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92 in 92: George Washington (Pa.)

09/30/2014, 11:00am EDT

By Tom Reifsnyder

George Washington wing Charlie Brown (above) is a big key to the Eagles’ success this season. (Photo: Tug Haines)

Tom Reifsnyder (@tom_reifsnyder)
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(Ed. Note: This piece is part of CoBL’s “92 Stories in 92 Days” high school season preview, which will feature a different team in the CoBL coverage range each day from September 1 to December 1. For the full list of previews, click here)

At the ripe age of 35, George Washington’s third-year head coach John Creighton has turned the boys’ basketball team into a surprise contender in the Public League.

In Creighton’s first year at the helm, the Eagles won 14 games (nine in league play) and brought home the Pub’s Division B title.

Despite their regular season success, the team was not able to advance past the first round of the Public League playoffs.

In his second year, the team went 15-7 overall and won nine public league games for the second year in a row. This time, the Eagles took a minor step forward from the previous year’s playoff finish, falling to two-seed Central in a Pub Class AAAA semifinal.

The Eagles have managed to sustain their success and improve marginally in each season since Creighton took over the program.

While many coaches are simply concerned with the outcome of each individual game, Creighton sees the big picture for Washington.

“Washington basketball has never had a state game, on any level, whether it’s a state qualifier game when you’re meeting a Catholic League school for that last four ‘A’ spot, or just getting into the states overall; that’s really our goal.”

Possibly the biggest determining factor in the team’s success this season will be the performance of senior wing Charlie Brown.

At almost 6-foot-6 and 178 pounds, Brown exhibits a lethal combination of freakish length and offensive skill that allows him to torment defenders and fundamentally alter the flow of game with his play.

Creighton aims to utilize Brown’s unique talents in any way possible to maximize the team’s potential this season.

“[Charlie] came to us last year, and we have high expectations for him this year,” Creighton said. “He’s a defensive matchup nightmare. He’s got the ability to shoot from the outside and then play on the inside as well. And then depending upon who we go up against, we really put him in a situation to be successful every game.”

Brown can certainly shoot the rock, but it’s his versatility that separates him from the pack.

“He’s the type of kid that’s willing to do anything for the team, so there were games when we needed him inside and then in particular with the game against Olney in the playoffs, where he started to get hot from the outside and we just left him out there to do his thing,” Creighton said.

“And I mean, having the ability to do that, having a Jerome Blume who can just rebound with the best of them allows that to happen, it gives us some nice versatility.”

With a talent like Brown leading the charge, the Eagles are nothing if not versatile.

Although a good deal of the Eagles’ talented youth will be returning, the team will be without multiple key role players from last season.

Creighton’s squad will undoubtedly miss the leadership of their former captain,
Khyree Hunt-Hawkins. Hawkins suffered an injury early and ended up playing less than 10 games for the Eagles last season.

Despite his lack of on-court influence, Hunt-Hawkins was a big factor off the court in 2013-2014.

“The leadership is really what we’re going to miss the most from Khyree,” Creighton said. “He was able to get on kids during the school day if he knew the kids were slacking or on the court in practice he was able to get on them without the coaches having to raise their voice or even get in their face and mention that these are our goals.

“And that’s tough to teach because some kids have it, some kids don’t.”

Other key players gone from last year’s team include 6-6 forward Rasheed Black and 6-4 forward Jalil Moses, both of whom played significant minutes off the bench for Creighton.

Although the roster has changed considerably, Brown believes several of his current teammates are ready to step up this season.

“Our guards Asante [Ali] and Jheron [Johnson], and our center Jerome [Blume] will be big for us this year,” Brown said. “They’re great for spacing, moving the ball, and scoring.”

Just as Creighton and Brown see great potential in this year’s team, the 2015 wing has quite lofty expectations for his personal contribution as well.

“I want to take my team as far as we can go and create some goals for us,” Brown said. “I’m trying to make all-city and all-state.”

Brown will absolutely have the opportunity to accomplish his goals this season under the encouragement of Creighton and his staff.

However, Creighton has proved that he will not hesitate to bench Brown if his mind isn’t where it should be. This was clearly evident in last season’s Class AAAA semifinal loss to Central, in which Brown did not log a single minute of playing time.

“It was a learning experience for him, and there were other people on the team that worked just as hard that were getting extra minutes in that Central game that we were expecting to step up,” Creighton said.

Another area that Brown will look to take care of is his collegiate destination.

At the moment, Brown is drawing interest from schools in the NEC/MAAC range such as Monmouth and Wagner. In order to attract some higher Division I attention, Brown must first improve his academic standing.

“I’ve had a couple conversations with some low division one teams and mid-majors that are interested in him,” Creighton said. “We’re still working on getting him qualified and getting his SAT scores and his grade point average up because he does have the ability, and I don’t want him to not qualify if he has a chance to get a scholarship.”

As Brown works on his performance in the classroom, he will also need to improve his leadership skills. Brown is the quiet type that tends to lead more by his play than with his words.

If he wants to win big this season, he will have to do both.

Under the guidance of Creighton and the developing leadership of Brown, the Eagles have a terrific opportunity to improve their finish yet again in 2014-2015.

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(Ed. Note: This piece is part of CoBL’s “92 Stories in 92 Days” high school season preview, which will feature a different team in the CoBL coverage range each day from September 1 to December 1.)