WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – The last time fans were allowed into Lamade Gym to watch the Lycoming College men's basketball team, a group of 11 first-year players were opening a run of three straight wins to win the school's fifth conference title. It won another conference title in, well, let's call it weird, circumstances in 2020-21, beating DeSales by 16 points in a winner-take-all MAC Freedom Championship game, ending a shortened COVID-19-derailed season.
 
If the end of the 2020 season, just a couple weeks before this crazy world was turned upside down, was a coronation, well, the Warriors are still looking for that crown. Eight of those 11 first-year players are still on the 18-member squad that will enter the 2021-22 season. That group features two all-conference players and three starters.
 
The Warriors head into the wilderness of a full 25-game season on Saturday, Nov. 6, when they host second-ranked Yeshiva at 8 p.m. to cap the first day of the Dutch Burch Tip-Off. (Lamade's stands will be open, tickets for the tournament will begin being sold before the first game at 5 p.m. Masks are required indoors on the Lycoming College campus.) They enter with the most ambitious schedule in recent memory, facing three teams ranked in the preseason D3hoops.com Top 25.
 
They enter the year two-time defending conference champions by receiving one vote in that D3hoops.com poll. DeSales has 46 votes, Stevens 7. The Warriors were selected second, behind DeSales, in the coaches' preseason poll.
 
No, the coronation hasn't happened yet. The Warriors and fourth-year head coach Mike McGarvey will have to earn it once again on the floor. There's a whole lot of "What if we's?" that give this team the potential to be one of the most successful in program history. No one is going to hand it to the Warriors, though. They'll have to earn it with their performance, and that is something that McGarvey has stressed to the group. They're still underdogs, even if they don't think they should be.
 
Now they get the chance to prove what they think they are. Enjoy the ride – it may get a little bumpy, but that's part of the fun.
 
Coach's Take: "I think this team of capable of competing at a high level and come February, that hopefully means competing in the MAC Freedom Championship and beyond. With the core returning group, we've tasted that success and we know what it takes to get to that, but at the same time, we have to be realistic, because just about half the team hasn't played a full college season. I think our potential is there, but our focus has to be on improving and competing every day to do the things that put us in position to be successful."
 
Backcourt
 Lycoming returns four of its five starters that helped the team to the MAC Freedom Championship in 2021 – all but two-time first team all-conference point guard Darius Dangerfield '21.
 
That loss will be felt – the Warriors have rarely had leaders like Dangerfield, the two-time Lycoming College Male Athlete of the Year, but a pair of Warriors that didn't get to play quite as much as McGarvey would have liked during the spring will now have their chance.
 
Sophomore Stephen Hamilton (Phoenixville, Pa./Phoenixville Area) averaged 8.4 points and 1.7 assists in 22.0 minutes per game. An explosive performer, Hamilton can jump out of the gym and control the offense.
 
Sophomore Brendon Blackson (Laurel, Md./Laurel) may come off the bench, but McGarvey expects his minutes to rise from the 20.7 minutes he averaged in the spring. Blackson notched 7.6 points per game and shot 59 percent from 3-point range. He can play anywhere from the No. 1 to No. 4 position, giving the team some great versatility.
 
First-year Bernard Rogers (Philadelphia, Pa./Haverford School) will also get the chance to run the point guard slot.
 
Senior Matt Ilodigwe (Wilmington, Del./Concord) has developed into one of the team's top 3-point threats during his career, as well as providing energetic defense. The shooting guard averaged 4.6 points, 1.9 rebounds and 1.7 assists as a junior after averaging 8.7 points as a sophomore.
 
In the other shooting guard position, junior Mo Terry (Severn, Md./Severn School) will move into the starting lineup for the third straight year. He enters the season a point shy of 400 in his career in 36 games, averaging 11.1 points and 4.8 rebounds in his career. A tenacious player, Terry is a difference maker on both ends of the floor.
 
Juniors Tobias Walden (New York, N.Y./Southern Columbia (Pa.)), Jon-Marc Flores-Diaz (San Antonio, Texas) and Luke Finkbeiner (Warrenton, Va./Wakefield School) all provide experienced options off the bench. Walden and Flores-Diaz have provided some big defensive stops in their career and Finkbeiner has one of the quickest triggers from 3-point range on the team, always making him a threat to score.
 
Sophomore Mavin James (Danville, Pa./Danville Area) gives the team a lengthy option in the swing position and sophomore Coleman Witherite (Lewisburg, Pa./Lewisburg Area) will get back into action at the end of the football season. First-years Dante Harward (Danville, Pa./Danville Area) and Moses Ilodigwe (Wilmington, Del./Mount Pleasant), both of whom have brothers on the team, will also work into the lineup.
 
Frontcourt
A pair of all-conference selections return in the post, giving the Warriors a decided advantage in the two post positions.
 
Junior Dyson Harward (Danville, Pa./Danville Area) will continue to man the No. 5 position, one of the few true centers in the MAC Freedom. The 6-7 junior has averaged 12.9 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.1 blocks in his career and he earned First Team All-MAC Freedom honors in the spring, as he is a difference maker on both sides of the floor.
 
Junior DeAundre Manuel (Brooklyn, N.Y./KIPP NYC Prep) had a breakthrough season in 2021 en route to Honorable Mention All-MAC Freedom honors, as he averaged 9.3 points and 5.3 rebounds during the season, scoring 19 points in the championship game to earn MVP honors.
 
Junior D'Andre Edmond (Pflugerville, Texas/Pflugerville) will continue to spell Harward after averaging 6.4 points and 4.6 rebounds in 13.3 minutes, as the 6-5, 260-pounder gives the team an imposing presence in the paint.
 
James and Terry can stretch into time in the No. 4 position and juniors Danilo Petrovic (Red Hill, Pa./IV Belgrade (Serbia)), Pablo Pereira (San Juan, Puerto Rico/Saint Francis School) and sophomore Austin Loe (Montoursville, Pa./Montoursville Area) will also see time in the post this year.
 
Coaching Staff
McGarvey has now won back-to-back Lycoming College Robert Darrow Curry Coach of the Year awards, accumulating a 36-25 record in his first three years while winning two conference titles.
 
Part of that is no doubt due to the continuity in his coaching staff, as Nikolai Arnold enters his third year with the program, Joe Britto, a key presence in training the team's post players, enters his fourth. Volunteer assistant Jack McAndrew has been with the Warriors for seven years, helping the team to four postseason conference titles and two regular-season titles.