Season Preview: Men’s Basketball excited for debut season under new head coach Neal Young
By Wes Mayberry
| 2022-23 Men's Basketball Schedule |
ADA — New head coach Neal Young is excited for his first season leading the Ohio Northern men's basketball team.
"Practices have been going well, and our guys have been playing hard," Young said. "We have a really good group of guys, and I'm enjoying working with them, and I think they're enjoying working with me. There's a joyous energy in the gym every day, and I'm really excited to see what the ceiling of our team is. I think we're in a pretty good spot going into the season."
Young, who was named head coach of the team in April, came to ONU after winning three USA South titles in five seasons as head coach at Covenant (Ga.) College. At Covenant, Young guided the Scots to a 79-47 record (.627 winning percentage) and conference titles in 2019, 2020 and 2022. He was also the head coach at Goshen (Ind.) from 2014 to 2017.
Young enters his first season in Ada with a roster featuring six returning lettermen from a season ago when the Polar Bears finished 10-15 overall and 3-13 in conference play. That group is headlined by senior C.J. Napier (Miamisburg/Bishop Fenwick), who earned All-Ohio Athletic Conference Honorable Mention honors last season after leading the team in scoring and rebounding.
Seniors Landen Long (Mason), Michael Berner (Springboro) and Adam Scott (Wapakoneta), junior Carson Conley (Newark/Licking Valley) and sophomore Ethan Bell (Marion/River Valley) round out the returning letter winners for the 2022-23 season.
"Our returners have done everything that I've asked them to do, and I've asked them to do a lot. They're doing what they can to help build the culture that we're trying to build and to lead the way I'm asking them to lead," Young said. "We're asking them to do a lot of new things, and I've been really impressed with their level of commitment with how hard they work and their level of buy-in to what we're doing."
Here is a position-by-position preview of the 2022-23 Ohio Northern men's basketball team.
Guards
Long, Bell and Conley return to the Polar Bears' guard rotation after playing in 20-plus games last season.
Long played in 23 games, starting 20 of them, and averaged 9.7 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game while shooting 34% from 3-point range last season. The three-year letterman and two-time Academic All-OAC honoree ranked fourth on the team in scoring, third in assists and second in 3-pointers made (31) while playing 27.3 minutes per game a season ago. He has career averages of 10.5 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists over 60 games.
"We don't have anybody on our team that has played more OAC minutes on the perimeter than Landen. He brings experience and perspective that is going to be really important," Young said. "He's a leader among the guards, and he's a steady presence who plays really hard."
Bell started nine of his 23 games played a season ago and averaged 4.7 points and 2.5 rebounds in 25.7 minutes per game, and his 2.9 assists per game ranked second on the team.
"Ethan played a lot as a freshman last year, and he's a natural playmaker. He has good court vision and can make some tight-window passes," Young said. "The more comfortable he gets with implementing certain fundamentals to his game, the more his play will continue to improve. He's doing a really good job of setting the tone for us defensively, and the more he defends and takes care of the ball, the better we'll be as a team."
Conley played in 25 games, making three starts, last season and averaged 2.4 points and 1.9 rebounds in 13.8 minutes per game.
"Carson is your quintessential solid, reliable guy," Young said. "He's someone who can play in a bunch of different lineups because he doesn't have to have the ball to be effective. He's bigger and stronger than most of our other guards, and he knows where to be defensively. He'll make an impact in every game he plays."
Young also likes the potential of freshmen Will Miller (Ottoville) and Mason Studer (Galion/Colonel Crawford).
"Will and Mason will play a lot for us," Young said. "They both come from winning programs, and they're tough and talented both offensively and defensively. We're really excited about those guys, and as the year goes on, you'll see them start to flourish."
Sophomores Markus Malleschitz (Hythe, U.K./Oak Hill Academy) and Blake Michael (Fremont/St. Joseph Central Catholic) and freshmen Jevin Beard (Ostrander/River Valley) and Bryce Stuart (Lucasville/Valley) round out the guard rotation.
Forwards
Napier headlines the Polar Bears' group of forwards for 2022-23. The three-year letterman is a three-time All-OAC selection, earning Honorable Mention honors as a junior and freshman and Second Team status as a sophomore.
An Academic All-OAC honoree last season, Napier posted eight double-doubles and scored in double figures in 19 of the 21 games in which he played. He averaged a team-high 32.3 minutes per game and tallied team-bests of 16.2 points and 8.5 rebounds per game, which ranked eighth and third, respectively, in the OAC. Napier has started all 52 games thus far in his three-year career and enters this season with 867 points (16.7 per game) and 417 rebounds (8.0 per game).
"Everybody knows that C.J. is our best offensive player, but he has made a lot of strides defensively," Young said. "He is putting in a lot of effort on the defensive end and is rebounding at a high level."
Another three-year letterman, Scott was also a key contributor last season. He started all 23 of the games in which he played and averaged 29.7 minutes per game. He posted averages of 10.6 points and 5.1 rebounds to rank third on the team in both categories. Scott has played in 49 games in his career, making 26 starts, and is averaging 7.4 points and 4.3 rebounds per game over three seasons.
"Adam is a big, strong, athletic forward, and we need him to be an elite defender and rebounder and hustle-play guy, and he's doing those things," Young said. "We're asking him to play a little differently than he's played in the past, and he's playing really hard."
Senior Heath Jeffries (Newark/Catholic) returns after not playing a season ago.
"It's tough to come back after a year away, but Heath has worked really hard to put himself in a position to help us," Young said.
Freshmen Hayden Hanson (Cedarville) and Blake Jacobs (Middlebury, Ind./Northridge) round out the forward group.
Center
Berner is the lone center on the Polar Bears' roster for 2022-23. A two-time Academic All-OAC selection and three-year letterman, Berner started all 23 games in which he played last season and averaged 8.3 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 25 minutes per game. He finished the year ranked fourth in the OAC in shooting 54% from the field.
Berner has played in 50 career games, making 33 starts, and has three-year averages of 5.8 points and 3.4 rebounds per game to go with a shooting percentage of 49.4.
"Mike is big and strong and super active, and he's going to be the anchor of our defense," Young said. "He's not your traditional big, but he's effective because he can make hustle plays, generate extra possessions, make a 10-to-15-foot jumper, run the floor and get offensive rebounds, and we need him to do all of those things at a really high level."
Schedule
The Polar Bears open their 2022-23 season on Nov. 8 at Oberlin and then return home to face Denison on Nov. 12.
ONU is set to play Randolph (Va.) and either Wooster or Mt. Aloysius (Pa.) in the Wooster Classic on Nov. 18-19 and closes out the month with a home game against Alma (Mich.) on Nov. 27.
Games against Clarkson (N.Y.) and Suffolk (Mass.) in the Naples Classic in Florida on Dec. 29-30 round out the team's non-conference schedule.
"We're excited about our non-conference schedule. Every opponent offers a unique challenge, and we're excited about getting to play in Naples and in the Wooster tournament," Young said. "The purpose of the non-conference schedule is to prepare you for the conference schedule, and I think ours does that."
The Polar Bears open conference play on Dec. 3 at home against defending OAC regular-season and tournament champion Marietta, which advanced to the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament last season. The Pioneers are ranked No. 17 in the D3hoops.com preseason poll, and fellow conference foe Mount Union is ranked No. 7. OAC members Heidelberg and John Carroll also received votes, illustrating just how deep the conference is this season.
"The thing I love about the OAC is that you can feel really good about every win because you have to play really well to win," Young said. "On any given night, you're going to play a good opponent, so you have to play well in order to compete, and that's a fun challenge."
The 2023 OAC Tournament is scheduled for Feb. 21-25.