Brockport Men’s Basketball Season Preview: Going for the gold
BROCKPORT, N.Y. – After getting a taste of the Empire 8 championship last season in the 83-80 finals loss against Keuka College, the Brockport men’s basketball team and head coach Joe Clarke look to come back for vengeance.
Despite making the championship last season, the Golden Eagles started their previous season off slow with a 5-10 record and a 1-5 conference record before turning things around. Clarke led a turnaround that included winning 11 out of 12 matchups before falling short in the finals last season.
For the coaching staff, the beginning of the season was not to their standards. To get Brockport back in the hunt, Clarke kept things as easy as possible for his team.
“It was hard,” Clarke said. “If you look at our schedule and kind of how it went, it was a roller coaster. It was the lows of lows and obviously the highs of highs. In that stretch of lows, it was trying to just get back to the simple and basic non-negotiables to win.”
Brockport entered the Empire 8 playoffs as the No. 5 seed, where they traveled to beat SUNY Poly 84-75. The Golden Eagles then hosted No. 8 St. John Fisher, where they took a commanding 74-57 victory. Despite nine straight wins, No. 7 Keuka ended the Golden Eagles' season at the finish line with an 83-80 championship loss.
“It’s motivation,” Clarke said. “It’s still a sore subject. It’s still tough to even talk about, but I think one, it’s helped guys that were a part of it, just being there and experiencing it. But two, it’s just been the motivation theme of this preseason leading into the first upcoming game.”
In the loss, seniors Omar White and Jacob Oka played their final minutes for the green and gold. White played one full season with Brockport, averaging 7.3 points per game, 2.1 assists per game, 4.8 rebounds per game and two steals per game. Oka was a four-year Golden Eagle who averaged 13.1 points per game, 6.3 rebounds per game, two assists per game, and two steals per game.
Oka also led Brockport off the court, something that is hard to replace in a locker room. Assistant men’s basketball coach JJ Jerebko, who only recently joined the coaching staff noticed the impact Oka left and the people who are stepping up in his absence.
“I think losing a guy like Jacob Oka, not just what he does on the court. I think of him as a leader,” Jerebko said. “But guys like Alex Tavarez, Ajani Flemming and Zach Rice, who is a quieter leader, but he does it in a way where he leads by example.”
The Golden Eagles will turn towards graduate student guard Zach Rice and junior guard Alex Tavarez to lead the locker room throughout the season. Both Rice and Tavarez missed a major portion of last season battling their own separate injuries.
Going from the sidelines to a leadership role might seem like a big jump, but learning from previous leaders helps make it normal for Tavarez.
“I mean, it’s just learning from the upperclassmen that I had when I was a freshman,” Tavarez said. “I was thankful to have a lot of good guys helping me lead the way, such as Tyler Cowie, Tony Arnold and Danny Ashley. Those guys really showed me and paved the way for what I had to do in the future.”
In his previous healthy season, Tavarez averaged 10 points per game, 2.7 rebounds per game and 1.7 assists per game. Rice averaged 11.4 points per game, 5.9 rebounds per game, 1.1 assists per game and 1.1 steals per game in his last fully healthy season.
Tavarez will join returning Empire 8 Rookie of the Year Pharell Aybar in the backcourt. Aybar averaged 11.6 points per game, 4.3 rebounds per game, 3.3 assists per game and 1.6 steals per game, starting 26 out of 28 games as a freshman.
Despite being thrust into an important role early on, Aybar feels comfortable playing at the next level.
“Coming here, I honestly had no idea if I would play or not,” Aybar said. “I think I’m really aware of the level of D3 and how competitive it can be. I guess just pushing every day to practice, my teammates make
me better.”
While Tavarez has been around longer to mold into the leadership role, Aybar is still figuring out the ropes while meeting his new teammates.
“Super weird, I’m not used to it at all,” Aybar said. “In high school, stuff like that didn’t happen. So just seeing new faces, I think it makes me feel good in the sense that I like the talent and it’s an opportunity to mentor these guys. It’s also a learning adjustment for me because I haven’t really done this before.”
Tavarez and Aybar will be paired together for the first time. Despite this, Jerebko believes the duo will shake up the Empire 8.
“I’m really excited about the pieces we brought in and the pieces we returned. We got a reigning rookie of the year coming back, Pharell Aybar, and we have a really good backcourt duo with Alex Tavarez coming back that can really make some noise,” Jerebko said.
Senior guard/forward Camron Dyer also returned for another year with the Golden Eagles. The Empire 8 Third Team All-Conference selection played a key role off the bench and in the starting lineup last season, averaging 11.7 points per game, five rebounds per game and 2.1 assists per game.
Other strong returners for the Golden Eagles include 6’2 sophomore guard Ajani Flemming, 6’2 sophomore guard Jack Clancy and 6’7 junior forward Cameron Pownall.
The freshman class accounts for seven out of the 17 players on Brockport’s roster. A headliner recruit in the class is Canisteo-Greenwood’s all-time leading scorer Carson Chaffee. The 6’3 forward averaged over 25 points per game in high school including a 45-point game to set the single-game scoring record.
The other freshmen in the class include 6’3 forward Talen Knowles, 6’2 guard James Harris III, 6’2 guard Nico Soriano, 6’1 guard Tyree Horne, 6’8 forward CJ Miller and 6’0 guard Avery Helper.
“We’ve been really pleased with all the new guys,” Clarke said. “It’s a really talented freshman class and it’s been interesting because every guy has something a little different that they bring and that’s why they were brought to Brockport.”
The transfers that are looking to make a splash for the Golden Eagles include 6’3 junior guard Darius Cunningham Jr., who averaged 12.3 points and 4.9 rebounds per game across two years at Alfred State and 6’5 junior forward Brian Whitley Jr., who averaged 8.9 points, 9.5 rebounds and five blocks per game at Onondaga Community College.
“I really think we have 13 to 14 guys that we can plug and play and be really happy and competitive with who we have on the court in any specific situation … I think our depth is definitely one of the positives of our unit this year,” Jerebko said.
The Golden Eagles start this season with three straight non-conference road matchups, including their season opener against SUNY Delhi on Saturday, Nov. 14. Brockport finished last season 8-4 on the road and at the Vlog. Their first home matchup comes right before Thanksgiving break on Tuesday, Nov. 24 against Oswego State.
“It’s always tough playing on the road,” Jerebko said. “You’re not in your own gym. Sometimes you’re sleeping in another bed, and it’s just uncomfortable. But I think you have to be comfortable being uncomfortable. So we put ourselves in a lot of situations utilizing that.”
Brockport is now in its third year in the Empire 8 conference after making the switch from the SUNYAC. The Golden Eagles have made the playoffs in consecutive years and finished as the regular season champions in their first year. Since joining the conference, they are tied with Nazareth for the best conference play record, sitting at 24-8.
“I feel like we definitely adjusted,” Jerebko said. “Coming from the SUNYAC, I would say it’s a similar style but a little bit different. You have a lot of teams that are a little more physical and play a pack line, man-to-man and half-court defense. And then you have teams like [Russell] Sage that will speed you up and press you for 40 minutes.”
After a strong close to the previous season, the Golden Eagles look to start this season off hot with a fast attack. Both the coaching staff and the players are bought into the team and want to win a conference championship.
“We are exciting to watch,” Clarke said. “I think we just put up 113 points in the scrimmage. We are fast, we have guys that can do a lot of good things: dribble, pass, shooting and dunking it. I think you’ll see a very gifted, skilled, and fast team.”
“I want to cut down those nets,” Aybar said. “I got kind of a taste of it last year, and I have that sore taste in my mouth from losing last year. But I definitely want to cut down nets.”
Brockport is still on the hunt for its first Empire 8 championship and first conference title since 2020 in the SUNYAC. The Golden Eagles start their conference play push on Tuesday, Jan. 5, at the Vlog against Utica University.
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