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Widener Team Camp Notebook: Thurs., June 15

06/16/2017, 12:00am EDT
By CoBL Staff

CoBL Staff (@hooplove215)
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CHESTER, Pa. -- The Widener Team Camp opened up on Thursday night, as all but one of the 18 teams participating this weekend got at least one game in on the four courts running simultaneously.

Here’s a notebook from the opening night of action:

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Mike Webb (above) is finally adjusting to his Springfield teammates after joining them mid-season. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Webb all settled in at Springfield after abrupt start
When Mike Webb joined Springfield (Delco.) at Christmas time last season, it was “different.”

Webb had attended Penn Wood the year before, but he switched to online classes for his junior season, when his family moved into the Springfield school district, and he only became eligible mid-year.

In addition to that, Webb had never played basketball at Penn Wood, so he was playing his first slate of organized high school basketball games when he joined the Cougars.

“It was different. I didn’t know how much I was going to play each game,” he said. “I had to turn it up a lot, I had to play defense, I had to do a lot of small stuff.”

Both on and off the court, the 5-11 guard also had to fit in with his new teammates, whose playing styles differed quite a bit from his.

Webb has a keen instinct for getting to the rim, while many of the other players on Springfield’s roster last season used their size and shooting ability to score.

“They’re all similar players, and I was the only penetrator or slasher,” he said. “That was my role last year: get to the rim, kick it out, create plays.”

In that role last year, Webb put up 8.5 points per game and shoot 72.7 percent from the foul line. This year, he’ll be coach Kevin McCormick’s guy.

“He’s an x-factor,” McCormick said. “If he finishes, it’s all good; if not, he draws fouls. He just has a deceptive energy on the floor. He’s fun to watch.”

Webb showcased exactly what makes him an x-factor in his first game at Widener on Thursday night, slashing through the Lenape defense en route to 18 of the Cougars’ 34 points.

With Springfield having lost half its players to graduation, we’ll be seeing a lot more of that from Webb in the coming year.

“We lost seven seniors this year, so we’re really going to be starting from scratch,” McCormick said. “We’ve got a number of seniors this year, but it’s just going to be a different type of team. Last year we had size.”

This year, the Cougars have skills also characteristic of their mascot: speed and agility.

To complement Webb’s driving game, Springfield has lacrosse state champion and future Maryland Terrapin Kyle Long holding down the perimeter with his hustle and unique passing ability, and the duo is sure to run a fast-paced style of basketball.

The team is just getting back into the swing of things after many of its members played other spring sports, and as it works hard to make sure everything meshes well, Webb will be honing in his game just as intensely.

“I’m just trying to get overall better,” he said. “My passing, my defense, I’ve got to shoot the ball better because people are trying to sag off.”

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Kingsway moving on sans seniors, Hart
Each of the last two years, Kingsway has made it to the South Jersey Group 4 playoffs, only to fall in the first round -- to Cherry Hill East two years ago and Millville this past season.

Things were looking up for the Dragons, who went 16-10 and graduated just two seniors: point guard Rob Scanlan and forward Shayne Rechner, who will play college ball at Albright.

Instead, it’s going to be a tougher road than expected for head coach Marcus Robinson and crew.

One of the top scorers in South Jersey as a freshman and sophomore, Hakim Hart recently announced his decision to play his junior year at Roman Catholic in Philadelphia, taking quite a step up in competition from the Tri-County Conference.

That leaves the remaining Dragons needing to replace his 26 ppg, plus the 13 or so that Scanlan and Rechner chipped in. Instead of trying to match that output, according to rising senior Jamir Patterson, they’re going to try to focus on making up for it in different ways.

“We’ve got to focus on defense,” the 6-foot-2 wing said. “Hakim was a great scorer, so he helped us out if defense was lacking; now we’ve got to pick up our defense more, hold (opponents) to (fewer) points and then let our offense speak for itself.”

Under the guidance of Robinson’s son Marcus Robinson Jr., a former Kingsway standout and 2015 graduate of the Gloucester County school, Kingsway went 2-0 at Widener on Thursday night, taking out first Marple Newtown and then Methacton in overtime.

Standing out on the night were Patterson and 6-3 wing Christian Ho, along with fellow senior Jeremiah Bishop, a 5-8 point guard who looks ready to take the starting spot after backing up Scanlan last year. Bishop was particularly effective in the win over Marple Newtown, knocking down several 3-point shots while also attacking the rim and dishing the ball well on the break.

“We’re just working on being more efficient, taking care of the ball more, playing together as a unit,” Patterson said. “That’s what we really need.”

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Ke'Shawn Williams (above) is one of two promising rising sophomore guards at SCH Academy. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

SCH Academy building young core to grow around
After losing seven seniors, Julian McFadden is looking to build his Springside-Chestnut Hill basketball program from the bottom up, starting with the younger levels.

How young? Along with several underclassmen, McFadden had a rising eighth grader suited up and playing minutes at Widener.

Along with several other schools in the Inter-Ac, McFadden has the luxury of identifying talent at a younger age because SCH goes K-12. Now he just needs to take advantage of it.

“You’ve got to kind of build it through your middle school program and make sure that your middle school program has the players that are going to be able to step right in and play right away,” he said.

With just one senior expected to be on this upcoming year’s team, McFadden will have to rely heavily on younger players throughout the upcoming season. Rising sophomores Delonte Hines and Ke’Shawn Williams are two guards who saw significant action during the 2016-2017 campaign.

Hines started every game as a freshman and Williams saw significant action throughout the season as well, entering the starting lineup for the final few contests. Though neither stand taller than 5-foot-10, they both show fearlessness in attacking the rim off of the bounce.  Williams has a smooth jump shot and can shoot it from deep, while Hines relies more on his handle and quickness to get into the paint.

McFadden plans to rely heavily on them during the upcoming season and beyond.

“Those two guys moving forward, they’re my main pieces that I really need to get right,” he said.”

“A lot has to do with maturity,” McFadden added about his maturing guards. “They have a lot on their shoulders.”

McFadden, coming off of his first season as head coach at SCH -- the Blue Devils went 8-16 overall, including 0-10 in Inter-Ac play -- knows that experience and maturity are vital for a team that lost a lot of seniors, including four starters.

Zuri Peyton (15.2 ppg) and Matt Rahill (12.7 ppg) SCH’s leading scorers from the past season, are two of those senior starters lost to graduation. Peyton will do a prep year at Phelps School; Rahill will be playing lacrosse at Maryland.

However, it is not just the players that are looking to gain experience, as McFadden noted that his first year at the helm was “a big adjustment” from his days as a college assistant at Chestnut Hill College.

Now he’s got to get his inexperience Blue Devils to buy in like seniors, without much of a class to show them the way. That makes this time of year even more critical.

“Playing against a team like a St. Augustine, they’re preparing for college,” McFadden said. “That’s what I’m trying to get these guys to do.”

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Quick Hits
-- Marlon Hargis (2018/St. Augustine Prep, N.J.) is hearing from Lehigh, Yale, Richmond, Princeton, Colgate, American, Lafayette and “a few more” as he heads towards July; Colgate, American and Lafayette are the three that have offered thus far. The 6-6, 190-pound wing forward doesn’t have any official visits planned yet, though he recently went to the Yale elite camp. This summer, he’s playing with the Juice All-Stars on the Adidas circuit, under well-known NYC high school coach Tiny Morton. “Playing in New York, they’re a lot rougher, so I’m adjusting and playing more physical,” he said.

-- Jack Brockett (2018/Seneca, N.J.) has been attracting a lot of D-II and D-III attention the last couple months. The 6-foot rising senior said he’s had “a lot of phone calls recently,” as Scranton, Swarthmore, multiple schools from the Centennial Conference, and a couple of Virginia colleges have taken notice. Brockett is working on his driving and finishing abilities this offseason, which will be much needed for a Golden Eagles team that lost quite a bit of size to graduation and will push the fast break as much as possible next season.

-- Jeff Woodward (2020/Methacton) showed a wide array of skills finishing around the rim in Friday’s win vs. Talcony Academy Charter. The 6-foot-8 rising sophomore threw down a couple easy dunks while also showing the ability to put the ball on the floor from the elbow and drive to the basket. On the defensive end, Woodward was able to influence shots in the paint and protect the net. Using his size well on the glass, he created easy offense in the form of quick putbacks above the rim.


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