City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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(Ed. Note: This article is part of CoBL's 2015-16 College Season Preview, which will run from October 2-November 13, the first day of games. For the complete rundown, click here)

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In the span of a few weeks, Herb Magee’s outlook on the 2015-16 season changed drastically.

Fresh off an NCAA Tournament appearance, Philadelphia University looked primed for another deep run next March. Then suddenly, a group of four senior starters was cut in half, and one talented underclassmen was gone as well.

It was late August when the first dominoes fell. Senior Derek Johnson, the team’s leading scorer a year ago (17.8 ppg), was kicked off the team. Around the same time, sophomore guard Jordan DiCicco informed the coaching staff he was leaving school to pursue a business he started which sells high-energy iced coffee drinks.

“We lose guys certain ways, to injury and discipline, but never to a coffee drink,” said Magee, who’s entering his 48th year as head coach at Philly U and 56th as part of the program as either a player or coach. “If we had him, then this team, my expectations would be a lot higher, because he’s terrific. I’m hoping to get him back next year--I hope he makes a million dollars and decides to come back.”

The crushing blow happened in mid-September, during the Rams’ first preseason workout. Right at the end, senior point guard Andre Gibbs went up for a layup, and as soon as he hit the ground he fell down, holding his knee.

Gibbs was able to walk to the trainers’ room, and assured his teammates would be fine. He was wrong.

“It didn’t look like anything happened, and then boom -- it turns out he tears his ACL,” fellow senior T.J. Huggins said. “It changes our whole lineup. It was just a shock thing, but we’re adjusting.”

“I found out from my girlfriend, actually, she was in there with the training room with him when he got the news,” said center Peter Alexis, the final one of that group of four seniors. “The next morning, everybody came into conditioning pissed off and we were ready to work.”

The injury to Gibbs, who averaged 10.6 ppg and 2.5 apg as a junior, most directly affects Huggins, who will likely become the dominant playmaker for the Rams after averaging 3.1 apg as a 6-5 wing/point-forward a year ago. But there’s a big difference from making passes off the wing to setting up the offense, and Huggins has been working on his ability to run the offense no matter the situation.

“Being able to handle the pressure without breaking what we want to do,” he said. “Instead of breaking the pressure and just trying to score...I know if we’re trying to set up something specifically, being able to handle the pressure and stay within the concept of what we’re trying to do.”

The focal point of the offense is going to be Alexis, a 6-11 center who began his career briefly at Penn State before coming to Philly U, where he’s been a three-year starter and all-conference honoree.

A 1,500-point scorer with nearly 900 rebounds already in his college career, Alexis is an interior force that few (if any) Division II teams in the region can match.

“Our focus this year as in other years is to get the ball inside to Pete,” Magee said. “And if we can do that successfully, which we’ve been working on, we think we’ll be fine because he’s a dynamic scorer and when he gets the ball down low not too many teams can stop him.”

To help offset the losses of Johnson, DiCicco and Gibbs as well as the graduation of Nick Schlitzer (17.7 ppg, 4.9 rpg), the Rams add a 6-5 wing to the roster in redshirt junior Brendan Kilpatrick, a transfer from Vermont.

The 2012 Inter-Ac MVP as a senior at Malvern Prep, Kilpatrick has dealt with injuries in his college career thus far, but after sitting out the 2014-15 season to get healthy he’s expected to jump right into the starting lineup at Philly U.

“He’s a good player, he’s athletic, he can shoot, he’s just picking up the way we’d like to play,” Magee said. “He played in one system for three years, although he was hurt for one year, and now he’s doing an entirely different system. So once he feels comfortable in the system, he’s got skills.”

Also joining the starting lineup is 6-3 sophomore guard Kaison Randolph, a Pennington School (N.J.) grad who started two games a year ago.

Still to be determined is the fifth starter; sophomore Eric Long, a 6-7 forward, is in the running, as is 5-11 junior guard Mike Louden, a pure point guard.

It’s an important distinction, as Magee rarely goes to his bench. Last year’s Rams saw its five players average more than 35 minutes per game and only two others average more than eight: DiCicco and Randolph. Long and DiCicco were the only non-starters to appear in more than half of Philly U’s games.

The only thing that’s been figured out is that it’s too soon for Magee to readjust his expectations.

“I don’t really have them yet,” he admitted. “Now without two starters, both of which are 1,000-point scorers, now what do we do? We have to mix and match. The only positive thing to come out of it is that we have time.”