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Non-New Yorkers would possibly assume the Massive Apple looks as if one compact unit the place everyone seems to be conversant in the boroughs and neighborhoods, however that’s undoubtedly not true. Particularly for an adolescent who lived in The Bronx’s Mitchel initiatives within the 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 school 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 bear in mind… I performed in The Bronx, clearly, and we performed in Harlem.
“So once I first received the job right here, it was an entire totally different surroundings. I simply needed to get adjusted to that, which was effective. On the finish of the day, it does seem like The Bronx and Harlem. I simply hadn’t been right here. Now it seems like residence.”
And isn’t that pretty for the LIU Sharks? In case you’re doing a double tackle what one in every of your favourite level guards ever is doing at a college you could not have even heard of…let’s take a step again.
LIU, previously often called the Blackbirds, had been a nationwide energy going again to the Thirties, when legendary coach and creator Clair Bee led them to undefeated seasons in 1936 and ’39 and NIT championships in ’39 and ’41. This system crumbled within the Fifties after a point-shaving scandal and didn’t resurface in DI till ’68. The one causes followers below 50 could be conversant in 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 identified solely as Lengthy Island College. What’s extra, the sports activities groups at the moment are 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? Properly, that’s OK with him, as a result of it took about 24 months for him to get absolutely snug. “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 in the present day, I really feel like I’ve an important 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 group a must-watch on the power 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 older. 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 embody 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 means 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 vital factor is constructing the LIU model,” Davis says. “We’re attempting to vary the tradition. We’re attempting to vary the surroundings. And convey the group collectively and do one thing actual particular this yr.”
Sophomore ahead Jason Steele, a Queens native who performed his highschool ball at Our Saviour Lutheran in The Bronx, is one in every of a choose group of returnees for the Sharks. “The practical objective for us is to win,” Steele says firmly. “We’ve individuals who need to compete. I’d seek advice from them as straight canine. Everybody right here desires to work and everybody desires to win.”
The de facto group chief is one other returner with a really acquainted final identify: senior level guard Terell Strickland. Terell had an important highschool profession within the Tampa-St. Pete space (Dad used to teach at South Florida) earlier than taking part in in 50 video games for James Madison College between ’20-23. Rod received the job too near the ’22-23 season for Terell to rise 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 good higher efficiency this yr.
“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 go 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 study from him was one thing I couldn’t go up.”
As Rod says, “I used to be quoted as a participant as saying I by no means wished to teach as a result of I wouldn’t need to coach 5 of me. However once I was achieved taking part in, 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 some extent 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, taking part in for nationwide championships—I don’t know precisely when, but it surely simply received to a degree the place it was like, the subsequent step. I performed. Then I used to be an assistant coach. Then the subsequent 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 assume 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 pleased 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 photographs through Getty Photos and David Patalano.
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