Coach Eric Konkol reveals his hopes and plans for the upcoming season.
A little less than a month from now, the University of Tulsa men’s basketball team will start their season. After a thrilling campaign last year, which included the best record since the 2000-01 season and a run all the way to the National Invitation Tournament championship game, fans have a lot to be excited about. Coach Eric Konkol had a busy offseason, bringing in ten new players to cover the ten players lost to both the transfer portal and graduation in the summer (including the starting lineup). Despite these offseason shakeups, the team still has high expectations of yet another spectacular year.
Most of the ten players who left TU went to the transfer portal, like stars Tylen Riley, Ade Popoola and Tyler Behrend, who left for Cincinnati, De Paul and Grand Canyon respectively for their last season of eligibility. Ian Smikle and Terrance Ford Jr, both fan favorites who came off the bench regularly, left for Northern Iowa and University of Nevada Las Vegas respectively, and both still have two years of eligibility left. KJ Martin Jr, who was a true freshman last year, left for San Jose University, and to cap off the transferred players, Doryan Onwuchekwa left for Georgia Tech. TU will play none of these teams in the regular season, although there is a slim possibility that one of them could get paired against the Golden Hurricane in either the NIT or the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament. The three other players who left TU all graduated and have exhausted their eligibility for college basketball, although Romad Dean is part of a class-action lawsuit that could grant him a fifth year of eligibility. David Green and Miles Barnstable both featured in the National Basketball Association summer league, for the Golden State Warriors and the San Antonio Spurs. Green is apparently considering signing a professional contract either domestically or internationally to continue playing basketball, while Miles Barnstable was able to earn a spot in the Spurs’ training camp, and is expected to join their G league team, the Austin Spurs. Luckily, however, despite such large losses to Konkol’s roster, he was able to replenish the squad almost entirely through the transfer portal.
Part of the reason Konkol was able to bring in so many players was because he leaned into the identity of TU. He compared the school to a “boutique hotel. People know your name, people really care. … [the athletes] need to be on campus, they need to take classes.” He went on to say that “it’s a great place to develop and grow as a person, as a student and as a player,” something that he understands personally because he got his start in coaching basketball as a graduate assistant coach under that 2001 Golden Hurricane team that won the NIT tournament. Last year, that personal bond was one of the things that made the men’s basketball team so special — take for instance, the players would go around thanking the Chaos Student Section personally after every game because they actually knew one another as fellow students.
Besides the interpersonal relationships, there is plenty to be excited for on the court. One of the most exciting players last year was then-true freshman Jaylen Lawal, who consistently put up major performances off the bench to lead the Golden Hurricane to victory. As one of five returning players, Konkol expects a lot out of him, and Lawal seems prepared to meet the challenge. “He’s even more explosive,” Konkol said, praising Lawal for the work he has done in the offseason. “We are asking and expecting a whole lot more from him … and we’re very excited about the jump that he can make.” One of the sad effects of the transfer portal is that it is much rarer for a team — and a fanbase — to get to fully experience the growth of a star player from year to year, which is what makes this season so incredible for both the fans and Lawal. Now, fans can watch the player they knew as their star freshman rise up to the role of a major starter, and hopefully a leader for this team both on the court and in the locker room.
As for the new guys, not much will be known until Oct. 23, when the Golden Hurricane goes to Oklahoma State University to play a preseason exhibition. Konkol made sure to emphasize size this offseason: three of the ten new players are 6 feet 10 inches or above, with two more being listed at 6 feet 8 inches. Konkol said, “We were trying to address a couple things, especially defensively,” in explanation of that focus on size. Although the Golden Hurricane offense was absolutely terrific last season, sometimes the defense allowed the opponent to close the gap too often. Hopefully, this new size will be able to back up a rebooted offense that will most likely be led by Jeremiah Johnson, an incoming junior from Campbell, and Lawal. One incoming player to look out for would be the only true freshman, Denton Forsythe, who as a four-time high school state champion and ranked the fifth best player in Oklahoma for the class of ‘26 (according to 247Sports) certainly has the resume to suggest he will do well in D1 basketball. Lawal proved he was a reliable contributor as a true freshman — maybe Forsythe can do the same.
When it comes to the rest of the conference, it is just as tight as last year. Konkol expressed his admiration for the American Conference, saying, “There’s really good coaches in our league … it’s a really good league. I believe it’s a multiple bid type league,” referring to the NCAA tournament. Last season, the team narrowly missed March Madness. This is perhaps because of an undervaluing of the conference as a whole by the selection committees, which only sent one team from the American Conference to the NCAA tournament. This season, however, there are eight additional spots in the tournament, resulting in a total of 76 slots, which is excellent news for the American Conference and the Golden Hurricane. Having gone all the way to the final of the NIT tournament last season, hopefully the selection committees will look at TU, and the rest of the American Conference, more favourably. But even if not, the automatic bid is there for the Golden Hurricane to win, if they manage to win the American Conference tournament. And with a revamped roster, rising star power and a fifth season of exciting basketball under Konkol, there is no reason to believe they cannot do it.
