City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Jordan DeCicco knew he had something brewing.

A freshman at Philadelphia University and a guard on the Rams’ team during the 2014-15 season, DeCicco was also a budding entrepreneur.

Unsatisfied with the current market options for healthy bottled coffee, the Kingston (N.Y.) native started messing around with different brews and recipes in his dorm room. Soon enough he was selling small amounts of his product, a bottled coffee that included protein and coconut oil, but he knew it could be bigger.

So he called up his brother Jake, a senior at Georgetown University and starting wideout on the Hoyas’ football team, and a company was hatched: Sunniva Caffe Super Coffee.

It was last August, just a few days before his sophomore year at Philly U was set to begin, that DeCicco made the decision to step away from the sport he loved to follow his other passion, moving down to the nation’s capital to work for the business full-time.

“I loved entrepreneurship, I loved business, that’s been my mindset; I’m a competitive athlete, so those two things are very similar,” he said. “I was just like this look, if this thing’s going to work I have to fully commit to it.

“It was the right decision,” he added.

During his year away from school, DeCicco and his brother built the business from a start-up into a company that now employs a Chief Marketing Officer and Creative Director among its dozen-or-so employees.

The whole time, he continued to work on his on-court game, going to the gym “daily” to stay in shape and stay sharp.

“I used it as time to reflect on my game a little bit, try to grow, get a little bit smarter, get my body the rest I needed and kind of build so I could prevent some injuries coming back,” he said. “And then it was all fundamental work, honestly, getting in the gym every day, working on my fundamentals.”

With Jake earning his college degree from Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business, Jordan felt comfortable enough to return to Philly U, with the pair’s oldest brother -- Jimmy, a 2015 Colgate grad -- now serving as Sunniva’s CEO.

“It took off a little bit to the point where we could bring some people on, some employees and have some fun with it,” Jordan said, “and I was able to come back and play, which is awesome.”

Saturday afternoon marked DeCicco’s return to competitive basketball, in the Rams’ season opener against the University of the District of Columbia.

A reserve as a freshman two years ago, he’s now one of the featured players for Hall of Fame coach Herb Magee, now in his 50th season as head coach at the school formerly known as Philadelphia Textile. In his first career collegiate start, DeCicco played all 40 minutes, finishing with 13 points to help the Rams to an 83-78 win at the Gallagher Athletic Center.

“It was great, so fun,” he said afterwards. “I love basketball, it’s my time to get away from everything, relax out there on the court, just have fun, play my game. I thought we played a good game, I thought UDC played great. It’s great to be back, honestly.”

A 6-foot-tall point guard, DeCicco added a team-high eight assists against three turnovers.

“I thought he played well,” Magee said. “He had a couple of turnovers, only three, and he has the ball the whole game...if you have the ball the whole game in your hands, you’re going to turn it over once in a while.”

The Rams (1-0) pulled out the victory behind a 25-point outing by junior wing Kaison Randolph, who was joined in double figures by senior Andre Gibbs (15), DeCicco and freshman Kylan Guerra (13).

Guerra was one of three freshmen in the seven-man Rams rotation, which was without the services of senior forward Brendan Kilpatrick; Josh Bradanese (6 pts) and Prince Hickson (2 pts) combined for 18 minutes of action and made an impact as well.

“(The freshmen) responded excellent,” said Gibbs, making his own return to the court after missing last year with a torn ACL. “Prince did a good job on the backboards, Josh knocked down some big jump shots...this is our first game, we’re going to continue to get better.”

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Chestnut Hill struggles against Franklin Pierce
In the second game of the double-header, Chestnut Hill College ran into a talented, athletic and experienced Franklin Pierce squad, which handled the Griffins for a 93-74 victory.

The preseason favorites in the powerful Northeast-10 Conference’s Northeast Division, the Ravens (1-0) had a balanced offensive attack with five players in double figures, led by junior forward Mike McDevitt’s 14; Jordan Lackey (13), Donte Gittens (12), Matt Banton (11) and Marvillo Berroa (10) all joined him.

Junior guard Demetrius Isaac led the Griffins (0-1) with 18 points, helped out by a 12-for-12 performance from the foul stripe.

Chestnut Hill struggled with a physical and long Franklin Pierce defense, shooting 21-for-66 (.318) from the floor and just 4-for-20 (.200) from beyond the arc; the Ravens were 34-of-59 (.576) overall and 7-for-20 (.350) from deep.

All four teams will return to Philadelphia University tomorrow, with Philly U playing Franklin Pierce at 1 PM, followed by Chestnut Hill vs. UDC at 3 PM.