It’s never too early for Mike Crump to make proclamations. Even though the PSAL high-school season is more than three months away, the rambunctious Wadleigh boys basketball coach got on his soapbox Monday night.
Following an encouraging, 74-67 loss to powerhouse NIA Prep (N.J.) at the Yes, Inc. SmartBall Metro Classic at the Kennedy Center in Harlem, Crump was his usual outspoken self.
“We had them by the tail, but we didn’t stick to the script,” he said. “We’re just as good as anybody in the PSAL with the guards we have and I’m not just saying that.”
Crump might be eccentric, but he’s no fool. Rising seniors David Burgos and Trivante Bloodman and rising junior Basil Harley looked solid in the game against NIA Prep, which Wadleigh led midway through the fourth quarter. But what he hopes will put the Tigers over the top this year is a pair of new big men – rising sophomores 6-foot-4 David Henry and 6-foot-8 Kendall Kinloch.
“We got the size we needed,” Crump said.
Henry was at Wadleigh last year, but didn’t play. It was rumored that he might leave the Harlem school, but the athletic wing said Monday he was staying around. Alongside him in the post will be Kinloch, a St. Raymond transfer who is among the best big men in the city in his class.
“He’s big,” Burgos said. “He’s a force.”
The well-traveled point guard says he likes Wadleigh and it’s where he’ll finish his high-school career. He enjoys the school so much that he got his brother, Kevin, to transfer in from EBC/Bushwick Leaders. Before joining the Tigers, Burgos was at Christ the King, Boys & Girls, EBC Bushwick, Bishop Loughlin and Princeton Day Academy (Md.).
But like Henry and Kinloch, it seems like he has found a home with a program that is still searching for big-time success to accompany its talent. If Monday night’s moral loss is any indication, Crump said, the chemistry won’t be an issue this coming winter.
“They’re the house team,” Crump said of NIA Prep, whose coach during the season, Rudy King, is running the tournament. Assistant Maurice Canty is coaching the team during the event. “They’re supposed to win. The odds were stacked against us. … We play them during the season and we’ll beat them.”
Tournament finishes up this week: The SmartBall Metro Classic will resume Tuesday at 4 p.m. with the continuation of a postponed game between Rice and Forest Hills, which was stopped Monday night due to dangerous humidity at the Kennedy Center, the tourney’s rain site.
The competition will be back in Lincoln Park at E 135th Street and Fifth Avenue on Tuesday. Brooklyn Collegiate and Boys & Girls will meet at 6:30 p.m., followed by Thomas Jefferson and Bishop Loughlin squaring off at 8 p.m.
The final four teams will compete in the semifinals at 6:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Wednesday and the championship is set for Thursday night at 8 p.m.
