HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — On Monday, Huntsville hosted all nine Conference USA men’s and women’s basketball teams as part of the media day event.

Jacksonville State is one of the newcomers in the conference, coming from the ASUN. Both teams have some local talent on their rosters: Hazel Green’s Samiya Steele, who just transferred from Alabama State, and Athens native Tyre Patterson.

Both Jacksonville State head coaches had positive things to say on Monday on the North Alabama natives.

“First off she’s a great kid. She’s got a tremendous personality, she’s very popular within the group, within our players. From a basketball standpoint, she’s solid in what she does she, like our other newcomers, she’s trying to digest because there are certain things we may ask her to do that they might not have been asked to do it in that specific way before,” Jacksonville State women’s basketball head coach Rick Pietri said.

“Tyre’s a good kid, he’s a first-year walk on and when he gets on the court, he competes. And I would not be surprised to see him on the court some, just because I know that if I put him in, he’s going to go take a charge, he’s going to dive after loose balls, he’s going to do whatever we ask and when you have guys like that – at some point they’re going to get a chance,” Jacksonville State men’s basketball head coach Ray Harper added.

Another North Alabama native that we’ll see is former Hartselle stay Brody Peebles, who is now suiting up at Liberty.

“I love Brody Peebles. I probably saw him play, I don’t know, 5 high school games, over a dozen AAU games. Really recruited him hard because not only is he a fabulous player, a fabulous person from a great family. So I think for him it’ll be really special to come back to Alabama to play in a conference tournament. I’ve really seen growth in not just his play, but who he is as a young man, he continues to play a bigger and bigger role for our men’s basketball program. I love having him as a part of it, he’s special,” Liberty men’s basketball head coach Ritchie McKay said.

Huntsville will host the Conference USA basketball tournament in March.