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UNCG begins a full rebuild under Jerod Haase, returning just two players and adding 12 newcomers after losing 98.3% of last season's scoring.
Written By
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UNC Greensboro went 15-19 and 9-9 in the Southern Conference last season, then got hot in Asheville. The Spartans beat VMI 84-70 in the first round and Wofford 75-72 in the quarterfinals. They led Furman by 11 at halftime of the semifinals before losing 81-75. Neely scored 27 that day. The next day, Mike Jones was out. UNCG did not renew his contract after five seasons, a 93-69 record, and a 57-33 mark in league play.
The league's coaches picked UNCG 11th, last in the league, with 14 points. No Spartan made the preseason all-conference team. That is what happens when a program changes coaches and keeps two players.
Thirteen players who appeared in a game last season are gone. They scored 2,628 of UNCG's 2,673 points. That is 98.3 percent.
Neely was the reason UNCG was dangerous. The 6-foot-6 graduate forward averaged 17.9 points and 11.5 rebounds and shot 54.2 percent. He started all 34 games and made first-team All-SoCon. He transferred to Colorado for his final season.
KJ Younger may be the bigger long-term loss. The 6-foot-4 guard from Matthews, North Carolina, averaged 15.1 points and 4.7 rebounds as a freshman. He started all 34 games and made 62 threes. He transferred to Texas State.
Two more freshmen left. Lilian Marville, a guard from France, averaged 9.5 points and made 52.2 percent of his threes. He also had 71 assists. He transferred to George Mason. Noah Norgaard, a guard from Denmark, started 26 games and averaged 7.7 points with 48 threes. He transferred to Western Kentucky.
Valentino Pinedo, a 6-foot-8 senior from Spain, started 28 games and averaged 7.3 points and 4.9 rebounds. He shot 60.8 percent and blocked a team-high 33 shots. He signed with Club Ourense Baloncesto in Spain's Primera FEB.
Donald Whitehead Jr., a graduate guard, started 20 games and averaged 10.1 points with 82 assists. He is no longer on the roster.
The bench left too. Clinton Efinda (4.5 points) transferred to Canisius. Domas Kauzonas (2.9 points) transferred to Longwood. Assane Mandian (2.1 points) transferred to Charleston Southern. Antwann Jones, who played seven games, entered the transfer portal. Landon King transferred to Division II Georgia Southwestern State. Braylen Bowman and Jordan Brown are also off the roster.
Two players return. Clyde Bailey II, a 6-foot-1 graduate guard, played 13 games and scored 23 points. Chane Bynum, a 6-foot-9 sophomore forward from Atlanta, played 15 games and scored 22 points. Together they played 138 minutes last season.
Neither is likely to be a starter on a normal roster. On this one, they are the only players who know the league from the inside of a UNCG locker room.
Haase is the 12th head coach in program history. UNCG hired him on March 18. He went 80-53 in four seasons at UAB, won the Conference USA tournament in 2015, and beat No. 3 seed Iowa State in the NCAA Tournament. He won 126 games at Stanford, fifth most in program history, before Stanford let him go after the 2023-24 season. He spent the last two seasons as an ESPN analyst. Before UAB, he spent 13 years on Roy Williams' staffs at Kansas and North Carolina.
He brought in 12 players. Eight are transfers.
Braxton Stacker is the most proven. The 6-foot-5 graduate guard started all 33 games at Southeast Missouri last season. He averaged 11.8 points and 3.4 rebounds and shot 80.3 percent from the line.
Brock Mishak comes from Division II West Texas A&M. The 6-foot-3 graduate guard started all 31 games and averaged 14.3 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 3.4 assists. He shot 38.1 percent from three and made second-team All-Lone Star Conference. He scored 31 with seven threes against Texas A&M-Kingsville.
Zavier Fitch, a 6-foot-5 forward from Chicago, played 18 games at Wagner and averaged 6.8 points and 6.2 rebounds. He blocked 16 shots.
Cameron Grant followed Haase from Stanford. The 6-foot-7 graduate guard played 20 games off the bench and averaged 2.2 points. He scored 15 with five threes against Louisiana. His father, Chris, was general manager of the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2011 to 2014.
Jon Mani, a 6-foot-7 guard, redshirted at Colorado last season. He played 30 games at Denver in 2024-25 and averaged 2.9 points. RJ Greer, a 6-foot-4 sophomore, played 17 games at Davidson and made 12 of 28 threes. Ante Beljan, a 6-foot-11 graduate forward from Croatia, played 26 games at UIC and shot 62.9 percent.
Vernon Collins Jr. stays in the league. The 6-foot-10 graduate forward played five games at Western Carolina last season after two seasons at Princeton. He played high school ball at Greensboro Day.
The freshmen are Dionte Neal, a 5-foot-9 guard from Reidsville; Martin Giant, a guard from Greensboro Day; Charles Barnes, a guard from Chicago; and Cael LaFrentz, a 6-foot-11 forward from Decorah, Iowa. LaFrentz is the son of Raef LaFrentz, who started next to Haase on Kansas' 34-2 team in 1996-97.
Neal is the prize. On The Radar Hoops called him a four-star point guard when he reopened his recruitment after Jones left. He recommitted to UNCG on April 20 despite an offer from Wake Forest, HighSchoolOT reported. He also played receiver for Reidsville's football team.
UNCG ran through Neely last season. He took 356 shots and 264 free throws. Stacker came closest to that load, with 304 shots at SEMO.
The likely answer is a guard-heavy group. Stacker and Mishak are the two players who have carried an offense, one in the Ohio Valley and one in Division II. Grant, Mani, Greer, and Fitch all have size on the wing. Beljan and Collins give Haase two players near 6-foot-11 who finish around the rim.
Defense has to improve. Opponents scored 80.5 points a game against UNCG last season and blocked 104 shots to UNCG's 63. Pinedo was the only real shot blocker, and he is in Spain.
Haase's last UAB team shared the ball and protected the rim. The 2015-16 Blazers ranked fourth nationally in both assists and blocks per game. He will need time to build that here.
UNCG opens with an exhibition at UNCW on Oct. 24. The regular season starts at home against Milligan on Nov. 3. The Spartans play at Elon on Nov. 6 and at UIC, Beljan's old school, on Nov. 9. They play at Cornell on Nov. 14 and at Gardner-Webb on Nov. 18. Then comes a California trip, at Pepperdine on Nov. 23 and at UC Santa Barbara on Nov. 24. December brings road games at NC State on Dec. 11 and Seton Hall on Dec. 15.
League play starts at VMI on Dec. 1, a rematch of last year's first-round game. Furman visits on Dec. 5, and the Spartans play at ETSU on Dec. 19. The Citadel comes to Greensboro on Dec. 30. Wofford follows on Jan. 2, the first of two games against the team UNCG knocked out in March.
January is a test. UNCG plays at Chattanooga on Jan. 7 and at Tennessee Tech on Jan. 9. Western Carolina visits Jan. 13, with Collins facing his old team, and ETSU visits Jan. 16. The Spartans play at Samford on Jan. 21 and at Mercer on Jan. 23. Tennessee Tech and Chattanooga come to Greensboro on Jan. 28 and Jan. 30.
The final month opens at The Citadel on Feb. 3. Samford and Mercer visit Feb. 11 and Feb. 13. UNCG plays at Wofford on Feb. 18 and at Western Carolina on Feb. 20. VMI visits Feb. 24. The regular season ends at Furman on Feb. 27, the team that ended UNCG's run in Asheville.
Last place is a fair projection. UNCG returns 45 points. Every other part of this roster has to be learned in a few months, by a staff that has not coached a game since 2024.
There is a case for something better. Haase has won at this level before, and Stacker and Mishak are real scorers. The SoCon tournament also rewards teams that peak late, and UNCG proved that last March. But Neely was the floor and the ceiling of that team. Until somebody shows he can score 18 a night, the Spartans will be chasing the bottom of the standings, not the middle.
