For the first time in four years, the Hillsdale College basketball team does not have a clear go-to player. In the 2013-14 season, Tim Dezelski led the Chargers to an 18-9 record. After Dezelski graduated, Kyle Cooper became Hillsdale’s main threat and one of the best players in the GLIAC. Last season, Cooper led the Chargers to an 18-10 overall record and won GLIAC Player of the Year.
This season, the role of go-to guy is open for a Hillsdale player to earn, but with no obvious candidate right now, the Chargers know it’ll take a collective effort to qualify for the GLIAC Tournament for the second straight season.
“We’ve been blessed here for a while. We went from a great player in Dezelski to Cooper, and now I don’t know if it’s going to be necessarily one player,” head coach John Tharp said. “We’re going to have to be better balanced than we ever have to be successful.”
With less star-power on the court, the Chargers have put an increased focus in preseason practices on improving defensively. Tharp said he expects the Chargers to be better defensively this year than they were last year.
“We’ve really taken a step forward even from last year defensively,” sophomore point guard Nate Neveau said. “We’ve made it a point of emphasis every day and hopefully that’s something we can hang our hat on this year.
Cooper averaged 22.6 points and 9.8 rebounds per game last season. To replace his offensive production, the Chargers have focused on improving their transition offense.
“Sometimes we were able to throw it into Kyle [Cooper] last year and give him easy ones,” Neveau said. “We’re going to have to find different ways to get easy points this year so we’re looking to do that through running.”
Being able to rebound is an important component of getting out in transition, which is an area Tharp said the Chargers need to improve in.
“We’ve not rebounded the ball particularly well these first two weeks of practice which scares the heck out of me,” Tharp said. “You can’t run if you can’t rebound.”
The Chargers lost three starters from last year’s team to graduation. With spots in the starting lineup up for grabs, Tharp said he has “an idea” of what the opening day starting five will be and thinks he has “eight to ten” guys that will form Hillsdale’s rotation.
“We’ve just seen some inconsistency with certain people, where one day it’s you that’s been good and the next day it’s somebody else and you’re not as good,” Tharp said.
Tharp said it’s been more difficult to select a rotation because of some early injuries. Senior forward Rhett Smith injured his foot just 40 minutes into Hillsdale’s first practice of the season, and redshirt freshman point guard Dylan Lowry hurt his finger last week.
Hillsdale’s two returning starters are junior guard Stedman Lowry and junior guard Ryan Badowski. Lowry averaged 13.9 points per game last season and Badowski averaged 8.1 points per game. Neveau and senior center Nick Archer were regular contributors off Hillsdale’s bench last season and figure to be key players this year.
“I think across the board we’re pretty balanced,” Neveau said. “To be successful we’re going to need to be balanced and have multiple guys score double digits and multiple guys getting more rebounds for us.”
The Chargers added sophomore guard Harrison Niego in the offseason. Niego transferred from Indiana University, where he played 25 games in his freshman season with the Hoosiers.
“Harrison Niego will be a factor for us,” Tharp said.
Tharp also said redshirt freshmen Dylan Lowry and Mike Travlos have shown “some really good flashes” in practice. Neveau said Hillsdale’s freshmen are fitting into the team well.
“They’ll provide us with another dimension and add to our depth a little bit,” Neveau said. “Now that we’re a couple weeks in we’re starting to see how we’re all fitting together and it’s always exciting and encouraging.”
With no clear top-threat like in past seasons, Tharp said his players’ roles are changing.
“There’s going to be a progression here for this basketball program,” Tharp said. “We’re not going to be clicking in the middle of November.”
The Chargers were picked to finish third in the GLIAC South Division in the 2016-17 GLIAC Preseason Poll. Findlay and Ashland were voted first and second in the South, respectively.
“First we want to figure out who we want to be as a team,” Neveau said. “As we figure that out, we want to just continue to get better as the season goes on. And hopefully depending on how we’re able to figure things out, we always want to make it to the GLIAC Tournament and then once we get there see what happens.”
The Chargers will play their only exhibition game of the year on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. on the road against Valparaiso, a Division-I team. Tharp called the game Hillsdale’s “dress rehearsal.”
“We’re trying to find out more about ourselves, maybe more than the last couple years where things were more set,” Tharp said. “They’re going to expose all of our weaknesses and that’s what we hope for at that time of year.”
After three weeks of practices and no games, the Chargers are ready to face outside competition.
“We just really look at it as an opportunity to grow as a team and have a shot at someone else,” Neveau said. “If we’re out on the court competing we’re going to give it our all. And who knows, if we play well we’ve got a chance.”
