Archbishop Wood guard Josh Reed stays close to home with commitment to Drexel

Josh Reed was waiting.

At times, it wasn’t easy to stay patient. The Archbishop Wood senior knew he was worthy of the kind of recruiting attention he’d seen around the local high school and AAU basketball landscape.

With the support and direction of his father, Ricky Reed, though, he stayed focused and determined. He knew his game wasn’t perfect, and he knew he had to work for the kind of recognition he had in his sights.

“Seeing all these other 2024 players getting offers, it hit somewhere in me,” Reed said. “It got me down. Certain people had to pick me up, like my dad and my coaches. I just wanted to prove myself.

“[My father] was the main person involved in my process. “He kept telling me to keep my head up and [said], ‘Your time will come.’”

And it did. With a spring and summer of hard work, a string of long-awaited Division I offers ultimately led Reed to his perfect college basketball situation.

Reed is staying in Philadelphia and will play for head coach Zach Spiker and the Drexel Dragons, he announced last Friday. He’s the team’s first commitment for the class of 2024.

Ricky Reed is a close confidante of his son, and his input had a lot of influence on Josh’s decision.

“Me and my dad, we always used to talk about where I would make my living after college,” Josh Reed said. “I felt like me staying home, being where I’m comfortable, that’s going to open up a lot of doors for me when I graduate.”

Reed entered his summer with Philly Revolution, his AAU team, carrying a single Division I offer, from Albany. By the end of June, he had nine, including La Salle, Iona, Buffalo, and Fairfield, with Drexel joining the list in mid-July.

For Reed, the past summer was about refining his game and developing a wider set of skills. As a junior at Archbishop Wood during the 2022-23 season, Reed took a major step, averaging 9.2 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 2.6 assists in 24.6 minutes, all of which nearly doubled from his sophomore season with increased playing time.

Reed, a strong, physical, 6-foot-3 point guard, mentioned the need to work on his shooting — a point of emphasis after shooting just 20 percent from beyond the arc as a junior at Wood.

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“This summer I took a different approach,” Reed said. “I put in a lot of work before AAU season. I mainly worked on my jumpshot and my decision-making, and I feel like it showed up great. I think I showed a lot of improvement from last summer and last high school season.”

Ultimately, when it came time to choose between his 11 suitors — Reed narrowed his list to Drexel, Iona and Fairfield before finalizing a decision — Drexel made all the sense in the world.

Reed said even in the week or so leading up to his visit to campus, he was already leaning toward Drexel.

Reed and his father discussed his options, and, during a conversation over breakfast with the Drexel coaching staff, he made his decision official.

“We just sat down and talked basketball,” he said. “I told them right then and there that I wanted to be part of the family, I want to commit and be a Dragon.”

Reed also knew he’d have familiar faces, in freshman forward Horace Simmons and sophomore guard Justin Moore. Simmons is a 2023 graduate of La Salle College High School. Moore, an Archbishop Wood alumnus, earned CAA all-rookie honors as the Dragons’ starting point guard in his freshman season last year.

“Those were friendships I already had,” Reed said. “We built a bond, and that can continue over my next four years there.”

And both, Reed said, were plenty involved in enticing him to Drexel. Both current Dragons gave Reed their “recruiting pitches” ahead of his commitment, also highlighting the benefits of playing college ball close to home.

“‘You should come here, you’ll have the ball in your hands, you’ll play and get minutes as a freshman,’” Reed recalled of conversations with his friends. “’To play in your city is a great feeling. There’s nothing like being home.’

“It obviously worked.”

After a 12-8 abbreviated season in 2020-21, Drexel made a surprise run to its first and only NCAA Tournament bid of the current century. The Dragons have hovered around .500 in the time since, finishing 17-15 a year ago and 15-14 the year prior, with 10-8 conference marks in both seasons.

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Reed hopes to jump in right away once he’s on campus. In his breakfast conversation with Spiker and company, the Dragons’ coaches mentioned that they wanted to see a professionalism and strong work ethic from Reed.

He plans to bring exactly that, regardless of how things shake out with the rotation. And of course — Reed’s college recruitment is cold, hard proof — if he does have to be patient for playing time, he’ll plan to make it worth the wait.

“My expectation when I join a team is to make an impact right away,” Reed said. “It doesn’t matter if I come off the bench, start, I just want to make an impact.”

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.