Mercer head coaches done with first season — now the rebuild begins

It was a year of firsts for the both Mercer basketball teams in the 2024-25 season.

Men’s head coach Ryan Ridder and women’s head coach Michelle Clark-Heard were both in their inaugural seasons at the helm for the Bears.

The men’s team saw the most success of the two, finishing 14-19 with a 6-12 SoCon mark. In addition to being Ridder’s first year with Mercer, it was the program’s first year truly embracing the era of the transfer portal.

Mercer rostered nine transfer players against five non-transfers. Combined with the fact that most non-transfers were freshmen, it was a group featuring few familiar faces.

Jah Quinones and T.J. Grant were the program’s only truly homegrown returning players. Alex Holt was the team’s third and final returning player after he transferred in from High Point in 2023. 

The Bears went a respectable 7-6 in non-conference play, falling to tougher opponents like DePaul and South Carolina — though they did keep it close for much of the contest with the Gamecocks — while soundly defeating most smaller squads.

Some of the team’s high points came early. Freshman Brady Shoulders was a solid contributor all year and had his shining moment when he hit a 3-pointer against Jacksonville State to complete a Mercer comeback Nov. 25. The Bears went on to win in overtime.

Another highlight, albeit less conventional, came in the team’s season opener when walk-on favorite Alex Koch got a slam dunk
against Virginia University-Lynchburg. 

Once the conference slate arrived, the Bears developed a trend of keeping games close. The first four games against SoCon foes were won or lost by four points or fewer, and the lone four-point margin was a win in overtime for the Bears.

Aside from a tough 20-point loss against Wofford the first time around and a blowout win over The Citadel, Mercer’s other conference games were separated by five points or fewer. With a 4-5 conference mark and such close margins, it appeared the Bears were in position to finish in the middle part of the conference and have decent chances in the tournament in Asheville.

“We want to be playing our best basketball in Asheville in March,” Ridder said at one Mercer press conference in January. It was a sentiment the head coach repeated many times throughout the year. 

Unfortunately, the Bears trended in the other direction to close out the year. Mercer went 2-7 its second time through the SoCon, defeating only Western Carolina and The Citadel to finish two spots out of last place in the final standings.

“We’re really focused on four minutes or so of the game. We’ve shown to be really good for 32 minutes, or 36 minutes of the game,” Ridder said near the end of the season after a tough loss against a conference foe. “I think it’s finding a tweak defensively, maybe it’s a different personnel group, maybe it’s a different alignment, type of pressure, different zone.”

While the Bears defeated Western Carolina in the first round of the SoCon tournament and took a six-point lead into halftime during their second-round game against No. 1 Chattanooga, Mercer struggled late against the Mocs and lost to end their season.

Several key players — including Alex Holt, Chip Johnson and Ahmad Robinson in addition to Holt — are out of eligibility.

While rosters aren’t certain in the transfer era, the Bears will have a steadier base this time around the recruiting trail. Shoulders, a solid freshman piece, will be a key if he returns along with longtime contributor Jah Quinones. Impactful sophomore Angel Montas Jr. entered the transfer portal this week.

On the hunt for growth

The Mercer women had less luck, though they finished the season with some close losses against quality conference opponents that could be signs of improvements to come.

The women finished the year with an 8-22 overall record and a 3-11 mark in SoCon play. The team was often banged up, Heard said throughout the season, but found ways to win thanks to different players stepping up in each victory.

Scoring was an issue. Mercer averaged 52.5 points per game, good for last in the conference and about 7.5 points behind the next-worst team. The Bears shot 37.4% from the field on the year and 25.8% from 3-point range while also struggling on the offensive glass, snagging only about eight rebounds a game on the offensive side.

When Mercer did make things happen, it was often thanks to senior Ashlee Locke in the frontcourt. Locke took a leap forward in her senior year and averaged about nine points and 6.5 rebounds per game, becoming a cog on the floor and a key morale leader for the Bears.

Three other key players for Mercer — ones that all have eligibility remaining and could be crucial building blocks in Heard’s second season at the helm — were guards Talia Harris and Nahawa Diarra and forward
Arianna Bennett.

Heard praised her guard play all season, particularly down the stretch as Harris, a true freshman from Indiana, got things rolling. 

“She’s always a player that comes in and evaluates herself. At a young age, sometimes that’s hard to do,” Heard said of Harris at a press conference earlier this month. “I’m just proud of her and her growth, and I love coaching her.”

Diarra, a redshirt junior from Spain, came up clutch in one of the Bears’ most impressive moments of the year when she hit a layup to complete a 10-point comeback against Western Carolina on the road Feb. 1.

It was one of the better wins for the team, which Heard said grew a great deal across a difficult schedule.

Bennett became a key scorer for Mercer after taking some time early to develop, Heard said. The 6-foot-1 forward ended up leading the team with 10.5 points per game on the year.

It appeared that the Bears already improved a good deal over the course of the year. Before an ugly loss to UNCG ended the regular season schedule, Mercer played four straight games within three points or less against ETSU, Furman, Wofford and Western Carolina, some of the conference’s better competition.

“Our goal is to win games. That’s on us as coaches, to put yourself in position to have a chance to win. There’s some things to improve on,” Heard said. “But we’re in the games. They’re tough to lose, but we’re in the games.”

Though neither coach wanted to focus on next season with conference brackets still on the table at Mercer’s final basketball press conference, some reflection was still in order.

“It’s a guard-driven league, very offense focused,” Ridder said of the SoCon. 

Ridder regularly acknowledged during the season that the team’s key to success was breaking up the conference’s typically high scoring teams.

“It’s a tough conference,” Heard said at one press conference. “We’re just focused on building, getting
better.”