City of Basketball Love

Rich Flanagan (@richflanagan33)
__

Dating back to his senior season at Abraham Lincoln, Khalif Meares has demanded the attention of all those in attendance.

He was the focal reason behind the best two-year stretch in Railsplitters history. He elected to play at one of the better junior college programs in the country. The COVID-19 pandemic halted a successful future and before Meares knew it, he was out of options. He captivated almost every court he played on for three years and suddenly he didn’t have a single pair of eyes on him.

Meares was candid that while the pandemic was part of the equation, he lost track of handling his business off the court.

“I fell off in the classroom,” Meares said. “I took a break from school and played in a couple summer leagues then decided to come back to school.”

Away from organized basketball, Meares kept in shape by playing with his friends in competitive fall and summer leagues and was a mainstay in the Danny Rumph Classic over the last two summers showcasing what had made him such an incredible player in the Philadelphia Public League and at Harcum College. Still, he missed being part of a team and playing with a purpose. He needed that back and it needed to be the right opportunity.

“I wanted to get back into school and ready to play,” Meares said. “I wasn’t really debating between schools then I went to a Rowan game and saw a lot of people I know. It made it feel like home, and they opened their arms to me.”

Meares is back with the ball in his hands facilitating the offense for the Rowan University Profs under the direction of interim head coach Eric Brennan. The 6-3 junior guard is averaging 20.6 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 3.1 apg and 4.2 spg for the Profs (12-4, 6-3 New Jersey Athletic Conference) and has scored 20-or-more points in 11 games so far this season, including a career-high 30 against Swarthmore on Jan. 3.

Brennan is at the helm for the first time after spending the last five as an assistant and Meares has spearheaded Brennan’s offense in their first year in brand-new roles.  

“We thought it might take a few games, but it was almost immediate,” Brennan said. “This is a kid who loves to play basketball and he seems like he never gets tired. Rarely will he come out of a game. He’s a calming presence and he’s having so much fun playing basketball. It’s nice to see him out on the court and enjoying what he’s doing.”

Despite being away from competitive basketball for three years, Meares currently ranks No. 43 in Division III in scoring while shooting 51.5% from the field. He attacks the basketball with quickness and finishes with ease. At only 166 pounds, Meares has a goal to put more weight on his rangy frame but through the early part of this career resurgence, conditioning hasn’t been a factor.

“I just play a lot of basketball,” Meares said. “The first day of practice, Coach Brennan told me I play too much basketball outside of here and didn’t want me to get hurt. I work out a lot with my old coaches like Jamel Lindsey and get in the gym with them.”

Lindsey was an assistant during Meares’ senior season at Abraham Lincoln and later succeeded Al Brown as head coach. Meares has always had a close relationship with Lindsey, who helped his former pupil stay in shape during his hiatus from organized basketball but what the former standout did as a member of the Railsplitters is the primary reason he was so heavily coveted early in his career. 

He led Lincoln to an overtime win over Conestoga in the first round of the PIAA Class 6A Tournament as a junior to secure the program’s first-ever state playoff victory. As a senior, he averaged 14.0 ppg on his way to Public League Liberty Division Player of the Year and Pa. All-State Class 6A Second Team.

Meares scored 18 points to lead the Railsplitters to an 86-76 win over Roman Catholic in the District 12-6A title game, clinching the school’s first city title, then led a run to the PIAA 6A final in Hershey where he had 28 points in a rematch with the Cahillites. Despite receiving interest from Hartford, West Chester, and East Stroudsburg, Meares chose to take an opportunity at Harcum under Drew Kelly, now an assistant at Northeastern University. He blossomed at Harcum as Kelly and assistant coach John Ball, who succeeded Kelly, allowed him the freedom to penetrate and find his spots in the lane because at the other end, he was as disruptive a defender as Harcum has had in its successful history.

He held a career average of 13.2 ppg and his 817 points in his two seasons on campus ranks 11th in career scoring annals. He recorded the program’s first triple-double ever with 14 points, 16 assists and 10 steals against Harford Community College on Dec. 20, 2019. He also ranks sixth in program history in assists (257) but where he thrived was getting into passing lanes. His 183 career steals remain a program record, and not coincidentally, he has the single season steals record (113) and is tied for the single game mark (10).

During Meares’ time at Harcum, Brennan was recruiting his teammate, Hafeez Melvin, who eventually played two seasons at Rowan. In the process of locking down Melvin, Brennan was also planting the idea of having Meares join his teammate with the Profs in hopes the duo could excel together.

“Recruiting is a funny process because you never know where someone might end up or where one conversation will lead you,” Brennan said. “Khalif was Hafeez’s teammate at the time, and I made a really light mention to Khalif because I knew he was higher than us in both division and level. I said, ‘If it doesn’t work out at higher levels, we would love to have you because you’re a great player.’”

Meares used his time away from basketball to reassess his life and see where he wanted his career to go next. He wasn’t playing organized basketball, but he was watching it as he was regularly seen courtside at Rowan games watching two good friends in Melvin and former Cheltenham guard Ahmad Bickley, who came over from Chestnut Hill College.

“Coach Brennan recruited Hafeez and Ahmad then he recruited me, too,” Meares said. “A couple of my friends were on the team, and we began talking about me coming onto the team. I hit Eric up and it went from there.”

Brennan felt building that relationship with Meares, even when it didn’t appear he would ever find his way there, paid dividends so many years later. 

“I think I planted the seed and he also saw Hafeez’s experience here,” Brennan said. “At that point, he came to a lot of games and invested a lot of time to ensure we were the right fit for him.”

Meares is once again demanding the attention of both the opposition and crowd. Even with only 14 three-pointers and playing in a starting lineup with 6-6 senior Ja'Zere Noel (21.3 ppg), he is scoring at will and blowing by defenders. On the defensive end, he has 67 steals and has multiple steals in 14 of his 16 games played. Furthermore, he is an emulation of Brennan out of the court by telling players where to be in certain situations in only his first year with the program.

“It’s great, especially because he’s been a leader since those first few practices,” Brennan said. “A lot of people can get behind that. He’s working his tail off every possession and usually sticking the best player on the other team. Offensively, we just get him space because there’s not a lot of over-coaching you need to do with Khalif.”

It’s been a challenging road for Meares to get to this point and he isn’t taking it for granted. He’s in a place where he feels comfortable and that is evident in his overall performance. His budding confidence has returned and he’s a central reason why Rowan has major aspirations in a year that has been full of transition for so many reasons.

“It just feels great and I’m happy to be back on the basketball court,” Meares said. “I’m back playing and in school instead of just playing. Now I’m around teammates and coaches. I feel like they all trust me, and they have seen what I can do. I really trust them.”