Former Harvard and Ohio State guard Seth Towns is headed to Howard University for his eighth – yes eighth – season of college basketball eligibility.
Towns announced his decision on Friday via social media.
A former Ivy League Player of the Year, Seth Towns has missed four of the past five seasons due to injuries. He made his announcement on Friday via social media and expounded on it later.
“I think I have restructured my relationship with basketball,” Towns told The Columbus Dispatch. “It is much healthier now. I’m not saying I put my entire identity into basketball, but man, it was hard, because that’s kind of the only professional aspiration I’ve had. Everything else was kind of subsidiary to that. Now I think I’ve released myself from the need to play at whatever level.”
Towns started his collegiate career in 2016, when several of his future Howard teammates were still in middle school. He was named Ivy League Player of the Year as a sophomore averaging 16.0 points and 5.7 rebounds per game while shooting 44.1% from 3-point range. Towns would go on to miss the next two seasons with knee injuries.
From there, Seth Towns returned home to Columbus, Ohio to play for Ohio State as a graduate transfer. He played in 25 games for the Buckeyes, averaging 3.8 points in 2020-21 before missing the next season with a back injury. He sat out last season totally, but could have another two seasons of eligibility.
Towns will join a Howard University program that has several Ivy League ties of its own. Last season it added Jelani Williams, another former Ivy Leaguer with incredible circumstances that caused him to miss several seasons before ending up at HU. He was a vital player in the 2022-2023 team that brought home the MEAC regular season and tournament titles.
And then there is head coach Kenneth Blakeney. Blakeney was an assistant at Harvard from 2007 through 2011.