With the Preseason GLIAC Player of the Year leading the way and seven redshirt freshmen eager to make their collegiate debuts, the Hillsdale College men’s basketball team is ready to use its new-found depth and experience to make it back to the GLIAC tournament and compete for the GLIAC crown.
Last season, the Chargers fell one game short of qualifying for the GLIAC tournament with an 11-11 conference record. It was the first time Hillsdale had missed the GLIAC playoffs in head coach John Tharp’s eight seasons in charge of the program. The Chargers hope to learn from what happened last season.
“We hope that this time we’re further ahead than what we were last year and we think we are at this point. We are a little more experienced. We’ve been through some battles and we’ve made some improvements,” Tharp said. “We hope that we can build off of those trials and tribulations that we went through last year. We’re all excited to see where we are.”
The Chargers lost four players to graduation last season but just one starter. With the addition of a large redshirt freshman class, Tharp is looking forward to having more depth on his roster.
“Those guys are making some real strides and so we’re excited about that group,” Tharp said. “They’re going to add a few more bolts to the artillery.”
Redshirt freshman Nate Neveau, who can play both point guard and shooting guard, is one of several redshirt freshmen who will be key contributors to the Chargers in their first season.
“It’s definitely nice to have a year under your belt before officially diving in. Getting to understand the system that we’re playing in and getting to be more comfortable with my teammates and just having that confidence going into this year is important,” Neveau said. “A lot of us have different strengths that in one way or another can help the team.”
The Chargers also added sophomore guard Ryan Badowski, who transferred to Hillsdale this summer from Longwood College, where he shot 38 percent from 3-point range last season and was named to the Big South Conference All-Freshman Team.
“He is just a great addition to our program and our team,” Tharp said. “He’s a wonderful human being and he plays really hard and he’s pretty talented.”
This added depth will take the scoring load off the shoulders of senior forward Kyle Cooper, who was named the Preseason GLIAC Player of the Year after averaging 20.5 points and 10.3 rebounds per game last season.
“I’m not so worried about trying to score as much this year because of the addition of all the redshirts and Ryan Badowski who is another great scorer,” Cooper said. “I’m not too worried about the individual statistics.”
Tharp echoed Cooper’s sentiments.
“For us to reach where we want to go we’re hoping Kyle’s rebound numbers will be the same but most likely he won’t score as much as he did last year because we have more weapons on the floor. If he does, that’s great, but we know everybody will be keying on him,” Tharp said. “He just needs to be the calm and rock of our team especially when things are going difficult. He needs to be the guy that can take over certain moments in games and late-time situations. We need to get the ball in his hands and he needs to be ready to make plays for us.”
On Saturday, the Chargers played their lone exhibition game of the season, falling to the Division I Toledo Rockets 100-99 in double overtime.
Cooper finished with 26 points and 16 rebounds, and sophomore shooting guard Stedman Lowry scored 25 points on 5-for-9 shooting from beyond the arc. Senior point guard Zach Miller scored 18 points and dished out 10 assists.
“We should have won, we just had a five-to-six minute lull in the first half and we got sluggish in the second half for a little bit and let them make too big of a run. But I think you saw flashes during the game of how talented we really are and how good we can be this year, so it’s exciting,” Cooper said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to close out wins instead of just letting them slip away.”
Despite the loss, Neveau said the Chargers have taken a lot of positives from the game.
“We were able to battle and stay tight when we were facing tough situations, so it’s good to know that in tough times we can still be successful,” Neveau said.
After a strong showing against a D-I team, Cooper had no problem setting the highest goals for the Chargers this year.
“We want to win the GLIAC regular season, we want to go to the GLIAC playoffs and win the GLIAC championship. And then once you get into the NCAA Tournament anything is possible,” Cooper said. “There’s nothing wrong with setting the highest goals for this team because we’ve got guys who all have so much talent and so much potential. It’s just about executing and really giving everything we’ve got when we go out every single night.”
In the GLIAC Men’s Basketball Preseason Coaches Poll, the Chargers were voted fifth in the North Division, but received two first place votes, the second-most of any team in the division.
The Chargers open up the regular season on Tuesday at 7:45 p.m. against the Indianapolis Greyhounds at Nicoson Hall.
