WPIAL pipeline paying off at Ship
Tri-State Sports & News Service
Not long ago, fans would head to the exits as the Shippensburg University basketball team stepped onto the floorat Heiges Field House.
It was nothing personal. It’s just that Raiders partisans had gotten their fill of basketball after watching the women’s team in the first gameof a doubleheader.
Men’s coach Chris Fite was witness to these departures. He also understood them, given the program went 3-23 inhis first season, 2013-14.
“They would file out,” said Fite, a former Latrobe High Schoolbasketball star. “That’s justhow it was.” Howit was. ... Not how it is. Notanymore. These days, Shippensburg is must-see basketball at the DivisionII level.
The team is coming off a 274 season in which it won the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference championship for just the second time in school history, earned a first-ever trip to the NCAA tournament (including a victory) and set a single-seasonrecord for wins.
It also boasts, arguably, the best Division II player in the nation in Montour High grad DustinSleva.
“There’s buzz now about the program here,” said Fite, the 2016-17 NABC Division II Coachof the Year.
With four starters returning, Fite’s team, which featuressix WPIAL alums, is a legitimate contender for a nationalchampionship. (Oris that champion-Ship)? “I think we have a really good chance,” said sophomoreforward John Castello of Mars. “With Sleva back and with all of our experience, we believe we can do great things.”
TheRaiders are ranked No. 4 by Division II Bulletin and No. 8 by the National Associationof Basketball Coaches.
They opened the season last week with non-conference victories and take on Slippery Rock Saturday in a PSACcontest.
“We’re looking to raise the bar even higher,” Fite said. “We’ve gone from three wins to 13 to 20 to 27. We also got a taste of the NCAA tournament for the first time. I know our guys want to get back thereand see how far they can takeit.”
Sleva, a 6-foot-8 senior forward, is the man who can lead them there. Long, athletic, tough and self-assured — “That’s my McKees Rocks mentality,” he said — he is everybody’sAll-American.
Street & Smith’s recently named him to its preseason first team, just as the NABC didat the end of last season.
The 2016-17 PSAC Eastern Division Player of the Year, Sleva averaged 21.7 points, 11 rebounds (tops in the PSAC) and finished second in Division II with 20 double-doubles. He also earned the distinction of being the only player in the NCAA, all divisions, to average 21 points, 11 rebounds and 3 assists, while converting at least55 3-point field goals.
“I watch him play and I ask myself, ‘How did he do that?,’” said junior guard Antonio Kellem, a third-year starter from Lincoln Park. “He steps out and shoots 3’s, he gets a double-double almost every night. He dunks, he rebounds, he plays strong in the post. It’s a learning experience being arounda player like Dustin.”
Kellem, Sleva and Castello represent the WPIAL in Shippensburg’s starting five. Meantime, highly regarded freshman point guard Jake Biss (Latrobe) and guard-forward Daylon Carter (Ambridge) will play significant roles in the rotation, per Fite. Freshman guard Dom Sleva, Justin’sbrother, is expected to redshirt.
Kellem, 6-1, averaged 12 points, 5.1 rebounds and connected on 50 3-pointers last season. Castello averaged 10.2 points and 9.2 boards as a freshman.
In an interesting twist, Castello is one of the more publicized players in Division II. That’s because he eschewed the opportunity to play Division I football, despite having upwards of a dozen offers, due to concussion concerns. This has generated interest from a variety of media outlets, includingESPN, which featured himon Outside The Lines.
Asked if he remains comfortable with his decision, Castello answered with added emphasis.
“One-hundred percent,” said Castello, an enforcer in the paint who expertly uses his 6-foot-3, 230-pound body. “Absolutely.”
Located in the Cumberland Valley, Shippensburg is approximately a three-hour drive from Pittsburgh. That makesit a manageable trip for the WPIAL players and their families. However, PSAC West schools such as IUP, California and Slippery Rock are closer, each less than 90 minutesaway. Difference is, those programs have a combined four former WPIAL players on their roster. Slippery Rock has three, IUP one and Cal zero.
Not that there’s anything wrong with it. IUP is a perennial PSAC power and is ranked No. 3 by Street & Smith’s. Slippery Rock went 15-13last season and Cal 4-18.
Fite said a combination of factors transformed his programinto a WPIAL hotspot.
“One, that’s where I’m from,” he said. “I also coached for seven years under Joe Lombardi at IUP, and we had a lot of ties to Western Pennsylvania. We felt it was an underrecruited market. ... Teams from the [PSAC] East are often recruiting the same guys from, say, the Philadelphia area, and teams from the [PSAC] West sometimes go out of state or even internationally. So, we saw an opportunity to sneak in and steal someguys.”
Guys such as Sleva, who plays with a chip on his shoulder after being slighted by Division I programs — and even by some in his own conference.
“I feel like there are a lot of guys who aren’t better than me who are playing at higher levels,” Sleva said. “I’ve played against [Division I] players here in the summer. I know what they can do — and I know they can’t do what I do.”
Sleva then added, “But I haveto keep my edge, be humble. The preseason [accolades] won’t decide what happens this season. That’s for us to decide.”