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Prepping for Preps: Boys' Latin (Pa.)

10/16/2015, 2:15pm EDT
By Josh Verlin

Boys' Latin big man Cam Garnder-Nicholson (above) will be a problem to handle for most Pub 'B' teams. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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(Ed. Note: This article is part of CoBL's "Prepping for Preps," our series of articles previewing area high school teams for the 2015-16 season. For the complete list of schools previewed so far, click here)

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For the last two years, Boys’ Latin has found itself in a frustrating position, that fine line between a successful year and a disappointing finish.

Under head coach R.J. McDaniel, now in his fourth year at the helm of the Warriors, Boys’ Latin has finished in second place in the Public League’s ‘B’ Division, just shy of that promotion to the top tier in the city school league.

Last year, to add insult to injury, Boys’ Latin came one win away from a berth in the state playoffs, but ran straight into city powerhouse Imhotep in the Public League quarterfinals.

“We always end up second in the ‘B’ division and lose to Imhotep in the playoffs,” McDaniel said. “Back when we used to go to states, they were AA, so we didn’t ever have to play them.”

Back when Boys’ Latin last made the state tournament, in 2011-12, it was during the final season of Maurice Watson, Jr.’s stellar four-year career. Watson, now a redshirt junior at Creighton, averaged 21.8 ppg that year to finish his career as one of just four players in Public League history with 2,000 points.

The Warriors don’t have that kind of starpower anymore, and McDaniel has instead developed a steady program where freshmen and sophomore (and even juniors) pay their dues on the junior varsity level before contributing to the varsity squad as seniors.

“Our program is not like varsity’s in a vacuum,” McDaniel said. “I’m in the gym, I know every kid down to a freshman. It’s not like when I start coaching them, they haven’t experienced me coaching them before...so it’s a pretty smooth transition from the coaching standpoint.”

With last year’s ‘B’ Division winner, George Washington, moved up to the ‘A’ Division, the target is once again on Boys’ Latin as the top returning team, but they’ll have work to do before the season starts.

A class of eight seniors that saw varsity action last year has graduated, including leading scorers Umar Saaba (11.4 ppg) and Leo Gardner (9.2 ppg), leaving McDaniel with just four players returning from last season.

That means he’ll have several varsity seniors who’ve only played JV to this point, including Jameer Killings, Julian Morris and Chris Slater, all of whom will feature in the rotation.

Despite being classmates with two other seniors, Jelani Mauge and Gus Sephes, they have never all been on the same team; Mauge and Sephes were varsity contributors from sophomore year, when they transferred into the eight-year-old school.

“Playing with those two is kind of new, but during practice it’s the same old thing,” Killing said. “It’s a lot of chemistry going on.”

What will help Boys’ Latin certainly stand apart in the ‘B’ Division this year is the presence of senior forward Cam Gardner-Nicholson. A 6-foot-7, 220-pound post player, Gardner-Nicholson is an imposing threat around the rim with wide shoulders and long arms, and he does a good job of fighting for second- and third-chance rebounds and running the floor.

He’s very much aware of his importance to the team, not just as as a defensive presence and offensive weapon but as a leader and tone-setter as well.

“I’ve got to be the mediator, I can’t have bad body language and if I do it’s going to show on (my teammates) and make us play bad,” he said. “I have to always be in the game, not be affected by missed shots or bad plays, just be a leader, next play and going on.”

In a league whose play tends to be very much up and down the court, McDaniel preaches transition defense as crucial towards winning games. Because he knows that once his Warriors can get opponents into a half-court set, he has the ability to take chances and try to turn things the other way.

“It gives our defense so much freedom to be aggressive, because if we do get beat we’ve got this incredible rim protector,” McDaniel said. “We encourage them to play hard because the way we play defense is to force guys into Cam, and that’s what we want because we know he’ll erase those shots.”

Along with Gardner-Nicholson, who got reserve time on the varsity level last year, Mauge (7.0 ppg), a 6-4 guard, and Sephes (6.5 ppg) also got plenty of experience, as did a final senior, Timothy Moore, another point guard who also plays football.

Those seniors will be joined by several sophomores that McDaniel expects to make an impact on the varsity roster, including guards Yazid Powell and Jabril Nobel.

"We’ve got a lot of sophomores who play varsity so we’re trying to give them a chance to show what they’ve got,” Killing said. “We’re trying to get stronger, get faster for the season, really. Just trying to improve as a team.”


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