High hopes for Bentley men’s basketball team heading into new season

Roster consistency from year to year is becoming a rare feat in college basketball. With players transferring at an unparalleled rate, camaraderie can be difficult to maintain.

The Bentley University men’s basketball team has managed to stave off the carousel of athletes leaving their schools for greener pastures. The Falcons return a bevy of talent from last year’s successful campaign, including all-conference performers Cooper Farrall and Cash McClure. This has the team full of energy as the calendar switches to November and basketball season tips off.

“We have nine guys who are going to be in the gameday rotation to some degree, and all nine are returning,” longtime head coach Jay Lawson said. “Two of those guys made all-conference and four of them started a lot of games last year. When you don’t have anybody that is a freshman or a transfer that is new to the program, that is pretty good. The veteran players are owners in this just as much as the coaches are. We have guys that think exactly like we do as coaches.”

Bentley already has its full lineup planned out after the 2024-25 season, when they finished second in the Northeast-10 Conference. Farrall, a 6-foot-5 forward from Indiana, led the team with 16.8 points and 8.3 rebounds per tilt, while fellow junior McClure was right behind him with 16.4 points and seven boards per game. The duo will need to keep its roll going if the Falcons plan on handling what looks to be a challenging schedule.

“We think we have a really good group, but we probably have the toughest schedule that we have ever had,” Lawson said. “It’s still about achievement, about how well the season goes no matter how good the team is. When you are one of the Division II teams in the Northeast region that does pretty well, you have a real hard time getting games as a lot of teams will avoid you. We didn’t schedule a hard season just because we have a veteran team, it just played itself out like that.”

Having a more difficult slate could seem like a massive obstacle. However, it can aid in the long run when the committee is deciding on which teams will earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament.

“We want to have the strength of schedule that gives us a better chance of getting an NCAA bid, for sure,” Lawson said. “Over 50% of our regular season games are against teams that made the NCAA Tournament last year. I think that is pretty abnormal.”

Bentley has been laying the groundwork to excel in this tough landscape during preseason practices.

“As soon as the season ends, the good habits that teams have drop off immediately in the spring,” Lawson said. “No pickup games or summer men’s leagues are like real college basketball. Once you get to the fall, you have to build back all of the mental habits, discipline, toughness and cohesiveness. These are all the things that you have to re-establish.”

The Falcons will begin the year on Nov. 14 at the Caldwell Tip-Off Tournament in New Jersey before coming home to face Assumption University in the Dana Center opener on Tuesday, Nov. 25.