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| Graduate student Lachlan
Magee traveled to Endicott from Australia for the American college
basketball experience. Endicott athletics photo |
To have a shot at a serious college basketball career, Lachlan Magee knew he had to leave home. But, for Magee, moving away to college was not so simple as packing up a U-Haul and road tripping to campus. Instead, Magee moved halfway around the world, leaving his native Melbourne, Australia behind, to get the full college basketball experience.
Magee said back home, Australian Rules football and cricket reign supreme. There is a market for basketball, but it is nothing like the immense popularity of the sport in the US, and it shows. He said unlike at American colleges, the regulations around the sport are lacking. Many coaches are volunteers. The training programs are limited. Multiple teams have to share arenas. Most of all, he said, the American approach to the game is what drew him to the U.S.
“The approach to basketball here is that it’s serious business whereas in Australia, people play really hard and want to succeed, but the atmosphere here is the real deal,” Magee said. “It’s not only the resources behind it, but people really want to win and they won’t accept losing.”
The 6-3 guard struggled to draw attention from American institutions during his high school years, with his only opportunities to get recruited coming through emails and phone calls. So before he enrolled at Endicott College in Beverly, Mass., he joined the basketball team at the Salisbury School, a prep school in western Connecticut.
While playing that season at Salisbury helped him get noticed for his basketball skills, the short time he spent there also gave him a boost academically. In Australia, Magee had already taken some advanced placement courses that gave him enough credits to fulfill certain subjects at the university level. At Salisbury, he took six more AP classes, further reducing the number of credit hours he would have had to satisfy in his freshman year.
The academic dedication helped, and Magee was able to graduate from Endicott’s business program in three years. With one year of basketball eligibility left, Magee decided to pursue an MBA at Endicott and return for one final year of basketball.
“I had one more year to play, so I was keen to fill out my senior year after playing three years and be part of the graduate program as well,” he said.
After Magee earns his MBA, he said his goal is to find a job in a management role. He said he would like to work in Boston for a year and then would consider returning home to Australia. While it was basketball that brought him to America, Magee’s business knowledge and academic prowess have also gained him some recognition. On Monday, a guest blog penned by Magee appeared on Forbes.com, in which he discusses the concept of ethics being taught in an educational setting.
“That was a pretty incredible opportunity to have that exposure as a young person,” Magee said.
On the court, for Magee and the rest of the Gulls, this season has had an air of redemption surrounding it from the start. Two years ago, the team went 20-9, winning the Commonwealth Coast Conference championship, before falling to Oswego State in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Magee said last year’s 9-16 record was not just disappointing, but embarrassing after such a strong record the year before, and it was not how he wanted his time at Endicott to end.
So far, the Gulls appear to have righted the ship, have jumped out to an 11-2 record and are first in the conference. Magee said much of the team’s success this season has come from a dedicated group of young players, who have injected some much needed life into the Gulls.
“Our coaching staff was rebuilding the team looking for new energy, more focus and more hard work ethic,” Magee said. “The young guys have really supplied that and brought a new life to the team. There’s a confidence we didn’t have last year or even in previous years.”
Now, as one of the team’s most experienced players, Magee has embraced his role as a leader. He said with three seasons under his belt, one of the most important things to stress to his younger teammates is that it’s a long season. While the team has looked strong so far, it is essential to maintain that high level of play throughout the duration of the schedule.
“One of the biggest things for the younger guys to understand is that the season is a marathon,” he said. “It’s a really long, hard season and you can’t get too excited when things go well and not get too down when you’re losing.”
Magee has also served as a leader on the court, becoming the tenth player in Endicott’s history to reach the 1,000-point mark. He joined the elite club in a 14-point effort on Dec. 29 against Berkeley, which according to Endicott’s website, was just Magee’s 77th game played.
Though the team has enjoyed its strong start to the season, Magee said the Gulls are dedicated to seeing the season through to the end. He said there are still some lingering feelings of embarrassment over last year’s record, and the team wants to make a point to themselves and the Endicott community that it is a contender.
“For myself, you don’t want to go out on a note like that, so it was not only a big team emphasis but personal emphasis on having a much better year,” he said.
Lord Jeffs sweep rivalry weekend
Every time Amherst and Williams meet, it renews one of the oldest rivalries, not just in Division III, but all of college athletics. On Saturday, Jan. 11, the Amherst men’s and women’s squads hosted their NESCAC rivals and with a win, both earned an important conference victory and bragging rights in the rivalry’s latest chapter.
Coming into the women’s game, Amherst was ranked third in the nation to Williams’ No. 10. The teams played a tight first half, with Amherst going into the break up 30-25. The Lord Jeffs pulled away in the second half, however, taking home the 78-62 win. Amherst had four scorers in double digits, with sophomore guard Cheyenne Pritchard leading the way with 19 points. Junior forward Megan Robertson and freshman guard Ali Doswell each had 17, while sophomore Marley Giddins contributed 13. Junior guard Ellen Cook led the way for the Ephs with a 24-point night.
For the men, Amherst’s Connor Green and Tom Killian each had 23 points in the 84-73 win, while Aaron Toomey logged a double-double with 16 points and 10 assists. Michael Mayer led Williams with 18 points.
Heading into week six, the Amherst women are 13-0 and ranked No. 3 nationally, ahead of 12-2 Williams, which fell to No. 18. The NESCAC women’s race is one of the most competitive in the nation right now, with undefeated Amherst and Tufts (12-0), 14-1 Bowdoin, 12-2 Williams and 10-4 Wesleyan all contending for the title. Tufts will travel to Amherst for a battle of the undefeateds on Friday, Jan. 17.
On the men’s side, 10-2 Amherst moves up two spots in the rankings to No. 6, while Williams fell five spots to No. 10. Despite the strong early season predictions for both Amherst and Williams, the men’s NESCAC standings have seen Bowdoin jump out to the top spot with a 12-0 record overall and a 2-0 conference record. In week six, the Polar Bears jumped No. 24 to No. 19 in the national rankings.
NEWMAC races heating up
The Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s men’s team cracked the Top 5 this week, checking in at the No. 5 spot. The 12-1 Engineers lead the NEWMAC with an undefeated 2-0 conference record, having beat Springfield and MIT. Junior guard Sam Longwell leads WPI with an average of 17.7 points per game, followed by senior forward Ryan Kolb with 15.1. Sophomore guard Aaron Davis ranks third in the conference, averaging 4.7 assists per game.
Next up, the Engineers face a strong Babson team on Wednesday, Jan. 15. Babson, 10-3, cracked the top-25 last week, but dropped out of the rankings after an overtime loss over the weekend against Springfield.
On the women’s side, Wellesley, Wheaton and the Coast Guard are vying for conference supremacy. Wellesley is riding an eight game winning streak, standing at 10-2 overall and 7-1 in the conference. Senior guard Leslie Leong leads the Blue with an average of 14.8 points per game.
Wheaton, 12-2, has dropped its last two games after starting the season with a 12 game win streak. Junior forward Abbie Brickley has led the way for the Lyons with an average of 15.1 points per game. Sophomore forward Kiley Shoemaker has contributed with an average of 12.4 points per game and 9.3 rebounds per game. Wellesley and Wheaton will meet at Wellesley on Wednesday, Jan. 15 for a huge conference match up.
Coast Guard, 10-2 overall and 6-2 in the conference, has been led by sophomore guard Torie Sutherland, who has averaged 13.6 points per game this season.
Land of Liberty
Checking in on the Liberty League, Vassar and William Smith have jumped out to a close race on the women’s side. Both teams stand at 9-2 and are both 2-0 in the conference. Cydni Matsuoka leads Vassar with 15.6 points per game, followed closely by Hannah Senftleber with 14.7. Chloe Hayter has led the way for William Smith, averaging 15.1 points per game.
On the men’s side, Skidmore currently stands atop the conference standings at 8-4 overall and 2-1 in the conference. Aldin Medunjanin and Erik Sanders have led the way for the Thoroughbreds with each averaging more than 17 points per game.
Vassar is just behind Skidmore with a 9-2 overall record and a 1-1 record in the conference. Johnny Mrlik has held the scoring touch for Vassar with an average of 17.6 points per game.
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