By Ryan Honey
After his team took top-seeded Hofstra to the wire in the semifinals of the Colonial Athletic Association Men’s Basketball Tournament in March, Blue Hens coach Martin Ingelsby reflected on an up-and-down season and his optimism about the future.
“I thought we had some really really good moments and played some teams really well out of conference, had some big wins in-conference,” Ingelsby said. “But then we also had a couple hiccups where you look back and say ‘if we only had that game back or two.”
Ingelsby’s right about that. The Blue Hens were 8-10 in conference play this year, and definitely want some of those losses back. This includes a 64-63 home loss to Towson in January, a 57-56 loss on the road to Elon later in January, as well as 68-61 road loss to James Madison in February. However, the Blue Hens head coach is only looking forward.
“Really excited about this group and what we’re adding,” Ingelsby stated. “A core group of guys coming back and then three really talented transfers in Justyn Mutts, Nate Darling and Dylan Painter. So we’re really excited to get into the offseason and continue to work and build what we’ve started.”
Although the offseason is a very important time for any team when it comes to the preparation for next season, the rest that’s received is crucial as well. The Blue Hens’ first contest of the season was way back on November 6th. As an over four-month long season has come to a close, Ingelsby makes it known that preparation is key, but rest is ultimately important for this program as well.
“I think this is a really important offseason for us as a program but we’re gonna give our guys some time to rest,” Ingelsby said. “It’s a long season, we’ve been with each other for a while. They’re lifting together on their own but we’ll get back together after spring break and then that gives us about five weeks to get into lifting, conditioning and some practice time with the returning group.”
One of the upsides to next year is that the Blue Hens will be getting a few new faces on the team. A big part of the offseason for the coaches is the recruiting aspect, as it becomes important to see which high school standouts fit best for the Delaware program.
“We’ll get into recruiting a little bit the next couple weeks, get out on the road and see some high school games, see some workouts,” Ingelsby noted. “We have two scholarships available right now and kind of got our eyes and ears open for some transfers and some fifth-year guys maybe not as much on the high school level.”
With 13, 14 and then 17 wins in the last three seasons, it’s clear that the Blue Hens are headed in the right direction as a program. Despite falling in the CAA Tournament, the team has extremely high hopes for the 2019-2020 season. Coach Ingelsby even mentioned just how excited he is for this next year.
“I couldn’t be more excited about the group and the guys we got coming back and what we’re adding,” Ingelsby said. “I think how we finished down at the CAA Tournament gives us a lot of great momentum heading into a really important offseason.”
Again, taking Hofstra to overtime was a great accomplishment for the Blue Hens as a five-seed, and shows they’re going in the right direction when it comes to their status in the CAA.
“I’m not sure I’ve been more excited to be able to coach a team since I’ve been here at the University of Delaware,” Ingelsby boasted. “We’re adding some really good pieces, we got a good group, a really young guard [in freshman standout Ithiel Horton], we got some size, we got some depth. We got a long way to go, but it really should be an exciting group to work with.”
The Blue Hens do have a number of young guys returning next season, such as Horton and sophomore guard Kevin Anderson. Horton led the scoring for Delaware in the loss to Hofstra, with 21 points on 8-13 shooting (5-9 from three). Anderson on the other hand made a name for himself on the stat sheet, with 17 points, six rebounds and four steals. Them two along with sophomore guard Ryan Allen are expected to lead a great group of players for this Delaware Men’s Basketball program next season.