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Niagara Gazette
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Date Posted: Tuesday, March 03, 03:39:11pm
Author Host/IP: syn-074-070-140-050.res.spectrum.com/74.70.140.50
Niagara trying to improve after back-to-back postseason misses.
LEWISTON — Last year, Niagara made history.
It wasn’t a good thing, but it was history. It was the first time in program history that the team missed the MAAC tournament.
This year, history has repeated itself as the squad failed to qualify for the conference tournament once again.
Between 1990 and 2024, Niagara had made the postseason every year before these last two seasons.
The last two seasons have seen Niagara go a combined 19-42 overall and 11-29 in conference play.
“We’ll take some time now that the season is over and evaluate things we did well this year, where we can improve upon,” Niagara head coach Greg Paulus said. “There’ll be a little bit of time here for us to do some self-reflection over what just happened over the last year.”
This season, Niagara went 8-22 overall and ended its season with a 73-66 loss to Merrimack on Sunday. Immediately after the loss, Paulus was not ready to look to the future, instead focusing on his current team and the team’s three seniors, Justin Hawkins, Reggie Prudhomme and Kabeya Tshibangu.
During his tenure, Greg Paulus and Niagara have gone 70-104 in six seasons. As the head coach, Paulus has gone 4-5 in the postseason.
Despite the struggles over the past two seasons, Paulus is not worried about his job status.
“I’m just focused on, you know, continuing to get better and learn from this season into next season,” Paulus said.
One of the issues that Niagara has had over the past two seasons is dealing with the transfer portal, where this year’s team only returned four players from the 2024-25 roster.
While the transfer portal does not open until April 7, if Niagara does lose a lot of players, they will have the experience of fitting together a team next year.
“Each team is different and so for us, obviously, you get a chance to evaluate what just happened and you kind of go from there on how we can continue to get better as a team and as a program,” Paulus said. “... The next group, when they come in, how can we maximize that group? It starts with a lot of hard work and starts with continual improvements from everybody in the group.”
One of the players that is expected to return is junior guard Trenton Walters, who played in 25 games, averaging 7.2 points, 1.6 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game.
This season was Walters’ first with the Purple Eagles after transferring in from Indian Hills Community College, where he spent one season. Before going to Indian Hills, Walters played one season at NCAA Division I Radford University.
After this season, he is not thinking about heading back to the transfer portal to find a new home.
“I’ve been … worried about the season and trying to maximize everything I can to help these seniors play, some of the managers, those are guys that I really appreciate,” Walters said. “I know how much they put in, so I can’t go out there and just not give it my all because I know there’s somebody else out there that hasn’t been able to play.”
Over the last two years, the Purple Eagles have struggled to win close games. In games decided by 10 points or less, Niagara is 13-27.
Looking ahead to the 2026-27 season, Walters said he wants to spend time reflecting on what he did well and what he did not do well.
“Looking in the mirror is the next step for sure, looking at what I did to help the team, what I have to do going into the next season to figure out how to be better,” Walters said. “… I think it’s something that starts with culture. We would figure that out. … I give the coaches a lot of credit for pouring into us. That’s what they never stop doing and that’s something that you can really appreciate.”
Now that the season is finished, Paulus and his staff will be looking at the entire program from top to bottom and trying to figure out how to get back to the postseason.
They will be working to help get ready for when the players come back in the summer and start working out for next season.
“For us, that’s part of the evaluation process that we’ll do here of just how can we get better and where can we grow and be better … all the different aspects of the program and what we can do with that,” Paulus said. “We’ll take some time and really dive into that and just see what that looks like for the future. … Hopefully we can earn the right to be a part of the MAAC tournament next year.”
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