The St. Lawrence University men’s basketball program has committed themselves to nothing but success and excellence throughout the years, which is proven not only by what the team accomplishes on the court, but what they are able to do in the classroom and around campus and the community as well.

 

Head Coach Chris Downs, the 15th coach in program history, has a 180-112 (.616) record entering his 12th season as head coach. Those 12 years have seen a lot of excellent accomplishments by the program and its players. In his first year at the helm of the program, Downs led the team to a 24-2 record, the most wins in program history, and to the 1998 NCAA Tournament's Elite Eight. Since, they have routinely been one of the strongest teams in the conference, region, and country, producing eight 1,000 points scorers, four All East Region selections, a National All-American, four conference Rookies of the Year, one conference Player of the Year, 25 all-conference players and several all-academic student-athletes. In 2003, Aaron Marshall '05 was the NCAA Division III leader in Field Goal Percentage.

 

In the last decade, the Saints men's basketball program has been to two NCAA Tournaments and has competed for top conference honors each season, winning the tournament once and the regular season title three times. Most recently, the Saints finished with an overall 17-9 record in 2007-08 but completed the Liberty League portion of their schedule with a 12-2 mark to earn the conference's regular season title. Their postseason hopes came to an abrupt halt in the 2008 Liberty League Tournament, where the Scarlet and Brown fell to North Country rival Clarkson in the semifinals to end their season. In 2007, St. Lawrence won the conference tournament crown to land a spot in the NCAA Tournament, where they hosted the first and second rounds before falling to Brockport.

 

The Liberty League is a very competitive conference each year in basketball. The Saints routinely use a tough non-conference schedule to prepare for Liberty League action which has served them well over the past several years. Since 2005, the Scarlet and Brown have won just more than half of their non-conference games, but it’s their 33-9 winning record in the Liberty League that demonstrates how valuable their tough strength of schedule is when it comes to conference foes. Other league opponents include Clarkson, Hamilton, Hobart, Skidmore, Union, Rensselaer and Vassar.

 

Since 1923, the St. Lawrence men's basketball team has recorded a winning 1017-778 (.567) record in nearly 1800 contests played. The program has had 18 players since the 1950s reach the 1,000-point milestone, with George Hughes '80 (2321 points), Al Jonsen '65 (1454 points) and Aaron Marshall '05 (1442 points) rounding out the top three highest point scorers for the Saints. 

 

11/08