This past summer, the Ithaca College men’s basketball team’s senior guard Logan Wendell took his talents overseas and played internationally in Brazil, representing the U.S. in the Division III All-Stars.
Wendell and some of the top D–lll talents from schools across the nation toured two cities in Brazil — São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro — over the course of 10 days and played four games.
Throughout the 2023–24 season, Wendell was an offensive juggernaut for the Bombers, leading the team with 18 points per game and becoming the 30th player in program history to eclipse the 1,000 career points mark. After the season, he was looking for an opportunity to play internationally for the summer as a stepping stone toward his long–term goal of playing professionally post-collegiately. He recognizes that this is a daunting task for someone like himself who plays at the D–lll level, but he said the support system he has on campus has made this goal more realistic. Wendell also said the international competition was certainly an upgrade compared to what the Bombers typically face during the regular season.
“It could be pretty tough for Division lll guys to find a roster spot over there, so I’m lucky to have coach [Waleed] Farid, who was able to do that coming out of Division lll,” Wendell said.
Similar to Wendell, Farid had a decorated career at the D–lll level, playing at the Stevens Institute of Technology from 2005–08. Afterward, he started playing professionally in Egypt for the Alexandria Sporting Club Egypt.
Farid said Wendell’s offseason experience of playing overseas in Brazil gave the Bombers’ star some valuable insight on what it will take for him to accomplish his goal of playing professionally.
“[Wendell] getting an early taste of that will kind of help him understand what that’s like, and also try to push him to figure out what it is he probably needs to start preparing for a little bit,” Farid said.
During last season, Farid said the squad relied on Wendell to be the primary ball handler and scorer. Farid said he thinks that Wendell’s experience playing on an all-star team this past summer will help him flourish in a variety of roles for the college this upcoming season.
“I think it’ll help him here because we do have a lot of talented players here,” Farid said. “Maybe there is gonna be a time where he doesn’t have to shoulder the load and he can kind of play off the other guys and make an impact.”
One of these talented players that coach Farid is referring to is senior guard Aidan Holmes. Holmes has been able to witness Wendell’s skills develop over the last three seasons and said the whole team was very excited for Wendell.
“Logan is one of our leaders,” Holmes said. “He’s one of our captains and he has always put in a lot of work. So, to see that work kind of pay off for him, I think everyone was happy for him and knows that he probably represented Ithaca well out there.”
Holmes said Wendell’s offseason stint in Brazil is something that the program can rally behind.
“Some of them see Logan doing that as a senior, coming in as a freshman or a sophomore can have a little more motivation,” Holmes said. “Coming here and playing here and being one of our guys can lead you to doing something like that or can get [you] to that stage by putting in the work.”
Wendell said the Bombers were still on his mind while on this trip. He said he shared the court with some players in top programs across D-III, including senior guard/forward Carter Meshanic from Hobart and William Smith University, the defending Liberty League champions. Wendell said he tried to learn as much as possible on how these teams build successful programs to help the Bombers.
“I think it was kind of just prodding different players about what makes their team successful … then hopefully being able to translate that to some of our guys and trying to grow as a leader,” Wendell said.
Farid said that if Wendell can lead the Bombers to a successful season, that will only help him gain interest from international teams, which is a type of opportunity Farid hopes more student athletes will pursue.
“If he can continue to focus on figuring out how to help this team be the best version of itself, that’ll kind of create some exposure for him,” Farid said. “I look forward to continuing to get other players involved in that kind of thing because I think we are attracting the kind of talent here who we think are some players who can go and play past college.”
Wendell said he is excited for what the future holds for his basketball dreams and hopes to continue building on his skills moving forward.“It’s good to be able to play a different role, especially if that’s something I want to do in the future,” Wendell said. “It was a really cool opportunity that I’m super grateful I was able to do.”
