Under head coach Ritchie McKay, Liberty has become one of the more established basketball programs at the mid-major level in the country. The Flames were recently selected as the No. 1 team in the Field of 68 Mid-Major Preseason Top 25 poll as the team looks to continue to build off its recent success. Liberty enters the 2025-26 season as the defending Conference USA regular season and tournament champions, coming off a 28-7 overall record and NCAA Tournament appearance.
“There was a time when we were just happy to be in the poll or be mentioned,” McKay said earlier this week as his team has started official practice in preparation for the upcoming season. “I think the expectations have grown so much around us and internally. I think there’s a compliment that’s there, but our goals are never to be ranked this or ranked that as much as they are to be contending for a championship.”
Contending for championships is exactly what the Flames have done under McKay’s leadership. Liberty has either won a tournament championship, regular season title, division title, or reached the conference championship game, in seven of the past eight seasons, many times accomplishing several of those feats during the same season. After a brief one-year hiatus in the program’s first year in Conference USA in 2023-24, the Flames were able to climb back to the top of that mountain, a place they hope to maintain this coming year.
“No one on the outside, and we love Flames Nation and those that support us, I think we have the best administration in the country, but none of their expectations would be grander than ours,” said McKay. “We expect a lot of ourselves and our program.”
Liberty returns several key pieces from last year’s team including starters Colin Porter, Kaden Metheny, and Zach Cleveland. Behind that core, the Flames bring back over 55% of the minutes, 55% of the points, over 50% of the rebounds, and 70% of the assists from last year’s team.
“There is a competitive advantage we have with the core guys that know each other on and off the court,” said Cleveland. “It’s easy to have a string of guys where you know what you’re going to get from each other. I think that helps us bring the new guys along faster.”
In addition to Porter, Metheny, and Cleveland, the Flames also return key contributors from last year’s squad in Brett Decker and Zander Yates, as well as Isaiah Ihnen and Josh Smith. Ihnen suffered an injury in December that forced him to miss the rest of the season while Smith was on the roster last year after transferring from Stetson as he rehabbed from an injury suffered in March 2024. Smith is fully cleared and back practicing with the team while Ihnen is expected to return with a minutes restriction at the beginning of the season.
“I do think having Kaden, Colin, Zach back, obviously, that’s a blessing,” stated McKay. “I’d even throw in there Isaiah and Josh. Although Isaiah only had a third of the year; Josh practiced with us all summer and all spring and he was in our room every day. I do think there’s some experience that we can count on. We kind of know what to expect, but I also know the ability of our freshmen and RJ (Jones) and JJ (Harper) that transferred here, their ability to get a grasp of what we do, especially on the defensive end, is paramount if we want to keep contending for a championship.”
Harper is a transfer from Division II West Liberty where he averaged 15.6 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 3.1 assists per game while shooting 46.5% from the field, 34.7% from three, and 83.1% from the free throw line. Harper helped lead West Liberty to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight and a 30-5 record last season. It is expected that Harper will have a large role on the team as a perimeter defender.
“JJ Harper is fabulous,” said McKay. “That dude is as good a defender as I’ve seen in a first-year player in one of our programs and that would be career-long, even in my days at UVA. That dude is relentless. He is really good, really tough, and he’s a good offensive player. With that West Liberty system, it’s a good one. I know their coach now is at IU Indy, he did a really good job of preparing JJ.”
Jones is a former four-star recruit from Gainesville, Florida. He transfers to Liberty after spending a season at Virginia Tech where he saw playing time in just five games while fighting through injuries. Out of high school, Jones had numerous offers including Virginia Tech, Florida, Georgia Tech, Illinois, Louisville, LSU, Miami, Missouri, NC State, Oklahoma State, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Xavier, and others.
“RJ came from Mike Young’s system,” McKay said. “Those dudes are well coached. He just didn’t get a chance to play. He’s battled injuries probably the last 20-some odd months. He’s healthy for us. His runway has been a little bit longer because maybe being slowed by an injury or two this summer, but I do think he’s progressing well.”
McKay and the Flames also brought in a talented group of freshmen in TJ Drain, Andrew Grimes, Zander Carter, and Torr Sorenson who are all fighting for playing time as true freshmen.
As practice has officially kicked off, Liberty has its eyes set on the end goal of competing for another championship. The Flames’ season begins on Nov. 3 against Kentucky Christian at home, followed by two more home games against Charleston (Nov. 7) and Florida Atlantic (Nov. 9) in the Field of 68 Media Network Tip-Off event. Two of Liberty’s marquee non-conference road games will be against NC State (Dec. 10) and Dayton (Dec. 20) in the month of December.
