He’s 26 years old and playing his eighth year of college basketball. This week, Howard University’s Seth Towns caps off his lengthy career with a trip to the Big Dance.
The Bison kick off their March Madness journey early with a First Four play-in game Tuesday against Wagner.
Towns scored 16 points as he and his teammates beat Delaware State on Saturday in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament championship, which secured their bid to the NCAA tournament.
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“To really earn it like this and playing this tournament with this incredible team is really awesome,” Towns told WTOP as he was riding the bus to a shoot-around for Tuesday night’s matchup.
Last year, Towns didn’t even play college basketball. He took the year off after two seasons, including an injury redshirt season at Ohio State University.
“I’m coming off of a year where I was wrestling with not playing basketball at all,” he said, saying it’s great “to be able to delve into this passion of mine once again, and do it with such a special group.”
He described Howard’s team as a veteran group.
“I was really able to connect with the guys on a level that I hadn’t anywhere else.”
Towns started his career at Harvard and was named 2017-18 Ivy League Player of the Year during his sophomore season.
His next two seasons he was plagued by a knee injury, receiving medical redshirts before he graduated from the Cambridge, Massachusetts, institution.
He decided to return home to Columbus, Ohio, and Ohio State University as a graduate transfer. In his second year there he faced another season-ending injury.
The 26-year-old said he learned mental toughness and resilience while dealing with his nagging knee injuries.
“You have to approach these kinds of situations with a level of maturity and be realistic with your situation,” said Towns, who now brings that maturity to the Bison — as well as 14 points per game.
“In the last year, I knew that even if I didn’t play basketball, I wanted to return to school anyway,” he told WTOP.
Towns chose Howard for the academics and entered the school’s English Ph.D. program.
“Thankfully, basketball just ended up working on a way that I didn’t I didn’t really expect and it’s a remarkable blessing to play.”
Beyond bringing his skills and three point shooting ability to the team, he also brings mentorship and wisdom to younger players.
“It’s really cool to be able to be kind of the uncle of a lot of the younger guys on the team,” he said. “Just being able to lend my wisdom to my teammates in whatever way I can, it’s been really cool.”
Though he’d like to return to Howard to finish school, he plans on playing pro basketball overseas next year.
“I would love to travel the world and playing overseas kind of gives me a great opportunity to do that,” Towns said.
Howard takes on Wagner on Tuesday at 6:40 p.m. on truTV.
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