Hartford Basketball: Can the Hawks make a move towards the top of the America East in 2018-19?

America East Basketball has been dominated by a few teams as of late. Can Hartford Basketball crash that elite party to make a run at the Big Dance?

Over the past 10 years a total of four current members of the America East Conference have appeared in the conference tournament championship; Stony Brook, Albany, Vermont, and UMBC. This another school is looking to add their name to the list, the Hartford Hawks.

Head Coach John Gallagher’s squad finished the season at 19-14 and 11-5 in the conference, good enough for the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament. The Hawks were knocked off by eventual champion UMBC. They did earn a post-season berth, however, taking part in the CIT where the fell to San Diego.

Hartford has never made the NCAA Tournament but this team might be the school’s best chance in a long time.

Last season, Gallagher had six guys that played all 33 games and averaged at least 18 minutes per game and another played in all but one. Of those seven players, five return, that’s the good news, nearly all their offensive production is back and the Hawks have a real solid foundation going into this season. The bad news is that means there is very little returning in terms of on-court experience. The most experienced is senior guard Andrew Ramirez who played double-digit minutes just twice after the first two games of the season, averaging just 1.6 points per game.

For the Hawks, last year was historic in many ways. The got their first-ever win over a Big Ten school with a 60-58 win over Rutgers. They then tied a school record with 18 3-pointers in a 32-point win in Binghamton. Hartford’s one-point win at Vermont ended the Catamounts’ 34-game home winning streak, which was the longest in conference history. The CIT bid was the program’s 2^nd ever post-season birth and the 19 wins was also a high water mark for the team.

For Hartford to reach its first America East championship since 2008 and perhaps its first NCAA Tournament it will have to rely heavily on the five key returners.

All five players will be seniors and the three guards, Jason Dunne, J.R. Lynch, and Travis Weatherington averaged 36.8 points per game, dished out 7.7 assists and even though at 6-4 Dunne is the tallest of the three, they still managed to pull down 10.7 boards per contest. Most importantly, for a team whose biggest offensive weapon is the 2-point shot, the trio shot a combined 38% from beyond the arc last season.

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The other two players returning are 6-8 stretch forward John Carroll, who was the team’s leading scorer and rebounder last season with 15.2 points and 6.4 rebounds, while dolling out 2.4 assists third best on the team and the team’s top reserve from last season George Blagojevic. The 6-8 native of Australia averaged just 4.5 points and 3.7 rebounds but will be primed for an increased role this season.

Gallagher will welcome three newcomers in 2018-19. Hunter Marks is another big man from Australia who has a good handle for a player his size. He is a solid outside shot and has little trouble getting to the basket. On the defensive end, he has good timing when blocking shots. Michael Dunne is a 6-2 shooting guard and the younger brother of Jason. The last newcomer is Eddie Davis III who is playing his final season at Hartford after spending the previous three at Southern Mississippi. The 6-7 248lb. Davis averaged 9.4 points and 5.7 rebounds as a redshirt-freshman in 2015-16 before seeing his minutes drop the following two seasons.

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The schedule will certainly test the Hawks and ready them for a run at their first NCAA Tournament. They have road games against Duke, Boston College, Wagner, Mississippi State and Utah State, while hosting Bryant, Marist, and Bowling Green before league play starts.

2017-18 was historic for the Hartford Hawks. Will 2018-19 be one for the ages?

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