After qualifying for the conference tournament in its first year, Roosevelt is hoping to take another step forward in 2025. It’ll be another new team for head coach Dee Brown with just one player returning who played minutes for the Lakers last season. There is also a shake-up on the bench for Roosevelt with Garrett Hill being promoted to associate head coach and former RU star Maurice Commander joining the staff as an assistant coach.
The only returning player with experience for the Lakers is Griffin Yaklich, who started all 29 games last season for Roosevelt and averaged more than 30 minutes on the floor. The graduate student was the team’s leading rebounder at 7.2 boards per game and finished second in assists with 2.6 per contest. Yaklich is less known as a scoring threat, but did average more than six points per game last season.
This year’s group may be the deepest team Brown has had at his disposal entering his fourth year at the helm of the Lakers. The roster includes five players who played NCAA Division I basketball at their last stop, including Yaklich, who was on the team for four years at UIC while his father, Luke, was the coach. Brown also brought in plenty of experience among his newcomers with six players either entering their final year of eligibility or coming to Roosevelt as graduate students.
Roosevelt will get an early test of its new roster when it opens the season on Nov. 14 and 15 in Kenosha, Wis. against UIS and Upper Iowa. The Lakers’ only two home regular-season games in 2025 will be the conference openers Dec. 4 against Michigan Tech then Dec. 6 against Northern Michigan.
