Fordham Men\u2019s Basketball is coming off a season like no other.<\/p>\n
The team\u2019s 2024-25 campaign included a six-game losing streak, the suspension of its head coach, an eight-game losing streak, a second-round exit in the Atlantic 10 (A-10) Tournament, the firing of its head coach and the release of an NCAA probe that uncovered years of recruiting violations and levied major penalties on the program \u2014 it wasn\u2019t how the team envisioned becoming a national storyline in the college basketball universe.<\/p>\n
Seven months later, with a fresh coaching staff and a brand-new roster, the Rams are generating a different kind of buzz.<\/p>\n
A rhythmic pitter-patter echoes through the 101-year-old Rose Hill Gym. On the arena\u2019s hallowed hardwood are 17 student-athletes, drenched in sweat, competing in a drill as though it\u2019s the final possession of the national championship. They\u2019re being guided from the sidelines by Mike Magpayo, the team\u2019s new head coach, who accepted the role after five years of unprecedented success at University of California, Riverside (UCR).<\/p>\n
Dribbling the ball is graduate student Dejour Reaves, the projected starting point guard, a preseason all-A-10 third team selection and former first-team all-conference standout at Iona University.<\/p>\n
\u201c[It\u2019s] definitely an exciting feeling,\u201d remarked Reaves after the workout, Fordham\u2019s first official practice period of the 2025-26 season. \u201cFrom stretching to the end of practice it was very intense. [It\u2019s a] very good group of guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
The loudest voice belongs to junior Jameson O\u2019Toole, a walk-on with just 15 minutes in his first two years as a Ram \u2014 he is now the team\u2019s longest-tenured player.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s, as some people would call it, Christmas morning,\u201d said a smiling O\u2019Toole after practice.<\/p>\n
While his impact is felt more often from the bench than on the court, O\u2019Toole is embracing his role as the bridge between the program\u2019s existing culture of attitude and accountability and its new identity under Coach Magpayo\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n
\u201ct was like every time I\u2019d check Instagram, I got a new teammate,\u201d joked O\u2019Toole about a stretch in which the team signed 10 players in a span of five weeks. Magpayo had a shortened window to rebuild a roster that saw all but two of its scholarship players leave after the \u201924-\u201925 season.<\/p>\n
In five weeks, Magpayo managed to assemble a team with all-conference pedigree at just about every level: high school, international leagues, Junior College, D-II, D-I \u2014 you name it.<\/p>\n
Magpayo, the first-ever Filipino D-I men\u2019s basketball coach, has orchestrated a roster as diverse as any in the nation.<\/p>\n
Fordham\u2019s \u201925-\u201926 team has three former UCR players, two Hawaii University transfers, a D-II standout, a Japan native, three Australians, a German and a Frenchman, among others.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve meshed very well,\u201d O\u2019Toole reflected. \u201cOne of the things he stressed in the spring and coming into the summer was [that] he wanted guys that wanted to be at Fordham.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want to be here, you\u2019re going to be here. If you don\u2019t, then you\u2019ve got to hit the road,\u201d said Reaves. \u201cBut when we came in here, everybody was willing to work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thus, in two months, and after a series of events that the best scriptwriter couldn\u2019t have fathomed, 17 athletes were united at a program described by many as a sleeping giant in the mecca of the basketball world. Their shared mission is clear: to win.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoach Mike, he\u2019s a winning coach. I mean, he won at his previous school, UCR. So just being around a winning culture, that\u2019s what I want to be a part of,\u201d said Reaves.<\/p>\n
Magpayo\u2019s club enters the year projected last in the A-10 preseason poll; the overhaul he\u2019s conducting is unprecedented, and for now, the payoff is unknown.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a fascinating experiment,\u201d said the California-born coach. \u201cIt\u2019ll be magic if we can connect and really learn how to play together and put it all together.\u201d<\/p>\n
To do so, Fordham will need to maximize a homecourt advantage that\u2019s as much of an asset as any player. Due to its old architecture and small size, the Rose Hill Gym can feel as loud and overwhelming as any arena in the country. But as with everything else, winning comes first.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to put a winning product on the floor first and a product that people appreciate,\u201d said Magpayo. \u201cWe had a 14-1 record at home at UCR this year, and [we had] the best home crowds \u2026 you have to win for them to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fordham has a chance to turn Rose Hill into \u2018Rose Thrill\u2019 early, with a home-heavy non-conference schedule chock-full of favorable matchups. If the team gels as well during games as they have during practices, Magpayo will have engineered the most improbable of rebuilds, putting the Fordham Men\u2019s Basketball program back into the spotlight \u2014 this time around, for the right reasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fordham Men\u2019s Basketball is coming off a season like no other. The team\u2019s 2024-25 campaign included a six-game…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":323575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1339,1317,1337,1338,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-323574","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-basketball","11":"tag-ncaabasketball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115417341175831594","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}