Yes, you read that headline right.
Seth Towns, who will play for the Howard Bison in the 2024 NCAA men’s basketball tournament starting with the First Four, is in his EIGHTH year in college hoops. Yet he’s still a senior … at 26 years old, which means he’s older than some NBA stars like Zion Williamson, Jayson Tatum and others. Wild, right?
So how did that all happen? And how is it possible that he’s that “old” and still playing? Great questions, all of them.
Let’s dive in with his story and some facts about Towns as we get set to watch him play:
Towns was a freshman from Ohio who played for Harvard in 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG0oz5iP0wo He was an All-Ivy player in 2017-18 and the conference’s player of the year. But then he suffered a knee injury that kept him out for two years.
Towns received a medical red shirt and transferred to Ohio State
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ID_k6jmQws He played one season there before undergoing back surgery in 2021. That led to another red shirt year.
He then took the 2022 season off before transferring to Howard
This year, he’s averaged 14.2 ppg, 6.6 rpg and a steal a game. https://twitter.com/TP4PT/status/1724540517562589408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1724540517562589408%7Ctwgr%5E1043d92dcc5f9088238aa821df25bc735963c741%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zagsblog.com%2F2023%2F11%2F14%2Fhowards-seth-towns-receives-waiver-to-play-an-8th-season-of-college-basketball%2F
Here's what he's said about continuing to play
From an NCAA.com story:
“Passion. I don’t know what much else to say outside of that,” Towns said Monday outside the locker room before heading out to practice. “I love basketball, it’s in my DNA, it’s in my bloodstream. Knowing that there was still a chance . . .” The return for chapter 8, in yet another place, was not a decision he made lightly. He is a thoughtful young man, an English major from the Ivy League who loves to play chess. “It was a period of extreme reckoning,” he said of the year away. “I have never been away from the game before last year. Trying to figure out how to move forward was really interesting. It was a challenge I never had. When basketball is such a big part of your identity it’s hard to try and figure out in a moment’s notice how to break away from that. “You have to encounter these situations with maturity and be realistic with yourself. Looking at my situation for exactly what it was, I knew there was a chance I could still play. With that out there and just the rest of my life being in front of me I wasn’t ready (to walk away from basketball). More than anything my passion led me forward.”
