Levan Alston (right) will be looked upon as a leader in his senior year with the Fords. (Photo: Andrew Koob)
Andrew Koob (@AndrewKoob) &
Ari Rosenfeld (@realA_rosenfeld)
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Temple kicked off its two-day team camp on Friday with plenty of talent showcased in just a few hours of game time. Temple coaches and plenty of smaller colleges got a good look at the talent on display, a good start to a great weekend of basketball.
Today’s notebook features two teams trying to figure out the pieces following key departures, an Inter-Ac team looking for its first conference title and a New Jersey squad looking to find the players to compliment its star:
Haverford School (Pa.)
The Haverford School Fords entered last season as the favorites to take home their first Inter-Ac title since 1999, when current head coach Henry Fairfax was their star player. Instead, the Fords finished the Inter-Ac season with a relatively disappointing 7-3 record, finishing second to Germantown Academy in the league standings.
While Fairfax has his sights set on taking down the Patriots this year, with both teams returning many of their stars, he understands that they cannot be his team’s only focus as they prepare for the upcoming season.
“Ultimately I understand that there’s other teams in the league that we’ve gotta be prepared for, said Fairfax, who is entering his fourth season as head coach at his alma mater. “The reality is we beat GA and they beat us, but we may have looked past two other teams and that’s why we fell short.”
Although he loses Yale recruit Eric Anderson and German transfer Lukas Rosenbohm, who is headed back to Germany, Fairfax brings back the star of his team. Point guard Levan “Shawn” Alston joins top-50 2016 recruit Lamar Stevens and freshman phenom Cameron Reddish to form one of the most talented, high-ceiling trios in the area.
Fairfax is looking to Alston, the 2012-13 Inter-Ac MVP, to take more of a leadership role as he enters his senior season.
“I think [Alston] has an opportunity to lead by example, because he’s a talented kid,” Fairfax said. “With him, I’d love to see him be more vocal. I’d love to see him, when we do face adversity, grab his teammates, put his arms around them, and just let them know ‘We’ve been here, and we can fight through it, and we can respond.’”
With Alston, Stevens, and Reddish returning, the Fords have the talent to not only win an Inter-Ac championship, but to make a deep run in the PAISAA playoffs. However, Fairfax knows that talent alone does not guarantee anything
“Talent has to work hard, talent has to play together, talent has to play the right way,” he said. “We’re very respectful of the process, and it takes time. It takes time.”
Guard Breein Tyree (right) is one of the few Falcons remaining with varsity experience. (Photo: Andrew Koob)
Saint Joseph-Metuchen (N.J.)
No Karl Towns. No Wade Baldwin. No Marques Townes.
After enjoying a very successful era at the high school level, the trio have moved up to Division I basketball as Towns and Baldwin move to the SEC (Towns to Kentucky, Baldwin to Vanderbilt) while Townes looks to make the NEC his own at Fairleigh Dickinson.
The departures leave head coach David Turco with a young and inexperienced roster that will be hard-pressed to duplicate what the outgoing seniors have done.
“We lost 6,000 points,” Turco said. “So it’s a tough thing to replace, obviously you have (2016 guard) Breein (Tyree) coming back who’s a heck of an athlete, a four-sport athlete. We’re going to try to build around him with some guys. New Jersey’s a funny state, you never know who will be in what building so we’ll see. It’s going to be a tough thing to duplicate but we’ll work hard and see what we can do.”
Tyree was one of the few returning players to see significant minutes last year for the Falcons. The guard, who was on an unofficial visit at Temple before the team camp kicked off, also has visits set up with Maryland and plans to visit Boston U as well.
The Falcons have been practicing less than a week and have only held one practice. But, between the Temple team camp and the Linden tournament, they have played nine games together in that span.
“Breein is the only kid with experience,” Turco said. “There’s playing experience and then there’s experience against good teams. A lot of these kids are going to be sophomores that haven’t really played against this kind of competition so we have to get stronger in the weight room, things of that nature. We didn’t get started until June 22nd, that was our first day of practice so you’re looking at us with less than a week.”
Under Turco, the Falcons have enjoyed plenty of success, winning at least 20 games in every season with him at the helm. However, with a squad of unproven players, it may be hard to extend that streak.
“There’s obviously a lot to work on but we have time and we’ll get better. Will we finish in the same spot as last year? That’s going to be very tough but we’ve always been a good program, we’ve been to the County finals seven straight times so those are things regardless of if you have a Karl Towns or a Quenton DeCosey, we’ve been able to produce at least locally and be one of the best teams in our area.”
Mohammed Bamba (left) is one of three transfers Westtown coach Seth Berger brought in that can contribute right away. (Photo: Andrew Koob)
Westtown (Pa.)
In his six years as Westtown head coach, Seth Berger has lead his team to two Friends League championships, including the school’s first in 26 years in 2012.
Berger has sent multiple players to the Division-I level, such as Villanova junior center Daniel Ochefu and Maryland recruit Jared Nickens. Currently, he has as many as six players who could go on to play Division-I basketball.
“Westtown is a great academic school, and the student body and the administration are totally supportive of basketball,” Berger explained. “So any kid who wants to be a really good student and be a really good basketball player can reach both dreams at Westtown.”
As they prepare for the season, the Moose will have to cope with the losses of two of the most talented players in program history, with Nickens headed to Maryland and 7-1 NBA prospect Georgios Papagiannis forgoing his senior year to sign with Panathinaikos of the Greek League.
In order to do so, Berger has brought in three talented transfers. Sophomore wing Najja Hunter, who holds offers from Temple, Rutgers, Oregon State, Seton Hall, and Fordham, comes in from St. Peter’s Prep with his brother Zaki. They join sophomore center Mohammed Bamba, a 6-foot-8 lanky forward from Cardigan Mountain School in New Hampshire.
“All three are excellent players,” Berger said. “Mohammad and Najja are already Division-I players, and Zaki will be. So we’ll be fine.”
While replacing two players as skilled as Nickens and Papagiannis will be difficult, junior point guard Jair Bolden will make the transition much easier. His presence at the helm of the Westtown offense was the key in their three consecutive victories at Temple.
“Jair is the fastest learner I’ve ever had, and at the toughest position,” Berger said. “I don’t really have to do much with our team offensively, because Jair knows how to make the right decision.”
After bringing in such talented transfers to team with his point guard, Berger and the Moose appear primed to defend their Friends League championship and potentially win their first PIASAA title in program history.
Ewing’s Trey Lowe (right) will be looked upon once again to produce for the Blue Devils: (Photo: Andrew Koob)
Ewing (N.J.)
For the Ewing Blue Devils, it’s Trey Lowe and everyone else.
The opposition knows it, which is why teams have been putting their best defender on the 6-foot-6, 175 pound guard to try and slow the player who is regarded as one of the top players in New Jersey.
“Right now, we’re very young in terms of varsity experience,” head coach Shelley Dearden said.” We have Trey, but we’ve got to grow up quickly, we’ve got to be able to make adjustments on the fly and that’s what they have to learn to do right now.”
In their lone matchup against the Haverford School on Friday, the Blue Devils did just that. Trailing by as many as 14 points, Ewing staged a comeback behind Lowe and brought the Ford lead down to three before free throws put the game out of reach.
“It was extremely encouraging, that’s what I told them after the game,” Dearden said. “I was proud of the fact that they didn’t give up, that they stayed with it. The kids really put the pressure on them at the end to give us an opportunity to either tie or to win.”
To truly have Lowe reach his potential, other Blue Devils have to step up to creat some space for the rising senior. With a squad young on varsity experience, a number of players will have a chance to fill that role.
“Kids are gonna key in on Trey,” Dearden said. “They’ve been keying on Trey the last couple of years. When we run our offense, they’re not going to be able to do that as much and that will open it up for other guys to make shots. Right now, we have to work those kinks out and make sure that we run our offense so Trey does get open a little more and we hit the open man.”
Beyond Lowe, who averaged 27.8 points per game last season, the leading returning scorer is 2016 guard Deon Hale. The guard, listed at 5-foot-6, appeared in 29 of the Blue Devils’ 32 contests and averaged 5.6 points per game.