It’s the third season of Division 1 play for the Skyhawks. What’s their deal, anyway?
Name: Stonehill College
Location: Easton, Massachusetts
I know Massachusetts is on the small side, but whereabouts is that? You know how Massachusetts looks like a bit of a rectangle, but it’s got that dangly foot bit on the east side? Easton’s right at the top of the dangly bit, and it’s about equidistant from Boston and Providence.
Founded: 1948 by the Congregation of Holy Cross, although planning started long before that.
Okay, so where did “Stonehill” come from? Stone-House Hill House was built by Frederick Lothrop Ames in 1905, and 30 years later, the Congregation of Holy Cross purchased it with an eye on needing housing space and so on for their seminary. That’s obviously a very complicated name, so Stonehill is much simpler, and that building is currently Stonehill College’s administrative building.
That’s a bingo: Stonehill College has a long running tradition of well attended Bingo nights. There’s a monthly game in the dining commons, but their Christmas Bingo night is apparently a huge draw with costumes and so on.
Enrollment: 2,491 full time students with 99% of them enrolled in undergraduate programs. In other words, their entire student body is barely bigger than Marquette’s freshman class this year.
Holy Cross Connections: Not specifically to the College of the Holy Cross, which is a Jesuit school, but to a different Congregation of Holy Cross school: Notre Dame. There is a program where engineering students can spend three years at Stonehill and two at Notre Dame — yes, that Notre Dame — and have a bachelor’s degree from SC and a master’s degree from ND. That’s not the only direct admittance type program that they have, but it seems that it’s one of just two shortcut cooperative programs. The other one? A 3 year/3 year law school connection to Villanova of all places.
Nickname: Skyhawks
Why “Skyhawks”? It’s a reference to the land that the school is on being used for United States Navy pilots for training during World War 2. The Navy had Skyhawk airplanes — although never actually during the time where they were using the training field — and so there you go.
However, this change was made in 2005, as up until that point, Stonehill was the Chieftains. Administration made the decision to stop being cartoonishly racist to Native Americans and instead went with the much more creative and clever nickname of Skyhawks.
Notable Alumni: William P. Driscoll, one of four American flying aces during the Vietnam War; three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Gerard O’Neill, who might actually be most famous for co-writing the book on Whitey Bulger that got turned into the Johnny Depp movie Black Mass; Georgetown head men’s basketball coach Ed Cooley, and finally, Michael DeSisto, founder of the DeSisto Schools, and, uh, well….
The DeSisto School were a pair of therapeutic boarding schools founded by Michael DeSisto, DeSisto at Stockbridge School in Massachusetts (from 1978 to 2004) and the DeSisto at Howey School in Florida (1980 to 1988). It closed in 2004 amid allegations by state authorities that the school endangered the health and safety of its students.
Last Season: 4-27, with a 2-14 record in NEC play.
Final 2023-24 KenPom.com Ranking: #359
Final 2023-24 BartTorvik.com Ranking: #357
2024-25 Preseason Poll: Stonehill finished tied for eighth in the NEC preseason poll, which is also a tie for ninth and last place. Yes, this means they were picked behind a Mercyhurst team that’s debuting in Division 1 this year and a Le Moyne team that’s in their second season at D1.
So Far This Season: 4-4, but 3-4 against Division 1 opponents.
Current KenPom.com Ranking: #335
Current BartTorvik.com Ranking: #330
Returning Stats Leaders
Points: Chas Stinson, 7.0 ppg
Rebounds: Todd Brogna, 4.5 rpg
Assists: Todd Brogna, 1.7 apg
Current Stats Leaders
Points: Josh Morgan, 15.4 ppg
Rebounds: Todd Brogna, 6.6 rpg
Assists: Amir Nesbitt, 3.5 apg
Bigs? Nope.
Okay, yes, Kesean Shillingford exists at 7’0” and 230 pounds. He played six minutes in their opener against Division 3 Framingham State, three minutes against Providence, and one minute against New Orleans. He has two points and a rebound. The next tallest guy is a three-way tie at 6’8” and 205 pounds, one of whom has 14 total minutes played this season.
Shooters? How much do you want to worry about Todd Brogna? The team’s top rebounder is 9-for-17 (52.9%) from long range this season, but he’s also 2-for-6 in their last three games and shot under 29% as a freshman last year.
Hermann Koffi is knocking down over 46% of his 3.8 attempts per game, Ethan Meuser is at 42% on more than three tries a game, Louie Semona isn’t that far behind in either shooting percentage or attempts, and Josh Morgan is launching. He attempts 7.1 three-pointers per game, and over 40% of them go down. Morgan is the only one with a history of knocking down shots, as the 6’3” guard drained more than 37% of his 4.0 attempts per game across four seasons at Incarnate Word.
Head Coach: Chris Kraus, who has been the head coach at Stonehill since 2013, long before they even thought about moving up to Division 1. He has a record of 151-147, but the Skyhawks were 130-99 with two NCAA tournament appearances during their time in Division 2 under Kraus’ direction.
What To Watch For: The one thing that Marquette truly needs to worry about in this game is Stonehill’s three-point shooting. They’re hitting nearly 38% of their attempts as a team against Division 1 opponents, which currently ranks #48 in the country according to KenPom.com. They also launch triples at a rate matched by few other teams, as their attempt ratio is #49 in the country. They also love hitting the open man for the shot, as their assist rate is #20 in the country.
To be clear about this: Marquette is #31 in three-point attempt ratio…… and just #153 in assist rate. You thought the Golden Eagles love sharing it for open threes? No, they merely like it. Stonehill, they love it.
All of this is kiiiiiiind of a problem because MU is actually kind of bad at giving up three-pointers, at least in terms of rate. They let opponents get over 41% of their shots from back there, and that’s #238 in the country. The Golden Eagles are also kind of rough at letting you get a bucket off a pass, coming in at #260 in the country, per KenPom, in defensive assist rate.
Marquette is heavily favored in this game. KenPom says Marquette by 29, BartTorvik.com says Golden Eagles by 30, nearly 31 to be honest. Stonehill has a lot of problems as a team. They turn the ball over too much, they can’t shoot twos, largely because they’re in the back third of the country when it comes to average height and so their shots get blocked a whole bunch, they don’t rebound the ball well on either end of the court, and they let their opponents get to the free throw line waaaaaaaay too much. That’s why Marquette’s heavily favored.
But if the Golden Eagles don’t mind their knitting and let guys like Josh Morgan, Ethan Meuser, and Herman Koffi shake loose from behind the arc and get into a rhythm? That’s a recipe for the Skyhawks making this game way more uncomfortable than anyone in blue and gold wants it to be.
All Time Series: This is the first ever meeting between Marquette and Stonehill because this is Stonehill’s third season in Division 1.