Offseason Review: Can UNC Wilmington Stay Perched at the top?
Takayo Siddle has the UNC Wilmington Seahawks on an incredible run. Siddle is bringing in top transfer portal additions to return to the NCAA Tournament.
Following back-to-back NCAA Tournament bids in 2016 and 2017, the UNC Wilmington Seahawks scuffled for three seasons. During that stretch, they won eleven, ten, and ten games respectively. Following that stretch, Takayo Siddle took over as head coach.
Year one was a rebuilding year, but it was shortened by the pandemic, so the Seahawks finished just 7-10 overall and 1-6 in the 2020-2021 season. Siddle took flight in year two, finishing with a 27-9 record. During the last four years, they have yet to finish with less than 21 wins and they finally ended their NCAA Tournament drought this past year as they finished 27-8 overall and 14-4 in the CAA which provided them with a 14-seed in the Big Dance.
Looking ahead, Siddle lost some of his top talent, but he’s wasted no time rebuilding his roster which looks like it should be at the top of the CAA once again. Let’s dive into the roster changes:
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Roster Turnover
UNC Wilmington has lost the following players:
Donovan Newby (Ineligible)
14.4 points, 2.7 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.2 steals
Bo Montgomery (NBA – Memphis Grizzles Summer League)
9.1 points, 3.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists
Harlan Obioha (Senior) - West Virginia
9.2 points, 6 rebounds, 1.2 blocks
Khamari McGriff (Senior) - Kansas State
11.5 points, 4 rebounds, 1.1 blocks
Kendell Cave (Junior) - Unsigned
1 point (1 game/2 minutes)
Shane Anthony (Junior) - Unsigned
1.6 points, 0.4 rebounds (5 games/2.6 minutes)
Matthew Moore (Redshirt Sophomore) - Unsigned
DNP
Elijah Jamison (Junior) - Norfolk State
9 points, 1 rebound, 1.8 assists (4 games/15 minutes)
The Seahawks are losing a lot of talent, but fans should be proud of what Takayo Siddle brought to their team. Bo Montgomery is playing in the NBA Summer League for the Memphis Grizzlies. Just last week, he finished with eight points, two rebounds, two assists, and one steal in 20 minutes against the 76ers.
Harlan Obioha and Khamari McGriff are both headed off to the power conferences in West Virginia and Kansas State respectively. Donovan Newby has ran out of eligibility, but he finished his senior season with his best performance year across the boards.
While they did lose their top four (technically five if you count Jamison’s four games) scorers, but Siddle wasted no time rebuilding his team through the portal and by retaining talent.
Returning Players
The Seahawks have the following players returning on their roster:
Nolan Hodge (Senior)
7.6 points, 3.9 rebounds, 1.3 assists
Noah Ross (Senior)
8.1 points, 5.1 rebounds, 1.6 assists
Greedy Williams (Senior)
5.5 points, 2.8 rebounds, 2.6 assists
Makoi Mabor Makoi (Sophomore)
DNP
The Seahawks are returning just three players that appeared in a game last season, but those three players fortunately already had roles in the rotation and should see some continuity coming into the next season.
Nolan Hodge is a 6’7 wing that appeared in 34 games while starting 15 as a junior. Hodge is a rarity in this new era of college basketball as he has spent the last three seasons with the Seahawks and is staying for his senior year. Last season he shot 44.7% overall and 37.2% from deep on a career high of 2.5 attempts per game. He finished the season with a 118.2 offensive rating which was 312th in the country. In conference, he finished first in three point percentage as he shot an incredible 47.4% from beyond the arc. On the boards, he featured an 8.8 offensive rebounding percentage which was 20th in the CAA. With his experience, Hodge should slot into the full-time starting lineup and provide the Seahawks with some important experience.
Noah Ross is another returning 6’7 wing for the Seahawks that is going to spend all four years with UNC Wilmington. Ross shot 48.5% overall, but unlike Hodge he isn’t as much of a three-point threat as he shot just 23.5% from beyond the arc. However, where he lacks in three-point shooting he makes up on the boards. He finished the season with a strong 16.1% defensive rebounding percentage and 14.2% in the CAA. I’ll note that his three-point shooting did get better in conference player as he finished the season shooting 32.1% (9/28) in the CAA.
Greedy Williams transferred to UNC Wilmington last season after spending his sophomore season at Chipola College where he was named an NJCAA All-American. Last season, he shot 41.4% overall and 29% from three-point while appearing in 35 games and starting 22. At 6’5 he is a strong ball handler as he finished the season with a 19.4% assist rate which was 451st in the country. In the CAA, his 21.1% assist rate was 11th in the conference. He has a knack for drawing fouls, and I’d like to see him pull in more on this ability. He drew 3.7 fouls per game, and he shot 79.3% from the free throw line.
Makoi Mabor Makoi did not appear in a game last season, but he was highly regarded coming into year one. Makoi Mabor had offers from several strong non-power conference programs including Mercer, Winthrop, Queens, and others. The Seahawks have some inexperience question marks that we’ll cover later in this review, so you could see him earn some minutes as they’ll need his 6’11 size.
Roster Additions
UNC Wilmington has added the following players for the 2025-2026 roster:
Madison Durr (Senior) - Monmouth
12.5 points, 2.9 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.2 steals
C.J. Luster (Senior) – Stony Brook
16.8 points, 2.7 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 1 steal
Christian May (Senior) – Towson
7.6 points, 4.3 rebounds
Jahanathan Lamothe (Junior) – North Carolina A&T
13.8 points, 7.3 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.5 steals
Gavin Walsh (Junior) – Binghamton
11.3 points, 10.9 rebounds, 1.9 assists
Patrick Wessler (Redshirt Junior) – Virginia Tech
3.9 points, 2.9 rebounds
Grady Whitt (Redshirt Sophomore) - Colorado
Appeared in just one game
Adam Tokpah (Freshman)
Matija Prodanovic (Freshman)
Guards
Madison Durr (6’5)
After starting his career off at The Citadel for two seasons, Madison Durr transferred into Monmouth where he continued to take a step forward in his career. Durr shot 38.2% overall and 37.9% from deep while averaging a career high 80.2% from the free throw line on a career high average of 6.7 attempts per game. He finished 85th in the nation with 5.8 fouls drawn per game and his final free throw rate of 75.8 was 13th. At 6’5, he poses as a ball handler. He finished the season averaging 3.2 assists per game with a 3.2/1.8 assist to turnover ratio. His assist rate of 20.5 was 391st in the country.
There is a lot to like about Durr and it’s easy to see that he’ll slot straight into the Seahawk’s starting lineup as a nice replacement for someone like Newby.
C.J. Luster (6’3)
Luster transferred to Stony Brook after emerging from Salt Lake Community College where he finished the season as the 22nd ranked JUCO player in the country. While Stony Brook won just eight games last season, Luster was nothing short of phenomenal. Across 32 games, he finished averaging 42.9% overall on 11.9 shot attempts per game. Notably, he shot 42.1% from deep on 7.6 attempts per game. Of his 382 shots from the floor, 63.3% where from beyond the arc. Over his last five games of the season, he averaged 23 points, three rebounds, and 2.2 assists while shooting 43.2% from three-point. Overall, his 60.4% true shooting percentage was 182nd in the country.
It’s reasonable to expect that his stats will decline a bit since he was the go-to player on a team that managed to win just eight games. However, he’ll be a key offensive weapon for the Seahawks next season.
Christian May (6’5)
Christian May is yet another inter-conference transfer for the Seahawks this season as he spent his first three seasons with Towson. The 6’5 incoming senior shot 35.7% overall and 31% from beyond the arc last season. These averages were down from his sophomore season when he averaged 38.9% overall and 34.1% from deep while averaging two more shots per game. However, it’s worth noting that his averages in conference improved as he finished shooting 38.3% overall and 35.4% from deep. The potential to return to those averages provide an even higher upside for coach Siddle.
May positions himself well as a wing as he finished averaging 1.1 offensive rebounds and 3.2 defensive rebounds. His 14.6% defensive rebounding percentage and 4.2% offensive rebounding percentage are strong for his size and position.
Jahnathan Lamothe (6’4)
Lamothe was well regarded out of high school (offers from Illinois, Marquette, Ohio State, Creighton, and many more), and he started his career out at Maryland as a freshman. He played in 16 games and averaged 6.9 minutes per game. Following the season, he transferred to North Carolina A&T where he emerged as a bit of an undersized wing. He finished the season with a 19.6% defensive rebounding percentage which was 246th in the country. This metric jumped to a remarkable 23.3% in conference which was 5th best. Doing that at 6’4 is incredible. Across the board, his statistics in conference play jumped as he finished drawing 3.9 fouls per game and shot 76.3% from the line on 76 attempts in the CAA. His three point shooting percentage jumped to 30.1% on 136 attempts.
He is still more of a raw prospect at this point, but his ceiling is maybe the highest among anyone on the roster. He’s a strong rebounder, but I’d like to see him be more efficient on offense. North Carolina A&T won just seven games last season, so he has a chance to take advantage of playing on a more well-oiled team and take on a true role in the offense rather than being forced to take 12.3 shots per game when he isn’t a remarkable offensive player. Despite this, he still shot 37.2% overall so we could easily see that jump to over 40% when surrounded with addition strong players on his roster.
Grady Whitt (6’3)
Whitt started his career as a walk-on at Colorado, in which he then redshirt his freshman season. He appeared in only one game against Bellarmine last season, so we haven’t seen much from him. The Raleigh native will be playing closer to home now, so we’ll wait and see if he’s able to carve some minutes out in the rotation.
Forwards
Gavin Walsh (6’8)
Walsh is going to provide the Seahawks with some strong presence in the paint where a hole has been left by Obioha. Walsh averaged a remarkable 10.9 rebounds as a sophomore, in which 2.1 were offensive. He finished the season shooting 41.9% from the floor and he can even step outside and knock down some three-point shots as he finished shooting 29.3% on 2.4 attempts per game. He struggled as bit from the line, but he still shot 63.1% on 5.2 attempts per game.
He had some ridiculous games last year, but notably he finished with 14 double-doubles. He racked up 23 rebounds against UMass Lowell and 20 rebounds against Army. While both were impressive, his 21 points and 10 rebound game against Miami (admittedly, Miami was not very good) speaks volumes. He finished with an absurd 30% defensive rebounding percentage which was fourth in all of college basketball. There is so much to like about the potential that Walsh has and he’ll become a fan favorite quickly.
Centers
Patrick Wessler (7’0)
Wessler is transferring in after spending his first two seasons at Virginia Tech. Last season, he appeared in 31 games, starting one, while shooting 62.5% from the floor on 2.6 attempts per game. He had some strong performances against top talent. Within the ACC, he played against No. 19 Louisville, No. 4 Duke, and No. 11 Clemson. He finished with ten points and two rebounds against Duke, eight points and six rebounds against Louisville, and six points, five rebounds, and two blocks against Clemson. While the Duke and Clemson games were blowout loses, the Louisville game was just a five point loss.
Coming out of high school, the seven footer had some power conference offers from USC, Ohio State, Iowa, and more. He showed signs in the given opportunities last season and now after transferring to the CAA, he’ll look to take a huge leap forward in the 2025-2026 season.
Adam Tokpah (6’11)
Tokpah is one of two of the Seahawk’s international incoming freshman. Tokpah had offers from quite a few JUCO’s, but he did hold another Division I offer that came from Evansville. He nabbed an offer from both UNCW and Evansville within three days of each other in June.
The 6’11 center is a strong finisher around the rim and he’s effective on the glass. He averaged 5.5 points and 4.8 rebounds across six games for Great Britain in the FIBA U20 Tournament last season. He’s a true center, so we won’t see him popping threes from outside, but he’ll be a nice long-term prospect for the Seahawks who could use some depth with height.
Matija Prodanovic (6’11)
Want to talk about finding unknown international players? Prodanovic is a perfect example because there is virtually no video footage that’s readily available. He last played on the Dynamic BG team within the Serbia-JLS where he averaged 4.1 points and 2.5 rebounds in 11.2 minutes on averaged across 19 games. Similar to Tokpah, he’s not a three point threat, but he did knock down three of his seven attempts.
Look for Prodanovic to potentially redshirt this season.
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Expectations
Once again, UNC Wilmington is coming into the season with a strong roster that looks like they should be competing at the top of the CAA. While Siddle lost talent, he picked up some intriguing pieces from teams that struggled last season to bring them into his own system and help raise their skill levels.
What does a potential starting lineup look like?
Madison Durr
CJ Luster/Jahnathan Lamothe
Nolan Hodge/Christian May/Noah Ross
Gavin Walsh
Patrick Wessler
Nolan Hodge and CJ Luster could easily be swapped around with Christian May, Jahnathan Lamothe, and Noah Ross. Siddle has a lot of flexibility because you could move May down to Luster or Lamothe’s spot. That’d mean that you’d have a lethal scorer that could come off the bench for you. Then you’d slide in Hodge or Ross in the three spot and take advantage of their experience in Siddle’s system already. Siddle could even start a smaller lineup and move Wessler to the bench to take advantage of their opponent’s secondary units while moving Walsh as an undersized center since he’s a prolific rebounder. Regardless of what the starting lineup looks like, there are so many offensively stout guards that he’ll be able to create multiple starting lineups and have shooters up-and-down the lineup.
Coming off the bench, you’d have a mix of May, Hodge, Ross, Lamothe, etc. while also having Greedy Williams, and Makoi Mabor. With Walsh and Wessler holding down the paint, Mabor is going to be able to secure some rotation minutes as well. Williams started in 22 games last season for the Seahawks, so he’ll be a key player in the rotation as well. His 2.6 to 1.2 assist to turnover ratio will held out by providing relief to Durr as overall there is a lack of ball handlers on the current roster.
The lack of point guard play is my main concern with the current roster construction. Durr will most likely serve as the primary point guard, but it will have to be a committee after that with Greedy Williams earning minutes in a similar role to last season. However, this is nothing new for Takayo Siddle. In 2022 they finished 339th in assist to field goal made percentage, then 340th in 2023, 339th in 2024, and 98th. Last season was obviously an outlier, so there is a good chance that the Seahawks return to their roots this season as ball movement isn’t a necessary key to success.
While there’s a lack of ball handling, there certainly is not a lack of offense. Over the last two seasons, the Seahawks have finished in the top 100 of offensive efficiency per KenPom. On paper, it looks like they should be in the top 100 this season. From point guard to center they have players who have a knack to be able to create their own offense in an environment that wasn’t led by a natural facilitator. With Wessler and Walsh they’ll be able to clean up the boards with ease and solidify the defensive end to create opportunities on offense. Plus, Nolan Hodge is a perfect wing option with a lethal three-point shot and an ability to crash the offensive boards. Then you have three high-level scoring options in Durr, Luster, and Lamothe.
Overall, we have a Seahawks team that should win 20+ games once again with Siddle at the helm. The ceiling is the ability to win the CAA and the floor is still finishing within the top four of the conference. Siddle pulled in a lot of talent that has the potential to soar in the right system and I truly believe they all fit how he crafts his offensive schemes well. He has five players that could all play the two or three in which he can pluck and pull to fit opponent matchups well. This is an incredible deep team that is going to score a lot of points.
If you want a team to buy some stock in the always competitive CAA, then I believe that UNC Wilmington is the team for you.