City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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(Ed. Note: This article is part of our 2023-24 season coverage, which will run for the six weeks preceding the first official games of the year on Nov. 6. To access all of our high school and college preview content for this season click here.)

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Big 5 Preseason Primers
MBB: Drexel | La Salle | Penn | Saint Joseph’s | Temple | Villanova
WBB: Drexel | La Salle | Penn | Saint Joseph’s | Temple | Villanova

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2023-24 La Salle Explorers MBB Primer
Coach: Fran Dunphy, 2nd season (15-19, .441)
Last Year: 15-19 (7-11 Atlantic 10), lost in A-10 quarterfinals (Fordham, 69-61)

Give credit to Dunphy — coming into an incredibly difficult situation at La Salle last year, he managed to retain a core group that’s stayed through, including his starting backcourt, and has hit the international scene hard to fill out a roster that’s intriguing but totally flying under the radar entering the 2023-24 season. The former Penn and Temple head coach got the most out of his alma mater’s team in his first year back from his three-year retirement, and expect them to be competitive once again, but there’s quite a few questions to be answered if they’re going to move up in the Atlantic 10.

Key Departures: SG Josh Nickelberry (10.9 ppg), F Fousseyni Drame (8.8 ppg), F Hassan Drame (6.4 ppg), C Mamadou Doucoure (3.3 ppg)

It’s true that the Explorers have to replace four upperclassmen who started a combined 102 games a year ago — but that being said, it doesn’t seem like La Salle is fretting too much about replacing them. Nickelberry, who won the A-10 Sixth Man of the Year award, averaged 11.0 ppg in his two years at La Salle after transferring in from Louisville, but he was a defensive liability; the Drame twins, one-year rentals from Saint Peter’s, played hard but neither were good shooters and both had more turnovers than assists on the season. Doucore, who started 32 games, only played 12.4 mpg as the lumbering 6-11 post wasn’t quick or athletic enough to keep up with most modern bigs. It’s a lot of Division I experience and minutes, to be sure, but the Explorers should turn the page from this group rather quickly.

New Faces: F Efe Tahmaz (Fr. | Istanbul, Turkey), SF Tunde Vahlberg Fasasi (Fr. | Stockholm, Swe.), F Milos Kovacevic (Jr. | Highland CC)

Dunphy and his staff went overseas to bring in three players this offseason, adding a whole bunch of size from all over the world. The brightest prospect of the bunch seems to be Fasasi, a 6-8 wing forward from Sweden who’s already made his first couple of brief appearances with the Swedish senior men’s national team in Olympic pre-qualifying; playing in the FIBA U-20 tournament this year, he averaged 9.1 ppg and 3.7 rpg in a much larger role. Tahmaz, a 6-9 post from Turkey, has played for multiple professional teams already in his young career, while the 6-9 Kovacevic, originally from Serbia, comes in from the JUCO ranks. 

Projected Lineup: G Jhamir ‘Jig’ Brickus (9.8 ppg, 2.5 rpg), G Khalil Brantley (14.3 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 4.1 apg), SG Anwar Gill (7.9 ppg), F Tunde Vahlberg Fasasi, F/C Rokas Jocius (4.5 ppg, 3.3 rpg)

La Salle’s top five is one that packs a fair bit of versatility, scoring ability, and collegiate experience. They’ll have to lean heavily on the backcourt of Brickus (Coatesville) and Brantley, who are going into their second year as the Explorers’ full-time starting duo. Brantley, a 6-1 dynamo from the Bronx, led La Salle in scoring last year on .381/.336/.747 splits, setting a new career best with a 29-point game against Rhode Island, in his first year as a full-time starter. Brickus, a 5-10 guard, has started 71 of the 86 games he’s played in his three years in North Philly, with reasonably consistent numbers throughout (9.3 ppg, 3.1 apg, 2.4 rpg). Gill, a 6-4 wing from D.C., is another fourth-year La Salle veteran, having played in 80 games (20 starts) in his career, averaging 6.2 ppg, 3.0 rpg and 2.2 apg on .409/.304/.602 splits. 

Just how good this starting group is relies upon how ready the frontcourt is to contribute at a high level. Jocius has the size (6-10, 260) to be a true ‘5’ man and flashed his potential with a handful of double-figure outings as a freshman, including a 10-point, nine-rebound performance in 24 minutes against Dayton in February. If he’s ready to play 30 minutes per game and Fasasi is capable at both ends, this is far from a bad starting group. Depth…well, that could be a problem.   

Key Reserves: SF Daeshon Shepherd (6.1 ppg, 4.6 rpg), SG Andres Marrero (2.8 ppg), F Milos Kovacevic

If Dunphy wants a little more size and athleticism in the starting lineup, it’s possible he starts Shepherd over Gill, as the Archbishop Wood product has plenty of bounce in his 6-5 frame. Shepherd certainly got stronger as his sophomore year went on, tripling his scoring output from his freshman year; if he can prove to be a better 3-point shooter than he was last season (9-34, 26.5%) then he could be in for another strong jump in production. Marrero, a 6-5 redshirt sophomore guard from Venezuela, is in his third collegiate season and shot 14-of-39 (35.9%) from deep last year, so he certainly could be another big scoring wing for them. If they need help up front, they could turn to Kovacevic or redshirt freshman Ryan Zan, a skilled 6-7 combo forward out of Rutgers Prep (N.J.).

Biggest Strength: Backcourt

Brickus and Brantley have combined for more than 4,000 collegiate minutes and just shy of 1,500 points, all in La Salle uniforms, thus far in their collegiate careers. With at least this year and possibly the next one to play together — Brickus has a fifth year if he wants it — the two are plenty used to playing together and off each other, both equally capable of creating shots for themselves and others. It’s true that they’re both a little undersized and can be a little turnover-prone, but this team will go as this pair goes.

Area for Improvement: Defense

Throughout the entirety of his coaching career, Dunphy’s been a defensive-minded coach: his Penn and Temple squads were almost always in the top 100 in defensive efficiency on KenPom and often much higher than that (3rd in 2009-10 at Temple), but last year they were 234th nationally at 1.075 points per possession. La Salle hasn’t been a good defensive team since the 2014-15 season, back during Dr. John Giannini’s tenure, and it’s where Dunphy is spending the majority of his focus this offseason and preseason. This likely won’t be a team that’s top-100, but even if they can get into the top 150 or 175, that would be a significant improvement from a year ago.