City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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(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)
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Although it was unbeknownst to him at the time he would one day be their coach, La Salle men’s basketball first-year head man Fran Dunphy got to know a lot about the Explorers last season.

Dunphy worked about 10 games for ESPN+ and what he observed wasn’t quite the same story as La Salle’s 11-19 overall and 5-13 Atlantic 10 record suggested.

“If it wasn’t for (a handful of) plays then I’m not sitting here and Ashley (Howard)’s still sitting here,” Dunphy said at A-10 Media Day last month.

Of course this year’s group looks quite different from the one Dunphy observed last season. Leading scorers Clifton Moore (12.9 ppg, 6.1 rpg) and Jack Clark (12 ppg) are both gone — Moore now at Providence and Clark now at NC State — and so is glue guy Christian Ray (5.0 ppg, 6.9 rpg), who transferred to Delaware.

The Explorers also bring in a pair of forwards Foussenyi and Hassan Drame from St. Peter’s and add an intriguing freshman in 6-10 Lithuanian forward Rokus Jocius. 

Things could have looked even more different if junior guard Jhamir Brickus (8.9 ppg, 3.2 apg) and sophomore guard Khalil Brantley (8.0 ppg) didn’t decide to return after entering the transfer portal.

“He pushes me everyday, challenges me every day, so I feel like staying here was the best for me,” Brickus said of Dunphy.

Brickus, Brantley and senior guard Josh Nickelberry (11.2 ppg) give the Explorers an exciting backcourt that should be the guiding force for La Salle this season.

“We’re gonna be great this year,” Nickelberry said. “(Brickus and Brantley are) two tough guards, hard nosed guys, they go against each other and compete everyday, so it’s gonna be tough for the A-10 to guard both, especially when they are on the floor together. And we got a lot of depth overall, we have Andres Marrero and Jorge Sanchez-Ramos. We got a bunch of guys who can come in and do their thing for sure.”

Nickelberry was a Top 100 recruit before arriving at Louisville and seeing very limited action in two seasons. After transferring to La Salle last season, he finished third on the team in scoring and was the Explorers best 3-point shooter (61-of-169, .361 percent).

“I know what to expect this year in the A-10, and I’m definitely more comfortable playing wise, playing with these guys,” Nickelberry said. “I feel like we’re gelling together every single day. I am feeling more comfortable about everything. I wanna increase my averages this year. I just wanna win a lot of games this year. I feel like we have the team to do it this year for sure.”

Nickelberry’s teammates agree he’s in for an even bigger season in Year 2 at La Salle.

“I have seen him grow a lot from when we first came in,” Brickus said. “Now he puts the ball on the floor a lot, he looks, he’s able to pass, dish out, and make other players better. He talks, communicates and keeps guys connected. I feel like he made a great jump.”

“You should definitely expect more. I think he took his offensive game to another level, so we’re looking forward to it.”

The two other main pieces of the Explorers backcourt, Brickus (5-11) and Brantley (6-1), could put a lot of pressure on opponents in different ways when out on floor together this season despite being an undersized guard pairing..

Brickus, a Coatesville product and an Atlantic 10 All-Rookie Team selection in 2020-21, has reached double figures in 23 of his 46 career games thus. He was the team’s assist leader (3.3 apg) last season.

Brantley came off the bench in all but four of his 29 appearances last season and was electrifying at times, like putting up 17 points in an early-season game against Villanova. 

“I think they can play a lot together. They have a knowledge of the game that’s very good,” Dunphy said at A-10 Media Day. “They both bring different aspects to the game. Khalil, he’s an electric guy. He can push the ball very quickly, he can get himself to the basket, he’s making shots. Jhamir, he plays with pace. They work off each other very well, similar size, so we’ve gotta be tough, smart and very nasty on the defensive end if we’re going to go small, but I think they can play a lot of minutes together.”

Defense is a constant focal point for Dunphy, just like his teams of the past at Penn and Temple.

“That’s something he preaches everyday,” Nickelberry said. “We watch clips before practice and it’s mostly always defense, always defense.”

On the offensive end, Dunphy is emphasizing taking care of the ball to his guards — another hallmark of his successful teams of the past. The Explorers were in the middle of Division I with a 1.04 assist to turnover ratio in 2021-22 and 198th in turnover percentage (18.6 percent). 

Brickus, the team’s assist leader, ranked 217th with a 1.59 assist to turnover ratio. He and Dunphy hope that number can improve this season as he continues to run the show for the Explorers.

“He emphasizes that a lot, especially to our point guards, making sure we have like a 4-1 assist to turnover ratio,” Brickus said. “He’s big on not turning the ball over.”

Only time will tell whether or not all of this materializes on the court or not. 

“Some days, you sit there and say, ‘Man we have the chance to be OK.’ And some days you gp. ‘What are we doing out there?’,” Dunphy said. “But I think that’s a typical coach’s response to new teams and early in the season.”