BATON ROUGE - The Southern men’s basketball team is heading on a foreign tour.

The Jaguars are going to the Bahamas Saturday for a six day trip, which includes three games against Bahamian teams.

NCAA rules allow programs to take a foreign trip to play international exhibition games once every four years.

The Jaguars return six players from a team that finished 18-14 last season and lost in the first round of the SWAC Tournament in March. Second-year head coach Kevin Johnson told WBRZ Southern has seven new players, and is excited about junior college transfer Mike Jacobs and Oral Roberts Cam Amboree.

Having an opportunity to have the new group of guys mesh before the regular season is important to Johnson.

“Every time I’ve been a part of a program that’s been able to take a preseason trip, it’s been a special year,” Johnson said. “That’s one of the reasons I really wanted to do it at this time, there’s not an excitement surrounding this trip and the prospects in the future.”

Southern has not made the NCAA tournament since 2016.