04/15/2020
By Ed Brennen

Winning a national championship is an unforgettable experience for any college athlete. Especially when it comes during extraordinarily unusual circumstances.

UMass Lowell’s men’s club basketball team has been crowned national champions by the National Club Basketball Association (NCBBA) after rolling to a perfect 18-0 regular-season record.

The River Hawks had planned to compete in the NCBBA’s national championship tournament, scheduled for April 17-19 in South Bend, Ind., but the tournament was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

By virtue of its No. 1 ranking in the NCBBA’s final regular-season poll, UML was named national champion. Peter Murray, director of Campus Recreation, believes it’s the university’s first-ever national title for a club sport.

“It’s a shame that we couldn’t play in the tournament and prove that we deserve the title, but I think we proved we deserved it during the season,” says club president Matt Maslowski, a senior civil engineering major from Boylston, Mass.

More than 900 UML students participate in over 30 club sports each year, from rowing and rugby to underwater hockey and folk dance. Club sports, along with the more informal intramural sports program, provide an inclusive way for students to pursue recreational and fitness activities in a fun and competitive setting. 

Competing in the NCBBA’s New England North Division, the men’s club basketball team racked up wins this season against Harvard University, Tufts University, the University of Vermont, Merrimack College, Bates College and Southern New Hampshire University. The River Hawks’ closest contest was a six-point win at Tufts in late November; they closed out the season with a 113-67 rout of Merrimack on their home floor at the Campus Recreation Center.

The River Hawks were led by 6-foot-5 point guard Augustus Busumbru, a senior business administration major from East Hartford, Conn., who averaged more than 40 points, 11 assists and 8 rebounds per game.

“He’s the best player I’ve ever played with,” Maslowski says. “He makes every single player around him better.”

After earning an associate degree from Fisher College in Boston, Busumbru transferred to UML in 2018 with hopes of earning a walk-on spot with UML’s Division I men’s basketball team. When that didn’t happen, he decided to give the club team a try after some heavy recruiting efforts at the Rec Center by team members David Kazadi, Kennedy Asare and Steve Goggin.

“I found that basketball is still basketball,” Busumbru says. “The guys brought the love of the game to me, and I really started to embrace the program. It was something bigger than myself and it ended up being a huge part of my college career.”

Last year, the River Hawks rolled to a 20-1 regular-season record, with their only loss coming by forfeit. They fell to Boston College in the New England regional tournament finals but still earned an at-large bid to the national tournament, where they lost to eventual champion East Carolina University in the first round.

“That fired us up to play as good as we could possibly play this year,” says Maslowski, whose team came into the 2019-20 campaign ranked third in the NCBBA’s preseason poll (which is voted on by a dozen league representatives from across the country). “This is probably the best team I’ve ever played on, talent-wise. I think we knew this is the year we had the talent to go all the way.”

Goggin, who was captain of last year’s team, served as its volunteer coach this season. The team’s roster also included Tyron Wise, Nubian Brooks, Ethan Cook, Trevor Bolduc, Joel Castillo, Joe Canelas, Kyle Scott, Ross Wilkins, Sam Calkins, Max McKenzie and Andy Mackler. The practice squad included Ethan Moore, Alec DaSilva, Kevin Lu, Dan Longwe, Jared Drouin, Luke Mulcahy and John Kenny.

The championship is extra sweet for Asare, a first-year master’s student in criminal justice who has played on the team for five years.

“Winning a national championship and bringing the first banner to UMass Lowell club basketball still feels unreal,” says Asare, who earned his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice in 2019. “Being able to do it with my teammates, who are like brothers to me, makes it like a dream come true.”

The River Hawks, who received 252 out of a possible 260 points in the final top 20 poll, edged out second-place Ohio State University by six points. The University of Notre Dame was third, followed by the University of Missouri.

Murray says the national title is even more impressive considering the club was founded only recently, in 2013.

“It is very rare to go from creation to national champions in such a short time,” he says. “It has been exciting to see how the club has continuously improved.”

The national championship caught the attention of Chancellor Jacquie Moloney, who congratulated the River Hawks on her Facebook page.

“I was blown away that she did that. It was so cool to see,” says Maslowski, who was happy the River Hawks could provide some good news as the university deals with the coronavirus crisis. “It’s definitely a bright spot in a dark time right now, for sure.”

While Maslowski will begin working for a local highway design and engineering company following Commencement, Busumbru is turning his attention toward a master’s degree in health care management, perhaps at UML.

After putting in countless hours of weeknight practices at the Rec Center and weekend road trips around New England, they and their teammates are proud of making UML history.

“To be able to come back to this university five or 10 years down the line,” Busumbru says, “and go to the gym and see that banner, that’s a great feeling.”