City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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As the college basketball season hits its approximate midpoint, it’s a good time to poke around the country and see how some local products are doing. 

Here’s a look at a whole bunch of non-Big 5 area high school alumni finding success at the Division I level this season on the men’s side; the women's update will be available this afternoon:

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Rahmir Barno (Fr. | Florida Gulf Coast)
The Imhotep Charter product was a part of the Eagles’ rotation from the first game of his freshman year, playing 24 minutes in the season opener against Indiana, then moved into the starting lineup — first for a three-game stint, then for each of the last seven. He played 37 minutes as FGCU upset nationally-ranked Florida Atlantic on Dec. 30, with seven points, three assists and three steals and is averaging 4.9 ppg, 2.3 rpg and 2.6 apg.

Allen Betrand (Gr. | Norfolk State)
In his first and only year at Norfolk State, Betrand started the first five games but has really found success as the Spartans’ sixth man, averaging 12.8 ppg in 10 games off the bench (11.2 ppg for the season), scoring between nine and 17 points in nine straight before Tennessee held him to just four in their toughest test of the season. The 6-5 Roman Catholic product should return to productivity for the MEAC slate. 

Mikeal Brown-Jones (Sr. | UNC-Greensboro)
Brown-Jones has gone from averaging 4.0 ppg at VCU two years ago to becoming a bona-fide college star, averaging 19.1 ppg and 7.8 rpg through his first 10 games of his second year at UNC-Greensboro. The 6-8 wing/forward from Philly, who played at Girard College and Roman Catholic before finishing at IMG Academy (Fl.), has scored at least 14 points in each game, topping out at 24 (twice), with three double-doubles while shooting 56.4% from the floor and 76.8% from the foul line. 

Mark Butler (Fr. | Lafayette)
It’s been a rough year for Lafayette (2-12),  though they did win their Patriot League opener over Army — and they have a point guard of the future in Butler. The Penn Charter product has been Lafayette’s starting point guard all season long, averaging 6.5 ppg, 3.5 apg and 2.1 rpg with a 2.45-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio, best in the entire Patriot League. He’s also starting to score it with more consistency, his first three double-figure games all coming in Lafayette’s last five contests (10.6 ppg in that span).

Andrew Carr (Sr. | Wake Forest)
Carr just keeps getting better and better. The 6-10 forward out of West Chester East is averaging career highs in points (14.5 ppg), rebounds (7.6 rpg) and blocks (1.7 bpg) while shooting 53.8% overall and 37.1% from 3-point range, both significant improvements from his first season at Wake (48.9%/31.1%) after transferring from Delaware. According to College Basketball Reference, both his individual offensive (128.9) and defensive (98.2) ratings are the best of his career.

Adam ‘Budd’ Clark (Fr. | Merrimack)
The West Catholic product has been Merrimack’s starting point guard all season, averaging 10.4 ppg, 3.2 apg and 2.7 spg, the latter number best in the Northeast Conference. The 5-10 lead guard has topped out with a pair of 19-point outings against Maine and North Carolina A&T, and he’s also had eight games with three-or-more steals, keeping up his productivity despite shooting 0-of-16 from 3-point range.

Rahsool Diggins (Jr. | Massachusetts)
After a near-invisible freshman year at UConn and then a solid sophomore year at UMass, Diggins is finally starting to fulfill the potential he first displayed during a standout career at Archbishop Wood. The 6-2 point guard is averaging 11.8 ppg, 2.7 rpg and 2.3 apg on .408/.386/.833 splits, starting all 13 games for a team that’s 10-3 (1-0 A-10). Diggins set a new career high with 22 points against Quinnipiac, and has nine double-digit outings in general, including a 16-point effort in their A-10 opener against Duquesne.

Tre Dinkins (Jr. | Canisius)
The former Cardinal O’Hara and Harcum College standout has taken a big step forward in his second year at Canisius, going from 5.9 ppg last year to 15.0 ppg through a dozen games this season on .385/.418/.889 splits, plus 4.0 apg and 2.7 rpg. The 6-2 guard just set a new D-I career high with 25 points at High Point on Dec. 22, his second outing of 20-plus points, and he’s got three games with at least seven assists.

Caleb Dorsey (Jr. | William & Mary)
In his first year of playing with his brother (see below) after three years at Penn State, Dorsey is playing by far his most minutes (26.9/game), with new career bests in scoring (7.4 ppg), rebounding (6.4 rpg), assists (1.6 apg), you name it. The 6-7 guard came off the bench in five of William & Mary’s first six games but has started in seven of the last eight.

Gabe Dorsey (Jr. | William & Mary)
Dorsey’s role as a 3-point specialist has continued this season, as he’s averaging 14.6 ppg while making 3.6 3’s per game, taking 116 3-pointers and only 13 2-pointers this whole season, making them from deep at a 43.1% clip. The 6-6 wing from the Hill School is averaging a career-best 14.6 ppg and 3.6 rpg, with three games of 20-or-more.

Justin Edwards (Fr. | Kentucky)
The top-ranked wing in the 2023 class has had his learning moments at UK while also showing flashes of the future high-level NBA player he hopes to be. The 6-8 wing is averaging 9.8 ppg and 4.6 rpg while starting all 12 of Kentucky’s games, with season highs of 16 points and seven against Texas A&M-Commerce. A strong shooter in high school, he’s just 9-of-35 (25.7%) from 3-point range thus far in college.

Jack Forrest (Sr. | Bucknell)
Forrest is having a career year in his fifth and final season of D-I ball, having gone from Columbia (2019-20) to St. Joe’s (2020-22) and now Bucknell, where he’s really found a home in the Patriot League. Forrest’s 15.2 ppg are a career high, as are his 5.4 rpg, while he’s shooting 38.1% from deep, only slightly below his career-best 38.7% from last year (10.1 ppg, 3.9 rpg). The 6-4 Lower Merion product has two double-doubles this season and a trio of 20-plus-point outings, including a season-high 27 against La Salle.

Jalen Gaffney (Sr. | Florida Atlantic)
FAU’s built on last year’s Final Four run by start off this year 11-3 (1-0 AAC), No. 20 in the KenPom rankings and No. 17 in the AP poll. Gaffney, the Westtown School grad who started his career off at UConn, is in his second year as a most-game starter (14 appearances, 10 starts), averaging 7.6 ppg, 3.9 rpg and 3.5 apg; he hasn’t been needed to be a big-time scorer, but a 20-point outing against Arizona (7-13 FG, 3-5 3PT) is proof he can do it when needed. 

Thomas Haugh (Fr. | Florida)
It’s been a good start to Haugh’s college career, as the bouncy 6-foot-9, 210-pound forward has worked his way into a significant role in the Florida rotation. In 13 games (two starts), Haugh is averaging 4.9 ppg and 4.8 rpg, showing his ability to stretch the floor (6-of-17 from 3-point range), with a 13-point outing against Grambling his high-water mark thus far. According to College Basketball Reference, he’s posting quality individual offensive (114.8) and defensive (98.5) efficiency numbers.

A.J. Hoggard (Sr. | Michigan State)
The Coatesville native, who played at Archbishop Carroll before transferring to Huntington Prep (W.Va.), is in his fourth year at Michigan State and his second as Tom Izzo’s starting point guard. He’s not playing quite as many minutes this year on a deeper MSU squad, and so his scoring (11.2 ppg) and assist (4.9 apg) numbers are down a little from last year, but his per-40 numbers have improved, as have his advanced metrics and efficiency numbers. He’s also scored in double figures in 11 straight.

Tariq Ingraham (Sr. | Rider)
After several years of injury problems and a transfer, Ingraham is finally having his most productive season of college hoops. The bruising 6-foot-9 big man out of Bonner-Prendergast, now in his second year at Rider, is playing a career-high 21.8 mpg and averaging 8.0 ppg and 6.5 rpg, both career bests, while shooting 46.8% from the floor and 76.9% from the foul line. His season-high 16 points came against Delaware, while he also had a 13-point, 10-rebound double-double against Stonehill.

Matt Mayock (Fr. | American)
Mayock missed most of his senior year at Westtown due to an arm injury, but that healed in plenty of time for him to jump right into a big role at American. The 6-7 sharpshooting wing has started all 14 games for American, averaging 7.6 ppg and 2.3 rpg while shooting 42.4% on 3-point attempts, taking 66 of his 79 shot attempts from beyond the arc. He’s been a consistent shooter all season long, never making more than four in any game but hitting at least two in nine different contests. 

Will McNair (Gr. | Kansas State)
After a bit of offseason drama that saw the former Martin Luther King and Mississippi State big man first transfer to Providence before electing to head to Kansas State for his grad season, McNair is playing 20.4 mpg as KSU’s starting big man, averaging a career-best 7.5 ppg on 58.8% from the floor, plus 4.6 rpg and 1.4 bpg (also a career best). He’s got four double-digit scoring outings, led by 13 points against LSU, but is yet to have his first double-double of the season.

Jameer Nelson Jr. (Sr. | Texas Christian)
After two standout seasons at Delaware (following two years at George Washington), the son of the former St. Joe’s Hall of Famer is finishing up his college career at TCU, where he’s having a strong grad year, if not quite on the same individual level of his last year at UDel (20.6 ppg, 4.6 rpg). In 13 games (11 starts), Nelson Jr. is averaging 11.1 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 3.3 apg and 2.7 spg, as he’s closing in on 250 career steals (236).

Nisine ‘Wooga’ Poplar (Jr. | Miami, Fla.)
Wooga has exploded to become a bona-fide NBA prospect, a crazy rise for a Philly product who didn’t even play high school basketball as a freshman. Poplar, who averaged 8.4 ppg and 3.3 rpg a year ago, is averaging 16.2 ppg, 5.2 rpg and 2.2 apg for the Hurricanes on .523/.500/.875 splits, with four games of 20-plus points. If he can keep that rolling in the ACC, the 6-5 shooting guard from Math, Civics & Sciences might just find himself on a draft board come June. 

Yazid Powell (Sr. | UTEP)
Powell transferred from Buffalo to UTEP this offseason and has jumped right in as a starting guard for Texas-El Paso, averaging 11.5 ppg, 5.3 rpg and 3.3 apg for the Miners. He exploded for a season-best 32 points on 9-of-17 shooting (14-18 FT) in a December win over Wyoming, one of seven double-digit outings so far this season, including a 23-point showing against UCSB. 

Christian Ray (Gr. | Delaware)
The definition of a college basketball grinder, Ray has been productive for five years at the D-I level even if he’s not the most athletic wing, or even if he doesn’t shoot it nearly as well as someone 6-6 should to find a role at the mid-major level. But the undersized ‘4’ man out of the Haverford School is averaging 8.7 ppg and a career-high 8.8 rpg and 2.8 apg for the Blue Hens, and he’s less than 100 points from 1,000 for his college career.

Bobby Rosenberger (Fr. | St. Francis)
The hero in last year’s PAISAA state championship win for Perkiomen School, Rosenberger has proven himself as a Division I player to watch early in his freshman season. The athletic 6-5 wing guard is averaging 7.5 ppg, 3.4 rpg and 1.7 apg for the Red Flash, moving into the starting lineup five games into the season; after scoring only four points in his first three games, he’s averaging 9.2 ppg and 4.2 rpg in the 11 games since, including 19 points and eight rebounds against Penn State and a 16-point, four-rebound, four-assist, three-steal, no-turnover outing against American.

Dan Skillings (Soph. | Cincinnati)
Skillings has taken a step forward in the Bearcats’ rotation, going from averaging 5.3 ppg and 3.3 rpg as a freshman to 11.2 ppg and 6.6 rpg as a sophomore, shooting 41.4% overall but only 28.6% from 3-point range. The 6-6 wing guard out of Roman Catholic has been a little hot-and-cold, finishing in single digits six times, but he’s topped out with 29- and 25-point efforts, the former coming with 10 rebounds for a double-double against Stetson.

Deuce Turner (Jr. | San Diego)
In his second season at San Diego, Turner has made huge strides, becoming a top offensive option for the Torreos off the bench and most recently in the starting five. Turner has started the last five games for San Diego, turning in outputs of 23, 13, 25, and a season-high 34 points during his team’s 81-70 loss to Saint Mary’s. The Malvern prep grad is posting team-high statistics in field goals made (80), points per game (15.2), and three-pointers made (T-31) while also averaging 2.7 rpg and 2.0 apg. 

Justice Williams (Jr. | Robert Morris)
During his first season at Robert Morris following a transfer from LSU, Williams has started all but one game for the Colonials. The junior is averaging 12.7 ppg (2nd on team), 3.3 rpg, and 2.5 apg. The former Roman Catholic guard who transferred to Montverde Academy following his sophomore season scored a season-high 21 points during Morris’ 97-86 win over FDU back in November, Williams also pulled down a season-high eight rebounds while drawing three 3-pointers in the contest. 

Tyrone Williams (Sr. | Old Dominion)
A top JUCO player in the country two years ago, Williams transferred to Old Dominion after one season at Oregon. The 6-5 senior averaged 2.5 ppg and 2.0 rpg last season appearing in 20 games for the Ducks. In his first season with ODU, Williams is averaging 13.1 ppg, 1.6 spg, and a team-high 6.0 rebounds while starting 11 of the team’s 13 games. The Olney Charter grad most recently held his season high in point with 22 during Big Blue’s 86-73 loss to Troy.