This was a historic season for junior guard Logan Wendell, who scored his 1,000th career point in a matchup against the Clarkson University Golden Knights on Feb. 10 to become the 30th player in program history to accomplish this feat.
In the game, he scored a career-high 37 points to help his team beat the Golden Knights 93–87. However only a week later, the Bombers’ season ended Feb. 17 after a 79–78 loss to the Vassar College Brewers, missing the playoffs for the first time since the 2016-17 season. During his time at Ithaca College, Wendell has been a standout player, playing every single game in all three seasons. Despite all this success, Wendell stays humble, attributing his success to his coaching staff and teammates.
Assistant Sports Editor Flynn Hynes met with Wendell to discuss how this achievement feels, taking on the role of a leader and his basketball journey from growing up in a small town in Vermont to now.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Flynn Hynes: Congratulations on reaching the remarkable milestone of 1,000 points in your junior year. How does it feel to join the elite ranks of Bombers’ basketball players who have achieved this?
Logan Wendell: Yeah, I think that’s one of the coolest parts in it for me. I took a lot of pride in being mentioned with a lot of those guys, like [Skylar Sinon ’23], who was one of the guys I looked up to a lot for the past couple of years before he graduated. So, to be in that realm with him and Sebastian [Alderete ’22], Riley Thompson ’20, all these just phenomenal players, doesn’t really seem real to me to be at that level that they reached as well.
FH: Dropping 37 points in that game where you reached 1,000 points must have been an incredible moment. Can you walk us through how you were feeling during that game and what enabled you to have such a standout performance?
LW: Yeah, definitely. It was just kind of a must-win situation for us, especially with Triston [Wennersten] being out. I knew I was going to have to be aggressive offensively and then my teammates and coaches kind of saw that I had it going early and they just let me take control, take the shots that I liked and they just kept giving me touches and putting me in positions to be able to score.
FH: Being the 12th player in Bombers’ basketball history to reach 1,000 points in under 75 games is quite an accomplishment. What do you attribute to your rapid scoring pace, and how have you consistently performed at such a high level?
LW: I’m just going to give all of that to my coaches; they put unbelievable confidence in me. They’ve had my back since day one. They’ve always encouraged me to be aggressive. Same with my teammates. They’ve always had my back and wanted the best for me, wanted me to go out there and do what I do really well and help me be in those positions. And then I just try and stay as confident as I can whether shots are going in or they’re not going in.
FH: From your first year at Ithaca College to now, how do you feel you’ve grown and developed as a player both on and off the court? What aspects of your games have you worked on the most to reach the level of success that you’ve achieved?
LW: I think the biggest one has probably just been in terms of leadership, like, I was really fortunate to come in as a [first-year] and have leaders above me that were some of the best that I’ve ever been around. I still talk to them to this day, like George [Sikoryak III ’23], Skylar, all those guys. And try and learn from them and learn how to be a better leader and what it takes to lead a program. … I had a lot of strides to make with those guys graduating and I think I still have a long way to go in order to be a better leader for the team and everything, but that’s, I think, probably where I made the most growth since my [first] year.
FH: And I saw you were pretty good in high school, winning Vermont Gatorade Player of the Year. What inspired you to start playing basketball and when did you realize that you wanted to pursue it at a higher level?
LW: I really started liking basketball when my brothers were playing it. I have two older brothers, so we’d play in the driveway, we’d play with my parents and stuff and I was constantly getting beat growing up just all the time and I’m pretty competitive, so I just hated losing. So my response to that was just to practice and just shoot all the time, so I could try and compete with my older brothers and stuff, and then probably around my [first] year of high school was when I really started taking it seriously in terms of working out every day, trying to better myself that way and realizing that it was going to take a lot to play at the next level as well. And so thinking about it then and just pursuing it throughout my high school career to be in a position to play at the college level.
FH: Coach [Waleed] Farid’s first year was also your first year here. What role has he played in your journey at Ithaca College?
LW: Yeah, I will attribute all of my success at Ithaca to coach Farid. He’s been in my corner since day one. I appreciate everything that he’s done for me. He’s given me confidence. He’s allowed me to make mistakes and grow as a player, so I’m just really thankful for him. Like I said, he wasn’t even the one that recruited me, so, like, he didn’t really know what I was going to bring coming into it, but pretty much just the first day of practice, he’s just believed in me and put me in positions to be successful.
FH: With your senior year next year, how do you plan to continue making an impact and leaving a legacy at Ithaca College?
LW: I’m just gonna spend all off-season trying to figure out how to put this team in a position to win the Liberty League Championship. I think we’re plenty talented enough. So me, the coaches, the players are all just going to be figuring out where we can grow and get better. Obviously, with the season being just over now, we got some time to reflect and figure out learning to get better in order to be a top contender in this league moving forward.
