Captain Carpenter Leads Big Green Into 2015-16 Season

11/11/2015 12:22:00 PM | Men's Basketball

By: Dartmouth

For a program on the rise, having improved its win total in each of the past three seasons, losing a pair of four-year starters in Gabas Maldunas and John Golden to graduation would be tough enough. Maldunas had scored 1,084 points in his career and was fourth all-time in rebounds on the Dartmouth career charts, and only five players had ever participated in more games than Golden.

But when point guard and co-captain Alex Mitola, who had started every game during his three years and led the Big Green in scoring the past two, announced he was graduating at the conclusion of his junior year and would play his final year of eligibility elsewhere, the prospects for the 2015-16 season grew even dimmer.

“We were certainly planning on having Alex play for us for four years,” said head coach Paul Cormier, now in the sixth year of his second stint back in Hanover helming the Big Green. “But he felt it was the best decision for him, and we hope it works out well for him.

“That being said, we are always reloading to replace graduated players,” Cormier continued, “and we have a pretty deep roster of veterans along with a few new faces that will help keep us on track of reaching our goal of an Ivy League championship in the near future. Perhaps sooner than people think.”

Instead of Mitola serving as the Big Green's first two-year team captain since Robbie Pride '10 six years ago, Dartmouth has turned to senior Tommy Carpenter to fill the leadership void. Carpenter has a steady presence on and off the floor that will benefit the team through the highs and lows of a 28-game season. His teammates could certainly do worse than emulate his style of play, diving for loose balls, making the extra pass and getting out quickly on the break.

Getting out on the break will be more of a priority this year with the advent of the 30-second shot clock. Big Green fans can expect a bit more of an up-tempo style this year, not only because of the shot clock, but because of the personnel on the floor as senior guard Malik Gill is set to take over the starting role at the point.

The 5-9 dynamo is the quickest player in the Ivy League, a distinction no one will argue. Gill led the team not only with 93 assists while playing less than 20 minutes per game, but also with 43 steals, doing so for a third straight year. An absolute pest on defense, his quickness is an equalizer for his diminutive height as he proved when guarding Harvard's 6-6 wing Wesley Saunders for a long stretch last year during the upset victory in Cambridge. Gill also can push the ball up the floor with the best of them, as well as hit the occasional long-range jumper with 40 three-pointers in his career.

When Gill is not on the floor, Cormier has several options at the point. One is sophomore Taylor Johnson, a 6-4 combo guard with a deadly shooting touch. He will begin the season starting at the two and is a deft rebounder at the position, but he also has the ball-handling skills to provide Gill some relief throughout a game. Last year Johnson played sparingly during the conference campaign, but finished strong with key minutes in the 24-point comeback victory over Brown as well as nine points with a pair of triples to go with three steals in the CIT game at Canisius.

Both sophomore Cameron Smith and junior Mike Fleming will get opportunities to run the point as well. Smith developed steadily last year and flashed some of his potential, particularly at Princeton and Yale where he played a combined 22 minutes. Fleming returns to the team after sitting out 2014-15, but as a freshman had more assists than turnovers and was an 85 percent free throw shooter in 174 minutes of action.

One of the players joining Johnson at shooting guard will be Kevin Crescenzi. The 6-3 senior is a streaky shooter who has knocked down 41 three-pointers over the last two seasons at a 38 percent clip. On the defensive end he is an active and physical ball hawk who can help set up the break.

Then there is freshman Guilien Smith, a 6-2, 200-pound product of Catholic Memorial outside of Boston. The Gatorade Massachusetts Boys Basketball Player of the Year and ESPNBoston.com's Mr. Basketball for the state last year has impressed the coaching staff in preseason workouts. He has a good understanding of the game to go with a terrific outside stroke, and he will likely see plenty of action from the outset of the season.

Like Johnson, Dartmouth has another combo guard in Michael Stones. The 6-2 freshman from Orlando, Florida, set school records for career points and assists at Windermere Prep and has tremendous athleticism.

The Big Green have a pair of players on the wing that can play the two or three, most notably Miles Wright. The 6-5, 210-pound sophomore was a high school star as a quarterback, but decided to devote his collegiate play to basketball. With the emphasis on hoops, Wright developed quickly throughout the season, enough to be named the Ivy League Rookie of the Year after averaging close to 10 points per game in league play and nearly eight points overall. He has the ability to drive to the hoop and finish strong as well as shoot from the perimeter, as his 42.4 percent success rate on threes in Ivy games proved. Wright will be one of the go-to scorers for Dartmouth this year as his development continues.

Another wing is Quinten Payne, a junior who transferred from Ball State a year ago. A physical player who stands 6-5, Payne is another long-range threat who can mix it up in the paint as well. Once he shakes off the rust from a year of sitting on the bench with the Big Green, Payne will contend for playing time.

In the frontcourt, Dartmouth has one of its most consistent players in senior power forward Connor Boehm. The 6-7 warrior has played in all but one game in his career who can be counted on to provide 9-11 points and 5-6 rebounds per game. A strong back-to-the-basket player with solid post moves and an accurate baseline shot, Boehm is one of just eight players in program history to shoot better than 50 percent in a career, and his outside shot has improved every year to the point where he converted 17-of-39 (.436) trifectas last season.

Joining Boehm in the starting rotation will be a rookie in Evan Boudreaux. The 6-8 freshman from Lake Forest, Illinois, has the bloodlines to be a successful player as his mother was an All-American for Dartmouth back in 1982 and is still the women's basketball team's all-time leading scorer and rebounder. Boudreaux took after his mother by finishing his high school career as Lake Forest's all-time leading scorer. While no one expects him to duplicate that accomplishment in college, he will be one of the Big Green's top scoring threats while regularly banging on the boards.

Junior Brandon McDonnell is anxious to get the 2015-16 season under way after missing the last 21 games last year. The 6-8 forward had shown great strides at the end of his sophomore year but never got to continue that development last year. His accurate shot from inside 15 feet and shot-blocking prowess will put him in the running for solid minutes on the floor.

When it comes to 6-11 center Cole Harrison, his playing time will likely be dictated by matchups with opposing players. He battled through injuries and illness as a rookie two years ago, but saw time in nearly every game last season. His size alone causes problems for anyone who drives into the paint as he has the ability to alter just about any shot from close range.

At times Cormier will be looking for an extra boost of athleticism on the floor, and that's where junior Wesley Dickinson comes in. The 6-7 forward gives a jolt of energy to the team with his strong defensive play thanks to long arms, as well as his ability to finish off the break.

Another player who missed out on the 2014-15 campaign is senior forward Matt Rennie. A walk-on to the team three years ago, Rennie is perhaps the hardest worker on the team, earning the team hustle award and most improved player award during his time at Dartmouth. He and Ike Ngwudo, a 6-6 junior whose development has been slowed by injuries, will battle for opportunities in the frontcourt as well.

“I understand why we were picked sixth or seventh in the preseason polls by various groups,” Cormier stated, “having lost three starters to graduation. The league is as strong as it has ever been with many teams continually raising the bar. But I have a group of very determined guys who expect to keep pushing this program forward, and we have a chance of being more than simply decent. This team has a very high ceiling, and I for one am excited to see how high we can go.”

The Big Green open the season with an early test as they travel to Seton Hall of the Big East on Nov. 13. The non-conference schedule also features games against Stanford and Cal State Bakersfield out in California in mid-December and a rematch with Dartmouth's opponent in the CIT last year, Canisius, as well as local rivals like Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

Ivy play begins as usual with Harvard on the Crimson's home court on Jan. 9 in the first meeting between the two since Dartmouth knocked off the eventual league champion last January. The Big Green have television dates for three league games, all on the road — Harvard, Penn and Yale — as well as the games at Seton Hall and Stanford.