The 2024–25 season was nothing but sheer dominance for the Wesleyan men’s basketball team. At the conclusion of the regular season, as the only unbeaten team in the country (24–0 and 10–0 in-conference), the no. 1 nationally ranked Cardinals turned their attention to the NESCAC Championships with a league-wide and nationwide target on their backs.
“In the playoffs, it’s really do or die,” captain and guard Nicky Johnson ’25 said. “So as much as the pressure is on us, it’s on everyone else too. Removing the fact that we’re 24–0, it’s like, ‘Hey, if anyone loses, their season is over.’ So for us, it was a matter of just staying focused and staying the course of what we’d been doing.”
The NESCAC Championship tournament kicked off with a Little Three matchup against no. 8 seeded Amherst on Feb. 22, the third time the Cards would face the Mammoths in the 2024–25 campaign.
“Anytime you play a team three times, it’s hard to win because they’re coming and they know everything that you’re gonna do,” guard Jackson Cormier ’26 said. “So offensively, we knew it was gonna be a battle, but we knew that if we [locked] down on defense and made sure that we executed everything we needed to, we’d come out with the win.”
Leading 18–15, the Cards were able to extend their lead to 31–18, keeping the Mammoths off the offensive glass. The Mammoths came out firing in the second half and took their first lead (44–45) with 12 minutes to go. A personal 6–0 run from captain and guard Shane Regan ’25 got the Cards the lead. On the other end, Mammoths big Will Scherer committed back-to-back offensive fouls to foul out with nine minutes remaining. However, Amherst would not go away, and with 85 seconds to go, the Cards held a precarious 60–58 lead. With 20 seconds left, Amherst missed a game-tying jumper in the paint. From then on, the Mammoths were forced to play the foul game. The Cardinals hit five of their six free throws in the final few seconds to take the game 65–58. Regan finished with a game-high 27 points to lead the Cards on to the semifinals.
“Beating a team three times is really hard,” Regan said. “And Amherst [is] obviously a Little Three rival, so we knew it was gonna be a tough game. And we ended up just making winning plays. We switched to zone defense, which really messed them up, and the crowd was great. They carried us through and we were able to get the win.”
Standing between the Cards and the NESCAC Championship finals was a matchup with no. 4 seeded Hamilton. The Continentals were led by the NESCAC’s leading scorer, Hank Morgan, and Wesleyan would have to find a way to slow him down if they wanted to get through to the finals.
The teams traded baskets for the much of the first half, but with two minutes remaining in the half, a Morgan three put the Cards down 26–33. They quickly responded with a Cormier triple and two free-throws for Johnson to send the Cards into the break down 31–33. In the second half, the Continentals hit their stride and got out to a nine-point lead with 14 minutes left. Undeterred, the Cards used a 19–6 burst to take the lead 54–50, but they were not able to keep momentum and found themselves tied with Hamilton at 59 apiece with 42 seconds left in the game. Needing a bucket, forward Oscar Edelman ’28 found Cormier for a short floater in the lane to put the Cards up by two with 21 seconds left. Morgan had other plans, though, as he sank a midrange jumper to send the game into overtime. Instead of hanging their heads, the Cards, led by guard Ben Lyttle ’27, cheered—confusing the Continentals.
“The motto is, ‘We get to play more basketball,’” Johnson said. “So even if it was the other team tying it up—creating that excitement that, ‘Hey, we get to play five more minutes’—I think it really throws the other team off. And it also re-emphasizes the belief that we have in ourselves. If we go five more minutes, this team’s not gonna be able to outlast us.”
With 90 seconds left, the score was locked at 68 apiece, and neither team was able to score, sending the game into a second overtime. Again, the Cards cheered, this time determined to make the most of their extra five minutes of ball. Notably, Morgan fouled out of the game during the first OT period, leaving the Continentals shorthanded on offense.
The captains showed up in the second OT as Johnson and Regan scored all but two of the Red and Black’s 14 to advance to the finals by a score of 82–77.
Lyttle emphasized that the team’s performance under pressure was not a fluke.
“There was more adversity in practice than we ever faced in a game,” he said. “I remember times where we did this [OT] drill and the bench team would be the main rotation guys, and we would not move [or get] water until we won. So just remembering those times and putting that in our mentality made us unbeatable.”
The finals would see a friendly foe in the Cards’ down-the-road rivals, the no. 2 seeded Trinity Bantams. With no love lost between the two top NESCAC teams, the matchup was must-see for the nearly 1,800 fans who crammed into Silloway Gymnasium on Mar. 2.
The Red and Black were hot from the jump and grabbed an 18–7 lead, but the Bantams got back in the game. With a few seconds left, Trinity led 34–35 before a Cormier jumper reclaimed the lead as time expired. The two teams traded baskets through the second half until, with 47 seconds left and losing 64–67, Edelman hit a massive, game-tying three. But the final seconds were all Trinity, as a three and free throws locked in the win. The Cards fell 68–75 in their first loss of the entire season.
“It was a heartbreaker,” Lyttle said. “But it was what we needed at that time. I think that loss made us better for the rest of the [NCAA Division III] Tournament. That loss definitely snapped us back into reality.”
The Cards could not dwell on the loss, as they had five days to turn around and host the first round of the NCAA Division III Tournament against Delaware Valley University.
The first half was all Red and Black as Wes jumped out to a quick lead and held it, finishing the half up 39–17. The defense stifled Redding, holding him to one of eight shooting. This urgency was characteristic of the Cards’ play all year, as they left nothing up to chance in the first and held the line in the second half. Wes never let the Rams get within 19 points of them and ultimately sealed the win 72–50. Lyttle had one of his best showings of the year, notching a 19-point, 12-rebound double-double, leading the team through to the second round.
The next day, the Cards were back for their matchup against Gettysburg College. Although the Cards got out to a quick 11–2 start, the Bullets were pests on defense, interrupting the passing lanes. The Cards could not gain real momentum, ending the half up 41–32. In the second half, they focused on the fast break, putting up shots before the Bullets’ defense could get set, but still the lead hovered around 10 and Wes was unable to deal any kind of knockout blow. With seven minutes left in the game and the score 62–54, the Cards finally started clicking, stringing together buckets and stops and scoring 14 straight to balloon their lead to 22 points. From there, the game was over. The Cards sealed the deal 82–60 to improve their record to 28–1 and advance to the first Sweet Sixteen in program history.
“They were a talented team, but we just executed and we were super excited to get to the next round,” Regan said. “It was a little bit of a weight off our shoulders because we knew if we were the number one overall team and we didn’t get to [where] Wesleyan has never been, it would be a big letdown.”
In the Sweet Sixteen, the Cards faced their first ranked opponent of the tournament, no. 19 Worcester Polytechnic Institute, on Mar. 14. The defense locked in for the first half, limiting the Engineers to seven field goals, and took a 33–19 lead into the half. From then on, the Cards held the line, keeping a double-digit lead throughout the second period and taking the game 66–50 to advance to the Elite Eight—another program first of many in the groundbreaking season. Lyttle posted another double-double in the game (12 points and 10 rebounds) and Johnson had a 12-point, six-assist night to facilitate the win.
The next day, the Cards walked into Silloway ready to face no. 8 Emory University for a spot in the Final Four.
“It’s the Elite Eight, and you’re not expecting to kill every team you play,” Johnson said. “I mean, Emory’s been top 10 in the country pretty much throughout the year. They have as good a backcourt as I’ve seen in the country, and we knew it was just going to be a battle.”
The Red and Black scored eight quick points to start the game, but the Eagles responded, and near the end of the first period, the score was tied at 22. The Cards were able to create some separation in the second half as they got out to a 12-point lead, but Emory’s transition game kept them in it. The Cards found themselves up 54–53 with two minutes to go. On the next possession, needing a bucket, Regan hit a layup in the paint to extend the lead to three, but Emory converted on an and-one bucket to send the game into OT. 17 seconds into the period, Emory hit a layup, but on the next trip down the floor, Johnson hit a big three to give the Cards the lead. From then on, the defense was ironclad as they sealed the game 61–58 to continue the dream season. Johnson and Regan led the way with 24 and 18 points, respectively, and Johnson’s season-high five steals helped limit the typically potent Eagles offense.
“Defense won us the game coming down the stretch, and so we were really happy with that one,” Cormier said. “We were able to cut down the nets for the first time this season. To get that win, and to be able to have the experience of going to the Final Four, is great not only individually, but for everybody on the team and for the campus staff.”
The Cards made their way to the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Ind. to play their old friends from just down I-91: the Trinity Bantams. The basketball gods could not have drawn it up any better.
In their first ever nationally televised game, the Cards took the court in the 13,000-seat arena, the same court that has hosted NBA teams and March Madness games.
As expected, the first half was a dogfight, with the two teams trading punches. The half ended with the Cards down by two, but in the second half, the Bantams took control. With six minutes to go and a spot in the National Championship game on the line, the Cards were down 50–63, desperately needing to get something going. A lot of teams would lose their spark here and slow down, but the 2024–2025 Red and Black are not like most teams. On the next possession, Regan hit a quick three to cut into the deficit. Defensively, the Cards forced a miss, got the rebound, and forward Josh Cameron ’27 was fouled, converting on both free throws. The comeback party continued with a layup by Cameron, another three from Johnson, and a close jumper by Regan to make the score 65–62 with just under three minutes left. The Cards stayed steady with the Bantams, but were ultimately unable to get over the hump as they lost the game 69–73.
Johnson reflected on the loss.
“[It was] definitely an emotional moment, not really much time to process it,” Johnson said. “But heading out of these weeks, getting texts from people around the school, friends, and family, and realizing how important it was to them, put into perspective that we did something really cool.”
Although the dream year did not end on a perfect note, the season was a massive step forward for the program and put Wesleyan men’s basketball on the map. Numerous Cardinals were recognized for their contributions to the 30–2 season. Johnson and Regan were named to the All-NESCAC first team and Cormier got a second team nod, his first NESCAC honors. Regan was also named as a Third Team All-American player, the third All-American in the program’s 124-year history.
“My first two seasons, I tore my labrum, and I fought back from knee surgery my second year,” Regan said. “So it was an uphill battle, and there was a lot of doubt in myself. Then to be recognized across the entire division means a lot, and I know a lot of people are proud of me so that feels really good.”
Coach Joe Reilly’s staff, including assistant coaches Matt Bielenda and Noah Tyson, won NESCAC Coaching Staff of the Year, and Coach Reilly himself won the Glenn Robinson Award, the honor that goes to the best coach in all of DIII men’s basketball.
Johnson explained how important Coach Reilly is to the program.
“[Coach Reilly] has built the program up from practically nothing,” Johnson said. “Before he got here, they were barely even sniffing NESCAC playoff appearances. And he’s been so close and had really good teams. To get over the hump for him, it meant a lot. Getting to know him over the four years, and how competitive and special of a coach he is, and of a person, it just made it an emotional moment. Coming in my freshman year, we had talked about stuff like that, and to see it really come true, it was emotional.”
Lyttle valued the team’s chemistry above all else.
“It was the brotherhood,” Lyttle said. “I feel like our bonds showed on the court, being the number one team in the country. We all keep in touch every day, and I think that’s what it came down to. The wins were great, and all the accomplishments were great, but the brotherhood was even greater.”
Established as a contender on the national scale, the Cardinals will be back next year. It goes without saying that there’s more history to be made.
Erin Byerly contributed reporting.
Ethan Lee can be reached at ejlee@wesleyan.edu.
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