By Aidan Joly
The Colgate Raiders, who play in the sleepy town of Hamilton, New York and have a gym that seats just less than 2,000 people, is one of the under-the-radar low major dominants of college basketball.
It showed why this is on Wednesday night, with a 93-86 win against Army.
Matt Langel’s squad has always boasted one of the most up tempo offenses in college basketball, a run-and-gun one that emphasizes shooting from deep. It did that on Wednesday, headlined by a 23-point performance from senior Oliver Lynch-Daniels, a number that came up one point shy of matching his season high while going an absurd 7-9 from three.
Meanwhile, freshman Braeden Smith made his presence felt, hitting a pair of threes as part of a 20-point performance. Ryan Moffatt went 5-8 from three as part of a 17-point night, nine of those points coming from three in the first few minutes of the game to give the Raiders some early breathing room. Leading scorer Tucker Richardson had an interesting performance, with Army limiting him to just four points on 2-11 shooting, but he helped in other ways, grabbing seven rebounds and dishing out nine assists.
Colgate ended up needing that early lead to fall back on, as Army made some adjustments in the second half and cut a 13-point halftime deficit to as little as four in the final few minutes. A little too close for comfort for sure, but it was a quintessential Colgate win.
It’s hard to ignore Colgate’s KenPom report card. As of Thursday, the Raiders lead the country in effective field goal percentage (58.0%), nearly an entire percentage point between the teams that are tied for second, Gonzaga and Oral Roberts, who are both at 57.2%. Colgate is also one of the best teams in the country of taking care of the basketball, at 15.5%, tying it for 23rd in the nation.
As alluded to before, Colgate is also one of the best three-point shooting teams in the nation, sitting in second in the country behind Utah State, at 40.5%. On Wednesday it went 15-27 from three, good for 55.6%. This is a modern offense that it ahead of any like it in the Patriot League and it has shown, with Colgate winning the league in 2019, 2021 and 2022 and is well on its way to winning it again, as Wednesday’s win improved it to 14-1 in the league, earning its 20th win of the season overall. It’s a five-game cushion on Navy and Lehigh, who are both 9-6. The Raiders have a nonconference win against Syracuse as well, its second consecutive season beating its nearby Power 6 foe.
This success is thanks to Matt Langel, the 45-year-old head coach who is in his 12th season at the helm in Hamilton. It’s a success story built on patience, as Colgate went over .500 in league play just once in Langel’s first six seasons and didn’t have a season with an overall record of above .500 until his seventh season. He’s likely here to stay too, as last March he was rewarded with a contract extension that keeps him under contract through 2030. He’s nearing 200 career wins.
The past three NCAA tournaments it has participated in, it lost in the first round each time, but kept it close. In 2019, lost to Tennessee as a 15-seed, 77-70. In 2021, lost to Arkansas as a 14-seed, 85-68. Finally, in 2022, lost to Wisconsin as a 14-seed again, 67-60.
The good thing here is, this year’s squad may be the best one yet. It certainly seems to be one that could be a matchup nightmare for some top-tier teams and if the stars align, bust some brackets.
AJ Hoops 