As of late January, the University of Delaware men’s basketball team was struggling to get back on track after quite literally limping through the first half of the season with a string of debilitating injuries to key players.

The most serious injury was a broken thumb suffered by senior point guard Mike Slattery, a preseason first team All-Colonial Athletic Association selection. Slattery broke his thumb in a 68-66 victory over Rider University on Dec. 11 and missed five games, including the entire San Juan Shootout holiday tournament in Puerto Rico.

The Fightin’ Blue Hens lost all five games without Slattery and, when he returned, managed to put together a three-game winning streak and battle their way back toward the .500 mark for the season.
Although Head Coach David Henderson’s team has faced more than its share of adversity, both Slattery, when healthy, and junior forward Harding Nana have had outstanding seasons.

Slattery continues to handle the ball deftly and provide open scoring opportunities for teammates with his stellar passing abilities. He is averaging about 6.5 assists per game this season and is among the all-time CAA career leaders with more than 530. He also averages nearly 10 points per game.

The 6-foot 8-inch Nana, who transferred to UD from Virginia Tech, is a powerful force underneath the basket and also can step outside to hit the jump shot when necessary. He is one of just a handful of players in NCAA Division I who averages in double figures in both points and rebounds, scoring about 20 points and pulling down 10 rebounds per game.

Nana scored 29 points and hit a career-high six three-point shots in a 66-57 conference loss to defending champion Virginia Commonwealth University on Jan. 19 at the Bob Carpenter Sports/Convocation Center.

“Slattery has been invaluable to us as a leader and you can really see the difference in his focus this year,” Henderson says, adding, “We are excited about Nana’s potential because he provides us with both an inside and an outside threat and really causes match-up problems for opponents.”

Also stepping up for the Hens this year have been junior guards Andrew Washington, a transfer from Allen County Community College in Kansas who is averaging about 10 points per game and who, Henderson says, is the team’s most athletic player, and Rulon Washington, who is averaging just under 10 points per game and who has shown a willingness to take big shots with the game on the line. His three-point basket as time expired in overtime helped the Hens to an 81-78 victory over George Mason University on Jan. 12.

UD is playing one of its most challenging schedules in years, having taken the court at Ohio State University and the University of San Francisco and against Auburn University of the powerful Southeastern Conference during the San Juan Shootout.