WESTON, Mass. – With an equal number of returning players and newcomers, the Regis College men's basketball team heads into the 2019-20 season with the potential to be a competitive team within the Great Northeast Athletic Conference.
Nate Hager, now in his 13th season as Pride head coach, brought in six freshmen and one transfer to construct a new roster after the graduation of five seniors, including Second Team All-GNAC selection Ademola Afonja, second on the career scoring list and the program's all-time leader in rebounds and blocked shots.
Among the returners, junior Juvens Dalger (Oakland Park, Fla.) averaged 8.1 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 1.3 steals per game, including a 12-point, 12-rebound performance at Pine Manor. Marc Trinidad (Bronx, N.Y.) appeared in all 25 games for the Pride last season, collecting 6.8 points and 4.7 rebounds per game, and Gibou Njie (Miramar, Fla.) will look to make a bigger impact in the post this season.
Senior Josh Germain (Pembroke Pines, Fla.) is expected to run the offense again this season after averaging 5.0 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 4.3 assists per game in 2018-19. Dimitri Rosa (Tiverton, R.I.) is the team's top long-distance shooting threat, as he is currently first in program history in career three-point field goal percentage (.432) and third in career three-pointers (115).
Juniors Devante Thompson (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) and Jalil Wilkerson (New Haven, Conn.) showed flashes of being top contributors last season. Thompson averaged 6.3 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 2.0 assists per game, while Wilkerson added 4.4 points, 2.7 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 1.4 steals per game in just 10 appearances.
After missing the GNAC Tournament with a ninth place finish in last year's regular season standings, the Pride ended up ninth in the GNAC Men's Basketball Preseason Poll with 52 points. Defending GNAC champion Albertus Magnus topped the poll with eight first place votes and 139 total points, ahead of in-state rival St. Joseph with three first place votes and 129 points.
The Pride open the 2019-20 campaign this weekend in Biddeford, Maine, first taking on University of New England before facing either Mitchell or NYU. Regis begins its home schedule with four contests at Higgins Court over the span of five games, starting Tuesday, Nov. 19, against Clark.
Regis will participate in two more non-conference tournaments, the Trinity Holiday Invitational Dec. 30-31 and the Catholic Charities Classic Jan. 2-3. The GNAC slate begins Saturday, Jan. 11, at Johnson & Wales, with preseason favorite Albertus Magnus serving as the opponent in the Pride's first league home game Tuesday, Jan. 21.
Besides the new players, Hager also added two new assistant coaches in Andrew Holmes, a four-year letter winner at Mount Saint Mary College who was a player development intern with the Dallas Mavericks, and Jaiwon Martin, a member of Regis's 2014-15 squad that advanced to the NCAA Tournament coming off a two-year stint as a graduate assistant at New England College.