Photo by: Hannahally Photography
Season Preview: Young, but Experienced Mountain Hawks Excited to Get Started
12/30/2020 10:41:00 AM | Men's Basketball
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought with it plenty of challenges, but at the same time, increased appreciation and perspective.
For the Lehigh men's basketball team, the love for the game has come to the surface like never before.
"I had a really unique and special experience, and that's being in the gym when we first opened up," said Lehigh head coach Brett Reed. "I could see guys' eyes light up and the joy they had from being around the game of basketball."
The Mountain Hawks' end to 2019-20 was bittersweet. The team went 6-3 over its final nine games, but the student-athletes and coaches were not satisfied. There has been an eagerness to get back on the floor in 2020-21, and with seven of the team's nine leading scorers returning, there's plenty of reason to be optimistic for the season ahead.
Reed knows the Mountain Hawks must continue to be flexible to navigate through a very atypical season.
"Nobody expected that towards the end of last school year, people were going to be home and not on campus," he said. "Nobody expected certain things over time to get us to this point in December when we're looking forward to games.
"As a coaching staff, we take tremendous pride in being very well prepared," Reed continued. "Everyone feels really good about their craft and they take a lot of pride in getting our guys ready, knowing our game plan and applying it."
Reed knows his staff, and players, must be ready for anything. Teams that are most adaptable will likely enjoy the most success.
"Hopefully it doesn't affect us, but you've had teams across the country who were scheduled to play one team then turn around to play a different team almost on the drop of a dime," he said. "This is going to be a year where you go back to the basics of loving the game, trying to be prepared, taking whatever's in front of you and doing the best job you can."
The Mountain Hawks have the loving the game part down. Despite just three upperclassmen on the roster (one senior and two juniors), Lehigh features a young, but also experienced team (with several sophomores who also saw significant time as freshmen).
"Each of our guys have taken some pretty big steps up until this point in their careers," said Reed. "We've seen that with Marques Wilson over the years. Jeameril Wilson really started to explode towards the end of last year. We saw it with Nic Lynch where he became a prominent feature of what we were trying to do offensively."
The same is true for the sophomore class, highlighted by Patriot League All-Rookie Team member Reed Fenton (6.7 points, 2.7 rebounds per game) along with Evan Taylor (7.6 points, 3.5 boards).
"Reed Fenton was consistently in the lineup for us, played a lot of minutes and did that because he was really trustworthy," said Reed. "He was generally in the right spots, took care of the ball, made open shots, made the right plays and had some minutes when he really excelled and thrived. Evan Taylor was figuring things out, then as he continued to find his stride, provided some excellent minutes. It was a shame he suffered his injury in the season because he was really blossoming."
Junior Jeameril Wilson is the team's leading returning scorer (10.6) and rebounder (5.3), which included 14.7 points and 7.6 rebounds over the last nine games – coinciding with the Mountain Hawks' late-season surge.
"Jeameril really grew throughout the season," said Reed. "He became much more secure with the basketball and reduced his turnovers. He also showed that he can score the basketball. He was a matchup issue for our opponents from mid-range as well as in the low block. That, combined with his ability to shoot the three, gives him a strong offensive repertoire that should translate really well to an increased offensive role this year."
Junior Nic Lynch averaged 9.6 points and 5.1 boards, good for fourth and third on the Mountain Hawks, respectively.
"Nic became a major force for us deep into the season," said Reed. "He was playing at a high level and was very efficient with his scoring opportunities. We felt that when he got the ball, there was a good chance he was going to put it in the hole. Throughout his career, he's shown flashes of this but last year he sustained it for a long period of time.
"I think that experience will only help his confidence grow. When he's confident and assertive, it also transfers over to his defense and work on the glass. There is no reason why he can't also be one of the league's better rebounders this year."
Meanwhile, Lehigh's only senior in 2020-21 – Marques Wilson – posted 9.1 points and 4.0 boards per contest, while finishing second on the team with 90 assists.
"I loved seeing Marques' maturity and patience grow last year," said Reed. "He missed almost all our preseason practices due to an injury, but kept plugging away and became an important piece for our success. Everyone became much more confident in what he could do as a passer last season. He was finding teammates and setting them up by making the right reads.
"I think those experiences will give him confidence and likely help him balance out his offensive game to be both a scorer and playmaker this year."
The Mountain Hawks' returning players realize they have a significant stake in the team.
"They've shown the desire to put their thumb print on it, steer it and guide it," said Reed. "We still have growth we need to make in that particular area (leadership), don't get me wrong. But we have a lot of guys leading out front, leading from the middle and our freshmen are trying to do the right things and uphold our team's standards. There is a priority on building the right dynamics for strong team leadership.
"Our guys recognize how important it is to pull together and do things the right way."
The Mountain Hawks enter the 2020-21 season with a strong foundation of flexibility in place, which they showed last season.
"Our starting lineups and overall style of play had to change due to all the injuries we faced last year," said Reed. "We tried different things and played different ways, depending on who was available. I said from the start of last season that our guys had a pretty strong growth mindset and because of that, they would take whatever challenges or opportunities in front of them, maintain that flexibility and really try to capitalize on it. That will go a long way in helping a relatively young team grow.
"Going into this year, I feel good that there were a lot of valuable lessons learned and we saw growth from our student-athletes."
A large and talented freshman class has come in focused and ready to learn. The dynamic between the first-years and returning players has been strong.
"We were doing a drill where we had to talk about some of our defensive coverages," said Reed. "After we got the foundation of the drill in place, it was really cool to see our upperclassmen stepping in and almost personally teaching some of the younger guys what needed to be done. They respect and understand the character, talent and hopefully productivity that these young guys bring, but they also brought it upon themselves to step in and help – help them be better players and help us continue to grow together."
Together. Like a family. That family feeling within Lehigh men's basketball has led to consistent success over Reed's time.
"Earlier this year, I was meeting with one of our freshmen over Zoom," said Reed. "He was like man, I love Lehigh's culture because I've got all these guys who have been here before and are really trying to help me, teach me and show me the way.
"That's a great safe harbor for our freshmen to come into, because they know they have the opportunity to grow."
For the Mountain Hawks as a team to continue to grow and have success this season, they need to do a few things.
"You can't make plays that beat yourself," said Reed. "If you turn the ball over, you're losing shot opportunities. If you take bad shots, you're not going to shoot as good of a percentage. If you're not in the right spots fulfilling your roles and responsibilities, we're going to be in trouble.
"When you're dealing with a year that's as wacky as this one with fewer opportunities to ramp up and work through mistakes, refine it and sharpen it, you essentially have to go zero to 60 right at the start."
Reed understands the challenges that have been in place (limited gym time in the offseason, no nonleague games, etc.), and will continue to be.
He is not asking the student-athletes to be perfect.
"Sometimes you can strive to make sure you don't make mistakes, but then run the risk of losing aggressiveness and confidence," said Reed. "If our kids believe in what we're trying to do, they're able to connect the dots and put it all together, that's going to lead to greater levels of execution. Hopefully we can reach that point and also have them play aggressively where they aren't second-guessing themselves. We will be at our best if we can play hard, smart, together and with confidence."
With games every Friday and Saturday, execution will prove even more important.
"You could conceivably play a team five times in a particular year," said Reed. "By the time you get to the second, maybe third time, we'll know them and they'll know us.
"Then, it's just a matter of executing."
With games on back-to-back days, staying healthy will be even more important (and challenging).
"We need to make sure we maintain health and stay fresh," said Reed. "Our players are going to lay it all out for two days in a row, which will be taxing. We need to be able to build their strength, help them with their injury prevention, and give them opportunities to work on their skills. It's going to be a lot to juggle, a lot of firsts and a lot of thoughtfulness that goes into structuring how we approach each week of the season."
The season begins this Saturday, Jan. 2 at home vs. Lafayette before a trip to Lafayette on Sunday. This season, the Patriot League consists of three "mini-conferences." Lehigh is in the central with Lafayette and Bucknell.
Colgate, Holy Cross, Army West Point and Boston University make up the north while American, Loyola and Navy are in the south.
The season won't look the same, but one thing will remain the same. It will feature student-athletes and coaches playing (and coaching) the game they love, competing for every coveted victory and ultimately, a Patriot League Championship.
That's what it's all about.
Reed has this message for the Lehigh faithful.
"Thank you for your support of our guys," he said. "Thank you for your support and belief in the university. Let's celebrate that these kids can do what they love, do so safely and represent this great university."
For the Lehigh men's basketball team, the love for the game has come to the surface like never before.
"I had a really unique and special experience, and that's being in the gym when we first opened up," said Lehigh head coach Brett Reed. "I could see guys' eyes light up and the joy they had from being around the game of basketball."
The Mountain Hawks' end to 2019-20 was bittersweet. The team went 6-3 over its final nine games, but the student-athletes and coaches were not satisfied. There has been an eagerness to get back on the floor in 2020-21, and with seven of the team's nine leading scorers returning, there's plenty of reason to be optimistic for the season ahead.
Reed knows the Mountain Hawks must continue to be flexible to navigate through a very atypical season.
"Nobody expected that towards the end of last school year, people were going to be home and not on campus," he said. "Nobody expected certain things over time to get us to this point in December when we're looking forward to games.
"As a coaching staff, we take tremendous pride in being very well prepared," Reed continued. "Everyone feels really good about their craft and they take a lot of pride in getting our guys ready, knowing our game plan and applying it."
Reed knows his staff, and players, must be ready for anything. Teams that are most adaptable will likely enjoy the most success.
"Hopefully it doesn't affect us, but you've had teams across the country who were scheduled to play one team then turn around to play a different team almost on the drop of a dime," he said. "This is going to be a year where you go back to the basics of loving the game, trying to be prepared, taking whatever's in front of you and doing the best job you can."
The Mountain Hawks have the loving the game part down. Despite just three upperclassmen on the roster (one senior and two juniors), Lehigh features a young, but also experienced team (with several sophomores who also saw significant time as freshmen).
"Each of our guys have taken some pretty big steps up until this point in their careers," said Reed. "We've seen that with Marques Wilson over the years. Jeameril Wilson really started to explode towards the end of last year. We saw it with Nic Lynch where he became a prominent feature of what we were trying to do offensively."
The same is true for the sophomore class, highlighted by Patriot League All-Rookie Team member Reed Fenton (6.7 points, 2.7 rebounds per game) along with Evan Taylor (7.6 points, 3.5 boards).
"Reed Fenton was consistently in the lineup for us, played a lot of minutes and did that because he was really trustworthy," said Reed. "He was generally in the right spots, took care of the ball, made open shots, made the right plays and had some minutes when he really excelled and thrived. Evan Taylor was figuring things out, then as he continued to find his stride, provided some excellent minutes. It was a shame he suffered his injury in the season because he was really blossoming."
Junior Jeameril Wilson is the team's leading returning scorer (10.6) and rebounder (5.3), which included 14.7 points and 7.6 rebounds over the last nine games – coinciding with the Mountain Hawks' late-season surge.
"Jeameril really grew throughout the season," said Reed. "He became much more secure with the basketball and reduced his turnovers. He also showed that he can score the basketball. He was a matchup issue for our opponents from mid-range as well as in the low block. That, combined with his ability to shoot the three, gives him a strong offensive repertoire that should translate really well to an increased offensive role this year."
Junior Nic Lynch averaged 9.6 points and 5.1 boards, good for fourth and third on the Mountain Hawks, respectively.
"Nic became a major force for us deep into the season," said Reed. "He was playing at a high level and was very efficient with his scoring opportunities. We felt that when he got the ball, there was a good chance he was going to put it in the hole. Throughout his career, he's shown flashes of this but last year he sustained it for a long period of time.
"I think that experience will only help his confidence grow. When he's confident and assertive, it also transfers over to his defense and work on the glass. There is no reason why he can't also be one of the league's better rebounders this year."
Meanwhile, Lehigh's only senior in 2020-21 – Marques Wilson – posted 9.1 points and 4.0 boards per contest, while finishing second on the team with 90 assists.
"I loved seeing Marques' maturity and patience grow last year," said Reed. "He missed almost all our preseason practices due to an injury, but kept plugging away and became an important piece for our success. Everyone became much more confident in what he could do as a passer last season. He was finding teammates and setting them up by making the right reads.
"I think those experiences will give him confidence and likely help him balance out his offensive game to be both a scorer and playmaker this year."
The Mountain Hawks' returning players realize they have a significant stake in the team.
"They've shown the desire to put their thumb print on it, steer it and guide it," said Reed. "We still have growth we need to make in that particular area (leadership), don't get me wrong. But we have a lot of guys leading out front, leading from the middle and our freshmen are trying to do the right things and uphold our team's standards. There is a priority on building the right dynamics for strong team leadership.
"Our guys recognize how important it is to pull together and do things the right way."
The Mountain Hawks enter the 2020-21 season with a strong foundation of flexibility in place, which they showed last season.
"Our starting lineups and overall style of play had to change due to all the injuries we faced last year," said Reed. "We tried different things and played different ways, depending on who was available. I said from the start of last season that our guys had a pretty strong growth mindset and because of that, they would take whatever challenges or opportunities in front of them, maintain that flexibility and really try to capitalize on it. That will go a long way in helping a relatively young team grow.
"Going into this year, I feel good that there were a lot of valuable lessons learned and we saw growth from our student-athletes."
A large and talented freshman class has come in focused and ready to learn. The dynamic between the first-years and returning players has been strong.
"We were doing a drill where we had to talk about some of our defensive coverages," said Reed. "After we got the foundation of the drill in place, it was really cool to see our upperclassmen stepping in and almost personally teaching some of the younger guys what needed to be done. They respect and understand the character, talent and hopefully productivity that these young guys bring, but they also brought it upon themselves to step in and help – help them be better players and help us continue to grow together."
Together. Like a family. That family feeling within Lehigh men's basketball has led to consistent success over Reed's time.
"Earlier this year, I was meeting with one of our freshmen over Zoom," said Reed. "He was like man, I love Lehigh's culture because I've got all these guys who have been here before and are really trying to help me, teach me and show me the way.
"That's a great safe harbor for our freshmen to come into, because they know they have the opportunity to grow."
For the Mountain Hawks as a team to continue to grow and have success this season, they need to do a few things.
"You can't make plays that beat yourself," said Reed. "If you turn the ball over, you're losing shot opportunities. If you take bad shots, you're not going to shoot as good of a percentage. If you're not in the right spots fulfilling your roles and responsibilities, we're going to be in trouble.
"When you're dealing with a year that's as wacky as this one with fewer opportunities to ramp up and work through mistakes, refine it and sharpen it, you essentially have to go zero to 60 right at the start."
Reed understands the challenges that have been in place (limited gym time in the offseason, no nonleague games, etc.), and will continue to be.
He is not asking the student-athletes to be perfect.
"Sometimes you can strive to make sure you don't make mistakes, but then run the risk of losing aggressiveness and confidence," said Reed. "If our kids believe in what we're trying to do, they're able to connect the dots and put it all together, that's going to lead to greater levels of execution. Hopefully we can reach that point and also have them play aggressively where they aren't second-guessing themselves. We will be at our best if we can play hard, smart, together and with confidence."
With games every Friday and Saturday, execution will prove even more important.
"You could conceivably play a team five times in a particular year," said Reed. "By the time you get to the second, maybe third time, we'll know them and they'll know us.
"Then, it's just a matter of executing."
With games on back-to-back days, staying healthy will be even more important (and challenging).
"We need to make sure we maintain health and stay fresh," said Reed. "Our players are going to lay it all out for two days in a row, which will be taxing. We need to be able to build their strength, help them with their injury prevention, and give them opportunities to work on their skills. It's going to be a lot to juggle, a lot of firsts and a lot of thoughtfulness that goes into structuring how we approach each week of the season."
The season begins this Saturday, Jan. 2 at home vs. Lafayette before a trip to Lafayette on Sunday. This season, the Patriot League consists of three "mini-conferences." Lehigh is in the central with Lafayette and Bucknell.
Colgate, Holy Cross, Army West Point and Boston University make up the north while American, Loyola and Navy are in the south.
The season won't look the same, but one thing will remain the same. It will feature student-athletes and coaches playing (and coaching) the game they love, competing for every coveted victory and ultimately, a Patriot League Championship.
That's what it's all about.
Reed has this message for the Lehigh faithful.
"Thank you for your support of our guys," he said. "Thank you for your support and belief in the university. Let's celebrate that these kids can do what they love, do so safely and represent this great university."
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's BasketballLehigh Sports Central: Men's Basketball
Wednesday, November 12
2025-20226 Lehigh Men's Basketball Season Preview
Thursday, October 30
Season Preview: Men's Basketball
Thursday, October 31
Lehigh Sports Central: Men's Basketball
Wednesday, October 30
