City of Basketball Love

Sean McBryan (@SeaMcBryan)
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It all happened so quickly for Allen Myers, a direct contrast to the long, tedious grind that turned him into a Division I basketball player.

Many prospective schools hadn’t offered him a scholarship coming into this summer following four years at Bensalem and a postgraduate season at New York Military Academy; Myers began thinking of taking the JUCO route, but that changed Tuesday after he visited and committed to Manhattan College.

“It changed in an instant, honestly,” Myers said of his recruitment.

Myers’ coach with the NY Jayhawks AAU squad, Scott Sterling, called him to see if he was playing in the gauntlet of July live period tournaments; many players on the roster weren’t suiting up and Myers would have an opportunity to be one of the go-to guys.

“At the time I was like, ‘Man, I’m not going,’’ Myers said Friday. “I’m just going to go JUCO and see what happens.”

Myers ended up going, but the first two games at the AC Jam Fest went poorly with him reverting to playing like a role player — not the go-to guy — and the team getting blown out in the second game.

“I was still playing like a role guy as in giving it up, cutting to the basket, trying to get back doors, allowing my teammates to win the game,” Myers said. “It was after the second game when we lost by 25, my coach came up to me and said, ‘You want it to be like this the entire weekend? Because if you don’t take control of the game that’s what is going to happen all weekend.’”

The talk lit a fire under Myers and he scored 20 or more points in the team’s next four games with the last game of that quartet coming during Hoop Group’s Summer Jam Fest at Spooky Nook in front of Manhattan assistant coach JR Lynch.

“He was standing up top and came down to watch me up close,” Myers said. “I was doing stuff in that Spooky Nook tournament that I never did in my life. It was just naturally coming out of the bag and things I've just added to my game over time in the gym working.”

Manhattan and new Jaspers head coach John Gallagher offered Myers a scholarship following the game.

“You can imagine I’m hype because I was thinking I was going to be a JUCO player and then in a couple days I’m getting a D1 offer, full ride,” Myers said. “My family’s not paying anything. I'm blessed. I'm truly blessed. The story is so crazy. I say nobody has a story like mine. My story is unique and that's what makes me so special.”

Myers began his high school basketball career at Bensalem, where he was selected to the Suburban One League Patriot Division second team as a senior as the Owls went to the SOL Championship and state playoffs.

Standing 5-9 heading into summer after his freshman season, Myers sprouted to 6-2 as a sophomore, 6-7 as a junior, and 6-8 as a senior. He now stands 6-9 and thinks he could still tack on a few inches.

Even with the height, basketball was still his second sport behind football all the way up to his senior year with the Owls, when he almost committed to play Division II football as a wide receiver. Myers didn’t start playing AAU basketball until his senior season.

“When I was at Bensalem, I really wanted to be a football player,” Myers said. “I was a wide receiver and a quarterback and I loved the Friday night lights. I was ready to commit to Bloomsburg my senior year to go play football.

“My AAU coach Mike Cervellino called me and said ‘Yo, I think you should go prep. I really think this could be big for you. It can change your life. You could change your life by bouncing a ball.’ He was the first person that really told me I could do that.”

So that’s what Myers did, deciding to attend New York Military Academy for a postgraduate year where he could further develop his basketball skills to accompany that 6-9 height.

“When I got on campus with [NYMA assistant coach Scott Sterling], we were doing a variety of dribbles into pull-ups or a variety of dribbles into a bangout, a dunk,” Myers said. “He told me my future was as a 3, not a 5, so from that point on that’s what we were working on: a lot of shooting and dribbling.”

Myers says he can now guard all positions, shoot, and put the ball on the floor to create for teammates; coveted skills for someone of his height.

Those improvements were on display when CoBL saw him during the Hoop Group Spring Jam Fest in May, yet his recruitment was still relatively quiet with only a visit to D-II Goldey-Beacom and a visit to Post (N.Y.) rescheduled. A bunch of Division I and II schools were in contact, but the offers weren’t coming.

“I was good, but I wasn’t good enough,” Myers said. “Most of the coaches at the D-I and D-II levels thought that. They said I needed to do a JUCO year.”

All it took was one school to believe in him and that was Manhattan — which is looking for its first winning season since 2015 — and Gallagher, who was named the Jaspers head coach March 29 after serving as the head coach at Hartford and assistant stints at Boston College, Penn, Lafayette, and LaSalle. Gallagher’s a Broomall native and played under Phil Martelli at St. Joe’s.

“It was a great campus,” Myers said after taking his visit last Tuesday to Manhattan. “Great atmosphere. I love the coaches. They are a pretty young group, but they get after it. I was in practice just watching coach Gallagher coaching. He gets on his guys but it’s all from a good place. I really liked how he coaches. He can get on you, will let you know why he got on you and then expect you to fix it. You gotta meet that expectation.

“Once I saw that and took my visit, my decision was easy from that point. I already knew my decision.”