Each season Jameel Warney has been at Stony Brook, the team has made the America East Conference championship game or won the regular-season championship. He’s won the conference’s player of the year award in each of the last two seasons. Before that, he was the conference’s freshman of the year.

He’s just six rebounds away from becoming the Seawolves’ all-time leading rebounder, 36 blocks away from doubling the previous school record and will likely be the school’s all-time leading scorer by season’s end.

Warney’s career is cemented in Stony Brook basketball history.

“He’ll go down as one of the all-time great players in this conference,” SBU head coach Steve Pikiell said, “and one of the all-time great players here at Stony Brook.”

But Warney hasn’t won the AEC tournament. And with the conference almost guaranteed to get just one bid, he hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament either. Each of the last three seasons, the Seawolves (14-4, 5-0 AEC) have been bounced by Albany. Last season, a last-second 3 by Albany gave the Great Danes a one-point win.

On Friday, Warney gets his next shot to advance his legacy and the program that’s provided the foundation for it. SBU faces Albany for the first time this season at 9 p.m. at Island Federal Credit Union Arena in Stony Brook, New York. A win would bring Stony Brook to .500 against Albany in Warney’s career and the Seawolves likely front runners to win the AEC.

“We’ve played in postseason bids, before he came here we didn’t,” Pikiell said. “We’ve won games in the postseason. We’ve won league championships. We’ve had 20-win seasons, 25-win seasons. All those things had never happened before.”

Stony Brook was never supposed to reel Warney to Long Island in the first place. Although Warney was just a two-star prospect, according to Scout.com, he played and started at Roselle Catholic (New Jersey) High School. Roselle has produced players like Syracuse forward Tyler Roberson and Kentucky guard Isaiah Briscoe. Warney also had offers from Iowa and Temple, according to Scout.

He called the SBU coaching staff to tell them he’d commit while the team was playing an overseas tour. Pikiell said the team was in Dublin at the time, and he couldn’t get enough reception indoors. He had to walk outside in pounding rain to take Warney’s call.

Though he was a big get, his career at SBU started with an air-balled hook shot against Marist. Fellow senior Carson Puriefoy remembers the Stony Brook coaches having to calm Warney down in the huddle at the next timeout. Once he settled in, Warney scored eight points and grabbed five rebounds.

“It was just kind of funny to realize how far he’s come,” Puriefoy said, “and how far we’ve all come.”

That season, SBU won the AEC regular season title and swept Albany in the regular season, only to be beaten by the Great Danes in the AEC tournament semifinals on a last-second layup.

The next year, the Seawolves lost to Albany on its home floor by nine in the AEC championship.

Last season, Stony Brook nearly broke the curse and held a 50-48 lead with seconds to play. An Albany miss was tapped out to guard Peter Hooley, who hoisted a quick shot that dropped through the net and ended SBU’s NCAA Tournament bid.

The loss hung in Warney’s mind for months. He agonized over possessions where he could have given SBU the slightest edge. The forward threw the heartbreak on the pile of other losses to Albany to fuel his workouts.

This summer, Warney improved his endurance by running a 3.5-mile loop on campus every few days and took extra free throws. His free-throw percentage has risen nearly eight percent this season. The memory only floated back when he needed just a little bit more motivation.

One memory sticks out even more, though. When the Seawolves won the regular-season title for the first time in program history, he remembers being handed the trophy. He and his teammates were able to reflect on the season they had just had.

“That’s an experience, that at that time, I didn’t really think about it that much,” Warney said, “but you can tell how hard it is to win a conference championship … and that’s the only championship I have around here.”

He’s hoping to get one last chance to feel what it’s like to win a championship. That road starts Friday.

Published on January 20, 2016 at 10:30 pm

Contact Chris: cjlibona@syr.edu | @ChrisLibonati