Big Green Set for Season-Opening Matchup at No. 2 Duke on Monday Night

Monday, November 6

Durham, N.C. / Cameron Indoor Stadium

9:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Duke

Photo by: Justin Lafleur

Big Green Set for Season-Opening Matchup at No. 2 Duke on Monday Night

11/5/2023 10:51:00 AM | Men's Basketball

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Dartmouth and Duke to square off for the first time ever

By: Justin Lafleur

GAME 1
Dartmouth (0-0, 0-0 Ivy League) at #2 Duke (0-0, 0-0 ACC)
Date: Monday, November 6, 2023 – 9 p.m.
Location: Durham, N.C. – Cameron Indoor Stadium
All-Time Series: First Meeting

Setting the Scene
The Dartmouth men's basketball team opens its season on Monday with a marquee showdown when the Big Green travel to No. 2 Duke to face the Blue Devils. Opening tipoff is set for 9 p.m. on ACC Network. Monday night will mark the first-ever meeting between Dartmouth and Duke, and the highest-ever ranked opponent to open a season for the Big Green.

Several members of the Big Green are set to face an ACC opponent for the second time in their careers, also opening up at Boston College on Nov. 9, 2021. The Big Green outscored the Eagles 38-31 in the second half, but fell, 73-57. Current Dartmouth players Romeo Myrthil, Dusan Neskovic, Ryan Cornish and Izaiah Robinson all saw action in the contest. Myrthil scored five points while Neskovic added three. One game after the BC contest, the Big Green picked up a win at Big East foe Georgetown.

This year's version of Dartmouth men's basketball features plenty of returning talent. The Big Green lose leading scorer and rebounder Dame Adelekun, who was a second team All-Ivy honoree, to graduation. Adelekun is now playing his fifth year at Loyola Chicago. Despite the loss of Adelekun, the Big Green return seven of their top nine scorers (with the other loss being Cam Krystkowiak, who is playing his fifth year at Iona).

Dartmouth returns seven players who led the team in scoring in at least one game last season. Junior Ryan Cornish is the leading returning scorer after averaging 12.5 points and 3.8 rebounds a season ago. Senior Dusan Neskovic wasn't far behind with 12.2 points and 3.3 boards. Sophomore Brandon Mitchell-Day showed a lot of promise as a first year, which included efforts of 18 points vs. Bryant, 14 against Incarnate Word and 17 at Princeton, among six double-figure scoring efforts. Mitchell-Day was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week once last season, as was classmate Jackson Munro.

The Big Green ended last season on a high note, beating Harvard for a third straight time, 87-82. Dartmouth finished last season 6-8 in Ivy League play, also picking up wins over the year prior's Ivy League champion in Penn, eventual Sweet 16 qualifier Princeton and co-regular season champion Yale. In fact, the Big Green beat Princeton at home after a slim overtime defeat against the Tigers in New Jersey. With its second win over Harvard to finish last season, Dartmouth is now 10-9 over its last 19 Ivy League games spanning the end of 2021-22 and all of 2022-23. The Big Green own the third best record in the league against Ivy opponents in that span (since Feb. 17, 2022).

Dartmouth has been making tangible strides, winning six Ivy League games in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 1995-96 and 1996-97. The Big Green finished one game out of Ivy Madness last season and were in contention for a spot until the second-to-last weekend of the season. Ultimately, Dartmouth beat each of the top three seeds in the final standings once.

All-Time Against Nationally Ranked Opponents
- Prior to Monday, Dartmouth's previous game against a nationally-ranked opponent was No. 23 Rhode Island to open the 2016-17 season, an 84-61 loss.
- Duke at No. 2 is Dartmouth's highest-ever ranked season-opening opponent; the Big Green are 0-2 all-time in openers against ranked teams, also facing No. 11 Boston College to begin the 2005-06 campaign.
- The Big Green are 3-54 all-time against ranked opponents and have lost 43 straight against ranked teams.
- Dartmouth's last win against a ranked foe came on Mar. 13, 1956 in the NCAA First Round against No. 14 West Virginia, beating the Mountaineers, 61-59 in overtime.
- The Big Green's two other ranked wins have come over Holy Cross:
- 83-57 over the No. 13 Crusaders on Feb. 11, 1956
- 67-61 over the No. 17 Crusaders on Jan. 13, 1953
- Dartmouth did face a No. 1 team in the country, facing No. 1 North Carolina on Dec. 21, 1983 and falling, 103-58. That UNC team included Michael Jordan.
- Duke is Dartmouth's first top five opponent since facing No. 5 Kansas on Nov. 28, 2006, an 83-32 loss.
- The last time the Big Green faced a No. 2 ranked team was Bradley on Dec. 30, 1960, a 92-60 defeat.

With a win...
- Dartmouth would improve to 1-0 all-time against Duke and 4-54 all-time vs. nationally-ranked opponents.
- The Big Green would pick up their first win over a ranked opponent since Mar. 13, 1956, in the NCAA First Round against No. 14 West Virginia. The final was 61-59 in overtime.
- Dartmouth would pick up its highest-ever ranked win in program history.
- The Big Green would snap a two-game losing streak in home openers and pick up their first season-opening win since Nov. 8, 2019, an 68-63 victory at Buffalo.

Last Time Out
HANOVER, N.H. (3/4/23) — The Big Green seniors set the tone and their teammates kept it going as the Dartmouth men's basketball team capped off its season with an 87-82 win over Harvard to sweep the Crimson for the first time in 24 years. The Big Green's 87 points marked their most against Harvard in 31 years — since a 90-64 home win on Dec. 15, 1992. Senior Dame Adelekun led the way on Saturday, filling up the box score with 19 points, eight rebounds, five assists and four blocks.

Scouting Duke
Duke enters the season at No. 2 in the preseason AP Top 25 poll and No. 3 in the Coaches Poll. Last season, the Blue Devils were 27-9 and 14-6 in the ACC, beating Oral Roberts in the NCAA Tournament before falling to Tennessee. A storied program, Duke owns the fourth most wins in men's college basketball history, including five national championships under head coach Mike Krzyzewski, who retired in 2022. Jon Scheyer enters his second season as Duke head coach.

The Blue Devils return three of their top four scorers from last season, led by big man Kyle Filipowski, who started all 36 games and averaged 15.1 points and 8.9 rebounds. Tyrese Proctor averaged 9.4 points and 3.1 rebounds while Mark Mitchell averaged 9.1 and 4.5, respectively. Last season, due in large part to Filipowski's efforts, Duke finished fifth nationally in rebounding margin (+7.9).

All-Time Against The Blue Devils
Monday will mark the first-ever meeting between Dartmouth and Duke.

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).

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
Monday's game can be viewed live nation-wide on ACC Network. The game can also be heard on Sirius XM Radio Channel 136 or 193.