Dartmouth Opens Season at Fordham Monday Night

GAME 1
Dartmouth (0-0, 0-0 Ivy) at Fordham (0-0, 0-0 Atlantic 10)
Date: Monday, November 7, 2022 – 7:30 p.m.
Location: Bronx, N.Y. – Rose Hill Gymnasium
All-Time Series: Tied, 5-5
Last Time: 12/21/77 – L, 61-59
Watch (ESPN+) | Live Stats

Setting the Scene
The Dartmouth men's basketball team is set to open its 2022-23 campaign on Monday night when the Big Green travel to Fordham to face the Rams. Game time is set for 7:30 p.m. on ESPN+. Monday will be the first of two showdowns against Atlantic 10 foes, as Dartmouth also heads to UMass on Dec. 20. After a fifth-place finish last season, falling just one game shy of the Ivy League Tournament, this year's edition of Dartmouth will look considerably different than last year's, with its top three scorers all graduating. Dame Adelekun leads the returning group after emerging in Ivy League play last season, while the Big Green feature numerous players with experience who will jump into new and increasing roles.

Season Outlook
Due to the pure number of new opportunities in the starting lineup, and rotation, competition has been a word to describe the feeling surrounding the Big Green so far.

"It's a very competitive environment," said head coach David McLaughlin. "What I like is it's not just five guys against five guys, but it also includes drills. We're statting almost every single thing we do, whether it's an individual shooting drill, one-on-one or five-on-five. We're stating all wins and losses, we're stating shooting percentages and the things that are very important to us.

"When you stat things and show them to the guys, you're going to get a competitive atmosphere."

Along with Adelekun (who finished fourth on the team in scoring last season with 7.8 points per game), Ryan Cornish was right behind in fifth (7.3). Others like Cam Krystkowiak, Izaiah Robinson and Romeo Myrthil were regulars in the rotation as well.

"We're trying to figure out our identity," said McLaughlin. "We're trying to see how tough we are as a group, how resilient we are, how much we can progress from one day to the next. That's really habit-forming. We're really trying to teach these guys great habits.

"Beyond that, can we value the basketball at a really high level? Can we be a paint team at both ends? Can we protect the paint on the defensive end and own the paint on the offensive end?"

The end result should be a fun product to watch.

"I think fans can expect a very exciting style of basketball at both ends, a team that knows how to execute and a team that is willing to play together," said McLaughlin. "We call it sharing the juices — a team that's willing to make the extra pass, a team that's not afraid to get up and down the floor, a team that wants to play physically on the defensive end and be able to do that in a way without fouling. And a team that is really there for each other. You can tell when teams are executing and teams are playing the way they want to play and teams are playing for the guys to the right and left of them.

"This team has the potential to check all those boxes."

Check out a quick practice update from head coach David McLaughlin with the season opener now less than two weeks away! pic.twitter.com/iUSAahp9G9
— Dartmouth Men's Basketball (@DartmouthMBB) October 27, 2022

With a win...
- Dartmouth would win its season opener for the third time in the last five seasons.
- The Big Green would snap a four-game losing streak against Fordham and beat the Rams for the first time since a 53-52 win on Dec. 17, 1941.
- Dartmouth would win at Fordham for the first time since a 20-19 victory on Dec. 20, 1929.

Last Time Out
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (3/5/22) — The Dartmouth men's basketball team finished the 2021-22 season in as emphatic a fashion as it could by handing host Harvard a 76-54 defeat, spoiling the Crimson's Senior Day in the process. Brendan Barry scored 19 points and cranked four trifectas for the Big Green (9-16, 6-8 Ivy), ending his career by setting a new program record for career 3-pointers.

Scouting Fordham
Fordham is coming off a strong 16-16 season and 8-10 mark in the Atlantic 10, and saw head coach Kyle Neptune head to Villanova following the season. The Rams finished eighth in the standings (their highest-ever seed in the current tournament format) and beat George Mason in the A-10 Tournament before falling to top-seeded Davidson in the quarterfinals.

The Rams lose some considerable production, but do return graduate student and Youngstown State transfer Darius Quisenberry, who was named preseason All-Atlantic 10. He finished second on the team and sixth in the A-10 in scoring last season, averaging 16.2 points per game. The Rams were picked to finish 11th. Two other players return this season, who averaged more than seven points per game — Kyle Rose (7.5) and Antrell Charlton (7.3).

All-Time Against The Rams
The all-time series between Dartmouth and Fordham is tied at five. After Fordham won the first meeting in Hanover, 34-17 on Jan. 19, 1927, Dartmouth won the next five. However, since, the Rams responded with four in a row, with wins in 1963, 1966, 1976 and 1977.

Welcome to Dartmouth!
Head coach David McLaughlin announced in August the addition of three student-athletes in the Class of 2026 — Brandon Mitchell-Day, Jackson Munro and Jayden Williams.

Mitchell-Day, a 6-8, 205-pound forward from Creve Coeur, Missouri, was the conference player of the year for Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day (MICDS) this past winter, scoring over 1,000 points in his prep career. Twice he was named all-state and all-district, and he played AAU ball for Gateway Basketball on the Under Armour Rise Circuit.

A 6-8, 220-pound forward from Wilmette, Illinois, Munro is a product of New Trier High School, which he helped advance to the Illinois State Sectional finals by averaging around 16 points and nine rebounds a game. The Chicago Sun-Times First Team All-State selection was also a two-time All-Central Suburban League performer and named the New Trier/Thanksgiving Tournament MVP. On the AAU circuit, he made a name for himself playing with Fundamental U.

Williams, a product of Windermere Prep in Florida, was All-Florida First Team this past year along with all-district and All-Region 3 honors to his name. The 6-6, 185-pound wing averaged about 18 points and 7.5 rebounds per contest, helping the Lakers post a 20-8 record during the season. He also played AAU ball as a member of 1Family.

Captains Revealed
Last May, Dartmouth men's basketball head coach David McLaughlin revealed the three captains that will lead his squad during the 2022-23 season — rising seniors Dame Adelekun, Jackson Blaufeld and Cam Krystkowiak.

Adelekun, a 6-8, 220-pound power forward from Gastonia, North Carolina, emerged as a force in the frontcourt when Ivy League play began at the beginning of the calendar year. Injuries had limited him to just 15 games in his career while averaging just over one point. But in conference games last winter, he produced 10.6 points and 8.2 rebounds per game over the 14 contests while shooting 63.6 percent from the floor and blocking a team-high 10 shots. Those numbers led to him earning the team's Rudy LaRusso '59 Award as the most improved player as well. A 6-4, 195-pound shooting guard from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Blaufeld may have seen limited action during his career with just 17 games under his belt, but he is one of the most positive and vocal teammates the Big Green have ever seen. His work ethic in practice is unmatched, whether he is putting in extra time to improve his own game or helping his teammates get better with his intense energy and dogged determination when matching up against them. Krystkowiak, the son of former NBA player Larry Krystkowiak, is working on making a name for himself as the third captain for the Big Green next season. The 6-9, 210-pound power forward from San Diego, California, finally got a chance to play this past winter after missing his entire freshman season due to an injury. With the skills to play in the post and on the perimeter, he showed what he could do right out of the gate with nine points in the season opener at Boston College and five more with four rebounds in the win at Georgetown, including his first 3-pointer. But it was his 20-point performance in a six-point loss at California that put all of his talent on display.

Year-End Awards
The Dartmouth men's basketball team and head coach David McLaughlin announced its end-of-year team awards last May during a team banquet with guard Brendan Barry named as the A.D. "Dolly" Stark Award winner as the Big Green's most valuable player for the second time in his career. Barry, a 6-2, 180-pound graduate student from Rumson-Fair Haven, New Jersey, was selected for the All-Ivy League Second Team this past winter, ranking seventh in the conference in scoring at 14.6 points per game while leading the Ancient Eight in 3-point field goals made (85), 3-pointers per game (3.4) and 3-point accuracy (41.1 percent), not to mention minutes on the court (35.7 per game). The sharpshooter scored in double figures in 20 of the 25 games, topping 20 on five occasions with a high of 26 in an overtime contest at Florida Gulf Coast. But Barry wasn't just a scorer, leading the team with 47 assists and 40 steals, the latter of which ranked third in the conference. He also finished his career with 244 career 3-pointers, breaking the program record — in his final game that had stood for 33 years. Barry won this award in 2018-19 as well during his junior season. The Rudy LaRusso '59 Award, given to the team's most improved player, went to junior Dame Adelekun. A 6-8, 220-pound forward out of Gastonia, North Carolina, had been limited by injuries through the end of 2021, playing in just 15 games in his career while barely averaging one point per game. But when Ivy League play began as the calendar flipped to 2022, so did his production as Adelekun produced 10.6 points and 8.2 rebounds in the 14 conference contests. Not only did he lead the team on the glass, but also in field goal percentage (.636), free throws made (37) and blocked shots (10), and he scored a season-high 19 points in a 71-59 victory over Cornell.

Two players shared the John Di Iorio '56 Award for hustle, drive and determination — senior Taurus Samuels of Oceanside, California, and freshman Romeo Myrthil of Solna, Sweden. Both guards demonstrated an all-out hustling style of play that inspired their teammates that characterized the Big Green's style of play through the campaign. Samuels started all 23 games in which he played, averaging 9.4 points, 2.1 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game while posting more than twice as many helpers (40) as turnovers (19). He was a key player in the early-season win at Georgetown where he scored a season-high 23 points, and he also tallied 22 more in a near-upset at Stanford. Myrthil saw his playing time increase as the season wore on, seeing action in 13 of the 14 league games, and averaged 2.4 points in his 18 games while shooting 50 percent (17-of-34) from the floor and 41.2 percent (7-of-17) from the perimeter. Finally, the Alvin F. "Doggie" Julian Award for spirit and enthusiasm was bestowed upon senior Wes Slajchert. A native of Oak Park, California, Slajchert played in all 25 games with nine starts, averaging 12.7 minutes and doing every little thing asked of him to contribute to the team, whether it be take care of the basketball, hit the boards and play lock-down defense. He finished the season producing 1.4 points and 1.1 rebounds per game with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 17-10, and saw action in all 84 games Dartmouth played since he arrived on campus as a freshman in 2018-19, scoring 177 points and dishing out 78 assists.

Follow Along
Monday's game will be streamed on ESPN+.

What's Ahead?
Following Monday's game, the Big Green return home for a pair, beginning with their home opener on Friday vs. reigning conference champion and NCAA Tournament qualifier Bryant.

Schedules