Weber State men’s basketball opens camp as presumed Big Sky favorites
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- Weber State head men’s basketball coach Eric Duft, center front, speaks to his team on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
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- Weber State’s Dillon Jones, right, closes out on Isaiah Somers (15) on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
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- Weber State’s Viljami Vartiainen, right, defends director of operations Brady Antonopoulos during a drill on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
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- Weber State center Handje Tamba, left, gets instruction from assistant coach Dan Russell on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
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- Weber State’s Dyson Koehler, second from left, gestures as he speaks with assistant coach Jorge Ruiz on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
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- Weber State guard KJ Cunningham smiles during practice Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
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- Weber State’s Blaise Threatt, right, rises for a layup on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
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- Weber State’s Handje Tamba, left, and Blaise Threatt, center left, defend assistant coach Dan Russell (4) during defensive work Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
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- Weber State’s Louie Jordan, left, speaks with teammate Blaise Threatt, right, and staff coach Brenden Morris on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
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- Weber State’s Dillon Jones, left, closes out on Cole Lake (1) during a drill on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
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- Weber State’s Dyson Koehler shoots the basketball on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
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- Weber State defenders Nemanja Sarenac, left, and Alex Tew, right, defend director of operations Brady Antonopoulos during a drill on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
OGDEN — There’s much less of an offseason now in college basketball than there once was. But the offseason officially came to an end Tuesday when Weber State men’s basketball held its first preseason camp practice at the Dee Events Center.
Ballots are yet to be cast but the Wildcats open camp as the presumed favorite in the Big Sky this season, and it’s simple math to figure out why.
First, WSU returns all five starters from last season’s third-place team while no other team returns more than two. Second, when weighing outgoing transfers against incoming DI and DII transfers, Weber adds production in every statistical category (including nearly 1,000 points) while five of 10 teams are significantly in the hole in every category (with a sixth, Sacramento State, in the negative in every stat except a plus-two in blocks).
And third, of the 20 players to be named to postseason all-conference honors for 2022-23, only five return and Weber State has two of them: First-teamer and likely unanimous preseason MVP Dillon Jones, and third-teamer Steven Verplancken Jr.
(Additionally, no players who won Big Sky individual postseason awards return to their teams, since Jones didn’t win league MVP at 16.7 points, 10.9 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game while laying claim to being the nation’s best defensive rebounder by a considerable margin.)
Jones returns after shining in both NBA Draft combines and ultimately withdrawing from the draft in the final hour, while Verplancken comes back after joining Jones as alumni of Damian Lillard’s growing Formula Zero camp.
But that was all unrecognized background to Tuesday’s practice, where second-year head coach Eric Duft ran the Wildcats through several defensive sessions and a period of fast-paced, full-court work.
“I think we’ve got a group that fits well with each other. I think we addressed a lot of needs that we needed to this offseason, which was shooting, playmaking,” Jones said.
“We really like this group,” Duft said. “They play hard, they work hard.”
First, the returners. Jones is the headliner, and he says he’s stuck to the process that has seen him add to his game each offseason.
Last season, his point-forward game was somewhat pressed into primary ball-handler duties. Between his likely role as a pro and the team’s need, he’s spent his offseason accordingly.
“I wouldn’t say I’m playing more like a guard, but I’m just doing more things. My freshman year, I posted a lot, cut a lot. Now, I’m playing with the ball so much in my hands,” Jones said. “So I’ve just kind of figured out what things I like in that role, what things I can get to and just building off that so I can do things differently.”
Point guard KJ Cunningham and shooting guard Verplancken return for their fifth college seasons. Cunningham brings a steady presence while Verplancken is in position to land himself high on WSU’s leaderboard for career 3-point percentage (41.7% last season).
Wing/forward Dyson Koehler is back as a junior, and center Alex Tew is a junior as well.
Those five may or may not constitute this season’s starting five but Duft said they’ve all done everything a coach could ask for this offseason, especially when it comes to the team’s six underclassmen.
“We asked them to help our young guys in the summer and the early fall and get those guys up to speed because we’re going to need everybody, and they did a great job of that and taking care of their own reps,” Duft said. “They really dove into those young guys and … that will benefit us.”
In between the group of veteran returns and the six underclassmen may be the team’s largest X-factor in 6-foot-3 guard Blaise Threatt. The junior was a 19-points-per-game scorer and shot 45% from the 3-point line for Division II Colorado Mesa last season. His speed, feel for the game and shooting touch have been noticeable.
Duft describes Threatt as a player who has worked tirelessly to improve his game. Jones says Threatt’s gravity as a shooting and driving threat will change WSU’s offensive capabilities.
Jones and Tew are noticeably more svelte and earned kudos for their offseason work, as did young sophomore center Handje Tamba and redshirt freshman wing Chris Dockery for getting stronger. The hope is Tew’s offseason work will also reveal an expanded offensive game and, with his feet wet, that 6-foot-8 forward Louie Jordan can find a bigger role.
As for the youngsters, 6-foot-6 guard Viljami Vartiainen and 6-foot-10 forward Marko Sarenac spent most of the summer competing for their national programs with Finland and Serbia, respectively, before arriving at WSU as true freshmen. Vartiainen showed a smooth, quick trigger Tuesday and chances are any role he has this season will include spreading the floor from the 3-point line.
Duft said he feels good about establishing a winning culture with Threatt and the group of freshmen because they, along with 6-foot-6 shooting guard Nemanja Sarenac (Marko’s cousin), they’ve all been coached well and take the game seriously.
“As people, they’re just hard workers, they’re passionate about it and they’re competitive, and they’re serious,” Duft said. “So they’ve been fun to coach … and I think they’re just going to get better.”
OTHER NOTES
EXPANDED STAFF: WSU’s four-man coaching staff all returns: Duft, with Eric Daniels, Dan Russell and Jorge Ruiz. But former walk-on favorite and Ben Lomond High School alumnus Brenden Morris has joined the staff as director of player personnel.
Expanded NCAA rules mean Morris and director of operations Brady Antonopoulos can coach on the court during practice (though they can’t recruit off-campus like the four main bench coaches).
WALK-ONS: Junior guard Cole Lake returns as a walk-on this season. He’s joined by two Arizona natives Weber State has added to the roster.
The first is 6-foot-6 Carter Gittens, a freshman from Peoria. He averaged 20 points, seven rebounds and three assists per game as a senior at Sunrise Mountain High School.
Junior Isaiah Somers is also on the squad. The 6-foot-5 player spent two years near his hometown at Chandler-Gilbert Community College, averaging 12 points and four rebounds per game last season.
NUMBER HISTORY: Vartiainen is making history with his jersey number, wearing No. 8. The NCAA changed its longtime rules about uniform numbers, which once required numbers to have digits only between 0-5. Jersey numbers with digits 6-9 are now allowed; thus, Vartiainen will become the first player in program history to wear such a number.