skip navigation

Notes & Observations from Saint Joseph's exhibition win over Towson

10/29/2022, 7:00pm EDT
By Owen McCue

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)

(Ed. Note: This article is part of our 2022-23 preseason coverage, which will run for the six weeks preceding the first official games of the year on Nov. 9. To access all of our high school and college preview content for this season click here)
~~~

The Saint Joseph's men’s basketball team unofficially began its 2022-23 season on Saturday at Hagan Arena, hosting Towson for an exhibition. Part of the day’s events included the Hawks’ Autism Awareness campaign.

The Hawks picked up a 78-76 win over the Tigers, the CAA Preseason favorite and last season’s league regular-season champion.

With a handful of new faces projected to play big roles for fourth-year coach Billy Lange’s squad, it was a good opportunity to get a first glance at what this Hawks team might look like this season

Here are some thoughts and observations from the exhibition:

St. Joe's freshman Quin Berger (Westtown), left, guards Towson's Jason Gibson during Saturday's exhibition at Hagan Arena. (Photo: Jack Verdeur/CoBL)

Featured Freshmen

Freshman guard Christian Winborne put up 22 points, five rebounds, three assists and a steal in the victory and made some really big plays down the stretch as Lange let a lot of his younger plays finish out the win against Towson’s starters.

Winborne was 6-for-11 from the field and 3-for-7 from 3-point range and also made seven of his nine free throws. His assists were absolute dimes. He came off the bench and played 29 minutes

The 6-foot-2 guard out of the Gilman School in Baltimore hit a stepback three coming out of the under five timeout to put the Hawks up by six, he added a pair of clutch free throws and an and-one in the final two minutes and took a charge with 31 seconds left to help preserve the win. Oh yeah ... then he was the on-ball defender on Towson's last-second shot that didn't get close.

“I just think with his character and his competitiveness, and his skillset he has a chance to be an all-timer,” Lange said of Winborne at A-10 Media Day earlier this month.

Winborne closed the game with fellow freshmen Rasheer Fleming (Camden) and Quin Berger (Westtown) and juniors Chris Arizin (St. Joe’s Prep) and Cooper Vogel. Fleming looks to be one of the top options off the bench after Winborne. The 6-foot-9 freshman forward scored seven points and grabbed six boards (three offensive) in 19 minutes. He went 2-for-9 from the floor and 0-for-5 from 3-point range.

There may be times he looks like a freshman this season, but Fleming looks physically ready to compete and his confidence was also apparent on Saturday as well.

“He was not shy, he got them up,” Lange said. “But it’s the rebounds, the blocked shot on the perimeter was incredible, coming back and catching that one ball and grabbing it in the middle of the lane on the press break — those are the things that I’m looking for now. The shooting will come as he gets a little bit more comfortable. I figured that his first one was going to end up somewhere on City Line Avenue and it almost did.”

Berger’s role is an interesting one. He didn’t check in until the eight-minute mark in the second half and played out the rest of the game. He’s clearly behind Reynolds, Greer, Winborne and Brown in the back court depth chart. But with only four other guards on the roster, St. Joe’s will need the 6-foot-1 guard to play this season. 

“He’s gonna play,” Lange said. “He’s going to have to be ready for minutes. Quin has been a pleasant surprise. I expect that he is going to be a good contributor for us here over time. Our guys believe in him. He’s tough, he’s smart, he’s a coach’s son. I think there will be moments for him to be in as well. … When we need him, we’re going to have to use him and the season will keep speaking to us on him too, but we’re glad to have him.”

St. Joe's sophomore Lynn Greer III had 21 points in the Hawks' exhibition win over Towson on Saturday at Hagan Arena. (Photo: Jack Verdeur/CoBL)

Greer is Here

Talking to Lange last week, it was clear Dayton transfer Lynn Greer III was going to play a big role this season. (Read Rich Flanagan’s profile on Greer if you haven’t already) 

It was still somewhat eye-opening to see what that looked like in Saturday’s exhibition given Greer’s lack of significant college experience

The Roman Catholic product, who also did a prep year at IMG Academy, played in just 10 games for the Flyers, averaging 2.7 ppg and 1.3 apg in nine minutes per contest before transferring to St. Joe’s in January. He attempted just 25 shots, including only one 3-point attempt, which he missed. He didn’t attempt more than seven shots in a game.

Greer had seven shots in his first 10 minutes of action in a Hawks uniform and finished 6-for-16 with 21 points, making five of his last nine shots after converting one of his first seven. He also made 3-of-7 shots from three, added seven rebounds (four offensive), two assists and a block in 32 minutes.

The 6-foot-2 guard got into the lane frequently and got to the line a handful of times (6-for-8). His jumper looked really sharp, hitting a few contested shots off the bounce.

Lange also talked last week about Greer’s teammates feeding off him. That was apparent during Saturday’s contest. He helped propel a slow start that had St. Joe’s down by 12 with a few big plays on both ends, particularly a block, stepback three and alley oop to Cameron Brown in the first half.

Lange doesn’t expect Greer to go off for 20 points on a nightly basis for the Hawks this season as he is more often than not looking to set up his teammates. Even in practice Lange said Greer hasn’t looked for his shot as much as he did Saturday, but the big offensive performance was a reminder that Greer can go get his own if the right opportunities present themselves.

“What he is is he’s smart, so I think he’s going to take what is given to him,” Lange said. “I think by nature he wants to give other guys shots. He’s equipped enough to score if you need him to do it. That’s a terrific team. This is a good opportunity for him to do this. I’m somewhat surprised. I don’t mean that in a negative way. I just didn’t expect that. But he scored in high school, so you know he has the ability to do it. But I think he thinks to pass first. I thought he was terrific today.”

St. Joe's senior Cameron Brown, left, celebrates with sophomore Lynn Greer after the two connected for an alley-oop during Saturday's exhibition against Towson at Hagan Arena. (Photo: Jack Verdeur/CoBL)

Guards to lead the charge

Lange experimented with a number of different lineups throughout Saturday’s exhibition. The most interesting may have been four guards — Winborne, Greer, sophomore Erik Reynolds II and senior Cameron Brown — playing with junior center Anton Jansson for a short stretch.  Winborne, Greer and Reynolds all played together during another stretch of the game as well.

Don’t be too surprised to see the Hawks’ four guards all out on the court together at times during the season as Lange looks to speed his team up. 

“All the time,” Lange said of how often to expect Winborne, Greer and Reynolds on the court together. “Every coach knows how they want to play, and that’s how we want to play here. The ability to have them on the floor and still have Cam Brown on the floor as another guard, we’re going to see a lot of that. That’s why you gotta rebound as smaller guys. But I thought the two segments that three of them played together, there were a lot of positives coming out of that.”

— Sophomore forward Kacper Klaczek started alongside senior forward Ejike Obinna, Reynolds, Greer and Brown. Klaczek scored eight points and grabbed nine boards in 26 minutes. He shot 3-of-6 from the floor and 2-for-4 from 3-point range. Klaczek (1.5 ppg, 1.5 rpg) played in 11 games and made four starts last season before his freshman campaign ended due to injury. Saturday’s outing was really promising. Klaczek’s skill set fits with the uptempo style the Hawks want to play. If he can rebound and shoot like he did against Towson (he went 0-for-12 on 3-point attempts last season) on a somewhat consistent basis, Klaczek could be an X-factor for this squad.

— Lange’s top returning starters Obinna (12.1 ppg, 7.9 rpg), Reynolds 12.1 ppg) and Brown (8.3 ppg) both saw significant action in the first half before giving way to some of the Hawks’ youngsters in the second half. Reynolds had four points (1-for-8 from the field and 0-for-5 from three) with three assists, four turnovers, four rebounds and a steal in 28 minutes. Obinna had six points and four rebounds in 16 minutes, settling in after a slow start. Brown had seven points and three rebounds in 19 minutes. His oop from Greer was certainly one of the highlights of the contest.

— Towson sophomore Rahdir Hicks, a Coatesville native and Malvern Prep product, scored four points, grabbed two rebounds and an assist in 23 minutes. Hicks played in 24 games, including five starts, for the Tigers last season, averaging 1.5 ppg and 1.1 apg in 12.7 minutes per contest. Hicks was eighth or ninth in the rotation last season, but Saturday’s contest indicates he should see an increased role as sophomore, possibly turning into his team’s sixth man.

— Junior guard Briean Geatans and freshman center Christ Essandoko were unavailable for Saturday’s exhibition and the only two Hawks who didn’t see action. Harcum College transfer Louis Bleechmore and Jansson both played five minutes.


D-I Coverage:

HS Coverage:

Small-College News:

Tag(s): Home  Contributors  Owen McCue  College  Division I  St. Joe's