The Dolphins finished the 2023–24 season 15–17, 9–7 in NEC play, tied for fourth place.[2] As the no. 4 seed in the NEC tournament,[3] they defeated Fairleigh Dickinson in the quarterfinals,[4] before falling to Merrimack in the semifinals.[5]
Offseason
Following the 2023–24 season, Le Moyne lost Luke Sutherland, Kaiyem Cleary, Mike DePersia, Nate McClure and Isaiah Salter, who graduated. Sutherland and Cleary were the team's top two scorers, Cleary led the team in rebounds, and DePersia was the starting point guard, leading the team in assists and steals.[6]
Victor Panov, a 6'7" power forward from Saint Petersburg, Russia committed to Le Moyne on November 20, 2023.[7] However, he decommitted on April 10, 2024.[8] Later that month, Panov committed to Drexel.[9]
C.J. Moore entered the transfer portal on March 18, 2024.[10] Jamel Melvin, who was injured and redshirted the previous season season, entered the transfer portal on March 26.[11] After redshirting the previous season, Mason Landdeck transferred to Seattle Pacific on April 3.[12]
On May 8, Le Moyne announced that Jakob Blakley and Isaac Nyakundi had signed letters of intent. Blakley is a 6'0" guard, who was a first team all-conference, second team all-city and second team all-state high school player, scoring more than 1,000 career points. As a senior at Walter Payton College Preparatory High School in Chicago, he averaged 28 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game. Nyakundi is from Duluth, Minnesota but attended the MacDuffie School in Granby, Massachusetts, where he was a two-year captain. As a senior, he averaged 18 points and 13 rebounds per game. As a junior, he recorded 20 double-doubles.[13]
On June 20, assistant coach Jamie Young left Le Moyne to become an assistant at Villanova.[14] On the same day, Le Moyne announced that Elijah Burns had been hired as an assistant coach. Burns was an assistant at Saint Rose during the 2023–24 season.[15]
Le Moyne announced that six transfer students were added to the team on July 23. These were guards Will Amica from Albany and Robby Carmody from Mercer, redshirt junior forward Dwayne Koroma from UT Arlington, junior forward Freds Pauls Bagatskis, also from UT Arlington, junior guard Zek Tekin from Siena and redshirt freshman forward Trevor Roe from Radford.[16]
Will Amica was at Albany for four years, appearing in 29 games. He is a graduate student with at least two years of eligibility remaining. Amica played in 19 games off the bench during the 2023–24 season.[16]
Robby Carmody began his collegiate career at Notre Dame before transferring to Mercer for the 2023–24 season. He has one year of eligibility remaining. Carmody played in 29 games with 19 starts for Mercer during the 2023–24 season, averaging 7.5 points in 17.4 minutes per contest.[16]
After starting his collegiate career playing for Iona and then Salt Lake Community College, Dwayne Koroma spent the previous season at UT Arlington. He has two seasons of eligibility remaining. Koroma played in 33 games with 14 starts during the 2023–24 campaign.[16]
Freds Pauls Bagatskis played for Latvia at the 2023 FIBA U20 European Championship Division B and averaged a team-high 17.3 points per game and led all players in the tournament with 27 three-point field goals. He has at least two years of eligibility remaining. Bagatskis started his collegiate career at Georgia Tech before transferring to UT Arlington for his sophomore year and becoming Dwayne Koroma's teammate. He played only two games during the 2023–24 season, before suffering an ankle injury in practice that ended his campaign.[16]
Zek Tekin has two seasons of eligibility remaining after playing two seasons for Siena. Tekin played in 23 games with 20 starts as a sophomore during the 2023–24 season, averaging 9.0 points, a team-high 3.0 assists, a team-high 1.1 steals and 2.1 rebounds in 23.3 minutes per game.[16]
Trevor Roe, who was a 1,000-point scorer and an All-Central New York honoree at Fayetteville–Manlius High School, returns to the Syracuse metropolitan area after spending his freshman season at Radford in 2023–24 and has four seasons of eligibility remaining. Roe's whose father, Matt, played basketball at Syracuse from 1986 to 1989. The younger Roe scored 500 points as a high school senior and earned first team all-league and first All-Central New York honors.[16]
The Dolphins also announced that Sam Donnelly, a graduate student at Le Moyne, who was a practice player with the Le Moyne women's team the previous two seasons, had been added to the roster.[16]
The Dolphins traveled just over three miles for their season opener at Syracuse on November 4, 2024. Le Moyne shocked the Orange by holding them to 32% shooting from the floor in the first half and led by five points at intermission. With the Dolphins leading by a point, a 9–0 Syracuse run gave the Orange a 76–68 lead with 4:31 to play. However, Le Moyne responded with a 6–2 spurt, getting three points each from Will Amica on a triple and Freds Pauls Bagatskis on three free throws. Trent Mosquera's three-pointer cut the Syracuse lead to two points with 1:02 left, and another triple from Bagatskis made it 83–82 with 22 seconds on the clock. After the Orange hit one of two from the line, the Dolphins turned the ball over with six seconds to play, and Syracuse hit two more free throws, handing Le Moyne a heartbreaking 86–82 loss. Bagatskis scored 18 points to lead five Dolphins in double figures.[25][26][27]
Will Amica and Zek Tekin were named NEC Prime Performers for the first week of the season. Amica averaged 14.0 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game and shot 52.6% from the floor and 83.3% from three-point range. He came off the bench to score 12 points in 13 minutes on 5-for-9 shooting from the field and 2-for-2 from beyond the arc at Syracuse. He was 3-for-4 onn three-pointers in a 16-point, eight-rebound performance against CSUN. Tekin averaged 12.7 points, 3.0 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 2.0 steals per game, shooting 64.7% from the field. He had 10 points, four rebounds and a game-high six assists at Syracuse and led the Dolphins with 17 points, including a 10-for-12 mark from the free-throw line against CSUN.[26]
^Le Moyne did not play during the 2020–21 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, this is Champion's sixth year as the team's head coach but only his fifth season.
^The campus, including the Le Moyne Events Center, has a Syracuse mailing address but lies within the adjacent town of DeWitt.
^Graduate student who did not play college basketball as an undergraduate.
