City of Basketball Love

Aron Minkoff (@AronMinkoff)
--

Khalil White does not just want to be on a roster of a college basketball program.

The 6-foot tall Cheltenham product wants to be a major contributor.

So when White decided to spurn local Division II West Chester -- a team that finished the 2015-16 season ranked No. 21 in the country -- and a top local D-III program in Delaware Valley for a brand-new D-III program in Penn State-Harrisburg, it may have come as a surprise.

“I wanted to go somewhere where my impact is wanted and needed,” White said. “I didn’t want to go to a winning program where I’d just fall in line and not really contribute because they already have their main players and people already have their roles.

“I feel like if I go to a building program, I have a chance for it to be my team and I can go and do what I have to do,” he continued. “If you go to a winning program, it’s already winning, there’s not another level, but Harrisburg, they’re building and I feel like I can help and maybe we win a conference championship at some point.”

Penn State Harrisburg is not a top-25 program at the D-III level by any means. Coming off of a 12-13 season under third-year head coach Don Friday, there is reason for optimism surrounding the program, which only became a member of the NCAA in 2010 and joined the Capital Athletic Conference in 2013.

In Friday’s first two seasons at the helm of Penn State branch campus, his Lions combined to win just 11 games, a number he surpassed in his third year.

With leading scorer Jazmon Harris returning--the junior guard averaged 13.7 ppg this season--coupled with White, the Lions’ backcourt should be a great source of strength next season.

With the exception of Williams, no other player on last year’s team averaged double figures. The second-highest scorer on the team, senior guard Jourdon Wilson, chimed in 8.4 ppg.

The ability to make an immediate impact and compete for a starting spot coupled with the atmosphere at the Harrisburg campus is what really won over White, an athletic lead guard who can score at all three levels and should be an impact scorer right away in the CAC.

Some current players, such as freshman forward Khalil Williams, a Central High product, reached out to White during the recruiting process.

“It’s not just about basketball, and they also just told me that it’s family, everybody has each other’s back up there,” White said. “it’s not too big of a school so everybody knows if someone needs help with work, there’s always somebody there to help, all the assistant coaches are hands-on. They just said it’s a very tight-knit family, and at Cheltenham that’s what I had, that’s what I was used to.”

The backcourt at West Chester is slightly more crowded. Freshman guard Malik Jackson led the team in scoring at 15.6 ppg while fellow freshman Matt Penecale chimed in 10.3 ppg and 4.9 apg of his own as the two look penciled in to be the Rams’ starting backcourt for the next three seasons.

The Delaware Valley backcourt is not quite as crowded with youth, but the Aggies are paced by junior guard Tyliek Kimbrough who averaged 13.4 ppg along with four apg last season.

“Del Val just won a championship in their conference, and they’re led with a guard that will be a senior next year and while they’re not stacked at the guard position, they have two or three,” White added. “I just wanted to go somewhere where I can play right away and contribute to the team, and I felt like at Harrisburg, that’s what I can do.”

There will also be a sense of familiarity at Penn State Harrisburg with two players from Central High on the roster, a team that the last few players has gone against White’s Cheltenham to open up the high school basketball season.

In addition to the aforementioned Williams, fellow Central alum Gbolahan Alliyu also just finished up his freshman year with the program.

“Me and him [Williams] built up a pretty good relationship,” White added.

White knows that this is going to be a building process. He is going to Penn State Harrisburg with the intention of leaving his mark on the program.

His time at Cheltenham under John Timms has braced him for this moment. A team that is not a traditional powerhouse in Suburban One League, the Panthers finished with the second-best record in the SOL American this past year at 10-3 in league play with a 16-7 overall record, with White earning first-team all conference honors.

That came after winning 11 games as a sophomore and 12 as a junior.

“I feel like, with coach Timms, he taught me patience,” White said. “I feel like I can’t rush into it thinking that we’re going to win a championship our first year, we’ll have to be patient and build and maybe that junior and senior year: championships.”