Get close to the action with local college basketball
By Zachary Lewis
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Welcome to hoops season!
Basketball fans don’t have to drive far to find games nearly every weekend through the end of February. Local colleges offer women’s and men’s games to cheer at — often with admission that is either free or in line with movie ticket prices.
Courtesy of Southern New Hampshire University.
Southern New Hampshire University
Eric Coplin, the Director of Athletic Communication at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, spoke to the Hippo about Penmen Basketball at the school.
“So both teams play in the Northeast 10, which is part of NCAA Division II. The A-10 is usually kind of looked at as one of the stronger conferences in Division II. So we play in a really strong league. And I think anyone coming to watch is going to see a really strong brand of basketball,” Coplin said.
“I love this level. … I think it’s a legitimate student-athlete experience. They’re here to be students, but they’re also here to be high-level athletes,” he said.
There is a good possibility of reaching the playoffs. “If we have an NCAA tournament, it’s obviously not as highly publicized as the Division I NCAA tournament, but it’s the same thing. It’s a bunch of teams fighting for a national championship,” Coplin said.
One of the biggest games is against nearby Saint Anselm College.
“We play them twice a year. We play them at home and then play them at their place. That’s definitely our biggest rival in basketball for sure. So [we] definitely draw the biggest crowd, best atmosphere for that game, for sure,” he said.
In the age of Caitlin Clark, both men’s and women’s teams draw a crowd.
“I think our women’s basketball crowds have really improved over the last few years to kind of match the men. In some games I think they even outdraw our men. But I think that has a lot to do with how we’ve been super successful the last three years. The team hadn’t been to the NCAA tournament since 1990 and now they’ve made it three straight seasons. They were in the conference championship game two years ago, so I think a lot of that is just in the increased talent level. I think winning helps that,” Coplin said.
Kids’ teams can get involved too. “We have a lot of cool youth involvement, like Hooksett Youth Basketball League, always happy to work with the youth programs in the greater Manchester area for sure,” he said The Hooksett Youth Basketball League is part of the Hooksett Youth Athletic Association (HYAA).
“Admission is free for all of our regular season games,” he said. Championship rounds are a slightly different story. “Once we get into playoffs, the NEC 10 as a conference charges. And then if we were to host regionals, the NCAA charges.”
All of the home games are at the Stan Spirou Field House on campus. Many of the games are double-headers, with a women’s game followed by the men’s. “We have a concession stand that’s usually open … [with] hot dog, pretzel, drinks, candy, stuff like that,” he said.
“We’re hoping for a good year, another fun time, fun atmosphere with the crowd, getting into it. Like I said, the women have been to three straight NCAA tournaments. The men last year won the conference championship and the NCAA regional tournament. The men went to the Elite Eight last year for the first time since 2015,” Coplin said.
Saint Anselm College
Zach Elliot, Assistant Director of Athletic Communications for the Hawks at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, is looking forward to the school’s upcoming basketball season.
The Saint Anselm Hawks are in what he called “the highly competitive Northeast-10 Conference” within NCAA Division II.
“The men’s side is a historic program coming off a trip to the Conference Semifinals last year,” Elliot said. “They also won the Conference title two years ago and have won 10 NE10 Championships. They are returning an All-Conference Third Team selection from last year in Josh Morissette, an Exeter native who finished in the top 10 in the league in scoring with 17.9 points per game. He also made the 16th most three-pointers last year as just a sophomore.”
The team has a new head coach this year in Chris Santo, replacing Keith Dickson, who retired during the offseason after 39 years in charge, Elliot said. Santo is a former NE10 Player of the Year and served as an Assistant Coach for both Saint Anselm and the University of Vermont (NCAA Division I).
“The women’s side looks to improve this year after two straight first-round playoff exits,” Elliot said. “They return their top scorer from a season ago in Tatum Forbes, who put up 14.7 points per game as a sophomore. She finished in the top 20 in the NE10 in scoring, assists, rebounding and steals.”
Games to especially look forward to, Elliot said, will be the game on Wednesday, Nov. 20, against Saint Michael’s College from Colchester, Vermont, the defending champions for men’s, and the Wednesday, Feb. 19, game against in-city rival Southern New Hampshire University.
“Our basketball teams are always hosting youth programs to come and spend time at our games. The teams get a chance to play on the court at halftime or during an intermission. Our teams stay after the game to sign autographs and take photos as well,” Elliot said. “Our women’s team also volunteers at a local middle school and takes part in numerous activities with local youth.
And at the game, there are snacks. Elliot said the concession stand, located outside the gymnasium, offered items such as popcorn, candy, hot dogs and bottled beverages.
NHTI
Annie Mattarazzo, the new athletic director at NHTI in Concord, cannot wait for the upcoming season of Lynx basketball.
“Our conference is really competitive and our men’s program and women’s program have a history of great success. So I think every game is kind of fun. We play in the YSCC conference, which is within the USCAA,” she said.
The Yankee Small College Conference is within the United States Collegiate Athletic Association, which is composed of junior, community and small colleges, totalling 72 schools. Mattarazzo cited Great Bay Community College as a big match for the school “because we’re both in the state of New Hampshire.”
NHTI teams play inside the Dr. Goldie Crocker Wellness Center on a court named for a former coach, the Paul Hogan Basketball Court.
“It’s really energetic. It’s college basketball here, so it’s up-tempo, it’s fast,” she said. “We play teams from New York to Maine and kind of in the middle, Massachusetts, Connecticut. It’s just really a great atmosphere of up-tempo play locally in central New Hampshire.”
Mattarazzo hopes to preserve the old while ushering in the new. “I’m trying to maintain the traditions that are here and bring some new ideas to the table as well. So yeah, we’re definitely going to work to really continue those game initiatives. Some of my vision is to work with the parks and rec in town in Concord and have, you know, first responders nights with the local fire and EMT and have youth nights and invite teams to play or meet our team. Be able to provide that atmosphere for the Concord area. We do define ourselves as the Concord Community School. In such a prime location, there’s a lot of great connections here to build.”
“Our events are all free unless it gets to the tournament for our conference,” she said. The games be watched online too. “We do stream games, yep. And that would be found on our website under the specific team’s game schedule.”
Mattarazzo is no stranger to the Granite State or basketball. “I’ve been around New Hampshire my entire life. I grew up here. I was a college basketball coach pre my high school administration days on the women’s basketball side, so I’m a big fan of women’s games.”
She’s aware of Caitlin Clark’s impact on the sport. “Clark has been such an instrumental contributor to the growth of college basketball. She plays such a unique style of play and has such a unique mental toughness that it is a beautiful thing to watch. And I think it attracts so many different levels of players in the game of basketball. Her contributions of being a head-down, hard-nosed, competitive athlete really does continue to advance the game of basketball on both sides, men’s and women’s, as she really just plays. She’s not afraid, and I think that’s a great role model for youth in the game of basketball as well.”
The school is a good place to watch the game and to play it too, Mattarazzo said. “Here at NHTI I think we understand, we support the values of being a student-athlete and I think with that and the support in the community, our programs are really going to continue to be competitive and develop.”
Rivier University
Nick Perenick, Director of Athletic Communications, spoke about the upcoming Raiders basketball season at Rivier University in Nashua.
“We’re Division 3 and we’re in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference,” Perenick said. “So we have a couple of other New Hampshire teams in our conference as well as Massachusetts and all over New England really.”
The women’s team is in a good spot this year, he said. “We made it to the playoffs for, I believe, the third straight year last year. And our coach is actually an alum, Deanna Purcell from the class of 2015. She is the leading scorer in program history as well.”
“We currently have a fifth-year senior going after her record,” Perenick said. “She’s sitting just behind her record for all-time scoring. Her name’s Lyric Grumblatt. She was recently named by the New England Basketball Journal to the top 10 watch list for Division III basketball athletes for New England for this upcoming season. Between the coach and our player going after the record, it’s pretty cool.”
The men’s team has bright prospects.
“Two seasons ago we were really down. We finished with two wins and 23 losses. Then last year we had the biggest win turnaround from season to season. Last season we went 15 and 12 overall. We went from two wins to 15 wins. So plus 13 was, I believe, the largest in the country in terms of win differential from year to year,” he said. The Raiders finished seventh last year.
A couple games to especially look out for are on the horizon.
“I think for the men’s side it’s playing a conference opponent named Albertus Magnus College. They’re from Connecticut. They’ve won the conference the last few years or are fed right up at the top — if they’re not winning they’re in second, coming in second place losing the championship. They play at our place on Jan. 25 this year for the men’s side. So Albertus is one of the teams we kind of circle on the calendar as a team to get ready for as the season goes on,” Perenick said.
The women’s team has the same rival along with other teams. “I would say our biggest game in conference this year is actually an away game. I would also say Alberta is one of the top teams that we play at home this year. Most of our bigger games with real rivals are on the road. Those are Emmanuel and St. Joseph’s College of Maine, but I would say that Albertus is probably the toughest team we’ll play at home in conference this year.”
Certain game days have themes. “For the women, on Feb. 8 they’re going to host a game in dedication of National Girls and Women in Sports Day. Last year we invited a bunch of youth basketball teams and a bunch of youth girl athletes to campus for a game to celebrate that. It’s a day, the National Girls and Women in Sports Day, but we can’t celebrate it if we don’t have a game on that day so we honor that day on the weekend and we have a nice event with a bunch of youths from the area.” The men’s team will have a Youth Sports Day on Saturday, Jan. 11, against New England College.
Asked about the Caitlin Clark effect, he agrees she has had an undeniable impact in basketball. “Any time there’s a generational talent in any sport, there’s going to be more eyes on that sport. I think that Caitlin Clark has helped at a lot of different levels. I would say that for our women’s team and for the youth in the area, I think it’s a lot easier for us to have that National Girls and Women in Sports Day event with the headway that she’s made in the realm of women’s sports. But I would say that most of our fans and supporters are students or parents,” he said.
Concessions are available at some games, and a good number of the matches have teams play back to back. “We do a lot of double-headers with the men’s and women’s. In conference, almost every game is a double-header for men’s and women’s basketball.”
A multi-camera setup is used to capture all of the shots. “You can view our website and then under there you can scroll to the schedule pages and then find the video link,” he said. “You can watch all of our archived games for all sports that are broadcast. We have four cameras for the stream along with live commentary for all home games in the gym.”
New England College
Erica Ledy, the Head Women’s Basketball Coach at New England College in Henniker, is excited about the upcoming season for the Division III Pilgrims.
“I think we might be pretty good this year. We have, it looks like, a completely new team, so if you’re a spectator that came last year and is coming this year, you’re probably going to see a lot of new faces,” Ledy said.
“We’re going to play an up-tempo style of game so it’s like a fast-paced game, a lot of shots, pressing, like, pressuring the ball all the way up. So it should be more fun than a slower-paced game,” she said.
The team is in a whole new conference this year, the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC).
“So we don’t really have a lot of rivals yet, because it’s new. But Colby Sawyer is in our conference and we used to be in a conference with them before and they’re close to us, so I would probably say Colby Sawyer and maybe Plymouth and Keene would be our rivals, maybe Rivier, because they’re all New Hampshire schools,” Ledy said.
The team has worked with Henneker Elementary School over the last few years. “They will come and we’ll put on a mini clinic and the girls will stay and then we have a game where they’ll come when we [are] warming up, they’ll come out and talk to the girls. If other schools wanted to we’d be glad to do it. We like when teams want to be part of it.”
How about the Caitlin Clark effect? “I think a lot more people that didn’t really pay attention to basketball pay attention to it more now. She’s a great player. She is a really good offensive player. Defensively, she’s not the greatest. … but I think a lot more people are watching women’s basketball, girls basketball because of it. I think a lot of people can relate to somebody shooting a three-pointer and making it. It’s fun to watch.”
A smaller venue enhances the immediacy of the sport. “Our gym is very small, holds about 300 people, and usually it’s pretty full. It’s loud, it’s a great atmosphere, it’s really fun. We played a lot of schools where the gym is a lot bigger but it seems like nobody’s there because it’s so big, so it’s pretty neat,” Ledy said. She also noted concessions are a draw. “Our volleyball team runs concession stands usually when we have double-headers, so when we play and the men play after us or the men play first and we play second, there will be concession stands.”
The ability to watch the game from everywhere is definitely beneficial for those far away. “You can click Watch and you can watch it on your computer or livestream it up onto your TV.” Both men’s and women’s games offer the same feature for home games.
Ledy hopes to see you in the stands. “It will be exciting this year and they’re just a really nice group of girls that play hard, so it would be fun to watch. And we’d love for people to come out and watch us.”
What is a Division? A Conference?
The NCAA has Division I, Division II and Division III basketball for both men’s and women’s teams. Each Division consists of around 64 teams; Men’s Division I is an exception with 68 teams currently.
A Conference is a selection of schools in a given Division.
“So every game that we play this year will be against a Division III school, but only 13 of those teams are in our Conference,” said Erica Ledy, the Head Women’s Basketball Coach for New England College.
New England College is in Division III’s Great Northeast Athletic Conference.
“We play 25 games and we have 13 Conference games,” Ledy said.
“So 12 of the games, they count toward your record, and if you make the NCAA tournament they will help you if you win. But to make the NCAA tournament you have to win your Conference games.”
Conference games are the main deciding factor to make the tournament. “Our Conference games are more important than the out-of-conference games. We won’t be playing Conference games until January and February,” she said.
The same process occurs throughout the country.
“So what happens is the NCAA all across the nation is made up of different Conferences. Every Conference gets an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament. There are probably, I would say, somewhere close to 50 Conferences in Division III across the United States. So there’ll be 50 teams that automatically make the NCAA tournament. That’s the tournament at the end of the season,” she said. These 50 are the teams that win their Conference.
Every Division has its own tournament layout, but each one follows some sort of bracket structure.
There are other ways to make it into the tournament too.
”There will probably be like 14 at-large bids. The Conference games matter because it’s the NCAA tournament,” she said.
Winning the Conference is the more straightforward path to the glory of the NCAA tournament. —Zachary Lewis
