As the App State men’s basketball team prepares for the 2024-25 season, there are many storylines to follow. The schedule is headlined by multiple first-time matchups, along with games against perennial Big Ten contender Wisconsin and multiple conference regular-season champions.
The Sun Belt Conference is expected to be competitive once again, and there are plenty of new additions to the Mountaineers as they look to defend their regular-season title.
Many fresh faces joined the Mountaineers this off-season. Redshirt senior guard Myles Tate and graduate student forward CJ Huntley are the only two starters returning from last season. Tate averaged 9.4 points per game while Huntley trailed close behind with 7.5 points per game.
The team added six new freshmen to the roster and seven transfers, including graduate student guard Jackson Threadgill from UNC-Charlotte, who has experience playing with Huntley at Davidson Day High School.
Head coach Dustin Kerns spoke at the men’s basketball media day about how all the new players have fit in with the team chemistry.
“That’s been a very pleasant surprise,” he said. “Our camaraderie, our chemistry has been very good on and off the court, so that’s been really exciting to watch because sometimes I think you’re concerned that’s going to take a lot of time.”
With the roster turnover, App State was picked to finish sixth in the Sun Belt according to the Sun Belt preseason poll. In that same poll, Huntley was named to the Preseason All-Sun Belt Second Team and Tate to the Preseason All-Sun Belt Third Team.
“I think we’ve got really good kids, we’ve got good character people, so that also makes that adjustment easier,” Kerns said.
App State will kick off the season at home Nov. 4 against Miami of Ohio as part of the MAC-SBC Challenge. The Mountaineers have never faced the RedHawks, who finished tied for sixth in the Mid-American Conference last season. The RedHawks went 15-17 last season while finishing 9-9 in conference games, so it should be a solid test to start the year.
St. Andrews will make the trip to Boone two days later before the Mountaineers set off for Madison, Wisconsin, on Nov. 10 for the marquee match of the non-conference schedule. It will be the first time App State has faced the Wisconsin Badgers, who won 22 games last season but were predicted to finish tied for 12th in the Big Ten, according to the conference’s preseason media poll. However, Badgers head coach Greg Gard has led Wisconsin to two conference championships in the past five seasons.
Head coach Dustin Kerns and the App State faithful hope the Mountaineers can pull off another big upset. They beat SEC powerhouse Auburn last year, and Sun Belt rival James Madison eliminated Wisconsin in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
App State was originally scheduled to follow up the Wisconsin game with a contest against UNC-Asheville on Nov. 14, but the game was postponed to the 2025-26 season due to the effects of Hurricane Helene. The game was anticipated to be an emotionally charged one, as former App State guard Jordan Marsh will be on the roster beginning his first year at UNC-Asheville.
The Mountaineers will resume play on Nov. 19 at home against Queens and host William & Mary Nov. 24. They will then travel to Wilmington for the Live Oak Bank Holiday Classic Nov. 27-30, where they will face off against Sam Houston, Colgate and UNC-Wilmington.
App State has never played Sam Houston or Colgate, who both were regular-season conference champions last season. The Mountaineers have only faced off against UNC-Wilmington once, a 30-point victory for the App State over the Seahawks in November 2023.
Sam Houston is led by head coach Chris Mudge, who guided the team to a 21-12 record and a Conference USA regular season title this past season before ultimately falling short to the University of Texas at El Paso in the conference tournament.
The Bearkats’ offense should not go unnoticed. Lamar Wilkerson and Davon Barnes are outstanding guards on the team, both averaging over 13.5 points per game and shooting 83% from the free-throw line.
As for UNC-Wilmington, the Seahawks lost their star forward Trazarien White, who transferred to Texas Christian University for his last year of eligibility. During his previous season, he averaged 19.8 points per game.
After the Live Oak Bank Holiday Classic, the Mountaineers will play Mid-Atlantic Christian at home on Dec. 3 and High Point in Greensboro on Dec. 14. High Point won the Big South Conference regular-season title last season before falling to Longwood in the conference tournament semifinals.
High Point has two stars the Mountaineers will need to be aware of. Duke Miles is an accomplished guard averaging 17.5 points per game this past season. Forward Juslin Bodo Bodo is an undeniable talent on the glass and guarding the rim, who grabbed 9.6 rebounds per game and registered 1.9 blocks per game last year. This will make for an exciting matchup due to the unpredictability of each team’s success.
Sun Belt play will begin with a road game at Louisiana on Dec. 18, before the Mountaineers travel to Denton, Texas, to play North Texas for the first time since 1990. The game against North Texas will be the final game for App State in 2024 and is part of a home-and-home series, with the Mean Green scheduled to visit Boone in the 2026-27 season.
The Mountaineers will open the new year with a four-game homestand against Troy, Texas State, Coastal Carolina and James Madison. James Madison lost their guard Terrence Edwards to Louisville in the transfer portal, which could leave a big hole in the Dukes’ roster that was swept by App State in the regular season last year. He was a powerhouse on the court, leading JMU by averaging 17.2 PPG and 4.4 rebounds.
The Mountaineers were undefeated at home last season, and it might take a similar effort to repeat as Sun Belt regular season champions, as the conference is expected to be very competitive.
The homestand is immediately followed by a four-game road trip against Old Dominion, James Madison, Arkansas State and Louisiana-Monroe. App State will come back to the friendly confines of the Holmes Convocation Center Jan. 29 to play Old Dominion, while Georgia State and Southern Miss will visit Boone at the start of February.
App State will have a brief respite in the conference schedule with a second MAC-SBC Challenge game on Feb. 8 against a yet-to-be-announced opponent. The Mountaineers will wrap up the regular season with road games at Coastal Carolina and Georgia State, and their last four contests will see the Black & Gold take on rivals Georgia Southern and Marshall, two apiece with one home and one away game against each school.
The Sun Belt Tournament will begin March 4, and App State will be seeking redemption from last season. After looking like the favorites to win the conference title and represent the Sun Belt in the NCAA Tournament, a last-second buzzer-beater from Arkansas State knocked the Mountaineers out in the semifinals. The Black and Gold will look to rectify that mistake and punch their ticket to “The Big Dance” for the first time since 2021.
Kerns’ expectations are for the Mountaineers to fight for the Sun Belt title once again, but he acknowledged that doing so could be challenging.
“Obviously in the Sun Belt, you’ve got 14 dogs fighting for one bone,” he said. “You’ve got some programs that have a lot of turnover as well, you’ve got some programs that have some guys back. I think we’re all waiting to see until we get going, but I am very confident in this team and I am very confident in what we do.”
More information on App State’s 2024-25 men’s basketball schedule can be found on the App State athletics website.
