City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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(Ed. Note: This article is part of our 2024-25 season coverage, which will run for the six weeks preceding the first official games of the year on Nov. 4. To access all of our high school and college preview content for this season, click here.)

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Zach Spiker’s first eight years at Drexel have been marked by slow-but-steady progress. 

Whether it’s win totals or analytical numbers, there’s no doubt there’s been an improvement over the near-decade that the former Army coach has been running the Dragons’ program. Now as the next era of Spiker’s tenure begins, there’s more question marks than there have been at 34th and Market in some time — most notably, can the Dragons keep it rolling?

Spiker’s first Drexel season saw the Dragons finish 9-23 overall, 3-15 in the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA). They built around the combination of Camren Wynter and James Butler to ultimately win a CAA title during the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season, and have had winning records the three years since: 15-14 (10-8), then 17-15 (10-8), and then a 20-12 (13-5) finish last year, the most wins by the Drexel men in 12 years. 

The season ended with the No. 2 seed going down in a double overtime loss to No. 7 Stony Brook in the quarterfinals of the CAA Tournament. Their highest finish in the CAA since the 2011-12 season (29-7, 16-2) 

“I think that’s the beauty of college athletics,” Spiker said. “You go with a group, do some really really good things, and you start it with another group, and you try to figure it out. We’re not going to be the same as last year, but that doesn’t mean we’re not going to be as good.”

This offseason was not a kind one to the Dragons, for a variety of reasons. 

Three starters — Luke House (9.2 ppg), Lucas Monroe (6.7 ppg) and Mate Okros (6.4 ppg) — exhausted their eligibility. Starting center Amari Williams, thrice the CAA Defensive Player of the Year, took his 7-foot frame to Kentucky for his final year of eligibility, an expected move for one of the best bigs in mid-major hoops. Key reserves Jamie Bergens (Fairfield) and Lamar Oden Jr. (Charleston Southern) also chose to finish their college careers at different spots.

Less expected was the final departure, junior point guard Justin Moore (12.4 ppg), who hit the transfer portal after the season and wound up in the Atlantic 10 at Loyola Chicago.

That left Spiker and his staff without their entire starting lineup from last season, their top five leading scorers. More than three-quarters of the team’s scoring, rebounding and assists are all gone. 

Key reserves Kobe MaGee (6.3 ppg) and Yame Butler (6.1 ppg) lead the returners, with previously-little-used junior Cole Hargrove, sophomore Shane Blakeney and redshirt freshman Horace Simmons Jr. back as well. Senior forward Garfield Turner, who averaged 5.1 ppg and 4.6 rpg in a key reserve role a year ago, will miss the season with a knee injury, a big blow for the frontcourt.

Without Williams and Turner, Spiker will have to rely on a mostly-green group of bigs including Hargrove, 7-1 freshman Ralph Akuta, 6-9 freshman Clemson Edomwonyin and 6-7 junior college transfer Victor Panov, who averaged 13.3 ppg and 6.3 rpg as as a sophomore at Daytona State (Fl.) last year.

“Yeah, Amari left and he was something good for us on defense, but everybody is stepping up,” Butler said. “We still have Cole Hargrove down there,.we have good new big men like Ralph and Clemson[...] they’re very good post defenders, too.”

Turner’s injury hasn’t been the only one this preseason; sophomore guard Kevon Vanderhorst broke his wrist during the preseason, and could miss the early part of the regular season. That leaves junior Jason ‘Deuce’ Drake, a transfer from Butler Community College, and freshman Josh Reed (Archbishop Wood) as the two point guards battling for minutes at the ‘1’. 

Where the Dragons have good numbers is on the wings. Butler (6-5), Magee (6-6), Simmons (6-6) and Blakeney (6-5) all have good size at the ‘3,’ and 6-8 sophomore Villiam Garcia Adsten — a late addition from Sweden — has intriguing upside as well. 

“I think we’ve recruited well to size and athleticism and length,” Spiker said. “We’ve got to continue to develop our skill and play to our strengths, that’s what I would say. I thought we played to our strengths last year. I think we need to really make sure guys are getting the ball where they can attack.”

All-in-all, it’s a group that might not have a star, and that’s something they’re okay with.

“I think it’s just five people playing basketball,” MaGee said. “I don’t think there's a leading scorer, I think we’re all going to contribute [...] some people are going to have really good games, some aren’t, but if.we all stick together we’ll come out with the win, hopefully.”

The Dragons’ season begins on Nov. 4 with a home game against D-II Georgian Court (N.J.); a much stiffer test comes five days later when four-time defending Patriot League champ Colgate comes to the DAC.

Outside of scheduled Big 5 contests against Temple (Nov. 12) and La Salle (Nov. 16) plus the second-ever Big 5 Classic (Dec. 7), Drexel’s non-con is full of winnable games (Fairfield, Purdue-Ft. Wayne, Bryant, Albany, Howard) leading into a game against Penn State at the Wells Fargo Center on Dec. 21.

CAA play starts January 2 with a trip to Buies Creek (N.C.) to play Campbell, with a visit to North Carolina A&T two days later. 

The Dragons don’t have to win the league to continue the momentum that has built up in University City. Being in the top half of the CAA on an annual basis, with regular challenges inside the top three, would be a solid benchmark, about in line with the largely-successful Bruiser Flint era from 2001-16. 

Right now, last year is the high-water mark. They’ll keep trying to set a new one.

“(Spiker) definitely brings it up as, like, something for us to compete with,” Butler said. “Not saying that we’re trying to compare ourselves, but he definitely brings it up like, we have a tradition, and we’re not going to be bottom of the barrel, we’re going to keep pushing to be No. 1 in the league every year.”