There had been a noticeable excitement growing on campus coming into the 2022-23 season for the Kennesaw State men’s basketball team. The Owls came into the year off a strong finish to 2021-22 with a 13-win season, just one off the school’s Division I record, and KSU was also bringing back all five starters and over 80% of its scoring and rebounding. They were determined to prove the doubters wrong. The Owls were picked to finish eighth in the Atlantic Sun’s preseason coaches’ poll. They did just that, as Kennesaw State became one of the biggest stories of college basketball last season, with the Owls setting school record after school record on the way to becoming the first-ever team to reach the NCAA Tournament in just three years after a one-win season.
Fourth-year head coach Amir Abdur-Rahim was on the sidelines for that one-win season, but he and his staff never doubted their vision for what could be accomplished at KSU. With a stellar recruiting class in his first year that was allowed to develop and grow into some of the best talent in the conference, the Owls put a tough, hard-playing, and connected squad on the floor every single night.
Having faced one of the most challenging non-conference schedules in school history, which included seven road games including a trip to the West Coast against eventual National Championship runner-up San Diego State, the Owls were more than prepared for anything they would face in the ASUN. After winning five of their first six games, the Owls went on their toughest two-game road stretch of the season with games at Stetson and FGCU.
KSU and Stetson battled in a thrilling overtime contest, won when KSU forced a five-second call and Terrell Burden scored in the final scores for a one-point victory. Just two days later, Burden sank a pair of free throws in the final minute to break a tie for a program-defining road win at FGCU. That win put the Owls on the national stage, as KSU had just set the school record for most wins in a season (Division I) and it was still January!
The Owls would lose only once more over the next few weeks, a hard fought road-game at third place Eastern Kentucky, and stood at 12-2 through the first 14 games, setting up one of the biggest regular season games in ASUN history as preseason favorite Liberty was also 12-2 and set to make the trip to the Convocation Center for the only meeting in the regular season between the two.
The game lived up to its billing as both teams played a thrilling battle with outstanding offensive performances on both sides. Liberty looked on the way to claiming sole possession of first in the league, but the “Cardiac Owls” refused to give up, rallying from a 14-point deficit with 16:55 to play to claim the 88-81 victory, their first-ever over the Flames.
KSU dropped its Senior Day game but closed out the regular season with two straight road wins to clinch a share of the regular season ASUN title, the first in school history. The Owls also earned the No. 1 seed thanks to their earlier win over Liberty. After holding off Queens in the quarterfinals and Lipscomb thanks to a huge shot from all-district selection Chris Youngblood in the semifinals, KSU was set up for another game in the Convocation Center against Liberty, with the winner to receive the ASUN’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
While the first matchup was an offensive showplace, this time defense carried the way. Liberty standout Darius McGhee had scored 90 total points in the previous two matchups but was held to just 14 and 0-11 from three-point range. Burden, who would be named Tournament MVP, scored 14 of his game-high 19 points in the second half, and with the game tied in the final seconds, sank a free throw with 0.7 seconds on the clock to give the Owls the ASUN Tournament championship title, 67-66, in front of a record crowd of 3,805 in the Convo.
Thanks to their outstanding season, the Owls were rewarded a No. 14 seed, and sent to Greensboro for a first-round matchup with third-seed Xavier in the Midwest Region. After a slow start where they fell behind by 11, the Owls regrouped. KSU used a pair of 14-3 runs to grab a 43-36 halftime lead. KSU went up by as much as 13, but the Musketeers rallied in the final 10 minutes. Despite coming up just short of the huge upset, the Owls proved to the nation without a doubt they had officially arrived as a championship basketball program.
Among the countless awards the Owls received during the year were both ASUN and NABC District Coach of the Year, two all-district selections, two All-ASUN honorees and the ASUN Defensive Player of the Year. KSU, the only team in the state of Georgia to reach the NCAA tournament, finished the year with a 26-9 record, setting new school standards for wins, ASUN conference wins (15-3), the first-ever non-conference winning season (8-5), and the most ever road victories (10) in the school’s Division I history.
