Westtown’s Quin Berger focused on team goals, improved, and then came the St. Joseph’s commitment

When Quin Berger entered his senior season at the Westtown School, he didn’t have a single offer from a Division I program.

On a roster with Duke signee Dereck Lively II and Penn State signee Jameel Brown, Berger was a guard looking to prove that he could play at that level.

Though there was uncertainty surrounding his basketball future, Berger’s goals ahead of his final year with the Moose were clear. He wanted to leave Westtown a state champion, and on the road to doing so, he wanted to prove that he could be both a good captain and teammate.

Before the season tipped off, Berger made those intentions clear to his father, Westtown coach Seth Berger.

“Once we started the season in November, he said to me, ‘Don’t talk to me about recruiting at all,’” Seth Berger said. “He said, ‘Unless there’s an unbelievable opportunity in front of me, I don’t want to waste my time thinking about it. I want to think about winning and getting better.’”

The first order of business for the 6-foot-2 guard was considering how his role would change entering his senior season. During Berger’s junior year, Westtown’s backcourt was led by the duo of Ny’Mire Little and Jalen Warley.

With Little and Warley off at Albany and Florida State, respectively, Berger knew that entering this season, he would have to take a more active role in the Moose offense.

“They did a great job of creating a lot of opportunities for the rest of our guys, and I knew as a senior, my role was going to change a little bit,” Berger said. “I was going to have to create some more disadvantages and put more pressure on the defense than I did the year prior.”

Berger did exactly that throughout Westtown’s season, which finished with the Moose capturing the PAISAA state crown. In addition to facilitating opportunities for the likes of Lively and Brown, Berger became a go-to scorer for Westtown. At the same time, he began to prove that he could go toe-to-toe with top Division I-bound talent.

In Westtown’s Jan. 15 loss to Gill St. Bernard’s, Berger scored 26 points against what was a nationally ranked high school program. That outburst came with Berger matched up against Georgetown recruit and four-star prospect Denver Anglin.

To Seth Berger, what stood out wasn’t how many points his son scored. Instead, it was the many ways that Quin Berger had scored in that game that showed the Moose’s coach that the conversation had shifted.

“Quin scored the ball every number of ways,” Berger said. “Catch-and-shoot, driving to the rim, off a curl in transition … I was like, ‘If he can do that against these guys, then we’re done with the conversation of whether he’s a Division I player.’ The only question is where’s he going to go play.”

From that point forward, Berger began his transformation from a talented catch-and-shoot wing to a more well-rounded decision maker and facilitator. His assist-to-turnover ratio improved from 1:1 as a junior to 2:1 as a senior, and he became more adept at driving to the rim and fighting through contact in the paint.

“He’s always been incredibly competitive,” Seth Berger said. “He’s always been an incredibly hard worker, like he’s in the gym by himself all the time, watches film, [and] does all those things. I think it just kind of clicked this year.”

One thing that helped Berger put the pieces together in his senior season was his environment. At Westtown, Berger was surrounded by other high-basketball IQ minds.

“It was great to have a bunch of other guys around me who wanted to always be around basketball just like me,” Berger said. “We didn’t build all our chemistry on the court. We were lucky enough to talk about basketball at the lunch table, and late at night, we watched games together, and on the buses, we were watching film.”

Once Westtown’s season concluded, Berger’s focus shifted back to his recruitment. Though he was talking to a couple of coaches at the time, Berger knew he was going to have to play AAU during the April recruiting live periods.

Shortly after deciding to play with WeR1, Berger learned that St. Joseph’s coach Billy Lange was interested in him.

Seth Berger had ties with Lange’s father, Bill Lange Sr., the former boys’ coach at Lenape High School. When Berger first started his high school coaching career, Lange Sr. had been a mentor to him. As a result, Berger had become very familiar with the younger Lange and his coaching style as an expert in player development.

That developmental style in Lange’s coaching was a major draw for Berger. Whereas other schools were talking with Berger about making him a feature player from Day 1, Lange focused on describing the ways Berger could improve and eventually become a high-level player in the Atlantic 10.

“I know it’s best for me long-term,” Berger said. “It’s a similar decision that I made when I went to play for Westtown and was going to be around high-level guys, high-level coaches. In the long run, you’ll be better for it.

“I also wanted to be a part of something — a part of winning culture, a part of a tight group. … I think the culture at St. Joe’s and what [Lange] is building match perfectly with what I want to do.”