A Quick Hello And a Heartfelt Goodbye

                                                          

              I hope that as people in the New York basketball community find their way to this blog that they will remember me. Whether you do so by my given name (John Miciotta) my internet name (jpm114) or some other identifying aspect like my work years ago with Seton Hall, my work assisting young players and parents in choosing schools or even if I'm just "the guy in the wheelchair in the corner of gyms around the city" it's all good and I thank you. I have spent much of this summer away from basketball to deal with a specific aspect of my disability.  With the help of talented and caring doctors and therapist I have embarked upon a process that I hoped would help me manage pain more effectively and regain some of the strength I need to perform activities of daily living. So far it's working, the aches and pains which have at times kept me from games and from my keyboard have diminished and the things I need to do to get out in the world, are becoming manageable once again. The renewal I feel is being aided by the start of the basketball season. Despite the inanity of the adult basketball (aka the NBA) lockout, the start of the and high school and college seasons have me anxious to start seeing games, looking at players and writing again. But even as I start to smile more, take phone calls from coaches and friends, and look at schedules to plan my trips to the games, I can't help but think an essential part of all this is conspicuously absent and that basketball around here will still be great but not quite the same.

              To be sure the impact of the basketball program at Rice High School, will be felt for a while longer even though it closed its doors this past June. Players like Melvin Johnson (now at St. Benedict's in New Jersey) Dayshon Smith (now at Putnam Science) and others will continue to make an impact at the prep level. Others, like Durand Scott (at Miami) and Chris Fouch (at Drexel) will be college upperclassmen firmly established as college players. Still more, like Jermaine Saunders (at Cincinnati) and Manny Andujar ( at Manhattan) and others will begin their college careers in a short time. And they will take with them lessons taught by the last two coaches at Rice Maurice Hicks and Dwayne Mitchell, and perhaps most important they will bring to their new programs and coaches an expectation that was established at the school on West 124th Street and in Gauchos Gym where the young and talented Raiders practiced and played. Kemba Walker took t those lessons and lifted his University of Connecticut  to a national title. During the Huskies improbable NCAA run  Walker gave the nation a brief glimpse of what Rice basketball was about; tough defense, fearlessness, the willingness to take big shots and make plays and simply do whatever it takes to win. Although speed and transition basketball were essential to the success of Hicks' Rice teams, so was a controlled flex offense that allowed them to win even as teams tried to slow their tempo 

              .  Hicks of course will continue to have an impact on New York basketball as he  helps rebuild St. John's into a national power.  But long before there was a USA Today top 25 poll for high school basketball Hicks had been a tough minded clutch shooting leader for fine Raiders' teams before graduating in 1981, and before that, in the mid-60's Dean Meminger and Charlie Yelverton (Class of 1967) made Rice a local powerhouse before starring in college at the national level.  At Marquette "Dean The Dream" was a blur at point guard and ran a team that despite the dominance of UCLA made me love college basketball because of its connections to New York (with Al McGuire, Meminger and former St. Francis Prep Star Hugh McMahon) and the high school game I enjoyed so much. Meminger's time with the Knicks was highlighted by the 1973 Eastern Conference Finals game seven against the Celtics where his speed gave the Celtics fits on offense and locked up high scoring guard Jojo White on defense. It helped the Knicks hand the C's their first loss ever in a game seven at the Boston Garden and helped bring the Walt Frazier and Willis Reed-era Knicks to their second championship.

              Yelverton, a high riser who essentially played forward at about 6'3" stayed local at Fordham but achieved national  prominence when he led the Rams to a sweet 16 in l971. That team brought Fordham Basketball to heights it hasn't  approached since and made the career of one Richard "Digger" Phelps. And after a year in the NBA he enjoyed a long career in European pro basketball.

              Players like former Pittsburgh star Jerry McCullough, who came back after a long stint in Europe to help Dwayne Mitchell coach the Raiders to a runner up finish in the CHSAA last year, and Felipe Lopez helped Rice stay strong in the 80's. and 90's. Lopez helped coach Lou Demillo  win a title in 1994 on the way to becoming a McDonald's All-American. Hicks arrived shortly thereafter for the start of the 1994-95 season and Mitchell, who had previously coached with Ted Gustus at Brooklyn's Nazereth High School came shortly thereafter.  The school remained a national power until its closing, Hicks won six city titles produced many a division one prospect including Walker, who blossomed into a pro.  Fans of local basketball will remember many different things about what was an unprecedented  run of success in an extraordinarily tough CHSAA. They'll remember Walker's speed, Keydren Clarke's deep range, Anthony Glover's toughness, Kenny Satterfield's clutch game that helped them beat a Christ the King team that featured Erick Barkley, Lamar Odom and Speedy Claxton and 7'2" Shagari Alleyne's 12-12 shooting performance in the city finals against neighboring rival All Hallows. Not every kid who became part of the program was able to stay there but those who did were better players and people for having done so.  High School basketball in New York will survive just as it did when Power Memorial and Tolentine closed, but Rice, a special school in a special place that brought great kids and teachers together will be missed and while the basketball community should mourn the loss, what Rice and the people who made it what it was, gave us should never be forgotten. As I start to see games again and write again I know  basketball will always be special but it won't be the same because the school that set the standard for others to aspire to is gone forever. Farewell to the Green and Gold Raiders, you will be missed but remembered always