2026-27 to Open For Men’s Basketball at Marist

Monday, November 2

Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

7:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Marist

Buy tickets

10/31/2026 8:52:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Game One: Dartmouth (0-0) at Marist (0-0) – Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, 7 p.m.
Watch: ESPN+
Live Stats
Tickets
Game Notes
X

Game Two: Dartmouth (0-0) vs Framingham State (0-0) – Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026, 6 p.m.
Watch: ESPN+ | International Stream
Live Stats
Tickets
Game Notes
Program
X

HANOVER, N.H. – The Dartmouth men's basketball team begins the Brett MacConnell era with two games in three days. The Big Green open at Marist's McCann Arena on Monday, Nov. 2, then return to Leede Arena for the home opener against Framingham State on Wednesday, Nov. 4.

A New Era In Hanover
MacConnell, the 29th head coach in program history, was named to the post on March 30. It is his first head coaching job. He spent 13 seasons at Princeton, the last seven as associate head coach, and helped the Tigers reach the 2023 Sweet Sixteen. He spent last season as an assistant at Stanford. MacConnell went 3-1 as Princeton's acting head coach, and one of those wins came at Dartmouth in 2018-19.

A Familiar Face On The Sideline
The game also reunites MacConnell with Marist head coach John Dunne. MacConnell spent the 2011-12 season as director of basketball operations at Saint Peter's, where Dunne was in the middle of a 12-year run as head coach (2006-18). Dunne had led the Peacocks to the 2011 MAAC Championship and would later win the 2017 CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament title. It was MacConnell's first stop in Division I basketball after assistant roles at Holy Family and Delaware Valley, and he left in 2012 to become director of basketball operations at Princeton. Dunne took the Marist job in 2018, and now the two former colleagues will face each other in MacConnell's debut as a head coach.

Building On Recent Progress
Dartmouth reached its first Ivy League Tournament in 2024-25, finishing 14-14 and 8-6 in league play. Last season the Big Green went 11-16 (5-9 Ivy). This year's 28-game schedule includes 14 home games, and the 2027 Ivy League Tournament will be played at the Palestra.

All-Time Series Against Marist
Marist leads the series 8-2 and has won seven straight meetings. Dartmouth last visited McCann Arena on Nov. 19, 2024, a 75-62 Marist win. MacConnell is 0-0 against the Red Foxes as a head coach.

Last Time They Met
Marist led wire-to-wire in a 75-56 win at Leede Arena on Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2025. The Red Foxes held Dartmouth to seven points over the final 7:50. Rhyjon Blackwell led Marist with 16 points, and Justin Menard filled the stat sheet with 10 points, seven rebounds, eight assists and five steals.

The Returning Perimeter
Cameron McNamee is the top returning scorer at 6.0 points per game. He shot 38.1% from three-point range (32-for-84) and averaged 3.6 rebounds. He closed last season with 21 points against Cornell, going 5-for-5 from deep. Senior Nikola Abusara averaged 5.4 points and 2.4 rebounds and shot 43.6% from the field. Cam Hiatt, a first-year last season, appeared in 23 games and made 84.6% of his free throws.

The Frontcourt
Senior Patrick Tivnan Jr., a Charlotte, N.C., native, will play close to home when Dartmouth visits Davidson and Appalachian State this fall. Anton Strelnikov (6-8) and Tyler Garrett (6-10) return as sophomores, along with junior forward Shanon Simango.

The Newcomers
Dartmouth adds six newcomers. Transfer Dan Civello (6-11) was an All-NESCAC Second Team selection at Colby, averaging 18.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.0 assists. He scored a career-high 35 points against Endicott. Landon Williams (6-5) transferred from Niagara, where he started 15 games and shot 37.3% from three. The first-year class is CJ Aldrich III, Acen Jimenez, Jake Pollack and Ernas Valauskas. Aldrich is Rancho Buena Vista High School's all-time leading scorer with 2,712 points. Jimenez was the Orange County Player of the Year and La Habra's career scoring leader.

The Staff
MacConnell has built his first staff around coaches he knows well. He has known Nick Nichay for nearly 20 years, and Amir Bell was his first recruit at Princeton.

Nick Nichay, Assistant Coach
Nichay arrives after 14 seasons at Franklin & Marshall, the last seven as head coach. He led the Diplomats to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances and the 2024-25 Centennial Conference championship. F&M won 96 games under him, with three straight 20-win seasons. It also posted a 35-9 conference record over the last three years and ranked in the national top 10 in defense in each of the past two seasons. A Rutgers graduate, Nichay started as a student manager there before assistant stops at Hartwick and Le Moyne.

Eamonn Kearney, Assistant Coach
Kearney spent five years as an assistant at Kenyon, overseeing recruiting, game planning and operations. He helped the Owls to their best non-conference record since 1996. He then worked with MacConnell at Princeton as video coordinator in 2023-24, when the Tigers went 24-5 and reached the NIT. Most recently he was recruiting coordinator at Air Force. The Toms River, N.J., native played two years at Drew University, where he was a captain, and was named to Silver Waves Media's 2026 list of impactful mid-major assistants.

Amir Bell, Assistant Coach
Bell spent last season at Stanford as assistant general manager, working in player development, scouting and game preparation. The Cardinal won 20 games and played in the College Basketball Crown. The East Brunswick, N.J., native starred at Princeton, winning the 2017 Ivy League title and the Ivy Defensive Player of the Year award the following season. He ranks 35th in school history in scoring (1,043 points) and seventh in assists (313). Bell then played seven professional seasons in Italy, Malaysia, Germany, Poland and Cyprus. He was the 2024 Polish League Defensive Player of the Year and a 2025 Eurobasket.com first-team selection in Cyprus.

Bill Courtney II, Director of Basketball Operations
Courtney spent the last two seasons as a graduate assistant at Miami, where the Hurricanes won in the 2026 NCAA Tournament. Before that he was a manager at his alma mater, Notre Dame, from 2019 to 2023 and worked with the 2022 team that reached the second round. The Ithaca, N.Y., native graduated in business analytics and is finishing a master's in sports administration. His work has centered on defensive scouting, analytics and player development.

Scouting The Red Foxes
Marist went 19-12 (12-8 MAAC) last season under ninth-year head coach John Dunne, who earned his 250th career win against Dartmouth. The Red Foxes now play in the Metro Conference. Senior guard Jadin Collins-Roberts, a 2025-26 Preseason All-MAAC Third Team pick, leads the returnees. The frontcourt has size in Jason Schofield (6-10), Tarik Watson (6-8), Myles Parker (6-8) and Jordan Gabriel (6-9). The game is also Marist's season opener.

Last Time Out For Marist
The Red Foxes beat Quinnipiac 77-75 in the MAAC Tournament quarterfinals, then lost 58-57 to top-seeded Merrimack in the semifinals.

Game Two: Framingham State Visits Leede Arena
The Division III Rams, coached by Donald Morris Jr., finished fourth in the MASCAC last season at 7-7. They beat Bridgewater State 87-86 in the conference tournament opener, with Vondre Chase's layup coming with six seconds left, to improve to 15-11. Forward Joshua Saint Jean, of Lynn, Mass., was an All-MASCAC Second Team selection in 2024-25. In that tournament win he had 22 points and 14 rebounds.