City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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For the third straight year, Drexel has a freshman starting at point guard.

And this one looks like he’ll be sticking around.

Kurk Lee, Jr., who committed to play for new Dragons head coach Zach Spiker in May, hasn’t wasted any time getting settled in. The dynamo out of Baltimore continued a strong start to the season, making his Daskalakis Athletic Center debut a successful one with a 24-point outing to lead Drexel to an 87-73 win over Hartford on Friday night.

It’s the third consecutive double-digit performance for Lee to start his career, after he scored 17 against Monmouth and then 14 against Rutgers on the road last weekend.

“I’m just trusting in my teammates, my teammates are believing in me and I’m just running the show,” he said. “Coach is putting the ball in my hands, so I had to take advantage of the opportunity.”

Though listed at 5-foot-10 in the Drexel media guide, Lee referred to himself as a “5-foot-8” guard -- but it’s clear that no matter what his actual height is, the St. Francis (Md.) product can play.

A terrific ball-handler who can attack the bucket both ways, Lee scored from all over the court against the Hawks, in a variety of ways -- opening the game with a pair of left-handed floaters, knocking down several pull-up jumpers, finishing around the bucket with both hands. The one thing he didn’t do on Friday night, hit a 3-pointer (0-2), he’s shown he can do by going 3-for-9 through the Dragons’ first two games.

He was hard on himself afterwards for his four turnovers, which only came against three assists.

“I played okay, I had too many turnovers...I could have done better on that end,” he said. “As far as running the team, I think I did a good job.”

Lee’s ability has been apparent to the Drexel staff since the summer, and he was already the preseason favorite to seize the point guard job when practice started in September.

It was a spot left open after last year’s starter, Terrell Allen, transferred to Central Florida following the March firing of 15-year head coach Bruiser Flint; two years ago, the starter was Rashann London, who moved off the ball as a sophomore last year and is now sitting out a transfer year at North Carolina Central.

But Lee has slid right in, averaging 18.3 ppg and 4.0 apg through Drexel’s first three games, and doesn’t show any signs of slowing up soon.

“I know specific moments and things we saw throughout the summer, he makes a move and you look at the coaches and you’re like, if he continues to do that, he could be a good basketball player,” said Spiker, who’s at Drexel after winning 102 games in seven years at Army.

Hartford John Gallagher, trying to come up with a way to describe Lee, went with a player from a different sport -- Madison Bumgarner, the San Francisco Giants’ pitcher and four-time All-Star.

”The pace of play he plays at -- nobody can speed him up, nobody can slow him down, I call it the Madison Bumgarner effect,” Gallagher said. “He’s going to throw his pitch when he wants it, it’s his ball, no one in the outside world affects his inner peace with the ball.

“When Madison Bumgarner takes the mound, it’s his game, and everybody else is playing it. Kurk Lee has that sort of effect on the game.”

Spiker isn’t ready to anoint Lee anything more than an exciting freshman just yet, but the potential is certainly there in the dynamic young guard. Lee’s father, Kurk Lee Sr., was a standout at Towson from 1988-90, averaging 25.7 ppg in two years in a Tigers uniform after spending two season at Western Kentucky.

The younger Lee gave his father credit for instilling confidence in him since he was “four or five” years old.

“I’m not that big, 5-8, so I have to play with confidence,” he said. “I have to run the team, so I have to make sure they believe in me, so that’s where the confidence comes from.”

Lee led the decisive push in the second half, scoring eight points during a 21-6 stretch that saw the Dragons turn a one-point advantage into a 57-41 lead with 10:30 to play.

Senior forward Rodney Williams added 21 points and eight rebounds for the Dragons, who won their home opener for the first time in three years.

The rest of the freshman class also handled themselves admirably in the win over Hartford. Kari Jonsson, a 6-3 guard from Iceland, had his best game yet with 12 points on 3-of-5 shooting (1-3 3PT, 5-6 FT), with five assists and two turnovers; 6-8 forward Jeremy Peck had two points in 10 minutes while playing solid defense. Sam Green, the fourth member of the group and a 6-6 wing, got in only for the final minute.

“You never know what’s going to happen in an environment like this,” Spiker said. “They’re new to it. It doesn’t matter whether they’re cheering for you or not, it’s a big crowd and I thought we communicated well, and it was a positive, positive experience for them.”