Boys Basketball: Oswego East’s Mekhi Lowery commits to Towson ‘His best basketball is still ahead’

Mekhi Lowery stands out on the basketball court for his multi-dimensional skill set, but the Oswego East senior recognizes he’s not a finished product.

That knowledge sold him on his college choice.

Instead of seeking a program that massaged his ego, touting his strengths, Lowery looked for a coaching staff that would challenge him to become a more complete player.

The 6-foot-6 point forward believes he found it at Towson, and committed to the school just north of Baltimore on August 5. Lowery, who helped lead Oswego East to a 33-2 record last season and the program’s second sectional final, chose Towson from eight offers including NIU, Radford, Bowling Green, Eastern Illinois and Valparaiso.

“I feel like being a versatile player, you can get complacent and just be average at everything,” Lowery said. “I don’t want to be like that. I want to be great at everything I do. That stood out to me with them. They knew what I needed to work on to become a better player instead of just focusing on my strengths. I want to go somewhere to maximize my potential.”

Lowery in his second full varsity season averaged 11.5 points per game, third on the Wolves, with a team-high 7.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 2.7 steals and 1.1 blocks. A versatile and unselfish player who makes players around him better, Lowery defends at a high level and with his length is a guard who can rebound and score in multiple areas.

“Mekhi’s best basketball is still ahead of him,” Oswego East coach Ryan Velasquez said. “In my eyes he is still scratching the surface to his potential. He’s kind of a diamond in the rough. He keeps getting better and is a great kid to coach.”

Towson, coming off a 25-9 season playing in the Colonial Athletic Association, started to show interest in Lowery in May and offered him a scholarship in June. The Towson coaching staff watched Lowery play at June shootouts with Oswego East at Riverside-Brookfield and Ridgewood. He made a visit to the campus last week.

“I really liked the school even before I went out there,” Lowery said. “The coaches always gave me a good vibe, they were at all my games, recruited my heavily. I wanted to commit before the season started, get it out of the way. The transfer portal has been crazy the last few years. I didn’t want to play around. Once I saw a good fit I wanted to lock it in.”

Lowery said that, like him, Towson is a program that takes pride on its defense, making it a natural fit, and sees himself quickly making an impact.

“One of their leading players plays similar to me,” he said. “He’ll be done when I get there. I’m hoping to fill that void. With their development program, their guys get stronger ever year. They focused on my weaknesses. You can tell they want kids to get better and reach their full potential.”

Velasquez isn’t surprised to hear that Lowery is embracing that mindset.

“Great players want to be coached,” Velasquez said. “He can definitely get better at a lot of things. When a coach can see what to work on and what weaknesses to get better at, those guys that are hungry to be coached, they feed into that. Those are the kinds of kids you want in your program.”

Velasquez’s program is on a good run, and looks like it’s poised to keep it going with Lowery leading the way despite graduating three starters. Ryan Johnson has opened eyes over the summer for Oswego East, and the Wolves’ roster received a boost with the transfers of Jehvion Starwood from Yorkville Christian and Bryce Shoto from Plainfield Central.

Lowery for his part has worked to get his lanky frame stronger and create his outside shot to further develop his game.

“We’ve got some new pieces trying to get acclimated to how we play, what we’re all about. Preaching defense, getting stops is a high priority,” Velasquez said. “As the summer went on we got better. I felt good about what we did, not complacent.”