Dartmouth Heads to Saint Louis for Saturday Night Showdown

GAME 4
Dartmouth (1-2, 0-0 Ivy League) at Saint Louis (4-2, 0-0 Atlantic 10)
Date: Saturday, November 25, 2023 – 8 p.m. ET (7 p.m. locally)
Location: St. Louis, Mo. – Chaifetz Arena
All-Time Series: Saint Louis leads, 2-0

Setting the Scene
After more than a week off from games due to final exams, the Dartmouth men's basketball team returns to the floor on Saturday night when the Big Green play at Saint Louis out of the Atlantic 10 in the first-ever meeting between the two schools. Dartmouth is coming off its first win of the season, 79-61, over Westfield State while the Billikens have lost two in a row, to Vermont and Wichita State, after a 4-0 start to the season.

Last time out, the Big Green saw two players post career highs in points, with sophomore Brandon Mitchell-Day scoring 20 on 7-of-10 shooting, while junior Nikola Dimitrijevic scored 14 off the bench on 5-of-8 shooting. It was Dimitrijevic's first-career game with double-figure points; he did miss his entire sophomore season due to injury. Dimitrijevic added nine rebounds to barely miss a double-double.

As a team, the Big Green got 40 of their 79 points off the bench, led by 13 from senior Dusan Neskovic. After starting the first two games, he came off the bench last Wednesday, with junior captain Romeo Myrthil starting for the first time. Both players responded, as Myrthil finished with eight points and six rebounds, while making his usual strong impact on the defensive end of the floor. Senior guard Jaren Johnson continued to rebound at an impressive clip, tallying seven, and he's now averaging a team-leading 6.7 per game so far. Johnson added nine points against Westfield State, making a strong early-season impact in a number of ways.

Dartmouth led 47-17 at one point last Wednesday before Westfield State ended the half on an 8-2 run and took that momentum into the second. The Owls got as close as 15 in the second half, but never closer.

This Saturday will be a homecoming for Mitchell-Day, who is from St. Louis and played at Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day. Saint Louis continues an early-season theme for Dartmouth, having finished 21-12 last season. Each of the Big Green's first four Division I opponents this season won 20+ games last year. Even their last opponent, Westfield State out of Division III, was a 20-game winner as well.

Saturday's game will be televised on Bally Sports Midwest in the area, and simulcast on ESPN+. Saint Louis recently played Dartmouth's next opponent after Saturday, Vermont, falling to the Catamounts 78-68. The Big Green travel to Vermont next Wednesday, Nov. 29.

With a win...
- Dartmouth would win its first-ever game against Saint Louis and pull within 2-1 in the all-time series.
- The Big Green would beat a member of the Atlantic 10 for the first time since beating UMass in a neutral-site game on Dec. 12, 1980. Dartmouth beat the Minutemen, 86-70 at the Manufacturer's Hanover Classic at Iona (New Rochelle, N.Y.).
- Dartmouth would snap a five-game road losing streak dating back to last season.
- The Big Green would win a road nonleague game for the first time since winning at UTSA, 78-77 in overtime, last Nov. 27.

Last Time Out
HANOVER, N.H. (11/15/23) — The Dartmouth men's basketball team began Wednesday's game with a vengeance, taking as much as a 30-point lead inside Leede Arena, on the way to beating Westfield State, 79-61, for its first win of the season on Wednesday evening. A pair of Big Green players tallied career-high point totals in sophomore Brandon Mitchell-Day (20) and junior Nikola Dimitrijevic (14). Dartmouth's bench produced 40 points, led by senior Dusan Neskovic scoring 13 and classmate Jaren Johnson adding nine.

Scouting Saint Louis
Saint Louis stands 4-2 on the young season, including 3-0 at home. The Billikens began the year with home wins against Southern Indiana, Lincoln (Mo.) and Illinois State before going 1-2 at the Myrtle Beach Invitational, which included a 79-69 win over Wyoming. Sincere Parker leads the team in scoring, averaging 17.3 points per game while Terrence Hargrove Jr. comes in at 15.5 per contest. Two others average double figures in Gibson Jimerson (12.3) and Tim Dalger (11.2).

Coming off a 21-12 season (12-6 in the Atlantic 10), Saint Louis was picked sixth out of 15 teams in the preseason poll. Jimerson was named to the preseason All-Conference second team. So far this season, the Billikens lead the A-10 and stand 34th nationally in 3-point percentage (39.4).

All-Time Against The Billikens
Saint Louis has won the only two meetings between the two sides, on Dec. 26, 1951 (63-45) and Jan. 2, 1971 (91-75). Both games have been played in St. Louis.

McRae III and Myrthil Named Captains
Dartmouth head men's basketball coach David McLaughlin announced that senior Robert McRae III and junior Romeo Myrthil will serve as the Big Green's team captains in 2023-24. The two will look to lead an experienced group that features seven returning players who led the team in scoring at least once this past season.

McRae emerged as a junior, especially in Ivy League play when he became a regular in the Big Green rotation. After appearing in two games as a sophomore, he played in 24 as a junior, starting once and averaging 2.5 points and 1.8 rebounds. His impact on the defensive end of the floor was also strong, along with his impact on the game in intangible ways. Three games into the season, McRae scored a career-high 18 points in just 15 minutes against MCLA, shooting 5-of-7 from the floor and 5-of-6 from the free throw line. He later made his first-career start at UMass and filled up the box score with nine points, seven rebounds, three steals and an assist. In Ivy League play, McRae scored nine points in a mid-February weekend — four at Cornell and five at Columbia.

Myrthil averaged 3.6 points and 2.0 rebounds as a junior in 25 games, starting eight times. Like McRae, Myrthil's impact came at both ends of the floor and in ways not always evident in the box score. Offensively, he reached double-figure points on three occasions, including a career-high 12 in a home win over Princeton and 11 both against CSU Bakersfield and at South Florida. For the season, Myrthil shot 42.7 percent from the floor (32-of-75) and 36.6 percent from 3-point range (15-of-41). After starting the first eight games of the season, Myrthil came off the bench in game nine and he responded with 27 points over the next three games (11 points against CSU Bakersfield followed by nine vs. Vermont and seven at CCSU).

History in Cameron Indoor Stadium
In the season opener at Duke on Monday, Nov. 6, the Big Green were led by junior Dusan Neskovic, who scored 23 points for a second straight season opener (also 23 last Nov. 7 at Fordham). He scored 15 of those points in the second half at Duke, shooting 7-of-11 over the final 20 minutes. Neskovic finished 11-of-19 for the game, which included knocking down a second-half 3-pointer.
- Neskovic's 23 points were the most scored by a Duke opponent in the Blue Devils' home opener since Davidson's De'Mon Brooks scored 24 on Nov. 8, 2013.
- It was also the most scored by any nonconference opponent at Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium since Kevon Harris of Stephen F. Austin had 26 on Nov. 26, 2019.

Sustained Success
Since Feb. 17, 2022, the Big Green are tied for the third best record in the league in Ivy League games (regular season or postseason).

Princeton: 16-5
Yale: 15-6
Dartmouth: 10-9
Penn: 10-9
Cornell: 9-10
Brown: 8-10
Harvard: 7-12
Columbia: 2-16

Preseason Poll Released
The Ivy League Men's Basketball Preseason Poll was released on Tuesday, Oct. 17, which saw the Dartmouth men's basketball team come in seventh. Yale was picked as the preseason favorite with 124 points (14 first-place votes) followed closely by Princeton with 110 points (two first-place votes). Cornell came in third with 80 points followed by Brown (77), Penn (68), Harvard (66), Dartmouth (28) and Columbia (23).

Estes Promoted, McAlister Added to Staff
Head coach David McLaughlin announced staff changes this summer, which featured Braeden Estes being promoted to assistant coach, with Garvin McAlister joining the staff as director of basketball operations. Estes, who had been Dartmouth's director of operations for two seasons, fills the role left by Dan Ryan, who recently accepted a position with MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg in Germany. McAlister joins the Big Green with plenty of college basketball coaching experience, most recently as associate head coach at Assumption University in Worcester, Massachusetts.

International Experience
Four members of the Big Green hail from outside of the United States — Dusan Neskovic (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Romeo Myrthil (Sweden), Nikola Dimitrijevic (Serbia) and Ben Brown (England). Neskovic is the first Big Green player from Banja Luka since Vedad Osmanovic '02, who scored 697 points. The four international players are tied with the 2021-22 team for the most international players on a Dartmouth men's basketball roster.

Academic Accolades from NABC
The Dartmouth men's basketball team was recognized by the NABC (National Association of Basketball Coaches) in July for its academic success, garnering the Team Academic Award Award while Dame Adelekun, Jackson Blaufeld, Cam Krystkowiak and Dusan Neskovic were all named to the Honors Court.

Neskovic Named Academic All-District
Last season, current senior Dusan Neskovic was recognized by the College Sports Communicators as a member of the Academic All-District® Team. The team recognizes the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances on the court and in the classroom. Neskovic currently stands third on the Big Green in scoring, while owning an impressive cumulative grade point average of 3.63.

Neskovic joins a long list of Dartmouth honorees over the years, most recently Aaryn Rai last year, who made the five-man team for District I. The selection process has since changed and now includes more student-athletes. This year, Neskovic is one of nine men's basketball student-athletes from the Ivy League recognized.

Follow Along
Saturday's game can be seen locally on Bally Sports Midwest, and will also be simulcast on ESPN+. There will also be a Saint Louis radio broadcast of the game available online.

What's Ahead?
Following Saturday's game, the Big Green travel to Vermont next Wednesday, Nov. 29 for a 7 p.m. opening tipoff.

Schedules