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Simon Gratz product Malik Green not done yet at Alvernia

02/24/2022, 11:15am EST
By Sean McBryan

Sean McBryan (@SeanMcBryan)

When you look at Malik Green’s game now, it might be hard to envision how far he’s come.

He’s developed into a do-it-all senior forward who has scored over 1,000 points for Alvernia head coach Mike Miller’s Golden Wolves squad that awaits a potential Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) tournament bid sitting at 18-7 (11-5 MAC Commonwealth), the program’s most wins since the 2014-15 season.

And the fulcrum of it all is the senior Green, who has grown from an unheralded player out of Simon Gratz into Alvernia’s season leader in points, rebounds and steals.


Malik Green has been a four-year starter for Alvernia, which had its best season in seven years. (Photo courtesy Alvernia Sports Information Department)

Green’s prep basketball career began when he was a facilitator at Simon Gratz after being thrown into the starting lineup as a junior. He had come to Gratz after attending Philadelphia Electrical & Technology, which didn’t have a basketball team in 2016-17.

“We were having issues on our team and our starting point guard got kicked off,” Green said. “My coach [Gratz head coach Lynard Stewart] hit me up and asked how comfortable I was playing the point guard position. I was like ‘I’m real comfortable’, I wasn’t going to turn down the opportunity to start. I just went from there.”

He’s been a starter ever since.

Miller discovered Green the summer after his junior season when he was at an AAU event watching a different player; Green appealed to him due to the level of competition he played against in the prep and grassroot circuits, something that would surely help him if he decided to take the hardwood at the Division III school up in Reading.

At Gratz, Green was going up against perennial powers in the Pub such as Imhotep and Math, Civics & Sciences. He was prepared to play at the D-III level, while some of his other college teammates might’ve taken a bit more time to adjust to the talent level.

“He was a steal for us, he wasn't highly recruited,” Miller said. “I saw him in AAU that summer, and I stayed after him. I used to coach Reading [High School] and we used to play Gratz and the guy that was coaching him, I coached against: Stewart. I called Stewart up right away and he said he was a good kid. All that.”

Green played with some top-tier talent on his AAU squad PYO such as 7-4 Naheem McLeod, who’s now at Florida State, and in high school at Gratz against Imhotep studs Fatts Russell (Rhode Island/Maryland), Koby Thomas (Robert Morris/Coppin State) and Donta Scott (Maryland); that impressed Miller, who focused on getting him to Alvernia. It turned out he didn’t have much competition.

“No, not really,” Green said about if any other schools came calling. “My [high school] coach said a couple schools were interested in me but never really reached out. I was pretty much in the dark for a little bit. I was playing AAU with a kid that my [Alvernia] coaches wanted and they came to watch him play. I ended up [deciding at the] last minute and just took off from there.

“I just took the opportunity. They wanted me and nobody else was reaching out. Why not take advantage? I just wanted to keep playing, for real.”

He hasn’t just kept playing; he’s instantly impacted a Golden Wolves team that has improved every year he’s taken the court and honed his craft to the benefit of the team, rather than seeking out individual accolades.

Green started as a freshman as Alvernia took some graduation hits and he was more prepared than other younger players after playing the aforementioned tough schedule. Miller also saw “he was just overall skilled and played hard all the time. I could see he could get better, which he did.”

Green (above, left) is having a career year for Alvernia, and he's not done yet. (Photo courtesy Alvernia Sports Information Department.)

The Golden Wolves went 11-14 that season and Green averaged 15.9 points, 5.1 rebounds, 1.3 steals and was named the MAC Commonwealth Freshman of the Year.

Alvernia went 13-13 in his sophomore season with Green averaging 12.3 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.3 steals as he dealt with a nagging ankle injury.

Then COVID hit during his junior season and the Golden Wolves played only eight games, going 5-3, which were foreshadowing for what was to come: Green averaged 23.6 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals.

“The time off gave us time to practice and do team building,” Green said about the difficult COVID year. “We’ve really been going hard at each other during practice. Our practice defense is the hardest defense we’re going to face, I believe. When we just lock in at practice like we did during time off, we’re good.”

“Everything is just clicking,” Green said of this team’s success. “Offensively, defensively, we got guys coming off the bench and playing their roles. Everything is clicking together as a whole.”

Green broke the 1,000-point mark in early December to become the 28th player in Alvernia men’s basketball history to do so after fifth-year teammate Keon Taylor, who is starting alongside Green for the fourth consecutive season, accomplished the feat earlier this year.

The feat is even more impressive considering Green missed multiple games his sophomore season with the ankle injury, and the team only played in eight his junior year.

“I didn’t even come here with that mindset,” Green said on scoring 1,000 points. “Once I knew I could do it and knew it was possible, then it was like ‘I’m definitely going to do this.’ It felt good though to do that.”

So what’s been the key to this team’s success?

“I’d like to say the core of [the team],” he said. “Our three captains, me, Keon and Avery [Walker], our core has been together and starting together for years. If we focus, everyone else just follows after us.”

Miller has watched that core grow up from “almost babies to men” and Alvernia is reaping the benefits. He’s coached at Alvernia since the 2004-05 season and has a 295-166 career record; Miller also coached Donyell Marshall at Reading High back in the day. But this Golden Wolves team is his favorite.

“The thing is, I had a lot of favorite teams,” Miller said. “I just like this team the most because we grew up together. [They all played] as freshmen and there's no transfers. We lost early when they were young, even though we were in games, we would lose crazily at the buzzer, stupid things, inexperienced things.

“I’ve seen this team grow up. I don't even have to coach them sometimes because they've been through so many wars. That's why they're my favorite. Favorite team? Yeah. Only because of the way they grew up and fought through things.”

Green has worked his way to becoming a four-year starter on a successful college team, the only one that wanted him.

“It’s just the work, the grind,” Green said. “My coaches and teammates pushing me. I’ve just been trying to keep pushing and fight through adversity, not look back and keep looking forward.”

Oh, and Green will be back for a fifth year as he has opted to take the extra year of eligibility the NCAA granted to athletes due to the COVID pandemic.

Look out, record book.


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