City of Basketball Love

Rich Flanagan (@richflanagan33)
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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. The complete list of schools previewed so far can be found here.)

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Having a polished, veteran point guard can make a head coach’s life much easier.

A point guard can act as the coach out on the floor and perpetuates what their coach is trying to relay to the rest of the team. That’s precisely what Darryl Caldwell was for head coach Mike Troy for four seasons.

Caldwell, now a freshman at West Chester, scored over 1,000 points during his career at Conestoga and helped the team advance to three Central League title game appearances and state playoff berths. Much of Conestoga’s success was directly attributed to Troy’s influence of Caldwell and Caldwell’s influence of the game night in and night out.

“As a coach when you have a point guard for four years it almost becomes your right hand. You almost don’t have to say anything because you know it’s going to be done,” said Troy, now in his 11th season at Conestoga.

Troy not only has to replace his established point guard but also the other spot in his starting backcourt vacated by shooting guard M.J. Lezanic and another starter in forward Andrew Larkin. In addition to losing three starters, forwards Jack Baker and Lucas Yonda are gone from a team which finished 19-10 overall (13-5 in the Central League).

The Pioneers fell to Ridley in the conference title game. In the Class AAAA District 1 playoffs, they downed Great Valley in the opening round then pulled off possibly the biggest upset of the tournament by knocking off Downingtown West on the road to clinch a state title berth before falling to Central League rival Lower Merion, a team they had beaten twice in the regular season, 68-45 in the quarterfinals. They then fell to Central Bucks West in playbacks. Their PIAA Class AAAA appearance was short-lived after falling 71-49 to Parkland as Caldwell (19 points) was the only scorer in double figures.

In losing three starters, Conestoga may be looked at as a team which will take a step back this season but Troy doesn’t agree as he has another trio of seniors who will fill the void left by last year’s senior class.

“I think we need to figure it out because as much as we lost [Caldwell] at the point we also lost a lot of leadership last year between [he,] Lezanic, Larkin and Baker,” Troy said. “When those four left, people looked but Angus Mayock, Scott Shapiro and Charlie Martin quickly assumed those roles.” 

Martin, a 6-foot-3, 175-pound senior wing forward, was a starter last season and continually showed he can excel in a larger role this year. He scored 17 points against Harriton, hit the game-winning triple with 20 seconds left to down Upper Darby in double overtime, tallied 15 points on five three-pointers vs Great Valley, and finished off with six versus Parkland. Troy has seen the type of player Martin can be and expects continued progression in his final season.

“Charlie is a tremendous shooter so in the offseason he had to work on his counters to that,” Troy said. “He’s really worked on his penetration to the basket with both hands. He’s improved his pull-up game so he’s not just a three-point shooter anymore.”

Martin is looking forward to the increased responsibility, and with that, increased pressure to perform but knows what is expected of himself and his fellow seniors.

“[As] seniors, it’s really up to us. It’s kind of like we’re as good as our seniors can take us,” Martin said. “I definitely think that begins with gelling as a team and making sure everyone is on board with our goals this year. No one can get down because as soon as that happens our team can start to waver.”

Shapiro, who scored six points against Parkland and nine against Downingtown West, will be asked “to do a whole lot whether it’s playing the one, two or three,” according to Troy. Mayock will be called upon to play a similar role to Shapiro but as looked to provide some scoring inside as well. The three seniors will be in the starting the lineup but the point guard spot will be the center of attention throughout the year.

Sophomore Zach Lezanic, M.J.’s younger brother, “has tremendous court vision [in addition] to as well as he can shoot it,” as Troy says. After missing much of his freshman campaign due to a knee injury, Zach is looking to be an integral part of the Pioneers success by transitioning to Troy’s “right hand” as Caldwell developed into. He had a breakout game against Haverford High scoring 16 points, a performance Troy is hoping the young point guard can regularly have this year.

“He’s back. He’s 95 percent there but he’ll easily be 100 before the season,” Troy said. “He’s put in a lot of work on his own in rehab to make himself stronger. I think he’s coming back a better player than he was before he left.”

Two other guards Troy has been very high on are sophomore Shane Scott and junior Colin McFillin. Troy will most likely interchange each of them with Zach as both point and shooting guard to try and keep opposing defenses off balance as all three bring a different dynamic to the table. While the point guard position may fluctuate compared to having been solidified the last four years by Caldwell, Troy has confidence in all three combo guards.

“We went through some transition with that but Colin, Zach and Shane have all stepped in and done a really good job to where I’m not calling offenses; they’re just running the games,” Troy said.

Off the bench are a plethora of seniors in Blaise Milanek, Will Marshall, Scott Lambert, Peyton Jones, Jake Bunting and Michael Dutot, who will all be vying for playing time and may give the Pioneers one of the deeper units in the Central League. Junior forward Charlie Schappell should also be a valuable contributor. Troy sees countless lineups he can throw out on the court to create scoring opportunities for his team but he sees defense is being the true key between another deep postseason run or a short one.

“We play so unselfishly; it’s our greatest strength. We have to keep working on our defense and making sure it steps up to the level that it needs to be,” Troy said. “This is going to be our point of emphasis moving forward: how good of a defensive team we can be and get stops.”

Martin concurs with his coach that scoring won’t be an issue but defense will be what potentially puts Conestoga over the top for another successful season.

“I think we see we can score with anybody and have great offensive pieces. We’re going to emphasize that every day in practice because, as coach Troy has said a couple of times already, if we can hold teams below 45 points or so we’re at least going to be in a lot of games,” Martin said.

The Pioneers will play Shipley, Academy Park and Neshaminy in local nonleague games, and as Troy has done every two or three years, the team will travel to San Diego for three games over Christmas break. Having the opportunity to play some elite programs on the West Coast will give them a good test and Troy says “these guys have earned this trip.”

As Conestoga transitions with a new point guard, backcourt and bench, they will be also transitioning from Class AAAA to 6A under the PIAA’s new classifications this season. Transition and change are an aspect Troy expects every season, but the goal of each year remains the same for his program.

“Expectations every year are that we fight for the Central League title and look to make the state playoffs,” Troy said. “They’re our expectations for every year and this year is no different whether we’re 6A or 4A. It doesn’t matter.”