City of Basketball Love

Graham Foley (@Graham2398) &
Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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(Ed. Note: This story is part of CoBL’s “Prepping for Preps” series, which will take a look at many of the top high school programs in the region as part of our 2016-17 season preview coverage. This is our first preview, but you should bookmark this page, which will hold all of our preseason content for both college and high school.)

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It doesn’t matter who dons the purple-and-gold uniform of Roman Catholic basketball.

The expectation is always the same: win, and do it often.

No matter that four Division I-bound seniors from the two-time defending Catholic League and PIAA Class AAAA state champions graduated. The Cahillite’s basketball tradition must still go on.

So despite the graduation of Penn State freshmen Tony Carr, Lamar Stevens and Nazeer Bostick, plus Brown-bound big man Paul Newman, and the transfers of freshman sensation Mikeal Jones (Girard College) and senior D'Andre Vilmar (Paul VI) -- and a young coach in his first year running his own program -- it’s still Roman basketball.

Dakquan Davis is the only piece left from the most recent two years of Roman dominance. But after spending two seasons as the team’s sixth man and designated 3-point gunner, he’s going to have to be one of the featured players for new head coach Matt Griffin.

Luckily, Davis has another great Roman guard to lean on -- former Cahillite and Villanova Wildcat Maalik Wayns, who gave him some much-needed advice going into his senior year.

“He told me that it’s still going to be Roman,” Davis said. “Don’t focus on Tone leaving, because people came before and people (will come) after. That did mean a lot, and he’s actually right.”

As a senior on a team in need of leadership, Davis will have all eyes on him. However, after playing on two state-championship teams alongside Division I talent, Davis is ready to rise to the challenge and lead the younger players for Roman.

Griffin noticed his ability right away.

“Dakquan has showed from the moment I got the job his leadership skills,” the former St. Joe’s Prep star said. “Everybody is looking to him and a couple of the other seniors who have been around and part of winning programs for the last couple years. They’re looking to see ‘what should we do?’ and he’s been that guy so far.”

Griffin, a former assistant coach at the Prep, is set to start his first head coaching job at the age of 27. Griffin was offered the job over the summer after Chris McNesby stepped down following those back-to-back state championships, in order to spend more time with his family.

With such incredible recent success, there is tremendous pressure on Griffin to keep the wins coming for Roman on top of the general pressure that comes with becoming a head coach. Griffin says while adapting to new responsibilities is difficult, the players and coaches around him have made the task easier.

“These kids have been tremendous,” Griffin said. “They come and work hard every day and it makes my job a whole lot easier. I don’t have to coach effort and energy or enthusiasm. That’s already there. And these kids want to get better. They want to be in the gym at all times. That’s what I love to do too. So the transition for me from an assistant coach to head coach has been great.”

The players share an appreciation for Griffin as well. Coming in this summer, Griffin faced the daunting task of filling the massive shoes of McNesby, who led Roman for eight seasons after taking over from Dennis Seddon in 2008. During those eight years, Roman went 168-55 (.753), including 90-16 (.849) in the Catholic League.

However, Roman players have appreciated Griffin’s focus on winning and his ability to connect on a personal level. Davis, who played for two years under McNesby, expressed his admiration for Griffin’s coaching so far.

“Coach Griffin is a great guy,” Davis said. “He’s about getting everyone better, just focused on everyone’s game, just making sure he can get us to the next level and he also wants to win, he’s a big guy on rebounding and things like that, he wants us to box out, play hard on defense and just be a scrappy team.”

Griffin will have a decent amount of talent to work with in his first year. A headlining player for Roman is junior transfer Allen Betrand, a 6-foot-4 shooting guard who has received offers from La Salle and St. Joseph’s.

Transferring from Samuel S. Fels High School in the Public League’s “B” Division, Betrand has knows that there is a stark difference in the talent and competition between his old school and Roman Catholic, and the Philadelphia Catholic League.

“Going from Fels to Roman is a big difference,” Betrand said. “You’ve got to keep up the name at Roman, at Fels you were just playing fun ball, street ball all the time.”

Griffin is hoping that this upgrade in competition will not be a hindrance to Betrand, as his production will be instrumental in Roman’s potential success.

Beyond Betrand and Davis, as well as fellow senior J.P. Saunders, will have to shoulder much of the load for Roman this season. But they’ll have some help, especially with a pair of talented youngsters: sophomore Seth Lundy, a 6-5 shooting guard, and freshman Lynn Greer III, the son of the former Temple standout and longtime pro, who’s already pulled in a Penn State offer before even playing a high school varsity game.

The Cahillites are not the team they were a year ago and handling the abundance of changes the program is going through not easy with an inexperienced squad. However, Roman Catholic’s basketball team always expects to win, and this team is no different.

If young standout players like Betrand, Lundy, and Greer produce and if the team continues to embrace its new focused, work-driven attitude, Griffin knows that his squad can carry on the Roman name with pride this year and in the future.

“I think that’s Roman Catholic tradition,” said Griffin. “Roman alumni are hard-working people and no matter who’s on the team, or if we’re young or old, they expect that we work hard and be prepared enough to win games.

“Our focus every day is to get better every day,” he continued. “And I believe it’s not about how good you are right now it’s where we are in February. We’ve got a long way to go, but (the) expectation is just that these kids give everything they have, every day -- and that’s the Roman tradition.”