BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Today we continue a new series called Student-Athlete Spotlight, presented by Coca-Cola, that will highlight Samford's outstanding student-athletes. Today's 13^th episode featured men's basketball fifth-year senior Preston Parks.
 
Parks sat out last season after transferring from UT Martin, so Wednesday night's game against Greenville will be his first action as a Bulldog. He said he was looking forward to making his Samford debut.
 
"I'm definitely excited," Parks said. "I haven't played since March 3^rd of 2019, so it's definitely been a long-time coming. I had hip surgery last year in January. I got through that, did physical therapy, so it's definitely going to be a fun time to play."


 
Parks began his collegiate career at fellow SoCon member The Citadel, where he was the SoCon Freshman of the Year for the 2016-17 season. He then went to UT Martin, before ending up at Samford. Parks talked a little about what brought him to Samford.
 
"My freshman year while I was playing at The Citadel, when we were playing here, I met an assistant coach from last year, Charles Newton, and he was just being polite and talking," Parks said. "We were kind of just having a conversation before warmups, and then after I decided to leave UT Martin, he was one of the first people to call me. And that relationship that we got in warmups, kind of led me here."
 
There are a lot of new faces, both on the coaching staff and the team this season. Parks talked about what he has seen from the team so far.
 
"I see the guys are buying in," Parks said. "We're going hard, we've shown a lot of teamwork, we're listening, we're doing everything the coaches are asking us to do and we're going 100 percent every play. It's probably going to be hard to come to a practice and see us not going hard most of the practice, because we're trying to get it done."
 
Wednesday night's game will mark for the first for Head Coach Bucky McMillan and his staff. Parks talked about what preseason practice has been like with the new staff.
 
"It's been wonderful," Parks said. "The guys, we love it, because they keep it real. That's one thing that Coach Bucky does, he keeps it real with us. He treats everybody the same, he doesn't talk to a senior differently than he talks to a freshman, he doesn't treat a walk-on differently than he treats the scholarship guys. He treats everybody the same."
 
Coach McMillan brings with him an up-tempo style of play. Parks talked about the adjustments the players have had to make to a new style of play.
 
"It's been a major adjustment," Parks said. "Especially for a lot of the newcomers and a lot of the guys from last year. My freshman year (at The Citadel), I played similar to this style, so I kind of knew what to expect. But, actually playing in it and playing for him is different. You've got to be ready to be coached, you've got to be ready to go hard, you've got to be ready to go 100 percent every play."
 
Parks talked about some of the precautions the program has had to take due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
"When we first started, we started doing the COVID tests once a week, everybody wearing a mask, social distancing, trying not to stay around each other too long," Parks said. "But now that the season is starting and we're about to play a game, it's up to three times a week. So we're taking three tests a week, still doing the same precautions, but just trying to stay out of situations where we can have contact with anyone, or being around people we don't really know. We try to just stay around the gym and stay around each other."