By RICHIE HALL
When Hunter Crist began his college basketball career three years ago, he was part of a young roster at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.
In a few months, Crist will be getting set for a new beginning, this time as the veteran leading a young team. Crist is transferring to Binghamton University for his final year of college eligibility. The Hamilton Heights graduate will be doing so with a degree in business administration; this coming year, Crist will be working towards a Masters degree.
Crist entered the transfer portal in March and was picked up by Binghamton fairly quickly. He said there were other schools talking to him, but things began to move once Bearcats coach Tommy Dempsey got in touch with David Maravilla, the coach of Don Bosco Prep (now Bosco Institute), the prep school where Crist played for a season after graduating from Heights in 2016.
Dempsey called up Crist, and the rest is history.
“I know David talked to Coach Dempsey about me a lot,” said Crist. “It really didn’t seem like there could be a better fit. The trust and confidence that Coach Dempsey had in me, even just seeing the minimal film that I had. It was just eye-opening.”
Crist said he feels like he has already had “some really beneficial and successful conversations,” not just with Dempsey, but also the entire coaching staff.
“I think we’re already clicking and heading down the right path,” said Crist.
The path for Crist began at Don Bosco Prep, which is located in Crown Point. Crist broke his wrist during his senior season at Heights, so he decided to go the prep school route.
Crist called it “definitely beneficial,” both from the experience and skill standpoint. He averaged 15.1 points, 6.7 assists and 3.8 rebounds per game during his season at Bosco. It also helped academically, getting one year of college completed.
After that, Crist headed to Green Bay. He saw significant minutes right away, playing in all 33 games for the Phoenix, and in fact started the first three games of the season. Crist reached double-digit scoring in four contests, including 16 points against Wisconsin-Parkside.
“My freshman year, it was a transition phase,” said Crist. “I thought it went well for me just get that first year under your belt. I feel like I actually got a chance. Coach (Linc) Darner had a little bit of trust in me to take control of the team. I feel like I did an OK job of doing that my first year.”
For the next two years, Crist still played the majority of the games, but not as many. He was in 28 of the Phoenix’s 38 games as a sophomore during the 2018-19 season, which saw Green Bay finish 21-17 and reach the championship game of the CollegeInside.com Postseason Tournament (CIT).
In his junior year, Crist played in 31 of the 33 games. He averaged 2.0 points per game in both his sophomore and junior years, after averaging 3.9 points during his freshman season. In March, he entered the transfer portal.
“I don’t know what exactly happened,” said Crist. “Darner lost that trust. My numbers and minutes just depleted over time. I really wasn’t able to be in a position for my success.”
But there were no hard feelings. Crist told the Green Bay Press Gazette that his last meeting with the Phoenix coaching staff “went well and let him leave the program on a positive note,” according to a March 13 story in that newspaper. In that same story, Darner said that while the team was disappointed that Crist was leaving, “we wish him only the best in his basketball future.”
“I’m definitely grateful to the coaching staff for them just giving me an opportunity to play basketball at that level,” said Crist. “I was able to experience three years in the Horizon League, and obviously that’s going to benefit me even more in my future. I was able to create a lot of great friendships with a lot of the guys on the team, share a lot of good memories with a lot of them.” Crist said he is still talking with many of his teammates today.
Crist has his focus on the Binghamton Bearcats. The school is located in Vestal, N.Y., a suburb of the actual city of Binghamton. The school is in Division I and competes in the America East Conference.
Of course, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Crist hasn’t been able to meet with his new teammates in person, but he has been able to communicate with them.
“I talked to several of them individually,” said Crist. “We also just had our first Zoom call as a team a few days ago. And then prior to that, I had a couple Zoom calls with the two other recruits that transferred with me and the coaching staff.”
Those two recruits are both sophomores. Tyler Bertram is from Cooperstown, N.Y., about an hour and a half up the highway, and played his first year at North Carolina-Charlotte. Bryce Beamer played his freshman year at the College of Central Florida, a junior college in his home state, and helped the team to a 25-7 record.
The Bearcats were a very young team last year, with only two seniors and two juniors, followed by four sophomores and five freshmen. One of those sophomores, Sam Sessoms, was the America East Rookie of the Year in 2018-19.
“We’ll definitely still be pretty young,” said Crist. He said that was one of the points that Dempsey was strong on: The coach wanted an experienced player to take over the leadership role.
“That’s why he recruited me,” said Crist.
So, Crist will be spending a year in Binghamton, earning a Masters degree and playing one more season. Crist said that once that season is finished, he is “probably going to try to play professionally afterwards, but then I’ll have that education and the degree to fall back on.” Crist said eventually he plans to go into “some type of sales,” such as medical sales.