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Philadelphia, PA – The Wagner College men's basketball team will open the
Donald Copeland era on Monday at Temple. Tip-off between the Owls and Seahawks is scheduled for 7:00 pm in the season-opener for both teams. The game will be televised on ESPN+.
New Era, Same Family
Monday's game will be the first game under new head coach
Donald Copeland, who took over this spring for longtime head coach Bashir Mason.
Copeland, who spent last season as an assistant coach at Big East member Seton Hall, returns to Grymes Hill after serving six years on the Seahawks' staff, including four seasons as an assistant coach.
Copeland played an integral role in the Seahawks' recent success. Over the course of those six seasons with Copeland on staff, Wagner won three Northeast Conference regular season championships, advanced to the NEC Tournament final twice, appeared in the NIT twice, including an upset win over top-seeded St. Bonaventure in 2016, and compiled an NEC league record of 64-44.
This past season, Copeland was part of a Seton Hall team that earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament after compiling a 21-11 record along with an 11-8 mark in Big East play.
The Returners
The Seahawks' roster features eight returners from last season, including 2021 Northeast Conference (NEC) Rookie of the Year Delonnie Hunt, who led all current Seahawks with 31 minutes per game and 8.4 points per game last season.
Other seasoned veterans in Wagner's lineup include sophomore guard
Javier Ezquerra, senior
Jordan Mason, sophomore
Zaire Williams, senior
Ja'Mier Fletcher, sophomore
Rob Taylor II, and graduate student Jahbril Price Noel.
Additionally, junior
Rahmir Moore will see his first action in a Seahawk uniform this season after transferring to Wagner from Saint Joseph's last winter and practicing with the team for the second half of the 2021-22 season.
The Newcomers
The 2022-23 Seahawks will feature five newcomers in freshmen
Julian Brown and
Keyontae Lewis along with transfers
Lavell Brodnex,
Brandon Brown, and
Darrius Hughes.
Hughes and Brown have experience at the Division I level, with Brodnex coming from the junior college level.
The Series
Monday's meeting marks the second-ever meeting between the Seahawks and Owls. The two teams met for the first and only time in 2012, with Temple coming away with a 70-62 victory.
Opening The Season
Wagner is aiming at a second consecutive season-opening victory after earning a wire-to-wire 77-59 victory over Hartford in front of 1,924 fans at the Spiro Sports Center in last year's lid-lifter.
The Seahawks will look for their first road win to open a season since the 2017-18 season, when Wagner earned a 60-49 victory over NJIT.
Wagner In The Preseason Poll
The Seahawks were picked to finish fourth by the league's coaches, receiving one first place vote.
Merrimack, which earned preseason No. 1 status for the first time, collected six first place votes. Sacred Heart and Saint Francis U landed second and third, respectively, in the poll. The Pioneers earned a pair of first place nods. Defending NEC regular season champion Wagner received the final first place vote and finished fourth in the rankings. St. Francis Brooklyn was slotted fifth, and there was a tie for sixth between CCSU and FDU. LIU and NEC newcomer Stonehill rounded out the field in that order.
Conducted annually, NEC coaches have only managed to correctly forecast the eventual league champion two times in the last 23 years. Over the last 35 years, the coaches have proven inaccurate on 31 occasions or 89 percent of the time.
2022 Seahawk Graduates In The Pros
Multiple members of the 2021-2022 Seahawks signed professional contracts.
Alex Morales signed deals with the Golden State Warriors and Orlando Magic this summer. Morales is currently on the roster of the Lakeland Magic, Orlando's G-League affiliate.
In his three-year career on Grymes Hill, Morales became the 13th player in NEC history to compile 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 250 assists while leading Wagner with 19 points, seven rebounds, and four assists per contest.
The Paterson, NJ native became the fourth player in league history to repeat as NEC Player of the Year while also earning Defensive Player of the Year and First Team All-NEC honors. He was voted to the NABC District 15 First Team, earned ECAC Player of the Year and First Team All-Met honors in 2022.
The last Wagner player to be affiliated with an NBA team was Terrance Bailey, who was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks in 1987. Morales became the first NEC player to play in the NBA Summer League since FDU's Darnell Edge played for the Utah Jazz in 2019, as he played for the reigning NBA champions Golden State Warriors throughout the summer.
Raekwon Rogers signed with Vevey Riviera Basket in Switzerland. Vevey Riviera Basket competes in the SBL, the highest division of professional basketball in Switzerland. The team was recently promoted after winning the second division title in May 2022.
After transferring to Wagner from Division II Henderson State, Rogers finished the 2021-22 regular season with the Northeast Conference's (NEC) best field goal percentage, converting on 59.2% of his shots. The 6-8 forward compiled three double-doubles throughout the regular season, while sitting in 14
th in the conference in blocked shots with 0.7 rejections per game on the defensive end.
Will Martinez signed a professional contract to play in Puerto Rico. Earlier this spring, Martinez inked a deal with Cangrejero Santurce. Martinez joins a long list of former Seahawks to play professionally, with AJ Sumbry and Jojo Cooper most recently signing deals in Europe in 2020.
Martinez picked up the first All-NEC honor of his career in his third year on Grymes Hill in 2022, earning a spot on the All-NEC Second Team.
Wagner's sixth man was second on the team with 13 points per game during the regular season, which ranked 13
th in the conference, while also ranking 10
th in the league in field goal percentage (49.1%), 12
th in assists per game (3.0), and seventh in assist/turnover ratio (1.4).
In three seasons on Grymes Hill, Martinez scored 710 points while averaging more than 12 points in his final two seasons.
Building On History
The 2021-22 Seahawks were the first team in NEC history to feature four All-NEC players, as
Alex Morales earned Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year honors along with a spot on the All-NEC First Team, while Martinez and
Raekwon Rogers earned Second Team honors and
Elijah Ford earning Third Team honors.
Zaire Williams picked up a spot on the All-Rookie Team.
Price-Noel Plays With Canadian National Team
Graduate student
Jahbril Price-Noel received an invitation to training camp with the Canadian U23 National Team in preparation for this year's GLOBL JAM tournament over the summer.
The Scarborough, Ontario native appeared in 17 games in his first year on Grimes Hill, averaging 21.7 minutes per game and earning seven starts during the 2021-22 season.
A versatile guard, Price Noel scored in double figures three times despite having his season cut short due to injury.
Scouting The Owls
Temple finished the 2021-22 season with a 17-12 record and 10-7 mark in conference play. The Owls fell to Tulane in the AAC quarterfinal last season.
The Schedule
Wagner's 11-game non-conference slate features seven road contests and four games at the Spiro Sports Center. This year's home-opener is scheduled for November 14 against Neumann University.
The Green and White will open conference play on Thursday, December 29, with a rematch of last year's NEC Semifinal at LIU. Wagner's first home game in league play will take place on December 31 against Merrimack. This year's NEC Tournament will start on March 1, with the semifinal round on March 4 and the championship game scheduled for March 7.
