The Oswego State men’s basketball team is ready to hit the hardwood for their newest campaign, with a partly revamped roster taking the spotlight.

The Lakers come into the 2025-2026 season fresh off of a second-place finish in the SUNYAC. They trailed only SUNY New Paltz, as the Hawks had flown to a 14-4 conference record, for a first-place finish within the conference.

The Lakers are headlined by an abundance of young talent, with 12 out of the 16 roster spots being taken up by underclassmen. Head coach Jason Leone, coming into his 14th season with the program, knows the importance of summertime pickups.

“Recruiting was a big part of the offseason,” coach Leone said. “Any time we don’t end up winning the conference, you sit down after the season and try to assess your roster coming back, and maybe what some strengths and weaknesses are, so you think about in recruiting, maybe some things that we need to add or subtract from our team.”

The incoming freshman class includes guards Freddy Fowler, Nick Estell, Patrick Emling and Caden Williams, along with forwards Corien Noble and Kobe Nwosu.

The Lakers possess talented depth, with second-year competitors including Jorel Monroe, Arthur Foster, Jayden Watkins and Chris Whyte-Luciano, among others.

One sophomore who saw an uptick in production in just his first year with the program is Deacon Judd, who took home the Region III Rookie of the Year award, along with first team all-conference honors, both in the 2024-2025 season.

The near seven-foot forward comes off of a freshman year in which he averaged a team-high with 13.4 points-per-game, along with seven rebounds-per-game. However, he knows the importance of winning as a team over any personal statistics.

“I’m not looking into individual stats as much as winning,” Judd said. “I think the guys we brought in–freshman, transfers and our returning guys–already show a lot of chemistry, so I’m more looking to put that together aside from the individual accolades.”

One of the aforementioned returners, and another sophomore, is Gary McLane, a guard/forward for the team. McLane averaged a steady 9.4 points-per-game last season, along with 4.6 rebounds in 27 minutes-per-game.

In his second year with the program, McLane is expected to play a more prominent role in the offense–and with that, he is aware of the importance of offseason work.

“In the offseason, I try to work on my shooting ability, because I think that would definitely open up my game a little bit more,” McLane said. “I shot the ball decently last year, but not at a high volume, so this year, I hopefully can open up more offense for myself, and the team in general.”

McLane will work alongside several beneficiaries, one being junior guard Steven Bradley. Bradley is just one of three upperclassmen suiting up for the squad this season, and with three years of experience at the collegiate level already, he has had the time to assess the team’s strengths.

“We’re very young, so I think we’re really quick,” Bradley said. “In the last scrimmage, we were running up the court, working on passing in the fastbreak, getting deflections and stops on defense, scoring at the hoop–and I think we have a really good team. We all play together, and you can see everyone put in the work over the summer–everybody wants to win.”

To do so, the Lakers will need individual contributions on a game-to-game basis, just as they received last season. A good amount of the top-scoring talent from that previous campaign has graduated–namely, three of the top five points-per-game leaders–so, junior Tucker Rosbrook, along with the sophomore trio of McLane, Foster and Monroe, will look to step up and generate a bigger role for themselves in the offense.

That very offense will be put to the test on Friday, Nov. 7, as the Lakers make their season debut against the University of Mount Saint Vincent, as the two face-off in the Max Ziel Men’s Basketball Tournament.

This will be their first head-to-head matchup since Jan. 7, 1995.

The Lakers have a variety of notable in-conference outings on the docket, including dates with SUNY Cortland (Dec. 5), SUNY Morrisville (Dec. 6), SUNY New Paltz (Jan. 6) and Plattsburgh State (Jan. 10).

The team heads out to Nashville, Tennessee, on Dec. 29, to take on the St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and then Franklin College the following day, in the Music City Classic.

The Lakers fell to SUNY Cortland, 74-65, this past February in the conference tournament semifinals; but they are not deterred by the setback. With a gritty schedule on deck, coach Leone knows what it takes to be prepared in all aspects.

“As the coach, making sure that I stick to a process where these guys are genuinely excited and want to keep playing at the end of the year is one thing,” Leone said. “From a defensive perspective, we’re trying to be so aggressive that we prevent the other team from taking good shots, and on offense, we’re trying to be really disciplined, and get the highest percentage shots we can.”

The Lakers tip off against the Dolphins of Mount Saint Vincent on Nov. 7 at 7:30 p.m. in the Max Ziel Gymnasium.