SEASON OUTLOOK: Offseason of reflection brings Millersville back to its roots

MILLERSVILLE, Pa. - By any definition, the last five seasons of Millersville men's basketball under Casey Stitzel has been the program's most consistent and most successful stretch since the storied days of John Kochan, John Dunmeyer, Lance Gelnett and Tommy Gaines in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Five consecutive seasons of at least 18 wins? Not since 1991-95. Three PSAC East titles in five years? Not since 1989-93.

The fact is, since the James Sullivan, Caden Najdawi, Khari Williams, and Jaden Faulkner-led team of 2022 won 25 games and reached the PSAC championship game, Millersville's resume stacks up against any program in the PSAC East. No other Eastern Division team in the last five seasons has reached the final four of the PSAC Tournament three times. In fact, Millersville is the only East team to do it more than once. Only one other program has played in two NCAA Tournaments. Millersville is the only East program to produce two PSAC East Athlete of the Year award winners and the only one with two PSAC East Defensive Athletes of the Year. The 13 Marauders named All-PSAC East tie for the most, and the nine first team selections are two more than any other PSAC East program. Millersville's 78-30 (.722) record against PSAC opponents over the last five years is bested only by East Stroudsburg's 79-29 (.731) mark. In this ever-changing era of college basketball with ever-changing roster personnel, any semblance of consistency is challenging. Sustained excellence is remarkable.

Yet Stitzel walked away from a 2025-26 season in which the team went 20-9 and swept the PSAC East's top individual awards unsatisfied with his own performance. Over the following four months, Stitzel reflected, studied and conversed with trusted and respected peers, picking their brains on X's and O's, team culture, recruiting and managing transfers in the modern landscape.

Stitzel's self-study revitalized him for the 2026-27 season. There will be some changes, namely a new offensive system with more freedom for the players. But what's old is new again. Admittedly and unapologetically old school, Stitzel enters the season fortified on the non-negotiables and principles that revitalized Millersville basketball in the first place.

"Last year was a wake-up call for me," said Stitzel. I don't think I adjusted quickly enough to the new culture in college basketball. When we built this, we had those first two recruiting classes and then plugged in a transfer here or there. From year to year, we had a lot of returners, but that isn't reality now. What I came away from this offseason is recognizing that culture has changed, but at Millersville, we are going to live by three things. One, you have to guard. Two, you have to rebound the basketball, and three, you have to be coachable. You've got to go from a talented basketball to trying to be a winning basketball player. The culture of college basketball has changed, but that doesn't mean we have to bend to it in terms of what you want to accomplish and your standards. It's our job as coaches to get the players to understand that we're going to help them do the hard stuff better, because if you think winning a game in college basketball, buying in, sacrificing is hard, you have no idea what's coming for you when you are 30 years old in the real world. The old school values I was taught by my father and mentors and the reason the program has had success, we aren't going to bend on those anymore. In the long run, that's going to help us."

College basketball is just different than it was a decade ago when Stitzel arrived at Millersville and recruited the foundational class of the rebuild. Top Division II players are routinely poached by Division I programs. Recruited freshmen rarely finish four years at one school because of the siren's song of early playing time. The transfer portal opened a Pandora's Box for coaches. It's become increasingly tough to recruit, develop and retain players over four seasons, and when those already-polished diamonds appear, the lure of Division I is inevitable.

That's what makes the core of Millersville's 2026-27 refreshingly different. Sure, there are 10 new players and just four returners, but Dante Weise and Ethan Benne are holdovers from the 2024-25 season and enter season three with Stitzel. When Stitzel talks about old school values, these are players who have earned their spots the old school way—fighting for playing time, exercising patience and overcoming obstacles to be leaders by example and central figures in the story of the 2026-27 season.

In 2023-24, Weise started 27 games at Saint Rose and led all Division II freshmen with six assists per game. Saint Rose shuttered at the end of that season, and without a home, Weise landed at Millersville. Stuck behind veteran point guard Jahme Ested, Weise played just 16 minutes per game that first season. It wasn't what he wanted, but he pushed through it. Last season, Weise role slightly expanded. His minutes bumped to 20.4 per game. He started half of the team's games and led the PSAC in assist to turnover ratio. He won the PSAC East Defensive Athlete of the Week award once. He came off the bench for the final nine games but still scored double figures three times and shot 50% from the field on the season. Now, Weise is the unquestioned point guard—an elite passer and defender with a high basketball IQ. He is a senior who stayed in the program even though he wasn't always first string, and now he is reaping the rewards of his patience.

"He is a completely different kid from a leadership and basketball standpoint," said Stitzel. When Dante got here two years ago, playing 37 minutes a game, he probably thought it was going to be just like that here. I think there was some frustration on his part. He wanted to start. Last year, he was in and out of the lineup at times, but when he got back to campus in August, he had expanded his game and was willing to be accountable and hold his teammates accountable. He's really improved his ability to shoot the ball and is looking for his shot. He's a great passer but if you never look at the rim, you take your gift away. He rebounds, he plays defense, and for the way our offense is now, he is perfect for it. The adversity that he's dealt with, our relationship and ability to have honest conversations, and how he has taken ownership of the offense, I would be surprised if he wasn't competing for all-league honors in March."

Similarly, Benne traveled a rough road through his early years at Millersville, only to be the surprise of camp, earning a starting spot in the team's scrimmages. From next door at Penn Manor High School, Benne redshirted in year one and was academically ineligible for the first semester in 2025-26. He ended up playing just 12 total minutes last season and missed all five of his shut attempts. It wasn't exactly a stat line that would lead anyone to believe that he was a significant part of Millersville's future. But the 6-6 third-year wing has put it all together, and he is in line to be Millersville's starting four, giving the team a pick-and-pop element it hasn't had since Justin Nwosu scored over 1,200 points from 2018-23.

"Ethan is an unbelievable story," said Stitzel. "Ethan signifies Millersville basketball. No one has struggled on the court and academically like he has, and in the spring, we were concerned if he would be able to put it all together on and off the court. He's finally taking this opportunity to be the person he can be potential-wise. He's earned the right to start, and I don't think in my 20-plus years coaching I've seen a kid make that drastic of improvements on and off the court. He's going to have a 3.0 GPA this semester. He's absolutely playing at a high level. He's a big wild card for our group. He's calm. He's scrappy. He's done a great job with his body, getting stronger. In this program there are no promises made in recruiting. You earn what you get. Ethan is a prime example of that."

Millersville also returns a pair of sophomores in Carnell Henderson and Jase Holland, who played key roles for the 20-win team in 2025-26. Both players made their mark as elite defenders as freshmen. Henderson, a 6-4 guard who played for one of the top high school programs in Pennsylvania, recorded the most steals by a freshman since Faulkner's epic rookie season of 2019. Henderson turned in a memorable 16-point performance in a win at West Chester. But like most freshmen, Henderson's outside shooting struggled, especially late in the season. Stitzel is confident that it has improved, and his defense is only getting better.

"Carnell is going to be one of the top defenders we've had," said Stitzel. "The list starts with James Sullivan and goes to Aamir Hurst, and Carnell is on that list. He's put on muscle. His instincts are uncoachable in a good way. He's starting to shoot it like we saw him in high school. The biggest improvement is that he's gotten way better off the bounce and with his pull-up game, and he's using his athletic ability. We want him to use that toughness to be a leader. He's a selfless player and plays every possession on defense. He's never taking a play off. He's bought into our culture and helped us a ton. He should be in the all-league, defensive player of the year conversation if I'm doing my job."

Holland surprised everyone, even Stitzel, in 2025-26. The 6-9 forward barely touched the court for the first two months of the season, but he proved his worth the moment he stepped on the court on Jan. 10 at Mansfield. He totaled 10 points, four rebounds, a block and a steal in 17 minutes when the Marauders were depleted with injuries. That earned him a regular spot in the rotation. He blocked 10 shots in a six-game stretch in February, and he proved an outstanding rim-runner, finishing alley-oop dunks off pick-and-rolls and in transition.

"Jase has turned himself into a unique weapon," said Stitzel. "Jase is bigger, stronger, and he is affecting every shot. For him, it is just a matter of putting all that talent together and continuing to do hard, fighting through adversity and continue to be a leader vocally and by example. We've been blessed to have some great front court players, and he should be the next guy at Millersville to step into that position."

Weise, Benne, Henderson and Holland are the known quantities. However, Millersville's formula for success got scrambled by offseason injuries. Players that the staff counted on as key parts of the rotation, like Josiah Rickards and James Barlow, have already been lost for the season. Anthony Purnell, a guard who played three seasons at West Chester, as well as freshmen Kasey Fleming and Gerald Edwell all missed extensive time in the offseason and are slowly working their way up to speed. All those injuries have made it tough for Millersville to even run 5-on-5 scrimmages in practice.

"We are young and unproven to begin with, and the injuries have set ups back a little bit," said Stitzel. But I've been pleasantly surprised with the defense and X's and O's on offense, even though the system is new for everyone. The team we see in November won't be the team we see in February. We always play our best defense in January and February, and when the offense meets the defense, you start maxing out when it really matters, and hopefully, we'll have a healthy roster at some point."

The early favorite to start at small forward is Saint Francis transfer Brandon Russell. Russell is a 6-5 wing who played at Archbishop Ryan before playing in 29 games with three starts against a D1 schedule.

"Brandon has a lot of talent, but he is learning how to play Millersville basketball and be a winning basketball player," said Stitzel. "He's a little bit of a Swiss Army Knife. He's good off the bounce. He's just got to learn our system and how we value every possession defensively, but he's big, strong and athletic, and he can play multiple positions."

Fleming averaged 17 points per game at William Penn Charter but missed a large portion of preseason practices. Edwell scored 1,600 points and grabbed 1,000 rebounds at Payne Tech but a car accident in the summer has prevented him from a fast start to his collegiate career.

Among the most intriguing newcomers is Veron Talla, the PSUAC Co-Player of the Year and All-America selection at Penn State Mont Alto. Talla didn't start playing basketball until well into his high school years, but he is a 6-7, 220 pounds and scored more than 1,300 points in three seasons at Penn State Mont Alto.

"Even when I was the head coach at Delaware Valley for eight years, we would try to schedule the Penn State branches to get a win," said Stitzel. "We weren't looking for strength of schedule points or to prepare us for conference games. When Coach (Dexter) Harris brought Veron to me in the offseason, I was skeptical, but you put on the film and realize you are talking about a legit 6-7 guy with a 6-11 wingspan and one of the better athletes in our league. He's made plays that only three of four guys in my time at Millersville can make. For him, it's all about getting rid of the bad habits that develop from playing at that level for three years. He didn't have to box out or be in a defensive stance every single possession, but he's playing his best basketball in the last two scrimmages. He can play the four or the five and make us tough to guard. We expect big things from him if he continues to learn how to play Millersville basketball."

Millersville has some depth at guard. Purnell has big game experience, having played in the NCAA Tournament. He knows the PSAC East, having played 84 games at West Chester. He has that Philadelphia Catholic League toughness.

"I love his confidence, I love his toughness, and I love his experience," said Stitzel. "He can really compliment Dante and also spell him at the same time. You can play them together, which allows us to press and pick up the pace. We play a lot differently than West Chester, but he's starting to pick it up."

DeMajh Salisbery played two years in the JUCO ranks, averaging double figures both seasons, and has fit into the Millersville basketball culture seamlessly.

"With the injuries, he got thrown into the scrimmages, and he was a big reason why we played well," said Stitzel. "He's athletic, a great kid, amazing coachability, really good leader, and has a great mindset on things. I've coached junior college players in the past, and sometimes it takes them longer to adjust to the higher level of basketball, but he saw what it takes in the scrimmages. He's an unbelievable on-ball defender, so that obviously fits us really well, and we can have four players on the court all applying pressure on the ball."

Despite its recent track record, Millersville enters the season with something to prove. The Marauders were picked fourth in the PSAC East Preseason Poll, and after losing four starters, that ranking may be justified. But by embracing the principles that made it an annual division contender, it will hardly be a surprise if Millersville is once again in the mix in late February.

Players Mentioned

Ethan Benne

Gerald Edwell

Kasey Fleming

Carnell Henderson

Jase Holland

Aamir Hurst

Anthony Purnell

Josiah Rickards

Brandon Russell

DeMajh Salisbery

Veron Talla

Dante Weise

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