HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Essam Mostafa has been around.
The two-time transfer and graduate forward for MTSU men’s basketball began his college career at Coastal Carolina in 2019 before transferring to TCU in 2023.
Mostafa made the jump to Middle Tennessee for his final year of eligibility, and while it didn’t end the way he hoped for, he can comfortably say that his lone season in Murfreesboro was the best one.
“I love the guys, I love the coaches you know,” Mostafa said. “Every day was fun to go to practice. Being in college for five years, this is the first year of my life that I’ve enjoyed going to practice every day… It’s hard because when you love somebody this much you want to do the best to get what they want. I wanted to be in the NCAA Tournament, but I just love this team man, it’s a good way to end it.”
Forty seconds. That’s how long MTSU head coach Nick McDevitt paused to reflect when a reporter asked what Mostafa’s postgame words meant to him.
“That’s what I was talking about,” McDevitt said, breaking the silence.
What McDevitt spoke of was what separates 2024-2025 MTSU from teams of a similar caliber. Before the season began, Middle Tennessee’s seventh-year head coach knew what he had.
This edition of the Blue Raiders had enough size and athleticism, good ball handlers and shooters to have a good season sure, but what made the group special was their ability to play for each other, McDevitt said.
“There’s good talk in the huddles; they’re boys and you can see it,” McDevitt said. “You can see teams that have talent, but they don’t have that. We sensed that with this group last summer and it stayed there during the season.”
The Blue Raiders’ deep connection gave them a chance to reach the Conference USA Championship for the first time since 2017, before falling short to Jacksonville State, 70-68.
For the second straight day, regulation came down to MTSU’s Justin Bufford. Unlike Bufford’s near buzzer beater against Louisiana Tech however, the senior guard was unable to get a shot off for a chance at overtime or the win.
Before that final moment, the two teams traded blows with neither going on much of a run. The Blue Raiders largest lead was nine points with 12:45 left in the first half, before Jax State cut the lead to a single possession in nearly three minutes, going into halftime tied at 35.
Jax State led for most of the second half with the Gamecocks’ largest lead being 11 points. Down 10 with roughly five minutes to go, McDevitt’s group made one last push.
Mostafa and Jlynn Counter, both one season members, scored 22 combined second half points to help MTSU tie the game with just over a minute to go. Both players made a set of free throws along with a Counter layup for a chance to keep the game alive.
“We have to stop trading baskets, we are scoring but we are behind,” McDevitt said of the team’s late gameplan. “We have got to get stops, we felt we had a good offensive lineup in and playing well as a group, we decided we were going to ride this group.”
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