City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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(Ed. Note: This story is part of CoBL’s “Prepping for Preps” series, which will take a look at many of the top high school programs in the region as part of our 2023-24 season preview coverage. The complete list of schools previewed thus far can be found here.)

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It’s still hard to believe how far George School basketball has come in a short time.

Long an afterthought in the Friends’ Schools League, the Quaker boarding and day school decided to make its athletics programs a priority several years back, hiring former Penn State guard Ben Luber to run its boys basketball team. He brought in forward Kachi Nzeh the next summer, guards Christian Bliss and Dante Weise in 2021, and that trio changed the course of the program.

The George School boys basketball graduating class of 2023 did what it was supposed to do, capturing the FSL championship for the first time in program history. Now a new leaf is turning under Luber’s guidance, but it’s by no means a rebuilding project — the Cougars are once again one of the frontrunners for the Friends’ Schools League title, the new reality in Newtown.

“It’s a young group, they’re very coachable, they have different talents than our previous groups,” Luber said, “but that’s the good challenge as a coach, you find a group of new guys and try to get them to play together by December and championship basketball by February.”

Bliss (Virginia), Nzeh (Xavier) and Weise (D-II Saint Rose) are gone, as is wing Carson Mastin (walk-on at Miami), all starters from last year. 

They leave those who remain with plenty to work for: George School went right down to the wire with Perkiomen School in the Pennsylvania Independent School (PAISAA) state championship game, losing 79-77 as a timeout called when none were remaining sent Perk to the foul line with less than a second on the clock. It was a tough ending for what had been a back-and-forth game between two programs that had never been atop the state before, one that’s stuck with the Cougars all summer.

“It’s everything for me, I think about it a lot,” junior forward Luke Bevilacqua said. “That’s kind of the fire that’s been lit and that’s where we want to be at the end of the season, and this time pull it through. That’s the goal every year, to level up every year, and that’s what we’re building towards.”

Nzeh and Weise were known departures, the two both in their fifth and final years of high school. Bliss was somewhat more of a surprise, the guard from New York reclassifying into the 2024 class when he came to school, one more year left to play if he wanted to. But with Virginia having an opening on its roster this year and his schoolwork all in order, Bliss elected to go back into his original graduating class and start his collegiate career this fall. 

“We said, if your dream schools present themselves to you by this time — it wasn’t a contractual agreement, more verbal, but we were on the same page,” Luber said. “And Virginia wanted him to do that [...] it wasn’t even bittersweet, it was just sweet. He helped us win a lot of games.”

Plus, Luber admitted, Bliss’ departure opens things up for the next big-time George School guard to take over the offense. Freshman Tyler Sutton is one of the young dynamos who’s quickly becoming a name to know in the area, already picking up high-major offers — Iowa, Miami, Penn State, St. John’s, West Virginia and more — before he’s even played a high school game.

A 6-1 combo guard, Sutton has a rare mix of athleticism, quickness, court vision and scoring ability for a 15-year-old, able to finish above the rim with authority and make some impressive passes; he’s also a tenacious defender, especially on the ball.

“I don’t care how old he is, he’s a dynamic player that can make a variety of plays for himself and others, which comes with a lot of responsibility, too, at the end of the games,” Luber said. “He’s super-talented and I’m going to stick with him from the day he gets here until the day he leaves here.”

Sutton isn’t the only star on the Cougars’ roster that will have coaching flocking to the Bucks County suburb. 

Bevilacqua, the only returning starter from a year ago, is a mobile 6-11 forward with high-major offers of his own. The South Jersey native, who played at St. Augustine Prep (N.J.) and then Neumann-Goretti before settling at George a year ago, has really blossomed in the last few months; at the West Chester Big 64 event in late September, he put on a show, hitting spinning baseline jumpers and pull-up 3-pointers, attacking the bucket in transition and defending the rim at a high clip. 

“I think I can do what I want, Coach Ben’s giving me a nice leash to build with, but I want to be the most efficient that I can possibly be,” he said. “Better shots, better passes — how can I involve my teammates, how can I compete on both ends, defensively and offensively? When I step on the court, I want people to be like ‘damn, i gotta play him?’”

Unlike last year, when Bevilacqua paired with the powerful 6-9 Nzeh to form one of the best frontcourts around, giving each other a cushion if they got into foul trouble, this year he’s the only post on the squad with experience. Freshman forward Ziyi Xiong, a recent arrival from China, is a 6-11 forward with a great upside, but needs time to adjust.

“We don’t have a lot of depth at the big position,” Luber said. “Ziyi is a stretch ‘4’, he can shoot it, he’s skilled, they’ll play really well together, but he’s young too — 15 years old, he’s got to get stronger. That takes time.”

Several other familiar faces will return this season as more significant parts of the rotation. Senior guard Ivan Ryabov (6-2), one of the top reserves a year ago, has been starting this offseason, as has 6-4 junior Luke Melniczak, primed for a nice step up in production. Sophomore guard Max Kipper, a deeper reserve a year ago, should also be in the push for more minutes, as should junior Fallou Diouf and sophomore Emir Deldag. 

Kasey Fleming, an athletic 6-4 wing who transferred in from La Salle College HS, is reclassifying into the 2026 class and brings size and shooting ability to the perimeter. At the Big 64 in September, Fleming was in the lineup along with Ryabov, Melniczak, Sutton and Bevilacqua, though both Kipper and Xiong were unavailable to play.

With that top nine seemingly set, Luber has a couple months to get them ready for the start of the season, which will see George play the likes of Perkiomen School, St. Joe’s Prep, Hun School (N.J.) and Blair Academy (N.J.) among other before Friends’ Schools League play starts in January. They play their two toughest league games — at Academy New Church and Westtown — on the road, with trips at Abington Friends and Friends’ Central no walks in the park, either.

“Wins might be a little more difficult to come by with this team, but it’s still the same mission for me,” he added. “I’m going to try to coach these kids up to get the most out of them, become great teammates, and I think this team will be very dangerous in a couple months.”