Men's Basketball Season Preview
11/7/2022 7:53:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Sacred Heart opens the season at Hartford
FAIRFIELD, Conn.—The Sacred Heart University men's basketball team opens the 2022-23 season with two road games, the first against Hartford on Tuesday, November 8th, at 7 PM. The team will travel to Rutgers on Thursday, November 10th at 7 PM. Head Coach Anthony Latina will begin his 10th season at the helm of the Pioneers.
THE OUTLOOK: Last season, the Pioneers were the sixth seed in the NEC playoffs and fell to third-seeded LIU, 82-75, in the quarterfinals. Sacred Heart had a 10-20 overall regular season record and was 6-12 in conference play. During the offseason, coach Latina brought in a trio of transfers: Brendan McGuire, Aidan Carpenter, and Raheem Solomon, that will make an immediate impact.
"We are very excited to have Aidan, Raheem, and Brendan become part of our program," said Latina. "We believe all three will be major impact players for us. They come to Sacred Heart with not only a familiarity of our program, but also with a great deal of experience at the college level. We believe our program has greatly improved because of their addition."
Juniors Nico Galette and Bryce Johnson are the top-two rebounders from last season. Galette averaged 7.9 rebounds per game and Johnson had 7.0 rebounds per game. Last season, Galette was third on the team in scoring, averaging 12.4 points per game.
Junior Mike Sixsmith, who was named to the NEC All-Rookie team as a first year, returns for his third season as a guard for the Pioneers. Senior guard Joey Reilly, who had a team-best .385% three-point percentage, will be in the rotation during his second season at Sacred Heart.
Sophomore Tanner Thomas, who made 15 appearances as a first-year last season, will continue to contribute this season, and classmate Raymond Espinal-Guzman will be putting up valuable minutes in his rookie season.
Junior Tommaso Ferraresi, sophomores Najee Coursey and Dominic Mello will compete for time, adding more depth of the roster.
Junior Kenneth Womack will join the team following the conclusion of the football season.
PRESEASON POLL: The Pioneers were selected second in the Northeast Conference Preseason Poll, voted on by the league's head coaches and Galette was named to the preseason All-NEC team.
"Our goal is to always be towards the top of the league standings. Hopefully, we can be one spot better than our predicted finish and win the conference regular season," said Latina.
SCHEDULE: The Pioneers open the season with two road games, at Hartford and NCAA Tournament participant, Rutgers before returning to the Pitt Center for their home opener against Columbia on Sunday, November 13th at 1 PM.
Sacred Heart will play against cross-town rival, Fairfield University on the road on December 7th at 7 PM at the Stags new Alumni Gym. The Pioneers will play another Power Five school on December 10 when it travels to Pitt for the teams' first meeting. Another first-time opponent for Sacred Heart will be Saint Joseph's on December 19 on the road. The team will wrap up its non-conference schedule on December 22 when it hosts Holy Cross at 11:30 AM.
"We feel we have put together an extremely exciting and competitive nonconference schedule," Latina said. "We are playing teams from a variety of rival leagues such as the Ivy, Patriot League, America East, Colonial and MAAC. We have also further challenged ourselves by scheduling teams from the Big Ten, ACC and Atlantic 10. We believe this schedule will prepare us well for conference play and put us in the best position to compete for a championship."
Northeast Conference action will begin on Thursday, December 29th at 2 PM at home against NEC newcomer, Stonehill.
THE OUTLOOK: Last season, the Pioneers were the sixth seed in the NEC playoffs and fell to third-seeded LIU, 82-75, in the quarterfinals. Sacred Heart had a 10-20 overall regular season record and was 6-12 in conference play. During the offseason, coach Latina brought in a trio of transfers: Brendan McGuire, Aidan Carpenter, and Raheem Solomon, that will make an immediate impact.
"We are very excited to have Aidan, Raheem, and Brendan become part of our program," said Latina. "We believe all three will be major impact players for us. They come to Sacred Heart with not only a familiarity of our program, but also with a great deal of experience at the college level. We believe our program has greatly improved because of their addition."
Juniors Nico Galette and Bryce Johnson are the top-two rebounders from last season. Galette averaged 7.9 rebounds per game and Johnson had 7.0 rebounds per game. Last season, Galette was third on the team in scoring, averaging 12.4 points per game.
Junior Mike Sixsmith, who was named to the NEC All-Rookie team as a first year, returns for his third season as a guard for the Pioneers. Senior guard Joey Reilly, who had a team-best .385% three-point percentage, will be in the rotation during his second season at Sacred Heart.
Sophomore Tanner Thomas, who made 15 appearances as a first-year last season, will continue to contribute this season, and classmate Raymond Espinal-Guzman will be putting up valuable minutes in his rookie season.
Junior Tommaso Ferraresi, sophomores Najee Coursey and Dominic Mello will compete for time, adding more depth of the roster.
Junior Kenneth Womack will join the team following the conclusion of the football season.
PRESEASON POLL: The Pioneers were selected second in the Northeast Conference Preseason Poll, voted on by the league's head coaches and Galette was named to the preseason All-NEC team.
"Our goal is to always be towards the top of the league standings. Hopefully, we can be one spot better than our predicted finish and win the conference regular season," said Latina.
SCHEDULE: The Pioneers open the season with two road games, at Hartford and NCAA Tournament participant, Rutgers before returning to the Pitt Center for their home opener against Columbia on Sunday, November 13th at 1 PM.
Sacred Heart will play against cross-town rival, Fairfield University on the road on December 7th at 7 PM at the Stags new Alumni Gym. The Pioneers will play another Power Five school on December 10 when it travels to Pitt for the teams' first meeting. Another first-time opponent for Sacred Heart will be Saint Joseph's on December 19 on the road. The team will wrap up its non-conference schedule on December 22 when it hosts Holy Cross at 11:30 AM.
"We feel we have put together an extremely exciting and competitive nonconference schedule," Latina said. "We are playing teams from a variety of rival leagues such as the Ivy, Patriot League, America East, Colonial and MAAC. We have also further challenged ourselves by scheduling teams from the Big Ten, ACC and Atlantic 10. We believe this schedule will prepare us well for conference play and put us in the best position to compete for a championship."
Northeast Conference action will begin on Thursday, December 29th at 2 PM at home against NEC newcomer, Stonehill.
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