By Connor Wilson (@Conman_815)
WEST HAVEN, Conn. — The jump from one division to another in today’s world of college athletics can be quite a whirlwind for a school.
One minute you’re playing in tiny, high school-like gyms and the next you’re, well, still playing in those styles of gyms, but the competition is on another level that you’ve never seen before.
Over the past few years, we’ve seen programs transitioning from Division II to Division I have mixed results in their first seasons at the next level. Early on in the Division I history of the University of New Haven’s men’s basketball team, there are high hopes that the program made the right decision in moving up.
“It’s hard to simulate what we’re playing against,” New Haven head coach Ted Hotaling said. “What we’re learning in real time is the length, the athleticism, the speed, the skill. I think the process from the summer until now has been good.”
The first week for New Haven did end with the Chargers having an 0-3 record, but the journey to get there provides encouragement. Starting on opening night, Hotaling wanted to throw his team right into the fire, and what better way to do that than a trip up to Storrs to take on fourth-ranked UConn? The Chargers impressed a lot of people with how they played at Gampel Pavilion, never really laying down and playing competitive through roughly the mid-point of the second half.
Jabri Fitzpatrick (1) drives past UConn’s Alec Millender. (Photo by University of New Haven Men’s Basketball)
“I told our guys that this is a perennial national championship contender,” Hotaling said. “Just to be able to be in this environment and witness it first hand, it was a pretty unique situation for us.”
Big man Andre Pasha stole the show and impressed everyone with how he performed. The sophomore scored 17 points in a variety of fashions, really having his way with highly-touted freshman Eric Reibe in the post. Najimi George and Maison Adeleye also finished in double figures, showing great will to get to the rim in one-on-one situations.
“They don’t help on drives and would rather play you one-on-one,” Hotaling said. “If you don’t make your layups, they’ll hunt you in transition and it's going to be a very hard night.”
The general consensus from the 79-55 defeat was that the future for the Chargers is bright, but Hotaling doesn’t want that getting to his team’s head.
“I thought we played extremely well on Monday and I prepared our guys for everyone saying how great they were and for them telling me how great of a coach I was,” Hotaling said. “And the trick for them was to not believe it.”
After spending the rest of the week watching film and cleaning up areas where it struggled, New Haven welcomed Columbia to the Hazell Center on Friday for its first home game as a Division I program. With the vibes high from Monday, everyone expected this to be a good second test on a more level playing field.
The result? A 71-53 loss that wasn’t even as close as the final score indicates. Trailing by as many as 28 early in the second half, even a 14-0 run couldn’t do much to stop the bleeding once the deficit got that high. It also didn’t help that the Lions countered with an 11-0 run to keep the foot on the gas.
“When you play like that at UConn and start to get accolades, sometimes you start to think that’s who you are,” Hotaling said. “It was a great dose of reality for us and I told the team after the game that I was extremely happy it happened to us, but we recovered.”
Even though that was a tough game made it feel like the team took a step back, the home opener was just the appetizer for Saturday. The main course? A clash at home with Penn State.
How does a team from the Big Ten end up coming on the road to a team in the NEC, let alone a team in the NEC that, at the time of scheduling, had never played a Division I game?
“Some coaches in the Big Ten said to me, ‘are you crazy?’” Penn State head coach Mike Rhoades said. “And I told them that I am. I think it was great, a great road trip for our guys. We have to do things like this and be different and creative.”
“Having a Big Ten team here with the crowd, a lot of alums, a lot of people excited about it, it was pretty special for our university,” Hotaling said.
The official agreement between the two programs is a “3-for-1”, as in Penn State will travel to New Haven for a road game and in return, the Chargers will play on the road in State College three times and, more importantly, not have to pay for the buy game.
The game itself on Saturday went how most people expected. Despite some early momentum from the Chargers, the Nittany Lions used their length and grit on the defensive end to make things really challenging and ended up running away with it, 87-43.
“Against high major teams, one play can literally end the game,” Hotaling said. “But I thought our guys really competed.”
Hotaling pegged a moment in the first half when the Chargers trailed 33-20. A bad play turned into an easy bucket for the Nittany Lions and they went on a 9-0 run from there.
Jabri Fitzpatrick starred for UNH with 14 points and some acrobatic finishes inside, but none of his teammates joined him and he was the only to finish in double figures.
The defeat signaled the end of the first week for Hotaling and his squad, and even though they didn’t pick up a win, he likes how they’ve competed and matured.
“I thanked our kids after the game because they are doing the heavy lifting in making this a Division I program,” Hotaling said. “They’re the ones competing on the floor. I thought they played really, really hard.”
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