MAAC rookies no more, Mount St. Mary’s looks to use last year’s learning experience to move into top half of league

Dan Engelstad looks on during Mount St. Mary’s trip to Manhattan to conclude first regular season in MAAC. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

Last season’s maiden voyage for Mount St. Mary’s in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference offered a full spectrum of results for a program just 21 months removed from a conference championship when it arrived in Jersey City for its new league’s christening.

The Mountaineers, Northeast Conference emigres, left Run Baby Run Arena on the first night of December with a 15-point win over reigning MAAC champion Saint Peter’s. Backed by 28 points from Jalen Benjamin, The Mount served notice to its new foes that it was not to be taken lightly. 

A close loss to Rider and split of the program’s first-ever Buffalo trip further validated the Mountaineers’ potential, but a four-game losing streak in January relegated them to the bottom half of the MAAC standings. All told, a string of nine losses in 11 games, coupled with an injury to senior forward Malik Jefferson, precluded The Mount from a first-round bye in the conference tournament. But a closing stretch of four wins in its last five regular season games, plus a postseason win in Atlantic City, salvaged a campaign that was largely trial by fire and baptism through experience.

“We said it a lot last year, but you can’t replicate what it actually is,” head coach Dan Engelstad said of how he prepared his squad to navigate the MAAC waters for the first time. “And so now when we talk about it, it’s known that if we don’t match physicality in the MAAC, you’re going to lose because it’s a two-possession league and you’re going to fall on the short end if you’re not coming up with the tough plays that you have to make to win in this league.”

“Now it’s not just, ‘hey, this is what we’ve seen on film.’ We’ve experienced this, and we got on the right side of it at the end a few more times than we did early on because our guys got healthy and they also figured out what it took to meet that. I like that our returners have really been setting a tone in the offseason. That’s been fun to see this summer. We want to make a jump.”

Dakota Leffew (1) assumes leadership role for Mount St. Mary’s after Jalen Benjamin transferred in offseason. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

Engelstad will need his returning upperclassmen, a group headlined by seniors Dakota Leffew and George Tinsley, to spearhead a leap forward as The Mount must replace three stalwarts in Benjamin, Jefferson and Deandre Thomas. The trio, each of whom brought veteran leadership to a blend of youth and battle-hardened mainstays, may be difficult to replace on paper, but early returns from summer workouts have Engelstad cautiously optimistic about the immediate future in Emmitsburg.

“We want to be more competitive throughout the entirety of league play,” he declared. “I’m having as much fun as I’ve ever had coaching. It’s hard to predict in the MAAC because I don’t know a lot of the guys that teams have brought in. I don’t know how they’re going to adjust to the new staffs, so it’s a brand-new league. But the expectation is we’re competing to win.”

“We want to compete to win a MAAC title, and we’ll never shy away from that, but I don’t know what the rest of the league has. I really enjoy coaching my group, and I hope that translates come the season. We’re trying our best to figure out how to win in the margins, but we want to be an upper echelon MAAC team. I like what we return and I like what we’ve brought in. We’ve got to see if it’s good enough.”

In Jefferson’s stead, Jedy Cordilia acquitted himself well stepping into the starting role when the former was injured last season, and returns for his junior year with the expectation of further transitioning into the starting power forward spot. Engelstad is also hopeful that Dola Adebayo and Franta Barton will make significant strides in their heightened roles to solidify The Mount’s front line.

“(Barton) is what Malik was for us in terms of knowing his assignments, being in the right spots,” Engelstad said. “The speed got to him a little bit early on in the league last year, but he caught up to it by the end. We need him to be a physical rebounder because that’s what this league is. He’s had some big moments in his career, and we’re thankful that we’ve had a guy who’s played four years in our program and knows how things should operate, and then Dola is just oozing with talent. He’s getting better and better, he’s stretching the floor. Part of his maturation has been understanding defensive assignments and how to execute. He’s really made some huge leaps there this offseason. For somebody his size to get up as quick as he does, that could be a really good threat on the offensive end to space the floor. We’re excited that he can make a big jump.”

“Having those veterans helps a lot because they see those guys, they see how they’re working, so we’re going to depend on the leadership of those guys. We need Dola to make a big jump (after) losing Malik, a big rebounder and a really solid force for us. But we’ve still got Jedy, we’ve still got George, Dola got some run late, so now we have an established frontcourt that we hope can develop some consistency to be one of the better frontcourts in the MAAC. We like our guys, but we do know that we lost a lot in Jalen’s ability to score, Malik's ability to follow every defensive assignment and rebound, and Deandre’s defense and ability to stretch the floor.”

Thomas’ two-way play on the wing will likely be replaced by Josh Reaves, who returns at full strength for his senior season after leg surgery cost him all but three games last year after serving as a starter for the Mountaineers when they won the NEC championship in 2021.

“Josh had a real serious leg injury where he ended up having a rod put in his leg,” Engelstad said of Reaves’ injury. “He tried to gut it out for us, but the leg didn’t respond early on. He put in a lot of work getting his body right, he’s in great condition, and Josh can really shoot the basketball. He was a starter on an NCAA Tournament team, so he’s played minutes at this level and can be a really solid force. He’s probably the best catch-and-shoot guy we have on our roster, but we just need him to be really solid on the defensive end. He’s got a voice that carries, he’s a competitor and he just wants to win. And that’s helped our practices.”

Five newcomers grace The Mount’s roster this season, a crop of incoming talent Engelstad admits needs to learn the speed and nuances of the college game, but is eager to see how it develops.

“We brought in a lot of really talented young guys,” he reiterated. “They’re just going to be green, guys who just haven’t played Division I basketball. Talent-wise, they’re as talented as anybody I’ve ever recruited, so can they come up to speed?”

“Ron Jessamy was a really talented guy out of Huntington Prep, and he played at Oak Hill. He’s coming off a minor knee injury so we haven’t seen much of him yet, but he’s starting to progress. Deshayne Montgomery is as talented as I’ve brought in. He’s long, he’s rangy, he shoots the ball, he’s a tough kid. We wanted him last year and when he went to Hargrave (Military Academy), we thought we had no chance of getting him, and then he was available late. He’s got a chance to be a really special one, and then Dallas Hobbs is a guy kind of in that Jalen Benjamin role. He can really fill it up, very athletic, not afraid of the moment, he played for Jermaine O’Neal out in Texas. He’s a guy who’s going to impact immediately, and then Malcolm Dread is a big, physical wing forward. We brought a guy like him in to help match the physicality of the league.”

Now with a full year of conference play under his and his program’s belts, Engelstad has a better understanding of what to expect with a Mount unit whose non-conference plate is headlined by the likes of Maryland, Georgetown and Georgia before embarking on a second go-round through the MAAC. When asked what he wanted to do differently this season, he wanted to apply the firsthand tactical knowledge better, but at the same time afford his group a greater sense of independence on the floor.

“We’re trying to play more and give our guys a little bit more freedom offensively,” he said. “I thought we got there a little bit at the end of the year where the ball was moving better, guys were taking and making more shots. We’re really trying to teach them how to play so it’s not as — it’s structured, but it’s guys making reads and decisions, and being a little more free-flowing on offense, generating some better shots.”

“And from a defensive standpoint, we’re really trying to hone in on all the details of some of the strengths of the league, and how to handle guys on the glass as well as some of the actions we saw being run. That’s the one thing we know now. We know how guys attack certain things, and we’ve got to be more prepared to make those adjustments a little bit quicker.”