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2022-23 City 6 Midseason Grades (MBB)

12/19/2022, 1:00pm EST
By Josh Verlin

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)

The college basketball season is ready to turn the page, all the teams in the City 6 with at most a couple games left until non-conference play ends and the various leagues get into swing. That’s as good a time as any to evaluate what’s happened so far, and provide some mid-season grades for each of the City 6 men’s and women’s squads.

Here’s a look at the men’s; click here for the women:

Drexel
Record: 6-6
KenPom (Start/Current): 208/192
Best Win: home vs. Old Dominion (71-59, Nov. 11)
Worst Loss: home vs. Penn (64-59, Nov. 15)
Grade: C+

The Dragons really don’t have any ‘bad’ losses, though getting outplayed on their homecourt against their next-door neighbors, the Quakers, would certainly be their greatest regret of the early season; every one of their losses is to a team ranked in the top 151 on KenPom, and four of them were road/neutral losses. Amari Williams (14.5 ppg, 8.4 rpg) has taken the expected step forward and is one of the best players in the city, but they need more efficiency from freshman point guard Justin Moore (7.6 ppg, .370 FG%) and senior wing Mate Okros (4.0 ppg, .302 3PT%). Expect them to hang in the CAA, with nobody in the league ranked above No. 100 in KenPom.

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Fran Dunphy (above) has kept La Salle competitive in his first season with the Explorers. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

La Salle
Record: 5-6
KenPom (Start/Current): 185/224
Best Win: at Penn (84-81 OT, Dec. 3)
Worst Loss: home vs. Drexel (65-58 OT, Dec. 10)
Grade: C

The first year of the Fran Dunphy era at La Salle hasn’t been a total dud, as they beat a Queens squad that’s currently 9-2, though it’s the Quakers (No. 151 on KenPom) which was their toughest win of the season, getting 26 points from Anwar Gill and 25 from Jhamir Brickus, who combined to shoot 9-of-14 from 3-point range. Khalil Brantley (12.8 ppg) and Josh Nickelberry (12.0 ppg) are averaging in double figures, but nobody in their top six has an individual offensive rating above the average of 100.0, according to KenPom, and they’re only shooting 32% from the 3-point arc. That being said, the expectations were low, and they’ve been competitive in every game.

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Penn
Record: 6-7
KenPom (Start/Current): 162/151
Best Win: home vs. Temple (77-57, Dec. 10)
Worst Loss: home vs. Saint Joseph’s (85-80 OT, Nov. 30)
Grade: B-

The only City 6 team on the men’s side that has actually improved its KenPom ranking since the beginning of the season (all thanks to that win over Temple, which jumped them 22 spots), the Quakers took their lumps with a couple games they’d like to have back against Saint Joseph’s and La Salle, but otherwise have fared generally well against a difficult schedule. Jordan Dingle (24.1 ppg) is an offensive dynamo, and fellow junior guard Clark Slajchert (17.4 ppg) is a terrific second option, while sophomore forward Nick Spinoso (6.5 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 4.0 apg) fits what they want to do offensively at the ‘5’ spot, but they need more quality production from their bench. Lots of 50/50 games ahead in the Ivy League.

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Saint Joseph’s
Record: 4-6
KenPom (Start/Current): 166/232
Best Win: at Penn (85-80 OT, Nov. 30)
Worst Loss: home vs. Fairleigh Dickinson (97-80, Dec. 3)
Grade: C-

We knew this was going to be a year where the Hawks had to figure some things out, a few major pieces gone from season before and underclassmen in important spots, so the 4-6 record isn’t too bad; only the FDU loss, in which they thoroughly got outplayed by the No. 336 team in the country per KenPom, was a real upset, and they’ve only played two games against teams ranked between 150-250, which is where a good bit of the A-10 lies. Erik Reynolds II (19.8 ppg, .451 3PT%) has taken the expected step forward and is having a terrific sophomore year, but forward Ejike Obinna (6.4 ppg, 4.4 rpg) has seen a significant regression from his numbers last year, and Lynn Greer III and Christian Winborne are combining to shoot 8-of-56 (14.2%) from the 3-point arc; the Hawks as a whole also have a negative assist-to-turnover ratio.

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Khalif Battle (above) is putting up big numbers and staying healthy this season. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Temple
Record: 6-6
KenPom (Start/Current): 92/113
Best Win: vs. Rutgers (72-66, Nov. 18)
Worst Loss: home vs. Wagner (76-73 OT, Nov. 7)
Grade: C-

There hasn’t been a more frustrating team to figure out than Temple, which has alternated between looking like potential AAC champs and like they don’t even belong back in the Atlantic 10, in a year in which the Owls were supposed to take a big step forward. They’ve got three quality wins in Rutgers, Villanova and VCU, but losing to Wagner to open in the season was a bad open, and a 20-point loss at Penn (who was missing Slajchert) wasn’t great either; at least their other four losses were all to teams in the KenPom Top 100. Khalif Battle (19.0 ppg, 3.3 rpg) and Damian Dunn (15.1 ppg, 3.6 rpg) have generally been good, but losing center Jamille Reynolds for 6-to-8 weeks (11.1 ppg, 6.3 rpg) to a thumb injury is a big blow; Northern Colorado grad transfer Kur Jongkuch (1.2 ppg, 2.5 rpg) will need to step up.

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Villanova
Record: 6-5
KenPom (Start/Current): 19/55
Best Win: home vs. Oklahoma (70-66, Dec. 3)
Worst Loss: at Portland (83-71, Nov. 25)
Grade: B-

No, this isn’t the same Villanova that it’s been for most of the last decade, when the Wildcats established themselves as one of the powerhouses of the sport. Some people might look to the coaching swap, with Jay Wright stepping down and Kyle Neptune taking over, and wonder if the reign is over, but that seems short-sighted; Wright would still have had to replace two program stalwarts in Collin Gillespie and Jermaine Samuels, and Justin Moore’s still out with his Achilles injury, meaning half the rotation is still rather (or very) new to college hoops. Just how much they can rally will depend on when Moore returns, and if he’s able to play at a level even resembling what he was last year (14.8 ppg, 4.8 rpg).


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