Now in his 14th year as the St. Edward's head men's basketball coach, Andre Cook has experienced a lot of stability at the hilltop. But with nearly half the roster comprised of new players this season, he'll have to reach back into the depths of his coaching experience to his time winning the BCANY Junior College Coach of the Year.
"We've brought seven new players into the fold, so we're kind of like a junior college in a sense. We don't have guys who've played here for four years, so it's an interesting dynamic to the team," Cook explains. "In the past, we've had plenty of veteran guys, but this year we don't, so I have to rely on players who've been here just one year to help the other half of the roster."
JAYLEN GORDON, a junior from Melbourne, Australia, is the longest-tenured player on the roster. Still, it's Uche Dibiama, a senior who transferred to St. Edward's last season, who's played the most minutes in a Hilltoppers jersey.
"Coach and I have been talking since the end of last season about how I will have to help the new guys. It's a big responsibility for me since I was the one last year needing that help," Dibiamaka recalls. "I worked a lot on my basketball IQ, learning the system, and making better reads to help my teammates. A lot of it is more mental than physical."
The team also returns BENNETT MOHN and MASON HIX, another pair of transfer students from last year, who started significant games, and other rotational mainstays BLAKE NIELSEN and GAVINO RAMOS.
"MASON HIX played a lot of minutes for us. He's 6-foot-8 and bouncy, but he'll have to play a little out of position [at center]," Cooks says. "GAVINO RAMOS is a sophomore point guard out of San Antonio who was a big-time winner in high school, and we're expecting a lot from him.
"Bennet Mohn averaged nearly 10 points per game coming off a labrum surgery that oddly helped his shot, and BLAKE NIELSEN is super smart and was voted captain this year as a 19-year-old sophomore."
The group has been in Austin just long enough to build some success with a 17-12 record last year and a bitter defeat, losing 58-56 on a last-second layup to Lubbock Christian in the conference tournament quarterfinals.
"We remember what happened last year at the end of the season, and it didn't go how we wanted it. So we just want to win," Dibiamaka says. "That memory will stick with us and motivate us to have a different edge this year."
Dibiamaka is the centerpiece of the returning core. The sweet-shooting guard finished second on the team in scoring at 16.7 points per game and increased that to 18.6 points per game in conference play with a stellar combination of volume and efficiency.
"Uche is tough. He averaged 18-plus points per game in conference play on near 50-40-90 splits," Cook says. "Uche talked about his mental approach and learning the plays to try and find his spots, and in the last 10-12 games of the season, he did that, and that's why we were able to have the resurgence we did. We expect a lot from him on both sides."
The team hopes to supplement Dibiamaka's explosive scoring with a mixture of experienced transfer players and at least one promising freshman.
St. Edward's adds Jeff Gary, an NCAA Division I transfer from Mercer who combines good size (6-foot-5) with an accurate outside touch (37.4 percent career 3-point shooter) and playmaking (135 career assists to 69 turnovers). The Hilltoppers will also lean on Carson Tuttle, a veteran of the Lone Star Conference who transferred to St. Edward's for his fifth year of eligibility after playing four years at Texas A&M-Commerce, where he shots 39.1 percent from deep on 210 3-pointers attempted.
The Hilltoppers also added transfer Joshua Chesney from Merrimack College. They will also likely see meaningful minutes from first-year Sean Elkinton, a center who adds a unique dimension to the offense with enough size to exploit smaller players inside and shooting touch to space the floor.
"We're not very big inside, but we have skilled players, so we'll have to figure out how to spread the floor and play with pace and space," Cook says. "There's not a lot of continuity, so you've seen some overthinking and trying to figure out what we're trying to do, but we're getting there. The Lone Star Conference is a tough league. You have to be ready to go. There are 22 league games, and you must be ready to battle in all of them."
