PEMBROKE — The wait was two days, but anticipation built during the delay for The University of North Carolina at Pembroke men’s basketball team as it waited to get on the hardwood for the first practice of the season.

The first day of practice was scheduled for Saturday, but the lingering effects of Hurricane Matthew pushed the first official practice for the Braves to Monday.

“I think they were like the coaches, everybody was anxious to get back out there and get back after it,” said UNCP coach Ben Miller. “The guys were a little rusty. …But that’s generally how it is this time of year anyways.”

UNCP is coming off a 15-13 season in 2015-2016 that included no postseason appearance for the third time under Miller. Coming into the first practice, the Braves have two seniors on roster with a third, Quamain Rose, set to return to the team after sitting out until the end of the current semester with a medical hardship. Alex Bradley, one of the seniors on the team, felt that last year the Braves fell short of expectations and wants his last, first day of practice to be the beginning of something that he has yet to experience.

“We as a team felt like we underachieved last year,” he said. “The emotions that I have going into this season is trying to get a ring. I haven’t got a ring since I got here and that’s what I came to college for.”

Bradley and junior Brandon Watts were named captains and were the top two scorers from last year. Nigel Grant, a junior college transfer, is the third captain and is one of five newcomers to the team

“We’ve got playful guys, but we’ve got guys that are serious on the floor,” Bradley said. “We’ve got some newcomers that are ready to play and they bring that fire that we probably need.”

Seeing the season get away from the team down the stretch last year, Bradley saw how a lack of preparation played a big part of the situation and as a leaders wants to make sure that doesn’t happen for him and his teammates this year. And for him, preparation beings with practice.

“That’s really the most important key this year is preparation,” Bradley said. “I just have to try to get them ready to play and get focused. The coaches do their job as best as they can to get us prepared, but it’s really up to us players.”

Although it wasn’t the first time the team has prepped for the season since school started, Monday was the first time the team as a whole had been together. The workouts with four-man groups over the past few months have been defensive-minded, and Miller hopes that will lead to better effort on that end of the court this season.

“Our preseason workouts have been geared toward defensive footwork and rebounding so we haven’t spent as much time on offense as we have in years past and I don’t expect that to be real sharp. Maybe it will be by this weekend,” Miller said, “but I hope our defensive energy and effort’s good. I hope we can be pretty good there early.”

Moonlight Madness will be the first showcase of the new team for the public before the first exhibition at home against the All Army squad on Sunday at 2 p.m., seven practices into the season.

“I’d like to have a little more time,” Miller said with a laugh.