The love of basketball runs deep here at LMU. Whether it's during game days or late-night pickup games at Barnes Recreation Center, the courts are rarely in use. For many freshmen, this basketball culture is critical to adjusting to college life.
Sophomore finance major Aidan Collins believes pickup basketball is a big part of his life at LMU. “I'm there” [at Burns Rec]runs in 5 seconds [5 p.m.] Monday through Friday helped shape my experience at LMU,” Collins said. “A lot of the same people come in every day, but we all form a pretty strong bond.”
Sophomore finance major Ryan Bahar hit the free throws for Burns Recreation Center, and sophomore finance major Connor Cadigan and sophomore finance major Aidan Collins rebounded.
Basketball serves as a bridge here on campus, bringing together people who would never have known each other if it wasn't for their love of the sport. For many students, especially new students, college campuses can be completely uncomfortable. Being between the lines on a hard court is often the only place they want to be, and once they make new friends on it, they don't want to leave.
What is often lost in these friendlies and easy-going intramural seasons is the competitiveness that many students crave. For many students, especially those coming off an intense high school season against talented athletes from around the country, adjusting to playing the sport they've played all their lives without any danger for the first time can be difficult.
Then Connor Cadigan, a sophomore finance major, intervened. Cadigan, like many other Burns regulars, longed for the competitive nature of the sport he had fallen in love with as a child. With only spontaneous pickup games and an underwhelming intrasquad season failing to provide the competitive edge he desired, Cadigan took it upon himself.
Collins, Cadigan and Bahar (left to right) hope to join LMU's men's club basketball team.
Cadigan hopes to form LMU's first men's club basketball team with the help of other hoopers who crave a more competitive environment. As club president, Cadigan began planning with Rahmen Bass, assistant director of intramural and club sports. Cadigan and Bass are in talks with the National Club Basketball Association (NCBBA) to participate next year, allowing them to play regionally against schools such as Stanford University. If this plan is successful in getting underway in 2024, it would be a huge step for LMU's basketball culture.
“Like a lot of people here, we grew up with a passion for playing basketball,” Cadigan said. “We want to give people an opportunity to continue that passion and play college sports.”
Ryan Bahar, a junior finance major and treasurer of the men's club basketball team, knew this would be a huge development for LMU's freshmen and wished someone had come up with the idea when he was a freshman. I was thinking. “All of my high school basketball friends also played on club teams in college,” Bahar said. “I wanted to play on a club team, and when I found out there wasn’t a club team, I was a little heartbroken.” It will be a great opportunity for everyone.”
In an internal season, teams can play a maximum of 4-5 games. This season is very joyful, but it does not endure any hardships. The challenges a team faces during the season can ultimately be what unites them, which is why the LMU men's club basketball team does an incredible job of strengthening student bonds through adversity .
“It's important to play for what's important,” Collins said. “Pick-up is great here, but when you actually put something at stake, when you practice with a group of friends multiple times a week and build bonds, everything becomes more fun. I think the competitive environment is the best feeling in the world.”
Cadigan, along with the rest of the young club, is working to spread that feeling to other hoopers on the LMU campus. For a man like Bahar, this feeling is all he has known growing up. “[For] “Many of us athletes made friends through sports as we grew up,” he said. “You start to form bonds and connections with your teammates because you’re so present with them.”
Bahar poses with a basketball on the Burns Rec court.
For a school with a rampant pick-up basketball community, a club basketball team is the next step. It offers something Burns Rec or any other intrasquad season cannot. It's an opportunity to return to the good old days of competitive sports, when meaningful relationships are built through shared adversity and long nights with your team. While the desire for increased competition is certainly the driving force behind the club, it is the possibility of starting a family that motivates people like Cadigan to make it happen.
“I want men to have a sense of family and community,” Cadigan said. “It's always been important to me in high school and on other teams, that you have a lot of guys that can come together and bond for the love of the game.”
Find @lmuclubmbb on Instagram for the latest information on the team, tryouts, and the anticipated inaugural season for the fall 2024 semester.
