VMI Basketball Posts Back-to-Back Winning Seasons

The 2021-22 campaign proved to be another great one for VMI basketball, as the team earned back-to-back winning marks in the regular season for the first time since 2011-12.

The team capped off the great season with an invitation to play in the College Basketball Invitational Tournament, the program’s first postseason tournament since participating in the CIT Tournament following the 2013-14 season.

The Keydets finished 16-15 for the regular season and 9-9 in the Southern Conference. The nine conference wins were the most in SoCon play since the 1998-99 season.

Outside of many notable victories within Southern Conference play, the Keydets earned an exciting victory over Gardner-Webb, went 2-0 on a West Coast trip with big wins over Portland and Seattle, and came within seven points of defeating ACC foe Wake Forest on the road Dec. 14.

VMI started 2-0 in conference action with a win over Wofford Dec. 29 and followed it up with a victory over Furman new year’s day.

Four Keydets were honored by the Southern Conference with postseason recognition, including Jake Stephens ’22 being named First Team All-Conference (coaches and media), Kamdyn Curfman ’23 to the Second Team (media) and Third Team (coaches), Trey Bonham ’24 to the Third Team (coaches and media), and Honor Huff ’25 to the SoCon All-Freshman Team (coaches and media).

Heading into the Southern Conference Tournament, Stephens ranked second in the SoCon in scoring at 19.3 points per game and second in rebounding at 9.2 rebounds per game. The four-time SoCon Player of the Week and December Player of the Month also ranked first in the league in field goal percentage at .559 and three-point field percentage (.489) in addition to second in the conference in blocks at 2.0 blocks per outing. The Bunker Hill, West Virginia, native logged 15 20-plus point games during the season, including 15 of the last 20 contests he played in, and earned a career-high 39 versus Samford Feb. 17. He registered a career-high 21 rebounds at The Citadel Jan. 15, the most for a single game in the league this year. He became the 43rd Keydet in program history to join the 1,000 career points club.

Curfman ranked sixth in the Southern Conference in scoring at 15.8 points per game heading into the league tournament and hit a three-pointer in 31 consecutive games, the longest active streak in the conference. He tied for first in the SoCon in threes made at 3.7 per game, and his 11 from beyond the arc on the season were the most in the league and third most in program history for a single season. He earned a career-high six threes in a game three times during the year and became the 44th Keydet in program history to join the 1,000 career points club. The North Bethesda, Maryland, native scored in double figures in 28 of 30 games during the regular season, including six 20-plus point games. He hit five-plus threes in seven separate contests during the season.

Bonham scored in double figures in 17 of the last 18 games of the regular season, including a career-high 31 points at Samford Feb. 17. Named the SoCon Player of the Week Feb. 21, he tied for third in the SoCon in assists per game at 4.0 and tied for fourth in assist-turnover ratio at 1.9. Ranked sixth in the SoCon in free-throw percentage (.822) after the regular season, the Mobile, Alabama, native earned a career-high eight assists versus Samford Jan. 20 and logged a career-best nine boards against The Citadel Feb. 12.

Huff showed his potential for a bright future with the program after averaging 15.6 points per game over the final 13 games of the regular season. He scored in double figures in 11 of those 13 games and had four 20-plus point games for the year. He set new scoring highs in three consecutive games in January: 15 versus The Citadel Jan. 15, 21 against Samford Jan. 20, and 23 against Chattanooga Jan. 22.

The Brooklyn, New York, native started 16 games during the regular season and scored five threes versus Samford Jan. 20.