Georgetown Prep had one of its most successful basketball teams ever in 2003-2004. It certainly was the tallest team ever at the prestigious Jesuit school in North Bethesda, Maryland, and its players drew the kind of college recruiting interest more commonly associated with Prep’s Nationally recognized lacrosse program.

Coach Dwayne Bryant’s team went 20-6 and won the Interstate Athletic Conference (IAC) regular season title. The Little Hoyas were finalists in both the IAC Tournament and the Sleepy Thompson Tournament. They registered regular season victories over WCAC foes Gonzaga and St. Johns.

Two of Bryant’s players, 7’2” Roy Hibbert and 6’9” Davis Nwankwo, were selected to play in the Capital Classic Regional game and all three members of Prep’s much publicized “Triple Towers” front line received D-I college scholarships.

Hibbert will stay in town to play for John Thompson III at Georgetown; Nwankwo will matriculate at Vanderbilt University; and 6’9” Aris Williams, who played his junior and senior years at Prep after previously attending Archbishop Spalding and Wilde Lake High School, will attend Valparaiso University in Indiana.

Graduation will not be kind to Coach Bryant this spring. Prep will also lose starting guard Tommy “Rice” Moss, who will be attending Syracuse on a football scholarship, and key substitute guards Tim Egan and Matt Duff.

Egan, a tremendous three point shooting specialist, almost single-handedly kept Prep in the IAC Championship Game against St. Alban’s with his 5 three pointers down the stretch. The Washington Post gave Egan All-IAC Honors this year.

The Little Hoya team was so senior-dominated this year that, as a point in fact, Bryant will have only four varsity holdovers in 2004-2005. Of those four, only senior guard Danny Glading, got appreciable playing time this year.

The loss of height, experience, and proven big players aside, Coach Bryant is actually excited, and very optimistic, about Prep’s chances of being a very good team in 2004-2005.

Coach Bryant believes that that some of the younger, untested players from last year’s team will assume leadership roles and provide offensive fire power on the perimeter next season. Bryant also thinks that he has a lot of “... very good young prospects coming up from the JV and freshmen teams. And some of the new freshman might help as well. I have at least eight varsity spots to fill with new players next year- up to eleven roster spots to fill if I keep 15 kids on the varsity.”

The 6’3” Glading, who is also an outstanding lacrosse player and a top soccer player, will return as the starting point guard.

“I don’t think Danny’s role will change that much. I don’t necessarily see him increasing his scoring a lot, because that isn’t what he does best. But he is an excellent floor leader, plays defense, rebounds, gets the ball to scorers. He can actually play both guard spots and is strong enough, big enough to play some small forward when we play three or four guards at once.”

Will we see Prep actually playing three and four guards at once next year? Will Bryant go from “Triple Towers” to TRULY “Little Hoyas”?

“Next year, when you look out on the floor, you’ll see guards, guards, guards playing for us– we might have four of five guards out there without a true center. As a coach, it is pretty exciting. There are a lot of offensive and defensive options that you can use when you have a smaller, faster team out there,” Bryant told MdVarsity.com this week.

As a former backcourt player himself Bryant, who played at Georgetown under John Thompson, Jr., is clearly excited about the Little Hoyas going to a guard-oriented style!

“Obviously, I’ll miss Roy and Davis, but, as a coach, I am really energized, really excited. It will be a whole new group of players from what you saw the last 3-4 years. I have to put in a whole new playbook and style of play. That is the kind of thing that makes coaching high school fun. I think it will be fun for our fans to watch, a fun style for our kids to play,” said Bryant.

Bryant will be counting heavily on a pair of rising junior guards who did get a little varsity playing time this year, 6’2” wing guard Conor Jeffers and 6’4” guard/forward Donovan Woodson.

“Conor is a very good outside shooter, he’s about 6’2”, 6’2 ½” now and this off-season he has been working on his ball handling. He could be one of our leading scorers next year,” said Bryant. Jeffers, whose father Mike played at Archbishop Carroll in the early 1970’s, drew attention from a couple of WCAC schools coming out of the Woods Academy in Bethesda as an eighth grader.

Bryant feels that he has a potential star in Woodson.

“Donovan is a phenomenal athlete,” said Bryant. “He is our most athletic player. In fact, he was probably our best athlete THIS year. I think he is a better athlete than Rice (Moss). He could be a really special player. He can anywhere on the perimeter – either guard spot of small forward. He isn’t just a great athlete, he has nice skills as well. At the high school level, he can literally be used anywhere from the point to the post. Donovan got some experience this past year and I think he is going to really break out and be an outstanding player this year. Because he is so athletic and versatile, he’ll open things up for other players as well.”

6’1” senior Matt Dellatorre is the fourth returning veteran player.

“Matt is pretty tough and smart and I could see him helping us next year even though he hasn’t played a lot before,” said Bryant.

Among the new players, Bryant is particularly high on 6’3” point guard Aaron Bond. According to Bryant, the rising sophomore Bond “… was, talent wise, the best player on our junior varsity this year. I think he could be a D-I (college) player. He plays for the D.C. Blue Devils AAU Team. He is very talented. He might start at point guard for us.”

Bryant also cited 6’1” Chris Harrington and 6’2” sophomore forward Julien Williams as other players who might come up from the JV to help the varsity next year.

Though Williams played sparingly on the JV this year, he is an intriguing prospect. Julien’s father is 6’8” Buck Williams, an outstanding power forward at the University of Maryland from 1978-1981 and a long time NBA player, most notably with the New Jersey Nets and Portland Trail Blazers.

“We had Julien on the JV team instead of the Freshman Team as a ninth grader,” said Bryant. “He played about a quarter a game. I think he can be a very good player for us. I understand that he is playing very well in AAU this spring and is dunking the ball with both hands now. He’s a pretty good athlete and I think he’ll still get taller.”

Julien Williams plays on the Maryland Madness 16 & Under team. His father is one of the team’s coaches.

Bryant does not apparently have much height at his disposal next year, but he has a couple of young 6’5” players in the program whose potential he likes. Kevin Ridgeway, a rising 6’5” sophomore whose season on the Freshman Team was cut short by injury, might be a varsity candidate.

“Kevin only played about three games last year before he got hurt, but he’s playing lacrosse now, so he should be ready for basketball. He’s 6’5”, 6’6” and fairly athletic, and I think eventually he’ll be a good player but, unfortunately, he only weighs about 145-150 pounds right now.”

Coach Bryant told us he is “very excited” about his incoming freshman class and he named 5 or 6 incoming ninth graders who he thinks could be really good players for Prep down the road. One of those players, 6’5” Aaron Lewis, might have to play sooner than later.

Lewis, the younger brother of recently graduated St. Alban’s center Cameron Lewis, was also recruited by some WCAC schools. Ironically, Cameron Lewis was instrumental in St. Alban’s beating Prep in the IAC Championship this year as he had a “double-double” and helped slow down the “Triple Towers” with his quickness and tenacity.

Bryant told MdVarsity.com that he has not seen Aaron Lewis play yet, but he understands that Lewis is “…very athletic, has a lot of potential.”

“I really do not scout eighth grade teams or go out and recruit at those games, so there are a number of these kids that I have not seen yet. Some of them I see for the first time at their admissions interview (for Georgetown Prep),” said Bryant, who is also in Prep’s Admissions Office.

Coach Bryant told us that he might have another intriguing ninth grader: a 6’4” 260 pound Prep football recruit. The player in question was one of the top schoolboy football recruits in the D.C. area this year. Last week, a respected WCAC football coach told us that the player in question had been a “priority” recruit for his school.

“I am a big proponent of kids playing both football and basketball,” said Bryant. “I played football in high school and I think it helped me. Look at what it did for Rice. Frankly, there is a lot of research and evidence that kids do better academically in the quarters in which they are playing sports. The other coaches at Prep and myself are very good about accommodating students playing multiple sports.”

Coach Bryant is very excited about the 2004-2005 season and does not regard it as a “rebuilding year”.

“I expect to win this year, I really do,” said Bryant. “I’m a competitive person. I NEVER played on losing teams and I don’t want to coach a losing team. I do not get ANY pressure to win from the Athletic Director or the Principal here at Prep, that pressure only comes from within myself – my own expectations for this program. We’ll be young, but I still expect us to be good and to win.”

Bryant told us that he is lining-up a competitive schedule for his young team in 2004-2005.

“We’re playing in a Tournament in Ft. Lauderdale that is supposed to be very good. We’ll be playing in the Book Jammin’ Tournament in Virginia. We are going to play St. Johns and, maybe, some other WCAC schools. I have calls in to a couple of Baltimore Catholic League schools about playing.’

Coach Bryant confirmed that he would like to schedule games with Loyola High School, now coached by Mike Hibbs, Bryant’s former IAC rival at Bullis Prep.

PREP NOTES:

-Coach Bryant told us that both Matt Duff and Tim Egan will be enrolling at Georgetown University next year and that they plan on trying to walk-on for the Hoya Basketball Team.

-Coach Bryant said that it is “possible” that Rice Moss might also play on Coach Jim Boeheim’s Syracuse basketball team as a walk-on. “I don’t know if Rice really plans on playing basketball there or not,” said Bryant. “I know that Syracuse lists him on their website as a basketball recruit, but, frankly, it might be hard for him to play both. I understand that he might start on the football team (as a wide receiver) next year.”

-Coach Bryant said that Prep will play in both the Ban The Brick Summer League at St. Alban’s and the highly competitive The Rock Summer League at High Point HS. Prep was in The Rock last year. Prep had been in Ban The Brick in years past, but did not participate there last summer.

-Although the IAC is graduating arguably its best group of seniors ever this year, Coach Bryant believes the Conference could be. “…just as good, just as competitive next year. We are losing great individual players like Roy and Rice, Manny (Quezada of St. Alban’s), Travis Lay (Bullis) and Michael Schwimmer of St. Stephen’s/St. Agnes. But even if the individual talent isn’t as good, I think some of the teams will be just as good or even better. Episcopal could be very good, St. Stephen’s/St. Agnes has some very good players back, St. Alban’s has a couple of young guards I really like, Landon will be better…We also have good coaches and good programs in our Conference. I don’t think the league will be as ‘down’ as some people think.”