City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Xzavier Malone was all set to wait until the spring until making his college decision.

Then Rider University coach Kevin Baggett offered two weeks ago, and his plans changed.

Malone, a senior at Plymouth-Whitemarsh High School, first visited the Lawrenceville, N.J. school’s campus last weekend for the Broncs’ Midnight Madness, where several hundred of the school’s students came out to support a team that’s one of the favorites to win the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) this season.

It made quite an impression on the 6-foot-4 guard.

“I had to sleep on it for like a week, so every night I was sleeping on it,” he said. “After Midnight Madness I really liked the place but I had to come back and check it out again, I wasn’t going to just commit off Midnight Madness.

“I went up there (again), checked out everything, met the admissions, educational counseling, all that stuff, and then I just decided for sure that I wanted to come (Saturday) evening,” he continued. “I was in the coach’s office, talked to my mom while I was out there and it was a wrap after that.”

After two years at Martin Luther King where he was never quite able to break into the rotation, Malone transferred last season to Plymouth-Whitemarsh. He broke out in his first year as a Colonial, helping his team to the District 1 AAAA championship game with a 19-point performance in the semifinals.

Over the summer, he took that newfound confidence onto the AAU circuit with Team Philly, where he would pick up offers from Fairleigh Dickinson, Canisius and finally Rider.

In a year’s span, he went from largely unrecruited to a Division I commit.

“Everyone dreams of being a Division I athlete and I’m just overwhelmed that it’s coming true right now,” he said. “I’ve also got to continue to work, and now that I have this part out of the way, I can just focus on my team and getting my teammates better and trying to lead us to a state championship to end off my senior campaign on a good note.”

Malone is the the second shooting guard that Rider has committed in 2016, joining Dover (Del.) sharpshooter Jordan Allen. They’re certainly very different players: where Allen is a solid-bodied off guard who excels as a catch-and-shoot threat from beyond the arc, Malone is a lanky left-handed slasher who’s still developing his overall skillset.

He is also close with third commit in the class, Stevie Jordan, the former Conwell-Egan point guard who’s spending his senior season at Advanced Prep International (Tex.).

“That’s just a bonus, I won’t be there by myself,” Malone said. “I’ll have someone who I’m used to seeing, used to playing with, we have chemistry on and off the court.”

Rider has been one of the programs on the rise in the MAAC, whose top teams have been routinely amongst the most entertaining in mid-major basketball over the last few years. Last year, the Broncs won 21 games, including a 15-5 mark in league play, though they were upset by Saint Peter’s in the MAAC tournament quarterfinal.

Baggett has started really challenging his team, playing Kansas and Michigan State last year and putting Maryland, Rhode Island and Providence on the slate this season. The opportunity to play against several high-major opponents each year as well as the various television opportunities those provide had an impact on Malone.

“They’ve been a winning team in the MAAC, they’re one of the top dogs in there and their schedule caught my attention as well,” he said. “They play on national television about 10 times throughout the year, it’ll be good exposure and I can show what I’m able to do.”