Delaware

Delaware hoops loss worst in decades but Ingelsby has faith in future

Published

4 months ago

March 7, 2026

Delaware hoops loss worst in decades but Ingelsby has faith in future

Historical calamities notwithstanding, what occurred inside the Carpenter Center in the early afternoon of March 7 should not be the total measure of the Blue Hens.

Certainly, an unsightly 81-38 basketball loss to Louisiana Tech was in some ways emblematic of Delaware’s 2025-26 basketball season, during which it endured unprecedented misfortune.

But the Blue Hens also frequently rose above their hardships, and even periodically excelled despite them.

First-year Conference USA member Delaware needed to win its game against Louisiana Tech, plus have Florida International and New Mexico State lose theirs later to make the CUSA Tournament, which includes just the top 10 of the 12 league schools.

As that final score hints, it turned into a failure of epic proportion for Delaware, which finishes the season in last place.

The 38 points Delaware scored were its fewest in a game in more than 61 years, since a 77-34 setback against Penn at the Palestra Dec. 9, 1964.

Delaware had scored fewer than 40 points just twice since, in a 46-39 defeat at Rider Feb. 19, 1983, and a 60-39 loss at VCU Jan. 16, 2008.

Ingelsby determined to improve situation

The Blue Hens played their fifth straight game with just six of the 13 scholarship players with whom they began the season, including two freshmen. They’d played the nine games before that with seven.

It caught up with them.

So they’re stuck with their 10-21 record, making these Delaware’s first back-to-back 20-loss seasons since it went 10-20 in 2014-15 and 7-23 in 2015-16 under former coach Monte Ross and 13-20 in Martin Ingelsby’s first UD season in 2016-17.

But the final showing was not representative of who’d they recently been. Delaware was coming off an 83-80 victory over Sam Houston State, which will be the league tournament’s second seed.

They’d also won four of eight before Saturday, which followed a near home upset of regular-season champion Liberty and included an excruciating overtime home loss to Western Kentucky in which the Hens trailed only in the opening seconds of the game and the final moments of OT.

“We’ve dealt with a lot this year,” Ingelsby said. “Obviously, the injuries, adversity, clarity on our roster.

“I’m a competitive dude. So it doesn’t sit well with me. You’re not happy with how overall this season went, obviously going into the league and trying to figure it out.”

Critical offseason looms

In the end, too many players playing too many minutes was part of those struggles. Christian Bliss was first nationally, Justyn Fernandez was fifth and Macon Emory eighth in minutes per game entering Saturday

But those three, in particular, showed how good they are, which is why Delaware won as much as it did. Same with Tyler Houser, though the knee injury he sustained in that WKU game could sideline him all next year.

So Delaware has several very good players. It just needs to retain those it has, such as the aforementioned group, and get more.

That is, of course, easier said than done. But it will be up to Ingelsby, whose contract extends through the 2028-29 season, and his staff to ensure it does, when the transfer portal opens after the Final Four.

“I’m optimistic,” Ingelsby said. “I think we were damn close this year with being dealt a tough hand with all the injuries. We put a good team together but never got a sense to see that team kind of play and grow and learn through the ups and downs of the season.

“But I’m confident that the right players, the right coaching staff, the right support, which we’re getting, that we can be very good in this league.”

“I’ll thank them forever”

Houston Emory, feted in Senior Day ceremonies Saturday, is the only one of Delaware’s remaining 12 scholarship players after Nnanna Njoku’s departure who has completed his eligibility. What a modern-day oddity he is, having spent his entire career at one school.

Delaware has signed one incoming freshman, Jafet Valencia, a 6-7, 200-pound guard from Leesburg, Virginia, and Evergreen Christian School. Ingelsby said he’ll likely be the only one.

“Today was not a semblance of what this team was able to do and how they competed for Delaware men’s basketball,” Ingelsby said, “the University of Delaware, with as tough of a hand as I’ve experienced in my 20-plus years in college basketball.

“We got six scholarship guys out there, two freshmen. Those guys that were there every day, I’ll thank them forever for everything that they gave this program.”

Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com and follow on Twitter @kevintresolini. Support local journalism by subscribing to delawareonline.com and our DE Game Day newsletter.

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Delaware

Wilmington fire displaces 20, damages 6 homes on Clayton Road; cause under investigation

Published

7 hours ago

July 2, 2026

Press Room

Wilmington fire displaces 20, damages 6 homes on Clayton Road; cause under investigation

WILMINGTON, DE – The Delaware State Fire Marshal is investigating a four-alarm fire that broke out Thursday, July 2, damaging six homes and displacing 20 people on the 1500 block of Clayton Road in Wilmington.

What we know:

The fire was reported shortly after 3:00 p.m. and quickly escalated to four alarms due to the heat, according to the Delaware State Fire Marshal.

Multiple fire companies responded and found heavy fire at the rear of the residences.

Several firefighters were evaluated by EMS and New Castle County Paramedics at the scene.

One firefighter was taken to a hospital for heat exhaustion.

Deputy State Fire Marshals determined the fire started under a deck at the rear of one of the homes.

The fire displaced 20 people from their homes and required a large emergency response, highlighting the risks firefighters face during extreme weather.

The American Red Cross is providing support to the families who lost their homes, showing the importance of community resources during emergencies.

What’s next:

The Delaware State Fire Marshal’s office is continuing to investigate the cause of the fire. Updates will be provided as more information becomes available.

What we don’t know:

The specific cause of the fire has not been determined, and the names of the families affected have not been released.

The Source: Information from the Delaware State Fire Marshal.

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Delaware

County councilman says Newark data center plan paused after deal

Published

17 hours ago

July 2, 2026

Press Room

County councilman says Newark data center plan paused after deal

Olivia Marble
| Spotlight Delaware

A New Castle County councilman says he brokered a non-binding handshake deal to pause a data center project near Newark.
The deal depends on the county approving an exploratory plan that would grandfather the developer into previous zoning rules.
The developer, Shelbourne, has not commented on the informal agreement to consider other uses for the site.

This story was produced by Spotlight Delaware as part of a partnership with Delaware Online/The News Journal. For more about Spotlight Delaware, visit www.spotlightdelaware.org.

New Castle County Councilman Tim Sheldon says he recently brokered a handshake deal to pause a data center development project near Newark.

Sheldon, who represents the Newark area, said the deal followed private negotiations with the developer’s prominent Delaware attorney, Shawn Tucker, who told him the New York-based developer behind the project, Shelbourne, agreed to consider the Newark site for uses other than a data center. “This is my art of the deal,” Sheldon said.

But the deal is dependent on the county finalizing an approval for an exploratory plan application from the developer, which would grandfather the land into zoning rules that existed prior to this year, Sheldon said.

That means the developer would not have to follow the county’s recently-passed data center regulations if the company ultimately decides to build a data center there. Since the property’s zoning already allows data center projects, the county likely does not have the legal authority to deny that exploratory plan application. An email sent between Sheldon and Tucker, dated June 10, shows that Tucker agreed to pause the data center project under those conditions.

Neither Tucker nor Shelbourne representatives responded to requests for comment about this deal.

Last year, Shelbourne filed documents with the county that showed plans to demolish the existing White Clay Center office and industrial buildings and construct a three-building data center campus that covered about 850,000 square feet.

After the filing, the plans became wrapped into a larger community backlash in northern Delaware against the growth of the data center industry. Neighbors have voiced fears that such data centers would use too much water and energy, and be too noisy.

Sheldon’s handshake agreement is not binding, and the developer still has the legal right to build a data center.

New Castle County General Manager of Land Use David Culver said he saw the email from Tucker but has no other information.

Sheldon noted that the agreement is between him and Tucker — and not with the county as a party. He further stated that if he decides not to run for reelection in 2028 or loses to a challenger, “it may be null and void.”

“If I’m not there, there’s no promises,” Sheldon said.

Asked if he would try to secure an official county deal barring a data center on that property, Sheldon said the project is “too far in the process” and he doesn’t want to risk the progress he’s made.

He said he will instead work to find another company to lease or buy the land. He said in a text after the interview that the deal is “the best I could’ve got.”

“Nobody else has even done this much and it seems like I’m getting hammered because I did something,” Sheldon said in the text.

Sheldon said an Amtrak train maintenance site will open next door to the White Clay Center property in the next few years, and he thinks the track upgrades needed for that project could make the neighboring site more attractive for manufacturing.

Delaware Public Media reported last week that Alstom, which conducts maintenance on Amtrak’s high-speed Acela trains – will open a new facility on 1601 Ogletown Road, next to the White Clay Center office and industrial buildings.

Alstom did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

What’s the status of data centers in Delaware?

Beyond Shelbourne’s proposal, several other building projects proposed in Delaware could become data centers.

The biggest is Project Washington, a 1.2-gigawatt data center campus planned for the land just north of the Delaware City Refinery. It would use enough energy to power almost a million homes.

That plan faced a major setback in March after a state board unanimously upheld Environmental Secretary Greg Patterson’s decision that the project is not permitted under Delaware’s Coastal Zone Act, a landmark law designed to limit heavy industry along the state’s shorelines.

Developer Starwood Digital Ventures was expected to appeal that decision, but it is unclear whether it will. Representatives from Starwood did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Another potential data center plan is slated for land near the southern approach to the St. Georges Bridge off U.S. Route 13. The St. Georges project includes the land that hosts the popular Halloween attraction Frightland.

County records show plans for three distribution centers covering 3.6 million square feet on farmland, along with 150 homes.

The records say the buildings will be warehouses. But project engineer Verdantas also submitted letters to the county suggesting that the buildings could be a data center campus.

Delmarva Power filings this winter showed two other potential data center projects. But Technical.ly reported that only one of those projects is still on the table, which would be located in Harrington. City officials are still in the preliminary stages of discussions about that plan, according to the report.

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