Alright, I might’ve fibbed a little bit.
In my last ramble about Northeastern men’s basketball just three weeks ago, I claimed that these Huskies were a few tweaks away from being genuinely good. After all, at the time, they’d just come off two tight losses to two of the best teams in the conference in Towson and UNCW and appeared to be on the verge of getting two key players back from injury.
I’d like to formally retract that statement.
It’s nobody’s fault, really. This team has been through the absolute ringer this season, from a devastating injury bug to untimely scheduling to a number of unlucky late-game losses. That formula has resulted in an unsightly 6-18 record and a collision course with the cellar of the Coastal Athletic Association. In all likelihood, this season will end in the early stages of the conference tournament for the fourth straight year.
There are a few ways to look at it, then. Some might call it a “lost season,” which is a phrase commonly thrown around when a team either undershoots expectations or stagnates after a promising start (or both, in some cases). From a distance, this Northeastern team meets both of those criterion nearly to a T. After all, the Huskies are on pace to end up well below relatively meager expectations, and any strides they appear to make in one game can all but disappear in the next. (See, for example, back-to-back blowout losses immediately after a rousing win over Elon).
I think that perspective ignores the bigger picture, though. Progress, as they say, isn’t linear, and if you dig just a little under the surface, you’ll start to notice that the long-term outlook isn’t quite as bleak as the short-term. To put it simply, there are encouraging signs emanating from this program; they just may not come to fruition this season.
I’ll give you a list of what I’ve noticed:
Northeastern plays hard and keeps games competitive on its home court. Of the Huskies’ seven home losses, only three were by double digits, and only one truly falls into the “blowout” category. They nearly beat the likes of UNCW and Charleston (the two best teams in the CAA by a country mile) and kept it close with Towson (the preseason conference favorite). With the Cabot Center set to house the program for the next two years, establishing any home-court advantage will be a huge boon.
Every single freshman has contributed in a big way. Northeastern’s six-man freshman class wasn’t necessarily highly rated, but head coach Bill Coen and his staff have a knack for finding diamonds in the rough. So far, it looks like they’ve done just that. Each of the six freshmen — forward Xander Alarie, guard Miles Newton, guard Xavier Abreu, center Petar Pinter, center Liam Koelsch and forward Ty Francis — have started games, while Newton and Alarie became two of the team’s most important players before going out with season-ending injuries.
In their stead, other freshmen have stepped up: Abreu has become Northeastern’s second-best scorer, Pinter and Koelsch have split high-energy minutes at center and Francis has turned into one of the Huskies’ best defenders while displaying an ever-evolving offensive game. While the reliance on youth probably isn’t any help to the outlook of this year’s team, that experience will only serve as an advantage for the players’ development, which should benefit Northeastern moving forward.
In-house development is apparent. Three of Northeastern’s main holdovers from last season — junior guard William Kermoury and sophomore guards Ryan Williams and Luca Soroa Schaller — have all improved from a season ago. Kermoury is the most apparent; all of his counting stats are way up, and he’s significantly more efficient from every spot on the floor despite a massive increase in volume. Williams has become an aggressive, turnover-resistant scorer with defensive upside, and Soroa Schaller has made strides even as he fights the turnover bug. The success stories of these three are not new — just look at Rashad King and Collin Metcalf, who both transferred to high-major programs after last season — and reinforce Northeastern’s reputation as a player development program, a selling point for future recruits.
The bulk of this squad is eligible to return this season. Thanks to an early-season, redshirt-inducing injury to senior guard LA Pratt, only senior forward Youri Fritz and graduate student forward Haris Elezovic will be officially out of eligibility once this season comes to a close. Of course, with the expansion of the transfer portal, anything can happen, but 12 of Northeastern’s 14 players can choose to return, including their stars in Pratt and Kermoury. Sometimes, in college basketball, continuity and development are just as important as recruiting high-grade talent, and if Northeastern can retain a significant chunk of its roster, the team is almost certain to improve.
The moral of the story? Even in what’s become a nightmare season, there are some silver linings. All of the lessons from loss after loss this year can serve as just that — lessons — and act as a springboard back to contention next year.