City of Basketball Love

By Sean McBryan (@SeanMcBryan)
__

Malik Rasul’s basketball journey has taken him from Arizona to playing with Bronny James in California to Westtown; he’s headed to Easton next to play at the Division I level for the Lafayette Leopards and new head coach Mike McGarvey.

“I had one other offer from Manhattan and interest from a lot of other schools,” Rasul said. “A lot of the schools wanted me to wait and Lafayette wanted me to commit now. They recruited me hard. Coach McGarvey is a great guy. I liked the whole coaching staff. It was just a great situation and I felt like it was best for me.”

The 6-7 wing took a visit to the Patriot League school on June 27 and never looked back; the campus and gym impressed him and the school offered the major he wanted, architecture, as he wants to be a residential community architect. Rasul also knew of a Lafayette graduate that owns an architecture firm, another area within the field he could explore.

“Really, it was the visit with Lafayette and then all the conversations with Coach McGarvey,” Rasul said on what sold him on the Leopards. “I feel like we built a great relationship. I know it's gonna be a win-win situation no matter what. I really didn't want to pass up an opportunity like that and then look back on it and end the season with no offers or whatever the case may be. It was just a matter of how long I wanted to wait, and I didn't feel like I needed to wait anymore.”

McGarvey has ties to the Philadelphia area playing at Penn Charter and Ursinus before joining the Bears’ coaching staff as an assistant. He then coached at Colgate for seven seasons before spending four seasons as the head coach at Lycoming.

McGarvey became an assistant at Lafayette the same year Rasul transferred to Westtown; he became the interim head coach of the Leopards in February 2023 and permanent head coach March 29, 2023.

“Lafayette’s been following me along since I got to Westtown,” Rasul said.

Rasul began his high school career at Sierra Canyon (Calif.) as teammates with Amari Bailey, who was named California Mr. Basketball and now plays for the Charlotte Hornets, and Bronny James, LeBron James’ eldest son, as the Trail Blazers went 16-2.

“Bronny’s a super high IQ player,” Rasul said. “He's smart. He's unselfish. He's just a good player. I did meet LeBron multiple times. He's a great guy. It was just a great experience playing there.”

Sierra Canyon went 26-5 the next season and finished ranked 26th in the nation by MaxPreps; Rasul decided it was time for a change of scenery and began working with his uncle in reaching out to schools on the East Coast.

“My uncle was reaching out to coaches on the East Coast because he lives in New Jersey,” Rasul said. “He reached out to [Westtown head coach] Seth [Berger]. We started talking and that was it.”

Westtown was looking to reload after it had just graduated the Dallas Mavericks’ Dereck Lively and Jameel Brown (Penn State), who had led the Moose to a 31-7 record and the PAISAA state championship. Berger, whose son T.J. plays at Lafayette, and the Moose thought Rasul was a great fit.

“I feel like I can do everything,” he said. “Last season my role was to facilitate. We had so many guys who could score. This year I feel like it's going to be different. I can facilitate but I can also do a lot more. I'm shooting in the 40s from three and shooting like 45% from the field. I've been working a lot this summer and feel like my game has evolved. I can still facilitate, but I feel like I can add more scoring to the offense this year.

“As far as defensively, I can pick up one through five. It's been like that since my junior year. I can go wherever you need me. I’ll guard the best player, the tallest player, the biggest player; it doesn't matter.”

Rasul averaged 8.4 points per game for Westtown last season as the Moose fell 70-39 in the Friends School League semifinals to eventual champion George School; it was a disappointing ending as the Moose had won the FSL nine out of the last 10 seasons not counting 2021 when there was no tournament due to COVID-19.

The rising senior will surely have a larger role in both production and leadership this upcoming season; juniors and Division I recruits Jayden Forsythe and Cam Wallace return, but Matt Mayock (American) and Se’yphon Triplett (Stonehill) have graduated while Matt Gilhool transferred to Penn Charter with new head coach Brandon Williams.

“I know the guys returning have a huge chip on their shoulders,” Rasul said. “I told them the start of summer when we started practicing, like the goal for us was just to kill everybody. I don't even care if it's a non-conference or anything, just kill the whole season, especially in the Friends League.

“I will definitely have to step up my leadership. It's no question because I'm the only senior. I've been working with a lot of older guys this summer just on leadership and talking to them and how it is in college. Just getting their past experiences from their senior years. I feel like I've been absorbing enough knowledge to come into season and just lead my team for sure.”

Rasul has one more season of top-level high school ball before heading to Lafayette to accomplish the dream of playing Division I basketball. Playing with and against elite talent throughout his basketball career has made him into a well-rounded and versatile player capable of fitting on any team. He said the main aspect he’s learned along the way is to always work hard.

“My freshman and sophomore year I worked but I didn't work as hard as I should have or needed to in order to be a Division I athlete,” he said. “But I feel like my junior year I started to do that and then this summer was really big. I felt like it was the hardest working summer ever in my life … and I feel like it paid off.”