5. St. Francis Brooklyn
The Terriers are a bit of an enigma, and they are picked this high, mainly, due to potential. There is an insane amount of talent returning from a team that went 13-18 last year and 7-11 in NEC play, having lost in the NEC quarterfinals to Robert Morris for the second year in a row.
The best word to describe St. Francis’s 2019-20 season is “inconsistent.” They knocked off solid Lafayette and Hartford squads, but lost to Fordham and Longwood and got blown out by 31 to UMass Lowell.
In conference, they secured wins over the top three teams in the NEC – Robert Morris, Saint Francis, and Sacred Heart – but were swept by Bryant (who finished in a three-way tie for seventh with the Terriers) and dropped a home game to Wagner, who finished below them in the standings.
That team featured four double-digit scorers, and three of them are returning for another season. Chauncey Hawkins, a preseason All-Conference selection, is the headliner of the group, having ranked eighth in the NEC in scoring (15.1) and assists (3.2) last season.
Deniz Celen, a near 12-point scorer, is gone. However, Unique McLean – who transferred to St. Francis from UMass and enjoyed a great first season with the Terriers last year – and Rob Higgins – one of the premier freshmen in the NEC last year – both return after averaging a little over 11 points each last year.
With Hawkins leading the way, McLean and Higgins were – and should continue to be – perfect complementary pieces. McLean, despite being just 6-2, ranked sixth in the conference in rebounding, hauling down eight boards a game. Higgins, meanwhile, led all NEC freshmen in scoring last year with 11.1 a game, draining 43 three-pointers in the process.
The Terriers were fairly average statistically last season, and they will need to improve on several of those marks in order to return to their winning ways. They were sixth in scoring offense (69.9), scoring defense (71.6), and field goal percentage (.419). They led the league in blocked shots (4.52), but will need to improve upon their abysmal mark from beyond the arc (.297, the only team in the NEC below 30%).
Again, there is a lot of talent on this team in Hawkins, McLean, and Higgins. Hawkins, in particular, has a chance to cement himself as one of the best players in the conference this year. The Terriers will desperately need their supporting cast to be consistent in order to win – but if they can pull that off, they should find themselves in a better position than last year.