City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@jsantoliquito)
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It was a matter of proximity, mixed with a heavy dose of loyalty. The first school that offered a scholarship to West Philly’s gifted 6-foot-4 guard Abdrahaman Coulibaly was Rider. So, naturally, Coulibaly, known as “AB” to his teammates and friends, felt compelled to reciprocate and commit over Labor Day weekend to Rider.

The First Team All-Pub guard choose the Lawrenceville, New Jersey, school based on location and for how committed he felt Rider was to him. Coulibaly, who averaged 18.9 ppg, 8.3 rpg and 3.0 apg, shooting better than 58% from the floor his senior year, choose the Broncs over Central Connecticut and Gardner–Webb University, a small Christian-based Division I school in Boiling Springs, North Carolina.

“Rider was the first school that showed interest in me, and every tournament I had this summer, (Rider assistant) coach (Kim) Waiters was there,” said Coulibaly, who is doing a prep year at Avon Old Farms. “They offered and they knew I was interested. When they could have been out recruiting other players, they still were interested in me.

"A big factor in my commitment is how close Rider is to my home. My parents can see me play. I watched Rider practice and there is a lot of movement in their offense. They get guys involved. It works for me because I am not a ball-dominant player. I get a lot of my buckets off cuts and opportunity.”

Coulibaly visited Rider with his parents on August 1. A month later, AB told Rider he was going.

The Rider coaching staff strongly supported Coulibaly’s choice to take the prep year, he said.

He walks into a great situation at Rider with strong Philadelphia connections. Rider head coach Kevin Baggett, a two-time MAAC Coach of the Year, returns for his 13th season for the Broncs.

Baggett played for St. Joe’s and has two Philadelphia stalwarts that are part of his staff. One is his former St Joe’s teammate, Hawks’ legend Geoff Arnold, an assistant for 11 years under all-time leading St. Joe’s coach Phil Martelli, and who served under Bruiser Flint at UMass and Drexel. The other is Roy Blumenthal, who is listed as a special assistant under Baggett, and arrived at Rider after 14 years as the top assistant at West Chester.

The Broncs’ current roster is filled with local talent, like Cardinal O’Hara’s Aasim “Flash” Burton, Bonner-Prendie’s Tariq Ingraham, Abington Friends’ Ife West-Ingram and Atlantic City’s Stephen “Tank” Byard. Rider finished 15-17 overall last season, and 12-8 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), reaching the conference tournament finals, where the Broncs lost a heartbreaker to St. Peter’s, 50-48. The last time Rider made the NCAA Tournament was during the 1993-94 season, when the Broncs played in the Northeast Conference (NEC).

Coulibaly stressed the year at Avon Old Farms, in Avon, Connecticut, will better prepare him for the bigger, stronger college players he will be facing and will make him far more adjusted to college life by the time he reaches Rider.

“I want to be better academically, and athletically, and I thought this was the best move toward that,” Coulibaly said. “I felt I needed to grow more. I need to be more disciplined because I am on my own for the first time in my life. My West Philly coaches pushed me to do this. Yeah, this is the first time in my life I’ll be washing my own clothes (laughs).

“I will need to manage my time and this is the first time I am on an intense weight training program. This time last year, I weighed around 170 pounds. I’m around 176 now. I want to weigh around 180, 185 by the time I leave. It will make me better once I get to Rider. I have to definitely get stronger, I want to make sure my three-point shot is better and I want to dunk everything. When I go down the lane, I want to dunk everything. I’m doing lifts I have never done before in my life. The sports here in general are serious. Everyone here do not take days off, and that motivated you.

“It will make me that much better when I get to Rider.”   

Avon Old Farms head coach Matt Mihalich is entering his sixth season with the Winged Beavers, who finished 11-13 overall last season. Matt is from the Mihalich Philadelphia basketball family, the son of La Salle assistant coach Joe Mihalich, the former Niagara and Hofstra head coach, and brother of Penn assistant Joe Mihalich Jr. Matt’s roots are so entrenched in the Philadelphia basketball family that it was Big 5 legend and current La Salle coach Fran Dunphy who drove Joe Sr. to the hospital to pick up Joe Sr.’s wife Mary when the Mihalichs found out that they were having twins (Matt and Tony).

Matt likens AB’s potential at Rider to former Siena star Edwin Ubiles, who finished his career there as the Saints’ third all-time leading scorer, and Tremmell Darden, the former All-MAAC star who played for his father at Niagara.

“We’re just starting to see how good AB can be,” Matt said. “This year will be the most intense season of his life. His diet, weight training, and basketball will develop him that much more physically. Avon Farms produces players that wind up at great academic schools, like Matt Curtis (at Fairfield) and Christian Moore (The Citadel). I need to emphasis this: I would love to have more kids from Philly here, and this school is meant for guys to lock in and achieve their goals, like Ryan Puglisi (an Avon Old Farms grad now a freshman backup quarterback for No. 1-ranked Georgia).

“I love this place and that it provides opportunity for young people. I’m grateful to be here, because it is a special place and I want to find more kids like AB. I want to be a steward for this place and give more kids a shot.”

AB is certainly grateful.

“I want to leave here better than when I came here,” Coulibaly said. “I need to stay on top of my stuff and learn to use my time properly, because I will be very busy. This is a far more intense environment. This is what I wanted to do. I’m attacking it. I want to be here and make the most of this opportunity. Seven or eight months from now I will be 10 times better than when I got here. When I get to Rider, I know I’ll be able to go right in and help.”

Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who began writing for CoBL in 2021 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on Twitter here.