Just two games into the Philadelphia Catholic League boys basketball season, the sky is falling at Archbishop Carroll.
After consecutive losses to defending champion Roman Catholic and projected bottom feeder Cardinal O’Hara, fans, pundits, students, and others are all asking the same question: What the heck is going on?
Projected to be a top flight contender following an unexpected state playoff run in 2024, Carroll came into the season facing its first roadblock — a striking injury to Ian Williams during the Amateur Athletic Union summer basketball circuit.
The loss of Williams, the team’s captain and leading scorer who also stood as the only three-year starter on the team, was going to be huge. With complications soon following Williams’ injury, it became clear that the Pats would be without their star guard for most, if not all, of the 2024-25 season.
That left a gaping hole in Carroll’s once potent starting lineup, a lineup that would have allowed head coach Francis Bowe to flirt with new depth on his bench — a luxury he never had before. Also gone was the voice Williams had on the court and in the locker room as the veteran of the squad.
Nonetheless, Carroll moved through training camp and the majority of the preseason without missing a beat. The club started the year off 3-0 with impressive wins over James Monroe (NY), Westchester (CA), and Gill St. Bernard (NJ) before heading off to the City of Palms tournament in Fort Myers, Florida.
It was during City of Palms, however, that the Patriots were hit with their second striking blow as 6-foot-9-inch Division I recruit and starting center Drew Corrao suffered a foot injury that is projected to keep him out of the lineup until sometime in February.
Without Corrao and Williams, the Patriots’ once deep bench has now been reduced to a skeleton of its former self as Carroll has had to rely on junior newcomer Eric White and junior guard Chris Kingkiner, who has done well but hasn’t yet adequately filled the desired role as sixth man.
Also worth mentioning is the size the Patriots lose with Corrao sidelined. During a year where the big men are popping up all across the Catholic League, forwards Munir Grieg, who is a sophomore, and Luca Foster, who is a junior, are forced to now play out of position against top flight competition.
Since the loss of Corrao, Carroll is 1-4 and looking for answers.
While tight losses to Gateway Charter (FL), and St. Frances (MD) weren’t enough to raise a red flag, a blowout loss at the hands of Roman Catholic, in a game that sold out the newly renovated East Gym and packed the baselines with media coverage, raised eyebrows as Carroll appeared sluggish. The team struggled to keep up in the second half, appearing gassed at times.
Some could have chalked up the Roman loss as a fluke because Carroll was coming off a tough non-league schedule with a thin bench and injuries galore as it went up against Pennsylvania’s number one ranked team, and a fluke is what it appeared to be on Sunday afternoon as the Pats hosted rival Cardinal O’Hara in a rescheduled match from Monday night in preparation for the inclement weather.
Carroll got out to a quick 13-0 lead over the Lions. It looked as though the Patriots would be able to get back on track against a sub-par O’Hara squad and roll through the afternoon.
While that is what the team did for the majority of the first half, the lead began to slip, just as it had in previous contests. In the final minutes of the fourth period, O’Hara took its first lead of the contest. A few iffy foul calls and missed shots later, the Pats were walking back into the locker room 0-2. Once again it appeared that as the contest went on, the Patriots were gassed, struggling to keep up with O’Hara as they ran up and down the court, pining for fouls and pull-up buckets.
With a lineup consisting of three returning guys with marginal varsity experience, Bowe’s trust in crunch time obviously isn’t too abundant across his roster. This leaves the team even thinner than they are with a seven-man rotation. In the waning minute of a one-score game, the Pats don’t have a full rotation of experienced players — not to slight junior transfer guard Christian Matos, who has done well for the Pats after starting at Methacton over the last two years.
Whether it be through improved conditioning or better game management, Carroll will need to find a way to solve its crunch time issues soon as the Catholic League gets more and more competitive each week and the Palestra looms. February 23 will be here before we know it.
