By Andy Walter

NEWARK — With five seasons of college basketball already under his belt, no one would have blamed Dylan Painter if he decided to move on.

But last year was just a mess for the Delaware men’s basketball team.

The Blue Hens played only 15 games — and none in the month of February — because of the pandemic. Painter said he and Delaware’s other veterans just wanted to write a much better ending to their college careers.

“I think the biggest thing that brought us all back is we really believe we can do this,” said Painter. “If we didn’t believe we could make something special happen, there’d be no point in coming back.

“But we really believe in our staff, our team and just the culture around our program.”

Apparently, the Colonial Athletic coaches and media also believe the Hens have the potential to do some big things this winter.

For the first time in their history, the Hens have been named the preseason favorite to win the CAA. Delaware won its one CAA tournament championship in 2014.

To be clear, there are a number of potentially good teams in the league this season, with six squads receiving at least one first-place vote. While Delaware collected 19 first-place votes, second-place Northeastern picked up seven of them.

Of course, the biggest thing about being picked to win the conference is dealing with the expectations.

“We talked to our group the other day,” said sixth-year coach Martin Ingelsby.

“We want to be able to embrace it but I think we’re old enough and mature enough to know that it doesn’t mean much right now. It’s not going to change our mindset. It’s not going to change how hard we need to work. It’s not going to change our daily habits.

“Hopefully it can be used as motivation moving forward knowing that we do have that target on our back. I think our guys are excited but we haven’t done anything yet.”

Probably the biggest reason the Hens do have a lot expected of them is because they return fifth-year senior guards Ryan Allen and Kevin Anderson along with Painter at center. Painter was a first-team pick on the All-CAA pre-season team, Allen made second team while Anderson was named to the honorable mention list.

All three had the option to return after the NCAA opted not to count last season as a year of eligibility because of the pandemic.

“You don’t want to end your college basketball career on a 15-game season where you lose in the first round of the CAA tournament,” said Painter. “Having the opportunity to come back has been a blessing to us to make it right this time around.”

Delaware, which opens the season on Nov. 9 with a non-conference game at Davidson, probably has the biggest roster of scholarship players it’s ever had.
The Hens have a total of 14 scholarship players plus three walk-ons on the roster in a sport that normally has a scholarship limit of 13.

The roster includes four transfers who haven’t seen action yet for Delaware. That group is led by Jameer Nelson, Jr. (George Washington) and former Sanford School standout Jayre Davis (Providence).

Nelson already earned pre-season honorable mention notice before playing his first CAA game.

For a program that had to cancel a CAA game last season because it didn’t have enough healthy players, having an abundance of available talent is a big change.

“Last year there were points when we were practicing only three-on-three because we just did not have the bodies,” said Painter. “It was weird. But this year we’ve gotten to have a solid month of practice with five on five every single day. It’s definitely been different.

“It’s been a lot better. I feel like our team’s really meshed because of it.”

“We do have great depth and versatility,” said Ingelsby. “We’ve kind of been mixing and matching so far in the pre-season with some lineups and combinations. I like our pieces — I like our interchangeable pieces.

“We’re old, we’ve got some young talent and we’re just trying to mix it all together.”

Follow Andy Walter on Twitter at DSNSports.