Fun Fact: Western Connecticut State was also known as the Colonials before they changed their mascot to Wolves this year.
Via Massey Ratings, the Wolves figure to be a middle of the road team in both their conference (Little East) and overall in D3 (194/417).
Western Connecticut is very much a team that is more defense oriented than offense. They were top 50 in D3 in a number of categories defensively - blocked shots per game, steals per game, and turnovers forced. Offensively, they prefer to score inside - they were bottom 40 in the country in 3-pt field goals made and attempted last year in D3. They generate offense by crashing the glass, where they were 26th among D3 teams in offensive rebounding per game. This obviously doesn't mean much in the exhibition game due to the height difference between the teams, but thought it was worth noting from a style perspective. Between Adams/Bishop, we should be relatively sound taking care of the ball and hopefully Amir and EJ get some looks there as well for practice.
WCSU returns leading scorer Kendall Robinson, who led the team both in scoring and rebounding last year. Robinson very much represents the Wolves as a whole - he prefers to get downhill to score near the basket, and shot just 27% from deep last season. He is one of five players that stand 6'6", which is the tallest mark on the roster. W Conn loses three starters to graduation from last year, including three of the four players who appeared in all 25 games last year and two players who accounted for 60% of their made threes. Jaheim Young provides defense, but will look to be significantly more efficient offensively as he steps into a bigger role. He was a double figure scorer during the 2019-20 season. Ryan Alkins, a part time starter last year, will need to continue to expand his game as he enters the starting lineup. Alkins took just one three last year, but is efficient as a rim attacker in his 6-2 forward frame. Solomon Silas was also a part time starter last year who will likely be looked to lead as a graduate student. Silas adds size, rebounding, and rim protection down low.
Beyond those four, improvement from WCSU will come from four players looking to break out in their second year. Keeshawn Jones shot 42% from distance (on low volume, but that's huge on a team with little three point shooting) but will also have to take on more ball handling duties with the top four leaders in assists departing from last year. James Rhodes was great on the block and showed promise defensively but will need to be better than 36% from the line otherwise opponents will continue to foul him. Malik Cole showed promise from the free throw line (82% FT), perhaps an indication that he can take a step forward in his efficiency on offense. Finally, Dejon Hamilton converted on 65% of his attempts on a small sample last year.
As you'd expect with a D3 roster, the Wolves are not an overly large team - they list their lone "center" as 6'5" and they have a number of forwards between 6'2" and 6'4". We should be able to play through Hunter and Noel throughout the game - this would be a great first opportunity to get the frontcourt going early in the season.
I based the above on their roster right now, but I'm not sure it's even accurate. There are multiple players with the same jersey number, and I somewhat doubt that there are 24 players on the roster currently.
The Dude wrote: