When Saul Phillips first asked for Mike Laster, the answer was no.
As Laster weighed his playing options coming out of Cass Technical High School in Detroit, Phillips was trying — unsuccessfully — to recruit him nearly a thousand miles northwest to North Dakota State.
Both are now entering their fourth year at Ohio, with Laster serving as Phillips’ only four-year scholarship player. The Bobcats have evolved in that time, as has Laster’s role and impact.
“He hasn’t been given anything,” Phillips said. “He’s fought and taken every inch that he could and now he’s at a point where he’s a very good (Mid-American Conference) player. That’s neat.”
Laster’s upward career trajectory, from free-shooting freshman to versatile veteran, is a microcosm of his team’s development the past few years.
The first season wasn’t pretty. Ohio went 10-20, with just one road win and an immediate exit from the MAC Tournament. Laster, in the meantime, averaged fewer than four points per game and had just 10 assists total despite making 17 starts.
“You go back to those days, we needed bodies,” Phillips said. “You have a recruiting class of four or five just wiped out, which is normal in a transition (between head coaches). He probably wasn’t ready to play as many minutes as he did back then.”
That season boiled over with frustration, as some of the older players were playing under their third head coach in four years.
“We had a lot of good players but they weren’t used to running Saul’s system,” Laster said. “They were used to a whole different atmosphere and it just didn’t mesh well.”
Laster remembered Phillips telling him that the team would be a work in progress, but that recruits who fit the current system were on their way. Back-to-back 20-win seasons since then have proved Phillips right.
But as success for the Bobcats grew, Laster’s role shrank. He played 18.8 minutes per game as a freshman, then 9.4 and 15.2, respectively, in the following years. Despite playing in all but three of Ohio’s games the past two seasons, he never started.
“What’s neat about it is when his minutes regressed, his attitude didn’t dip at all,” Phillips said. “It’s one thing to say, ‘Well, that’s just being a good teammate.’ But, no, it’s really, really hard when you have the taste of something and it kind of goes away.”
Last year, Laster sat out a December game on a coach’s decision. Later in the season, when 2016 MAC Player of the Year Antonio Campbell broke his foot, Laster was called upon to play an increased role.
In the 16 games following Campbell’s injury, Laster averaged 21.8 minutes per game and reached double-digit scoring six times.
“A huge testament to him is how ready he was at that time,” Phillips said. “And you can only be ready if you never go into a shell, you never pout, you just worry about coming to practice every day and playing hard. And his spirit, his resolve is a reflection of his character.”
Phillips surmised that Laster could be back in the starting rotation this season, or at least playing more minutes off the bench because “he’s really good in that role.”
And while the Bobcats lost three starters from the 2016-17 team — Campbell and Kenny Kaminski graduated, Jaaron Simmons transferred to Michigan — Laster serves as a pillar in yet another potential transition year.
“I’m just gonna try to get in where I fit in, honestly,” Laster said. “Whatever I have to do, that’s what I’m gonna do.”
