Mercer hoops ready for new year, next step

The Mercer basketball teams begin their seasons next week, and both head coaches showed optimism when chatting about the expectations for what should be an eventful 2025-26 season.

Both squads open with one difficult power-conference foe and one more manageable opponent, though the men play their tougher game on the road while the women host their Power 5 game.

Regardless of home or road status, the non-conference schedules for both squads looks intimidating from the get-go. Here’s what you need to know about each roster and schedule as the season begins.

New look, same philosophy

Mercer men’s head coach Ryan Ridder found success at every coaching stop he made prior to Mercer. Transfers have always been a big part of that success, and the coach is leaning into that strategy again in his second season at the helm for the Bears.

“When you look at non-returners, what did we target in the portal … what did we target in freshmen? We targeted high-trust, low maintenance guys who are tough and have a high IQ,” Ridder said Monday at a press conference. “That was a non-negotiable for everyone we brought to the table.

“We have 11 new guys on the roster. It’s gonna take a little time to mesh like any organization or team would, but I know we got the right guys in this building.

Part of that is out of necessity. Many of last year’s stars, who were also transfers, ran out of eligibility or transferred out again. 

The new group consists of guys from several levels of play ranging from junior college to high major, and several of them could be key contributors. Ridder noted Baraka Okojie, a junior guard, as one of the most notable transfers. Okojie hails from Canada and starred at George Mason two seasons ago before seeing limited action at Memphis last year.

“He was on the all-freshman team at George Mason. He’s got a chance to be a premier player (in the Southern Conference), we think we have one of the best guards in the league,” the head coach said.

Other potential standout transfers include Armani Mighty, a redshirt-junior with two seasons at Boston College and a year at Central Michigan — “I mean, his name is Mighty,” Ridder quipped — along with Zaire Williams out of Wagner and Kyle Cuff Jr., a former Syracuse and Kansas player.

There are still some returning players, though, and several of them should be key contributors. The most notable player back for another year is Brady Shoulders, who got significant playing time as a freshman last season and was voted a team captain this season.

“It’s my 18th year coaching. I don’t know if I’ve had a time in my coaching career where they voted a sophomore a team captain. You don’t see that so much,” Ridder said. 

The players coming back likely remember Mercer’s campaign last year, which saw the Bears struggle to finish games in conference play despite flashes of brilliance at times.

“I think if you really summarize last year, I think we had a lot of ‘what ifs’, a lot of ‘almost’ finishes,” Ridder said of the 2024-25 season, which Mercer finished with a 14-19 overall record and 6-12 conference mark. “I think we had four, five or six losses by one possession (in conference play). Finding a way to turn those close games into Ws is a lot of hard work.”

The Bears had a tough non-conference slate last season, but this year’s should be even more strenuous. Games against UCF, Clemson and Washington State loom down the stretch, but Mercer’s toughest challenge might be its first one — a game against No. 18 Tennessee will serve as the season opener Monday.

“Opening night is going to be great. There’s 18 or 19,000 people there, it’s gonna be an experience,” Ridder said. “For a lot of our guys it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but for (transfers) they’ve played in a lot of environments like that. They won’t be surprised by the physicality, they’re not going to be bewildered by the situation or anything like that … you just go in there and compete the best you can.”

Beyond those difficult opponents lies the Southern Conference, a league Ridder acknowledged is highly competitive and often produces memorable NCAA tournament teams. 

The head coach was extremely confident in Mercer’s guard play, something he thinks is the base for a great team, and noted the team’s ability to run with several defensive schemes and rebound well.

“I think the thing we have to get better at is the unknown commodity — we don’t have a lot of proven shotmakers. I think we have a lot of guys who can shoot the ball … but at the end of the day it’s just about finding more consistency doing that.”

The Bears open the season against Tennessee in Knoxville at 7 p.m. Monday before their first home game against LaGrange at 7 p.m. on Nov. 5.

Depth and development

Mercer’s women’s team will be a bit more balanced in terms of transfer-to-returner ratio, though they will also have plenty of new faces on the roster. 

Head coach Michelle Clark-Heard, also in her second season at Mercer, will have a lot of building to do after last year’s 8-22 overall record and 3-11 conference mark.

She said Monday that the team should have the talent to do it, noting depth as a strength.

“If we can stay healthy, I think we have the opportunity to run some different lineups on the floor and do a lot of things to wear other teams down,” Heard said. “Things we need to work on, our consistency and playing hard all the time, every single day and every single quarter. I try to simulate that in practice, we practice in quarters.”

Heard mentioned a recent scrimmage against Jacksonville where the Bears played well in the first and fourth quarters but struggled in the second and third as an example.

“Then defending and rebounding, those are things we’re harping on every day,” she said. “When you get in conference play, I think there was a stretch where we lost three games by one or two points. We want to make sure we’re still guarding that way but also being able to finish the other way.”

As for key players, Mercer has two freshmen that should make an impact in Remi-Hope Drantmann from Belgium and Rania Curry from Augusta. Micah O’Dell, a player Heard described as a “three-level scorer,” notched 26 points in a preseason scrimmage. Returners Nahawa Diarra, Ariana Bennett and Talia Harris should be crucial players.

“Everybody. I think just being honest, across the board, this is going to be a team that people are going to have to guard us all across the scouting report,” Heard said. “I think last year, there were one or two players people could circle on the scouting report. Now they’re gonna have to make sure they’re guarding all over the floor.”

The women have something of a “flip-flopped” version of the typical early schedule. Instead of playing a difficult power-conference opponent on the road and playing a somewhat weaker team at home, the Bears will travel to UNC Asheville on the road in Monday’s season opener before hosting Clemson at Hawkins Arena on Nov. 6 at 6 p.m.

The Tigers have struggled in ACC play in recent seasons, going 6-12 last season and 5-13 in the 2023-24 season against conference opponents. Rachael Rose, who is on some preseason lists as a top point guard this year, will be a player to watch for Clemson against Mercer.

Heard said the Bears should be more prepared for the Tigers after scrimmaging in the preseason as well.

“I think they took a lot of great things from (the preseason scrimmages). We scrimmaged against UAB, who shoots a lot of threes, because that’s what Clemson does. We just wanted to prepare for that differently,” the head coach said.

Mercer will play UNC Asheville at 6:30 p.m. Monday before hosting Clemson at home on Nov. 6.