Following the roller-coaster ride of a season in 2023-24 that saw Longwood win the Big South bid to March Madness, the Lancers recently held Lancer Madness, a season preview event for the fans.
Fans and students alike got to see the new players in Lancer Blue for the first time, and the players that have been in Farmville, Virginia, for a while. Longwood is coming off its third consecutive 20-win season and has nine new players.Â
Coach Griff Aldrich enters his seventh season at the helm of Longwood, where he has taken the team to the NCAA Tournament twice in the last three seasons.
Coming off a season in which Longwood was the five-seed for the Big South Conference Tournament and then went on to win it, Aldrich and his squad are looking ahead to duplicating their success this season.
“(We) want to sustain our culture…the culture is what has produced the tournament championships,” said Aldrich. “Of course, we want to recruit the best talent we can…but now is the time to make sure our process is right.”
Since the mid-major level has a high number of player turnover, coaches must be very savvy with transfers and recruiting. Nine new players are a lot to add to a team.Â
“It’s melding a lot of new players together and particularly on the perimeter,” said Aldrich. “Getting all of that chemistry to work, especially from the guard positions, that’s a critical element to what we’re doing.”
Kyrell Luc, a point guard who transferred from St. Bonaventure, will be a key factor in how Longwood plays. Luc averaged 7.4 points for the Bonnies last year, where he started and came off the bench at times.
“I only took one visit here coming out of the portal. I felt like it was home already, everybody welcomed me with open arms,” Luc said. “I feel like we have a great group of guys, and with the chemistry we’re building, I feel we can do something special towards the end.”
Even with all of the new blood this year, Longwood’s returning players are very strong. Elijah Tucker, a 6-foot-9 power forward who can also play center, averaged eight points per game and shot 57.1% from the field. Tucker was crucial down the stretch of the season and was a key piece to their title campaign.
“We have to come out competitive and play hard. We have to stay connected through adversity,” Tucker said. “If we just stay together and keep competing, we will pull through.”
Fans will also be a key part of the success, as the new Joan Perry Brock Center enjoyed a successful campaign, with the Lancers going 13-3 at home last season.
“We always have a great atmosphere, especially in the first couple of games (of a season),” said Michael Christmas, a sharp-shooting forward who’s been at Longwood for four years. He would later add that the winning seasons as of late fueled the good fan turnout in the arena.Â
Excitement for Longwood men’s basketball is at an all-time high, and so are their expectations. In a conference where the outcome will likely come down to the smallest details, Coach Aldrich’s Lancers find themselves in a position that once seemed unimaginable before his tenure.
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