For the final time this season, the buzzer sounded and signified the end of another historic year for the Oswego State men’s basketball team.

To fully understand the magnitude of the accomplishments of this team, one must look back to the offseason. Following last season’s NCAA Tournament exit in the Sweet 16, the Lakers lost several key players due to graduation. Head coach Jason Leone noted how important players like Brendan Mulson, Christian Simmons and Louis Fedulo were to the team and knew he had his work cut out for him as they looked to fill the gaps their departures left.

Enter Cartier Bowman, Joey Rowback and Josh Thigpen. Bowman spent his sophomore year playing at The College of St. Rose in a more guard-like role, however Leone believed that from what he saw, “he could be an effective forward given his size and athleticism at our level.”         

Sophomore Joey Rowback transferred in from Fulton-Montgomery Community College and his role according to Leone was to add another threat from beyond the arc.

“I thought we were a good perimeter shooting team but not great and I think Joey took us to another level in being able to stretch a defense,” he said.

As a freshman, Leone noted that Thigpen was a “pleasant surprise” and despite not featuring in many games this season said that they are aware of his ability.

With the holes filled, it came time to take the court for the first time in the 2022-23 campaign. The Lakers made quick work of their season opener tournament at Eastern Connecticut State University. However, the Lakers split their first four games of the regular season 2-2 as they were defeated by Nazareth College and SUNY Brockport. With their national ranking falling and the pressure on, Leone reflected on how he needed to “have some patience” during this time of the season. Leone said the only thing he was angry with was the mentality.

“There was a point where we weren’t playing very tough minded,” he said. “We had to have some conversations and get everyone refocused and realigned with what we wanted to do and our guys needed to find the joy in what they were doing.”

After their two early season losses, the Lakers worked out the cogs and went on an impressive 24-game win streak all the way through to their loss in the Elite 8 of the NCAA Tournament. In the midst of this win streak, Oswego State had done something they had not done in nearly six decades. They had secured back-to-back SUNYAC titles. The last time the Lakers had done this was in 1965. Leone explained that if it weren’t for a “compilation of hard work” cutting down the nets on their home court in successive years would not have been possible. He also said that this was something that he and his coaching staff had been eyeing all along and using as a fuel to their fire.

“In the past 11 seasons that our coaching staff have been here, we keep chopping wood and checking off the boxes of the things you haven’t done and use them as motivational tools,” he said.

After their dramatic berth into the Sweet 16 this season following a comeback win over John Carroll University, the only thing that stood between the Lakers and achieving their goal of getting into the Elite 8 were the No.1 nationally ranked reigning national champions, the Randolph-Macon Yellow Jackets. However daunting this looked from an outside perspective, Leone said how he believed that this was their best opportunity to break down the barrier that obscured their spot in the history books.

“Based on all the success we have here you start to feel like you get to this point in your season where you sort of meet a brick wall and I just thought from a competitive standpoint this was our best opportunity to get past these points where we’ve been stuck,” Leone said.

He explained that there was no pressure on them and that this was actually their opportunity to go into enemy territory and apply pressure that had not been there before.

Apply pressure they did, as the Lakers stunned the reigning champions 74-63 and secured their spot in the Elite 8 for the first time in their history. In regard to whether or not this was the biggest win in Lakers’ men’s basketball history, he said that he believes this put their program “on the map.”

Unfortunately for Leone and company, Oswego State’s season came to an end in the Elite 8 as they lost by a slim 77-74 margin to UW-Whitewater. However, reflecting back on the season, he can hang his hat on the improvement he saw in his team.

“As a coach, I just want to be able to look at our team from where we were when we first arrived on campus to the point when the last buzzer goes off and feel like there’s improvement there. You want to feel that as a coach you worked hard enough to put your team in the best possible position to be successful … and I saw a lot of personal and collective growth within our team.”

Finally, he remarked how he believes his team was rewarded the way in which they deserved and said how special it is to be able to coach players with not only high talent, but also with high character.

Photo provided by: Brandon Chaug