SWAC Basketball: Ranking of 25 best players from last decade (2013-23)

13. Zach Lofton

We’ve used the word unique many times in this article series, but Lofton’s collegiate journey was certainly fitting of that word. This 6’4 guard from St. Paul spent a season each at San Jacinto College and Illinois State before transferring to Minnesota, though he was kicked off the team before playing for the Golden Gophers. He eventually landed at Texas Southern in 2016 and had quite a special season in the SWAC.

That redshirt junior year saw Lofton put up some monster numbers for the Tigers, as he’d average 16.8 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game. After opening the season with a career-high 35 points against UT Arlington, he helped lead Texas Southern to the SWAC’s regular season and conference tournament titles. Lofton missed two years of basketball but fit right into Mike Davis’s successful program.

For that lone year in the SWAC, where he led the league in scoring, Lofton was named the SWAC Player of the Year. He had impressive contributions all around and helped lead the Tigers to another conference title in a league they’d recently dominated. After that great success, he’d spend his final season at New Mexico, putting an end to a crazy journey through college basketball. You could certainly argue that his year in Texas helped get him back on the map.