Recruiting-wise, this season was below my standards, particularly hindered by our overall lack of budgetary support from the administration. We managed to bring in four players ranked between 250th and 600th in the national standings, including three guards (Nathan Walton, Marcus Coursey and Nick Jackson) and a middling (overall) center, Caron Washington, who at best can be said to have good potential – though his athleticism and handling make me wonder if he'll be good enough overall to survive during the Midwest 10 grind. In that regard, I'm going to have my work cut out for me next year to prove I can indeed recruit solidly in this league.
Both our incoming freshmen spent their year playing backup minutes, as they simply weren't ready to play 30+ minutes a game against the level of competition we see in the Midwest 10 on a day to day basis. Point Guard Dennis Jones, a backup from last season, would be team captain as a senior, alongside starters Travis Shipp (6'3” Sr, 5.8 ppg 1.7 rpg 1.8 apg), Gerald Evans (6'7” Sr, 11.9 ppg 4.3 rpg 1.6 apg), Joe Sawyer (6'6” Jr, 10.1 ppg 4.8 rpg 1.1 apg) and Geoff Claxton (6'8” Sr, 10.5 ppg 7.8 rpg 1.9 apg). We would take that senior-led roster into a pre-conference season including a trip to the Hawaiian Shootout and a road game against Arizona, along with a conference season featuring pre-season #8 Indiana, #9 Michigan State, #10 Wisconsin, #11 Michigan, #17 Maryland and #24 West Lafayette. So getting back to the middle of the pack and making a run at the tournament seemed highly unlikely if you spent much time reading the trades. Michigan looked particularly daunting, having won the National Championship in March by beating Texas in overtime 108-105, one of the finest offensive performances in tourney history. And most of their team is back.
As it stood, we opened the season with a relatively light schedule from a SOS standpoint, only having one real road challenge (which we lost, along with our one game in the Hawaiian Shootout). But we did well at home to go into the Midwest 10 season with a 5-4 record. We held our own against the low to mid-tier conference teams, going up 5-3 in the conference after a mid-January stretch of wins against Penn State, on the road at New Brunswick and at home against Ohio State. After three straight losses following that stretch, we went on a 5-1 span before losing to Maryland here at home to finish the regular season 15-12 (10-8). Not bad at all, but our momentum crashed and burned, with round one losses against Evanstown in the Conference Tourney and, when we stumbled into the NIT anyway, aginst Central Michigan in a shootout 79-88.
We showed a lot of improvement, and made our goals for the most part – a 6th place finish in the conference, an NIT bid and (barely) finishing above .500 overall. Whether that will be enough to boost our prestige remains to be seen. But it was at least enough to keep me off the hot seat. If we can continue to improve in the coming season, we're on the verge of becoming competitive in one of the toughest conferences in the country.
The Season
- Code: Select all
Date Rank Opponent Score Record
11/16 Northern Arizona W 96-79 1-0
11/18 (n) Southern Cal(*) L 64-82 1-1
11/23 Tennessee Tech W 91-69 2-1
11/26 NE Boston W 88-62 3-1
11/30 George Mason L 79-86 3-2
12/3 Utah Valley St. W 96-82 4-2
12/7 @ #6 Arizona L 64-86 4-3
12/13 Omaha L 74-93 4-4
12/21 Towson W 100-60 5-4
12/28 @ Michigan L 69-97 5-5 (0-1)
12/31 Iowa W 90-75 6-5 (1-1)
1/4 @ #24 Indiana L 65-90 6-6 (1-2)
1/7 Evanstown W 85-64 7-6 (2-2)
1/11 @ Maryland L 59-87 7-7 (2-3)
1/14 Penn State W 78-71 8-7 (3-3)
1/18 @ New Brunswick W 78-57 9-7 (4-3)
1/21 Ohio State W 91-77 10-7 (5-3)
1/25 @ #3 Wisconsin L 63-89 10-8 (5-4)
1/28 Michigan L 72-81 10-9 (5-5)
2/1 @ Iowa L 66-81 10-10 (5-6)
2/4 Illinois W 98-91 11-10 (6-6)
2/8 @ West Lafayette W 82-75 12-10 (7-6)
2/11 @ #7 Michigan State L 57-75 12-11 (7-7)
2/15 Minnesota W 93-86 13-11 (8-7)
2/18 #24 Indiana W 79-66 14-11 (9-7)
2/22 @ Evanstown W 73-59 15-11 (10-7)
2/25 #17 Maryland L 77-83 15-12 (10-8)
3/7 (n) Evanstown (+) L 64-79 15-13
3/13 (n) Central Mich. (#) L 79-88 15-14
(*) Hawaiian Shootout
(+) Mid Ten Tourney
(#) NIT Tournament
Team Leaders
Scoring: Gerald Evans (14.3 ppg) Travis Shipp (10.6 ppg) Joe Sawyer (10.5 ppg)
Rebounds: Geoff Claxton (7.5 rpg) Gerald Evans (6.9 rpg)
Assists: Dennis Jones (4.9 apg) Travis Shipp (2.6 apg) Jermaine English (2.5 apg)
Steals: Travis Shipp (1.3 spg) Dennis Jones (0.9 spg) Joe Sawyer (0.9 spg)
Blocks: Gerald Evans (1.7 bpg) Geoff Claxton (1.4 bpg) Travis Shipp (1.1 bpg)
We were led by our veterans overall, but Joe Sawyer (10.5 ppg 4.6 rpg) will have room to blow up next season as a senior if he can keep his grades out of the gutter. None of the youth on the team was particularly productive, so there's a wide-open question what our team will look like next year when we lose all our seniors. Will any of the incoming freshman class be able to jump right in?
None of our players won any conference awards.
North Carolina won the National Title over Arizona 73-62, the Wildcats losing out in their first trip back to the Title Game since winning it all in 2020-21.
