City of Basketball Love

Rich Flanagan (@richflanagan33)
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(Ed. Note: This article is part of our 2023-24 season coverage, which will run for the six weeks preceding the first official games of the year on Nov. 6. To access all of our high school and college preview content for this season click here.)

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Fran Dunphy was there when La Salle unveiled the eight-foot statue of Tom Gola outside the TruMark Financial Center to commemorate one of its most notable alumni last December. It pays homage to an Explorer who won National Player of the Year and led the program to its first and only national championship in 1954. It further cemented his legacy as the basketball court already bears his name and presents the gateway between past and present.

Enter inside the TruMark Financial Center and walk the halls where the faces of Gola, Lionel Simmons, and assistant coach Donnie Carr grace fans as a reminder of what the Explorers program has previously achieved. They are fixtures from some of the heralded teams that led La Salle to heights it has been chasing for several decades. Dunphy was a member of the 1968-69 team that was ranked No. 2 in the country and finished 23-1 overall, and his return in 2022 marked a historical connection between what once was and what many hope will be again.

Dunphy will be the first to boast about everything La Salle has accomplished as a program during its illustrious history, and he has been an essential component in that, both as a player and now entering his second season as head coach. While it’s important to embrace La Salle’s history and reminisce about what came before, Dunphy is continuing to discover and understand the ever-changing landscape of present-day college basketball and how it impacts things on W Olney Avenue.

Fran Dunphy (above, third from left) has had his impact on La Salle basketball span more than a half-century. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

“I don’t know what the landscape of college basketball is going to be if we’re standing here in five more years,” Dunphy said at his introductory press conference in April 2022. “The game is changing, and life is changing. We’ve got to change around it. We’ve got to adapt to it.”

His first season at the helm concluded with a 15-19 record, only the third time since 2001 that his team has finished with a losing record. Coincidentally, his first season at both the University of Pennsylvania and Temple ended with records below .500, but it’s the success that came afterward at each stop that allows for optimism at this stage. Much of that optimism has to do with the Explorers electric backcourt of senior Jhamir Brickus and junior Khalil Brantley.

Brickus was one of the most well-known prospects in southeastern Pa. during his time at Coatesville, amassing an all-time program record 2,531 points before joining the Explorers. The 5-11 guard made an immediate impact at the next level and has started 71 out of 86 career games played while averaging 9.3 points, 3.1 assists and 1.2 steals per game. He is coming off a career-best 9.8 ppg and knocked down 38 three-pointers. He currently sits at 796 career points and should surpass the 1,000-point mark this season if he continues at his current pace.

Meanwhile, Brantley, who averaged 34.2 ppg as a junior at Boys & Girls High School (N.Y.), led La Salle at 14.3 ppg and 4.1 apg while also finishing second in rebounding (4.8).  The 6-1 guard scored in double figures in all but six games last season, which included a career-high 29 points against Rhode Island in the regular season. He has scored 689 points in two seasons at La Salle and could very well reach the 1k threshold with Brickus in 2023-24.

A multitude of sensational guards have developed under Dunphy from Jerome Allen to Ibrahim Jaaber to Ryan Brooks to Quenton DeCosey, and the longtime head man with 595 career wins knows this group of Explorers will go as the high-scoring backcourt does.

“Their leadership is good and getting better,” Dunphy said. “They also understand that we need to be led hard by them and that’s a really good thing. The issue isn’t so much at the offensive end but on the defensive end.”

While the offense is where Brickus and Brantley thrive, their defense will dictate much of this season and Dunphy hopes it energizes those around them, particularly those players slated for bigger roles in Daeshon Shepherd and Anwar Gill.

“They’re good enough, smart enough, and tough enough to keep a lot of guards in front of them, and that eliminates a lot of drive-and-kicks,” Dunphy said. “That eliminates opposing guards from getting to our bigs and keeps the bigs from getting into foul trouble. There are so many different things that happen to you when your guards are playing well and keeping people out of the lane.”

Shepherd is “probably our starting three” this season, according to Dunphy. The 6-5 junior is as versatile a player as La Salle has on its roster and “he’s more basketball player than position,” in Dunphy’s view. He scored 1,099 career points at Archbishop Wood, led the Vikings to the 2021 Philadelphia Catholic League title, and primed to put together his most productive collegiate season to date following a year that saw him average 6.1 ppg and 4.6 rpg.

Known for his highlight reel dunks and incredible athleticism, he came on late in the season with three double-digit scoring nights in the team’s final six games, including a 15-point, 11-rebound outing versus Rhode Island in the Atlantic 10 Tournament. Dunphy stresses that “he played a lot at the end of last year. He’s in a similar position where he’s expected to play a lot now and play well. The better he plays, the more minutes he gets.”

Gill, the 6-4 senior guard, is another player who has been a substantial part of the rotation since his freshman year and coming off a season where he averaged a career-high 7.9 ppg along with 3.3 rpg and 2.3 apg. The former standout at Gonzaga High School (D.C.) had his fair share of scoring outbursts a year ago such as his 26-point performance against Penn where he drilled three three-pointers then had 18 points in a win over Howard.

Another player to watch is 6-7 sophomore forward Ryan Zan, who starred at Rutgers Prep and committed to La Salle in August 2022. While he did not record a minute, “I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s in the rotation,” as Dunphy noted. With the likes of 2022-23 A-10 Sixth Man of the Year Josh Nickelberry (Florida State) and Hassan and Fousseyni Drame (Duquesne) having moved on, minutes and production are available. 

Many of the recent influx of international players will be vying for minutes including 6-10 sophomore Rokas Jocius and 6-5 redshirt sophomore Andres Marrero, but as has always been the case with Dunphy, defense is where this group will earn its playing time.

La Salle allowed 72.6 points per game and was ranked No. 234 nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency (107.5), according to KenPom.com, last season. Overall, the Explorers were not great, but their three-point shooting defense was a facet to lay their hats on, allowing the opposition to shoot 34.5% from deep and only giving up 10 or more three-pointers made in 11 games.

Dunphy will be the first to tell you that he has been emphasizing defense as much as he has in the past and that is where he is hoping the Explorers can put together a few more wins than last year.

“It starts at the defensive end because there are nights where you’re not going to have your stuff together,” Dunphy said. “There’s no real excuse for your defense to not be in great shape. That’s what we talk about and work at even more. The hope is we’re going to be as solid as possible.”

It has been 11 years since La Salle’s last NCAA Tournament run, the one that ended in the Sweet 16 and gave birth to the “Southwest Philly Floater.” While the past deserves to be celebrated, the reality of where the program stands in the midst of the transfer portal, name, image and likeness (NIL) and even conference realignment resounds far outside the TruMark Financial Center. This current era in college basketball is far different from the one Dunphy played in or the one he began coaching in. Still, he is going to work on the things that he can control which are his core values of defense and playing hard, and that might be enough to resonate with the La Salle faithful who hope for a return to prominence. For now.

“Just think about what has changed in the world of recruiting with NIL and the transfer portal,” Dunphy said. “We have more opportunities for a lot of these guys, and we’ve become more global in our search.”