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Non-New Yorkers may suppose the Large Apple looks like one compact unit the place everyone seems to be aware of the boroughs and neighborhoods, however that’s undoubtedly not true. Particularly for an adolescent who lived in The Bronx’s Mitchel initiatives within the Nineteen Eighties.
“I by no means got here to Brooklyn,” chuckles Lengthy Island College’s males’s basketball coach Rod Strickland, a New York Metropolis Level God who spent 17 years within the League and greater than a decade on high-level faculty staffs earlier than getting this, his first head teaching job, in the summertime of 2022. “I got here right here a few instances to play, however I used to be so younger I barely keep in mind… I performed in The Bronx, clearly, and we performed in Harlem.
“So after I first received the job right here, it was a complete totally different surroundings. I simply needed to get adjusted to that, which was fantastic. On the finish of the day, it does appear to be The Bronx and Harlem. I simply hadn’t been right here. Now it appears like residence.”
And isn’t that pretty for the LIU Sharks? If you happen to’re doing a double tackle what certainly one of your favourite level guards ever is doing at a faculty you might not have even heard of…let’s take a step again.
LIU, previously often known as the Blackbirds, have been a nationwide energy going again to the Nineteen Thirties, when legendary coach and writer Clair Bee led them to undefeated seasons in 1936 and ’39 and NIT championships in ’39 and ’41. This system crumbled within the Nineteen Fifties after a point-shaving scandal and didn’t resurface in DI till ’68. The one causes followers beneath 50 is perhaps aware of this system are the dope ’97 and ’98 groups that featured New York Metropolis ballers Mike Campbell, Charles Jones and Richie Parker or the ’10-13 groups that made three straight NCAA Tournaments.
Since that point, the college’s Brooklyn and suburban Brookville places formally merged and the college has formally been recognized solely as Lengthy Island College. What’s extra, the sports activities groups are actually the Sharks.
Rod Strickland, who in 1998 led the NBA in assists (he ranks thirteenth all-time in profession assists) and was subsequently named second-team All-NBA, has been teaching the LIU Sharks for 2 years and we’re simply getting round to overlaying them? Effectively, that’s OK with him, as a result of it took about 24 months for him to get totally comfy. “I needed to get the expertise and really feel issues out,” says Strickland (whose groups went a mixed 10-48 in his first two seasons) from the consolation of his workplace in LIU’s Steinberg Wellness Middle. “As of at the moment, I really feel like I’ve an ideal understanding of the surroundings. Now it’s a clear slate. These are my recruits. Entire new workers. It feels good.”
OG NYC hoop heads ought to contemplate this workforce a must-watch on the energy not solely of Rod however his newly employed assistant Derrick Phelps, who starred at Christ the King in Queens earlier than a stellar four-year profession at UNC. However we get it; that demo is getting old. Why ought to a contemporary hoop fan tune in to see the Sharks? As a result of they’re gonna be good!
The newcomers LIU followers are most enthusiastic about embrace freshman Roc Lee, a extremely touted taking pictures guard from Atlanta thought-about a contender for NEC ROY, and Malachi Davis, a senior switch wing from the Toronto space by the use of Energy 4 program Arizona State who has NEC POY potential. We discover Davis overlooking the Sharks’ court docket from an workplace throughout the corridor from Coach Strickland. “The necessary factor is constructing the LIU model,” Davis says. “We’re attempting to alter the tradition. We’re attempting to alter the surroundings. And convey the neighborhood collectively and do one thing actual particular this 12 months.”
Sophomore ahead Jason Steele, a Queens native who performed his highschool ball at Our Saviour Lutheran in The Bronx, is certainly one of a choose group of returnees for the Sharks. “The life like purpose for us is to win,” Steele says firmly. “Now we have individuals who need to compete. I’d discuss with them as straight canines. Everybody right here needs to work and everybody needs to win.”
The de facto workforce chief is one other returner with a really acquainted final title: senior level guard Terell Strickland. Terell had an ideal highschool profession within the Tampa-St. Pete space (Dad used to educate at South Florida) earlier than enjoying in 50 video games for James Madison College between ’20-23. Rod received the job too near the ’22-23 season for Terell to stand up right here, however there was little question he’d arrive for the ’23-24 season. Terell had a stable junior marketing campaign on the level, averaging 7.2 ppg and three.6 apg, and everybody expects a fair higher efficiency this 12 months.
“There was no debate about me coming to play for him,” Terell says. “I actually loved my time at James Madison, however this was simply too particular of a chance to move up. Not solely is he my dad, however he’s an NBA participant who’s performed the sport at a excessive degree. The prospect to be taught from him was one thing I couldn’t move up.”
As Rod says, “I used to be quoted as a participant as saying I by no means wished to educate as a result of I wouldn’t need to coach 5 of me. However after I was executed enjoying, I wanted a job. I known as my man at Memphis—William Wesley—and he received me with Cal [John Calipari]. Cal was so forward-thinking; he knew I used to be a degree guard, and he received Derrick Rose, Tyreke [Evans], J-Wall.”
Strickland adopted Cal from Memphis to Kentucky after which did stints at South Florida and with the NBA G League. “I wasn’t able to be a head coach at first. However after being in it—at a excessive degree at Memphis and Kentucky, enjoying for nationwide championships—I don’t know precisely when, but it surely simply received to some extent the place it was like, the following step. I performed. Then I used to be an assistant coach. Then the following factor was to be a head coach.”
It’s an all-around, feel-good New York story that simply wants some success on the ground to succeed in the completely satisfied ending everybody within the constructing appears to suppose is inevitable.
When requested about his father, who is clearly the important thing to the entire LIU hoops rebuild, Terell says, “I’m actually completely satisfied for him. Very happy with him. It truly is a tremendous alternative for him, particularly for him to be again in New York to do it, surrounded by his household and an enormous group of supporters.”
Motion images by way of Getty Photographs and David Patalano.
