The Oswego State men’s basketball team is entering the season as defending SUNYAC conference champions and is looking to make the NCAA Tournament for a second consecutive year.
The Lakers will open the season with nine games of its first games on the road. The Lakers’ head coach Jason Leone believes the unorthodox start will provide his team with a challenge.
The key players for the Lakers this season will be junior Brian Sortino and senior Walter Sampson. Sortino was named First Team All-Region by the NABC and Second Team All-Region by D3hoops.com. He also earned First Team All-Upstate Honors by the ECAC and was two-time Oswego State Male Athlete of the Week. He lead the Lakers in scoring last season, averaging 16.5 points per game.
Sampson, who became a full-time starter last season, was second on the Lakers in points per game and led the team in assists. He will look to improve his play and help the team progress during his final year.
“We’re forgetting what happened last year and we’re just trying to turn a new leaf to be ready for each and every game,” Sampson said. “We’re going to have to try some new things and see what is going to work out this year. Playing on the road is going to be tough, but we use that as fuel and get to some road wins. That’ll build on us and when we get to our home games it’s going be nice.”
The Lakers do not play their first home game until Dec. 11. They will not see an increase in home games unitl after the winter break, as they have seven of them in an eight-game stretch.
“We did it on purpose, we have an older group and we wanted to challenge this team in particular,” Leone said. “We’re not just playing games on the road, we’re playing really good teams on the road.”
Leone sees his current team as a speical group that can do great things this campaign, and wants to let it handle its own struggles as he watches it.
“They’re a really driven group, they want to do well and they’re caring individuals,” Leone said. “When they’re challenged, that’s when they seem to step up to the plate, that’s what I learned about this team.”
Leone knows what kind of environment his team needs in order to bring out the best in it. All the student-athletes currently on the Lakers were his recruits. This is the first time this has happened as Leone is entering his fifth year coaching the Lakers.
“If you look at the common denominator of good teams, [it] is player ownership, where they can rely on each other [and] hold each other accountable,” Leone said. “I think this is a very productive environment that can help winning.”
If the Lakers can impress with their play throughout their long road trip, they will be in good position coming out of the winter break.
The Lakers have two new transfer students and two freshmen joining their squad. The standout newcomer is junior-transfer Mykelle Krecko, who is 6 feet 10 inches tall and looks to factor into Leone’s plans this season. He and junior Mark Candelario, who is 6 feet 8 inches tall, will look to intimidate opposition with their height.
Oswego State starts off its season against the St. Lawrence Saints and then head to Elmira College for the Soaring Eagles’ tip-off tournament. It will also head to Rochester to participate in another tournament hosted by the University of Rochester Yellow Jackets. This is all part of its long road trip to start the season.
Conference play for the Lakers will begin against SUNY Fredonia on Dec. 5. Coach Leone and his players have always viewed SUNYAC conference play as competitive.
Another key player for Oswego State this season is junior Dustin Pond, who joined the team as a transfer student last season. After being part of a SUNYAC-Championship winning team in his first year as a Laker, he knows that other teams will mark their game against the Lakers on their schedules.
“We know we have a target on our backs this year,” Pond said. “We just have to continue playing well like we did last season.”
The Lakers received votes in preseason national polls, sitting on the outside looking in. They are the highest ranked team in the SUNYAC and the only team from within the conference to receive votes at all, with 54 total.
One of the meetings to lookout for on the schedule are the two contests against SUNY Oneonta. Ian Schupp, who played for the Lakers last season, as a freshman, transferred to Oneonta before this season.
Another meeting that is always looked at with anticipation is the matchups against SUNY Plattsburgh. While not as talked about as the ice hockey rivalry between the two schools, there is still an expectation of a good contest between the teams. The Lakers truimphed the Cardinals in last year’s SUNYAC championship game at Plattsburgh. The Cardinals surely have not forgotten that game and look to take it right back to the Lakers.
The Lakers’ season will begin on Saturday, Nov. 14 at St. Lawrence and their first home game will be against the Cazenovia College Wildcats on Dec. 11. The month of January will see the Lakers play on their home court in the Max Ziel Gymnasium six times, all against conference opponents, starting with the SUNY Oneonta Red Dragons.
