City of Basketball Love

By Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito) +
Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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PHILADELPHIA — There was an array of talent on display Friday night at Ben Franklin High School at the 2024 Boys’ All-City Classic, which featured three games that covered classes for 2025, 2026 and 2027.

Here’s a loaded notebook packed with coverage of some of the evening’s top talent:

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Marquis Newson (2027 | Academy New Church)

The 6-foot-3, 165-pound freshman wing is special and can be even better. His father is 6-foot-6, he is a relative of two Philly greats, Eddie Jones and Alvin Williams, and he earned team MVP in leading his squad to a 72-67 victory on Friday night. Besides singular athleticism, an uncanny knack for stealing the ball, powerful finishing skills, Newson possesses that intangible all coaches at every level love—he plays to win. Even in a summer all-star game, Newson turned on his considerable skills a few notches higher than the rest, scoring six of his team’s last eight points when the score got close.

He played his freshman year for Sanford School, in Hockessin, Delaware, but will be transferring into the Academy of the New Church this coming September to face what he feels will be stronger competition from Philadelphia-area players.

He already has offers from Virginia Tech and Arizona State, and says Miami, Baylor, La Salle, UCF and Penn State are talking to him. Expect that list to grow as he does, since he is projected to be 6-foot-7. His main goal this summer is to get five offers. Arizona State came in last year. So far, Virginia Tech came in this year.

“I do not like losing, and I take it very personally when I do lose,” Newson said. “I can see myself as a wing, but I really see myself as the type of player where a coach can ask me to anything. Most of the attention I’m getting have coaches talking to me about being a shooting guard.”

He wants to get a tighter handle this summer, and improve his three-point shooting. He led Sanford in scoring, averaging 12 points a game, with a season-high of 22 points. He also knows he has to put on more weight, and he realizes getting involved with a consistent weight-training program will improve his game.

“That is a huge priority this summer, because getting stronger will mean getting to more rebounds and getting to the rim,” Newson said. “I would like to be around 175, 180 pounds. I wear a size 13½ shoe. Doctors tell me I have a chance to reach 6-7. I was 6-1 this time last year and grew two inches.”

Newson was more of a slasher last season, and says he wants to incorporate more of a middle game adding a mid-range pull-up to his arsenal. Defensively, he wants to sharpen his intensity. He admits he had a habit of “slacking off” on defense his freshman year. He knows playing defense comes with a certain state of mind and he is ready to make that commitment at ANC.

“I made the move to ANC because the competition in PA is better and I feel I would get more college looks here in Philly than I would in Delaware,” he explained. “Delaware has good players, and good competition. Philly has a lot more better players. I’ll be commuting every day to ANC, two-hours round trip. It is a big sacrifice and I am ready to make it.” 

With his skills and ability, Newson, even as a sophomore, will easily be one of the city’s best players this coming season. — Joseph Santoliquito

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Nelson Lamizana (2025 | SPIRE Academy, Ohio)

The 6-foot-7 wing is hard to ignore. 

He played at Bonner-Prendie for a year as a junior and finished his senior year at home, at West Chester Henderson, turning the Warriors into valid contenders for the District 1 Class 6A championship. Henderson finished the regular season 19-3 overall, before Lamizana had to sit out the postseason due to PIAA transfer rules. He will go the prep school route, attending SPIRE Academy, in Geneva, Ohio, in the fall.

Lamizana has offers from Southern Mississippi, Marist, Miami of Ohio, and is in contact with Delaware State and Coppin State. He has chosen not to play AAU this summer, so he has filled as much of his time this spring playing in all-star games like the All-City Classic on Friday. He was chosen MVP for his team, which lost, but he proved he has the skills to play well against anyone.

“I want to do a year of prep school for me, to improve on my maturity and to do some growing up,” Lamizana candidly admitted. “I want to get used to the college life. I will get two classes with college courses and right now I weigh 205, but I want to get up to around 220. I work out, but my diet needs to be better. SPIRE has a whole meal plan, and a strength-and-conditioning coach, who plans on sticking with me.

“I want and need to work on everything. I need to improve my handle. A lot of guys my size can’t dribble. I need to be more versatile. College coaches are looking at me as a wing. Defensively, I have to box out more and contest shots without fouling. Games like this are important to me just to remind people who I am.”

Lamizana is working out this summer and also working as a barista in West Chester. Because of his considerable height, he gets asked all the time if he plays basketball. He moves into SPIRE on September 1.

“I have to put a lot more into my focus,” Lamizana said. “This past year at Henderson helped me tremendously. A lot of that simply had to do with playing at home, being there in front of my family, because a lot of them were able to make it to the home games. I had the playoffs taken away from me, and that is really motivating to me.

“We would have made a run, I know, if I was able to play in the playoffs. Everyone was looking to me and I wanted to come through. I suppose you can call that unfinished business. It is motivating when you have basketball taken away in high school. You can’t be there for your team. I am taking that drive to the next thing I am doing.” — Joseph Santoliquito

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R.J. Smith + Zaahir Muhammad-Gray (2026 | Imhotep Charter) 

People who don’t know any better might assume that Imhotep Charter might take a hit this offseason. After all, the Panthers are suffering the graduations of Ahmad Nowell (UConn), Ma’Kye Taylor (Albany) and the rest of a terrific senior class from last year’s three-peat Public League and state championship winners. 

However, those who think that not only haven’t paid attention to ‘Tep basketball over the last decade (and then some), but they certainly haven’t seen the Panthers’ youngsters impress this summer. 

That was the case again on Friday night, as both Smith and Muhammad-Gray led a group of Imhotep players from 2025 through 2027 who all stood out at the All-City Classic. Muhammad-Gray, a 6-foot-7 wing, went off for 31 points in the sophomore game thanks to his sharp shooting; Smith, a 5-8 point guard, added 15 points of his own along with a highlight reel of ball-handling, passing and on-ball defense.

“I came in confident, because I got a lot of shots up before the game, so I knew I was going to be good,” Muhammad-Gray said after knocking down five 3-pointers, scoring 19 points in 10 minutes of running-clock play in the first half alone and thoroughly dominating on the offensive end whenever he was on the court. “I just really want to go out and kill, we’ve got something to prove, especially this year, because nobody thinks we can do it again.”

Replacing Nowell, one of the best lead guards in the country, won’t be an easy task. Smith is a totally different type of guard from the powerful, above-the-rim athlete that Nowell was, but pound-for-pound might be the best player in the area. 

Electric with the ball in his hands, with a great chance-of-pace ability, a quality outside shot and the requisite court vision and passing abilities to set up Imhotep’s talented cadre of wings and forwards, Smith will be Andre Noble’s primary point guard each of the next two years after starting alongside Nowell as a sophomore. He said this summer he’s working on getting stronger, faster and quicker, as well as shooting with range. 

“I just know my role and I know how to play my role and I feel like I’m a natural-born leader,” Smith said, “and also I know I can lead my team coming into this 2024-25 season.”

Smith and Muhammad-Gray are year-round teammates, both playing with Team Final’s 16U squad on the Nike EYBL circuit. Smith’s recruitment has been quiet thus far; Muhammad-Gray has offers from Georgia Tech and Albany, and said he’d heard that Marquette had talked to his coaches. 

Both are eagerly awaiting the June 15 date when college coaches can contact rising juniors directly for the first time. They’ll be sure to have plenty of coaches watching during the Philly Live high school recruiting weekends in June, when Imhotep’s always one of the top draws. Later in the summer will be Peach Jam, before the focus turns ahead to 2024-25.

There will be a new group of freshmen joining Imhotep before long, Smith and Muhammad-Gray among the two who will be tasked to lead them this fall. After two years of being steeped in Noble’s program and its success, that’s a step they feel ready to take.

“I’m just going to take my experience,” Smith said, “and focus on them to get them better and to follow in everybody else’s footsteps.” — Josh Verlin

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Jordan Ellerbee (2025 | St. Joseph’s Prep)

Ellerbee is a 6-foot-2, 175-pound combo guard who just picked up another offer, from Florida Gulf Coast coach Pat Chambers, which Ellerbee will add to his list that already includes offers from Albany and Lafayette. After averaging 13 points a game, he is entering his senior year and right now he wants to see what more offers may be ahead after more live periods.

“I need to be stronger on defense. People look at me and think I’m smaller than I am. They think they can roll over me,” he said. “I have to be stronger without fouling. A lot of people know I can shoot, but I know I can be smarter with the ball. Coaches are telling me they like me as a shooting guard. I’ve been shooting three, four times a week for about an hour.

“We have some unfinished business this season. We had some big expectations last year. We have three starters back, myself, Olin Chamberlain, and Jaron (McKie). We made it to the quarterfinals (where the Hawks lost to Archbishop Ryan, 49-47, despite 13 points from Ellerbee).

“We need some size. I want to go out with a Catholic League championship. I think we can make a run. It is proven in the Catholic League you may not need a true center to win. I put it on myself why we didn’t go further last year. I could have been more consistent. I am never satisfied.”

To sharpen his outside shot, Ellerbee began going to Prep at 5 a.m. since the Hawks season ended, getting off around 500 shots three to four days a week.

“I need to be consistent to show people that I am a better player, in my opinion,” Ellerbee said. “Last season, I would have a great game, and the next game, I would not look the same.”

Like in the Hawks’ 79-71 victory at perennial Catholic League power Neumann-Goretti, when Ellerbee dropped a game-high 21, 12 coming in the fourth quarter. It was Prep’s first victory over Neumann-Goretti since 2018.

“I need to do that more consistently, getting a better feel for the game,” Ellerbee said. “For us to go to the place we need, I need to average 20 points a game this season. I want that to come not by jacking a bunch of shots, but by shooting better. I think it is a mental thing for me. It is something I want to definitely work on this summer.” — Joseph Santoliquito

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Ryan Mulroy (2025 | Upper Dublin)

There had never been an Upper Dublin boys’ basketball player in the 28 years of the All-City Classic before Mulroy suited up on Friday night. 

The 6-foot-3 guard and All-Suburban One League selection was a late inclusion but a deserving one, one of the top rising seniors in District 1 eager to show he belonged with the bevy of talent assembled on the floor. And he did just that, knocking down a number of buckets from around the rim and beyond the 3-point arc, getting his fair chance with the ball in his hands, far from a spectator on the court.

“It’s an honor, I mean, I’ve always looked at this event, I always wanted to be in it, so it’s a pretty cool event to be in,” he said. “I enjoyed it today, it was fun.”

Mulroy’s coming off the backs of a breakout junior year not just for himself but the Cardinals program as a whole. In Derek Brooks’ second year as head coach, Upper Dublin won 24 games, captured the SOL Liberty title and advanced to the District 1 5A championship, its season ending in the first round of the PIAA 5A bracket.

With Mulroy and rising junior point guard Kobe Bazemore leading the returners, UD’s shooting high again next year, hoping to become the third straight program to lose the District 1 5A final one year and win it the next after Radnor and Unionville followed the same path.

“Right after the district championship game, (Brooks) said ‘Radnor did it, Unionville did it, and now it’s us, we’re the next up to do that,’” Mulroy said, “and I think we’ve got the guys to do it.”

Mulroy’s been playing for Team Rio Shoreshots on the Under Armour circuit this spring, his first experience playing on a sneaker circuit. It’s been a solid boost for his recruitment so far: Mulroy said he’s been hearing from a couple D-Is, including Wofford and Lafayette; he’s also been on a visit to D-II California (Pa.) and has also been hearing from D-IIIs like Gettysburg, Ursinus, Franklin & Marshall and Catholic (D.C.).

“I’m open to any college reaching out, I just want to play at the next level,” he said. “I just want to be comfortable wherever I go. I want to be able to play and just get a good education, that’s most important for me.” — Josh Verlin

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Quick Hits
— Owen Schlager (2025 | Trinity) has a solid group of mid-major colleges on his tail as he enters June. The 6-4 combo guard, one of the top players in District 1, just picked up his sixth Division I offer, from Siena, joining those from Loyola (Md.), Drexel, Stonehill, Albany and Quinnipiac; he said he’s also hearing from Merrimack and Delaware “a little bit.” He said interest has picked up following a couple strong sessions with Philly Pride on the UAA circuit, where he’s shooting 46% from the floor and is third on the team in scoring. 

“There’s a lot going on, post-grad’s obviously an option now, especially with NIL money and everything, it’s definitely a thing to look into,” he said. “There’s no timeline for me right now.”

 — Milak Myatt (2026 | TBD) will be forced to go to his fourth school in three years, after going to Imhotep and then Cheltenham his freshman year, and MCS last year. With MCS closing after this school year, Myatt is free to transfer without the loss of his postseason eligibility. He said he’s getting attention from Philadelphia Catholic League schools and Cristo Rey. He plays for K-Low Elite on the AAU circuit and stressed he wanted to address his ballhandling, improve his athleticism and basketball IQ this summer. 

“I’m going to stay in Philly, and will probably make a high school decision sometime in July,” Myatt said. “I want to get stronger and get more explosive. Offensively, as a point guard, I want to make my reads faster, and defensively, I want to work on more on-ball steals in the lane.”