New name, new coach, new roster, old problems.
Have you ever heard of IU Indy? It’s not a name that strikes the ear as authentic to a four-decade D1 college basketball, at least not this one. I know Division 1 has been expanding, so I figured Xavier was about to welcome some former D2 team to the big time with a buy game beating to move to 2-0. Imagine my surprise when I clicked on them in KenPom and saw a program history dating back to the advent of the ranking system.
That history featured Ron Hunter. How had I missed a school that a dude like that had coached at for almost 20 years? Then it clicked for me: this is IUPUI. Apparently in August of 2022, IUPUI was split into two separate schools, with IU Indy inheriting the athletic program and its place in the Horizon League; that split was accomplished effective this fall. All that to say that, if the name IU Indy doesn’t ring a bell for you, you’re not alone.
In their final season as IUPUI, the Jaguars were dreadful. They went 6-26 – which was actually the best record of head coach Matt Crenshaw’s tenure – and finished 360th in the Pomeroy Rankings. They were 353rd on offense and 358th on defense. Three of their wins came against teams outside of D1, and their only win against a team rated better than 300th in the KenPom was a six-point roadie over a decent Purdue Fort Wayne team. It will likely not stun you to find that this performance cost Crenshaw his job.
Replacing him will be Paul Corsaro, late of D2’s University of Indianapolis. He played his college ball – both basketball and football, where he was both quarterback and defensive back – there before becoming an assistant, associate head coach, and then head coach. He was 68-25 in his three non-pandemic seasons there, leading the team to back-to-back league titles in the process. He describes his style as “an intense, up-tempo, physical brand of basketball,” but I’m not going to insult you by pretending I watched enough D2 games to give you a meaningful scouting report on what Xavier will be expecting from him.
Key departures
Guard Jlynn Counter had the ball in his hands more than anyone else on the Jaguars last year, averaging 14.3/3.9/3.0 by dint of volume, not efficiency. He led the team in FGA, FTA, and points and was second in 3PM; he’ll be chucking at Middle Tennessee this season. Second in scoring was his similarly inefficient back court mate Bryce Monroe, who put up 11.0/2.0/2.6 on an EFG% just north of 42%. Having exhausted his eligibility, he has moved on to whatever is next for him.
In additional good news for people who like bad news, third-leading scorer Vincent Brady II has departed for the greener pastures of Missouri State. He was a little more efficient than Counter and Monroe on his way to 9.1/3.4/1.7 per game, but you’d presume it was something other than his 28-130 (21.5%) from deep that caught the eye of the Mo State staff. Fourth-leading scorer DJ Jackson took his 8.6/2.6/1.3 to the portal; as of the latest I can find, it’s not clear he has landed anywhere.
Just in case you thought that was it, fifth-leading scorer Kidtrell Blocker was so eager to get out that he went D2, joining Missouri Western State University. I’m sure his 6.6/2.9/1.0 on an 86.8 ORtg will be missed. Sixth? Abdou Samb, gone to Towson. Seventh? John Egbuta, out of eligibility. Eight? Qwanzi Samuels, out of eligibility. Nobody who averaged even 2 PPG comes back.
Key returnees
Did you read the last paragraph? Literally nobody. I’ve seen some clear outs in the time I’ve been writing these, but this is an all-timer.
Incoming players
Joining from Manhattan is grad guard Briggs McLain. In addition to sounding like a fictional cowboy, he averaged 5.7 and 1.8 on .400/.323/.781 shooting. He’s mostly a scorer, having dropped 14.4 per game as a junior at Hartford, but he’s not going to stuff a stat sheet for you. Coming up from D2’s own University of Indianapolis is 6’7” wing Sean Craig. In 61 games there over two years, he averaged 3.7 PPG but shot 39.5% from behind the arc.
Also joining is true seven-footer Julian Steinfeld, and also late of University of Indianapolis, where he averaged 3 points and 4 boards off the bench. It’s hard to imagine he’s going to take a jump as a grad student going up a level, but someone has to occupy the spot. Speaking of big men coming up a level, 6’10”, 240-pound center Ebenezer Ogoh from JuCo Harcum College. He averaged 7.9 and 6.8 with 2.1 blocked shots per game and shot 63% from the floor. He’s a big body that the Jaguars will be leaning on in the post.
Coming along from the JuCo ranks is Caleb Hannah, a 6’7” wing who put up solid numbers at Miami Dade College last year. He averaged 8.7 and 4.7 on 48.4% shooting and 42% from deep. Speaking of guys who are coming up a level, Timaris Brown is a 6’5” guard who is joining from D2 Rockhurst University. He was really productive down there, averaging 15.7/6.5/1.5 on .424/.297/.657 shooting last year.
I’m leaning heavily on Bart Torvik’s projections here. The reality is that the roster of a team that was already pretty bad to begin with completely turned over with the coaching change. Most of the players have zero D1 minutes to their name; it’s anyone’s guess who is going to step into a big role.
Outlook
Honestly, just that last paragraph above again. A (admittedly very good) D2 coach is stepping into a D1 setting for the first time and finding it completely scoured to the foundation. The glass half-full take on this is that he has the chance to shape the program in his own image without any baggage from anything that came before. A perhaps more realistic view is that he’s going to be facing a long, slow build before he reaches anything that even resembles mediocrity, to say nothing of consistent competitiveness. If Xavier doesn’t walk right through these guys, Sean Miller’s head might explode.