Thomas Shea/The Mirror
The transition from high school to college has not been an incredibly easy one for the freshmen on the men’s basketball team. “I think it’s pretty challenging because I’m like not playing the position I was in high school so it’s kind of hard transitioning from a point guard to a shooting guard,” said Doug Chappell ‘17 about adjusting to the college basketball atmosphere.
“It’s been a pretty tough transition, especially balancing schoolwork and basketball,” said Lincoln Davis ‘17. According to teammate K.J. Rose ‘17, “Learning the tricks and stuff about college is definitely something new that I’ve been getting used to.” These freshmen are slowly but steadily making the transition, but said they feel very confident about the upcoming basketball season and how they can contribute.
“We can learn from the other guys and we can push each other in practice, so that’s a plus, having a bunch of guards that can all play and push each other,” said Davis about the void left at the guard position due to the departures of Colin Nickerson ’13, Desmond Wade ’13 and Derek Needham ’13.
Of the veteran teammates on this squad, Steve Smith ‘13 said, “With Malcolm Gilbert and Amadou [Sidibe] in the MAAC which is a guards league, Malcolm and Amadou can take advantage with their presence down low.”
“Us being young isn’t an excuse. We can go as our big guys go. Obviously, playing guard, that’s important, but in the 
front court we have our two leaders in Amadou and Malcolm,” said Davis.
Rose had this to say about the team’s overall goals for the season, “Our goal is to go to the [MAAC] Tournament and win the championship. We know we have a lot to look at with other teams, but if we take care of our business in the film room and transfer it to the practice and then games I think we should be alright this year.”
“When all these teams see four freshmen playing a lot, they’ll rank us probably sixth or fifth, but coming into practice every day I feel like we have the talent to make it to Monday as Coach [Johnson] says,” said Smith about the team’s outlook.
Lincoln Davis
A standout student-athlete at Central Catholic and New Hampton High School in Pittsburgh, Pa., Davis will provide much-needed depth at the guard position with the departures of Derek Needham ’13, Desmond Wade ’13 and Colin Nickerson ’13. These three players started at various times throughout the 2012-13 season and were instrumental to the team’s success. Because of the void left at guard, Davis will give the Stags precious minutes off the bench in the 2013-2014 campaign. At Central Catholic High School, he averaged 19 points and 4.1 rebounds per game and led his team to a 16-12 record as a junior. In his senior year of high school as a transfer to New Hampton, he averaged 18 points and 2.3 steals per game. He has recorded over 1,000 points during his high school career. As a defensive specialist and effective scorer, expect Davis to see a fair amount of successful play time for the Stags this season. “I think we’re really starting to click together. The chemistry’s pretty good and we all like each other so that’s a plus,” said Davis about all his new teammates.
K.J. Rose
Hailing from Binghamton, N.Y., Rose had a very successful high school career at Binghamton High School. He is also a guard who will see plenty of minutes with the departures of guards like Needham, Wade and Nickerson this past season. As a Binghamton Patriot, Rose led his team to two Section 4 Class AA Championships during his junior and senior seasons. As a junior, he was selected as the best player in Class AA by the Basketball Coaches Association of New York. In his senior season at Binghamton, Rose averaged 16 points per game as the Patriots went to the New York State Regional semi-finals before losing to New Rochelle. Overall, Rose serves as a solid scorer who could potentially fill some minutes off the bench with the void at the guard position. “Learning the tricks and stuff about college is definitely something to get used to but with my coaching staff and teammates, I’m starting to get used to it,” Rose said.
Doug Chappell
Chappell is another guard who is from Alexandria, Va., and played basketball at Episcopal High School. His best season as a high school player came during his senior season. In his 2012-2013 campaign, Chappell averaged just over 14 points per game and posted a rebound and assist per outing. He reached 20 or more points in five games during the season, including 27 against Benedictine High School. At the end of that year, Chappell was awarded the William Caskie Watts Award for Most Valuable Player for basketball. As a scorer first, expect to see Chappell used for his offensive skillset as he can serve as a role player off the bench. When asked about how he and the other freshmen can contribute this season, he said, “As younger players we just have to play hard to make up for a lack of experience at this level.”
Steve Smith
He is the fourth and final freshman to join the men’s basketball roster this season. Standing at 6 feet, 8 inches, Smith hails from Gwynedd Valley, Pa., where he played forward at La Salle College High School. Smith served as one of the program’s top three-point shooters during his career there. As a junior, he averaged 7.8 points per game for the La Salle Pioneers as one of their leading scorers. Smith set a school record for three-point field goals in a game, hitting seven against Cardinal O’Hara High School to finish with a solid 25 points. As a senior, he served once again as one of the team’s leading scorers and spent most of the season in double figures. Expect this three-point assassin to function a similar role with the Stags and be a solid scorer off the bench this season. “Since we’ve been here since June, basically we’ve become a family. We do things on the court and then off the court we do things too so we mesh,” said Smith about the chemistry of the new team.
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