HANOVER, N.H. – The Dartmouth men’s basketball team was the surprise of the Ivy League last season, defying preseason prognostications to finish third and qualify for its first Ivy League Tournament. That was some vindication for coach David McLaughlin in his ninth season in charge, as the Big Green’s winning conference record was the program’s first this century.
All praise is fleeting, of course, and a new campaign is upon us, one that got off to a bit of a rocky start with a 75-56 loss to Marist Sunday afternoon at Leede Arena.
“We knew we had a tough, physical team that was coming into our gym today,” McLaughlin said. “They are well-coached and have [an] identity on both sides of the ball. They play to their identity. I think what we did not do, especially in the second half, is stick to who we want to be, in particular, valuing the basketball. They got 25 points off turnovers, and you can’t give 14 live-ball turnovers up. It wasn’t anything funky they were doing, we just have to make sharper decisions with the ball.”
The result comes with a bit of an asterisk as Dartmouth was without sophomore point guard Connor Amundsen, who led the Big Green in minutes last season and shot 43% from three-point range. Amundsen is still dealing with a shoulder injury he suffered at the end of last season and was held out for precautionary reasons. He could return as soon as Wednesday at Bryant, but questions about whether he is 100% may linger for a while.
Amundsen may be the most important returner for Dartmouth, but he’s not the most accomplished. That would be Ivy second-teamer and senior Brandon Mitchell-Day, who scored 10 points and added 13 rebounds, but also turned the ball over six times. Mitchell-Day will have to get used to being the top name on opposing scouting reports with Ryan Cornish now graduated.
“I truly don’t think anything has changed from my end. It’s a blessing, but I still have to take care of business on my end,” Mitchell-Day said.
Sophomore Kareem Thomas was rarely used last season, but with Amundsen out, got his first career start and proceeded to score double what any of his teammates had with 20 points (and drew nine fouls), including 11-for-13 at the free throw line. But Thomas also had four turnovers against just one assist.
“There were a lot of pregame jitters for me, a lot of excitement as well, but as the starting point guard, I can’t have four or five turnovers,” Thomas said.
Jayden Williams (33 minutes, seven points), Niko Abusara (22 minutes, six points), and Cameron McNamee (15 minutes, three points) will all see increased roles this season, and didn’t play badly Sunday, but didn’t exactly set the proverbial world on fire, either.
The Big Green had just nine assists overall, paired with 20 turnovers. An underrated loss for Dartmouth in the offseason was assistant coach Rich Glesmann, who left to be head coach at Division III Macalester. Glesmann was only in Hanover for one season, but was instrumental in the Big Green playing much faster and shooting more threes (36th nationally in 2024-25).
One game is a small sample size, but the Big Green shot just 3-for-20 from the behind the arc and, combined with those turnovers, finished at 0.778 points per possession.
Dartmouth led the Ivy in defensive efficiency a season ago and it wasn’t terrible on Sunday (1.042 points per possession). Amazingly, the Big Green – who take pride in rarely fouling – took 28 free throws to Marist’s five – and were even on the glass, but the turnovers and poor shooting were too much to overcome.
“We shot the ball well from two, turnovers were the story of the day,” McLaughlin said. “Even if you cut that in half, we would be OK. We made a lot of bad decisions, and I don’t think they forced us into those decisions. One thing we will learn is the best way to catch up is through team basketball and I just don’t think we did enough of that.”
A season-opening loss to the Red Foxes – who should be a contender in the MAAC and led Xavier Monday night with two minutes left in their opener – is not cause to set off all the alarms, of course. Dartmouth started last season 4-7, including home losses to Le Moyne and Albany (and a 28-point loss at Boston University) before turning things around in time for the Ivy season.
But there are plenty of questions to answer in the next couple of months, for sure.
“They’re experienced and they have a lot of returning guys, but that’s not an excuse,” Mitchell-Day said. “We’ve been preparing for this for a while now, and to come out and not respond is something we’re definitely going to have to learn from. It’s an opportunity, though, to see how we can bounce back.”