things to the atmosphere to play good basketball. I just loved how we prepared to deal with this. These coaches and players have been in the community, and the community is coming out for us.”
Southeastern transfer Jakevion Buckley started at point guard for UNO and finished with 25 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field along with three rebounds and eight assists.
“It’s been great (at UNO),” Buckley said. “It’s everything I expected it to be. Just trying to keep the main thing the main thing and just play basketball.”
Buckley was able to get to the free throw line consistently and made 10 of 14 free throws. UNO shot 82.1 percent from the free throw line and 46.8 percent from the field.
Texas State transfer Coleton Benson also started at guard and scored 14 points, shooting 4 of 9 from 3-point range. Forward MJ Thomas shined off the bench with 17 points, shooting 5 of 5 from the field and 6 of 6 from the free throw line.
“I think we have a nice mix of skilled guard play, bigger guys that can play on the perimeter and some guys inside that can really contribute,” Hollowell said. “I think we’ve got some depth, and we’ll just continue to grow into that.”
Forward Will Patterson and guard TJ Cope also contributed off the bench with 8 points each. The rest of UNO’s starting five consisted of center Churchill Abass, forward Enzo Boudouma and forward Eze Nwakamma.
Sacramento State forward Jeremiah Cherry led the way in scoring with 23 points on 11 of 21 shooting. Shaq’s son, Shaqir O’Neal, entered the game off the bench and scored 4 points.
UNO opens the 2025-26 regular season on at 7 p.m. on Nov. 3 on the road against TCU. UNO’s home opener follows at 3 p.m. on Nov. 8 against Southern University of New Orleans.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.nola.com ’
