Sports
Roosevelt Looking Ahead
The Raiders reflect on the past season and look ahead to the future, for some that means Columbia University.
The fell just two victories short in their quest for the school’s first Class 4A state title since 2002, but coach Brendan O’Connell said there was still plenty to feel good about.
“Obviously the last game [] was disappointing,” O’Connell said, “but without a question, it was a successful year. We won 17 games, we as the four seed, we made it back to the Final Four at Comcast. There’s a lot of teams around the state that would love to have the season we had.”
Now, after back-to-back state semifinal appearances, the Raiders are set to re-tool once again. Roosevelt will lose six seniors in center , guard , guard , guard , forward and guard .
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Okoroh is the biggest loss after leading the team in scoring at 13.4 points per game. Okoroh – who was also an excellent rebounder – is still weighing his college options. entered the season as the team’s starting point guard, but injured his knee in the Raiders’ first game and missed the rest of the year. Miles (5.2 ppg) took over as the starter at the point.
“It was tough losing some guys to injuries, but that’s something that I hope will make us better next year,” O’Connell said. “A lot of the guys that I wasn’t expecting to play too much this year got a lot of great game experience that hope will make us better next year. A lot of the guys that I wasn’t expecting to play too much this year got a lot of great game experience that hope will make us better next year. A lot of the guys that I wasn’t expecting to play too much this year got a lot of great game experience that you just can’t simulate.”
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Among Roosevelt’s top returning players is junior guard , who was second on the team in scoring at 10.6 points per game and had a team-high 17 against Patterson. Fellow juniors Akil Charles, , , , , and are also slated to be back.
One of the team’s most promising young players, though, is 6-foot-5 sophomore center Malachi Alexander, who was promoted from the junior varsity towards the end of the regular season and quickly worked his way into the starting lineup. He averaged 4.4 points per game and was the only sophomore on the varsity roster.
“He’s a guy that we knew at the beginning of the year was good enough to make varsity,” O’Connell said. “I just don’t really believe that we should have young guys – freshmen and sophomores – sitting on the bench. I think at the beginning of the year, he’d just play JV, play a ton of minutes get a lot of experience that he wouldn’t have got early in the season if he was sitting on the bench. But he’s a kid that has worked really hard and always had the skills. It’s just I think getting that game experience – being the best player on the court – built his confidence on JV early in the year and made him ready to step in late in the year on varsity. He started as a sophomore and made big plays for us, too.”
The Raiders will begin their preparation for next season when summer league play begins in June. And although O'Connell conceded that making a third straight trip to states won't be easy, Roosevelt could again be a team to watch for.
“We will end up losing a lot of key pieces,” he said, “but I think there is reason to be optimistic about next year. Five of our top eight were all underclassmen. I don’t know about getting back to Comcast, because that’s hard to do, but we should have a very good team next year.”