City of Basketball Love

By Jeff Griffith (@hooplove215)
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Josh Reed was waiting.

At times, it wasn’t easy to stay patient. The Archbishop Wood senior knew he was worthy of the kind of recruiting attention he’d seen around the local high school and AAU basketball landscape.

With the support and direction of his father, Ricky Reed, though, he stayed focused and determined. He knew his game wasn’t perfect, and he knew he had to work for the kind of recognition he had in his sights. 

“Seeing all these other 2024 players getting offers, it hit somewhere in me,” he said. “It got me down. Certain people had to pick me up, like my dad and my coaches. I just wanted to prove myself.” 

“(Reed’s father) was the main person involved in my process,” Reed added. “He kept telling me to keep my head up, and ‘Your time will come.’”

Reed’s patience and diligence paid off. A spring and summer of hard work didn’t go unnoticed, and a string of long-awaited Division I offers ultimately led Reed to his perfect college basketball situation. 

Reed is staying put in Philadelphia, and will play for head coach Zach Spiker and the Drexel Dragons, he announced last Friday. Among many key factors, Reed and his father — a close confidante — both held proximity as a major priority for Reed’s short- and long-term prospects.

“That was a big factor,” he said. “Me and my dad, we always used to talk about where I would make my living after college. I felt like me staying home, being where I’m comfortable, that’s going to open up a lot of doors for me when I graduate.”

Reed entered his summer with Philly Revolution carrying a single Division I scholarship offer, from Albany. By the end of June, he had nine, including the likes of La Salle, Iona, Buffalo, and Fairfield, with Drexel joining the list in mid-July. 

For Reed, the past summer was about refining his game and developing a wider set of skills. As a junior at Archbishop Wood during the 2022-23 season, Reed took a major step, averaging 9.2 points, 5.0 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 24.6 minutes, all of which nearly doubled from his sophomore season with the advantage of increased playing time.

A strong, physical, 6-foot-3 point guard who plays the position well on both ends of the floor, he mentioned the need to work on his shooting — a point of emphasis after shooting just 20 percent from beyond the arc as a junior at Wood — which paid off on the summer circuit.

“This summer I took a different approach,” he said. “I put in a lot of work before AAU season. I mainly worked on my jumpshot and my decision-making, and I feel like it showed up great. I think I showed a lot of improvement from last summer and last high school season.”

Ultimately, when it came time to choose between his 11 suitors — Reed narrowed his list to Drexel, Iona and Fairfield before finalizing a decision — Drexel made all the sense in the world.  

Reed said even in the week or so leading up to his Thursday visit to campus, he was already learning toward Drexel in his mind. 

Following the visit, Reed had the chance to speak with his father, and the two were on the same page. At a conversation over breakfast the next morning between Reed, his father, and the Drexel coaching staff, Reed officialized a decision that had long been in the making. 

“We just sat down and talked basketball,” he said. “I told them right then and there that I wanted to be part of the family, I want to commit and be a Dragon.”

Beyond the importance of a local connection, he knew he’d have familiar faces, as freshman forward Horace Simmons and sophomore guard Justin Moore are both friends of Reed’s.

Simmons is a 2023 graduate of La Salle College High School, while Moore, an Archbishop Wood alum, earned CAA all-rookie honors as the Dragons’ starting point guard in his freshman season last year. 

“Those were friendships I already had,” Reed said of Moore and Simmons. “We built a bond, and that can continue over my next four years there.”

And both, Reed said, were plenty involved in enticing him to Drexel; Reed said both current Dragons gave him their “recruiting pitches” ahead of his commitment, also highlighting the benefits of playing college ball close to home. 

“‘You should come here, you’ll have the ball in your hands, you’ll play and get minutes as a freshman,’” Reed recanted his friends telling him. “‘To play in your city is a great feeling. There’s nothing like being home.’”

“It obviously worked,” he added.

After a 12-8 abbreviated season in 2020-21, Drexel made a surprise run to its first and only NCAA Tournament bid of the current century. The Dragons have hovered around .500 in the time since, finishing 17-15 a year ago and 15-14 the year prior, with 10-8 conference marks in both seasons.

For Reed, as the first commitment in Drexel’s 2023 class, there’s plenty yet to be seen in terms of how the Dragons’ 2023-24 roster will formulate as the Dragons look to build upon solid recent seasons.

His hope, once he’s on campus, is to jump in right away. In his breakfast conversation with Spiker and company, Reed said the Dragons’ coaches mentioning wanting to see a positive on- and off-court professionalism and an overall strong work ethic from Reed, and he plans to bring exactly that to Drexel, regardless of how things shake out in terms of the rotation. 

And of course — Reed’s college recruitment is cold hard proof — if he does have to be patient for playing time, he’ll plan to make it worth the wait. 

“My expectation when I join a team is to make an impact right away,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if I come off the bench, start, I just want to make an impact.”