With Division III tourney back in play, Transylvania’s looking to make a return trip
In many ways, last season was an oddity for Transylvania University men’s basketball.
The NCAA Division III school in Lexington began by playing five of its eventual 17 games against Division I opponents from the state of Kentucky: All road contests at Morehead State (twice), Eastern Kentucky, Murray State and Bellarmine.
After that stretch, the Pioneers shifted straight into an abbreviated schedule against Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference opponents. The season eventually ended with a home loss to Franklin College in the HCAC championship game.
Regardless of a win or loss in that contest, it was to be the final game of the season for Transylvania after the NCAA canceled Division III winter sports championships last season due to low participation numbers among member schools.
But things are more normal this season. Transy will only play one game against a Division I opponent, a Nov. 18 contest at Morehead State that counts as an exhibition for the Pioneers, and the NCAA Tournament is back on for Division III men’s hoops.
All things told, Transy and its new-look team are eager to begin a more typical season.
“We’re finally getting back into the normal swing of just basketball again, and we’ve got a great team,” said junior guard Brandon Cromwell, who went to Woodford County High School. “A young team this year, but we’ve got a lot of upside with a lot of guys.”
Transy head coach Brian Lane loses six seniors from last year’s team that finished 8-4 against HCAC opponents. That includes the Pioneers’ leader in scoring and rebounding, forward Lucas Gentry, who was last year’s HCAC Player of the Year.
Michael Jefferson, who led the Pioneers in assists last season while battling through several ankle sprains, and Dominique Turner, the team’s second-leading rebounder and the team leader in blocks and steals, are also gone.
Among the returning players is senior guard Jack Patton and Cromwell, a 2019-20 All-Freshman team selection in the HCAC who tore his left ACL during the second game of last season.
“I can tell it’s strong, nothing is going to happen to it, but it’s still the mental side of it, knowing that everything’s okay,” Cromwell said of his return from injury.
“I’m trying to make sure that he realizes that there’s a lot of horses that get to the gate at Keeneland, but you’ve got to get to the finish line,” Lane said of managing Cromwell’s return.
Senior guard Aiden Pashley, who is from Sydney, Australia, only returned to the team last season after Christmas and appeared in just 10 games, while junior center and fellow Sydney-native Luke Schroeder missed all of last season, but is back this time around.
During the offseason, Transy also added guard Matthew Teague, who played at Oldham County High School and was formerly part of the Kentucky Wesleyan men’s basketball program at the NCAA Division II level.
Between the returns of Cromwell and Schroeder, the departures of players such as Gentry and Jefferson, and the arrivals of college-ready freshmen such as Colby Napier (Knott County Central) and Hunter Penn (Woodford County), plenty of new pieces are in place for the Pioneers.
“We found out that when we play fast we’re a lot better, and the defense and rebounding components are always the missing link to really good and successful teams,” Lane said, also noting that sophomore guard Ethan Hudson (Ashland Blazer) and senior center JD Marshall (Owensboro Catholic) will figure into the rotation more this season.
Another offseason change comes at the three-point line. Division III men’s basketball programs were set to move to the international three-point line distance of 22-feet, 1.75-inches last season, but the rule change was delayed until this season.
Lane doesn’t believe the move will affect Transy, as the Pioneers have averaged at least 6.5 made three-pointers per game in each of the last five seasons.
“Our guys, they keep moving out and it doesn’t seem to be affecting them much and also gives us more spacing for some of our really good drivers,” Lane said.
Another key cog to Transylvania’s success this season will be senior forward Zach Larimore, who also played at Oldham County.
After averaging 10 points and nearly five rebounds per game as a sophomore during the 2019-20 season, Larimore was Transy’s second-leading scorer last season at 15 points per game, as well as being a 40% three-point shooter on 65 total attempts while starting 16 of the team’s 17 games.
“His work ethic and leadership has really carried over to these younger guys,” Lane said.
Larimore figures to be big part of Transy’s hopes to return to the NCAA Tournament. The Pioneers ended a seven-year tournament drought in 2020 after winning both the HCAC regular season and postseason tournament championships.
Seven players on the current Transy roster also appeared for the Pioneers during the 2019-20 season.
With some semblance of normalcy restored, the Pioneers hope to make it back to college basketball’s promised land in March.
“We can put a lot of different lineups on the floor. We can be as tall and strong as we want to be or we can be as quick as we want to be,” Larimore said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that we can put in and not miss a beat.”
2021-22 Transylvania men’s basketball schedule
Home games in all capital letters. All times Eastern and p.m.
Nov. 15: Centre, 7:30
Nov. 18: Morehead State (exhibition), 7:30
Nov. 20: WESTMINSTER COLLEGE, 2
Nov. 27: ASBURY, 7
Dec. 1: FRANKLIN, 7:30
Dec. 4: ROSE-HULMAN, 3
Dec. 11: Bluffton, 3
Dec. 18: Blackburn College, 5
Dec. 21: ILLINOIS COLLEGE, 6
Dec. 28: Saint Joseph (Connecticut) -x, 10
Dec. 30: Concordia-Moorhead -x, 7
Jan. 2: Manchester, 3
Jan. 5: Earlham, 7:30
Jan. 8: DEFIANCE, 3
Jan. 12: Mount St. Joseph, 7:30
Jan. 15: Anderson, 3
Jan. 19: HANOVER, 7:30
Jan. 22: Rose-Hulman, 1
Jan. 26: MANCHESTER, 3
Jan. 29: BLUFFTON, 4
Feb. 2: Franklin, 7:30
Feb. 5: Defiance, 3
Feb. 9: MOUNT ST. JOSEPH, 7
Feb. 12: ANDERSON, 5
Feb. 15: Hanover, 7:30
Feb. 18: EARLHAM, 7:30
Feb. 20 - Feb. 26: HCAC Men’s Basketball Tournament
x-D3hoops.com Classic in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Notes: This is Transy’s first appearance in the D3hoops.com Classic since 2011, when the Pioneers were on a 10-game winning streak. Former University of Connecticut head coach and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame member Jim Calhoun is the head coach at Saint Joseph, Transy’s first opponent in this season’s tournament.
