March 29, 2024
POSTGRAD BASKETBALL

Guards, quickness strength of Lee Postgrads

Regardless of how far the Lee Academy Postgraduate basketball team gets this season, it’s sure to get there quickly.

With a veteran point guard, several shooters, and an abundance of fleet-footed players, Lee’s Postgrads have already cranked up the offensive tempo and jumped out to a 7-3 start three weeks into the season.

“We have good quickness and that will bode well for us hopefully against most teams,” said Lee Postgrad coach Carl Parker. “We don’t necessarily play big against big teams even though we have some size, so we need to get a lot points in transition.”

Point guard Nate Tomlinson will be leading that transition game most of the time. The 6-foot-3 Australian, who has already committed to attend the University of Colorado, averaged about eight points and six assists per game last season.

“He’s really solid so when we’re shooting well, he’ll find the hot hand,” Parker said. “We have a pretty deep guard corps, so we try use that to mask our frontcourt.”

Not that the frontcourt is bad, but Lee’s main strength lies with its guards.

The rest of the talented guard corps includes fellow starters Chris Bass, a 6-0 Louisianan whose brother Brandon plays for the Dallas Mavericks, and 6-3 Dorian Williams, a Bronx, N.Y., native who can play on the wing and the point.

The other members of the starting five are 6-6 forward Chris Baskerville of Hartford, Conn., and 6-9 forward Samer Jassar of Israel.

Other players who will likely log a lot of regular minutes are guards Brandon Tomah (6-0) of Princeton; Casey Fox (6-5) of Halifax, Nova Scotia; and T.J. Johnson (6-3) of University Park, Ill.; plus forwards Aron Walker (6-9) of Sweden; Ethan Anderson (6-8) of Grand Rapids, Mich., and Gil Melchior (6-6) of Luxembourg.

The rest of the roster includes 6-2 guard Larry Grant of the Bronx, N.Y.; 6-5 guard-forward Marin Zelalija of Croatia; 6-1 guard Ryan Beigie of Littleton, Colo.; 6-5 forward Jeffrey Brito of Lynn, Mass.; and 6-2 guard Isaac Jenkins of Italy.

“We’re up-tempo on offense and a man-to-man, full-court defensive team,” said Parker. “We have a lot depth and a lot of versatility, but our weakness is size and you still have to rebound. I think we play good defense, but I think rebounding will determine our success along with shooting.”

Ah, shooting. That’s already been a good and bad thing for Lee.

“We’ve had games shooting over 50 percent from 3-point range, but we’ve also had 26-for-91 shooting in a game we lost in double overtime,” Parker added.

Still, Parker likes the way things are going.

“I like our chemistry and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of selfishness, but the measuring stick will be how we do when things aren’t going well,” Parker said. “That’s when you really find out about your players.”

Parker will find out more this week as Lee hits the road to take on New Hampton (N.H.) School today. Over the weekend, Lee will play in the Maine Central Institute Invitational at Pittsfield.

Lee will play MCI at 6 p.m. with the loser playing in the noon consolation game and the winner advancing to the 2 p.m. championship on Sunday.

Brewster Academy (N.H.) and Notre Dame Prep (Mass.) are the other two teams in the tourney.


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