Archbishop Carroll boys’ basketball leans on underclassmen with Palestra dreams in mind

Archbishop Carroll head coach Francis Bowe didn’t expect to go into the 2023-24 season without a junior or senior on his roster. However, he has a special group of youngsters with a high ceiling and camaraderie that has their head coach excited for the challenge.

“They really are close-knit,” Bowe said. “It’s really a family and it’s going to be a fun, fun year.”

The Patriots went 15-9 last season, including a 7-6 finish in the Catholic League. Carroll took down Father Judge in the first round of league playoffs, but a lopsided loss to eventual runner-up Neumann-Goretti kept Bowe’s team from a trip to the Palestra, where the Patriots haven’t advanced to since 2018.

Dean Coleman-Newsome (Chipola College) and Blake Deegan (Lock Haven), who were the team’s leading scorers last season, graduated. Point guard Jake West transferred to Penn Charter and Su’Meer Alleyne reclassified and transferred to Friends’ Central.

That leaves sophomore guards Ian Williams and Nasir Ralls as the lone returners in the rotation this season. Classmates Luca Foster and Drew Corrao, both swing players last season, will likely join them in the rotation as well as talented freshmen Darrell Davis and Munir Greig.

“It’s going to be fun,” Williams said. “I’ve been around these guys for a long time, so it ain’t nothing new. We’ve been playing with each other since AAU, so we’ve been building bonds and being together and coming up knowing there’s going to be struggles during the season because we’re young.”

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Williams averaged 9.7 points, 4.6 assists, and 4.0 rebounds as a freshman. He started 23 of the team’s 24 games. Ralls was Carroll’s top player off the bench in 2022-23, averaging 6.9 points in 24 games. His experience will be leaned on as well.

The two and Greig played AAU for the NJ Scholars this past summer, and have also known Davis since elementary school.

“I feel like it’s going to be a fun year playing with the people I’ve been playing with since I was little,” Ralls said. “We’re still a young team and we’re not the tallest team, so we’ve got to be the most physical and most disciplined team.”

Bowe some of his previous teams hasn’t always had that familiarity. He’ll chuckle sometimes at practice when Williams, Ralls, and others discuss memories about things like a birthday party from way back in the day, he said.

“Having that true family dynamic makes it even more exciting,” Bowe added. “Through ups and through downs, even through these summer workouts and fall stuff, you’re not going to see the, ‘Hey, I’m upset with you,’ or the ‘I don’t know you that well, so I’m going to be angry with you.’ It’s more kind of like, ‘No I’m doing this because I care about you and I care about us.’

“That’s what’s exciting, and then they’re pretty talented and they’ve got some skill. Coaching and so forth is really neat. As good as they are and as hard as they can compete, they’re always willing to learn and listen.”

Corrao played mostly on junior varsity last season. The lanky 6-8 forward is the only true post player on the Patriots, while Foster is an athletic 6-5 wing, who recently received an offer from St. Joe’s. He played sparingly in 17 games at Carroll last season as a freshman.

“[Foster], he’s one of the best players in the city, no doubt,” Williams said. “He’s been proving it all spring, summer. He’s been hooping. We’re just trying to stay with him, build his confidence.”

Williams said the group is hoping to embrace their youth.

“It’s the realization that nobody’s perfect,” he added. “You’re going to mess up. It’s just how you bounce back from it. I just tell my young guys it’s going to happen. Don’t worry about it. I had my freshman bumps last year. I messed up a lot. You’re going to go through it. Michael Jordan’s not perfect.”

Bowe knows there will be challenges throughout the season and the type of headaches that come along with young players taking a step up to the varsity level. The goal will be cutting down on those mental errors throughout the season. Rebounding will also be a key for the guard-oriented group.

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However, nothing has changed in terms of the Patriots’ goals this year.

“These guys, they know the Palestra,” Bowe said. “I would do them an injustice to not say Palestra or bust. I don’t care if it’s seniors or freshmen, it’s the Palestra. It’s just something that, I’m not saying we’re going there, but I’m going to say that is a goal on our board. State championship game. That is a goal on our board.

“They’re willing to work, and you can’t always say that. Sometimes people like the status quo. They don’t want the status quo.”

This story was produced as part of a partnership between The Inquirer and City of Basketball Love, a nonprofit news organization that covers high school and college basketball in the Philadelphia area while also helping mentor the next generation of sportswriters. This collaboration will help boost coverage of the city’s vibrant amateur basketball scene, from the high school ranks up through the Big 5 and beyond.