City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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(Ed. Note: This article is part of our 2016-17 season coverage, which will run for the six weeks preceding the first official games of the year on Nov. 11. To access all of our high school and college preview content for this season, click here.)

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2016-17 Drexel Dragons Primer
Coach: Zach Spiker, 1st season (0-0, --)
Last Year: 6-25 overall, 3-15 CAA; lost in CAA quarterfinals (Hofstra, 80-67)

The final of Bruiser Flint’s 15 seasons at the helm of the Dragons was the program’s worst since making the transition to Division I basketball in 1970-71. A six-win catastrophe that was the culmination of four consecutive seasons of near-constant injuries and disappointing play was the last straw for the DU administration, which decided to go in a different direction shortly after the season ended.

In comes Spiker, fresh off a seven-year run at Army where he went 102-112 (.476), but don’t let those numbers deceive you. Spiker is one of only three coaches to win 19 games in one season at West Point over the last 100-plus years -- and the other two were Bob Knight and Mike Krzyzewski. The 39-year old has his work cut out for him at a program which hasn’t had any sort of positive momentum since the 2012-13 season, which ended in the NIT quarterfinals.

Key Losses: PF Kazembe Abif (9.3 ppg, 7.0 rpg), SG Tavon Allen (13.1 ppg, 2.3 rpg), PG Terrell Allen (9.8 ppg, 3.4 apg), SG Rashann London (7.5 ppg, 2.3 rpg)

By far the biggest blow to Spiker’s roster in its first year was the departure of Terrell Allen, a rising sophomore who started 29 out of 31 games at point for the Dragons last year. Allen was arguably the lone bright spot on last year’s Drexel squad, as the 6-2 guard put up a 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio while shooting better than 40 percent from the floor and 83 percent from the foul line. At Central Florida, he’ll sit out this season and then play the next three.

The other transfer to depart the program this offseason was London, who started more than 50 games in his two years at DU. A Philadelphia native and Roman Catholic grad, London averaged 7.2 ppg, 2.2 rpg and 1.9 apg in two seasons, playing at point guard as a freshman and off the ball more often as a sophomore; a talented scorer at Roman, he never quite seemed to find that confidence in Flint’s methodical offensive system, shooting just 27.6 percent from 3-point range. The 6-3 guard will continue his college career at NC Central after sitting out 2016-17.

Two more key pieces from last year exhausted their eligibility and have moved on to the next stage of their careers. Tavon Allen, a 6-7 ambidextrous wing, played more than 29.5 mpg in each of his final three years at the school, scoring 1,250 points, though he wasn’t always the most efficient scorer, shooting 36.1 percent from the field over his four years (and 36.7 percent as a senior). Abif, a 6-7 post, returned from a torn ACL in 2014-15 to have his best season in a DU uniform as a senior, finishing his career with 552 points (4.6/game) and 439 rebounds (4.7/game).

New Faces: SG Kari Jonsson (Fr./Flensborg, Iceland), PG Kurk Lee (Fr./St. Frances Md.), F Sam Green (Fr./Bishop McNamara, Md.), SG Miles Overton (RS-Jr./Wake Forest/St. Joseph’s Prep, Pa.), F/C Jeremy Peck (Fr./St. Thomas Episcopal, Tx.)

Spiker inherited a two-man recruiting class when he took the job, as he was able to maintain commitments from Peck, a 6-foot-9 forward with pick-and-pop ability, plus Green, a physical 6-6 wing forward who can play inside and out, though his interior game is strongest. He then added to that with Lee, a speedy 5-10 point guard from Baltimore, plus the team's second international player in Jonsson, a combo guard from Iceland with a scorer's touch. It's certainly a versatile four-man freshman class, with at least one or two players who should factor into the rotation this year, and potentially all four of them seeing time depending on how they adjust to the college level.

The fifth member of the "new faces" group is someone who's been around Drexel's program for a year -- and in West Philadelphia for most of his life. Overton, son of the former La Salle great and NBA guard Doug Overton, is eligible this season after sitting out 2015-16 due to NCAA regulations following a transfer from Wake Forest. The former St. Joe's Prep standout is in the best shape of his career, and plans are to use him in a versatile role like he did as a Hawk. After spending all summer on campus working with the seniors, Overton figures to be a big factor on this program over the next two years.

Starting Frontcourt: PF Rodney Williams (10.5 ppg, 5.6 rpg), F/C Mohamed Bah (2.3 ppg, 2.9 rpg)

The most important player on this whole roster is Williams, who’s going to have to do a lot for Spiker and his staff both on and off the court. A veteran who’s played in 82 games in his Drexel career, Williams has logged more than 2000 college minutes over the last three years, which easily puts him above everybody else on his team. A 6-7 forward, Williams is the team’s best interior defender (101 career blocks) and steadily increased his scoring output each year, from 5.4 ppg as a freshman to 8.2 as a sophomore and over double figures last year. He’ll also have to be the team’s leader and calming presence on the court, setting the tone towards building that winning foundation.

The other half of the starting forward pair is most likely going to be Bah, who started all 30 games as a sophomore in 2014-15 but only started twice last year, averaging 13.1 minutes in 26 games on the season.

Starting Backcourt: PG Kurk Lee Jr. (DNP), SG Miles Overton (DNP), SG Sammy Mojica (8.9 ppg, 3.5 rpg)

It’s looking like for the second year in a row, the Dragons will have a true freshman start at point guard. With the only other point guard option on the roster coming off two years of injuries -- we’ll get to that in a second -- the most likely option is that Lee comes right in and gets a chance to win the job. Alongside him, we’d be shocked if it’s anybody other than Overton and Mojica, who’s already played more than 1000 minutes in a Drexel uniform and might possibly benefit the most out of anybody on the roster from the style adjustment that Spiker will bring to the lineup. If Overton can become the primary scoring option he has the ability to be, that'll help take a lot of pressure off Mojica and Lee .

Bench: PG Major Canady (DNP), F Sam Green (DNP), SG Kari Jonsson, F/C Tyshawn Myles (1.6 ppg, 2.5 rpg), F/C Jeremy Peck (DNP), F/C Austin Williams (1.0 ppg, 2.3 rpg)

Assuming the injuries don’t pile up like they have done in the past, this is a Drexel team that should easily be able to go 10-11 deep, and might have to with the way they’re going to push the pace like hasn’t been seen for a long time at 34th and Market. The most interesting story to follow will be the return of Canady, who’s missed each of the last two seasons with leg/ankle injuries and is looking to make up for lost time. After being originally projected to start at point in 2014-15 before an ankle injury ended his season before it even began -- an ACL injury cost him last season -- he'll now have to compete for minutes with the promising freshman Lee.

Up front, Myles and Williams, a physical pair of 6-9 forwards, will once again serve as backups for Williams and Bah; Peck, who’s more of a skilled big than either of them, could steal minutes if he can hit outside shots, something none of the other Dragons bigs can list as a true strength. But if Green can be productive, he gives Spiker the ability to go with a four-out lineup that he's plenty capable of running, and could start to make them an offensive threat once again.

Three Games to Watch
1. @ Monmouth (Nov. 11): The Dragons’ opener will be filled with interesting storylines, mostly having to do with the amount of transition that has taken place within the program over this past offseason. This will be Zach Spiker’s first time leading Drexel into battle, and he’ll do so against a team that many believed to have belonged in last year’s tournament; the Hawks came up one win short of locking up an auto-bid in the MAAC final against Iona and were left waiting on Selection Sunday despite 27 wins. Monmouth came to the DAC last year in the second week of the season--prior to making a name on the national landscape for their streak of upsets and their electric bench--beating Drexel 82-74 behind 28 points from then-junior Justin Robinson.

2. vs. La Salle (Nov. 27): The second home game of the season and the first matchup with a city opponent should make for an intriguing matchup, especially given the fact that La Salle shares an offseason of transition with Drexel. With multiple transfers taking the floor for the Explorers for the first time--including B.J Johnson (Syracuse), Pookie Powell (Memphis), and Demitrius Henry (Miami)--just a few weeks before, a much-improved La Salle team will be a tough home test for the Dragons.

3. vs. Delaware (Jan. 14): Rivalry games between Drexel and Delaware always make for fun battles, no matter what level of play each team is at in a given season. While neither Drexel or UD may have a stellar outlook for the 2015-16 season, the first of two matchups between nearby foes at the beginning of the CAA slate should make for a quality basketball game. Two new head coaches, Spiker for the Dragons and Martin Inglesby for the Blue Hens, should also be fully settled into their new teams by the time this one rolls around.

Three Keys to Success
1. System switch. Last year, Drexel’s adjusted offensive tempo was 65.2 possessions per game, which was 330th in all of Division I. Army, under Spiker, was at 72.6 possessions, which was 33rd in the country. So while the Dragons might not immediately make the jump from the bottom 10 percent up to the top, there’s no doubt that the style Spiker has and will continue to implement over the course of the next six weeks will be a drastic change from what’s been seen in the DAC over the last decade-plus. Conditioning is going to be key for Drexel, and it’ll be very interesting to see how they’re holding up in February and March at the new pace. It’s also a system that relied heavily on the 3-point shot, a weapon that hasn’t been the Dragons’ most effective over the last few years; Overton, Mojica and Lee are all going to have to step up and hit shots to keep defenses honest.

2. Stay healthy. If you’ve paid any attention to Drexel basketball, you know that the program’s on a four-year run of being absolutely snakebitten by injuries -- and it seemed to be getting worse, year after year. From Chris Fouch’s season-ending broken ankle three games in 2012-13, or Damion Lee’s torn ACL in 2013-14, or a run of bumps and bruises last season that had Flint working with as few as six scholarship players for several games, there hasn’t been a healthy Dragons lineup in quite a long time. The roster isn’t quite so thin this year, with four freshmen giving Spiker 11 scholarship players to work with, but staying healthy and deep this season will help the team’s entire mental state.

3. Build Momentum. Though the Dragons -- like every other team in the nation during the preseason -- are focused on a conference championship and potential NCAA bid, the team doesn’t have to do quite that much for those on the outside to consider the first season a success. It might not even take a .500 record, depending on how the season plays out. Ultimately, this season is all about building positive momentum into 2017-18, which will both increase confidence in the players and excitement around the program with the majority of the core returning next year (and bolstered by two transfers waiting in the wings). Even if the non-conference doesn’t go as well as planned, a better CAA season and decent showing in the league tournament would make the next offseason feel a lot different than the last few have.