City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Like the rest of the St. Anselm (N.H.) roster, freshman guard Tim Guers was hoping the Hawks would get to host the East regional of the NCAA Division II men’s basketball tournament.

When he saw that instead they would be traveling to Holy Family for the first few rounds of the 64-team tournament, he wasn’t too upset.

It meant that the Langhorne, Pa. native and Germantown Academy graduate would get to come home.

“As much as I would love for us to host it, since we lost to Southern New Hampshire [in the Northeast-10 semifinals] it was kind of out of the cards,” he said on Saturday after St. Anselm’s first NCAA Tournament game against Philadelphia University. “This is my first time playing home since high school...and to do it with this group of guys, I love these guys, I made the right choice picking a college and it’s definitely special.”

As one of two members of the Hawks from the region--Camden Catholic (N.J.) product Kyle Green is the other--Guers got to introduce his mainly New England-based teammates to several Philadelphia delicacies--Rita’s Water Ice on Friday night and Wawa for lunch on Saturday.

The 6-foot-3, 190-pound combo guard had a fairly quiet introduction to the NCAA Tournament, contributing nine points (on 3-of-8 shooting) and five rebounds in 27 minutes as the Hawks won 83-71.

But he’s been a big part of St. Anselm’s success this season, starting every game while averaging over 11 points per contest and shooting nearly 42 percent from 3-point range to help the team to a 21-7 record (15-6 NE-10) heading into the weekend.

“It’s not often you recruit a player and he turns out to be just about exactly what you thought he would be,” St. A’s coach Keith Dickson said after the win. “We were hoping that he could come in and plug in and play with maturity like an older kid and he’s done that. Right from the beginning, he’s been a 32 minute-per-game player, I think he’s going to be a very special player in a St. Anselm uniform for years to come.”

That Guers has been able to settle in so quickly shouldn’t be much of a surprise to anybody who watched him during his high school career at Germantown Academy.

As a freshman and sophomore, he mostly bided his time on the bench behind a seven-man 2013 graduating class that featured two current Division I ballplayers--Lafayette’s Nick Lindner and Penn State’s Julian Moore--and several others still continuing their hoop careers in college.

But upon his insertion in the starting lineup as a junior, all he did was lead GA to the second of what’s now four-consecutive Inter-Ac titles, averaging 17.1 ppg that year like he’d been starting his whole high school career.

Now he’s just bringing that same attitude and mindset with him to his new home, and his teammates have taken to him quickly.

“He’s really, really mature for his age coming in as a freshman, that’s really hard to do,” said senior guard Victor Joshua, who had a team-high 24 points for St. A’s in Saturday’s win. “I’m able to talk to him and he listens to me and I think that’s really important. The season he’s having, he could easily brush somebody off but he’s never done that, he’s always heard me out and listened and acted on it, that’s very mature out of him.”

Playing for one program with such a winning tradition at the high school level certainly helped Guers adjust quickly to what was expected on a day-to-day basis in college.

“Just the moment you’re in the gym, it’s we’re going to get to the championship, we’re going to do what it takes every day, we’re going to take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves,” Guers said. “Since Day 1 at GA when I was a freshman, now I’m a freshman here, it’s been the same motto, same culture.”

Guers is one of two members of his PA Renegades AAU team currently playing in the D-II NCAA Tournament. His close friend, Abington grad Matt Penecale, found similar success as a freshman at West Chester, starting at point guard all year long and helping the Rams to a national top-20 ranking, PSAC title game appearance and NCAA berth.

“It doesn’t surprise me at all,” Guers said. “Matt was a great player all the years I played with him, I’m really happy he’s doing what he’s doing, and maybe down the road in this region we’ll see him.”

The win over Philly U means St. Anselm was able to accomplish what it couldn’t a year ago, when the Hawks fell to another CACC team, Philly’s own University of the Sciences, in the first round. Two years ago, St. A’s made it to the regional final before bowing out to Southern Connecticut, the program’s deepest run since an Elite 8 appearance in 2000.

That quick exit a year ago was certainly in the minds of the Hawks who were present.

“The way we went out last year is definitely not our character,” Joshua said. “Little things like that are definitely in the back of your head, we came out and not just that game but the way we finished the last end of the season, we wanted to get ourselves back together, get our feet under us and get going guns blazing.”

St. Anselm plays St. Thomas Aquinas (N.Y.) in Sunday’s second round. Tipoff is set for 5 PM at Holy Family.