Mercer returned only four players from last year's men's basketball squad for this year's season, but finished with a 14-1 record at home and a No. 4 seed in the Southern Conference tournament. Today, the team is suiting up for a quarterfinal matchup against Western Carolina University and a chance at advancing to the semi-finals for the first time since 2021.
Despite the heavy turnover in players from last year's roster, the team has a strong, well-rounded roster led by Baraka Okojie '27, who leads the SoCon in assists and is second in points per game, and Armani Mighty '27, who leads the SoCon in blocks per game and field goal percentage. Okojie was named First Team All-SoCon and Mighty became the first Mercer player to be named SoCon Defensive Player of the Year.
Together, the two form an unlikely geographic pairing, but they have found a way to produce success on the floor, creating chemistry through adversity.
Both transfer players grew up playing basketball in Ontario, Canada, with Okojie from Brampton, Ontario and Mighty hailing from Toronto.
"I came from Canada with Baraka, so I also had him to lean on," Mighty said of the time he spent adjusting to Mercer. "But all the guys are pretty much a good group, so it was pretty easy for me to transition."
To start their collegiate careers, the pair played in conferences far from the SoCon. As a freshman, Okojie played at George Mason University and the University of Memphis as a sophomore. Last year, the guard started in Memphis' first-round March Madness loss to the University of Colorado. In his first two years, Mighty attended Boston College and spent part of his junior year at Central Michigan University.
Okojie and Mighty both emphasized the role of Mercer's coaches and team recruitment in addressing why they have fit in so well with the team this year, especially after their switch to playing for a smaller school than they had been at to start their careers.
"It was pretty much the coaching staff, and then they also said they were going to bring a good group of guys that we could play with. So that was a big thing," Mighty said. "They emphasized family a lot more than just basketball."
"Probably the biggest thing would just be the school size," Okojie said. "Being a little bit more personable with everybody because you see them all the time. There's not as many faces. You see the same people every day when they're in class, in the cafeteria, in study hall or just in and around the building. So just being more personable with
people, just feeling more of a community type aspect."
Okojie also said that Head Coach Ryan Ridder's personal belief in the team and the ability of the individuals helped alleviate some of the pressure of the transition to a new team at Mercer.
"This is the first time for me personally being able to just be the leader of a team on and off the court,” Okojie said. “It's given me the opportunity to be myself.”
To build camaraderie between the incoming players and their new teammates, the team played video games, paintball and went bowling along with the staff and some of their families before the season started. A so-called "Champion Week" over the summer was put on by the coaching staff to test the team's cohesion and help it get further acquainted with its members.
“It was just trying to fight through adversity as a team,” Okojie said of the "Champion Week" trial. “We all went through different tests, type conditioning, type of things to try and push us mentally and try and break past that point to persevere through.”
For Okojie, the bonds that were built prior to the season was fortified in close games, particularly against Winthrop University. The 105-69 blowout loss on Nov. 15 in Rock Hill, S.C. was the second of the Bears' season and fueled a five-game winning streak that put the team back on track.
With that loss, Okojie said he learned the team had all it needed to be successful, but that it needed to focus on being more clinical earlier in games instead of relying on its talent to drag itself out of a hole in the second half.
“The coaching staff, they believed in what I could do, that we could do something special,” Okojie said. “And we've stuck to that this year so far.”
Brady Shoulders '28, a guard on the team from Eddyville, Ky., is one of the few remaining players from last year's team. He said he also recognizes the adversity the team has gone through in building a strong foundation.
"It's been a little different for sure. Obviously pretty far away from home, so that's been a change. But really leaning on the guys to really help everyone out because no one's really from around here," Shoulders said. "Obviously, they try to push you to the limit, so it's pretty nice to see the guys are going to have your back no matter what. When we get in a close game or something, you're going to be able to look around and know that we've got 15 guys that are in it to win it."
Tip-off for today's quarterfinal game is at 8:30 p.m. in Asheville, N.C. The Catamounts (14-15, 10-8 SoCon), who are riding a six-game winning streak going into the tournament, lost to the Bears on Jan. 21.
Shoulders, the second-longest tenured player for Mercer, said he is hopeful that team's success so far this season will continue.
“We've already shown that if we just stick to the game plan and be ourselves for 40 minutes, it's going to be enough to win a championship,” he said.
