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Non-New Yorkers may assume the Huge Apple looks like 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 tasks 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 occasions 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 obtained the job right here, it was an entire completely different atmosphere. I simply needed to get adjusted to that, which was superb. On the finish of the day, it does seem like The Bronx and Harlem. I simply hadn’t been right here. Now it looks like dwelling.”
And isn’t that pretty for the LIU Sharks? When you’re doing a double tackle what one in all your favourite level guards ever is doing at a faculty it’s possible you’ll not have even heard of…let’s take a step again.
LIU, previously generally known as the Blackbirds, had been a nationwide energy going again to the Nineteen 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 underneath 50 is perhaps 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 areas formally merged and the college has formally been identified 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 masking them? Nicely, that’s OK with him, as a result of it took about 24 months for him to get absolutely 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 right this moment, I really feel like I’ve a fantastic understanding of the atmosphere. Now it’s a clear slate. These are my recruits. Entire new employees. It feels good.”
OG NYC hoop heads ought to take into account this staff 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 embrace freshman Roc Lee, a extremely touted taking pictures guard from Atlanta thought of 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 making an attempt to alter the tradition. We’re making an attempt to alter the atmosphere. And produce the neighborhood 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 all a choose group of returnees for the Sharks. “The sensible objective for us is to win,” Steele says firmly. “We’ve individuals who need to compete. I might consult with them as straight canine. Everybody right here needs to work and everybody needs to win.”
The de facto staff chief is one other returner with a really acquainted final identify: senior level guard Terell Strickland. Terell had a fantastic highschool profession within the Tampa-St. Pete space (Dad used to teach at South Florida) earlier than enjoying in 50 video games for James Madison College between ’20-23. Rod obtained 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 strong 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 possibility to go up. Not solely is he my dad, however he’s an NBA participant who’s performed the sport at a excessive stage. The prospect to be taught 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 needed to teach as a result of I wouldn’t need to coach 5 of me. However after I was performed enjoying, I wanted a job. I referred to as my man at Memphis—William Wesley—and he obtained me with Cal [John Calipari]. Cal was so forward-thinking; he knew I used to be some extent guard, and he obtained 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 stage at Memphis and Kentucky, enjoying for nationwide championships—I don’t know precisely when, but it surely simply obtained to some extent 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 blissful 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 blissful 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 pictures through Getty Photographs and David Patalano.
