Unbe-LEE-vable! Princeton comes back from down 16 to top Iona on Lee’s heroics

Xaivian Lee (1) exults as his 27 points propelled Princeton past Iona in season opener Monday. (Photo by Princeton Athletics)

PRINCETON, N.J. — When most college students were enjoying their spring and summer before returning to school this fall, Xaivian Lee spent his working out alongside Jeremy Lin while going through the NBA Draft process.

Lee ultimately decided to return to Princeton for his junior season, and in his first game action in almost eight months, turned in an effort that mirrored Lin’s own meteoric rise once the former Harvard star got the opportunity to shine on the big stage.

Lee’s 27 points were a game-best Monday, and none of his markers were bigger than the last two, which came at the free throw line with 3.7 seconds remaining in regulation, capping off a 16-point second-half comeback and sealing an 81-80 Tiger win over Iona in the season opener for both teams at Jadwin Gymnasium.

“He was terrific,” head coach Mitch Henderson conceded after admitting he has yet to run out of superlatives to describe his star point guard. “He made it look simple, and then he made his free throws when everyone was struggling to make them.”

“Good players make good coaches, so we’re very fortunate. However, what I’ve asked of them is that they would be the most coachable guys on the team. And if they are that, then we can be really good because everyone’s going to look at them all the time, not just the opponents, but inwardly, our team.”

Princeton looked to Lee—and also reigning Ivy League Player of the Year Caden Pierce—quite often Monday as the Tigers had difficulty solving Iona’s full-court press for the majority of the night. But as the Gaels did as much as possible to isolate the duo, the hosts were unable to find a consistent third scorer to step up. Dalen Davis was hampered by foul trouble for a large portion of the night, and the Tigers as a whole missed 11 of 14 attempts from distance in the first half while shooting 11-of-22 at the free throw line.

“I think I can speak for all of us…we didn’t really come ready to play in the first half,” Lee reflected. “I think we just kind of expected to walk out there and do our thing. We got punched in the face, and I think we needed that. Ultimately, we’re gonna look back at this game and it’s gonna be really good for us.”

“Obviously that game looked really good, but I felt like, personally, if we lost, it would’ve been completely on me just because I was playing terribly in the first half. If you look at the game from a whole, it looked like we had a great win, but I think there’s so much for us to improve on.”

Iona seized control of what had been a back-and-forth affair for most of the first half with runs of 11-2 and 14-4 in the latter stages of the opening stanza. The Gaels used the cushions to take a 49-37 lead into the locker room at halftime and expanded it to as many as 16 points, at 58-42, riding a physical front line and the hot hand of freshman Adam Njie, whose 19 points in his collegiate debut earned plaudits from Tobin Anderson.

“I thought he’d be good,” the Iona head coach said of the Cardinal Hayes product. “He’s got a way about him that’s really good, actually. He made a lot of good decisions. He’s gotta let things come to him more, and he’ll learn from that. The thing about Adam is he’s very coachable. He wants to get better.”

In the other locker room, the message was far more blunt, and a direct call to action from an upperclassman leader.

“I told the guys when we broke the huddle in the second half, (Iona) put up 49 points in the first half,” Pierce recalled. “We just gotta take some pride. At the end of the day, I didn’t think they were doing anything special, they were just beating us one-on-one and out-toughing us. So I looked at the guys and said, let’s toughen up and take some pride.”

Pierce’s plea was received—and carried out—over the ensuing seven minutes of gameplay to the tune of a 20-2 run that started with a Jacob Huggins dunk and was punctuated, fittingly, by a pair of Lee free throws that gave Princeton its first advantage since the 9:15 mark of the first half in a stretch Henderson candidly said was defined by his side wanting it more.

“We decided to play harder,” the coach deadpanned. “I’m not trying to be cute, but we finally just played harder. We made some plays, but why are we waiting until the second half to play hard?”

“Once we got stops, I felt like all the momentum kept coming,” Lee said. “It’s a lot easier to play when they’re not scoring, honestly. It might look like our offense started clicking, but I think we were getting what we wanted for the most part the entire time. I went and told Caden, ‘we might get punched in the face, but we’re always gonna have a chance to win.’ That’s always how I feel. I told him, we’re gonna get our chance, we just need to get stops. We just had to kind of bear down a little bit.”

Iona battled back, restoring its advantage with eight unanswered points that put the Gaels in front by a 77-73 margin with 2:51 remaining in regulation before a step-back triple by Lee trimmed the lead to one point. He then regained the initiative for Princeton with a driving jumper to beat the shot clock inside the final minute. The Tigers added one more point as Pierce split a pair of free throws, only for Iona to answer with 16.2 seconds to play after Clarence Rupert converted a 3-point play.

On the ensuing possession, there was no doubt as to who would get the ball. Lee drove inside, but with most of his options sealed off, looked to get to the rim and draw contact. He did, as Rupert was whistled for his fourth foul to put the Canadian on the foul line for what proved to be the decisive points.

“There wasn’t really much of a play there,” Lee said as he recounted the final seconds. “I was honestly just trying to get downhill. In that situation, you’re just trying to get something at the rim. I was just trying to get fouled.”

Iona still had one last-ditch effort to win it, as Dejour Reaves raced down the floor and got a clean look from the top of the key, only to hit the right iron. For the Gaels, it was a sense of deja vu, as Iona had a chance to win its season opener at Charleston last year only for Wheza Panzo to miss a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

“Credit to (Princeton),” Anderson lamented. “That’s a good basketball team. I thought we were right there. I thought we executed well down the stretch, we had a chance to win when Rupert got a big and-1, I thought (Reaves) had a good look at the end, but they were able to make one more play than us. Credit to them.”

“I think we could’ve played a lot better defensively, and I’m sure Mitch would say the same thing to his team too. Our foundation’s gotta be our half-court defense, and I’ll be honest with you: I was disappointed in how we defended. Are there positives? Yeah, but I thought we could have been better defensively. We built a pretty good lead, we were up by 14 or 15, but we just couldn’t string together stops. You’ve gotta be better for 40 minutes.”

Both teams return to action Friday, with Iona visiting Hofstra while Princeton plays a de facto home game at a neutral site, as reigning Atlantic 10 champion Duquesne comes to Trenton for the Jersey Jam doubleheader, which also features Monmouth taking on Temple. In the meantime, the Tigers will take a win any way they can get one, in a game that felt more like a February or March affair than a November opener.

“I’m glad to get one like this under the belt early,” Henderson said. “It felt like a later in the season environment with how physical it was. They were better than us. As far as playing a college basketball game, it’s like just about the best thing that could happen to us in a lot of different ways. It was very much a learning experience. I’m happy we had a game like this, this early, right up front, that taught us so much.”

Queens gets suffocating defensive effort, runs past Lynchburg to open regular season

Queens center Malcolm Wilson grabbed 11 rebounds and rejected seven shots in Monday night's win. (Photo:  Queens University of Charlotte Athletics)

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CHARLOTTE – On one hand, there was a lot to love in Queens University of Charlotte’s season-opener Monday night. The Royals’ defense held its opponent to a meager 16 percent shooting and rejected nine shots, including seven by center Malcolm Wilson.

On the other, well…

The good news? Queens placed four scorers in double figures and allowed well under a half-point per possession while never trailing in a 90-39 victory over Lynchburg Monday night in Curry Arena.

“I thought our defensive effort was fantastic,” Queens coach Grant Leonard said after the game. “We were really able to pressure the ball and use our length. We really helped (on defense) and recovered quite well. We contested shots, I think, the best that we have in many, many years. I was really happy with that.”

Queens (1-0) got on the board early on a pair of Wilson dunks. After the Royals stretched the lead to 10-2, Lynchburg (0-0) got a Jamarcus Brown bucket and three Piercen Young free throws to slice the Queens advantage to three. That was the last time the visiting Hornets challenged.

The Royal defense clamped down on the visiting Hornets, surrendering just two baskets in the next 16 Lynchburg tries. Wilson turned away some of those shots himself, helping set up fast breaks and forcing Lynchburg to play further and further from the basket. When Lynchburg missed shots, Wilson was there to snatch away the caroms and find teammates to help create offense on the other end.

“I think it was just the amount of work we put in this summer that is giving me a lot of confidence,” Wilson said. “I’ve been able to be more effective on the offensive end and really focus on the defensive end and rebounds. That’s my job – taking those opportunities and making sure I’m going after those possessions.”

Wilson played 14 minutes in the opening half, snatching six boards and rejecting four Hornet tries. When the 7-footer wasn’t altering shots, the rest of the Royal defense did so. Lynchburg hit just 6-for-32 (18.8 percent) of its tries in the opening stanza, with 2-for-16 (12.5 percent) of the Hornets’ tries from distance finding the mark. Queens rode the effort to a 46-21 margin at the interval, shooting nearly 46 percent and scoring 1.15 points per trip in the first 20.

“That’s just the focus of our team, I think – doing what we do no matter who we play and especially on the defensive end. I think we did that,” Wilson said.

The defensive clampdown carried on into the second half. Though Queens experimented with different combinations on the floor throughout the period, the Royals continued to limit the Hornets’ offensive output.

“They’re not confident in what they’re doing yet, but they’re really talented,” said Leonard of his bench players that got extended second-half minutes. “There was a group out there that had five freshmen at one time, with (guard) Jordon Nevill, Sawyer (Mayhugh), DJ (Shine), Maban (Jabriel), and (Yoav) Berman. (That’s a) really talented group, but they’ve just got to be more confident in what they do.

“They fouled, they kicked the ball around a little bit, but then when they got to spots, they were playing with pace, they got great looks. They’ve just got to understand that less is more, and if they figure that out, they’re going to be really good.”

Queens limited the Hornets to an even bigger defensive struggle in the second stanza. Lynchburg shot just 13.3 percent (4-for-30) in the period and missed all ten three-point attempts. The Hornets trailed by fewer than 30 points for one possession in the second half, after a Young jumper snipped the deficit to 28 with 16:11 remaining.

The night also marked the regular-season debut of sophomore Bryce Cash at the point guard position. Cash, the third point guard in Queens’ three Division I seasons, played limited minutes and scored just five points, but showed much of the skill and intellect that led Leonard to move the 6-5 sophomore to the position.

“Four assists and one turnover. That’s a big deal,” Leonard said. “I clearly need to get the ball in his hands more. He’s doing a lot more (on the floor) than he has, so he’s got to really work on his conditioning. Defensively, he’s so solid. He talks. He sees things beforehand and his understanding of our goals and concepts on both sides of the ball is high. That’s why he’s in the position he is, because he’s running our team on the floor.”

Queens placed four scorers in double figures, despite no player tallying greater than 23 minutes. Nasir Mann led the Royals and recorded a double-double, scoring 14 points and snaring 10 boards in just 19 minutes.

“He doesn’t have to put the ball on the floor to be a playmaker,” Leonard said of Mann. “He can run the floor, and he can cut, catch, and shoot. I’m really happy with what he did and happy for him, because I think you’re going to see him have a really good year and get better and better as the year progresses.”

Berman added 13 on 5-for-8 shooting (2-for-4 from three), with forward Leo Colimerio contributing 12 and guard Chris Ashby 11. Queens shot 46.2 percent (30-for-65) from the deck and hit 13-of-36 (36.1 percent) from distance.

Young led the Hornets with 11. Forward Mason Makovec added 10 in reserve duty, connecting on 2-of-5 from the field and 5-for-6 from the line. Lynchburg hit 10-of-62 field goal attempts and just 2-for-26 (7.7 percent) from distance. The Hornets scored 17 times on 25 tries (68 percent) from the charity stripe.

Queens returns to action Friday night at 7:00 in Curry Arena against Western Carolina in the ASUN/SoCon Challenge. The Catamounts are 1-0 following a season-opening victory over Bob Jones.

“The one thing we’ve got to clean up as a group is our turnovers,” Leonard said in preparation for Friday’s contest. “You can’t have 18 turnovers and think you’re going to beat a quality team. (Western Carolina coach) Tim Craft always has a quality team. The biggest thing for them is to recover tomorrow – Election Day – do their civic duty, and then on Wednesday and Thursday, we’re going to prep for Western Carolina.”

 

Takeaways from Quinnipiac’s season-opening defeat to crosstown rival Yale

Amarri Monroe goes up for two of his game-high 23 points, but it wasn’t enough as Quinnipiac lost to Yale Monday. (Photo by Quinnipiac Athletics)

By Ethan Hurwitz (@HurwitzSports)

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Monday night marked the second straight year Quinnipiac and Yale faced off. And for the second straight year, the reigning Ivy League champion bested its crosstown rival.

On college basketball’s opening night, Yale took control—aided by an early offensive onslaught—to stifle the Bobcats and cruise to a 88-62 win at Payne Whitney Gymnasium. 

“You’re not gonna win on the road if you don’t have great leadership, on the floor and on the bench,” Quinnipiac head coach Tom Pecora said. “When we lose, it’s my fault.”

After the first 40 minutes of meaningful Quinnipiac basketball this year, here are a few key takeaways from tonight’s season opener. 

Struggling from deep:

The officiating crew took five trips to the replay monitor throughout the game. That was just two less than the amount of made threes by the Bobcats all game. The visitors shot 21.9 percent from behind the arc (7-for-32) and two of those came when the game felt well out of reach.

“We didn’t shoot the ball well, but I don’t think that was the glaring weakness,” Pecora said. “We weren’t shooting the ball well, but neither were they. We struggled shooting the basketball, obviously.”

An early triple from junior guard Ryan Mabrey gave him his first basket as a Bobcat, but he was later held scoreless for the remainder of the game. In fact, the only member of the Quinnipiac roster to make more than one triple was Alexis Reyes, who only made two.

A number of the attempted shots resulted in either an air ball straight out of bounds, or a chance to grab an offensive board. For the Bobcats, those rebound opportunities didn’t come any easier. 

“Our inability to control the backboards is very concerning,” Pecora said. “You can’t win that way.”

Amarri Monroe’s leading effort:

The MAAC Preseason Player of the Year was all over the floor for the Bobcats. Out of the 48 points scored by the Quinnipiac starters, Monroe was responsible for 23 of those. Even without playing for the majority of the final frame, the Bobcats’ leading scorer still topped every player on both sides. 

“We have to be a balanced offensive team,” Pecora said. “We’re not good enough to just have Amarri go out and make buckets (and) carry us for an entire night. You have to have some offensive balance.”

Behind Monroe in the box score was Reyes with 12 points, and graduate students Savion Lewis and Paul Otieno, both with five. Only 14 points came from the bench, which forced Monroe to play a team-high 30 minutes.

“We got some of our other guys some pretty good looks,” Pecora said. “They just weren’t able to knock them down.”

Minimizing the runs:

Yale was able to radiate the crowd’s energy onto the floor, resulting in a 14-0 run to force Pecora to call his first timeout. Later in the game, a 10-2 run pushed the Bulldogs’ lead up to a then-game-high 20.

It wasn’t just a few mistakes on the Bobcats’ end that led to the big deficits. It felt like the basketball had a mind of its own. Bad bounces off the rim negated some really good drives, while a number of defensive fouls kept sending Yale to the free throw line. 

“I was very impressed with the way we started the game,” Yale head coach James Jones said. “Really happy with the start of the year, and hopefully we can continue on.”

The 50 rebounds the Bulldogs grabbed just epitomized how crucial those second opportunities were. With 15 second-chance points, Yale found a way to pick up what would have been an empty possession, and instead, found a way to stack onto an already sizable lead.

First look at the freshmen:

Out of the Bobcats’ five newcomers, only three got time on the court Monday. Guard Jaden Zimmerman was the first to touch the floor, later followed by forwards Grant Randall and Spence Wewe.

Of the three, Wewe was the only one who went scoreless (Zimmerman had five points, while Randall added two). Instead of scoring the ball, Wewe was getting physical in deep—often too physical—racking up four fouls in his first four minutes.

“Spence gets better every minute, every day,” Pecora said. “He’s big, he’s raw, his heart’s in the right place. If he stays here for a while, he’s going to be an all-conference player in my opinion.

The biggest moment for the England native was a feisty scuffle with Yale junior forward Casey Simmons. In the middle of the paint, the two big men started jawing after a physical collision on the floor.

“This is the kind of game where you have to be patient and let a player like that go in and make some mistakes,” Pecora said. “The power depth should be a positive.” 

For the Bobcats, a bigger positive is that they get the ability to wipe the slate clean ahead of Thursday’s home opener against Division III WPI, where they will unveil last season’s MAAC regular season champions banner. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. in Hamden, where the veteran Bobcats will look to grab win No. 1 in 2024-25.

“It starts with me and then goes right to our veterans,” Pecora said. “I told them they’ve gotta set the example. Our four captains, they gotta bring it.”

Celiscar shines in debut as Yale defeats Quinnipiac in opener

Isaac Celiscar made strong first impression Monday, as freshman scored 18 points to help Yale beat Quinnipiac in season opener. (Photo by Yale Men’s Basketball)

By Connor Wilson (@Conman_815)

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Everyone remembers Yale’s historic season a year ago in which the Bulldogs advanced in the NCAA Tournament for the second time in program history after defeating Auburn. It’s also hard to forget the game winner that Matt Knowling hit in the Ivy League championship game against Brown. 

Even in a season you’ll never forget, you still have to move on. That’s the Bulldogs’ exact mindset heading into the 2024-25 season. 

“Our season last year is, honestly, entirely behind us,” John Poulakidas said. “We’re going into this season with a completely new mindset knowing there’s a target on our backs.”

Poulakidas and the rest of this year’s rendition of Yale did just that on opening night, defeating crosstown rival Quinnipiac, 88-62, on Monday in New Haven. 

“Really good win for our program,” Yale head coach James Jones said. “It’s hard a lot of the time to know what you’re gonna be like at the start of the year."

A major reason for the wide margin of victory was the hot starts the Bulldogs got off to in each half. In the first half, Yale led 16-5 before the first media timeout and in the second half, went on a 10-2 run to push a 12-point lead up to 20 quickly.

“I was very impressed with the way we started the game,” Jones said. “It’s a great compliment to you as a team when the other team has to switch to zone because they can’t guard you man-to-man.”

The Bulldogs may have lost a lot of talent, such as August Mahoney to graduation and a pair of transfers in the aforementioned Knowling to USC and star big man Danny Wolf to Michigan. Nonetheless, Jones once again seems to have a group that will be competitive for an Ivy title.

“We lost a lot of guys from last year’s team,” Jones said.

“We lose a large chunk of our production scoring-wise, but we have a lot of guys ready to step it up,” Poulakidas added. 

One player that stepped it up and will end up becoming a household name rather quickly for Yale fans is freshman Isaac Celiscar. The Winter Haven, Florida native made an instant impact in the opener, scoring 18 points off the bench and finishing with a team high eight rebounds.

Celiscar played a lot of small-ball four for Jones, bringing great physicality both down low and on the glass. At one point early in the second half, he flushed down a jam to cap off a massive Bulldog run that forced Quinnipiac head coach Tom Pecora to call timeout.

“I was hyped of course,” Celiscar said after his dunk. “I love dunking the ball.”

“I remember watching him play and thinking, ‘that kid’s pretty good, not sure if we can get him here,’” Jones said. “Fortunately, we did. He’s one of the most competitive people I’ve ever met.”

Not many freshmen come into Yale and play 25 minutes in their first game. Jones usually goes with smaller rotations, especially once Ivy League play arrives. After his performance on Monday, it’s a safe bet Celiscar will be one to have his name called.

“He’s not Matt Knowling, he’s different,” Jones said. “He’s extremely effective as Matt was, but just in a different way. I saw him as the guy playing the four that is a really difficult guard.”

Celiscar was one of four Bulldogs in double figures. Poulakidas had 19, Nick Townsend had 14 and Bez Mbeng finished with 17.

“Bez and I have assumed the leadership roles as the two seniors who have been starters for the past few years,” Poulakidas said.

From the opening tip, it just felt like Yale wanted it more than Quinnipiac did. They outrebounded the Bobcats, 49-27, and continuously did the little things at the right time.

“We knew they were going to come after us,” Townsend said. “We worked on getting them out of (the paint) and I feel like we were able to execute pretty well.”

It helped the Bulldogs that Quinnipiac struggled offensively for most of the game early on. The Bobcats seemed to be searching for answers every possession, most of which ended in an Amarri Monroe shot attempt. Monroe went 9-for-22 from the field and 1-of-9 from deep, many of those threes late in the shot clock.

At the end of the day, one last jolt from the starters led Yale to its first win of the year.

“We did a great job defensively tonight,” Jones said. “I thought our guys rotated well. They talked, they communicated well. That connectivity we had tonight was really good.”

Despite making easy work with a talented Quinnipiac team, the schedule doesn’t lighten up for Yale at all over the next week. The Bulldogs travel to Chicago for a Poulakidas homecoming game against UIC on Friday before taking on Purdue at Mackey Arena on Monday.

Johnnies take care of business, crush Fordham in season opener

Simeon Wilcher (7) lets fly with a 3-point attempt against Fordham. Sophomore led St. John’s with 17 points as Red Storm routed Rams in season opener. (Photo by Vincent Dusovic/St. John’s Athletics)

By Jason Dimaio (@Jaydimaio)

NEW YORK — A new era dawned on St. John’s last season when Rick Pitino took over the storied Red Storm program. Its promise was furthered this year with a new athletic director who shares his Hall of Fame coach’s desire to dream big and expect success.

If the opening act for the Johnnies this season is any indication, there may not be a limit to what this season could yield in Queens.

Year two of the Pitino era kicked off Monday with a commanding 92-60 win against Fordham, the former employer of newly-minted St. John’s AD Ed Kull, who spent the past four years restoring the Rams’ athletic department in the Bronx.

 

All offseason, St. John’s was highly touted for its improved defensiveness and athleticism. Both were on full display tonight. The Red Storm led wire-to-wire Monday, and its blend of returning players and influx of transfers meshed well. Returning sophomore Simeon Wilcher, projected to take on a greater role within the offense, led the team with 17 points on an efficient 7-of-9 shooting from the field.

 

“One hundred percent, I have more confidence,” Wilcher said of his progression. “It’s night and day. Last year, you'd enter the game and things would just be moving so fast. Now I just have trust in myself.”

One of Wilcher’s new backcourt companions, and arguably the centerpiece of the Red Storm’s transfer haul, Kadary Richmond, impressed in his official debut wearing the Johnnies’ red and white. After stuffing the stat sheet at St. John’s expense the past three years at Seton Hall, Richmond turned in a double-double in his first act on the east side of the Hudson River, recording 16 points and 10 rebounds, which he supplemented with five assists. 

 

“I thought Kadary and Simeon were great,” Pitino said of his two guards. “I don’t know what Kadary can’t do.”

 

Four different Johnnies amassed double-figure point totals. One question coming into this year was how the depth on this roster would pan out. St. John’s fans know what they’re getting in veterans the likes of Richmond, RJ Luis and Zuby Ejiofor, but still had concerns beyond the lead triumvirate. Those worries were mitigated by a 30-point contribution from the bench. Brady Dunlap led the way with 9 points on 4-of-6 shooting, Deivon Smith controlled the offense smoothly being the first man off the bench and USC transfer Vince Iwuchukwu looked very comfortable in his role as Ejiofor’s primary backup, contributing six points and four rebounds. 

 

After a 40-26 halftime lead, St. John’s kept its foot on the gas in the final 20 minutes. Outside of a respectable 23-point showing for Jackie Johnson III, the Rams didn't have an answer elsewhere. The Johnnies defense clamped down, making life rough for Fordham by forcing 19 turnovers.

“For the first time, I was very pleased,” Pitino said with regard to the Red Storm’s performance. 

 

Luis battled foul trouble all game, and sat much of the first half after two quick fouls. Despite the foul issues, the junior was still able to contribute 12 points. An out-of-character moment occurred as he picked up a foul in the second half and proceeded to kick the game ball directly into the first row of the student section, leading to a technical foul and his night coming to an early end, prompting a trademark Pitino quip when he addressed the mishap.

 

“He will pay the consequences for it,” the coach said, in jest. “Right now, he’s running to Manhattan.”

 

St. John’s will look to move to 2-0 on Saturday as the Red Storm plays host to Quinnipiac. Tipoff is slated for 2 p.m.

Wofford opens season with emphatic rout of Erskine

Justin Bailey scored 16 points in his Wofford debut as Terriers opened season with 112-point outburst against Erskine. (Photo by Mark Olencki/Wofford Athletics)

By Jordan Ferrell (@FerrellonFM983)

SPARTANBURG, S.C. — The Wofford Terriers are coming off a solid first full season under the leadership of Dwight Perry. Last year, they finished over .500, going 17-15, including a 10-8 mark in the Southern Conference, which landed them fifth in the standings, ultimately bowing out in the opening round of the SoCon tournament with a 75-57 loss to Chattanooga. 

The offseason for Wofford was one that would end with mounds of positivity, but simultaneously be marred with controversy. On a high note, Wofford lost only one starter from last year’s team and retained eight players, among them senior guard Corey Tripp, who returns for something rare in the mid-major ranks in this era of transfer portals and NIL deals, a fourth season. Tripp, the leading scorer from 2023-2024 with an average of 15.6 points per game, is complemented nicely by fellow senior Kyler Filewich, a preseason all-SoCon selection who averaged 9.4 points and nearly just as many rebounds per game last season. 

“It's huge,” Perry said of retaining Tripp and Filewich. “The continuity the team has with those guys leading the way and knowing what it's supposed to look like every day, not just in games, but in practice is invaluable. So it's great to have those guys in the fold and also have Jackson Sivills and Dillon Bailey coming back to finish out their career here as well.”

As noted above, the Terriers returned several other pieces that made significant contributions in the 2023-2024 campaign. Jackson Sivills posted an average of almost 10 points and five rebounds per game, while Bailey was the second-leading scorer on the roster with 11.8 points per contest. Three others made their way back that saw meaningful minutes in sophomore forward Jeremy Lorenz, junior guard Anthony Arrington, Jr, and sophomore forward Belal Al-Shakery. Wofford also added another key piece that is capable of making a huge impact in games that you may have heard of before if you follow college basketball in Spartanburg County (or mid-major hoops in general) close enough, junior guard Justin Bailey. The Taylors native transferred to Wofford from its nearby neighbor out of the Big South Conference, USC Upstate, where he averaged 11.8 points per contest and shot 51.5 percent, including 32.9 percent from 3-point range last year. 

On the negative side, Wofford was placed on probation by the NCAA back in September for violations involving forcing players to attend film sessions and other team activities on scheduled days off under former head coach Jay McAuley. The probation does not ban the Terriers from postseason play, but does limit the amount of practice time they get per week this season along with a fine from the NCAA. 

But, the fact they are under probation did very little to dampen the enthusiasm for the new season, nor the expectations of Terrier fans going into 2024-2025. A lively crowd filed into Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium on Monday for a men’s and women’s doubleheader, with the men opening against Division II Erskine College. This marked the sixth straight season the Terriers opened with a non-Division I opponent, and the first meeting with the Flying Fleet since 2021, where Wofford just missed the century mark with a 98-41 victory. 

This game would fare no differently, as Wofford created all the cushion it would need in the opening minutes, going on a 7-0 run. That 7-0 run was turned into a 21-3 explosion over the next six-plus minutes. The Terriers saw just one dry spell in the entirety of the contest, but their defense did a great job of keeping Erskine from being able to put together any more than just a brief 5-0 spurt. 

Out of the half, Wofford once again got hot, starting off with a 10-0 push that extended to a 24-6 run. In the end, the Terriers cruised past 100 points, knocking off the Fleet, 112-58. 

“We did a great job sharing the ball and playing inside-out,” Perry said. “I thought there were definitely areas to clean up. We turned the ball over too many times, but overall, I thought our guys moved the ball well. We didn't connect at a high percentage from three, but I thought the majority of the shots we took were great. I'm looking forward to seeing as we continue with the season, if we can get better quality looks. But, on the offensive end, over 40 minutes, I like where our offense can be.”

The Terriers had seven different players score in double figures, led in part thanks to a big debut from Bailey, who had 16 points on 9-of-12 shooting, including three rebounds, two assists, and five steals. 

“I can’t say enough good things about Justin,” said Perry of Bailey. “The guy has a boundless amount of energy. He's a high-level defender that plays with great energy on both ends of the floor, and most importantly, he has a great team-first attitude that is infectious in our whole program.”

Bailey’s output was matched by Lorenz, who also had 16 points on 8-for-11 shooting to go with six rebounds. Sivills added 15 points while three other Terriers each had 11 points, including Filewich (5-of-6 from the field and 10 rebounds to make for a double-double), Dillon Bailey, and Al-Shakery, who also put up a double-double with 12 rebounds.

“Overall, I was glad to get the win,” Perry reiterated. “You can never take them for granted. I’m glad we did a really good job of sharing the ball. We had 30 assists (and) 13 turnovers. That's pretty good. I thought we did a really good job rebounding the ball. We outrebounded them by maybe 35. When you take care of the ball and you rebound the way we did, usually good things happen. It was good to have all these guys back here and obviously finish the game healthy. That's always a plus as well.”

Wofford will now turn its attention to a road test at Lipscomb this Saturday. Tipoff is set for 5 p.m.

UConn is motivated to make history, but nobody more so than Hurley

Dan Hurley has managed to not let UConn’s run get the better of him, staying dedicated and motivated in the moment while Huskies chase history. (Photo by UConn Athletics)

Last year, in the aftermath of guiding his UConn team to a successful defense of its national championship, Dan Hurley admitted the euphoria lasted maybe a week before fizzling out.

For Hurley, such a feeling is to be expected, as the coach was eager to simply get back to work and retool the Huskies into the force that they have become over the past 24 months. Months later, as UConn seeks to join UCLA as the only programs to win three straight titles, Hurley did not specify exactly how long the afterglow of cutting the nets lingered this time around, but he did revisit the road traveled to the perch he and his players occupy as they peer out over the vast frontier that is college basketball.

“It took the failure,” he reiterated, bringing to mind the recollections in Boston after last March’s East regional final. “We did a lot of things right: Culture check, defense, toughness. I think we ran a lot of good stuff on offense too, those years that we were early exit from the NCAAs and came up short in the Big East tournament and the regular season.”

“We were doing a lot of things great. We just weren’t championship-caliber because we had vulnerabilities in our attack. We had holes in our approach, most of them, I think, were roster construction. There were also the type of people, personality-wise, the pedigree.”

Since the early exits Hurley spoke of—Maryland in the 2021 NCAA Tournament, New Mexico State in 2022–the coach ramped up the aggression, fine-tuned the offense that now ranks among the more mystifying outfits in the sport. These modifications, he said, were necessary to complete the next step in UConn’s evolution into the terminator teams see now.

It left a lasting impression on a recruit from Southborough, Massachusetts, a 6-foot-8 wing with a knack for shooting and a desire to be the best.

“The day I met Coach Hurley on my visit, I knew that he was going to do special things,” Alex Karaban recalled. “It’s surreal what he’s done in this program and how he’s been able to change it so quickly, but at the same time it’s a blessing. It’s just what makes Coach Hurley so special too, the hunger, (that) he wants more, he recruits guys like myself and other guys that want more, too.”

Hurley admits he isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. In fact, he doesn’t shy away from it. What some see as histrionics is just natural reaction for someone who wears not only his heart, but his upbringing, on his sleeve. A proud Jersey City native, going so far as to credit his hometown in both of the Huskies’ national championship celebrations, Hurley again lauded the hamlet that reared him, praising the valuable lessons he learned not just on the floor, but in life.

“You grow up in New Jersey, North Jersey in particular, and it’s a culture of basketball,” he proudly shared. “It’s just great coaching, the coaches that you play for here…the Bob Hurleys, the Kevin Boyles, Hubie Brown, the people that have coached and played basketball in the state, and then the state’s blue-collar, it produces really tough people.”

“The place that I grew up is an incredibly diverse place, it’s a tough place. People are real with you. It’s not a fake place to grow up. If you’re doing bad, people tell you (that) you suck. If you’re doing great, they tell you (that) you’re doing well. It’s not a place where soft people come from. Tough people come from Jersey. You’re either tough, or you move.”

Some people tend to lose sight of their roots along the journey of life, through no fault of their own. Hurley’s ability to stay grounded and in the moment defies convention as the world around him becomes more convoluted. He does not try to do too much of one thing and not enough of another, and as the demands on his schedule increase, his ability to remain true to himself becomes something to behold as he spends the next five months in a unique and—in modern basketball—unprecedented position.

“I’m just a coach, man,” he said. “But I think the reason why we’ve been able to be as successful as we’ve been able to be is that even though I end up doing a lot more things and showing up at a lot more places in terms of media or things of that nature, I stay focused on recruiting. I stay focused on becoming a better coach, I stay focused on running my program. For me, I just try to focus on the day-to-day, just trying to make sure my program is at a championship level.”