#HLMBB Preview: Green Bay
Joey Yashinsky
Green Bay Phoenix
Last year: 18-14 overall, 12-6 Horizon League
Coach: Linc Darner (3rd year)
Team Preview
By Joey Yashinsky, Horizon League Contributor
Transition is a natural part of college athletics. Players graduate. Players transfer. Some even decide to jump to the professional ranks. The hope is that such change comes in small, manageable waves. But then there are times when everything happens all at once, and a team full of veterans becomes a collection of new faces practically overnight.
Meet Linc Darner and the Green Bay Phoenix, a team so fresh that there is still balled-up tissue paper tucked into the toes of their sneakers.
Of Green Bay’s top nine scorers from 2016-17, just a single player returns.
Thankfully, he’s a darn good one: Khalil Small, a powerfully-built 6-foot-2 guard, and one of the more dynamic two-way players in the Horizon League. He was an all-conference defensive player a year ago and complements that with a rugged offensive style that saw him score in double figures 18 times last season. The Green Bay faithful would like to see Small’s outside stroke return to form. After a sophomore year in which he connected on over 40% of his 3-point attempts, he made just 19 of 82 as a junior (23%). Small’s defensive excellence, however, cannot be questioned. Quick enough to shadow point guards and muscular enough to battle forwards, Small could very well be the next generation’s Tony Allen.
Small won’t be completely devoid of familiar faces.
Kam Hankerson, a lanky 6-foot-5 guard, returns for his sophomore season with the Phoenix. Though Hankerson didn’t log significant court time as a frosh, he did earn an increased confidence from the coaching staff as the year went on. In Green Bay’s Horizon League tournament loss to UIC, Hankerson played 21 minutes and was an integral part of what almost became one of college basketball’s all-time greatest comebacks. The Phoenix trailed in that game by 17 with 3:53 left and somehow sliced the lead to just two before finally running out of gas in the final minute. Darner will lean heavily on Hankerson to be his team’s primary ball-handler and one of its most consistent sources of offense.
A pair of newbies, one a junior college transfer and the other a true freshman, should help to fortify the Green Bay frontline.
Sukhjot Bains is a versatile 6-foot-6 forward that can be a threat from both the inside and outside. The transfer from Northwest College in Wyoming will be a junior this year and could see a starting role when the season begins. Will Chevalier is another name to watch. The freshman shoots the ball exceptionally well for a big man (6’8”) and is comfortable playing with pace, two qualities that will earn you regular minutes on a Linc Darner team.
Once conference play gets going in late December, the Phoenix will get a major boost by adding Marquette transfer Sandy Cohen III to the mix. Cohen III is a guard with a unique blend of size and speed at 6-foot-6, characteristics that Darner hopes will greatly enhance the team’s trapping and pressing style. When Green Bay traveled to Puerto Rico over the summer to play exhibition games (going 5-0), Cohen III was one of the team’s top performers. They’ll be eagerly awaiting his Green and White debut this winter.
Talk to Linc Darner for even a minute and you realize very quickly that this is not a man fond of excuses. He knows that this year will be a challenge, and a tremendous one at that. But he also shifts the conversation very quickly to the postseason and what this group can do to ensure that its best basketball is being played when the calendar flips to March.
Two years ago, the Green Bay hoopers and their rabid “Phoenix Dunkers” fan club invaded Joe Louis Arena and captured four victories in four days. Nobody thought such a feat was possible.
This team will have to defy the odds with one of the most inexperienced rosters in the country. But there’s an ocean of time between now and Motor City Madness.
And by then, Khalil Small and his new batch of friends might be ready for another lengthy stay in the Motor City.
Motor City Madness
Support the Phoenix at the 2018 Little Caesars Horizon League Basketball Championships March 2-6 at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. Tickets can be purchased at campus box offices now and online starting December 15. For more information, click here.
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