City of Basketball Love

CoBL Staff (@hooplove215)
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The final weekend of Philly Live brought a ton of talent to the courts at Jefferson University and St. Joe's Prep over the course of the weekend. CoBL was able to take in the action over the course of the weekend and catch up with some of the prospects on their recruitment.

Here's the second part of our recruiting notebook from the event:

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More coverage from Philly Live: Day 1 Standouts | Day 2 St. Joe's Prep Standouts | Day 2 Jefferson Standouts | Day 3 St. Joe’s Prep Standouts | Day 3 Jefferson Standouts | High School Notebook Pt. 1 | Recruiting Notebook Pt. 1 

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Kareem Thomas (2024 | Salesianum, Del.)

If you had trouble finding Kareem Thomas this weekend, you probably weren’t looking high enough. The 6’5 rising senior for the Delaware state champions Salesianum spent most of his time at Philly Live rising over defenders and finishing around the rim in what was a stand-out weekend for the guard. 

“I can jump a little bit,” Thomas said with a grin. 

That he can. 

But there is much more to his game than his leaping ability. Finishing with a game-high 23 points in a dominant win over Archbishop Carroll before following it up with 21 points against Cardinal O’Hara, Thomas showed off the whole package on Sunday. 

A guard with good skills, Thomas can score from anywhere, whether it's beating opponents off the dribble with his quick first step or spotting up from three. On the defensive side, Thomas’ size and long arms help him bother opponents and get into the passing lanes for steals. It’s no surprise then as to why he is receiving interest from several Division I colleges. 

With an offer from Rider already in hand, Thomas said he’s been talking to Patriot League schools like Boston University and Colgate, as well as a few Ivy League programs including Brown and Yale. Having already visited Ryder, Thomas plans on taking a visit to Boston in the fall. 

With his senior season still ahead of him, more schools are bound to enter the mix before it's time for Thomas to make his decision. When that time comes, Thomas will be looking for a program that will help him reach his potential. 

“I want a coach who is going to push me to be better,” Thomas said. “Obviously, the opportunity to play as well, but mostly just someone to push me to be the best player I can be”

With Thomas as the leader offensively, Salesianum looks poised to make another deep run in the playoffs with a talented group of seniors who are collegiate prospects in their own right and who share a bond that goes beyond basketball.

“It means the world,” said Thomas on winning a state championship with his teammates. “Most of my teammates have been together since elementary school. … We’re like brothers.”

Thomas sees himself as a leader for this group still sorting out their new roles. He feels it’s his job to help bring the younger guys along so they’re prepared come playoff time. 

For his own game, adding strength will be the priority for Thomas this summer as he prepares to take his game to the next level. He believes doing so will allow his game to come much easier as he won’t be able to be pushed around and off his spots so easily. 

Thomas believes the experience of playing different competitions at Philly Live will benefit his team going into the season, as they start off with matchups against difficult opponents from Pennsylvania. When they get back to Delaware, the goal remains the same for Thomas and his team: Run it back. 

“Just go out with a bang” Thomas said. “Win another state championship, grow as a player, and have a nice last season with my teammates.” — Justin Procope

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Preston Fowler (2025 | East Catholic, Conn.) &
Samson Reilly (2024 | East Catholic, Conn.)

East Catholic didn’t travel from Connecticut to Philly just to play. They came to win and they did. In one of the most entertaining games on Friday, East Catholic won 70-69 against Philly powerhouse Archbishop Wood.

They won the CIAC Division I state championship for the third year in a row and they are not done yet. 

“Staying in the gaps, just play good defense, we focused on one player and we stopped that one player so the rest was just easy,” 2025 wing Preston Fowler said of the team’s success.

Of course the squad also made the trek to Philadelphia to get some more eyes on their top guys.

After James Jones (prepping at Worcester Acad.,) left an impression at Philly Live last summer, East Catholic had a pair of other eye catchers standout during this season’s scholastic live periods in Fowler and Samson Reilly.

It was a productive two weekend trips for the pair.

Fowler, a 6-8 2025 wing, picked up an offer from Quinnipiac on Friday, adding to offers from Manhattan (June 17) and George Mason (June 17) that came during last week. Philly Live Session. He also picked up Fordham, Fairfield and Bryant at the start of the contact period June 15 and holds an offer from Sacred Heart as well.

“Just a program that has a good atmosphere and focuses on basketball basically,” Fowler said of what he is looking for in a program.”

Reilly, a 6-2 2024 guard who shot the ball extremely well in Philly, saw his offer list grow over the past two weekends as well. Reilly held an offer from Central Connecticut State from the fall, but Le Moyne College, Sacred Heart and Buffalo joined the list during and after his efforts for East Catholic this weekend.

“I just really wanna play for a good coach that is really looking out for me and makes me love basketball,” Reilly said. “Because I already love it, and I’ve seen it happen, I’ve seen it go down where guys go down and go to a bad place and hits the wall. … And they don’t really like it anymore and I don’t want that to happen.” — Antonello Baggi/Owen McCue

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Malachi Arrington (2024 | Immaculate Conception, N.J.) 

Three years ago, if someone had told Malachi Arrington that he’d have division one scholarship offers and interest from a host of other programs as a senior in high school, he wouldn’t have believed you. 

Back then, Arrington stood at 6-foot-6 and weighed 310 pounds as a freshman at Somerville High School (N.J.). He had also never played organized basketball and barely played pick-up. 

He is now 6-foot-10, 205 pounds, and only getting stronger. 

“It’s surreal,” he said after losing to St. Joe’s Prep on Saturday. 

“I just picked up basketball super late and fell in love with it.” 

His basketball career began as a sophomore at Roselle Catholic, N.J., and the center’s skill set has developed rapidly, so Arrington has already decided to take a post-graduate year at Western Reserve Academy (Ohio).  

But that hasn’t stopped college coaches from reaching out and offering scholarships to the late bloomer. 

Aaron McKie offered Arrington a scholarship when he still coached at Temple. Since then, Bryant and Albany have also offered scholarship spots. Seton Hall, George Washington, and Villanova have shown an interest too. 

“I worked really hard losing all that weight and stuff and now I’m working really hard gaining muscle and like just evening out the playing field,” he added. “Everybody is saying I developed really quickly and I feel like if I give myself that extra year to level out the playing field I’ll be a top 60 player in the country.” 

Arrington switched to a vegan diet, did workouts before school, and played tons of basketball to lose over 100 pounds in the last year and a half. He ran with N.J. Scholars’ EYBL squad after one year at Roselle Catholic, which was an adjustment initially. 

“The biggest thing for me is getting in a lot of games,” Arrington said. “Because you can train a lot by yourself, but like getting bumped by another guy my size it absolutely developed me quicker.”

He’s put in countless hours in the gym and getting to school every day. His home in Somerville is an hour away from Immaculate Conception. Arrington takes the train every morning to school, including when the team works out before school at six o’clock in the morning. 

Arrington even lived at head coach Jimmy Salmon’s house closer to school for three months before basketball season began to avoid waking up at four o’clock to do the early morning workouts. 

“I missed my stop a few times,” he said about taking the train each morning. 

“I like the work. I like the process.” — Jared Leveson

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Kirby Mooney (2024 | William Tennent)

Kirby Mooney will have to do a lot of scoring for an unproven William Tennent squad this season. Even with guys like Chris D’Ambra, Sean Devine, Jayden Bright, Tony Pople and Imad Abunima improving this summer, Mooney will have to put on performances like his 31-point outing against William Allen on Friday at times.

He’s more than capable of doing that, but the 6-4 shooting guard wants people to know he can play other roles for his team as well.

“I try to be as unselfish as I can and pass as much as I can, so I don’t need to be a scorer right away (at the next level),” Mooney said. “I’m fine being a passer and unselfish.”

Of course Mooney’s scoring, boosted by his slashing and driving abilities and athleticism to finish at the rim, is what most piques the interest of coaches at the next level, averaging 23.1 ppg and 2.2 apg as junior last season.

Lafayette, Bucknell, Army, Penn and Yale are programs he said he’s received various levels of interest from among others from the Ivy and Patriot Leagues.

“I’ve talked to a good amount of schools,” Mooney said. “No one with strong interest yet.”

The feedback he’s gotten is that schools would like to see improvements on his outside game. The form looks solid and he’ll add in a make or two from deep per game, but he’s trying to get more consistent shooting both on and off the ball by getting up a lot of shots per day.

“The input I’ve got from some of the coaches I’ve talked to, they said, ‘If you start making your threes more, you’re definitely at that level,’” Mooney said. “So I’m just trying to shoot everyday and get my threes where they need to be.”

The hope is he can show off some of that improvement during the July live periods with the Penn Warriors.

“This live period coming up, I’m going to try and get my name out there a little more,” Mooney said. — Owen McCue

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Kevin Rucker Jr. (2024 | Bonner-Prendergast) 

Rucker Jr. got challenged last season.

Having transferred from Chester High School, Rucker Jr. joined a bunch of new faces like Nelson Lamizana and Reggie Selden Jr. at Bonner-Prendergast under first-year head coach Billy Cassidy. 

Although brimming with talent, the Friars finished 12-11, getting bounced in the first round of the PCL playoffs by Cardinal O’Hara and 5A state tournament by Dobbins.  

“We (broke) down too much,” the 6-foot-5 guard said on Saturday at Jefferson. “When stuff doesn’t go our way, we break down, and the game’s over after that. We gotta stay together, and we’ve been doing that in practice. 

“We had a whole new team, like a whole new five last year, so our chemistry wasn’t really there, but now it’s there. We’re more of a family right now.” 

The dynamic and bouncy guard has hit the bricks this offseason, hoping to boost his recruiting stock and make some noise in the PCL this year with a senior-laden Bonner-Prendergast squad.

Rucker Jr. has received scholarship offers from Drexel, Rider and Morgan State, while Fairleigh-Dickinson has also shown an interest. He doesn’t have a timeline for a decision yet and is remaining patient. The guard plans on visiting Drexel, Rider, and Fairleigh-Dickinson sometime in July. 

He’s focused on showing coaches he can handle the ball, play with pace, and knock down the open jumper. But always lingering in the back of his head is his upcoming season at Bonner-Prendergast. 

The senior guard and his teammates have something to prove.

“I’m trying to stamp our name,” he added. “A lot of people [have] forgotten about us. I feel disrespected so yeah we just trying to make a statement out here.” — Jared Leveson

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Kevair Kennedy (2025┃Father Judge)

Father Judge continues to work toward becoming competitive in the Philadelphia Catholic League after it last finished with a winning league record in 2017.

The Crusaders finished 9-4 that season before finishes of 1-12, 4-10, 3-11, 2-10, and 4-9; Judge finished 6-7 last season.

Rising junior Kevair Kennedy along with 2024s Laquan Byrd — a second team All-Catholic team selection last season — and 6-6 big Anthony Lilly and 2026s Derrick Morton-Rivera and Rocco Westfield picked up solid victories Saturday with a 63-56 win over East Catholic (Conn.) — which defeated Archbishop Wood Friday —  and a 66-45 victory over Coatesville. 

“It felt good,” Kennedy said about beating East Catholic after it previously defeated Wood. “We’ve been playing well since last week. It’s just about keeping it up.”

Kennedy, a 6-2 point guard, averaged 10 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.5 assists, and 1.5 steals for Judge in those two wins, which is something to build on as the team gears up for its PCL gauntlet.

“I’ve been trying to be a better leader and teammate,” Kennedy said. “I’ve been working on my jump shot too. We’re just trying to play hard the whole game. We’ve been working on playing defense, talking more.”

Kennedy orchestrated the offense and handled physical, full-court defense with poise; he found open shooters in Morton-Rivera and Byrd off drive-and-kicks. The entire team was engaged defensively.

“We want to make it to the Palestra,” Kennedy said. “We’re starting to play real well together so I think we have a chance.”

Kennedy said he’s heard from Rider and Quinnipiac following his play at Philly Live. — Sean McBryan