Dartmouth Hosts UNH Wednesday Night for State Bragging Rights

GAME 7
Dartmouth (1-5, 0-0 Ivy League) vs. New Hampshire (6-3, 0-0 America East)
Date: Wednesday, December 6, 2023 – 7 p.m.
Location: Hanover, N.H. – Leede Arena
All-Time Series: New Hampshire leads, 36-34

Setting the Scene
After three straight road games, the Dartmouth men's basketball team returns home for three in a row, beginning on Wednesday night when the Big Green host the University of New Hampshire in a matchup for Granite State bragging rights. Opening tipoff is set for 7 p.m. on ESPN+, featuring the only two Division I programs in the state. Dartmouth lost its three road games, but showed strong signs in each contest.

Dartmouth and UNH have been scheduled to play the last two seasons, but each time was postponed and eventually canceled due to COVID-19. The last time the teams played was in 2019 at UNH, a 70-56 Wildcats' win. The year prior, the sides played at Dartmouth, ending in a 76-68 Big Green victory.

The Big Green are coming off a hard-fought 73-68 defeat at UAlbany. A close contest saw the Great Danes leading at the half, but Dartmouth started the second half strong before UAlbany came back around midway through the stanza. The Big Green tried to make a late rally, but couldn't get any closer than four over the final five minutes.

Senior Dusan Neskovic led Dartmouth in scoring once again, scoring 22 points on 8-of-16 shooting. He scored 16 points in the first half, one game after netting 17 in the first half at Vermont. Neskovic is now averaging 21.5 points over four road games thus far, with efforts of 23 (at Duke), 24 (at Saint Louis), 17 (at Vermont) and 22 (at UAlbany). Senior Jaren Johnson added a career-high 16 points on Saturday, shooting 6-of-11 from the floor, while adding six rebounds. He continues to lead the Big Green in rebounding at 6.2.

Sophomores Jackson Munro and Jayden Williams each scored eight points. Munro's two made 3-pointers tied a career high (coming on four attempts). Juniors Nikola Dimitrijevic and Romeo Myrthil each posted a career-high four blocks, as the Big Green had nine for the game, their most in nearly 10 years — since also recording nine at home vs. Longwood on Dec. 21, 2013. Dimitrijevic added five points and a team-high seven rebounds.

New Hampshire will mark Dartmouth's third straight America East opponent and fourth this season (in seven games). The Big Green opened their home slate vs. UMass Lowell, while also facing Vermont and UAlbany leading into Wednesday's game. Current Dartmouth assistant coach Braeden Estes is a former team manager at UNH.

With a win...
- Dartmouth would snap a three-game losing streak, but win its second straight home game.
- The Big Green would pull within 36-35 in the all-time series with UNH.
- Dartmouth would win its third straight game over the Wildcats at home.
- The Big Green would beat UNH for the third time in their last five tries overall.

Last Time Out
ALBANY, N.Y. (12/2/23) — UAlbany used a 12-2 run to turn a five-point Big Green lead into a five-point Great Danes' advantage, which the Dartmouth men's basketball team couldn't overcome, falling 73-68 on Saturday evening inside Broadview Center. Senior Dusan Neskovic led the offense with a team-high 22 points, the third 20+ point effort in four road games this season. Classmate Jaren Johnson posted a career-high 16 points, 10 coming in the second half, but it wasn't enough.

Scouting New Hampshire
New Hampshire has enjoyed a strong season to date under first-year head coach Nathan Davis, standing 6-3, having won four of its last five games. Most recently, the Wildcats beat Ivy League foe Columbia, 80-71 at home on Sunday, three days after a 90-84 victory at Sacred Heart. UNH's lone loss in that stretch was 84-64 at No. 4 UConn.

Preseason All-Conference honoree Clarence Daniels leads New Hampshire in scoring, good for first in the America East and 34th nationally. Ahmad Robinson isn't far behind, standing fifth in the conference (17.2) while his 5.2 assists per game are second. Jason Baker averages 11.3 and Naim Miller comes in at 9.0. Senior Jon Willeman is from right down the road to Dartmouth's campus, and was once coached in AAU basketball by Big Green assistant coach Braeden Estes. As a team, UNH stands second nationally in 3-point percentage defense (23.0). Last season, the Wildcats finished 15-15 overall and 9-7 in the America East.

All-Time Against The Wildcats
New Hampshire holds a slim 36-34 lead in the all-time series, with the Wildcats winning nine of the last 12 matchups. Dartmouth has won two straight at home, while also picking up a 62-48 victory at UNH in 2013. The last time the teams played, the Wildcats were victorious, 70-56.

Block Party
The Big Green tallied nine blocks on Dec. 2 at UAlbany, their most since Dec. 21, 2013 when they also had nine against Longwood. Juniors Nikola Dimitrijevic and Romeo Myrthil each posted a career-high four blocks, while senior Jaren Johnson recorded the other.

Double Trouble
Sophomore Brandon Mitchell-Day has two double-doubles this season.

- at Vermont (Nov. 29): 10 points, 10 rebounds
- at Saint Louis (Nov. 25): 17 points, 10 rebounds

At Vermont on Nov. 29, Mitchell-Day recorded his second straight double-double, becoming the first Dartmouth player to do that since Chris Knight in February of 2020. Knight actually did so in three straight games, posting 27 points and 13 rebounds vs. Princeton (Feb. 22), 17 and 13 at Cornell (Feb. 28) and 19 and 10 at Columbia (Feb. 29).

20-Point Notables...
- Senior Dusan Neskovic became the first Big Green player with 20 points in back-to-back road games since Brendan Barry in February of 2022. Barry had 25 at Yale (Feb. 4) followed by 21 at Brown (Feb. 5).
- Prior to Neskovic, the previous time a Big Green player scored 20 in back-to-back nonconference road games since Alex Barnett in 2008. Barnett scored 28 at Providence (Nov. 18) and 32 at Vermont (Dec. 2).
- As a team, the Big Green have had a 20-point scorer in three of the first four games of the season (Neskovic 23 at Duke, sophomore Brandon Mitchell-Day 20 vs. Westfield State and Neskovic 24 at Saint Louis), the first time that's happened since the 2008-09 season. That year, Barnett had all the 20-point games, posting 28 at Providence, 24 vs. Colgate and 24 against Furman.

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.

Follow Along
Wednesday night's game can be seen live on ESPN+, with Brett Franklin and Dave Faucher on the call. An audio broadcast will also be available on DartmouthSports.com with Brandon Bojarsky and Bill Murphy on the call.

What's Ahead?
After Wednesday's game, the Big Green remain home on Saturday to host Marist at 4 p.m. on ESPN+. To purchase tickets, head to DartmouthSports.com/tickets.

Schedules