Four starters return

The UD Men’s basketball team returns five players from last year, four of them starters. They are joined by four transfers and three freshmen. Those 12 scholarship players are augmented by a slew of walk-ons.

Returning Players

“DaRon’s Back!” was a welcome headline in May when DaRon Holmes II, known as “Deuce,” withdrew his name from the NBA draft. A co-MVP for the Flyers the last two years, Holmes led the A-10 last year in blocked shots, was third in rebounding and field goal percentage and fourth in scoring. During the regular season, he had the most dunks (89) in Division I. ESPN analyst Dick Vitale this summer named him to his pre-season “All-Rolls Royce” second team.

Guard Malachi Smith was co-MVP two years ago. He missed almost half of last season with injuries. During the offseason, he had reconstruction surgery done on both his ankles. Guard Koby Brea, 2022 A-10 Sixth Man of the Year, was hobbled by tibia stress fractures last year. In this past offseason, he had rods inserted in both legs. Guard Kobe Elvis missed 12 games midseason last year with a right knee injury; he missed all three A-10 tournament games with a left knee injury. He’s recovered without surgery. The four returning starters — all juniors — are joined by redshirt junior Zimi Nwokeji, the only member of the roster who was on the 29-2 team of 2019-20.

Transfers

Two of the transfers are guards. Sophomore Javon Bennett was Northeast Conference Rookie of the Year last year at Merrimack, conference champion in its first year in Division I; he was second in the nation in steals per game. Junior Enoch Cheeks played at Robert Morris for three years, the last two as a starter; this past season he made All-Horizon League third team and scored 15 points against Dayton.

Junior Nate Santos, highly ranked in high school, was a backup forward at Pitt the past two years. Sophomore Isaac Jack, from a small town on Vancouver Island, grew up playing hockey and soccer and snowboarding; he didn’t play basketball competitively until 2021. Last year he started 20 games for Buffalo of the Mid-American Conference; he’s listed at 6-11, 250 pounds.

Freshmen

Guard Marvell Allen, a consensus top-150 recruit, led Calvary Christian to back-to-back Florida State championships. He played an injury-abbreviated season last year at Montverde Academy, the nation’s second-ranked team. Forward Petra Padegimas joined the Flyers after competing with the Lithuanian U18 national team in the European championships; playing last season at DME Academy, he was named First Team All-Florida Independent Athletic Association. Forward Jaiun Simon, averaging 19.3 points and 8.6 rebounds, was Second Team Class 7A All-Georgia for Pebblebrook High School.

Walk-Ons

The Flyer roster lists two walk-ons from last season (Atticus Schuler and Brady Uhl) being joined by three local freshmen (Evan Dickey and Makai Grant from Chaminade Julienne and Will Maxwell from Oakwood) and a grad student (CJ Napier, who averaged 17.1 points per game during his career at Ohio Northern).