Entering their tenth season in the MAAC, the Quinnipiac Bobcats have been a consistently competitive team within the conference. Tom Moore led the Bobcats throughout their transition from the NEC to the MAAC but after three straight losing conference records, Baker Dunleavy was hired after seven seasons as an assistant under Jay Wright at Villanova.
Dunleavy’s first five seasons have been respectable (35-40 record in the MAAC), but with his current roster the Bobcats have the pieces to have their strongest season under Dunleavy.
About 70% of the team’s scoring returns with seven rotation players returning.
The MAAC is a guard-driven league and Quinnipiac boasts an impressive returning group of backcourt pieces, arguably the best group of returnees in the conference. The returning starting backcourt of seniors Matt Balanc and Dezi Jones were the team’s top two scorers, averaging a combined 26.1 points-per-game with good efficiency (52.4 2p%, 36.1 3p%, 83.6 ft%).
Missing a combined 31 games last year with neither finishing the season with the team, fifth-year returnee Tyrese Williams and senior Savion Lewis hope to stay healthy this upcoming season. Starting all but three of the games in his first three seasons at Quinnipiac, Williams started 13 games last season, playing a career low 21.9 minutes-per-game mostly as a catch-and-shoot perimeter threat with 80% of his field goal attempts from three, converting at an impressive 39.7 3p%. As a starter or as a bench piece, Williams should play about half of the minutes each game providing the team with valuable shooting and secondary scoring.
Playing just eight games last season, the oft-injured Lewis suffered an Achilles injury in December. The team’s best defensive guard, Lewis led the Bobcats in the 2020-2021 season with a 3.2% steal rate, which ranked 127th in the nation. On the offensive end, Lewis has great vision as a distributor (29.9% assist rate in the 2020-2021 season ranked 72nd nationally) and does nearly all of his scoring inside the arc, with 92% of his career field goals attempts being two-pointers. For a team that struggled on the defensive end last season (the 277th best defensive efficiency rating and the 203rd best steal rate) Lewis’ ability to hound the opponents’ best guard will be direly welcomed, assuming he recovers fully from his injury.
Continuing the thread of solid defenders is returning 6’6 junior Tymu Chenery. Starting all but one game last season, Chenery had the team’s best steal rate and has one of the best block rates in the MAAC for his position. On the offensive end, Chenery stays within himself by minimizing mistakes (just 0.8 turnovers per game last season) and shooting well enough to keep defenses honest with a 46.0 2p%, 31.1 3p% and 70.8 ft%. Scoring 10.2 points per game as a freshman, junior Luis Kortright averaged just 3.5 points per game last season and is now more of a depth option who is capable of playing more minutes should injuries continue to plague the Bobcats’ next season.
Aside from returning junior backup forward JJ Riggins, Dunleavy entered this offseason with nearly a blank canvas to rebuild the frontcourt. The biggest hole was replacing Kevin Marfo, who returned to Quinnipiac for his extra year of eligibility after playing the previous season at Texas A&M. In just three seasons at Quinnipiac, Marfo finished fourth in Quinnipiac record books for career rebounds and last season he showcased an extra dimension as a post-passer, leading the team in total assists.
The most proven addition that will help replace Marfo is Columbia transfer Ike Nweke. The 6’7 245 grad transfer low post forward had injury issues in the beginning and the end of last season, but averaged 15.9 points and 6.3 rebounds in ten games. Analytics suggest Nweke is a below-average defender, so it will be hard to picture Nweke getting major playing time against low-post technicians in the conference like Nelly Junior Joseph of Iona or Jackson Stormo of Siena.
With only eleven career minutes at Notre Dame, incoming junior Elijah Taylor was a three-star recruit out of Philadelphia and had nine other high-major offers before committing to Notre Dame. Even though the 6’8 240 junior showed a stretch ability in high school, it’s more likely that Nweke and Taylor will share responsibility at the five rather than spend time together on the floor.
While Dunleavy’s recruiting strategy brings in JuCo prospects sparingly, JuCo transfer Paul Otieno will use his athleticism, strength and defensive efficiency to try to carve out a role in the frontcourt rotation. The 6’8 225 forward was a tough low post-presence at Kilgore College, averaging 7.8 points, 6.6 rebounds, 1.0 steal and 1.8 blocks in 23 minutes per game. Picking Quinnipiac over six other D1 programs, including Marist and Canisius, Otieno has three years of eligibility remaining making him an intriguing long-term prospect who could become the team’s best low-post defender since Seth Pinkney.
In addition to replacing Marfo, Dunleavy worked the transfer portal to replace combo forward Brendan McGuire and stretch forward Jacob Rigoni, the five-year Bobcat who leads the program in career games played, three points made and attempted and the second best career three-point percentage (39.3 3p%). Transferring to Sacred Heart this offseason, McGuire is a versatile combo forward who was second on the team in block % and assist rate.
The most simple fix is to play Chenery at the 4, the position he played most in his freshman season. Competing for minutes at the 4 is Alexis Reyes, an incoming sophomore transfer from East Carolina. The three-star recruit who finished his high school career at the Connecticut basketball powerhouse Putnam Science Academy, Reyes held five high-major offers, including four Big East offers, before committing to East Carolina. At East Carolina, Reyes played minimally in ten total games, but in high school he was a versatile offensive piece, averaging 12.4 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.8 assists with a 53 fg% and 39% at his junior season at Cushing Academy and shot over 49% from three at PSA. At 6’7 195, Reyes has the length and the toughness to defend multiple positions, so a rotation with Lewis, Chenery and Reyes on the floor together could help patch up Quinnipiac’s leaky defense.
With eleven capable pieces vying for rotation minutes, Dunleavy has arguably his deepest and most talented roster so far. The signature for Dunleavy’s offense is tempo, good ball movement and lots of focus on finding open perimeter shots. The additions of Reyes and Taylor, along with the retention of six guard and wing pieces, will help Dunleavy maintain this style of play while the added length of Nweke, Reyes, Taylor and Otieno should help improve the conference’s second worst defense.
This year’s roster allows Dunleavy to mix and match his rotations, making the Bobcats a good candidate to be one of the better teams in the MAAC and possibly its best season under Dunleavy.
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