Christopher Newport, ranked No. 4 nationally, welcomes host of veterans, eyes another NCAA tourney run in men’s basketball
Reaching the Elite Eight is hard to top, but the Christopher Newport men have enough talent and experience that matching or exceeding last season’s 27-3 mark and Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference Tournament looks conceivable.
There are options aplenty for John Krikorian as he begins his 11th season as the Captains’ coach. Jahn Hines, a d3hoops.com third-team preseason All-American from Norfolk who averaged a team-high 15.3 points per game; 6-foot-8 Trey Barber (10.9 points, 8 rebounds and an eye-popping 3.5 blocks per game); Ty Henderson (8.9 ppg, 3.4 rpg, team-high 3.1 assists per game). And those are just a few.
Ranked fourth in d3hoops.com’s preseason poll, the Captains will be dangerous if they play the kind of defense for which they’re known. Last year, CNU held opponents to 39.6% field-goal shooting and 66.1 points per game while hitting 46.5% and scoring 82.
In 13.2-ppg scorer Jason Aigner, 9.5-ppg scorer Darian Peterson and Adrian Beasley, the Captains lose guys who combined for about 63 minutes per game. But this roster of 17 could be a handful.
“Everyone’s more than capable of getting you 20 in one night,” Krikorian said. “We have a lot of good shooters.”
CNU’s version of Coach K added that the Captains won’t have a shooter like the graduated Aigner, who almost always was the first option from beyond the arc on set plays. He sank 99 of CNU’s 244 3-pointers last season.
“Every game we played, defenses were geared to Jason,” Krikorian said. He called Hines a “worthy All-American” and said “we’re excited to see what he can do.”
Henderson “will be the primary point guard asked to handle the ball, and Trey is arguably the best post defender in Division III.”
Senior 6-5 guard Rodney Graves, who earned all-region honors for Medaille in Buffalo, New York, and 6-6 sophomore forward Caleb Furr from Division II South Carolina-Aiken are transfers who could make an impact.
The Captains fell 77-58 at Old Dominion in an exhibition early this month, “but that’s the closest we’ve ever played ODU,” Krikorian said. “It was a 13-point game with five minutes to go. It was competitive. I like our team.”
CNU men at a glance
Last year: 27-3 (won Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference Tournament; lost 81-79 at Marietta of Ohio in the Division III Elite Eight)
Coach: John Krikorian (233-59 in 10 seasons)
Season opener: Wednesday at Johns Hopkins, 6 p.m.
Schedule
(home games unless noted)
November
9: at Johns Hopkins, 6 p.m.; 12: Lynchburg, 7 p.m.; 18: Washington and Lee (at Susquehanna tournament in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania), 6 p.m.; 19: vs. Susquehanna or Lebanon Valley (at Susquehanna tournament), 1 or 3 p.m.; 22: Methodist, 7 p.m.; 26: Sarah Lawrence (in CNU Invitational), 4 p.m.; 27: N.C. Wesleyan or Eastern (in CNU Invitational), noon or 4 p.m.
December
3: at Averett, 4 p.m.; 11: Marymount, 4 p.m.; 13: Hampden-Sydney, 7 p.m.; 15: at Virginia Wesleyan, 7 p.m.; 20: Elmhurst (at Jay Bilas Classic in Charlotte, North Carolina), 6 p.m.; 21: The College of New Jersey (at Jay Bilas Classic), 8 p.m.; 29: Cabrini (in Captains Shootout), 5 p.m.; 30: Wilmington (Ohio) (in Captains Shootout), 5 p.m.
January
2: Brandeis, 5 p.m.; 7: at York (Pennsylvania), 3 p.m.; 11: at Randolph-Macon, 8 p.m.; 14: at Bridgewater State (Massachusetts), 3 p.m.; 16: at Eastern Nazarene, 2 p.m.; 28: Salisbury, 4 p.m.
February
1: at Mary Washington, 7 p.m.; 4: UC Santa Cruz, 4 p.m.; 11: at Salisbury, 4 p.m.; 15: Mary Washington, 7:30 p.m.; 23-25: Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference Tournament (in Santa Cruz, California), TBA.
