City of Basketball Love

Aron Minkoff (@AronMinkoff)
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At roughly 3:07 p.m. a composed Lamar Stevens took to the podium in the Roman Catholic library. Leaving the table, where he was flanked by his parents to speak in front of the packed room, filled with family and teammates, Stevens told the world that he was going to be a Penn State Nittany Lion.

Throughout the recruitment process, best friends and now Roman Catholic teammates, Tony Carr and Stevens made no secret of their desires to play together at the next level.

So, when Carr announced his commitment to Penn State back in early August, all heads immediately turned toward the 6-foot-6 wingman. Add to the mix that his Team Final and now Roman teammate, Nazeer Bostick, had also committed to Penn State, and the rest of the recruitment process seemed to be not a matter of if, but a matter of when.

Stevens insists it never felt that way from his teammates and friends.

“The entire time, they never recruited me,” he said. “I can’t think of one time that they ever tried to recruit me, or they were trying to get me to come or commit or anything, I was surprised, because I would have been recruiting, but I guess they are a little better people than me.”

He visited Penn State this past weekend and chose the Nittany Lions over offers from the likes of Villanova, Marquette, Temple, Indiana and Pitt to name a few. His decision was made a little less than a week ago, at the conclusion of his visit to State College, after having a one-on-one conversation with Penn State coach Pat Chambers.

Stevens felt so at home at State College that the decision was easy, adding that Chambers is someone he “would trust with my life.”

The highest-ranked recruit of the bunch, Carr, was all smiles following Stevens’ announcement.

“I am speechless right now,” Carr said. “I knew a little bit before, but now that it is finally finalized, it’s just great knowing that I will spend four more years with my brothers, not only him, but Nazeer Bostick too.”

From a state title, to state college, Bostick was the first domino to fall back in April when he gave the verbal commitment to the Nittany Lions.

And while he did so earlier on in the process, Bostick was the first piece of the puzzle in the Penn State recruiting class. About three months later, Carr chose Penn State over offers from schools like Maryland and Temple, leaving all waiting on Stevens, the last domino to fall.

“It feels great having both of my close friends with me,” Bostick said. “This was kind-of planned, and now seeing it come together, it’s the best feeling...there was a little doubt [when he committed] but I still had faith that my guys would follow me up to Penn State.”

Former Cahillite Shep Garner will be a junior when the trio of current Roman Catholic players arrive at State College, giving Chambers four Roman Catholic players on his roster.

With the amount of Roman players on the roster, Chambers has created quite the pipeline to one of Philadelphia’s strongest programs. A program that won the state championship last year and returns most of their starters from the previous year. As far as pipelines are concerned, it’s not too shabby of one to have.

“You’re always a little bit of a Penn State fan when you’re from Pennsylvania,” Roman coach Chris McNesby said. “Having those guys up there together is going to be special. Shep is up there now and to have Tony, Naz and Lamar up there next year, it’s going to be a special team to watch.”

With the addition of Philly product Mike Watkins, from The Phelps School, there is a viable chance that Penn State could have an all-Philly starting five.

Stevens compared this possibility to a story he heard the other day about a group of three players from Flint, Michigan who helped Michigan State when a national championship in 2000, the group known as the Flintstones. Mateen Cleaves, Morris Peterson, and Charlie Bell. Stevens added “I really think we could do something similar up at Penn State.”

The Roman trio certainly will have the opportunity to form a special team up at State College, however they still have business to attend to first, defending their PCL and State crown.