City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin) &
Jeff Griffith (@Jeff_Griffith21)
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Here’s a notebook from the opening night of the Widener Team Camp, which tipped off the first of its three days of action on Thursday evening:

Marlon Hargis growing into new frame, new abilities
Like most people his age, Marlon Hargis is experiencing many changes and new experiences as he transitions from a sophomore to a junior at St. Augustine Prep.

The most notable of which, as has been the case for the entire 2018 class of basketball recruits, is that college coaches have now begun contacting Hargis and his classmates.

Hargis is no exception. Having already received scholarship offers from Colgate and Lafayette prior to this week, he’s been contacted contacted by American, Cornell, and St. Joe’s, on top of the two who have already offered him. As would be expected, it’s been a fun time for the 6-foot-6 forward.

“It’s good to know that schools are interested in you, and that your hard work has been paying off,” he said. “It’s been a great experience so far, I know a lot of people say recruiting can be annoying, but I haven’t experienced that yet so I’m having a good time.”

As he continues to enter into the recruiting process, Hargis will be doing so in a slightly larger frame, as a recent growth spurt built him from a 6-4 guard to his current 6-6 frame. The adjustments that come along with such growth have already begun.

“Now that I’m taller than most guards, I’m working on my post and mid-range game, stuff like that, catching the ball when smaller guards are on me,” he said. “Just hustling, because I can rebound like a big man now and stuff like that.”

After having played AAU ball for Jersey Shore Warriors last summer, Hargis has now joined Team Final, where he looks to grow alongside some of the area’s top prospects on the Nike-backed program’s 16U squad.

“Playing with a lot of great players, you have to show everything you can do when given the opportunity,” Hargis said. “Capitalizing on my opportunities, it’s awesome to be a part of competition with EYBL and stuff like that.”

This summer in particular is of course an important one for Hargis, who already has two offers under his belt and will look to earn more while playing under the Team Final spotlight. According to Hargis, while his biggest strength is his defense, he needs to work on the offensive side of the ball in order to continue impressing the scouts.

“Everything, my jump shot and my form, my form is alright but I’m just trying to improve on that,” he said. “Ball handling, finishing with confidence in contact and getting stronger, working on everything.”

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Williams leads charge for improving Penn Charter
Last summer, Penn Charter was playing with a chip on its shoulder. That’s what happens when you’re coming off a four-win season and feel like nobody respects you.

This summer, the Quakers are again playing tough -- but this time, it’s from confidence, not disrespect.

“I think our optimism is really high because we’re on the way up right now,” rising junior Mason Williams said after Penn Charter went 3-0 on the evening. “We had a 4-23 season my freshman year and last year we were 13-10, so I feel like we’re really confident going into next year about how good we could be.”

Williams is one good reason that PC has eyes on a top-3 spot in the Inter-Ac for the first time since 2012-13. The 6-3 guard was the Quakers’ leading scorer (13.2 ppg) this past year and certainly looks like he’s been working on his game during the months off.

A smooth scorer, Williams had his jumper working from outside the arc as well as the foul-line extended, rising up and hitting shots off the bounce and the catch with equal ability.

“I’m working on probably getting into the lane more, because last year I was more of a perimeter player,” he said. “Looking to get in the lane more and distribute and hit more mid-range shots. Most of my workouts are mostly mid-range pull-ups and stuff, then I shoot 3s.”

So far, Williams’ recruitment is still in its early stages. A strong student at a school that -- like the rest of the Inter-Ac -- is known for its academic prowess, Williams has been hearing from Colgate, Lafayette, Yale and Penn thus far. If he continues this level during the July live period with the Jersey Shore Warriors, many others in the Ivy/Patriot range could join in.

Also playing well for the Quakers all night long was rising sophomore Ryan Holmes. A key reserve for Penn Charter as a freshman, Holmes certainly seems like he’ll be a big piece for his last three years of high school.

A 6-3 guard, Holmes has a well-rounded game on both ends of the floor, and showed off some serious athleticism on a missed dunk attempt in the second game. Those two, plus rising senior point guard Adam Holland (7.5 ppg), might give head coach Jim Phillips arguably the most talented trio in the league.

“I feel like most of the offense is going to run through us this year,” Williams said. “I think (Holmes) is really improved since last year.”

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Murray brings experience, athleticism to young Timber Creek team
For the past two seasons at Timber Creek, Maurice Murray has built up a wealth of experience, earning a spot on the team as a freshman and subsequently growing into the team’s lead player as he enters his junior year.

That growth has earned him interest from multiple high-major programs around the nation, but it’s his high school team who’s most interested in his growth heading into an all-important junior year. With Murray being the only returning starter, the spotlight will be shifted to him as a leader on the court--a new role for the 6-foot-5 wing.

“He’s going to have to bring experience and leadership,” said Timber Creek head coach Rich Bolds. “The last two years he was the youngest guy on teams full of upperclassmen, and now he’s the leading returning scorer, the person with the most on-court varsity experience, and now he has to bring leadership...he has to do a little bit of everything, so he can’t hide behind the senior leaders we had last year, now it’s up to him to make things happen.”

In order to be the star player he needs to be, Murray believes his biggest improvement needs to be in developing a diversity to his offensive game. While many scouting reports say it’s his tendency to use his right hand, Murray is looking to develop his left hand in order to include another weapon on the offensive end.

As far as his coach is concerned, however, it’s mastering the game’s mental aspect that can take Murray to the next level.

“He has a tendency to want to do it all, but he’s learning how to let the game come to him,” said Bolds. “If you watched the last game, we want him to take the last shot. I just told him, ‘Everybody knows you’re going to get the ball, you’ve got to get open, and you’ve got to make the play.’ He’ll step up to the challenge, but just letting him know that, ‘Look, we’re relying on you, but you don’t have to do everything, the more you trust your teammates, the easier it becomes.’”  

Trusting teammates won’t be too hard, as Murray’s supporting cast is not one with which to be trifled. But with the bulk of the responsibilities falling on his shoulders thanks to his two years’ experience, Murray know what has to be done.

“I’m a leader, and a scorer,” he said. “I’ve got to help my teammates out, I have to bring the intensity every day in order for us to win.”

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Little rust for Lenape in energized showing
Once the ball goes in the bucket for Lenape (N.J.), the energy level noticeably goes up a tick.

The Indians’ defense swarmed opponents on seemingly every possession all night long, giving opposing point guards nary an easy dribble.

“That’s been our style for years,” head coach Chuck Guittar said. “We’re usually a good defensive team, we work pretty hard, move the ball offensively. We always use the summer to set the tempo."

As New Jersey laws prevent head coaches from working with their teams during fall and spring sports seasons, this is the first weekend that Guittar (and the other NJ head coaches) were able to directly coach their teams.

So Guittar had no problem changing up his lineups early and often, going with as many different matchups as possible to get his first look at his potential 2016-17 squad and work on some key aspects of Lenape basketball.

"Making sure (we play) defense, because that hurt us last year," he said. "And offensively, we’ve got to get our motion down -- how to move, create spacing, proper passes and moving. And seeing inexperienced kids, seeing what they’re able to do so I can prepare for the fall. I want to see who can play and who can’t, who’s been working out and who’s been sitting on their rear ends.”

The head coach admitted that last year, the team “didn’t really get to where I wanted (it) to,” with two potential starters sidelined by season-long injuries leading the way to a 14-14 year and fifth-place finish (out of five teams) in the Olympic Conference American Division.

Lenape’s season ended in the quarterfinals of the South Jersey Group 4 tournament to American rival Cherokee.

With two 6-7 forwards, rising junior Andrew Sims and rising senior Jermaine Carter, back in the lineup after missing last year, Guittar has a lot of length up front and some talented guards as well with seniors Dante Owens-Hill and Justin Kupa.

“I expect to compete in the league, I would expect we should be one of the better teams this year,” he said. “I definitely expect better than .500. My goal every year is let’s make the playoffs and let’s see what will happen.”

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Quick Hits
-- Despite filling out a bulkier 6-foot-5, 190-pound frame of a football player, Cam Lewis of Lake Forest (Del.) played his own version of the point guard position, with the majority of his team’s offensive sets running through him. While he highly enjoys the sport of basketball, Lewis expects his collegiate athletic career to focus more on football, as the combination outside linebacker and wide receiver has been in discussions with schools like Marist and Stony Brook. That said, he doesn’t plan on letting his future in football detract his focus from his senior basketball season, as he will be an important piece for the Spartans in the upcoming campaign. His biggest area of weakness on the basketball court that he plans to work on this summer in preparations for his final year is his jump shot, particularly from 3-point range.

-- While his teammates Marlon Hargis (see above) and Justyn Mutts have received their share of Division I offers, St. Augustine Prep rising senior Walt Harvey is still waiting on his first. The bouncy 6-2 guard, who impressed in a win over Springfield (Delco.) with a put-back dunk and several jumpers as well as some nifty passes, has been hearing from several schools -- Army, Navy, Iona, Quinnipiac and Holy Cross -- but is still waiting for a scholarship opportunity. A few strong games like that with his South Jersey Jazz in July should net him at least one or two.