The inaugural season for freshman point guard Pharell Aybar has been one to remember. The Brockport Men’s basketball diaper dandy has earned five Empire 8 Rookie of the Week awards. In his most recent award, for the week of Feb. 9, 2026, he averaged 16.7 points per game, 5.3 rebounds per game, and 5.0 assists per game. The Golden Eagles went 3-0 in the week, and he had a career-high 29 points in a 94-85 win over St. John Fisher.
“It’s meant a lot to me,” Aybar said. “It feels good to be recognized as one of the top rookies in our conference, and it motivates me to keep working.”
Aybar didn’t waste any time once he got to Brockport, winning his first Rookie of the Week during the opening week of the season. He scored 19 points and added seven steals and five rebounds in a 96-87 win over Ithaca. With the Golden Eagles battling early-season injuries, juniors Alex Tavarez and Nathaniel Gordon being out before the season started; Aybar was thrown into the mix.
“I think it came down to staying ready and being prepared,” Aybar said. I was kind of thrown into the fire, but I embraced it. This team has allowed me to play through mistakes, learn from them, and improve every single day.”
On the week of Dec. 12, 2025, and Jan. 5, 2026, the freshman won his next two awards. Aybar collected the last pair of awards in back-to-back weeks. The weeks of Feb. 2, 2026, and Feb. 9, 2026, were the turning points for the Golden Eagles as well. In those weeks combined, Aybar averaged 14.8 PPG, 4.9 RPG, 4.3 APG, and the squad went 4-1. Closing out the season, the Golden Eagles rattled off seven wins in a row.
“This is the most connected we’ve been all season. Everyone on the team wants it,” Aybar said. “It’s impacted my play because I’m playing with more confidence, knowing I can trust my teammates to play just as hard as I do.”
The freshman is top 10 in the E8 in assist/TO ratio (5th), assists per game (8th) and steals per game (10th). On the season, Aybar averages 11.3 PPG, 4.2 RPG, 3.2 APG and 1.6 steals per game well, which is top four in all categories for the Golden Eagles.
To go along with that, the freshman’s five Rookie of the Weeks is tied for the most in the Empire 8 as Aybar finds himself in the running for that coveted Empire 8 Rookie of the Year.
Brockport Head Coach Joe Clarke knew what he was getting when he recruited Aybar out of Washington Heights, New York.
“He’s just a good player,” Clarke said. “With a lot of our injuries we’ve had, I think he’s stepped into a bigger role than I think he thought he would as a freshman. We don’t really have another lead guard, and he’s looking to do this all by himself. He still has a lot of areas to improve, but he is so eager to learn and ask questions.”
Now with playoffs coming up, it’s win or go home for the Golden Eagles.
“The mindset is to stick to the game plan,” Aybar said. “We’ve been successful because we’ve fully bought into what the coaching staff wants us to do. Every game is win or go home, and home isn’t an option.”
The Golden Eagles ended the regular season 14-11 overall and 10-6 in E8 play, earning the fifth seed in the conference tournament. On Saturday, Feb. 21, the Golden Eagles will take on the fourth-seeded SUNY Poly Wildcats in the first round of the E8 playoffs, and Aybar will look to continue his success in the postseason.
