New Hampshire Wildcats

Date/Time: Saturday November 26th @ 2:00 PM ET at The Charles E. Smith Center in Washington, DC.
TV: NBC Sports Washington/ESPN+
Preseason Ranks: 327th (KenPom), 353rd (Bart Torvik), 326th (Sports Illustrated)
2021-22 Record: 15-13, 10-8 (T-3rd in America East)
2022-23 Projected Record: 9-20, 4-12 (9th in America East)

Head-to-Head: 1-0. We notched a 68-64 home victory over the Wildcats during the 2017-18 season. Patrick Steeves led the way with a triple nickel - 23 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists - while Yuta had a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds with 4 made threes. GW trailed by 4 at halftime as New Hampshire was knocking down threes all game - they finished with 10 made at a ridiculous 56% clip. The game was won in the turnover and foul categories - we had only 9 turnovers all game (wouldn't we all love to see a game like that again!) while New Hampshire had 17. New Hampshire also committed twice as many fouls as us for the game - the advantage was 2:1 in our favor (20 for NH, 10 for GW). As a result, the Wildcats shot only 7 free throws for the game - that was half of our FT makes in the game as we got to the line 23 times. Now I don't think we can expect NH to cough the ball up that many times (or for us to get to the line that much) as UNH is normally a very disciplined team in those departments, but the turnover figure will as always warrant close monitoring during the game. Once again, the Wildcats are not an aggressive team defensively, but we will still need to avoid being careless with the ball.

Preseason Offensive Efficiency: 334th (KenPom), 335th (Bart Torvik)
Preseason Defensive Efficiency: 291st (KenPom), 338th (Bart Torvik)
Pace: 348th (KenPom), 359th (Bart Torvik)
Offensive Shot Quality Rank: 191st
Defensive Shot Quality Rank: 208th
Rim & 3 Rate: 88% (129th)

Strengths:
Fewest Turnovers (1st)
Fewest Fouls (2nd)
Turnovers Per Game (3rd)
Personal Fouls Per Game (6th)
Assist Turnover Ratio (32nd)
3-PT Field Goal Percentage (42nd)
Scoring Defense (47th)
Rebound Margin (54th)
3-PT Field Goals Per Game (62nd)

Weaknesses:
Total Blocks (T-267th)
Total Rebounds (T-281st)
Total Assists (T-307th)
Free Throw Percentage (312th)
Free Throw Attempts (T-333rd)
Steals Per Game (335th)
Free Throws Made (T-339th)
Total Steals (346th)
Turnovers Forced (347th)

Key Returning Players:
Nick Johnson (Junior; Bronx, NY) 8.6 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 1.3 apg; 48% FG, 29% 3-PT, 62% FT

Key Losses:
Jayden Martinez (Transferred to North Texas; Cibolo, TX) 14.9 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 1.5 apg; 47% FG, 42% 3-PT, 67% FT
Nick Guadarrama (Transferred to Florida International; Newington, CT) 12.7 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 2.7 apg, 1 spg; 43% FG, 30% 3-PT, 68% FT
Blondeau Tchoukuiegno (Transferred to California Baptist; Montreal, Canada) 11.8 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 4 apg, 1 spg; 42% FG, 40% 3-PT, 75% FT
Marco Foster (Transferred to NJCAA Blinn College; Chicago, IL) 8.3 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 1.2 apg; 42% FG, 43% 3-PT, 69% FT
Joshua Hopkins (Graduated; Greensboro, NC) 6.6 ppg, 2.3 rpg; 44% FG, 35% 3-PT, 75% FT
Qon Murphy (Transferred to D2 UNC Pembroke; Charlotte, NC) 5.3 ppg, 2.7 rpg; 44% FG, 27% 3-PT, 61% FT

Comments:
The 2021-22 season was another solid, if unspectacular season for Bill Herrion's Wildcat squad. Herrion enters his 18th year at the helm, tied for the 12th longest active streak with a team in college basketball with 451 career wins. It's been tough sledding to get UNH to have consistent success over his tenure. The high point was from 2014-17, where the Wildcats had two 20 win seasons, the first ones in the history of the program.

Based on that, I don't think Herrion's 43% win percentage at UNH should be considered a failure by any means. Like Maryland Eastern Shore in the MEAC, history indicates the Wildcat program does not have a high ceiling. The team has not made a single NCAA tournament through 69 seasons. Only St. Francis (BKN), Army, Denver, Maine, William & Mary, and The Citadel have had more seasons without a single appearance. A few seasons ago, the job was considered the second toughest in the league, with the facilities ranking dead last. Like many New England schools, hockey is ahead of basketball in order of importance at the school. Now it only takes one really good coach to turn things around - I have to shout out Chris Markwood who has done an absolutely outstanding job at Maine in his first year with a win over Boston College - but consistent success will require financial support/resources (like the case for GW). I should probably also list newcomers to the league in Bryant as another example but I don't like Grasso. Vermont, the gold standard of the league, has had three coaches who have posted at least 20+ wins in their career - a result of their commitment to basketball.

Herrion certainly embraces the challenge of taking on tough programs to win at - he was previously at East Carolina and has shown the ability to win in the America East previously at Drexel (back when they were in that conference), which may be the best program of the three he has been head coach of. He had four 1st place finishes in 8 seasons in Philadelphia with three NCAA tournament appearances. Herrion also spent a year as an assistant at GW under Jarvis in 1990-91 when the Colonials won 19 games led by the trio of Dirkk Surles, Sonni Holland, and Ellis McKennie. GW beat Stanford and Virginia Tech that season.

Under Herrion, UNH is a program that usually wins by getting it done on the defensive end. They don't do anything flashy - they just play solid D without fouling and aren't overly aggressive with trying to turn people over. However, last year UNH went away from his usual identity of playing tough on defense. Per Bart Torvik, the Wildcats ranked 170th nationally in offensive efficiency, the best mark on that side of the ball in Herrion's tenure in Durham, NH largely fueled by UNH's 42nd best 3-PT FG percentage mark. UNH does not get to the line a lot and when they do they are not good at shooting FTs. Herrion has historically played more through his frontcourt and as a result never really prioritized shooting but it appears he may have finally started to value it. Unfortunately, that improvement on offense has come with a regression on defense as the Wildcats finished 294th on D, the worst finish in his tenure. They conceded the 47th fewest points in the country last year, but that was a product of playing one of the slowest paces in the country last year. We may find success speeding up the game tomorrow afternoon.

Regardless of which side of the ball ends up being their strength this season, the Wildcats will always be strong in rebounding the ball and not turning it over. Don't expect many second chance opportunities (even though we don't really attack the offensive glass anyways). UNH has ranked in the top 40 nationally in defensive rebounding in each of the past eight seasons, with top 10 finishes in seven of those eight seasons.

It's tough to say whether UNH's improvement offensively was an anomaly or a trend moving forward because their roster was practically turned over this offseason. Program pillars Jayden Martinez and Nick Guadarrama elected to leave the northeast. Both players made the America East second-team last year and finished their careers at UNH ranked #5 and #6 all time in defensive rebounds. A number of other upperclassmen also departed for other schools in the offseason (which included old friend Sloan Seymour to D2 St. Rose) but perhaps the toughest loss was promising freshman Blondeau Tchoukuiegno who also entered his name in the transfer portal. Herrion saw Tchoukuiegno's talent right away and played him early and often, as the Canadian finished the year 50th nationally in minutes per game.

That leaves junior Nick Johnson as the lone scholarship player who saw action from last year's team that is still on the roster. After redshirting his first year at UNH, Johnson has done a solid job playing a complementary role for the Wildcats. He scored in double figures in 13 of their 28 games last year and will almost certainly be a lock to start for UNH when healthy and be looked to be a leader on the squad this year. Johnson largely attacks the hoop to be productive and is still looking to find consistency from deep as he finished the year going 0-9 from 3 in UNH's final five games of the season. He has yet to play on the year thus far. Fellow redshirter A.J. Lopez will look to make a similar impact with playing time finally available. He isn't much of a defender but is a capable shooter who can provide a spark off the bench.

UNH welcomes six transfers who figure to make a major impact this season:

Clarence O. Daniels II is a versatile albeit undersized 4 man who comes from a respectable Lake Region State JUCO program in North Dakota that went 20-12 last year. He averaged a double double (20 points, 11 rebounds) for the Royals and began his career at D2 Montana State-Billings. Daniels is also a solid defender on the other side of the ball and provides good energy. He likely occupies one of the starting spots up front.

Kyree Brown is a Seattle transfer who was also previously at a JUCO (City College of San Francisco). He played a role in their rotation but couldn't quite find consistency shooting the ball, although his 80% shooting from the FT line indicates perhaps unrealized potential as an offensive threat. Brown's most valuable asset may be as a lead ball handler for UNH this season. He served as a backup at Seattle last year but with no returning PGs on the roster he should be able to step into that role as a starter from day 1.

If Brown needs a breather or has trouble being the true #1 guy at the point, D2 Goldey-Beacom transfer Nazim Derry may be able to eat up some minutes at the point as a backup as well. Derry averaged 20 ppg at his last stop while shooting 42% from distance. Perhaps his most intriguing trait is his on-ball defense, where he averaged 2.1 spg last year. If that can translate to the D1 level that would be huge - UNH hasn't had a guy like that in quite some time.

Jaxson Baker is an Arizona native who comes over from Central Arkansas. Baker appeared in 85 contests for the Bears over three seasons. He provides a boost as a glue guy off the bench that can score at all three levels (although he isn't the most efficient finishing inside the hoop), move the ball on offense, rebound, and defend multiple positions at 6-8.

Marist transfer Matt Herasme joins the Wildcats as a graduate student. Herasme started 71 of 76 games for the Red Foxes in the past three years. He is not a particularly impressive offensive player as he relies on a lot of shot attempts in order to be productive. Granted, Marist is not a program known for offense so perhaps a change of scenery can change that - he did show promise in his sophomore year by shooting nearly 40% from deep but otherwise he is a career sub 40% shooter from the field which isn't good. He will certainly provide positive contributions as a rebounder on a team that isn't overly big in height and provides veteran leadership in the backcourt as a starter.

Finally, Valparaiso transfer Trey Woodyard is a guy who can play along the wing or up front. He doesn't figure to make the biggest impact in the game despite likely starting, but can shoot and rebound here and there when on the court. He has really struggled shooting to begin the year.

Rex Sunderland, Christian Moore, and Ridvan Tutić have the chance to make an impact right away as true freshmen. Sunderland comes from Utah and can make a 3/serve as a secondary playmaker. The same is true for Moore, who may be the more ready of the two to see minutes given he prepped at a big time program (Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia). Tutić is a Serbian native whose height alone merits mention at 6-10 and likely gives him an immediate starting nod. He has the chance to lead the team in rebounding (Herrion certainly prioritizes that) and is a fairly reliable interior scorer. The most surprising thing about him is that he has yet to attempt a three on the year - I guess I somehow assumed that all European bigs have the ability to stretch the floor - especially those that hail from Serbia.

This "should" be a win, but more importantly I would like to see the following:
- Play with energy
- Take care of the ball - can we keep it within 10-12 turnovers?
- Better communication on defense - no lapses with open lanes and hopefully recover better from 3 since UNH is competent from there.
- Get out in transition when we are able to do so - UNH prefers a slower pace overall, and we tend to get stagnant in the halfcourt on offense. UNH may not be amazing defensively but they will be sound.
- Try to match UNH on the boards as much as possible - I figure UNH will likely win in that battle but would love to be surprised!
- More cutting off the ball on offense and less standing around.

Projected Score: GW 74, New Hampshire 60. 91% chance to win (Bart Torvik). ESPN gives us a 76.8% chance at a win.
 

Well his wrist is taped but Ricky is at least healthy enough for shoot around. I guess we’ll see how many minutes he gets

quick image upload

probably not worth reading too much into what patsos says, but he said something like "bishop is very happy with the coaching change" which I think is interesting

Good crowd today for Saturday after Thanksgiving

Best half of the year, 20 point lead, now 15

We could win by 20 or 3, but with few exceptions, this has been terrible basketball to watch.

Noel Brown is nowhere to be found.  Harvey is next big off the bench with Samuels spelling some too.
Love Amir’s attitude and defense but seems like a turnover happens every other time he touches the ball.

Nice blowout win for GW

Adams best game at GW?  Played great both sides of the ball

Just a couple of observations from the game:
-for the first time this season, GW dominated an opponant.   Man for man, we were better, and i suspect that very few on UNH, if anyone, could make the GW team..  Unlike UCSD, we game out with lots of energy and although we did not maintain that energy edge for 40 minutes, we did so for most of the game.
-Adams appears to be the clear cut 2nd best scoring option, and an agrument can be made that he is the best.  He is now averaging 17.7 ppg, shooting 52.9% from the field, a respectable 36.4% from the three and 87% from the line.  Also one of the few on the team that will exploit his athleticism advantage over his opponant (with Lindo the other one who comes to mind).  Shame he is not a point guard.   Clarke is the only PG on the team and he does not warrant more than 10-15 mpg.
-May have detected a bit of an "attitude" from Max.    With about 2-3 minutes left in a game in which the outcome had long ago been decided, he appeared to be pouting a bit on the bench when he was not put in the game.   The coach then put him back in and he promptly took 2 bad shots.   Have not noticed anything like this previously and I hope I am mistaken.
-Although some may have considered this to be a good post Thanksgiving crowd, the attendance of 703 may have been the smallest I have ever remembered at the Smitty, and I have been following the team from the Fort Meyer's days.   There is a real problem here.   People aren't coming to the games and, based at least on this board, there is very little interest in the team.   Yes, crowds are going to be smaller with the students gone, but the Saturday after Thanksgiving should be drawing larger crowds than this.   It was a Saturday afternoon game and the weather was good.   And did I mention that we live in a metropolitan area of 6 million people?  C'mon Athletic Department, surely we can promote this program to draw more than 703 people?   Long time season ticket holders have not renewed, and even this board only has a small handful of regular participants.  Thank you once again Mr. Nero.  If you had set out to kill the program, you could not have done a better job.
-You know the expression that good things happen when he has the ball?  Well somehow, despite averaging 8 ppg and shooting 81.8% from the field, 92.3% from the line, along with 5.8 rebounds per game, bad things seem to happen when Dean gets the ball.
-I am rapidly getting comfortable with Harvey in the game.  He is a limited player who is very much aware of his limitations, but he hustles on both ends of the Court, plays some defense and seems very coachable.   Still waiting for Samuels to show something on the Court.
-Anyone know why Nixon hasn't been dressed the past few games?

It was interesting that Bishop didn’t even try to score in the second half. It was as if he and/or Caputo decided they wanted to see who else would step up, knowing that they will need more scoring options when we play better teams. I thought it interesting, and very mature of Bishop.

It was hard to concentrate on the game, as it was really almost unfair in talent disparity. A good thing,
in our case. NH has a respected coach, but didn't seem to have the experience or the players.
    Yes, James has been trending toward maturity, which will serve him and us well. Brendan had an excellent game and shot tremendously inside the arc. It was great to see Ricky on the court, much less having a productive game. Max can have a great future at GW.
We might as well ride Keegan until he starts missing, or continues to make strides in contributing in other areas of the game.
   So didn't notice during the game because it was so (quite happily) one-sided. But the box score says we
made 16-17 foul shots, 94 percent.
    In contrast, we shot 33 pct. from the 3, not stunning.
But that free throw percentage was, of course, terrific. Don't expect it regularly, but as we've painfully seen in the past, making foul shots can make a real difference in a closer game.