Trine's 2025-26 MBB roster is up.  https://trinethunder.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/2025-26

Of the 15 men listed on the roster, 4 are returners from last year (Brenner, Tucker, McKenzie, and Gard), 2 guys up from the JV (Bales and Millington), 2 true freshmen (Crane and Hamlet), and 7 transfers, 2 from Marietta (Flood and Bradshaw) and 5 from other schools (Jones, Lewis, Thomas, Roller and Panning).

Some notes:

One of the guys not returning from last year's roster is Jayce Cusack, who started off and on.  I liked him a lot, he'll be missed for sure.

One freshman not known about previously is Isaiah Hamlet, 6'6 forward from Grand Rapids, Hudsonville HS.  UPDATE, JUST DID SOME RESEARCH ON ISAIAH HAMLET, HE WAS AT ONE TIME A MARIETTA COMMIT.

Since Trine doesn't post a JV roster it's hard to speculate which freshmen enrolled or not.  I'm assuming most did and will be on the JV roster.  I figured most of Trine's incoming freshmen would not be on the Varsity roster anyway other than Crane, who should see some spot minutes off the bench. 

Trine's MBB opponents in the Daytona Beach FL tournament Dec 15 & 16 are now known.

Game 1, vs. Washington and Lee
Game 2, vs. either SUNY Brockport or Piedmont

Trine University MBB 2025-26 roster updates.

Received confirmation that Nate Tucker is back at Trine for his senior year.  This is great news!

Other transfers coming in not previously known about:

Elias Lewis, 6'2 G Olentangy Orange HS OH, transfer from Walsh University, no stats last season
Drew Panning, 6'9 F Hilliard Darby HS OH, transfer from Heidelberg University, 2.2 ppg last season
Elisha Jones, 6'1 G Little Miami HS OH, transfer from Mount St Joseph University, 9.9 ppg last season
Trevon Thomas, 6'0 G Bridgton Academy ME, transfer from Franklin Pierce University, 5.3 ppg last season
Jess Roller, 6'5 G Batavia HS OH, transfer from Bethany College, 12.8 ppg last season

All are underclassmen with either sophomore or junior eligibility.

Coach VanderWal obviously using his Ohio connections in completing the Trine roster.  I'm very excited to see how they all mesh together this season.  Cupboard won't be bare, but it might take some time for the team to gel with all the new faces.

First 2026 Commit for Trine:

Connor Stevens  6'5 F  Concord HS MI

Trine is building a 92,000 sq ft indoor inflatable dome practice facility to it's footprint next spring that will accomodate indoor practices for baseball, softball, soccer, lacrosse and football.  It can hold indoor games if needed for some of those sports (probably soccer and lacrosse) in case of inclement weather. 

Also Zollner Stadium will undergo some renovations, most notably building a new weight training and locker room facility to the area behind the west end zone.  I haven't noticed any construction started yet so will most likely begin after the 2025 football season.  I imagine this will allow visiting football teams access a facility right at the stadium rather than having to walk to the stadium from the ARC/Hershey Hall.

Quote from: Flying Dutch Fan on July 28, 2025, 01:06:26 PMSome transfer news regarding Trine:

Quote from: mc1983 on July 26, 2025, 04:50:19 PMSocial media confirmed incoming transfers to Marietta:

BJ Busbee - Mount Aloysius to Marietta
Elijah Harden - Heidelberg to Marietta
Jaiden Guerra-Howard - Heidelberg to Marietta
Jackson Beasley - Heidelberg to Marietta
Kevin Reynald Jr. - Heidelberg to Marietta
Mason Wisniewski - Heidelberg to Marietta
Sky Thomas - Penn State York (USCAA) to Marietta
John Castrilla - Bryant & Stratton (JUCO) to Marietta
Deuce Blake - Iowa Central (JUCO) to Marietta

Outgoing transfers:
Danny Flood - Marietta to Trine
Jayden Bradshaw - Marietta to Trine
Michael Roberson - Marietta to Trine

So 3 guys follow Coach VanderWal to Trine - not as big a hit as 5 guys following Coach Bucheit from Heidelberg to Maritta.

Flood (a 5-11 PG) and Bradshaw (a 6-4 Wing) are Seniors and would have been the two leading scorers not graduating from Marietta's team last year.  Roberson (a 6-3 Wing) is a Sophomore who has no stats for last season so may have 4 years of eligibility. Some quick per game stats from last year:

Flood - 19 min, 11.0 pts, 1.9 reb, 1.7 ast, shooting .393/.376/.702
Bradshaw - 30.3 min, 12.1 pts, 4.7 reb, 1.0 ast, shooting .392/.347/.821



Updated "recruit" list coming shortly

I believe there will be other transfers or freshmen joining Trine who are not known about publicly before all is said and done.  In looking at the group photo from the recently held Trine MBB Hoosier boys basketball camp, I counted around 26 student athletes in the photo.  I did recognize some of the returnees in the photo; Jayce Cusack, Cade Brenner, Logan McKenzie, Logan Gard, Colin Shriver, Evan Lumbrezer.  I cannot tell for certain, but maybe Nate Tucker is returning as there is a guy who looks like him in the photo.  That would be huge if he is returning to Trine for his senior year.  I checked his X account and he isn't listing another school yet, but then again his account isn't very active either.  I don't want to get my hopes up though, as I really can't tell if it's him or not.

Trine University Softball is your 2025 National Champions!!!

Powered way thru winners bracket and just wrapped up best 2 out of 3 today in the championship series with a sweep of Virginia Wesleyan.  Great pitching by Alexis Michon and offense powered by huge home runs all thru the world series.

Second title in 3 years.  Great job girls, laser focused all season!   

Trine commit:

Nick Ryan 6'3 G/F JFKennedy HS, Warren OH. 

Schools all time leading scorer, over 1900 pts in career. Avg 26.5 points, 11.8 boards senior season.  Sounds like a VanderWal guy that was being recruited for Marietta perhaps?

Saw Pete Smith at the Trine Super Regional Softball game yesterday.  He was sporting Trine gear, fairly certain he is leaving/has left Marietta to join Coach VanderWal's staff as assistant coach at Trine.  It looks like some of the assistant coaches from Coach Miller's staff are being retained by VanderWal; John Wysong, Ed Bentley, and Isaac Anderson.  Cortez Garland was also at the game, not sure of his status on the MBB staff, hoping he'll be retained.

Also congratulations to the Trine SB team on winning the Super Regional yesterday.  They will be 1 of 8 teams in the College World Series at Illinois Wesleyan.  Wishing them good luck as they try to win a second national championship.

Trine commitment:

Adam McBride, 6-1 G, Norwell HS, Ossian IN.  First team academic all-state, will study mechanical engineering at Trine.

Quote from: Flying Dutch Fan on April 30, 2025, 12:52:29 PMA great "get" for Trine and the MIAA, and I'm also impressed with how quickly it was done!  14 days after the announcement of Brooks leaving they are announcing the new hire.  It seems more common that it takes 14 days just to start the process and form a selection committee...

Quote from Trine Athletic Director Matt Land from the athletics web site:

"Coach VanderWal is the perfect choice to continue and build on the men's basketball success we have had at Trine University," said Matt Land, assistant vice president for athletics. "The outpouring of interest for the position was amazing and I want to thank everyone who reached out. Jon has shown that  he knows how to develop a culture of success, and how to win at the highest level. He was the first person we spoke with and we are ecstatic that he has decided to help Trine University remain one of the nation's elite NCAA Division III programs."

How often do you hire your 'first choice' for a coaching vacancy position?  Being a DIII fan I knew about Coach VanderWal's program at Marietta, now I'm scouring the internet to find more information about Coach VanderWal.  From what I'm reading he's a well respected coach and person.  As much as I hated to see Brooks Miller leave, the hire seems to be a home run for Trine University.

Quote from: KnightSlappy on April 29, 2025, 05:48:13 PMPer Ryan Whitnable, Jon VanderWal will leave Marietta to take the Trine job.

VanderWal is a West Michigan native and played his college ball at Albion.

https://x.com/OACBBallShow/status/1917333656126816709?s=19

That's a really good coach that Trine is getting.  I know he's had tons of success at Marietta, getting into the NCAA tournament 9 of his 16 seasons with the Pioneers, including a final 4 berth in 2022.  Curious as to why he would be leaving a great program like Marietta, other than to get back closer to home and compete in the MIAA.

Interesting fun fact, Trine and Marietta will be playing against each other in the Great Lakes Invitational this coming November.

So does anyone have the 'scoop' on Trine's new coach?  I can't find any annoucements.  If someone has a name but not confirmed, I'll take a private message if you don't want to post here.

Trine commitment:

Landon Lybarger, 6-1 G, Heritage HS, Monroeville IN

Quote from: Flying Dutch Fan on April 17, 2025, 12:02:44 PMReally interesting timing on this one (which was shared on X around 5pm yesterday): 

Paxton Crane 6-7 F Ft Wayne Carroll (IN) will attend Trine

I was pretty certain that Paxton was committing to Trine since this past winter (I have a nephew that teaches at Carroll), but he never made it public until yesterday.  Honestly I'm kinda shocked he made his announcement before a new coach was in place, and figured with Brooks leaving he'd open up his recruitment, so some good news for the Thunder.  He was MVP in the competitive Summit Athletic Conference in Ft Wayne, which has a few D1 commits.  Averaged 17 pts, 10 reb, shot almost 70% from the floor, honorable-mention all state.  He should help right away.