Stony Brook men's basketball preview: 11 new faces on Geno Ford's 15-man roster

This, Geno Ford was saying, was decidedly not a case of making changes just for the sake of making changes.

No, this was about the Stony Brook men’s basketball head coach understanding the result of college basketball’s ever-shifting tectonic plates is that programs continuously undergo transformations in order to stay competitive.

Either evolve or essentially face something akin to extinction. And so, because falling prey to irrelevancy was not an option anyone associated with the program would consider, alterations were made.

“When you take the temperature of college basketball, you realize each season is really precious,” Ford said during CAA basketball media day. “Because the faces in the locker room change so dramatically. We have 15 guys. Eleven weren’t with us last year.”

The Seawolves, who were picked to finish 11th in the 13-team league by conference coaches, brought in three graduate student transfers (guards Erik Pratt and Rob Brown III, and forward Oleg Kojenets), as well as senior guard Ethan Simmon, sophomore forward Richard Goods, and five freshmen (guards Jonah Butler, Jake Harbatkin and Andrej Shoshkikj, and forwards Andrew Okafor and Tomas Valentiny).

“We [have] a lot of new faces,” Ford said.

Including on the bench.

Along with the player personnel additions, Ford added to his staff with the hiring of Andy Hipsher as the associate head coach. Hipsher, 45, enters his first season at Stony Brook after coaching teams in Germany, Denmark and the Czech Republic for eight years. Prior to that, he served as the director of basketball operations and, later, an assistant coach at South Florida from 2009-13, then worked under his father, Dan, at the University of Texas at the Rio Grande Valley from 2013-16.

“I’ve known Andy since he was about 18 years old,” Ford said. “I’ve been very aware of Andy and followed his career. He spent the last eight years in Europe as a pro head coach for four and as an assistant for some European clubs for three, 31/2 of those years and had an interim [stint] in there, also. Andy is a really, really good basketball coach. He’s got a presence. He’s really good offensively. He’s been around the game for a long time and been with some very successful programs. Did a lot in college basketball, as well. Coached some really good teams in the Big East when he was at South Florida, NCAA Tournament teams. He’s seen it all and grew up around the game, so he’s been a big shot in the arm for us, for sure.”

So Ford has a completely new squad from the one which finished 2024-25 with an 8-24 record overall and 4-14 mark in conference play. The only returnees are Collin O’Connor, Quin Gorman, Leon Nahar and Toby Onyekonwu.

Of the foursome, much will be expected from O’Connor, a sophomore guard who was voted onto the conference’s preseason second team by coaches., An all-rookie team selection last season, O’Connor averaged 8.1 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 3.2 assists with a 1.4 assist-to-turnover ratio. He played in 32 games, starting 29, and averaged 33.5 minutes per game.

“We were really excited to have Collin back [because he’s a] huge part of what we’re doing,” Ford said. “He had a great freshman year and we expect him to be a much better player this year than he was a year ago. I think [at] the end of last year, he showed some consistency that we needed to see, and he showed some nice flashes early. But I think at the end of the year, he was playing some really good basketball.”

And a lot of it because, at one point in 2024-25, O’Connor played every minute in six straight games. The last time that had happened in the CAA? 2016.

“Coach Ford trusted me a lot. As a true freshman to go out there and do that and set a record like that, it means a lot,” O’Connor said. “So I think that experience helped me a lot and I think going into this [season] is going to help.

“The first half of the year was more of a learning curve for me. So I think the second half of the year I got better, but I can definitely improve,” said O’Connor, who acknowledged that one of his newfound responsibilities will be as a leader. “Coming back as a returner, I think the key thing — college basketball, it’s a new team almost every year — so it’s [about] getting guys on the same page and holding guys accountable.”