Italian Basketball Champion Laurence Bowers Continues Youth Basketball Tradition

Laurence Bowers has always been a renaissance man. A portrait artist and a singer — his college vocal group once opened for fellow Mizzou alumnus Kareem Rush who performed at Columbia’s Blue Note in 2011 — Bowers also plays piano, runs a youth basketball foundation and delivers motivational speeches at various engagements throughout the year. So perhaps it’s appropriate that his professional basketball career took him to the historic era’s cradle in Italy where he plays for Pallacanestro Trieste, the reigning champions of Lega Basket Serie A.

As one might expect of a gentleman with varied interests, Bowers has savored his time in Europe like an aromatic plate of cappellacci (pumpkin-stuffed pasta) in Bolognese sauce — his favorite Italian dish. “It’s great the paths you cross playing basketball and what the sport allows you to see,” says Bowers, whose Mizzou days spanned 2008–13. “Basketball fans in Italy are amazing and crazy and extremely passionate. They’ll even try to fight each other during games.”

Bowers has parleyed his international success into Camp Bowers, a youth basketball clinic hosted by Rock Bridge High School in Columbia. Bowers started the camp, now in its fourth year, as a way to “pay it forward” in honor of mentors who helped him as a youngster growing up in Memphis, Tennessee. Camp Bowers runs July 9–11. Campers receive an official basketball and T-shirt, in addition to top-notch instruction from Mizzou’s runner up in career blocked shots (behind Arthur Johnson). Other past and present Missouri Tigers will be in attendance.

“The thing I’m most proud of was that I was able to get my master’s degree [in education] in five years,” says Bowers, MU basketball’s only scholarship player to earn a graduate degree during his NCAA career. “I was a pretty good student, but I had a good woman behind me.”

Bowers means his wife Feven whom he met in 2009 at The Field House, the popular college hangout in Columbia. The couple married in 2015 and welcomed daughter Fiyori in January 2017. “Becoming a husband and a father is motivating,” says Bowers, who proposed to Feven in 2013 at half-court of Mizzou Arena. “You want to do well for yourself so you can live a decent, comfortable life. But when you add the responsibility of providing for your wife and your daughter, it’s like taking a 5-hour Energy drink. I’m always thinking, I’ve got to do better. I’ve got to push myself. I’ve got to go harder.”

Bowers has continued his work for local charities during his five-year international career (two seasons in Israel, three in Italy). Fans might remember the Carroll and Bowers Alumni Game, with proceeds going to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Columbia and Granny’s House. And black-and-gold faithful certainly remember Bowers’ graduating class — a star-studded group including Kim English and Marcus Denmon — that finished with 107 career wins, the most of any class in Mizzou history.

“I love Mizzou,” Bowers says. “It was the best five years of my life besides having my daughter. I wish I could still play for Mizzou and get paid the money I make now.”

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It’s a hot midsummer day in Columbia, and former Mizzou basketball star Laurence Bowers sits in the waiting area of MU Health Care’s Human Performance Institute (HPI) while head trainer, Garrett Buschjost, prepares the day’s workout at the front desk. Since Bowers began training with Buschjost in 2014, the HPI facility has become a key component of the 27-year-old power forward’s continued success at the professional level. He returned to Columbia this summer after averaging 20.2 points and 8.6 rebounds with Italy’s Bondi Ferrara during the 2016-17 season.

“[As a] professional, you have to be very specific with who and what you want to do regarding training,” Bowers says. “[Buschjost] knows the basketball specifics that I need to better my career.”

In a typical offseason, Buschjost says he’ll train with Bowers around 20 times. The first month of the training block is typically kept at a low intensity and volume and includes exercises that are designed to push Bowers’ body back to a state that Buschjost describes as “good.”

Bowers, who has spent the past five years playing professionally in Israel and Italy, has seen his game improve each season in part because of this mindset. In the past, particularly during his career as a Tiger, he sustained and recovered from a variety of injuries, the most severe in 2012, when he was sidelined for the season with an ACL tear.

“He just came back from playing 30 or more games at a very high level,” Buschjost says. “Plus the practice and traveling that goes along with it — his body is feeling the effects of that.” Getting back to “good” is an important start.

Bowers says Buschjost’s training is a key component of his increased durability as a professional. “[Buschjost] has been a big part of why I haven’t had any injuries,” Bowers says. “We trained last year, and I had the best season I’ve ever had. I give him a lot of credit for that, just keeping me in tip-top shape.”

During the first several summer sessions, Bowers and Buschjost work together to detect and prevent any imbalances or minor aches and pains from developing before they become a larger issue. Prior to increasing the intensity or workload in the weight room, Bowers must first be able to reliably move in all planes of motion, ideally without experiencing any lingering pain or restriction. Each session begins (and concludes) with Bowers utilizing the facility’s recovery devices, from the standard foam roller to Dynavision, an electronic light board that works on hand-eye coordination.

From there, he’ll work through a variety of movement patterns and dynamic warmups before starting the day’s basketball-specific work, which, depending on the day, can include anything from plyometrics to resistance and speed-development training. Overall, Bowers feels like he’s at home when he’s training at HPI. And although he plays overseas, Columbia, Missouri, is home for the Memphis native during the offseason.

“A lot of times when I go to the gym, it’s serious. It’s all about putting in the work,” Bowers says. “But here at HPI, everyone is like family to one another. We all come in, we smile and crack jokes, but we also get after it.”

Outside the gym, Bowers is arguably even busier day-to-day. He’s offered his own youth basketball camp series, Camp Bowers, for the past three summers, and dedicates much of his free time to local charities, including the Boys and Girls Club of Columbia. This is his community. It’s why he teamed up with DeMarre Carroll for the first Carroll and Bowers Alumni Game this past July. Bowers has found the wisdom that follows experience. As a husband, and father to daughter Fiyori, he continues to learn. “Having your own, you start to see how much a kid depends on adults,” Bowers says, adding that Fiyori has already made him a better mentor and role model at his camps. He knows he’s surrounding himself with the tools and people he needs to succeed.

“I’ve got good people in my corner,” Bowers says. “Not good people in the sense that they always want to have a good time, but good people in the sense that they always push to make me a better person.”

Photos by Travis Smith 

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Laurence Bowers was nervous.

It’s rare for Bowers to feel angst by the way he embraces change. He prefers one-year contracts because he wants to explore different cities around the world. Two days ago, he inked a deal overseas with his fifth team in the past five years. The upcoming season in Italy is a new experience — he doesn’t know what to expect, but that’s part of what keeps him excited.

But a day before the first ever Carroll and Bowers Alumni Game, Bowers didn’t know what to expect and it was making him anxious.

“I’m nervous,” he says. “I don’t know why.”

The attendance of the game wouldn’t necessarily dictate how Bowers felt about the event, but it was the biggest thing on his mind the day before tip-off. He sacrificed time with his wife, Feven, and their five-month-old daughter, Fiyora, to organize the alumni game after he and fellow alum DeMarre Carroll thought up the idea a few years ago.

“We tried to think of a way to get guys (alumni) to come back and support the university,” Bowers says. “I love Columbia, and I feel like there’s a lot of kids here that need excitement.”

Bowers was born in Tennessee and, as he says himself, “You can take me out of Memphis, but you can’t take Memphis out of me.” He’s played professional basketball in Italy and Israel for the past four years, but Columbia, Missouri, is home for the Tennessean during the offseason. He feels the need to give back to the city that shaped him into who he is today.

“I literally grew into a man at Mizzou,” Bowers says. “During my five years here, I received an unbelievable amount of support from fans to students that I went to school with. They embraced me as a man, not just as a basketball player.”

Bowers credits Columbia for his growth, and he knows a lot of his fellow Tigers feel the same way. It’s why he felt compelled to organize the game for local non-profits like the Boys & Girls Clubs of Columbia and Granny’s House, along with The Carroll Family Foundation. It’s also why he felt nervous a day before the event — he had an opportunity to help his community and had no idea what the response would be.

“I’m nervous that the turn out is not going to be what we expected or whatever.”

Bowers didn’t put an exact number on how many people he thought would attend, but minutes after the game, it was obvious whether or not his expectations were met.

“I’m just overwhelmed with joy that all these people showed up to support us,” Bowers exclaimed after the final whistle. “I’m so excited right now, I’ve got to calm down a little bit.”

The thousands in attendance shared the excitement with Bowers and his 26 fellow alumni, which included both former basketball and football players.

The game was the first of its kind, but it was filled with classic memories. Former guard and University of Missouri Hall of Famer Melvin Booker received a standing ovation during his introduction and hit three’s that reminded fans of when he led Missouri to a 14-0 conference record in 1994. Former guard Ricky Paulding threw down a vicious tomahawk, flashing signs of his dunks from the early-2000’s. Former forward Ricardo Ratliffe scored a game-high 39 points, grabbed 13 rebounds, took home the game’s MVP award and showed us the strength he used in his senior season to lead Mizzou to a Big 12 tournament championship.

Mizzou’s football alumni also provided moments fans wouldn’t have a chance to see on Faurot Field. Former wide receiver Jerrell Jackson caught lob after lob, throwing down dunk after dunk. Meanwhile, former linebacker Sean Weatherspoon handled point guard duties and threw up jumpers.

As the game came to an end, the players cleared the floor for Bowers, who threw down a vicious dunk for the final play of the contest.

Team Carroll beat Team Bowers 137-116, but the final score didn’t mean as much to the players as the impact of the game itself.

“It wasn’t about the win or loss for me,” Bowers, who finished with 21 points, says. “Ultimately, we all won. I’m just overwhelmed with joy that all these people showed up to support us, that all these guys came back and helped me and DeMarre put on this event.”

“Missouri is my home,” Carroll, who didn’t play, says. “We need to show other young individuals that you can be great coming to Mizzou. You can achieve your dreams, you can be in the NBA and the NFL, and that’s what we’re doing right now.”

“I became a man in this city, and the fans embraced me,” Booker says. “I was just a small kid from Mississippi, and they pretty much raised me here.”

“The whole city of Columbia, we’re still one big family,” former center Steve Moore says. “When I was done playing, the people here [in Columbia] didn’t just tell me, but they showed me that they’re here for me.”

“There were a couple of professors I saw, a couple of people in the athletic department that I knew really well, and just seeing a lot of guys that I haven’t seen in a long time. Laurence said it best — this is definitely a second home for all of us,” former guard Jarrett Sutton says.

Joining the thousands of Tiger fans in attendance were most of the current men’s basketball team, including incoming freshman Michael Porter Jr., a Columbia native who is also the highest-ranked player nationwide in his class. Bowers has known Porter Jr. and his brother, Jontay, since he was ten years old — he calls him his “little big brother.”

“They [Michael and Jontay] used to literally be in the gym too much,” Bowers says. “There were times where I’d be like, ‘Who are these kids? Get them off so I can shoot’ But, hey, it’s paying off for them.”

It’s also paying off for Mizzou men’s basketball. After the hiring of head coach Cuonzo Martin and the recruitment of several freshmen standouts, Mizzou basketball fans are holding their breath and hoping for the Tigers’ first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2013.

But months before anyone in town knew this program would be back on the map, Bowers teamed up with Carroll to craft a way to do it on their own.

“This game was well thought out before the Cuonzo era and before the basketball gods blessed us with a 6’11, No. 1 overall recruit,” Bowers says. “Cuonzo Martin came, then Michael Porter, Blake Harris, all that stuff happened, and now, I think we’re more so adding to what’s already there, and that’s good. It’s a great time for the school.”

“I’m glad that DeMarre and I got together to do something like this because our university needed it. This is what it’s all about. It’s not the glitz and the glam, but it’s about what we can do for the University of Missouri and the city of Columbia.”

As Bowers admits, the excitement for the resurgence of basketball in Columbia was already looming. But the success of the first Carroll and Bowers Alumni Game remind fans of the passion that’s always surrounded this program. Bowers is just glad that he could be a part of its resurgence.

Photos by Emil Lippe

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