New name, new era, same hunger. In November 2024, Texas A&M University-Commerce officially became East Texas A&M University, and the Lions' basketball program walked into the Southland Conference with a fresh identity and a mandate to build something real at the Division I level. The 2025-26 season — an 11-21 campaign that finished 6-16 in league play — won't hang in any rafters, but look closer and the trajectory is unmistakable: six conference wins tied for the second-most the program has managed since joining the Southland, and a team that played its best basketball when the lights were brightest.
The Division I climb has never been easy. East Texas A&M made the jump from Division II's Lone Star Conference to the Southland in 2022-23, and the first years were predictably brutal — 13-20, then 13-20 again, then a 5-26 crater in 2024-25 that tested everyone's resolve. But 2025-26 showed the floor rising: double the overall wins, double the league wins, and a competitive edge that had been missing the year before.
Through all of it has been Jaret von Rosenberg, the steady hand now entering his tenth season on the Commerce bench. Von Rosenberg took the job in 2017, guided the program through the Division I transition, and has assembled a staff built for the long game — associate head coach Coleman Furst and assistants A.J. Holland, Trey Conrod, Jared Kortsen and Clif Carroll. In an era when mid-major coaches jump at the first Power 5 phone call, von Rosenberg has planted his flag in East Texas and committed to building the thing brick by brick.
The 2025-26 season ended the way too many did — an 84-71 loss at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in early March, the Islanders pulling away late after the Lions had led by nine in the first half. But the final box score told the story of a program with actual pieces: Noah Pagotto scored 17 with six boards, Vinny Sigona poured in 17 off the bench, and Ronnie Harrison Jr. added 14. This wasn't a team getting run off the floor anymore. It was a team that belonged.
Harrison was the headline act all season. The 6-8 forward averaged 14.7 points and 6.1 rebounds across 30 games, a physical interior presence who carried the offense when the possessions got tough. Around him, von Rosenberg built a guard-driven attack: Gianni Hunt, the senior point guard from Lakewood, California, ran the show with 10.8 points and 4.9 assists per game, earning Southland Player of the Week honors in early December, while Damian Garcia (10.5 points) and Pagotto (10.4 points, 5.7 rebounds) gave the Lions four double-figure scorers — a genuine offensive foundation.
Pagotto is the program's global reach in miniature — a 6-8 junior from Wollongong, Australia, who developed into one of the Southland's most versatile forwards. Sigona, the Plano sharpshooter, gave the Lions instant offense off the bench at 8.1 points per game, and Michael Folarin and Josh Taylor handled the dirty work inside. It was a roster with balance, toughness and just enough shot-making to scare anybody on a given night.
The Southland itself is a fascinating place to build right now. McNeese's recent rise turned the league into a national talking point, and programs like Lamar, Incarnate Word and A&M-Corpus Christi have all invested like they intend to matter. For East Texas A&M, that means no easy nights — but it also means a rising tide. The Lions aren't trying to survive the Southland anymore. They're trying to climb it.
Home is the Field House in Commerce, a building that has hosted everything from Lone Star wars to the program's Division I growing pains. The crowds are loyal, the student section is loud, and as the wins tick up, the atmosphere is starting to match the ambition. There's a real sense in Commerce that the program is turning a corner — you can feel it in the building on a Saturday night.
The history runs deeper than the Division I era suggests. As Texas A&M-Commerce, the Lions were a Division II power with a proud Lone Star tradition, and that winning DNA is what von Rosenberg has been trying to reawaken. The names on the back of the jerseys changed, the conference changed, the level changed — but the standard didn't.
The 2026-27 season is about the next step in the climb. The portal era means the roster will look different — that's life at this level — but the formula is set: defend, rebound, and let the guards cook. Von Rosenberg has now survived the hardest part of any transition, the years when the losses pile up and the vision gets questioned. The Lions are through that. What comes next in Commerce is the fun part: winning, and winning enough to matter.
What defines East Texas A&M is the build: a new university name, a Division I transition navigated without shortcuts, a coach who stayed, and a 2025-26 season that doubled the win total and proved the foundation is real. In Commerce, Texas, the Lions are done being the new kids. They're here to take somebody's spot.