City of Basketball Love

Ari Glazier (@AriGlazier)
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After Archbishop Wood finished its matchup against national powerhouse Montverde Academy (Fla.) on Jan. 5 -- a game that was televised on ESPN -- freshman forward Daeshon Shepard was greeted in the locker room with his phone blowing up.

“It was a lot, just people saying I played a great game against some of the best players in the country,” Shepard said. “I’ve never played in a big game like that... I see (Montverde) on YouTube all the time, it was great to be able to play in a big game like that.”

The game didn’t exactly go how the Vikings would have liked, as Montverde won by 44.

Still, games like that one and a season-opening 10-point loss to DeMatha (Md.) served as a trial-by-fire for Shepard, one of the first players off the Vikings' bench, and fellow freshman and starting point guard Rahsool Diggins. Shepard even cites the DeMatha game as the point in which he started to really feel comfortable with his role on the team after a long offseason and preseason.

“We didn’t do them any favors,” Wood head coach John Mosco said. “They had to get thrown into the fire. We’re not deep, so they have to play through the mistakes, you’ve got to give them a break here and there, but we just tried to get them ready for the season.”

The prospect of being the offensive initiator for the reigning Catholic League champions would be a daunting task for anyone, let alone a freshman. Still, Diggins -- who cut his chops playing high-level AAU ball with Team Final -- exudes confidence.

Did he have difficulty matching up with any of the many talented guards in the PCL?

“No...there’s a lot of good guards in this league, but no,” Diggins said. “Probably the hardest [to guard] was [Bonner-Prendergast junior] Isaiah Wong.”

That’s not to say that the adjustment was entirely smooth sailing for either freshman.

“It’s hard because you’ve got everybody coming at you,” Diggins said. “Me being young, this is my first year doing it. I’ve just gotta help my team.”

“In the beginning of the season, I was kind of nervous playing,” Shepard said. “I didn’t expect to get this many minutes for a great team that won the PCL last year.”

Shepard and Diggins are the only freshmen in an otherwise grizzled rotation. Next to Diggins, the least experienced member of the starting five is junior Julius Phillips. Often the only two players coming off the bench are Shepard and Karrington Wallace, a senior and Central Connecticut State commit.

The two freshmen were fortunate to have numerous D-I caliber seniors like Wallace, Andrew Funk (Bucknell), Tyree Pickron (Quinnipiac) Seth Pinkney (undecided) to learn from.

“Whenever me and Rahsool need help, we talk to the seniors; they guide us through everything,” Shepard said. “Whenever they see us troubling they take us to the side and tell us to work harder and give us great advice on how to play.”

Neither freshman did much of any scoring on Saturday in a non-league win over Lincoln. Shepard scored two and Diggins was scoreless. They influenced the game in other areas. Diggins did a nice job of setting up his teammates with good looks, tallying five assists as well as five rebounds. Shepard provided a spark off the bench, grabbing five rebounds of his own.

“Rahsool’s a heady player, knows the game, knows where to get guys the ball,” Mosco said. “Daeshon has great athletic abilities. He attacks the glass. He plays hard, he just has to learn how to play harder consistently.”

The Vikings have faced their fare share of adversity this season. The reigning champs are 11-7 on the year and currently sit at sixth in the PCL, having suffered tough losses to Archbishop Ryan, Bonner Prendergast, and last year’s runner up Neumann-Goretti. Still, with four games to go against St Joe’s Prep, Archbishop Carroll, Roman Catholic and Lansdale Classic, only two-and-a-half games separate Wood and the top seed.

They may not be first in the standings right now, but the Wood upperclassmen make sure to remind their young teammates who supremacy in the PCL belongs to.

“When we lose we still say we’re gonna we’re gonna win it again,” Diggins said. “When we lost to Neumann, me and all the freshman were like ‘damn, we’re never gonna win,' but then everybody said we’re still gonna win. We’ve got a lot of confidence.”