Men’s Basketball Primed for Great Season

By Chris Nalley

Men’s basketball is primed for another MAC Commonwealth championship run under Coach Chad Dickman, who is entering his eighth season as head coach.

During the 2022 season, the team won 16 games, with 10 wins coming from conference games.

“Our goal is always going to be to win the conference championship, go to the NCAA Tourney, and see how far we can advance,” Dickman said. The Blazers won the conference two years ago and made it to the NCAA tournament, but this past year they were knocked out in the MAC playoffs by Widener University.

“We are really looking forward to conference play, that is going to be pretty interesting this year going up against Widener and Eastern. It is going to be a really good matchup between us,” said senior forward Soren Almquist. Widener, Eastern and Hood are three of the better teams in the MAC and compete almost every year for the MAC Commonwealth title.

“Coach Dickman is very goal oriented and detail oriented. When we make mistakes, he knows how to fix it and make sure we don’t make the same mistakes twice,” Almquist said. He attributes his growth as a basketball player to Coach Dickman over his time at Hood.

“We are extremely deep this year, so we have a lot of guys that will be making significant impacts throughout the season. Two of our players, Trumaine Strickland and Garrison Linton returned after being named second Team All-Conference last year,” Dickman said. He added that he feels that depth is one of the keys for success for his team this year as a good bench can really change the course of a game throughout the season.

While the Blazers are losing some core team members after this year, Dickman has some high hopes for the first-years with the program.

“I am excited about our younger guys’ futures. They will learn a lot from these players,” Dickman said.  Dickman said he feels that seniors such as Trumaine Strickland, Ryan Hollwedel and Justin Gielen are going to be great mentors to the incoming freshmen. Even though they are graduating after this year, they will help the program’s success continue.

Dickman and the team open up their season on Friday, Nov. 10 with the MMI Tip-Off Tournament at Hood. They also will play the recently nationally ranked University of Mary Washington on Wednesday, Nov. 15 at Hood’s BB&T Arena.