On both the men’s and women’s side, La Salle basketball enters the season with a clean slate

The term clean slate couldn’t be more true for La Salle’s men’s and women’s basketball programs.

Both teams are looking to improve on sub-.500 seasons, though. On the men’s side, a 16-17 record was the Explorers’ highest overall win total in eight seasons. For the women, a young corps is coming off the Explorers’ worst record (8-22) since head coach Mountain MacGillivray took over the program in 2018.

The Explorers have a newly renovated gym to call home, as the famed Tom Gola Arena was renovated into the newly renamed John Glaser Arena. The teams started to use the facility full-time in mid-October.

Here‘s a look at some of La Salle’s keys heading into the season, which opens for both teams on Monday. The men play against American at 7 p.m. (ESPN+), while the women are against Maine at 11 a.m.

Entering its 30th season in the Atlantic 10, La Salle has never won a conference title, men’s or women’s. It would be a shock for the Explorers to claim their first this season. The women and men were selected to finish 15th of 15 in their respective A-10 preseason polls.

On the men’s side, La Salle is returning 42.2% of its 2023-24 minutes, per barttorvik.com. In an effort to build back up, head coach Fran Dunphy and his staff welcomed five transfers. Among them are junior forward Demetrius Lilley, who was a three-star prospect at Lower Merion in 2022, and graduate guard-forward Jahlil White. Lilley joins the Explorers after two unremarkable seasons at Penn State. White transferred to La Salle after posting 10.1 points at Temple last season.

For the women, MacGillivray may have had the most difficult roster-building challenge in all of college basketball. The Explorers go into 2024-25 returning just two players from the previous season. Graduate guard Jolene Armendariz returns after averaging 6.2 points in 29 games. Sophomore guard Aryss Macktoon also returns, though she appeared in just four games and averaged 10.8 points before a shoulder injury ended her season.

The men’s non-conference slate is highlighted by the second annual Big 5 classic on Dec. 7, as well as a trip to Chapel Hill to face preseason No. 9 North Carolina on Dec. 14.

La Salle won an overtime thriller against Penn in the third-place game of last season’s Big 5 classic, with Explorers guard Kahlil Brantley converting a heave from just past center court to give the Explorers a 93-92 victory. This season, the Explorers will travel to Drexel on Nov. 16 and host Temple on Nov. 30 in pod play to determine their seeding in the triple-header at the Wells Fargo Center.

In his 33rd year as head coach of a Big 5 program and now third at his alma mater, men’s coach Fran Dunphy, 76, shows few outward signs of leaving the sidelines anytime soon. .

Dunphy, who played at La Salle under Tom Gola from 1967 to 1970, has yet to find a similar level of success at La Salle. Since his return to coaching in 2022-23, there has been the annual question on whether Dunphy will return. He has given no indication that this season will be his last, but the question assuredly will rise again come March.

As much as portal departures hurt the Explorers, recruiting from the portal played a major role in the their ability to shape a roster. On the women’s side, La Salle brought in two transfers from Division I programs. Graduate forward Mackenzie Daleba spent four seasons at Fairfield, averaging 3.6 points on 9.1 minutes in her senior season. Redshirt sophomore guard Ashleigh Connor spent her first two seasons at St. Louis, appearing in 18 games last season after redshirting in 2022-23.

The Explorers brought in a number of players from outside the ranks of Division I. Junior guard Alisa Blalock joined from Division II Caldwell. Five Explorers come from the junior college ranks.

In putting together his roster, MacGillivray and his staff pulled players from all around the world. There are five freshmen on the Explorers' roster this season, two of whom are from outside the United States. Freshman Irene Garcia, a 6-foot-1 guard, comes to La Salle from Madrid. Freshman guard Sania Jenkins is a native of Narrabeen, Australia, a beachside suburb of Sydney.

There is also representation for France and Poland, as well as another Spaniard. Junior guard Ayisse Magassa, who transferred from Clarendon College, is from Morsang-sur-Orge, France, a Parisian suburb. Junior forward Anna Przyszlak, formerly of Cowley County Community College, is originally from Gdansk, Poland. Junior guard Vega Gil, a transfer from Raritan Valley Community College, is a native of Pamplona, Spain.