CMS Men's Basketball Tips Off 2022-23 Season Against No. 2 Mary Hardin-Baylor Tuesday Night

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's basketball team will open its 2022-23 season when it tests itself against Mary Hardin-Baylor, the preseason No. 2 team in the nation in a D3hoops.com poll, on Tuesday night at Roberts Pavilion.

CMS was picked second in the SCIAC preseason poll, which was released yesterday, behind only neighboring rival Pomona-Pitzer, which Mary Hardin-Baylor plays on Friday (the Crusaders also face Redlands on Wednesday on their opening three-game SCIAC tour). 

The Stags finished 17-8 last season and return four of their five starters, including first-team All-SCIAC selection Josh Angle, who averaged 18.8 points a year ago. Angle was also a second-team all-district selection and an Academic All-American, after knocking down 63 pointers and shooting 48 percent from the floor from his shooting guard position. 

Rhett Carter and Brian Kenyon are also returning senior starters at center and point guard respectively, while sophomore Matt Meredith is back on the wing. Carter averaged 9.0 points and shot 53.8 percent from the floor last season, while Kenyon had 97 assists and a 2.3 assist-to-turnover ratio quarterbacking the offense. Meredith proved to be a versatile do-everything wing in his first season, often serving a triple-double threat, averaging 7.8 points, 7.0 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game on the year. 

The one starting spot to fill was left vacated by wing TJ Askew a second-team All-SCIAC selection, who averaged 15.2 points per game. Senior Kiran Kruse shared that role with Askew last season off the bench and averaged 7.6 points per game, and is a strong candidate to move into the starting line-up in his final campaign. 

The Stags also have their usual depth, with a 10-man rotation a likely scenario this year. Max McCalla had a strong debut season last year as a back-up point guard, averaging 2.3 assists and compiling a 1.9 assist-to-turnover ratio. Senior forwards Joey Ganley and Jordan Hunt will look to expand their roles, while Lucas McEachern showed promise as a first-year last year before being sidetracked by injuries. Connor Printz also showed the ability to be a versatile scorer, while Lucas Grandison, Nate Dominick and Stuart McCallum are also returning and are poised to be regular contributors. 

The list of newcomers includes graduate student Justin Pratt, who played at UC San Diego and whose parents both were CMS athletes (his father, Steven, played football, and his mother, Wendy, played soccer and is in the CMS Hall of Fame). First-years Cahal Connolly, Luke Jacobson and James Frye will also try to crack the rotation. 

After playing Mary Hardin-Baylor, CMS will take a road trip north to Oregon to face Lewis & Clark and George Fox on Friday and Saturday. The Stags will then return to Claremont to face St. Thomas (Texas) on Nov. 18 and to co-host the David Wells Classic on Nov. 25-26, meeting Puget Sound and UC Santa Cruz. The conference opener for the Stags will also be at home, facing Chapman on Nov. 30.