Adversity hit the Trojans' men's basketball program before the season started, and it only got more challenging from there.
In October, Trojans' head coach
Darrell Walker discovered that starting point guard
KK Robinson, the Ohio Valley Conference Preseason Player of the Year, was going to miss the entire 2024-25 season with a knee injury.
"If you take the best player of most teams in our league, they aren't going to be .500," Walker said. "KK is great, and it really hurt us to lose him. We were able to have some guys step up and help us win, but that was a tough, tough blow."
If that was the only heartbreak the team endured, that would have been enough. But it wasn't.
On December 21 before a home OVC game with Eastern Illinois, Walker and Co. learned that student manager Josh Claxton had died in a car accident overnight. The game was postponed and played later at Lindenwood University. A month later Claxton was honored with a moment of silence.
"That was tough on the team, the entire coaching staff – everyone," Walker said. "We missed Josh the entire year, and we still miss him. We will always remember him as a hard worker and the most popular member of our team."
On Jan. 4 in a loss to Tennessee State, freshman
Travonne Jackson was lost for the season with a knee injury. Sophomore forward
Creed Williamson and senior guard
Jordan Jefferson missed a combined 23 games due to injuries. Williamson injured his foot in a shoot around the night before the Tulsa game in November and Jefferson's back was injured in a car accident in the fall, and lingered into January.
"Tra was starting to blossom, and then we lost him," Walker said. "We didn't have any bodies. We only played six or seven guys. It's tough to win like that. When we got Jordan back, you could see it added a spark to our team. He played well down the stretch, and that helped a lot."
Still, the Trojans preserved and finished fourth in the OVC with a 19-14 record and advanced to the semifinals of the conference tournament.
"There aren't a lot of teams that won 19 games around college basketball," Walker said. "And we did it without our best player. And we had another guy miss most of the season and two others miss a good part of it. I am proud of our guys and what they accomplished with what they had to go through."
Three Trojans really stood out in the OVC as junior guard
Johnathan Lawson was voted to the first-team All-OVC team and Newcomer Team. Graduate guard
Mwani Wilkinson earned second-team All-OVC honors. Senior forward
Tuongthach Gatkek was voted the league's Defensive Player of the Year.
"All three of those guys made a big impact for us this year," Walker said. "Johnathan rarely left the floor and did a lot of things for us. He made two game-winning shots. Mwani has NBA-type athleticism and was a force offensively and defensively. Tuon missed three games, and when he did, it really hurt us because he can make up for some of our mistakes. He is a terrific shot blocker and gives us an edge on defense."
Knowing that offense was going to be at a premium, Walker put an even heavier emphasis on defense and worked on his team's conditioning over the Christmas break so they'd be able to run and trap even more. The Trojans finished third in scoring defense in the OVC.
"We would have trapped even more if we hadn't had as many injuries," Walker said. "We didn't have enough depth to do as much pressing as we wanted to, but we played great defense with the guys we had."
The season had barely ended at the OVC Tournament in Evansville, Ind., and Walker was looking to next season. After extensive rehab,
KK Robinson will return to the lineup next and his younger brother Kellen Robinson will join him. The younger Robinson is fresh off leading Bryant High School to the 6A State Championship – the school's first since 1981. Kellen Robinson scored 25 points in the title-game win over Springdale. He missed much of the season with an injury but gave the Hornets a spark down the stretch.
"We've got to reload, and we are already working on it," Walker said following the loss to Southeast Missouri in the OVC semifinals. "We've got to go out and find more players, and we will be right back here next year."
