Rupert living his Saint Peter’s dream right where he should be
PHILADELPHIA » Clarence Rupert had been doing a lot of looking up this weekend.
It started Thursday, when the kid who lived in North Philadelphia until middle school stepped into Wells Fargo Center for the first time in his life, soaking in the ambiance of his beloved 76ers. It continued at tipoff Friday night, the Saint Peter’s freshman forward tasked with sticking 7-foot-4 Purdue center Zach Edey.
After Rupert hit a 3-pointer 3:15 into their Sweet 16 game, having scored the Peacocks’ first seven points, he had to steal a glance into the section of the Center’s lower bowl housing 20-some relatives, none more important than his mother,
Makisha.
“I had to look at my mom, I had to see her face,” Rupert said Saturday. “I had to tell her, ‘We’re going, we’ve got to keep going.’”
That partnership of mother and son is going to the Elite Eight, via a circuitous route through Virginia, Jersey City and back through the city that reared Rupert as a basketball player. For a coach in Shaheen Holloway that plucked him for his grit after his first school backed out, to an uncle he talks to every day, Rupert’s emotions after the 67-64 win over Purdue Friday night were so profound that a day later, he apologized to the media for using the word “blessed” so much.
Special as the journey of the first No. 15 seed to reach the Elite Eight is for everyone involved with the tiny North Jersey Jesuit school, it’s even more so for Rupert. He wasn’t looking past the tasks before him in the opening weekend of the tournament, so when the Peacocks toppled No. 7 Murray State in the Round of 32 in Indianapolis, he needed a minute to grasp what it meant to be told he was going home for the Sweet 16.
“I didn’t know we were playing in Philadelphia until after the Murray State game,” Rupert said. “After we got in the locker room, coach told me, ‘we’re going back to your city.’ I was like, ‘what do you mean?’ He was like, ‘we’re playing back in Philadelphia.’ I was like, ‘that’s crazy.’”
Crazy would be an apt descriptor for how the undersized but tenacious
6-8 forward has landed one win shy of the Final Four. The oldest of three kids, Rupert was raised by a single mom in North Philly. He burnished his game on city playgrounds, idolizing Allen Iverson — he didn’t hit his growth spurt until 10th grade, hence the early ball-handling focus. The chance to see a Sixers game on South Broad, though, never materialized. “I always wanted to as a child,” Rupert said, “but, you know, I just couldn’t.”
In eighth grade, the family relocated to Virginia, where Rupert attended the Miller School of Albemarle. He originally committed to … none other than Murray State, before they backed out of it.
When Holloway called during his senior year to say that Rupert’s snarl and work ethic fit with the ethos of his program, Rupert didn’t know the first thing about Saint Peter’s. But he knew he wanted to do whatever it took to play
college hoops.
“We didn’t know what Saint Peters was until we pulled up in the summertime, getting ready for the season,” Rupert said. “Once they offered, my mom was like, ‘who is that? Where are they?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t know either, but that’s all I got, so I’m going to take it.’”
Much has been made of the identity Holloway has crafted, the Queens-bred and Elizabeth-raised Seton Hall grad looking for heady and hungry players like himself. The team’s core hails from the New York City area, playing tireless defense and sharing the offensive responsibility. Rupert’s Philadelphian grit fits perfectly.
Look no further than Friday’s Purdue conquest, against a pair of doublefigures scorers in Edey and 6-10 Trevion Williams. Rupert sparked the Peacocks offensively, with 11 first-half points, and added a tone-setting steal from Edey. And even if foul trouble slowed him in the second half, he provided quality minutes in Holloway’s deep roster rotation,
with three steals and two blocks in 22 minutes.
“It’s not easy growing up in Philly,” Rupert said. “It’s facing a new challenge every day. Me growing up here, and getting into this moment now … I’m built for this. I have no fear. I’m undersized playing against 7-footers. I’m battling every night.”
It’s been a challenge, Rupert said, not having his mom catch a game all year, with her work schedule as a salesperson at Dillard’s interfering. His uncle, Darryl Morton, has been at many of his games, constantly checking in.
And Holloway has fostered a family atmosphere at a school overwhelmingly composed of firstgeneration collegians, where the nucleus of juniors “adopted” Rupert as soon as he arrived.
“For her to take care of all three of us and knowing that she’s working a lot, looking at her in the crowd, it really brightened up my eyes,” Rupert said. “Seeing her happy and cheering — I keep saying
it’s a blessing, but I feel like it’s an understatement. …
“I have to figure a way to get my mom out of that situation,” he continued. “I have to try to help her any way I can. I try to help my mom as much as possible. Anything I get, I try to send it her way.”
The moments aren’t over for Rupert. He’ll have at least one more game on the Peacock’s magical run, with No. 8 North Carolina in Sunday’s regional final. It’ll be one more time on the court in his city, one more game to keep not just Saint Peter’s but his family’s dreams alive.
“I always wanted to play here, and I’m really playing here,” he said. “When we got dressed for practice, I went on the court and I just stood there literally for a minute just soaking it all in, looking at the rafters and everything around me.
“The feeling still hasn’t hit me yet.”