The SUNY Old Westbury men’s basketball team opened their season on November 8th against John Jay College. It wasn’t the result they were hoping for as they lost by a score of 82 to 63. The game marks the first of a long twenty-five-game season for the Panthers. Sixteen of those twenty-five games will be against conference opponents. The Panthers are hoping to return to the playoffs for the first time since the 2019-2020 season.
The Panthers are an extremely young team this year as the roster features only two upperclassmen, one of which is Jordan Johnson Radar. Radar will be relied on heavily as a leader on and off the court. He started in 22 of their 24 games last year, where he averaged 9.5 points and 6.6 rebounds a game. Chris Smith will also be a key player as he averaged 7.8 points last year, as well as Timothy Park who started in 17 of their 24 games last year and averaged 6.8 points. Emmanuel Lemba is the team’s other upperclassmen and they will look to him to play a key role as well. The team also has an abundance of first-year players such as Elijah Canady, Aiddan Smith, Kyle Caldero, Alford Hibbert, Joshua Jackman, Robert Justice, Tolu Adeyemi, Adrian Mejia, who are all hungry and eager to make an impact.
One of the many things the Panthers are looking forward to is the fact that they will be playing on their own home court for the first time since the 2019-2020 season. According to the Old Westbury Panthers website, head coach Bernard Tomlin was quoted saying he is excited about this opportunity for his players and coaches. He wants the team to give the campus community and fans of Old Westbury basketball something to be excited about. It is certainly an exciting thing for not only the fans, but the players as well. Surely, playing in front of a proper home crowd on their own home court will give the team some extra motivation.
The Panthers will host Baruch College for their home opener on Sunday, November 12, 2023 for their first legitimate home game in nearly three years. We wish the Panthers the best of luck on Sunday and for the rest of the season.
