A new era in Marist men's basketball dawned on April 3, 2018 with the hiring of John Dunne as the 12^th head coach in program history.
 
Dunne arrives at Marist with 12 years of head coaching experience at Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference rival Saint Peter's. He has earned the reputation as an outstanding defensive tactician whose teams are tough to play against.
 
Dunne inherits one of the conference's most experienced rosters. The Red Foxes return all five of their starters from last season, their top seven scorers, and 10 total letterwinners.
 

What's Coming Back

• 87 percent of the team's scoring.
• 85 percent of the team's minutes played.
• 90 percent of the team's starts.

Returning Starters

Brian Parker enters his senior season as the 10^th all-time leading scorer in program history with 1,360 points. The 6-foot-3 Parker earned Third Team All-MAAC honors last season, and was named Preseason Second Team All-MAAC this year. He is a versatile guard who led the Red Foxes in scoring last season at 17.1 points per game, topped the team in assists each of the last three seasons, and also had the squad's best rebounding average as a freshman and sophomore.
 
Senior Ryan Funk has established himself as one of the conference's top long-distance threats. Over the last two years, the 6-foot-6 Funk has drained a total of 158 three-pointers while shooting over 40 percent from beyond the arc both years. Funk's 185 three-pointers are the sixth-highest total in program history. He was second on the team in scoring at 11.5 points per game last season.
 
Senior David Knudsen was one of the MAAC's most improved player in 2017-18. Knudsen increased his scoring average 6.5 points per game last year, and turned in 10.8 points per night last season. The 6-foot-5 swingman led Marist in steals last year, and was second in three-pointers made and assists while shooting .833 from the free-throw line.
 
Red-shirt junior Aleksandar Dozic showed his versatility last season, his first on the floor with the Red Foxes. Dozic played his freshman season at Marshall before transferring and sitting out the 2016-17 season. At 6-foot-9, Dozic displayed the ability to handle and pass while also serving as a long-distance threat. He averaged 7.3 points per game, and was third on the team in assists.
 
Junior Tobias Sjoberg gives the Red Foxes a presence in the paint. The 6-foot-9 Sjoberg made 28 starts in 29 appearances last season. He led the Red Foxes in rebounds and blocked shots, and shot an efficient .630 from the field. Sjoberg's field goal percentage was the best in Marist's Division I history of any player who had at least 100 field goal attempts.
    

Returning Reserves

Senior Isaiah Lamb was the Red Foxes' fourth-leading scorer off the bench last season, and contributed mostly as the Red Foxes' top reserve. The 6-foot-4 Lamb averaged 7.7 points per game, improved his free-throw percentage to .767, and was tied for third on the team in steals. He came off the bench in 26 of his 29 appearances, and is one of the Red Foxes' most athletic players.
 
Sophomore Austin Williams displayed flashes of brilliance as a freshman last season. The 6-foot-3 combo guard averaged 6.0 points per game and shot .476 from the field in 16.7 minutes per game. Williams came off the bench in 27 of his 29 appearances.
 
Marist will also welcome back three walk-on guards who are entering their sophomore seasons: Ryan Carmello, Tucker Lee, and Michael Servetas. Carmello saw in action in 11 games last season, while Lee and Servetas appeared in nine apiece.
 

Newcomers

Marist will have six new faces on its 2018-19 roster.
 
Matt Herasme is a 6-foot-3 guard who played scholastically at Don Bosco Prep in New Jersey. As a junior and senior, he helped lead the team to the final of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association Tournament of Champions. This past summer, he played for the Dominican Republic in the FIBA Under 18 Americas Championship.
 
Darius Hines is a pure point guard who hails from Alexandria, Virginia. He played high school ball at Bishop Ireton, which competes in one of the top high school leagues in the country. He was a three-year MVP of his high school team.
 
Luke Nedrow, who stands 6-foot-7, comes to the Red Foxes from Pittsburgh. Nedrow averaged 18.2 points, 8.0 rebounds, and 3.0 assists per game while shooting almost 50 percent from three-point range as a high school junior.
 
Michael Cubbage is a 6-foot-4 guard who played two seasons at Paris Junior College in Texas. The New Jersey native helped lead his team to a 23-7 record last season while averaging 9.3 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game.
 
Jordan Jones will serve this season in residency after transferring from Charleston Southern. The 6-foot-8 Jones will have two years of eligibility beginning with the 2019-20 season. Last season, he shot .735 from the field while leading the team with 1.2 blocked shots per game in just 15.6 minutes per night.
 
Matt Turner will also serve this season in residency after transferring from Santa Clara. Turner will have three years of eligibility beginning with the 2019-20 season. The 6-foot-3 Turner averaged 4.1 points in just 12.1 minutes per game as a freshman last season, and had nearly a 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.
 

Coaching Staff

It's an entirely new staff for the Red Foxes this season. Serge Clement, Kevin Driscoll, and Dalip Bhatia will be Dunne's assistant coach, with Dorian Long serving as director of operations. Clement and Bhatia both worked under Dunne at Saint Peter's. Driscoll has previous Division I experience as an assistant at Holy Cross, NJIT, and Loyola University Maryland. Long has previous Division I experience as a director of operations at James Madison, and also served as an assistant at Neumann, Washington, and Lincoln.
 

Schedule

Marist will have two non-conference home games this season, and both will occur against Ivy League foes: Columbia (Nov. 10) and Brown (Dec. 22). The Red Foxes will play on the road against Army West Point (Nov. 6), Lehigh (Nov. 13), Stephen F. Austin (Nov. 20), Buffalo (Nov. 24), Stetson (Dec. 8), Colgate (Dec. 15), New Hampshire (Dec. 19), and Hartford (Dec. 29). The Stephen F. Austin and Buffalo games are part of the campus round of the Basketball Hall of Fame Belfast Classic, which includes games in Northern Ireland against Dartmouth (Nov. 29) and either LIU or Albany (Nov. 30).
 
In conference play, Marist will play an 18-game schedule. The Red Foxes will face Canisius, Fairfield, Iona, Manhattan, Quinnipiac, Rider, Saint Peter's, and Siena twice apiece. Marist will only face Niagara at home, and Monmouth only on the road. The 2019 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championships will be held at the Times Union Center in Albany from March 7-11.