Fordham has and will continue lending full cooperation to the NCAA during their investigation, including following the NCAA’s bylaws to maintain confidentiality. Therefore, we’re unable to share any more details on the matter at this time.

As the historic gym enters its second century, it has a newfound identity—and momentum.

“How about Rose Thrill, man!” After raucous home crowds seemed to will the men’s basketball team to a pair of impressive victories in January 2023, head coach Keith Urgo started a postgame press conference with those words. The name stuck.

As the gym enters its second century, Ram fans have high hopes. The recently completed Cura Personalis fundraising campaign focused new attention on athletics, especially basketball. Donors contributed to the New Era Fund, which supports the women’s and men’s teams. And a rejuvenated student section fired up players and fans alike.

Here are three recent wins for Fordham basketball.

A Record Three-Year Run

The men’s team achieved its highest three-year win total since joining the Atlantic 10 in 1995. The highlight? Going 25-8 in 2022–2023, just one win shy of the famed 1970–1971 team’s 26-3 record.

An Atlantic-10 Surge

The Rams reached the semifinals of the A-10 Tournament at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center in 2023. “It was great,” recalled Nikhil Mehta, a fan who graduated that year. “On the way to the games, you had ‘let’s go Fordham!’ chants ringing throughout the [subway] cars.”

Revived Ram Spirit

With slogans like “It’s a great day to be a Ram!” and shout-outs to fans for their support, Urgo has helped build a spirited culture on and off the court. And the men’s team’s 2022–2023 performance led to a 113% rise in ticket sales last season.

For Sam Jones, a Fordham senior who helps run an Instagram page to publicize games and other events, the energy around athletics has been “an absolute dream.”

“It changes your college experience—just to be walking around campus and hear, ‘Oh, are you going to the basketball game?’” he said. “I love it.”

RELATED STORY: Celebrating 100 Years of Rose Hill Gym: A Thrilling Legacy

“I didn’t have too much gear—it was all in the laundry,” said Mehta, who graduated from the Gabelli School of Business in May.

He texted his friends: “What if we just went shirtless and just painted our chests for this game?”

They were immediately in.

“I got the text at like 11:30 the night before the game,” his friend John O’Friel, FCRH ’23, said with a smile. “And I was like, ‘Bet.’”

The Shirtless Herd

The pair recruited other friends and the group painted their chests to spell out R-A-M-S. The Shirtless Herd was born, and the Rams upset Saint Louis, the top team in the A-10 conference at that time.

O’Friel said the group grew over time, adding members and changing up their lettering.

“People were like, ‘Oh, this is cool, let’s do this,’” O’Friel said. “And that’s how we got ‘Bronx Built’ going, and ‘Urgonomics’—we started getting longer words, because more people want to be a part of it.”

The group caught the eye of Coach Keith Urgo.

“How about Rose Thrill, man!” Urgo said in the postgame press conference, using the nickname he coined for the loud atmosphere that the Shirtless Herd and other fans brought to the Rose Hill Gym. “The last couple of games, they have no idea how intense that atmosphere really is…we gotta continue that. We need that. It makes a world of difference.”

Social Media and Word of Mouth

The Shirtless Herd was just one part of a much-talked-about student fan section that came to life in 2023 as the men’s basketball team reached heights not seen for 30 years. Students packed the gym, creating a standing-room-only, loud, competitive atmosphere that caught the attention not only of Urgo but also the media.

In addition to the Herd, there were Instagram pages created that helped publicize the games and related events, such as @thehillfordham run by Sam Jones, a rising junior in the Gabelli School of Business.

“I thought, ‘maybe if we started an Instagram page, we could get a core group of people that went to every single game,’” he said.

Jones talked about the account with people in the community, including David Greco, the owner of Mike’s Deli on Arthur Avenue, which is a sponsor of Fordham athletics. Greco put him in touch with a few athletics staff members who were also working on increasing turnout.

“It just merged beautifully—we worked together throughout this semester to put on events [like pre- and post-game meetups] and and push the times of the games and push people to get there,” he said.

The main draw, of course, was the team’s performance. The men’s team finished third in the conference—after preseason polls projected them to finish last—and reached the semifinals of the A-10 tournament

While Urgo made sure his players were ready on the court, he also emphasized the importance of building a culture off the court, with slogans like “It’s a great day to be a Ram” and shoutouts to the fans for their support. Urgo and the players said it was a big part of why the Rams won their final six home games and went 18-2 overall at home.

Jones said being a part of this fan culture was “an absolute dream.”

“It changes your college experience—just to be walking around campus and hear, ‘oh, are you going to the basketball game?’” he said. “I loved it.”

Subway Chants on the Ride to Barclays

Mehta said that the credit really goes to Urgo for fostering the environment.

“He’s built a great culture here,” Mehta said. “He has a relationship with the students, with the fans. They’ve done a great job feeding off the energy and encouraging students to come back.”

And that energy expanded beyond students. When the team played in the A-10 tournament at the Barclays Center, Fordham fans, including students, alumni, and parents, packed the arena.

“It was great—on the subway on the way to the games, you had ‘let’s go Fordham!’ chants ringing throughout the cars,” Mehta said.

Keeping It Going

While many members of the fan section graduated, they hope that the tradition will be carried on. Jones, who is a junior, said that the plan is to build on this past year’s success and use it for other sports.

Jones said one of the most special things about Fordham is “how much of a family it really is.” That’s why he encourages students, particularly first-year students, to attend the games.

“Those are the events that you’re really going to remember—going to all the basketball games and yelling your heart out and standing the entire time in the fan section,” he said. “You’re meeting all these new people and you have all these friends and you see them at the next basketball game—it just creates such a strong culture.”

Visit fordhamsports.com to find the schedules for all teams and athletics events. Students attend for free with a student ID, while others can purchase tickets in advance.

In 2021 and 2022, the star basketball players took advantage of an extra year of playing eligibility they’d earned due to COVID to transfer to Fordham from Youngstown State and Georgia Tech respectively.

A Historic Run

They helped power the Rams to their best season in over 30 years; the team finished with a 25-8 overall record, including playoff games. The team tied for the second-best record in the Atlantic 10 conference, (12-6), and its 24 regular-season wins fueled speculation in the media of a March Madness appearance. The Rose Hill Gym sold out the last six games of the season, and the atmosphere led players to dub it “Rose Thrill.”

Loyalty to a Coach Pays Off

Quisenberry, who completed his undergraduate degree in three years and had two years of eligibility at Fordham, said the difference between last year and this year was day and night.

“We were ranked 11th in the preseason this year, but we believed in ourselves from the beginning. We knew what we were capable of,” he said.

The stats bore it out. Quisenberry reached double figures 28 times in 32 chances, and in twelve games, he scored 20 points. In those games, Fordham went 11-1. He fell just 39 points shy of eclipsing the 1,000-point mark in just two years with the Rams.

The success resonated in a special way because he was recruited in 2021 by Kyle Neptune, who left Fordham after a year to coach at Villanova University.

Quisenberry had established a solid relationship with Urgo, who was then assistant coach. So when Urgo was promoted to head coach in 2022, he knew he’d finish his college career at Rose Hill. He graduated with an M.S. in Media Management on Monday and hopes to play professionally.

A NYC Homecoming

For Moore, joining the Rams was a return to his roots. He grew up in Elmont, New York, and attended Archbishop Malloy High School in Queens.

Unlike Quisenberry, he was brand new to the team this year. When Coach Urgo reached out to him, he jumped at the chance to play his final year of eligibility in the Big Apple.

“I was trying to find a situation for me that I felt was the best fit for both athletics and academics. When I came home to visit, I felt like it was definitely a great opportunity for me,” he said.

“From day one, I felt like they welcomed me to be a part of the family.”

Moore finished second on the squad in scoring, with an average of 15.7 points per game, for a total of 519. He ranked second on the team in both field goal percentage (48.6%) and 3-point field goal percentage (35.1%) while connecting on 77.1% of his free throws.

Like Quisenberry, he earned an M.S. in Media Management, which he hopes to use to land a job in the field when playing for a professional team is no longer feasible.

“Towards the end of the year, the atmosphere in the Rose Hill gym was like one like no other,” he said.

“It’s definitely not something I imagined coming out of high school. I feel like everything just comes around full circle.”

On March 11, the team played in a taut, competitive semi-finals game in front of 10,000 fans at the Barclays Center against the University of Dayton. It was only the second time the team had advanced to the semi-finals since joining the A-10 in 1995 and the first time since 2006. The Rams lost 78-68, but the season, the first with Keith Urgo as head coach, was still regarded as a huge success.

Both players earned accolades: The Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association awarded Quisenberry a spot on the All-Met First Team while Moore earned a place on the All-Met Second Team. The National Association of Basketball Coaches also honored Moore, as well as Urgo, who they named  District 4 Coach of the Year. All three, along with Kyle Rose, a junior at the School of Professional and Continuing Studies, were honored by the Atlantic 10 conference, with Urgo being named their coach of the year.

Success That Will Carry On

Urgo said Quisenberry and Moore were key to this year’s success, and he expects the lessons they shared with younger players will carry on in the years to come.

“Khalid’s work ethic was second to none. We hit lightning in a bottle adding him to our program,” he said.

Quisenberry, he noted, was a natural leader who earned the respect of younger players.

“He decided in his final year that all he cared about was winning. He could care less about his numbers. He was going to do whatever it took to win,” he said.

“They’re two dynamic players, but more importantly, they’re dynamic people and leaders, and that’s more important than their actual talent on the floor.”

The men’s team is enjoying its best year in decades under the first-year head coach, with 22 wins heading into the Feb. 25 game against the University of Rhode Island in the historic Rose Hill Gym. The Rams have won 16 of 18 games at home this year, drawing sell-out crowds to “Rose Thrill,” as the 98-year-old gym has come to be known. Meanwhile, the women’s team sits tied for third in the Atlantic 10 just days before the conference tournament is set to start. Both teams have brought excitement, thrills, and their share of media attention to Rose Hill.

Fordham basketball fever reached a peak on Wednesday evening, Feb. 22, when the men’s team faced Loyola University Chicago in the Windy City and the women took on the University of Rhode Island in the Bronx.

In their final home game of the season, the women were down 65-63 with eight seconds to go when graduate transfer Jada Dapaa knocked down an off-balance layup to tie the game and send it to overtime.

With the clock ticking down in overtime, the Rams were trailing once again, this time 73-71 with just under five seconds to play. That’s when senior guard and Cumberland, Maine, native Anna DeWolfe dribbled up the court and launched a three—“from Maine!” according to ESPN anchor Scott Van Pelt—to give her team the win. DeWolfe was mobbed on the court by her teammates and coaches, celebrating the upset victory against second-place Rhode Island.

Van Pelt was so impressed, he kicked off SportsCenter with the highlights from Rose Hill. “We begin with the best thing I saw today, which comes to us from the Boogie Down Bronx,” he said.

https://twitter.com/FordhamRams/status/1628617260192395264?s=20

ABC’s Robin Roberts also couldn’t resist DeWolfe’s buzzer beater, showing it on Good Morning America.

Thanks for the love @RobinRoberts @GMA!!!#TougherTogether pic.twitter.com/J6f4RdghdO

— Fordham WBB (@FordhamWBB) February 23, 2023

About 800 miles from “Rose Thrill,” the men’s team pulled off its own exciting victory in Chicago. Led by graduate student guard Darius Quisenberry, who put up 26 points, the Rams beat Loyola Chicago 71-69. It was a close game throughout, with the Rams trailing by one point at halftime, but the team pulled ahead with just over six minutes left and never looked back.

Wake up with the highlights from win no. 2⃣2⃣ pic.twitter.com/j8gBuDljZK

— Fordham Basketball (@FordhamMBB) February 23, 2023

Alumni across the country have been tuning in to support the team. The Maroon Club hosted a pregame meetup before taking in the men’s game in Chicago, and the Alumni Chapter of Los Angeles gathered to watch the game at State Social House in West Hollywood. And students have given the Rams a notable boost at home.

“The campus community is flying high watching the team, which means you had better arrive early at the gym to get to your spot,” Roger Clark reported in a piece for NY1 following the team’s comeback victory against the University of Massachusetts on Feb. 8.

Following the game, Urgo and the players praised the Fordham faithful. “We have the opportunity to really do something special here with the fan base, and it’s a result of getting the right guys in the program that fit not just the basketball program but the entire community,” Urgo said in a press conference following the game.

Tyler Cole, a first-year student from Brooklyn, is among those who have been impressed. “It’s honestly very fun and exciting, and I feel like the team shows warmth; they are like a family to us,” Cole told NY1.

What’s Next

Both teams are in action on Saturday, Feb. 25. It’s the final game of the year for the women’s team as they travel to North Carolina to take on Davidson at 1 p.m. The men will host the University of Rhode Island starting at 2:30 p.m. The men’s game will include a special tribute to the 1970–1971 Rams team that captivated New York City basketball fans on its way to a 26-3 record and the East regional semifinals of the NCAA Tournament. In addition, Fordham will honor former star Charlie Yelverton, FCRH ’71, whose No. 34 will be retired.

After Saturday, the men have two more games ahead of the Atlantic 10 tournament—at George Mason University on Wednesday, March 1, and back at Rose Hill for a 2 p.m. tipoff against Duquesne on Saturday, March 4.

Alumni support for the teams also continues, with gatherings planned across the country. The Alumni Chapter of Charlotte is gathering for the women’s game against Davidson. And on March 1, the Alumni Chapter of Washington, D.C., will bring together alumni, family, friends, and fans to cheer on the Rams against George Mason at EagleBank Arena in Fairfax, Virginia.

The women’s A-10 tournament is set to begin on Wednesday, March 1, at the Chase Fieldhouse in Wilmington, Delaware. And the men’s A-10 tournament starts the following Tuesday, March 7, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, and runs through the championship game, set for Sunday, March 12. The opening-round matchups will be finalized at the end of the regular season, but right now, both Fordham teams are in third place in the conference.

Fordham athletics is encouraging alumni, family, and friends in the New York area to cheer on the team at the Barclays Center. All-session tickets for the tournament are on sale now and fans can keep an eye out on the Atlantic 10 website for updates as the tournament gets closer.

After John E. Toffolon Jr., GABELLI ’73, ’77, died on April 26 following a battle with cancer, his family asked for memorial donations to be sent to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and to Fordham—specifically, to its New Era Fund supporting the men’s and women’s basketball programs in their drive for national prominence.

About $400,000 in memorial donations has come in to date, a sign of the strong interest prompted by Toffolon’s leadership in advancing the basketball programs, said Fordham’s athletic director, Ed Kull.

“This strong community of donors is a testament to John’s passion for the University,” said Kull, adding that Toffolon’s memory will be honored at a home basketball game this season. “I want to thank all of those who have given to Fordham basketball in memory of John Toffolon. Thanks to our community’s strong support for the New Era Fund, his passion for the program will continue on.”

That passion took root in his student days, when Fordham basketball became a national powerhouse that sold out Madison Square Garden and fueled fierce pride in the University. In 2020, as a trustee fellow, Toffolon co-founded the New Era Fund as part of the University’s current $350 million fundraising campaign, Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student, which seeks to enhance the entire Fordham experience. He brought many other supporters along through his example.

In fact, he had been setting an example of giving back and helping others for most of his life—and not just in the arena of basketball.

Forged at Fordham

During his student years, Toffolon was active in many areas of University life, including United Student Government, and seemed to be able to move in every circle of students, as described by two of his classmates, David and Don Almeida, twin brothers and 1973 graduates of the Gabelli School of Business. “He was very much a Fordham guy,” said Don Almeida, a Fordham trustee fellow, “and when he graduated, he remained that for the rest of his life.”

After graduating, Toffolon launched his investment banking career in the management training program of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and came back to Fordham a few years later to earn an M.B.A. That’s when he met his wife, Joan C. Toffolon, GABELLI ’77, a fellow student in the program. He went on to hold leadership roles at First Boston Corporation, Nomura Securities international, and the Cowen Group, among other firms.

He was board chairman at Cowen during its 2009 merger with Ramius LLC, and showed genuine concern for everyone in the merged company, said Jeffrey Solomon, who was a managing member and founder of Ramius.

“John was always well intended, thoughtful, and wanted to make sure that he was making a positive impact in the lives of others,” said Solomon, now chairman and CEO of Cowen, a New York-based banking and financial services firm. Toffolon “wanted to make sure that, through his board stewardship, we were doing the best things we could for everybody at Cowen,” he said.

Giving from the Heart

That care and concern extended to his philanthropy. “John was the real deal,” said David Almeida, a board member with the Making Headway Foundation, which serves families of children diagnosed with brain or spinal cord tumors. Toffolon was a longtime supporter, and “would actually call me up every year to make sure I got the check,” a level of personal attention that meant a lot to him, Almeida said.

Toffolon gave to many organizations supporting health, education, and youth development, and played a leadership role in Fordham’s fundraising efforts. He often gave in partnership with his wife, Joan; in 1995, they created the Joan and John E. Toffolon Jr. Presidential Endowed Scholarship Fund for women attending the Gabelli School of Business.

The first recipient of the scholarship, Cindy Vojtech, Ph.D., a 2000 graduate of the Gabelli School, periodically met Toffolon for lunch. “In any conversation, it was just very clear that he was very enthusiastic about this school and about giving back and trying to … help shift the industry” toward having more women represented in its ranks, said Vojtech, a principal economist at the Federal Reserve Board and a member of the Fordham University President’s Council.

The Toffolon scholarship made it possible for her to come to Fordham and pursue her career dreams in finance and economics, she said. Today, she is paying it forward by creating a scholarship of her own, so that future students can enjoy the Fordham community and support that she did. “It’s just such an amazing gift,” she said.

Another recipient, Samantha Barrett, GABELLI ’21, met John Toffolon on a few occasions, joining him for a Fordham basketball game and dinner at Roberto’s on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx in 2018. “He was just a truly wonderful man, with the kindest heart, and I am a better person for having known him,” she said.

It was humbling and amazing, she said, to learn that the Toffolons’ scholarship would be covering the full cost of her Fordham education. “In that moment, I knew that I needed to have a college career where I did my best—for myself, for John and Joan, for my family, for those around me,” said Barrett, now an analyst at Jefferies Credit Partners in New York City. “I kept John and Joan in mind in every decision I made at Fordham,” wanting to make them proud, she said.

Before the launch of the New Era Fund, the Toffolons made many gifts to support athletics. At the Lombardi Center on the Rose Hill campus, they funded the installation of a wood floor on a practice court—now named in their honor—that is sometimes used by the basketball teams.

That gift seemed to come out of the blue, said Frank McLaughlin, FCRH ’69, athletic director emeritus at Fordham and special advisor to the director of intercollegiate athletics and recreational sports.

“He would do a lot of things unannounced like that, to help people,” McLaughlin said.

Days of Glory

McLaughlin knew Toffolon for about six decades, since Toffolon was a student and he, McLaughlin, was a young assistant basketball coach at Fordham for one season under head coach Richard “Digger” Phelps.

“In 1970–1971, it was a magical year where we were a national power, and he saw what that meant to everybody,” McLaughlin said. “There was a tremendous pride in the institution.”

The Rams went 26-3 that year, playing twice before sold-out crowds at Madison Square Garden—beating Notre Dame the first time and falling to Marquette a week later. Fordham advanced to the “Sweet 16” in the NCAA tournament and finished the year ranked ninth in the country.

“Everybody was coming to see us, and Madison Square Garden was full,” Don Almeida said. “I was scared the place was going to fall down, it was shaking so much [with]everybody standing and rocking.”

The school spirit had a unifying effect, he said. “You had ROTC marching in Edwards Parade and you had anti-Vietnam War demonstrations going on all over campus, and at night, everybody was at the basketball game,” he said.

“For the four years that [John and I were] at Fordham, we had very, very respectable basketball teams,” which set a benchmark for the team’s future efforts, Almeida said. “No matter what happened thereafter, we knew what we could do, because we had done it.”

Launching a New Era

Almeida and Toffolon were part of a group led by Fordham trustee Darlene Jordan, FCRH ’89, that started the New Era Fund to boost the basketball teams as a unifying source of Fordham pride and enhance the University’s national profile.

The fund pays for the recruitment of coaching talent and various supports to help student-athletes do their best in class and on the court. With its help, the men’s team improved to a 16-16 record last season under then-head coach Kyle Neptune, and it’s seeking further progress this year under Keith Urgo, who became head coach in April.

Toffolon “was very passionate about seeing the New Era Fund get off the ground” and cared deeply about helping the student-athletes, said Frank Aiello, GABELLI ’76, a supporter of the fund and member of Fordham’s Athletics Hall of Fame committee.

He kept coming to Fordham basketball games while undergoing cancer treatments. “He was all in,” Don Almeida said. Toffolon knew and interacted with all the players, and the entire men’s and women’s teams came to his wake, along with members of the coaching staff. “There wasn’t a dry eye in the place,” he said.

Following a Mass of Christian Burial on May 5 at St. Joseph’s Church in Bronxville, New York, John Toffolon was laid to rest at Gate of Heaven Cemetery. Survivors include his wife, Joan, their daughters, Ashley and Allison, and his sister, Penley Kidd (Douglas).

“There isn’t a day goes by when I am not saddened that he is no longer here to support us. But he’s there in spirit, I’ll tell you that much,” McLaughlin said. “He was an inspiration.”

To ask about contributing to the New Era Fund, contact Kara Field, director of athletic development and assistant athletic director, at 973-223-2157 or [email protected].

Learn more about Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student and make a gift.

“The first thing that came in my head was, ‘My career is over,’” Ohams said, recalling laying on the court while the trainers examined him. “I remember that vividly.”

But a few days after he had surgery, Ohams said he felt more determined than ever.

“Something just clicked in me—[I kept thinking] ‘Just try to have the biggest comeback I can have in my career,’” he said. “My thing was to just put two feet in and just grind it.” If he couldn’t make it happen, he said, then at least he would have tried everything he could.

But he needn’t have worried. In 2021-2022, his first full season back on the court after the injury, Ohams had his best season as a Ram. He finished first in the Atlantic 10 conference and fifth in the entire NCAA in rebounding, and posted a double-double in 21 games, a new Fordham record. (A double-double is when a player records 10 or more in two statistical categories, such as 10 points and 10 rebounds.)

Keith Urgo, the new head coach of Fordham men’s basketball who served as an associate head coach last year under Kyle Neptune, said that Ohams was a special talent on both offense and defense.

“With his size, length, and athleticism, it’s very rare that you’re going to see that type of skill level. He was an extremely versatile player for us, and a mismatch nightmare,” he said, noting that a mismatch means he’s hard to match up against on both offense and defense. “Defensively is where he really got a lot better—one of the reasons why we were 40th in the country’s defense is because he’s able, with his athleticism and length, to switch and guard anyone on the floor.”

Ohams is finishing his master’s degree in media management as he prepares to graduate from Fordham for the second time, after earning his bachelor’s degree in communications in 2021. (Ohams redshirted his sophomore year due to injury, meaning he didn’t play that year, so he had an extra year of athletic eligibility.)

Along the way, Ohams said he learned the importance of patience.

“At the end of the day I learned that whatever I put my mind to and work on—the results will come,” he said, even if they’re not immediate. “ It will eventually come.”

Urgo said that not only is Ohams a special player, but he’s also an “unbelievable human being” and was a “larger than life” figure on campus.

“One of our pillars of excellence is gratitude and the other is humility, and he displayed both of those, and as a result, you can see how people reacted to him—from professors, to administrators, to students, they really fell in love with Chuba Ohams,” he said.

Ohams credits his teammates and coaches, including former Fordham men’s basketball coach Kyle Neptune, with encouraging him to keep pushing himself.

“Kyle Neptune was a great coach for me. What made him stand out from some of the coaches that I’ve had—it wasn’t just about basketball with him,” Ohams said. “He wanted me to be the best man that I can possibly be. So he made sure he asked me about my academics, he asked me about the little stuff that I didn’t think mattered.”

Urgo said that he was grateful Ohams was willing to buy into a whole new coaching system.

“I can’t say enough about him because it’s very difficult when a new staff, a new philosophy comes into play, and a sixth-year senior is willing to commit himself,” he said. “Truly impressed, and incredibly grateful to him for his commitment to us as a program.”

For Ohams, who’s been at Fordham since 2016, the end is bittersweet. He chose Fordham, in part, because he’s from the Bronx and playing at the Rose Hill Gym allowed his family to attend his games. Before Fordham, he said, he traveled a lot for games.

“This was the first time for my mom and dad to ever see me play basketball. So I mean, just seeing them in the crowd—I loved every bit of it.”

Urgo said that he’s going to miss both Ohams’ talent on the court and his personality, humor, and support off the court. He noted that as Fordham was looking for its next head coach, Ohams vocally supported him for the job.

“I’m obviously going to miss his bubbly personality, his humor, and his leadership,” Urgo said, adding that he’s also going to miss the chance to develop their relationship further.

Looking ahead, Ohams said that he has a goal of playing basketball professionally, ideally in the NBA. He’s been focusing on preparing for the NBA draft. That preparation included participating in Reese’s Division I College All-Star Game, held in New Orleans during the NCAA Tournament in April, which featured top senior student-athletes from across the country. He scored eight points and had three rebounds.

Ohams said he’s excited to see what the future holds, wherever it takes him.

“I’m born and raised in the Bronx, so it was literally home for me,” he said. “I love this place. I have so many memories. But I’m ready for the next chapter.”