City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Mike McKee has traveled quite a bit in his two decades as a basketball coach, but his Catholic League roots run deep.

It was after his sophomore season at Delran High School had concluded that the South Jersey native went to the Palestra to check out the Catholic League semifinals, which saw North Catholic beat Father Judge by a point and Bonner top Roman by seven. And like many who’ve gone to the Cathedral of College Basketball to take in one of those storied high school playoff doubleheaders, the building packed to the corners with rabid PCL fans creating a four-hour-long din, McKee was hooked.

“It was like, wow,” he recalled.

So for his junior season, McKee joined the fraternity, transferring to Roman Catholic for his final two years of high school. And all he did there was help the Cahillites to two Catholic League titles, legendary Daily News scribe Ted Silary noting that McKee had nine assists in both the 1989 and 1990 championship games, after dishing out 14 dimes in the 1990 semifinals.

After a relatively quiet four years at Lehigh, where he averaged 5.9 ppg and 5.9 apg as a senior, McKee returned to Roman Catholic to help out as an assistant coach for one season. Then he began a two-decade-long career as a collegiate assistant, one that took him from D-III King’s College in Scranton, then to D-Is Lafayette, Air Force, Richmond, and then the University of Denver, where he was an assistant under Joe Scott from 2008-2015.

McKee spent the last three years helping out at several small-college and high school programs, including a stint as a high school JV baseball coach at the Kent Denver School -- “I have a lot to learn about that game, but it was fun,” he said -- but was looking for something more permanent.

That’s when he found a chance to come back home.

McKee was announced earlier this month as the newest head coach at La Salle College High School, where he’ll also take on a full-time teaching position. He replaces former head coach Joe Dempsey, who was let go this spring after 14 years that saw him lead the Explorers into the PIAA Class AAAA state championship game in 2014.

It’ll be his first time back in the Philadelphia area on any sort of long-term basis since 1995. Along with the 46-year-old are his wife, TaRhonda Thomas, currently an anchor for NBC’s 9NEWS station in Denver, and their three children: Michael (11), Claire (9) and Ruby (6).

“I just have the utmost respect for the basketball, the league, the coaches, the schools,” he told CoBL last week. “I love the competitive spirit.”

Last year’s Explorers went 15-8 overall with an 8-5 mark in the Catholic League, good enough for sixth place in the 14-team league, but Roman Catholic ended their season in the quarterfinals of the league playoffs.

They’ll return a pair of Division I prospects in senior forwards Zach Crisler (6-8) and Konrad Kiszka (6-6), plus their 6-5 classmate Kahlil Ashley-Diarrah, who arrived last year from Germantown Academy. Sean Simon and Matt McMahon both depart from the backcourt, but rising senior Allen Powell will be entering his second year running point.

Where McKee gets the rest of his rotation is still very much to be determined.

At La Salle, McKee will be coaching in an athletic program that’s seen just about every team win a Catholic League or state championship at some point in the recent future; the Wyndmoor, Pa. all-boys school is especially known for its lacrosse and football programs, among others. A full dozen Explorer teams captured PCL championships this season, according to the school.

Notable alumni include Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott, Iowa basketball coach Fran McCaffery, Hofstra head coach Joe Mihalich, NBA Hall of Famers Paul Arizin and Tom Gola and college basketball Hall inductee Jim Phelan, the former long-time coach at Mount St. Mary’s.

McKee said he plans on taking advantage of the school’s diverse athletics strengths to better his team.

“There was a point in my life where I really focused on basketball by my own choice,” he said, “[but] I think it’s good to be well-rounded, too...my son has showed me that being well-rounded is a good thing. And I’d like to carry that over at La Salle, and encourage -- obviously basketball’s important, but what’s most important I think is to be well-rounded and good academically and be able to have different talents.”

As for his playing style, McKee said, “I just primarily like fundamentally sound, competitive, composed, mentally tough [basketball]. Share the ball. Play really good defense.”