By Michael Del Genio
The Dominican men’s basketball team finished the 2024-25 season with a disappointing 8-17 overall record and 5-13 in conference play.
Couch Troy Tonsil and his players went into the season with high expectations, but struggled to find consistent footing.
Senior forward Camron Scott describes their struggles as a “lack of buying in across the board.” Scott himself had a career-best year averaging 13 points, eight rebounds, and one assist throughout the season.
Senior guard Terrell Taylor takes the blame himself for giving up on team success and focused primarily on his personal wins early on in the year.
“I feel like there was a time where I felt I was better than the team. I was not doing the things that the team needed,” he said. “We had some meetings with the coaches and the seniors [and talked]. I [was] locked in and made sure I had everyone’s back.”
Taylor was the team’s leading scorer this season, posting an average of 15 points per game.
Communication has long been the epicenter of Dominican men’s basketball as well as what Tonsil has preached to the team throughout the year.
“I believe in people speaking their minds, speaking their voice, and not shortchanging them or trying to silence them. I want to hear what you have to say,” he said.
Senior guard Danny Nennig spoke highly of Tonsil’s leadership.
“Coach was always looking to see what we had to say,” Nennig said. “He always had a quote for us. He cared just as much if not more than we did. He wanted to win, and we knew that. He stuck up for us and he had our back.”
Nennig also named a captain for the team graduates, coming off a career-best season averaging nine points, three rebounds, and two assists per game.
Regarding the season’s results, Coach Tonsil says he takes responsibility,
“I take complete ownership of this year. It has to fall with me,” he explained. “I tell our players when we lose its on me. When we win, it’s on you all. No one is a bigger critic of me than me.”
Throughout the season’s early struggles, the Stars featured an upperclassmen-heavy rotation led by Nennig, Taylor, and Scott as well as junior standout Dominic Crapia. The team saw heavy contributions through their seniors Andre Bennett, Robbie Taylor, and Quante May who all saw consistent minutes early.
After Dominican’s big win against Greenville University on November 19, the Stars found themselves in a five-game skid that frustrated Tonsil and left him looking in a new direction.
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different result,” he said.
This led to freshman guard Lucas Underwood seeing the court plenty as he went on to average six points, one rebound, and three assists to start out his collegiate career. Lucas also managed to start on the court in numerous games in the late goings.
“At the end of the day, whether you’re a senior, transfer, junior, freshman, sophomore, the best players will play,” Tonsil says.
Despite the lineup changes with other underclassmen seeing more play time such as sophomore forward Dean O’Brien and freshman forward Braydon Murphy, the Stars were only able to put together a four-game win streak near the end of the year to close it out.
The men’s basketball program graduates seven seniors, Danny Nennig, Camron Scott, Terrel Taylor, Andre Bennett, Quante May, Robbie Taylor, and Ethan Worley. For them, they managed to win on senior night against Aurora 101-97 to close out their careers.
The family and culture they had built through their years at Dominican is something they hope to pass on to the ones returning and incoming for years to come.
“I do appreciate and respect the things that senior group has contributed to men’s basketball,” said Tonsil. “It’s going to be a void. I’m a big believer in reloading as opposed to rebuilding. I want to win next year… Just so we’re not in the same position as last year. We’re able to create history as opposed to repeat history.”
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