Many people might recognize Kendall Arcuri’s name from his ESPN Top 10 buzzer-beating game-winner in overtime against Plattsburgh in the first round of the SUNYAC playoffs this season, but there’s a lot more to the story for the Cortland Men’s Basketball rising junior.
Coming from a family with a rich history of basketball, with his father and aunts being college basketball players themselves, and his grandfather a coach, some of Arcuri’s earliest memories come from simply being around the sport.
“I just grew up around basketball,” Arcuri said. “Wherever I was, there was a ball in my hand.”
Seeing that a love for the game was brewing from a young age, Arcuri’s family wasted no time in getting him involved in organized sports as early as they could.
“I started playing biddies at the age of four,” he said. “But as soon as I could start walking, the first ball I would grab was always a basketball.”
While basketball was by no means forced upon by him, Arcuri remarked that it is tough not to take an interest in something that you are constantly surrounded by. He notes his family, specifically his parents, as his biggest source of both inspiration and support.
“My father always did his best to coach and train me, even as a hard-headed kid that would give him problems sometimes, and my mother was always a supportive voice,” Arcuri said. “My father is a very tough and strong individual, and seeing him lead by example throughout my life has undoubtedly made me a stronger man.”
The encouragement given to Arcuri by his family instilled a mindset into him that playing basketball at a higher level was always on the table as a real possibility, not just a dream. With his family behind him, the only thing stopping him was himself.
“College basketball was most certainly always the goal for me, and although I was a late bloomer, by the time my end of junior year hit I began to grasp the game much better,” said Arcuri. “I became more athletic and much better skill-wise which really helped me have a great senior year.”
Even still, it has only been since arriving at college at Cortland that Arcuri feels as though he is truly reaching his finally realizing his full potential as not just a student-athlete, but an overall person.
“Something that being a college athlete has made me realize about myself is that the sky is the limit,” he said. “I was very self-conscious throughout high school and felt I was always lesser than what I was. College helped me realize to trust the work I put in and understand that the mind is the biggest factor in performance.”
Another factor that Arcuri attributes to his rising confidence was the interest that Cortland showed in him early on during his senior year of high school.
“Cortland was one of the very first schools that started recruiting me for basketball during my senior year,” he said. My first visit to campus went very well and when I saw how much attention and care the school puts into each of its athletic programs, not just basketball, I was extremely impressed and felt that I could help take it to even another level. I also saw that they had a phenomenal physical education program, which I thought was great for me.”
And even though he found his first love for sports on the basketball court, making it his dream to play in college, Arcuri also found his heart being called to different forms of athletics as he aged.
“I played basically everything – soccer, baseball, basketball, track. You name it,” he said. “But as I got older and ‘outgrew’ most of those sports, I decided to pick up something new and try my luck at lacrosse. I dedicated a lot of my time into it throughout middle school, and by the time I got to high school I was pretty good. I ended up playing all four years of lacrosse at my high school along with basketball.”
Arcuri also attributes the work he put into other sports to giving him that much more help on the basketball court.
“While I was always focused on basketball, I truly do believe that playing other sports as I did really helped to develop my body and athletic abilities as a whole, and also keep me in shape during the [basketball] offseason.”
WHAT’S NEXT?
Now the 6’4”, 195-lb Red Dragon forward finds himself wrapping up his sophomore season, and it was quite a year he had. From his freshman to sophomore season, Arcuri improved his scoring average from 4.4 points per game to 15.0 points per game, a staggering 10.6-point jump that was good enough to lead all Red Dragons in scoring for the season.
This upgrade in scoring was accompanied by higher efficiency as well, with a jump from 38.0% shooting from the field in year one to 49.3% shooting in year two. And while his 3-point shooting percentage did take a bit of a dip from 42.2% to 37.6%, this I believe could be chalked up to the fact that Arcuri both attempted many more shots from beyond the arc (45 attempts last year to 117 this year), as well as became a much more prominent player for opposing defenses to build their gameplan around.
Regardless of the numbers, if you watched, you saw the vast all-around improvements and the tell-tale signs of what makes Kendall Arcuri a great player for Cortland. And on top of just how he performs on the court for the Red Dragons, it is equally important to how he carries himself off it. Arcuri praises both his teammates and coaches for the elevation of his game and the program has taken in such a short amount of time with the program.
“Looking back on my sophomore season, I am forever grateful for the amazing bonds that I’ve been able to form with so many of the guys on the team, and I’m honored that I can call each and every one of them a brother,” he said. “I can’t wait to continue getting better alongside them and get back to being competitive with them next season. We have the type of relationship that allows us to battle hard but not let it get to the heart, which helps us to constantly push each other.”
Aside from himself, Arcuri was also not afraid to talk about the improvements he’s seen in some of his other teammate’s games.
“One player that stands out to me is Tayshaun Hawkins,” he said. “Through the beginning of the season, he wasn’t getting much playing time, if any, but he continued to work hard, understand his role, and did what was asked of him until his name was called. When he finally got his chance given, he took full control of the opportunity and showed why he deserves to play.”
Arcuri also shed light on the aspects of the game he feels the team as a whole has already shown strides in:
“I noticed a definite improvement in our defense and overall intensity as a team on that side of the ball as the season progressed,” Arcuri said. “Coach Mo [Kearney] is constantly stressing the importance of defense and how crucial it is to maintain energy regardless of what the game is looking like.”
As well as what he feels they still need to focus on to take yet another leap as a program:
“Although we always have much to work on and can always get better at everything, I am proud of the progress we have made so far. If I had to pick out something specifically, though, I guess I would say that we have a lot of scoring talent on the team, and we could find better ways to put it all together. Once we find ways to create for each other, everything else falls into place.”
The more I spoke to Arcuri, the more one thing became increasingly apparent: At his core as a person, he simply just loves basketball. He spoke briefly about some of his other hobbies such as cutting hair, lacrosse, and as of recently, golf, but at the end of the day, he’s a basketball player through and through.
“Basketball has really become a part of me. It is hard to find other passions when I’ve dedicated so much time to this sport,” he said.
But what stood out to me the most is what our conversation concluded on, and why Arcuri puts in all the work that he does.
“My goal is to win a SUNYAC championship. Almost all our athletic programs are consistent winners in the SUNYAC conference except for basketball, and I want to change that.”