PITTSBURGH – A new era of Point Park basketball gets underway on Saturday afternoon as the Pioneers travel to St. Bonaventure University (N.Y.) for a Division I exhibition at the Reilly Center.
The game will mark the debut of
Joe Long's head coaching career after being elevated to the first chair last April following the departure of Ryan Grandits to take the Daemen (N.Y.) head coaching position. Long served as Grandits' lead assistant at Point Park in 2025-26, and previous held assistant roles at Gettysburg College, St. John Fisher University (N.Y.) and Medaille University (N.Y.). He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Florida State in 2018-19.
St. Bonaventure is led by first-year head coach Mike MacDonald, who a year ago was the head coach at Division II Daemen University.
Point Park went 8-19 overall and 5-15 in league play a season ago, and like a majority of college basketball programs around the country, had a full roster transformation in the spring and summer.
The Pioneers return just six players from a season ago, including starting guard
Grant Welch (11.3 ppg, 3.8 rpg) and key reserve
Jayden Davis (4.3 ppg, 1.3 rpg). The remaining returners include
Emeka Anwah (2.0 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 34 games played),
Amir Turner (2.3 ppg, 8 games played) and
Marco Brown (0.2 ppg, 13 games played).
Osvaldo Biebrich did not see action during 2025-26.
In recruiting, Point Park welcomed eight transfers from varying levels of college basketball, including
Nicco DiGuilio (Canisius University),
Caleb Whitaker (Seton Hill University),
Obi Okafor (VCU),
Jordan Lucas-Johnson (Saint Vincent College),
Jackson Rhodes (Waynesburg University),
Vasilije Serafimoski (RMU),
Jordan Reed (Northern Oklahoma College) and
David Popson (Lackawanna College).
Freshman newcomers include
Aaron Phipps from Liberty Township (Pa.),
Josh Frazier from Ellicott City, Maryland,
Javin Blacks from Phoenix, Arizona,
Aiden Garber from Stephens City, Virginia, and
Mateo Barbero from Spain.
Point Park opens regular season play on Monday, Nov. 9 against D'Youville University. Opening tip is set for 7 p.m. in Buffalo, New York.
