With over half of its roster made up of newcomers and two new assistant coaches on the sidelines, the Davenport University men’s basketball team will be a different-looking squad than what it was last season. The Panthers have eight newcomers on the court (five freshmen and three transfers) and seven returners from the 2023-24 team.
“We have a group that is really working incredibly hard,” said head coach Burt Paddock. “ I don’t know if we have had too many teams that work as hard as this group. They love to come to work every day. Every day we have six, seven, eight guys in the gym an hour before we get started (practicing).”
Entering his 17th season as the head coach of the DU men’s basketball program, Paddock has a brand new coaching staff. Grant Soffer and Myles Belyeu will serve as assistant coaches.
A season ago, the Panthers finished with a 9-19 overall record and a 4-14 record in conference action.
Top Returners
Jovan Tucker leads the list of seven returners for the Panthers, the guard averaged 6.9 points, three rebounds and 1.1 steals per game in the 2023-24 season.
Redshirt junior Jaden Terell enters his fourth season as a part of the DU basketball program, coming off a season in which he averaged career-highs in points per game (5.9) and rebounds per game (3.4). Last season, the wing also notched the first double-double of his career against Purdue Northwest (Jan. 27), scoring 17 points and grabbing 10 boards.
Raishaun Brown and Aiden Moon also return after significant playing time a season ago. Brown played in all 28 games, startin 13 of those, while Moon played in 25 of the 28 games for the Panthers.
Newcomers
Davenport added eight new players to this season’s roster: five freshmen and three transfers, which make up over half of the team.
“The freshmen really haven’t needed a lot of coaching, those guys can go,” Paddock said. “We have a really good freshmen class, we are really excited about those guys, they’ve completed really hard. Like I’ve said, they have held their own so far and it has really elevated the level of competition at practice every day.”
The transfers include Alden Ritt (Henry Ford College), Zavion McClendon (Concordia) and Sangolay Nije (Roosevelt). Montreal Oliver Jr. (Grand Rapids, Mich.), Joey Cabana (Chelsea, Mich.), Dylan Smith (Novi, Mich.), Jonas VanderWoude (Grand Rapids, Mich.) and Matyas Vrabel (Ostrava, Czech Republic) make up this year's freshman class.
Schedule Breakdown
The Panthers open the regular season with four home games, starting with the GLIAC /GLVC Crossover, which takes place Nov. 8-9 with games against Rockhurst and William Jewell at the DU Student Center.
On the following Wednesday (Nov. 13), Davenport hosts Grace Christian at 7 p.m. before closing out the early homestand with a game against Northwood on Wednesday, Nov. 20 at 7 p.m.
Davenport will first hit the road on Tuesday, Nov. 26, heading to Findlay for a battle with the Oilers at 7 p.m. DU returns home to host Kuyper on Dec. 2, marking the final non-conference game before the start of GLIAC action.
Conference play officially starts on Thursday, Dec. 5 for the Panthers, traveling to Detroit, Mich. for a match-up with Wayne State at 7:30 p.m.
The following week, Davenport will pause conference play to take on Great Lakes Christian (Dec. 14) at home and Tiffin (Dec. 21) on the road, which will be the final non-conference contests of the year.
GLIAC action will resume for the Panthers on Jan. 2 hosting Northern Michigan at 7:30 p.m. The regular season will conclude on Feb. 27 with a match-up against Roosevelt at 7:30 p.m. at the DU Student Center.
