The 2024–25 Le Moyne Dolphins men's basketball team represented Le Moyne College during the 2024–25 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Dolphins, led by fifth-season head coach Nate Champion, played their home games on Ted Grant Court in the Le Moyne Events Center in DeWitt, New York as second-year members of the Northeast Conference (NEC) and NCAA Division I. This was the 76th season of Le Moyne Dolphins men's basketball.
This was the second season of Le Moyne's transition to Division I. Consequently, the team was ineligible for NCAA postseason play.
The Dolphins finished the season 9–23, losing in the NEC quarterfinals. AJ Dancler was named second-team All-NEC. Dwayne Koroma led the NEC in field-goal shooting percentage at 71.4%.
Previous season The Dolphins finished the 2023–24 season 15–17, 9–7 in NEC play, tied for fourth place. As the no. 4 seed in the NEC tournament, they defeated Fairleigh Dickinson in the quarterfinals, before falling to Merrimack in the semifinals.
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. DePersia remained with the team, becoming its director of basketball operations.
Victor Panov, a 6'7" power forward from Saint Petersburg, Russia committed to Le Moyne on November 20, 2023. However, he decommitted on April 10, 2024. Later that month, Panov committed to Drexel.
C.J. Moore entered the transfer portal on March 18, 2024. Jamel Melvin, who was injured and redshirted the previous season, entered the transfer portal on March 26. After redshirting the previous season, Mason Landdeck transferred to Seattle Pacific on April 3.
On May 8, Le Moyne announced that Jakob Blakley and Isaac Nyakundi had signed letters of intent. Blakley was 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 four assists per game. Nyakundi was 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.
On June 20, assistant coach Jamie Young left Le Moyne to become an assistant at Villanova. 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.
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.
Will Amica was at Albany for four years, appearing in 29 games. He was enrolled at Le Moyne as a graduate student with at least two years of eligibility remaining. Amica played in 19 games off the bench during the 2023–24 season.
Robby Carmody began his collegiate career at Notre Dame before transferring to Mercer for the 2023–24 season. He had 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.
After starting his collegiate career playing for Iona and then Salt Lake Community College, Dwayne Koroma spent the previous season at UT Arlington. He had two seasons of eligibility remaining. Koroma played in 33 games with 14 starts during the 2023–24 campaign.
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.
Zek Tekin had 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 nine points, a team-high three assists, a team-high 1.1 steals and 2.1 rebounds in 23.3 minutes per game.
Trevor Roe, who was a 1,000-point scorer and an All-Central New York honoree at Fayetteville–Manlius High School, returned to the Syracuse metropolitan area after spending his freshman season at Radford in 2023–24, and had four seasons of eligibility remaining. Roe's 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 All-Central New York first honors. Roe missed the entire 2024–25 season with an injury.
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.
Departures
Le Moyne departures 2 G 6'6" 185 Manchester, England Graduated; undrafted in 2024 NBA draft; signed with Hyères-Toulon 3 G 5'11" 175 Cherry Hill, NJ Graduated; became Le Moyne men's basketball director of basketball operations 4 G 6'2" 170 Cashmere, WA Transferred to Seattle Pacific 35 G 6'4" 190 Houston, TX Graduated 10 F 6'11" 210 Upper Marlboro, MD Entered transferred portal 14 G 5'8" 160 Lancaster, NY Entered transferred portal 5 G 6'0" 160 Charlotte, NC Graduated 23 F 6'7" 220 Syracuse, NY Graduated; undrafted in 2024 NBA draft; signed with Hawke's Bay Hawks
Additions Incoming transfers Le Moyne incoming transfers 22 G 6'0" 170 Syracuse, NY Albany 2 June 10, 2024 12 F 6'8" 180 Riga, Latvia UT Arlington 2 June 1, 2024 11 G 6'4" 195 Mars, PA Mercer 1 May 31, 2024 3 F 6'8" 205 Berlin, Germany UT Arlington 2 June 7, 2024 5 F 6'8" 205 Syracuse, NY Radford 4 June 4, 2024 4 G 6'2" 170 Istanbul, Türkiye Siena 2 May 31, 2024
2024 recruiting class Le Moyne incoming recruits 10 G 6'0" 170 Elgin, IL Walter Payton Prep 2.59 33 F 6'2" 200 Vernon, NY Vernon-Verona-Sherrill — 13 F 6'9" 220 Duluth, MN MacDuffie 2.87 Verbal Commits Recruitment Power Score on a scale of 0 to 5
2025 recruiting class 3 PG 6'4" 165 Centerville, OH Centerville 2.77 11 G 6'2" 165 Snohomish, WA Glacier Peak 2.45 Verbal Commits Recruitment Power Score on a scale of 0 to 5
Preseason polls Northeast Conference poll The Northeast Conference released its preseason coaches' poll on October 24, 2024. The Dolphins were picked to finish fourth in the conference. RankTeam 1 (tie) Central Connecticut (5) Wagner (4) 3 Fairleigh Dickinson 4 Le Moyne 5 LIU 6 Chicago State 7 Mercyhurst 8 (tie) Saint Francis Stonehill (#) first-place votes
KenPom rating Le Moyne was ranked 335th of 364 Division I teams in the preseason Pomeroy ratings.
Preseason all-conference team Fifth-year senior guard Darrick Jones Jr. was the only Dolphin selected as a member of the NEC Preseason All-Conference Team.
Season highlights New uniforms The Dolphins debuted new uniform designs. The small caps lettering of the school's name across the jersey was replaced by script lettering in white outlined in green on the home white jerseys. On the green road jerseys, the lettering is green outlined in white. Gold piping on both the jerseys and the shorts, home and away, was removed, and the uniforms became wholly green and white. Double piping is used around the sleeves, neckline, bottom of the shorts and waistband. The team's swimming dolphin logo was added to the front right side of the shorts. The outline of the dolphin is green on the white uniforms and white on the green uniforms.
Pre-conference season 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 and had a team-high five rebounds. Zek Tekin had 10 points, four rebounds, a game-high six assists and a steal.
Will Amica and Zek Tekin were named NEC Prime Performers for the first week of the season. Amica averaged 14 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 on three-pointers in a 16-point, eight-rebound performance against Cal State Northridge. Tekin averaged 12.7 points, three rebounds, 5.3 assists and two steals per game, shooting 64.7% from the field. He led the Dolphins with 17 points, including a 10-for-12 mark from the free-throw line, against Cal State Northridge.
The Dolphins visited two-time defending national champion UConn, ranked no. 3 in the AP poll, on November 13. Le Moyne took an early 7–4 lead in the first 2:42 of the game, but UConn responded with a 10–0 run. The Dolphins got back within three points, but another first-half 10–0 spurt over 5:19 put the Huskies firmly in control. UConn ended the game on an 11–4 run and cruised to a 90–49 victory. Dwayne Koroma scored 13 points and grabbed five rebounds to lead Le Moyne. AJ Dancler finished with five points and three assists.
The Dolphins participated in the Island U Invitational, a showcase event hosted by Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi, and met UT Martin on November 22. AJ Dancier scored 16 points to lead Le Moyne to a 65–53 victory over the Skyhawks. Ocypher Owens added 11 points, nine rebounds and three blocks for the Dolphins. Dwayne Koroma scored 11 points, grabbed eight rebounds and had three steals as Le Moyne improved to 2–4 on the season. The Dolphins held UT Martin to 25% shooting from the floor and 10% from three-point range. Owens and Robby Carmody both returned to the lineup after missing the previous four games with injuries suffered in the season opener at Syracuse.
The following day, the Dolphins fell, 82–61, to host Texas A&M–Corpus Christi. The Islanders broke open a close game with a 13–0 run in the middle portion of the first half. Ocypher Owens scored 14 points to lead Le Moyne and added six rebounds, three assists and two steals. Nate Fouts finished with 11 points, seven rebounds and three steals. Robby Carmody added 13 points and three assists.