Mount St. Mary’s men’s basketball faced different challenges than they were accustomed to after transitioning to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference last year, but head coach Dan Engelstad believes the Mountaineers have as good a chance as any team in the league this year.
Mount St. Mary’s struggled to find its way during its first year in the MAAC, posting a 13-20 overall record and 8-12 mark in the conference. Engelstad reflected on this rough season by acknowledging his team’s performance and the caliber of the rest of the league.
“Losing is the worst, and we did quite a fair share of that in January,” Engelstad said on Glenn Clark Radio Nov. 2. “… The MAAC is a physical, tough, you-better-bring-it-every-night league — or you’re going to lose.”
The Mount had a series of injuries last year, keeping key players out of competition for parts of the season. Joshua Reaves, one of this year’s starters, played only three games for the Mountaineers last season due to a season-ending leg injury.
The 6-foot-4, 205-pound senior guard from Connecticut had 10 points in the season opener against Maryland and 12 points against Coppin State.
“It’s nice to have Josh back,” said Engelstad, now in his fifth year at the Mount. “He’s a guy that can really shoot the basketball and stretch the floor, but more than that he is a guy that can be an inspiration to the team. He’s got a voice on our team. He’s someone that has really taken on a leadership role this year.”
Engelstad explained that the Mount has more returning players compared to other teams in the conference. Seven of the Mountaineers’ 15 players are returners, and three started games for the Mount last year.
All seven have already found themselves on the stat sheet this season: Reaves and fellow seniors František Barton, Dakota Leffew and Xavier Lipscomb, graduate student George Tinsley, junior Jedy Cordilia and redshirt sophomore Dola Adebayo.
“That’s where this team is really unique. We have all these veterans,” Engelstad said. “Then we feel really excited about the freshman that we’ve brought in.”
Leffew started every game and proved to be a team leader a year ago. He was the second-highest scorer on the team behind Jalen Benjamin, who scored in double figures in 26 of 31 games and earned third-team All-MAAC honors.
With Benjamin now at Santa Clara, Engelstad expects even more from Leffew this season.
“We need more from Dakota. He did take a jump last year. He was second fiddle offensively behind Jalen Benjamin,” Engelstad said. “Now he’s going to be a marked man. He’s going to be on the top of everybody’s scouting report.”
The Mount’s frontcourt features two prominent returners in Adebayo and Cordilia, and now that unit is able to take another step in the right direction with graduate forward Terrell Ard Jr.
“Now you throw another guy that can come up with big rebounds in traffic,” Engelstad said. “He’s somebody as athletically gifted as we’ve had. … When you see Terrell out there, you’re going to see a young man that’s competitive but also hungry to help Mount St. Mary’s take another step.”
Ard has yet to appear in a regular-season game for the Mountaineers this season as the two-time transfer awaits clearance from the NCAA. However, a newcomer who has made an immediate impact is freshman guard Dallas Hobbs, who scored nine points against Maryland. He played for former NBA center and first-round pick Jermaine O’Neal in Texas.
Another newcomer who has impressed is freshman guard De’Shayne Montgomery out of Florida. He had eight points against Maryland and six against Coppin State.
“We like the class we brought in, we like the guys returning, and we hope it equates to a good season,” Engelstad said. “But a lot of it is going to be dependent on how these freshmen develop throughout the year.”
Engelstad mentioned some areas of improvement for the team this year, from crashing the boards to executing offensively to limiting turnovers to the team’s leadership.
All in all, Engelstad is hopeful that the Mountaineers will bounce back in their second year in the MAAC due largely to the parity of the league.
“I think we have as good a chance as anyone in the league,” Engelstad said. “It’s hard to predict because there’s not a lot of returning all-league guys … but because of the unknown it just leads to a wide-open conference.”
For more from Engelstad, listen to the full interview here:
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