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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The Drexel men are right on the edge. 

Zach Spiker knows it, even if he won’t admit it. 

The eighth-year head coach has spent his tenure slowly building Drexel back into a contender, the 29-win season Bruiser Flint commanded 12 years back an increasingly distant memory, a dragon lying in wait at 34th and Market. 

His team this year has the potential to be the best yet — only one rotation member gone from a year ago, only two new faces on the roster. There’s experience, talent, size, athleticism and versatility to spare. 

Coming off a 17-15 season, with a 10-8 record in the Colonial Athletic Association, the Dragons are aiming higher — much higher. The program’s first year in the Big 5 could be a big one, indeed. Ask Spiker about it, and he won’t even buy into the premise.

“It’s been a veteran approach,” was the most he offered on the topic. “Guys understand what we’re trying to get done.

“We’re more about the intentions every day than the expectation,” he added. “Expectation is external, it shouldn’t affect us.”

The Dragons were picked third in this year’s preseason CAA poll, getting one first-place vote, with defending league champ Charleston picked first, ahead of UNC-Wilmington. 

Spiker’s already accomplished one major task in his tenure, winning the CAA Championship in front of an empty house during the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season — but that could more rightfully be described as a good three days in Virginia rather than an overall successful year (12-8, 4-5 CAA). 

What hasn’t happened yet is a regular-season finish higher than fifth in the CAA, now a 14-team league with Campbell coming on board this offseason. There’s yet to be the significant buzz that surrounds a team really on a roll — the kind that permeates down to a mid-major squad every now and again, like Charleston’s 20-game win streak a year ago, or that Drexel team of just more than a decade ago, which ripped off 19 straight.

“We feel that,” senior forward Amari Williams said, “but we try not to speak about it too much, try to play as if nobody thinks we’re that good.”

Williams is no doubt the biggest reason for the Dragons’ optimism, both literally and figuratively. The 6-foot-10, 255-pound center cemented his place as one of the top big men in the CAA last year, averaging 13.7 points, 8.8 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.2 blocks per game, all career bests. 

The British big man has improved his game by leaps and bounds all three years he’s been at Drexel, from averaging about one point and one rebound per game in spare minutes as a freshman to 9.5 ppg and 7.3 rpg as a sophomore to last year’s production, which came in only about 27 minutes per game. He was named 2023-24 CAA Preseason Player of the Year earlier last month, an indication that the rest of the league is well aware of his impact.

“I didn’t really think I was going to have that kind of year,” he said of his breakthrough junior season. “[Just] how the team was and how many injuries we had, I ended up playing roles I didn’t think I would. ... It’s hard to try and top last year, but something I’m not really trying to think about that much.”

Just about the entire lineup is back, including sophomore point guard Justin Moore (9.6 ppg, 3.1 apg), senior wing Lamar Oden Jr. (8.7 ppg, 5.4 rpg), graduate wing Luke House (8.7 ppg, 3.4 rpg), senior wing Yame Butler (8.6 ppg), combo guard Jamie Bergens (6.0 ppg), senior wing forward Mate Okros (4.9 ppg) and junior forward Garfield Turner (3.4 ppg, 3.5 rpg).

The only departure was starting guard Coletrane Washington, the team’s third-leading scorer (9.2 ppg). Replacing him on the roster is grad transfer Lucas Monroe, an Abington product who spent the last four years at Penn, as well as freshman wing Horace Simmons (La Salle College HS). That level of continuity was clear at an October practice — Spiker was able to run through sets with almost no interruption, the players clearing up any little mistakes with one another on the sidelines between reps, system knowledge permeating through the roster.

“I think we’re going at a quick pace,” Williams said, “because everybody knows the plays and stuff like that, they know their roles and positions.”

The 2023-24 Dragons already have gotten some feedback, playing St. Francis (Pa.) in a closed scrimmage earlier in the month. Williams said Drexel was “really active” on defense and “disrupting everything,” a good sign for a team that has steadily improved its defensive efficiency from 327th nationally to 127th (per KenPom) over the course of five years. This year’s group — anchored by Williams — has the potential to be the best yet under Spiker on that side of the floor.

Twelve years ago, Drexel won 29 games and was the first team left out of the NCAA tournament after falling short to VCU at the conference championship buzzer. If this year’s squad can capture that magic, this could be a special year in West Philly yet again.

“We’re trying to win this year, more than we ever have,” Williams said. “We have a good group, we’re just trying to go all the way this year.”