City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich),
Chris Stewart (@CStewTU) &
Geno Cantell (@GenoCantell)
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Here’s Part One of a notebook from the second day of Temple’s Team Camp, which began Friday; Part Two can be found here:

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Plymouth-Whitemarsh adjusting to life post-Malone
With the loss of Xzavier Malone and five other seniors, Plymouth-Whitemarsh has spent the summer figuring things out.

“We let you look ugly in the summer,” P-W coach Jim Donofrio joked.

The Colonials have a talented roster that will head into 2016-17 attempting to defend a District 1 AAAA title. For P-W, it’s a matter of figuring out who works where.

The void of Malone – a Rider commit who often scored 20+ for the Colonials last season -- likely will not be filled by one player. But there were a handful of players who showed their scoring flash for P-W at Temple’s camp.

Among them were the Williams twins – Ahmin and Ahmad, who both got to the basket a lot over the weekend and whom Donofrio called “so strong and so competitive.” In the post for P-W, it’s impossible to miss rising sophomore Naheem McLeod, a lanky 6-10 forward whose game and body is still growing.

P-W also lost starting center Mike Lotito, who was a reliable rebounder and scorer. Donofrio pointed out his team is realizing what they’ll have to do in order to become a complete team, and they’ll have a while to continue to do so.

“We want to have five guys finding the best shots, that will be our best offense,” Donofrio said. “It’s a process and we’re not all doing that right now. We all think we’re Xzavier Malone, but that is such a big role to fill and you don’t really see how big it is until you try to do it. So we’re figuring it out, and I think we’ll be where we need to be by November.”

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Union Catholic not fazed by buzzer-beating loss
After an entertaining game, Union Catholic walked away on the wrong end of a buzzer-beating heave on Saturday afternoon.

But that’s what June is for. Wins and losses are irrelevant -- better a crazy chuck go in now than in November and December, when it really counts.

Scotch Plains (N.J.)’s Union Catholic has already participated in Iona and Temple’s team camp, a good chance for the players to get some minutes in the summer, especially for the younger players.

“You know it's summer league, we are just trying to get better and spend time together,” Reagan said. “I think we are playing pretty well. It’s been a busy summer already for us. It’s good to see some different competition.”

The Vikings, who compete in the Union County Interscholastic Athletic Conference, finished last season with a 17-8 record, losing to Patrick School in the Union County semifinals and St. Augustine in the quarterfinal round in the NJSIAA Tournament.

Reagan is entering his 15th season at the helm for the Vikings. He preached that his team plays a good style of basketball that has his team playing tough against any team they go up against.

“We like to play tough man-to-man defense, a lot of ball movement, screens, we are all about balance,” he said.  We have the guard play, we have the bigs, and we like to shoot the basketball. We play a nice brand of basketball.”

Returning for his senior year is their big center, Jordan Pierce, who stands at 6-10 and anchors the center spot for the Vikings.

Pierce currently holds offers from Seton Hall, East Carolina, Temple, and others; Reagan believes the sky's the limit for the upcoming senior.

“He’s done a great job. He keeps improving, his upside is huge. He’s getting bigger, getting stronger, making real good decisions. We are really expecting a big year from him,” Reagan said.

Pierce is not the only player that is going to be a key contributor for the team next season. Junior guard Rob Miller is a key asset to the team that pairs well with their big man Pierce.

After falling short in the county playoffs and a disappointing exit in the state playoffs just a season ago, Reagan is hungry to get another shot in the playoffs and make a deeper run this time around.

“You always want to challenge for the conference, for the county. We have such an unbelievably tough county. We want to make a run in the state tournament as well,” Reagan said. “I think we are going to be in good shape this year.”

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Storm now leading the pack at Germantown Academy
Germantown Academy senior Cole Storm has paid his dues on the court, and is now preparing to take on the role of starting point guard under head coach Jim Fenerty.

After coming off the bench behind former teammate Devon Goodman, who’s headed to Penn this fall, as a junior and playing for the junior varsity team, Storm will be taking over as GA’s starting point guard in the fall.

Storm exhibited a great balance of skill on Saturday at the Fran Dunphy camp at Temple University. He skied for rebounds amongst taller forwards, including his own teammates, and opened them up for easy layups against his opponent’s defense. He scored through traffic in the lane, and hit a number of shots from mid range.

Now standing at 6-foot-tall, Storm says couldn’t be more excited for his senior season.

“It’s an honor and a blessing to compete with this team,” he said. “I know that it’s now my job to distribute the ball well and know who has to get their shots. I also have to make sure to know when to get my shots, whether it’s pulling up or driving to the basket.”

Storm’s development at point will be crucial to GA’s hopes of a fifth straight Inter-Ac title. Wings Evan-Eric Longino and Kyle McCloskey return for their senior years, and a talented group of freshmen join the fray, but talented programs like Episcopal Academy and Malvern Prep are licking at their chops to take down the recent kings of the league.

Assistant head coach Jon Haynes believes that Storm has already shown positive signs taking on the starting role in the games their team has played with him running the show.

“He doesn’t have to come in and score 20-plus pointer per game,” said Haynes, “and it isn’t about filling in a spot. He’s a great kid and he’ll be a great leader, so there should be no pressure on him.”

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MacAdams ready for big jump at CB West
CB West’s Collin MacAdams wants to make a big jump next season. To do so he’s working on, well, bigger jumps.

MacAdams, a 6-foot-4 rising junior wing for the Bucks, has looked good at every stop his team has made this summer. That includes the JTBL, Saint Joseph’s team camp last week and Temple’s over the weekend.

The team lost all five starters from the 2015-16 campaign, including Cal Reichwein, so MacAdams knows there will be more on his plate next season. He has been working on a handful of areas during the summer, but he said the biggest thing in the weight room has been adding inches to his vertical.

“Last year a lot of times, I would be at the rim, but I wasn’t finishing enough,” MacAdams said Saturday. “I want to be playing above the rim and be able to get over some defenders. So I’ve been working on my vertical a lot, and I think it’s showing. I’ve been dunking a lot more in games (this summer), which is nice.”

MacAdams could be the Bucks go-to scorer next season, and he’s also added an improved jump shot, which he showcased a few times at the camp.

“I want to be able to knock down my jump shot, I know it needs to be reliable,” he said. “I’m going to have become more of a leader and a scorer.”

A 2018 recruit, MacAdams has ambitions to play at the Division I level. He is still waiting on his first D-I offer, but he was heard from Colgate and Lafayette in recent weeks.

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