BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — New Samford coach Bennie Seltzer returns to his hometown promising to bring tenacious defense and have the "hardest-playing basketball team that you've ever seen." He believes Southern Conference titles and NCAA tournament appearances will follow, too.

"There's no doubt that we can make a statement in this conference and win conference championships and get NCAA berths," Seltzer said Thursday during his introductory news conference. "Why not us? It's been done numerous times around the country. There's no doubt that we can.

"I told these (players) last night when I walk through that door each and every day, I'm walking in that door to win championships. I also told those guys, 'When you walk in that door, you make sure you do the same, because we're not going to accept anything less.' It's a new era in Bulldog basketball, but it's going to be fun."

The 41-year-old Seltzer has spent the past 15 years at an assistant at Oklahoma, Marquette and Indiana. He is a Birmingham native who played at Parker High School, played in Samford's gym during the summers, and was an all-conference player at Washington State.

Seltzer, who spent the last four seasons with the Hoosiers, takes over a program that went to the NCAA tournament in 1999 and 2000 but has had six straight seasons without a winning record.

"He's a winner, and he can coach," Bulldogs athletic director Martin Newton said. "He's recruited nationally, and he can recruit locally.

"I think his strength is developing players and I think that's where we're going to see the most improvement here. He understands the job. He grew up in Birmingham."

Seltzer said building a championship-caliber program starts with defense.

As for style of play, he wants his Bulldogs teams to feature "tenacious defense, unbelievable rebounding" and up-tempo offense.