City of Basketball Love

Rich Flanagan (@richflanagan33)
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A staple of Jeff Wilson’s offense is a quick swing and post entry. While it may seem like a simple concept, so much of what his offense does revolves around what the post player does once the ball hits their hands.

Wilson has been at East Stroudsburg for 21 seasons with seven Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) regular season titles and as many NCAA Tournament berths. He’s closing in on 400 career wins and as he has turned the Warriors program into one of the best in Division II, he has taught players to take that entry pass and turn it into a historic, accomplished career. The next player who is following that blueprint is Lakeem McAliley.

McAliley is doing more than simply scoring around the basket or finding an open teammate out of a post double team; he’s controlling everything the Warriors do and it has them scorching this season.

“Coach Wilson saw what I was capable of and felt if it’s working, why not work with it,” McAliley said. “It’s working well for us right now.”

McAliley has changed the dynamic of East Stroudsburg (13-2, 7-2 PSAC East) since entering the rotation in the 2021-22 season and the Warriors have won 36 games with him in the starting lineup over the last two seasons. The 6-6, 235-pound redshirt junior forward is averaging 15.7 ppg and a career-best 7.7 rpg this season, which includes 13 double-digit scoring games and three double-doubles. He also became just the fifth player in program history to score 1,000 career points during his junior season after pouring in 23 points against Clarion on Dec. 18.

East Stroudsburg's Lakeem McAliley, second from left, is honored before a game against Lock Haven on Jan. 17. (Photo: Emily Voigt/East Stroudsburg Athletics)

His game transcends the norms of prototypical bigs, especially on a Warriors team where he typically plays in the middle. He has a strong frame with the build of a linebacker, but he complements that with pure athleticism and a smooth feel by corralling rebounds and leading the break down the other end. He’s more than simply a player who can mix it up in the paint; he’s as versatile a player as Wilson has had.

“Lakeem is a really talented kid, especially offensively in knowing how to put the ball in the basket,” Wilson said. “There are a lot of things we don’t teach that he does naturally. That popped when we went to see him as a high school player was a guy with a lot of natural talent. If he can corral it, then you have a special player.”

Assistant coach Sean Hanna put McAliley on Wilson’s radar when the big man was playing under Terrence “Nip” Cook at Mastery Charter North, where he played two seasons after beginning his career at Jules E. Mastbaum Area Vocational/Technical School. Alongside high-scoring guard Jamir Reed, who played at Central Connecticut State, McAliley led Mastery to the Public League semifinals as a junior where it lost to Donta Scott and Imhotep Charter. 

He was an All-Public League Independence Division First Team selection his junior season then Pa. All-State Class 5A Second Team his senior season after averaging 22.0 ppg and 8.0 rpg, which included a career-high 43 points against Harrisburg. He had 31 points in a 2019 PIAA Class 5A Tournament opening round win over West Chester Rustin and finished his high school career as a 1,000-point scorer.

McAliley is having great success at East Stroudsburg for a variety of reasons but a critical one is his comfortability with his current role trickling from his high school experience.

“In high school, I played the big man role as well because I was taller and more physical than other guys,” McAliley said. “I had to get used to it and mold my game around that.”

His career started off slower than others as he played one game during his freshman season before a knee injury derailed the remainder and he chose to redshirt. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic canceled his sophomore season and he had to wait until Oct. 30, 2021, to showcase what he could do. Patience and perseverance paid off as he went for 23 points in 24 minutes in his collegiate debut in an exhibition game against the University of Pennsylvania at the Palestra. 

McAlily averaged 14.2 ppg and 5.6 rpg in 27 games (five starts) as a redshirt freshman as East Stroudsburg went 19-8 and was named PSAC East regular season co-champions with Millersville.

He was even better last season with averages of 16.6 ppg and 5.8 rpg and a career-high 35 points coming against Bowie State then leading the Warriors to the PSAC Final Four and an NCAA Tournament appearance. McAliley possesses a skillset that few bigs who have come through Wilson’s program displayed and even after developing over the course of their careers, even fewer have blossomed in a multitude of areas as McAliley.

“I have not given much leeway to bigs in the way I give it to him because he has a different skillset,” Wilson said. “Sometimes it backfires on me where he will pick up a bad foul, charge, or turnover, and that’s an area we’re working to get him to understand that if we’re going to let him have the ball, it still needs to be kicked. If you want to play with guard skills, part of being a guard is seeing the next pass and he’s still evolving into that.”

“A lot of people will step in on him and take a charge because they know he wants to score. He’s strong, physical, and quick, and not a lot of big guys will typically be able to stay in front of him. I don’t give that leeway to a lot of big guys, but I’ve given it to him.”

Lakeem McAliley handles the ball against IUP on Dec. 30. (Photo: Dave Janosz/East Stroudsburg Athletics)

Wilson compared McAliley to former standout Rasheed Moore, who is currently playing for Medipolis SC Jena in ProA in Germany. Moore “was a 6-5 lefty like Lakeem but not as strong and physical” and put together a sensational career as he became the first player in East Stroudsburg history to earn All-PSAC East honors four times. 

He was also named National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) All-Atlantic Region as a senior after averaging 18.6 ppg, 7.0 rpg and 1.1 bpg. The Warriors accumulated an 88-30 record during his career, including a 30-2 mark in 2013-14 with a berth in the NCAA Atlantic Region Finals. He ranks fourth all-time at ESU in career points (1,776) and rebounds (775).

The longtime coach has always been a big believer in the mantra of “guys grow in their roles” and Moore certainly did after coming into the program as a strictly back-to-the-basket forward.

McAliley, who already has 1,152 points and 452 rebounds to his name, fits that exact mold as a big who flourished in pick-and-roll situations but wasn’t seen as a shooter or facilitator to begin his career. He shot a respectable 40.4% from the three-point line last season with 23 makes from deep on a team that nailed 255 and he also dished out 52 assists. Neither statistic is particularly eye-popping but when considering how far along his game was at the outset, his versatility has made him a matchup nightmare for the opposition. Wilson feels McAliley is progressing in the same mold as Moore but in a more expedited fashion.

“Guys take that on and look to improve their game then I give them more flexibility,” Wilson said. “With Lakeem, that has evolved naturally. As a freshman, he didn’t have the leeway he does now and hopefully he’ll have even more next year.”

Moore graduated before McAliley’s recruitment truly ramped up, but when McAliley got on campus, he looked to the tutelage of veteran teammates in Troy Jones, Montrel Morgan, Carlos Pepin, and Mike Millsip (Neumann-Goretti), specifically when he suffered that knee injury in his first collegiate season. According to McAliley, “they taught me what I needed to do when I got here and got injured.” 

Jones, Morgan and Millsip were all members of the 2017-18 team that secured the NCAA D-II Atlantic Region championship, the program’s first-ever regional title with Jones starting all 33 games that season. Pepin joined McAliley on the All-PSAC East First Team a season ago and scored 1,204 career points.

The natural ability was always there but playing a mature game by slowing things down and becoming more methodical in his approach allowed McAliley to find higher percentage shots while also integrating a better control with the ball both in the post and on the perimeter.

“The biggest growth in my game was listening to some of the previous guys because I was young and wasn’t as good as the guys before me, but I had to learn from them,” McAliley said.

He’s the leader this year playing alongside Jaelen McGlone (13.2 ppg) – the former Cheltenham standout who played two seasons at Rider – former West Catholic star Nasir Griffin (11.7), Tyshawn Trail (10.6) and former Bethlehem Catholic guard Justin Paz (10.1). This group has the Warriors at No. 11 in the latest NABC Poll and No. 8 in the Division II College Sports Communicators (D2CSC) National Poll.

Wilson feels McAliley “has a great deal of growth” and “this team still has a lot of growth” as a whole, but when things go through McAliley, specifically in that post entry, the success his team has had cannot be understated. It has also rubbed off on those around him.

“That goes to once there’s an entry to Lakeem,” Wilson said. “We have entry to those other guys too like Cameron Young and Jaelen with their athleticism in the paint where they can go off the dribble or a cut. As we go through the offense and following an entry, all those guys have opportunities.”

McAliley has the Warriors off to a terrific start while playing the best basketball of his career. Despite an elongated genesis to his collegiate career, he remained steadfast on playing his game and following the example of Jones, Morgan, Millsip and Pepin. He has simplified his game and everything else in his arsenal has followed suit.

“The basic advice was keeping my head and not feeding into any negative, outside noise,” McAliley said. “They taught me to stay centered.”