Eagles Men's Basketball Preview

The Edgewood College Men's Basketball team begins its 2022-23 season this week with two home matchups. They play Dubuque on Wednesday followed by UW-Stevens Point on Saturday at the Edgedome. The Eagles are coming off of an 11-14 season a year ago where their season ended at the hands of top seeded Concordia Chicago in the quarterfinals. The Eagles will have to find their way without a key player from last year in Eli Hartjes.

“We feel like we have a very talented but inexperienced group starting out this year,” said head coach Justin Meyer. “A couple keys will be how quickly we are able to get comfortable playing together and used to playing at the college level.”

2022-23 Men's Basketball Schedule

The Eagles start their regular season schedule with a pair of home matchups this Wednesday against Dubuque and Saturday versus UW-Stevens Point. Dubuque won the American Rivers Conference and made the NCAAs in the 2021-22 season. The Spartans are also receiving votes in the initial d3hoops.com poll. Other non-conference highlights include a trip to face #3 UW-Oshkosh November 22 and a Christmas week trip to face receiving votes North Central on December 28. The men's basketball squad wraps up their four of five at home in November with their conference opener against Concordia Chicago on November 29 and end their NACC regular season by hosting St. Norbert College on February 18. 

“Our non-conference schedule is very difficult and filled with high quality teams,” said Meyer. “Our hope is that experience sets us up to be successful during an always competitive and tough NACC schedule.”

2022-23 Roster

Head Coach Justin Meyer

By the Numbers

1st - The Eagles will miss Eli Hartjes, who finished top in the nation in free throw percentage last year. Hartjes also played 34.25 minutes a game for the Eagles while averaging 20 points per game.

2 - Two Eagles finished with All-NACC First Team honors last season. Hartjes and Jake Schroeckenthaler both received the honor, with Schroeckenthaler returning to a key role for the Eagles this year.

9 - Nine of the 13 NACC squads finished with a winning record in conference play. Concordia Chicago, Concordia Wisconsin, and St. Norbert split the regular season title last year, while Marian won the conference tournament and earned the conference's automatic NCAA bid. The Sabres fell to #5 UW-Platteville in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

1 - Of the Eagles double-digit average scorers last year, only Schroeckenthaler returns with his 21.4 points per game. Adam Baierl and Caden Nelson round out the top-three returners in average points per game with 9.3 and 8.5 respectively. 

9th - Edgewood College was slated for a ninth-place finish in the NACC Preseason poll. Opinions were all over the place in the poll, with St. Norbert taking the top spot by three points while Marian earned 12 first place votes to the Green Knights' eight. Concordia Chicago finished in third with three first place votes, while fourth-place Wisconsin Lutheran, fifth-place Benedictine, and sixth-place Illinois Tech were separated by 21 points. The sixth-place Scarlet Hawks earned three first place votes.

"There are no easy nights in our conference as anybody can beat anybody 1-13," said Meyer.