W&L Men's Basketball Season Preview

W&L selected sixth in ODAC preseason coaches poll

11/3/2022 11:09:00 AM

LEXINGTON, Va. – The Old Dominion Athletic Conference released its 2022-23 Men's Basketball Preseason Poll on Thursday and Washington and Lee tallied 102 points to place sixth in the annual coaches' poll.

Randolph-Macon, the reigning national champions, topped the poll for the upcoming season with 10 first-place votes and 142 points, followed by Roanoke with 127 points and three first-place votes.

Guilford (115), Virginia Wesleyan (107) and Hampden-Sydney (103) round out the top-5 ahead of the Generals.

The Blue and White, who have never finished lower than the fifth seed under Chris McHugh's '09 leadership heading into his sixth season, are coming off a 12-11 season in which five of those losses were one-possession games at the buzzer.

After finishing 10-6 in conference play, the season concluded in the ODAC quarterfinals, W&L suffered a 82-69 defeat to Roanoke College in Salem.

With McHugh at the helm, the team has advanced to the Salem Civic Center in each of the four seasons that W&L has competed in the conference post-season. In 2018 and 2019, the Generals were ODAC Tournament semifinalists and the team qualified for the quarterfinals in 2020 and 2022. W&L did not compete in the modified 2021 ODAC Basketball Tournament due to the pandemic.

2022-23 ODAC Men's Basketball Preseason Poll

Randolph-Macon College (10) 142 pts.
Roanoke College (3) 127 pts.
Guilford College 115 pts.
Virginia Wesleyan University 107 pts.
Hampden-Sydney College 103 pts.
Washington and Lee University 102 pts.
Bridgewater College 71 pts.
University of Lynchburg 66 pts.
Averett University 59 pts.
Randolph College 44 pts.
Eastern Mennonite University 37 pts.
Shenandoah University 24 pts.
Ferrum College 17 pts.

We have continued to build momentum this preseason after a strong finish to last season. Our upperclassmen leadership has been excellent early on, and our younger players are learning and improving quickly.

While we are proud of our past achievements, I think we all feel like we have a lot to prove and possess the talent and work ethic to deliver on our high internal expectations.

Our seniors, Richie, Cheick, Jack, and Sam, are proven winners who have overcome adversity throughout their careers. We feel we owe it to them, and those who came before, to raise the bar this season and compete for an ODAC Championship and make an NCAA Tournament run.

Head Coach Chris McHugh '09 (6th Season)

2022-23 Schedule Overview

The Generals will open the season at home with back-to-back home games with Penn State Altoona (November 13, 1 p.m.) and Mary Baldwin (November 15, 7 p.m.) in Holekamp Gym.

Next, the Blue and White have their first of three regular-season tournaments with the Susquehanna Tip-off tournament on November 18 and 19. To open the weekend, W&L will face Christopher Newport University at 6 p.m. on Friday night and compete in either the championship or consolation game on Saturday against Susquehanna or Lebanon Valley.

The men will compete in Puerto Rico on December 19 and 20 and tip-off against Susquehanna and the Scranton. After the holiday break, Washington and Lee will host Vassar, The College of New Jersey and Mary Washington in the annual W&L Holiday Tournament just before the new year. The first round will be on Thursday, December 29, with the championship and consolation game taking place on Friday, December 30.

To round out the non-conference schedule, the Blue and White will travel across Rockbridge County to take on Southern Virginia University in the Barn just before the Thanksgiving break. Tip-off will be at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, November 22 against the cross-town rivals.

The team will see four opponents in home-and-away series this season starting with Hampden-Sydney, in the ODAC opener, on November 27 on the road and will host the Tigers on Saturday, February 18. The H-SC game in Lexington will conclude the regular-season ODAC Schedule.

Virginia Wesleyan, Bridgewater, and Randolph join H-SC twice on the ‘22-23 slate. The Blue and White will travel to the beach on Saturday, January 14, and host the Marlins on Saturday, February 4, at 2 p.m. The H-SC and VWU series will be “must-watch” contests in the ODAC race as the three teams are separated by just five points in preseason voting.

The Bridgewater Eagles will visit Lexington on January 25 and host the Blue and White on February 8, just two Wednesdays after the initial meeting. Similar to the Eagles-Generals matchup, W&L will see the Wildcats of Randolph twice over the course of 14 days, on the road for February 1 and at home on February 15.

To round out the ODAC schedule, the Generals will host Eastern Mennonite (November 30), Roanoke (December 7), Shenandoah (January 11) and Lynchburg (January 21) in the Richard L. Duchossois Athletics and Recreation Center. Randolph-Macon (December 3), Guilford (January 4), Averett (January 7) and Ferrum (January 18) are the road destinations for this year's slate.

The Old Dominion Athletic Conference post-season tournament will be hosted in Salem, Va. The quarterfinals for the men's tournament will take place on Friday, February 24. The Blue and White look to advance to Saturday's semifinal contest in the Salem Civic Center for the first time since 2019. The championship contests for both the men's and women's tournament will be on Sunday.

Key Returners

The Generals return both of their 2022 All-ODAC selections in Robert DiSibio (Sandy Hook, Conn. / Newtown) and Jack d'Entremont (Bryn Mawr, Pa. / Radnor). Both players earned the recognition as sophomores and are expected to be key contributors again this year.

DiSibio was named to the Second Team and led the Generals in scoring at 17.9 points per game. He totaled at least 20 points in nine contests last season as a sophomore, while shooting 50.5 percent (138-of-273) from the field. He was also sixth in the ODAC in three-pointers made (52) and three-point percentage (43.0 percent). DiSibio averaged 5.8 rebounds per contest, to go with 37 assists, 13 steals and 12 blocks.

The team's second-leading scorer, d'Entremont averaged 13.9 ppg and led the team in rebounding at 6.4 rpg. He shot 49.8 percent (115-231) from the floor and 39.1 percent (27-of-69) from long range. In 18 games last year, d'Entremont scored in double figures, including a career-high 23 points at Ferrum.

Two-time team captain Sam Wise (Winchester, Va. / John Handley) is a senior guard for the Blue and White.

Wise has played in 43 contests over two seasons and averages 22.3 minutes, coming off the bench in all but eight games. He averages 4.5 rebounds and 7.0 points per game. He has dished out 154 assists and blocked 15 shots with 41 steals in his two seasons.

Last season, he shot 115-for-252 (45.6 percent) from the field and knocked down nine threes. He had his best game against Roanoke and tallied a career-high 30 points in 32 minutes, as he shot 50% from behind the arc (5-of-10) and drained 10 from the charity stripe.

Wise is a member of the 24 and Fly Fishing Clubs at Washington and Lee and serves as an English tutor. This summer, Sam studied abroad in Cartagena, Colombia.

In the classroom, Wise is studying international and global politics and Spanish. He is a three-time Academic All-ODAC honoree.

Junior Robert DiSibio (Sandy Hook, Conn. / Newtown) was named as a 2022-23 team co-captain. Last year, DiSibio was named Second Team All-ODAC.

In the classroom, DiSibio is a cognitive and behavioral science major and volunteers with Knights of Columbus in his free time. This summer, he interned with the Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association.

New Faces on Staff

Washington and Lee Michael F. Walsh Director of Athletics Jan Hathorn announced the appointment of Trey Livingston as the Assistant Men's Basketball Coach and Assistant Professor of Physical Education in September 2022.

Livingston joined Head Coach Chris McHugh '09 in September and is assisting in all aspects of the program in addition to teaching physical education courses for the department.

"We are excited to welcome Trey on to the W&L coaching staff," stated McHugh. "He has learned a lot from some incredible mentors and has proven himself as a coach and recruiter. I know he will be able to gift his basketball enthusiasm and expertise to our team."

Prior to coming to Lexington, Livingston spent the 2021-22 season at ODAC member school Hampden-Sydney College, where he served as the assistant men's basketball coach and head strength coach. While in Farmville, he developed and conducted strength and conditioning workouts for the Tigers. For the basketball team he assisted in the recruitment of student-athletes, assisted with game preparation, scouting reports and game film breakdown. Off the court, Livingston helped monitor the personal, academic and athletic development of the basketball student-athletes.

In addition to his collegiate coaching experience, Livingston founded "I Got Next", a basketball development and personal training program. From 2019 to May 2021, he coached with a pair of basketball academies; the United States Basketball Academy in Eugene, Oregon and the Advance Prep Academy in Auburndale, Florida.

As a player, Livingston graduated from Huntingdon College in 2019 and was a four-year letterwinner. The forward held the captain title for three seasons and led the Hawks to not only the first USA South conference tournament since 2014 but also the first winning season since 2008. He currently serves on the Huntingdon College Student Alumni Association.

"I am excited to stay in the ODAC and have the opportunity to work with the Washington and Lee student-athletes," said Livingston. "The basketball program here has shown excellence on the court and in the classroom, I am looking forward to helping the Generals continue to develop in both aspects."