Name: Mercyhurst University
What’s a Mercyhurst? Well, as CBS Sports college basketball insiders Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander have noted in the past, Mercyhurst is the first Division 1 college or university named after a 1990s alt-rock band. So, here’s the explainer on Mercyhurst, right off their Wikipedia page:
The band was formed in August of 1991 by John McCrea, Vince DiFiore, Greg Brown, Frank French, and Shon Meckfessel who soon left and was replaced by Gabe Nelson. Following the self-release
of its debut album, Motorcade of Generosity, the band was signed to Capricorn Records in 1995 and released its first single, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Lifestyle”, which hit number 35 on the Modern Rock Tracks music chart and was featured on MTV’s 120 Minutes.
Wait.
No, I’m sorry, that’s Cake, the band that we’re going to be featuring in the Game Thread for this contest in the 90s Alternative Song of the Day. My bad.
Show of hands: Anybody else seen Cake live? I caught the very end of their show at Summerfest 2025 when The Killers show let out before Cake finished up.
What were we talking about? Oh, right, Mercyhurst.
Location: Erie, Pennsylvania
Founded: The Sisters of Mercy of the Diocese of Erie started holding classes in 1926, but didn’t actually get their charter until two years later. Not sure how that works, but here we are.
Okay, so what is a Mercyhurst? Well, the Mercy part is the Sisters of Mercy. Here’s the Hurst part, from their own website:
The “Hurst” part of the university’s name pays homage to the “wooded area on the hill” where Mercyhurst found its home.
Wooded Area On The Hill Day: There’s apparently a university sponsored campus festival day with no classes every fall which is, as you can guess, called Hurst Day.
But what about Spring Semester??? Yeah, there’s a Springfest.
Midway through the Spring Semester, everybody could use a break from the rigors of academic study, making it the perfect time to cut loose and have a little fun. We’ve got you covered, thanks to SpringFest, a campus-wide dance party with thousands of your closest friends and a headlining music act. Artists including Bryce Vine, T-Pain, Timeflies, MKTO, Sean Kingston, and Jesse McCartney have performed on the SpringFest stage. Maybe your favorite artist will be here next year!
Enrollment: 2,641 as of whenever they put that on the Campus Profile webpage.
Is Athletics keeping Mercyhurst’s doors open? If they have only 2,641 students…. and they have 13 men’s varsity teams, including a football team….. and 17 women’s varsity teams….. what percentage of their student body is on one of these teams? The football roster lists 115 players, which is 4.4% of the enrollment all by itself.
Nickname: Lakers
Why “Lakers?” Turns out that the Sisters of Mercy loved George Mikan. I’m sure it’s because Erie, PA, is right on the shores of Lake Erie.
How about a mascot? Luke The Laker is an Irish sailor who grew up in Erie. No, really:
Born in Dublin, Luke the Laker grew up on Lower Baggot Street, just down the way from Catherine McAuley’s first House of Mercy. Since his days as a youngster, he’s admired the dedication and fortitude of the Sisters of Mercy, traits he’s honed during his time as a fisherman sailing the Irish Sea. Like his uncle Louie, Luke bleeds green and blue, and now he’s decided to permanently anchor his ship and follow in Louie’s footsteps, ready to cheer on our student-athletes and do all he can in support of Mercyhurst pride.
Now, is Luke The Laker the first Mercyhurst mascot?
NO, HE’S NOT. LOUIS THE LAKER DIED SAVING THE STUDENT UNION FROM A FLOOD IN 2015, AND LUKE IS HIS NEPHEW.
Notable Alumni: The Campus Profile webpage claims “approximately 26,409,” which does raise the question of how Mercyhurst doesn’t actually know how many people they’ve given diplomas to so far. In any case, it’s not exactly a gigantic list and it’s spread across 100 years. However, they do claim James “Buster” Douglas, who apparently attended Mercyhurst on a basketball scholarship in the early 1980s before he went on to knock out Mike Tyson in the Tokyo Dome in 1990 and become heavyweight boxing champion of the world.
Last Season: 17-17, 10-8 in NEC play
Final 2025-26 KenPom.com Ranking: #285 out of 365 teams, up from their preseason ranking of #359
Final 2025-26 BartTorvik.com Ranking: #284 out of 365 teams, up from their preseason ranking of #350
Preseason 2026-27 KenPom.com Ranking: #293 out of 365 teams
Preseason 2026-27 BartTorvik.com Ranking: #284 out of 365 teams
Preseason Poll: Mercyhurst was picked to finish second in the NEC this season, one year after finishing tied for third. The Lakers did snag two first place votes in the polling, which is pretty neat since this is their third year in Division 1 and thus is still part of their reclassification process.
Head Coach: Gary Manchel, beginning his 25th season in charge at Mercyhurst. From 2015 onwards, he had turned the Lakers into a solid Division 2 program, getting to the NCAA tournament in six of their last 10 seasons before reclassifying, including an Elite Eight appearance in 2019. Manchel has a record of 405-252 overall with Mercyhurst and 536-377 as a head coach including nine seasons at UMass Lowell in the 1990s. As a Division 1 head coach, Manchel has a record of 32-33.
Key Players: In terms of returning guys, there’s just one to know. That’s Jake Lemelman, who was the Lakers’ #2 scorer last season at 13.9 points per game. The 6’2” guard from Massachusetts added 2.5 rebounds and a team high 3.2 assists per game, and he was a nearly 40% three-point shooter as well. Lemelman was also tied for the team lead in steals with 39 for the season and thus 1.1 per game. There’s four other returning guys as well, but three of them played less than 50 minutes each last year.
Lemelman started and played a team high 35 minutes in Mercyhurst’s lone public exhibition game, he was the leading scorer with 13 points as well. Because they lost 71-39 to Louisville, Lemelman was the only Laker that cracked double digits. Mercyhurst didn’t start anyone taller than 6’7” in that contest, and the only guy taller than that on the roster — 6’9” Chris Leman — only played three minutes. I don’t want to tell you that we should expect big (pun intended) things from 6’9” Royce Parham, 6’11” Sananda Fru, and 7’1” Joshua Clark…. but it feels like this is an advantage that Marquette should exploit.
Other than that, from a review of everyone’s roster bios and noting that Mercyhurst is turning over most of their roster, specifically most everyone who had a major role last year, it’s hard to draw any big conclusions about anything. I will note that Manchel had the Lakers in the top 70 in defensive turnover rate in both of their first two seasons of Division 1 competition. If that kind of defense is the norm for where Mercyhurst is going to try to head for Year 3, then that’s something Marquette has to watch out for after committing 24 turnovers against Michigan State.
All-Time Series: This is the first ever meeting between Marquette and Mercyhurst, but that’s mostly because of the “third season in Division 1” thing.
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