The Reigning Champs Are Back: Trinity College Men’s Basketball Team Talks New Season, New Expectations

Savannah Brooks ’26

Editor-in-Chief

For the first time in the program’s history, Trinity’s men’s basketball team is heading into their season as NCAA Division III champions. The team beat NYU in a 64-60 thriller to bring home the hardware in March, and going into the 2025-26 season, their journey is far from over. The Bantams graduated three seniors in the 2025 class, with only one of them contributing significant minutes throughout the championship season. Four of five of the starters against NYU; Henry Vetter ’26, Jarrel Okorougo ’26, Drew Lazarre ’26 and Tristan Davis ’26 are returning to the program this year, but they refuse to let the excitement get to their head, even after being ranked first in d3hoops.com’s preseason rankings. Two of those starters and Trinity’s 2024-26 sixth man, Okorougo, Lazarre and Trevor McDonald ’26, sat down with the Tripod to discuss the high expectations surrounding their upcoming season after beginning practices in late October.

“I’d say there still is a chip on our shoulder,” Lazarre, who averaged 11.2 points last season, said. “Now, with what we did last year and the past two years, I felt like everybody’s trying to come after us. That’s our chip and that’s our motivation. Teams [are] coming after us because of what we did or what we’re trying to do again.” Lazarre, a testament to the program’s success, has made an exponential improvement in his game over his three seasons at Trinity — as a first-year in 2022-23, he averaged less than one point with a 21.7% shooting percentage — a far cry from his impressive 42.8% shooting percentage his junior season.

In the 2023-24 season, the men’s basketball team made it to the NCAA Final Four for the second time in program history, but lost 54-66 to Trine University, who went on to win the championship. The key players on this season’s roster were first-years and sophomores on that team. Now, they have two years of Final Four experience under their belt — something that is very uncommon in the NESCAC, and unheard of throughout Trinity men’s basketball history. 

“We have an opportunity to be a part of, not only the best class in NESCAC history, but all NCAA history,” McDonald told the Tripod. “How many people can say they’ve been to three Final Fours or two national championships? That’s something that we’re really striving for as well. We’re coming here today, taking it a day at a time. Everyone’s always asking me, ‘You guys going back to back?’ I would love that, but we know it’s a long road ahead. Nothing just gets handed to us.” 

Despite the high expectations and accolades, the players emphasized that they are sticking to their practices that have gotten them to where they are; an emphasis on defense (Trinity boasted the best three-point defense percentage and scoring margin in the country in the 2023-24 season) and hours upon hours spent in the gym, but also the ability to lose with grace and dignity. 

“In our conference, we play back to back games,” Okorougo said. “So, we don’t really have enough room to really think about that loss. We already have to focus on the next game. Obviously, there are days you’re not going to hit shots. If you hit every shot that you made, you would be in the NBA. We emphasize trying to be tough and gritty, and then when we lose, we just do a good job of being together.” 

Head Coach James Cosgrove, who is entering his 16th season with the Bantams and was named Coach of the Year in 2025 by the National Association of Basketball Coaches, shared similar sentiments with the Tripod as his players, saying, “Forget the press clippings, forget what we were wearing, forget what we did last year, just go out and play day-by-day and get better day-by-day. That’s our mantra — getting better and still having a chip where people say, ‘Oh, that was a fluke.’”

“The only people that are going to affect their season are the people in this room right now,” McDonald added. “Being number one ranked, it’s cool, but they don’t give you extra points, they don’t give extra wins. They don’t guarantee you anything. It’s just a bunch of guys who just come up with some rankings. So, being number one — we know it doesn’t mean anything.”

The Bantams start their season at home on Saturday, Nov. 15, against Lehman College at 1 p.m.