Liberty guard Kaden Metheny has elected to return to the Flames in 2025-26 to utilize his final year of eligibility. Liberty basketball’s official social media accounts made the announcement of Metheny’s return along with Colin Porter and Zach Cleveland, rising seniors, both included in the graphic.
This will be Metheny’s sixth year of college basketball. He played his first three seasons at Bowling Green before transferring to Liberty for the past two seasons. He was able to utilize a COVID year of extra eligibility for his freshman season in 2020-21 and received a medical redshirt for his sophomore season where he missed most of the year with a high-ankle sprain.
Metheny helped lead the Flames to one of the best seasons in program history this past year, as Liberty finished 28-7 overall. The Flames won the CUSA regular season and tournament title to earn the program’s 7th ever bid to the NCAA Tournament before falling to Oregon. The 5’11” Metheny started all 34 games he played in this past season while finishing second on the team in scoring at 13.3 points per game. He also made 102 three-pointers, connecting on 38.3% of his shots behind the arc.
He was named CUSA Tournament MVP after his three-game performance in Huntsville, Alabama. In the semifinals against Kennesaw State, Metheny scored 24 points, with 16 coming in the second half as the Flames made a furious comeback. In the championship game, he had 21 points. Metheny shot a combined 12 of 23 from three-point range in those two games.
With Metheny back in the fold, the Flames are slated to return four of the team’s five starters from this past season as Colin Porter, Zach Cleveland, and Owen Aquino also return. 6’9″ Stetson transfer Josh Smith will also be added to the group after he missed this past season due to an injury. 6’3″ Brett Decker and 6’8″ Zander Yates are other members of this past year’s team’s rotation slated to return, as well.
6’9″ Minnesota transfer Isaiah Ihnen is aiming to come back provided he gets a medical redshirt after he has missed two full seasons with the Golden Gophers and most of this past season at Liberty due to knee injuries. Taelon Peter and Jayvon Maughmer, the remaining members of the team’s rotation this past season, could also return potentially. They are out of eligibility after playing multiple seasons at the Division II level, but there is a chance the NCAA could grant an additional year of eligibility to players due to NIL earning potential at the Division I level, similar to what the NCAA allowed to JUCO players amid the Diego Pavia case.
