Photo Credit: Kenan Orlovic
This story was part of our 2024-2025 season preview. If you’d like to read the full preview, please click here.
By: Scott Greaney (@ScottGreaney_)
It has been 242 days since the last regular season basketball game at the Smith Center. That streak will, fortunately, come to a close Monday night as GW will finally take the court for the new season against Mercyhurst at 8 p.m.
Head Coach Gary Manchel is entering his 22nd year with Mercyhurst – this year being the program’s first season as a Division I program. Manchel has had a very accomplished tenure with the program as he holds the most wins in school history at 373.
Coach Manchel’s teams are known around coaching circles for their defensive tenacity, which was ranked second in team defense in all of Division II basketball just three seasons ago. GW will need to find ways to work as a team to break through Mercyhurst’s “funky’ defense, as Manchel has coached 10 top-ten defenses while at the helm in Erie.
GW assistant coach Matt Colpoys mentioned the game plan is to “get them out of their rhythm on defense,” which could present a unique challenge even for the seasoned players on this GW squad.
Colpoys, an Erie native, will be looking to crack the code of Mercyhurst’s defense, going up against the school just two blocks away from his college house when he attended Penn State Behrend.
“It’s a tough challenge for us, but it’s good to get experience playing against different things early in the year, making our guys have to problem solve on the fly,” Colpoys said.
As this is the first game of the season, don’t be surprised to see some nerves and inconsistencies early on in the game as Caputo will be trying different sets to see which works best. However, once GW can effectively get the ball to Darren Buchanan Jr. on the low block and kick out to open shooters, expect the offense to open up a lot more and the Revolutionaries to take care of business Monday night.
WRGW Sports will have live radio coverage starting just before 8 p.m. and blog coverage as well. The game can also be live-streamed on ESPN+.
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