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JCU 2025 Team

Men’s Basketball Preview: The Blue Streaks Look to Start Hot in the NCAC

| By: Anthony Markello, Staff Writer
The 2025 Blue Streaks look to continue one of the most dominant stretches in Program History
UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS – John Carroll Men's Basketball couldn't have asked for a better way to say goodbye to the Ohio Athletic Conference than claiming another OAC tournament title on their home court to cap off an excellent 2024-25 season.

The win over rival Mount Union marked the Blue Streaks second consecutive OAC tournament title, and third under the leadership of Head Coach Pete Moran. 

Moran, who enters his ninth season as head coach, is looking to replicate the Blue Streaks recent success in their first season of NCAC competition.

"Our goals never change here within the men's basketball program. 
Our goal is to compete for championships, regardless of year and regardless of personnel," said Moran.

"I've been part of the OAC for 34 years if you date back to when my father got the job and I'm going on year nine, you know, I could sit here right now and draw Mount Union's playbook, and I knew Coach Fuline and I knew his philosophy. So I think from a coaching perspective, just starting to learn the NCAC coaching styles, philosophies, I think that's kind of an obstacle, and something that I'm looking forward to."

Success won't come easy, even without having to go through Mount Union any longer. The squad has some big holes to fill, literally, and figuratively. 

JCU loses four starters from last season, including reigning OAC Player of the Year, Luke Frazier. 

In addition to the loss of Frazier, the Blue Streaks will have to live without their two most prominent big men of the 2024-25 season, Henry Raynor and Will Yontek. In their senior seasons, the Saint Ignatius grads enjoyed career years, Raynor winning OAC Defensive Player of the Year, and Yontek averaging 13.9 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. All goes without even mentioning All-OAC guard Chase Toppin, and fellow big-man David Gentry, both of whom also graduated in 2025. 

"You can't replace those guys, but what you can do is switch your philosophy up a little bit… our guys, they're extremely intelligent and they play their tails off. So we're going to go with that."

Luckily for the Blue Streaks, Coach Moran has reinforcements. After missing almost all of last season with an ankle injury, All-American point guard Luke Chicone will be back in action as a graduate student for the 2025-26 season. Since joining the Blue Streaks in 2022, the Youngstown State transfer has put together a laundry list of accolades, including 2024 OAC Dick Reynolds Player of the Year. The Greater Cleveland Sports Commission also honored Chicone with the 2024 Cleveland Male Collegiate Athlete of the Year award, where he beat out co-finalist and current Browns tight end Harold Fannin Jr. for the honor. 

"Luke Chicone's a generational player. He's obviously a special talent, you know, but I think his mentality and his mindset and his ability to make people around him better is probably his strongest asset to our program."

In addition to the return of Chicone, the Blue Streaks also picked up a pair of talented transfers in Lucas Perusek and Justin Chapman.

Perusek is a junior guard from Willoughby Heights. The Saint Edwards product played his first two years of collegiate ball at Division 1 Duquesne, who won the A10 conference last year and upset #6 BYU in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

"Lucas, he's only practiced for about four days, but let me tell you something, he's special. He's very gifted, very athletic, very intelligent, too."

Chapman is a 6'8" junior from Sydney, OH who transferred from Ohio Northern in the offseason. Ironically enough, Chapman had arguably his best game as a Polar Bear last season in a tight loss to John Carroll, a game where he posted a career high 13 points. No doubt Chapman will help to fill the void left down low by Raynor and Yontek. 


Aside from Chicone and the two transfers, the Blue Streaks are returning some in-house talent of their own heading into the 2025-26 season.

Aidan Fitzgerald is perhaps the most notable returning contributor from 2024-25. The junior from Kirtland started in 20 of the Blue Streaks 26 games last season, averaging 5.7 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 1 assist per game. The sharpshooter shot 36.7% from beyond the arch, on 90 attempts. Fitzgerald will likely see an increased offensive role this season with the departures of Frazier and Chase Toppin. 

After Fitzgerald, JCU holds a trio of solid 2024-25 rotational pieces that will look to step up this season with playing opportunities arising from last year's strong graduating senior class.

Sean Collins is one of those players. Like Fitzgerald, Collins is due for an increased role this season. The senior served as a solid depth piece for the Blue Streaks last season, coming off the bench to average 9.8 minutes, 1.8 points, and 1.5 boards per game.

Kasey Hunt is another senior the Blue Streaks will count on for solid production in 2025. The Tiffin transfer served a similar role to Collins last year, averaging 9.9 minutes, 3.5 points, and 1.9 rebounds per game in his first season as a Blue Streak. 

Brandon Rose is our final returner who saw some real playing time off the bench a season ago. The East Cleveland native saw 11.7 minutes per game in 2024-25, averaging 3.2 points, and 1.7 rebounds. Most notably, Rose recorded 12 steals and shot 48% from three. Given last year's promising sample size, look for Rose to be leaned on more in his junior season.

Coach Moran notes that Collins, Hunt, and Rose will all play critical roles in the Blue Streak rotation this season. Rose is someone he speaks highly of, and feels will get more opportunities with the departure of a player like Luke Frazier.

"Brandon Rose, another guy, he was playing behind an All-American, so in the same sentiment he was competing against an all American every day."

Another returner that Moran highlighted is junior forward Kyle Irwin. The 6'6" Mayfield Heights product didn't see much action last season, as he was buried on the depth chart behind a talented trio of senior big-men in Raynor, Yontek, and David Gentry. This season, Moran expects Irwin to step up into a pivotal role for the Blue Streaks.

A fantastic asset to have as a team is depth, which the Blue Streaks certainly have. Coach Moran feels confident enough in his bench to run as deep of a rotation as you'll see in college basketball this season. 

"We are going to play a lot of guys, upwards of 11, 12 guys per game, just because I think with the style that we've implemented… that's going to be the key to our success is just, the longevity of these guys and their ability to play the game at a very, very high pace."

The depth of this year's squad combined with the star power of the likes of Luke Chicone poises John Carroll for another special season, as the squad hopes to establish their presence in the NCAC, and continue their storied championship pedigree. 

The Blue Streaks kick off their season with the Ron Linhart Memorial Classic, where they'll take on The University of Olivet on Friday, November 14 in the Seiberling Gymnasium.
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