Ithaca College Athletics

The men’s basketball program at Ithaca College has been a model of consistency. The Bombers’ tradition began under coach Carl Chamberlain when the 1929-30 team finished 11-4. Since then Ithaca’s accomplishments include:

    - 65 winning seasons in 91 years;
    - an overall record of 1,214-925, for a winning percentage of .568;
    - a total of nine coaches (only two of whom posted a losing record), including five who won at least 100 games;
    - 13 NCAA and 15 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) playoff berths and three ECAC championships.

Isadore “Doe” Yavits compiled a 138-78 record during 14 years as head coach. He coached three teams from 1935 to 1939 that each featured six future Ithaca College Athletic Hall of Fame members.

From 1940-42, Yavits’ teams were a combined 42-11; three of those losses were to East Stroudsburg. In 1940–41, Ithaca’s top five scorers—Charlie Baker, Robert Ingerson, Michael Lurel, Mike McKillop, and Frank Urso—were future Ithaca College Athletic Hall of Fame members. During the 1941–42 season, Urso averaged more than 14 points a game. In Ithaca’s three losses that season, he averaged 20 points per game. He lost his life in 1945 during the invasion of Iwo Jima.

Ithaca’s winning ways continued under Ben Light during the previous seven seasons. His 1948–49 team went 16-5, with the losses to Syracuse, Iowa, Iowa State, St. Bonaventure, and Cortland. Jim Hercinger and Ross Passineau were top scorers on those teams.

Light also coached Ray Kirkgasser, who became Ithaca’s first player ever to be drafted by an NBA team when he was taken 81st overall by the Syracuse Nationals in 1951.

Carlton Wood, who had led the 1938–39 Ithaca team in scoring, took over from Ben Light as coach. Wood’s first teams were led by Alden Chadwick, who averaged 16.1 points per game in his career and set eight school records. Rich Slomkowski averaged 17.5 points and 9.9 rebounds per game in 79 career games. Ithaca first qualified for a postseason tournament under Wood, earning a spot in the NCAA college division regionals in the 1963–64 season. George Strickland led that team in scoring and rebounding. Sophomore guard George Valesente, who has become Ithaca’s most winning baseball coach, was another top player. Ithaca enjoyed a 12-game winning streak that year, another school record.

Hugh Hurst compiled a 106-93 record during his nine-year career, leading Ithaca into the NCAA college division tournament during the 1971–72 season. Among the top players during that period were record-setters Greg Albano and Mike Williams. Each averaged better than 13 rebounds per game during his career. Williams once had 29 rebounds in a game; he averaged 17 per game in 1969–70. Albano, who held the single-game record of 45 points set against RIT in 1969, now shares the record with 2012 graduate Jordan Marcus who scored 45 against Hobart in 2009.

The 1976–77 team advanced to the NCAA Division III tournament to highlight the five-year coaching stint of Darryl Lehnus.

In the 1978-1979 season, Tom Baker took over for Lehnus and went on to become one of the Bombers’ most successful men’s basketball coaches.  A 1963 Ithaca graduate, Baker returned to his alma mater in 1978 and led the Bombers to 11 straight winning seasons from 1980-1990. He completed his 19-year career with a 307-191 overall record.

It took only four years for Baker to lead the Bombers into the NCAA playoffs. The 1981–82 team set a school record for wins in a season and was the first Ithaca group to win 20 or more games, finishing with a 22-5 mark. Ithaca earned a berth in the NCAA Division III playoffs, falling in the opening round to eventual semifinalist Brooklyn, 50-47. In 1982–83 Ithaca returned to the postseason. The Bombers won the Independent College Athletic Conference (ICAC) championship and defeated RIT in a one-game playoff, 49-48, to qualify for the NCAA tournament. The season ended with a triple-overtime 76-74 loss to Potsdam.

Tod Hart was a top player for Baker’s early teams. Ithaca’s career scoring leader with 1,789 points, Hart set an NCAA Division III record for consecutive field goals by making 21 shots over a three-game span. He was 10-for-10 against Clarkson in a 1980 game and two years later did not miss on 16 attempts against Rensselaer. Hart benefited from the playmaking abilities of Jamie Frank, who averaged 5.4 assists per game and set a school record, which he held until the 2009–10 season, with 488 career assists.

In 1986–87 the Bombers won 10 of their last 14 regular-season games to claim the ICAC title and an NCAA postseason berth. Playing at defending national champion Potsdam, Ithaca nearly pulled off the upset before falling, 57-53.

Mike Hess and hall of famer Andy Vye followed Hart and continued a tradition of top forwards for the Bombers. The versatile Hess finished his career ranked first in career steals and third in scoring. Vye, who played from 1983 to 1987, remains ranked in the school’s career top 10 in both scoring and rebounding.

Forward Steve Dunham, a two-time National Association of Basketball Coaches All-American, graduated in 1994 as a 1,000-point scorer. Also a two-time captain, Dunham was the leader of back-to-back 20-win teams in 1992–93 and 1993–94. In 1993 the Bombers played and won their first NCAA playoff home game, a 71-56 decision over Fredonia. The following season, Ithaca reached the ECAC semifinals. During those years, Ithaca also won two consecutive conference titles for the first time since the 1981–82 and 1982–83 teams.

With the NCAA’s adoption of the three-point shot, Archie McEachern and Vince Perrine set a number of school records. McEachern made a school-record 182 three-point baskets and averaged almost two per game. In the last game of his career, against Utica in 1992, he scored a career-high 32 points and set a school record with seven three-pointers. In a 92-68 upset win over national power Hamilton in 1994, Perrine netted 30 points on 10 three-pointers. During his career, Perrine set six school records for three-point field-goal shooting.

Jim Mullins served as interim coach for one season and took over as full-time head coach during the 1998–99 season. He led the Bombers to their first ECAC Upstate New York championship in 2000 and coached Ithaca’s first first-team All-American in guard Pat Britton, a 2010 Ithaca College Athletic Hall of Fame inductee. Two years later, Ithaca won the Empire 8 title and reached the NCAA playoffs.

Mullins guided the Bombers to their second ECAC upstate New York title in 2006. Ithaca was led by Jim Bellis, who finished his career ranked eighth on the all-time scoring list.

Led by All-American point guard Sean Burton and a record-setting offense, Ithaca returned to the NCAA playoffs in 2009. In 2010, the team captured its third ECAC title.

In 2011 All-American Phil Barera led the Bombers to an Empire 8 regular-season title and a berth in the NCAA playoffs. Ithaca returned to the NCAA playoffs with an automatic berth in 2012 after winning its first Empire 8 Tournament championship.

The Bombers won their second consecutive E8 Championship Tournament to advance to the NCAA Tournament for the third straight season in 2013. Ithaca scored 15 unanswered second-half points to defeat host Springfield in the opening round, before traveling to Rochester where the Bombers tallied a 70-68 victory on a buzzer-beater tip-in. Ithaca was edged by Middlebury, 73-72, to end its NCAA run in the Sweet 16. All-American Sean Rossi set the Division III career assists record amassing 957 to rank eighth all-time across all divisions.

In 2016, Mullins completed his 19th season as head coach, leading the Bombers to a 15-13 record.  Sam Bevan and Marc Chasin each started all 28 games in the 2015-16 season.  Chasin led the Bombers with 583 points, averaging over 20 points per game.  Bevan led the team with 62 three point shots made. 

During Mullins' 20th season at the helm of the program, the Bombers finished their 2016-17 campaign with a 9-16 overall mark. Junior Marc Chasin earned Empire 8 All-Conference honorable mention after joining the 1,000-point club and leading his squad in both scoring and assists.

Ithaca moved to the Liberty League for the 2017-18 campaign and posted an overall record of 15-11. The Bombers reached postseason play in their inaugural season within the conference, and Marc Chasin and Riley Thompson received All-Liberty League honors as season's end. On January 12, Mullins became the program's all-time winningest coach with an 82-67 victory over St. Lawrence inside Ben Light Gymnasium.

The 2018-19 season produced 16 victories and a trip to the semifinals of the Liberty League Championship. Peter Ezema became the school's all-time leader in rebounds and steals, and at the end of the season, was named Liberty League Defensive Player of the Year. Thompson and Sebastian Alderete were named All-Liberty League as well.

Ithaca posted one of its best seasons in program history in 2019-20. The Bombers went 24-6, matching a program record for wins, and claimed the school's first Liberty League championship. IC won its NCAA First Round contest against Babson, 94-88, in overtime for the first NCAA victory since 2012-13. In the Liberty League Tournament, Ithaca defeated St. Lawrence (64-54), Hobart (80-72) and top-seeded RPI (80-69 in overtime). Seniors Sebastian Alderete and Riley Thompson were named first-team all-conference, while sophomore Skylar Sinon landed on the second-team. Alderete and Thompson would also garner D3hoops.com and NABC all-region honors as the duo eclipsed 1,000 points each in their careers. Although the NABC Reese's All-Star Game was canceled due to the coronavirus, Thompson was named to the team to become only the second player in school history to achieve that honor.

Mullins announced his retirement in the spring of 2020 after 23 season as head coach and concluded his career with 353 victories. Burton '09 would be appointed as the next head coach, the ninth in program history. The ensuing 2020-21 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the spring of 2021, Waleed Farid was selected as the next head coach program. In the 2021-22 season, Ithaca went 17-9 and finished second in the regular season standings within the Liberty League. IC set a school record during the year with 124 points scored in a game and two players would be named all-conference - Luka Radovich and Skylar Sinon. In 2022-23, Ithaca won the Liberty League regular season title and finished the season with an 18-8 record. Radovich and  Logan Wendell were selected as All-Liberty League performers as Radovich highlighted his final season with a 40-point game against Keystone and Wendell landed at the No. 1 spot on ESPN SportsCenter's Top 10 Plays with a buzzer beater against Hamilton. In 2023-24, Wendell became the 30th player in school history to reach 1,000 career points.

2/26/24