If anyone needs to get Marvin McNeil’s attention, Jeff Molinelli knows the secret.
“Any time you say basketball, Marvin comes running,” the Lawrence High boys basketball coach said.
And McNeil won’t dispute that.
“When I’m not playing basketball, I’m watching basketball,” the Cardinals junior point guard said. “I just love the game. It’s all basketball. I watch the NBA, college, other high schools. I really appreciate basketball.”
His favorite college team is Duke, and his current NBA team is the Mavericks – because of one man.
“I have a favorite player and it’s Kyrie (Irving),” McNeil said. “Pretty much every team he goes on, I’m watching that team. I remember when he was on the Cavs and he beat Steph Curry (and the Warriors) in the finals. I had a Cleveland jersey.”
He may go broke buying jerseys as Irving has been on the Cavaliers, Celtics and Nets before finding Dallas. But he sticks with his man.
“I like that there’s no holes in his game,” McNeil said. “He can score at all levels, he gets his teammates involved when he needs to. He’s just a great player to me.”
Since he studies Irving so intently, it’s not surprising that Molinelli says the same things about McNeil in his second full season running the point.
“He’s so quick and strong,” the veteran coach said of his 5-11, 180-pound floor general. “He can get to the rim. He uses his size well. He has a very good handle. He’s got a nice step-back three, he’s able to hit threes off the bounce, which is tough to do. He has a little pull-up J too, when he gets into the paint. He’s the old school, three-level scorer you don’t see as much any more.”
He not only scores, but runs the offense as well. Through Lawrence’s 9-4 start, McNeil led the team in scoring (17.7 points per game) and assists (40) and despite standing below six-feet he was third in rebounds. As of Jan. 15 the Cardinals were on a four-game winning streak that culminated with a double-overtime victory over previously unbeaten West Windsor-Plainsboro North.
That a group of relatively new players has been able to mesh and play well is a tribute to their facilitator.
‘He makes things easier for everybody,” Molinelli said. “Presses haven’t been an issue, he can help break them. When we’re in our offense, teams have so much focus on him that it gives our other players an opportunity to have a little more space to create for themselves.”
McNeil knew it would be a challenge to get a large group of newcomers to come together, but his point guard experience made him an instinctive leader.
“I had to tell them, and they knew, that if you don’t step up your role someone else is gonna do it for you,” he said. “We all had to work and push each other to our limits. We have to play as a team and be ready. We had to get our chemistry up, play in the summer and work hard with each other. We had to bond really fast.”
Molinelli is happy with how his team bonded, noting that McNeil and senior post player Noah Johansen – the team’s second leading scorer and leading rebounder – have provided a nucleus to build upon.
“The guys around them just work hard and battle and play defense and get us into what we need and make shots when we need to,” the coach said. “It’s been fun to watch so far. Most of the guys were JV guys, Noah and Marvin were our two big returners. But those other kids work hard, battle, play defense. We get a lot of points off our defense, which is big.”
Offensively, McNeil has been the key. His gym rat days started at age 4 as he quickly began playing rec ball in Lawrence, Ewing, Trenton, “just anywhere I could play.” He quickly moved to AAU, playing with the Jersey Rivals, T-Town Ballers and YSU Elite, where he has been since his freshman year.
In AAU, McNeil played the two and three spots but when he got to middle school he was converted to point guard.
“They said ‘You’re bringing up the ball, you’re getting everyone else involved,” he said. “It was pretty easy but I had to learn a few things – how to limit turnovers, when to attack, when not to attack, when to get your team the ball or find your spot and get a bucket yourself.”
Molinelli first saw McNeil as a middle schooler when he attended the coch’s clinic at Village Park.
“I said ‘I know this kid is gonna be good,’” Molinelli recalled. “Just seeing him in middle school and watching him grow through the years, he became a big part of our program when he stepped in as a freshman.”
McNeil began ninth grade on the freshman team but was moved up after a varsity player suffered a concussion. He alternated between starting and coming off the bench depending on the game plan, and he took his promotion in stride.
“I didn’t really surprise myself,” McNeil said. “I knew there was talent on the team that I could play with. I’ve always been a competitor. I felt it was my job to show them how I could really play.”
Any nerves?
“Not really,” he said. “You gotta have confidence.”
McNeil certainly had that, and as a sophomore he averaged 8.8 points and was second on the team with 45 assists.
“As a freshman I knew he was gonna be pretty good,” Molinelli said. “Sophomore year he had a good year for us, getting us into our offense and scoring when he could.
“I started sensing over the summer he would have a really nice junior year. Credit to him, he had an awesome off-season.”
It was part of the overall plan.
“For sure I was on a mission,” McNeil said. “We lost 90 percent of our scoring. In the summer I had to work my tail off and get a lot better. I worked on my whole game and I mainly focused on being the primary ball handler. I wanted to be in the game most of the time, not get frustrated with things not going your way. And I just wanted to get my teammates involved and get to my spots.”
He did all that, and more according to Molinelli.
“He was with us in summer league and team camps, he played a ton of AAU and he just trained on his own,” the coach said. “He found ways to go shoot and go work on his game and you can tell. Every part of his game has gotten better this year.
“Last year he wasn’t even considered for any all-conference team. This year, he’s putting up numbers that hopefully will get him on one of those teams. You can see how his game went from a productive guard to one of the better guards in the county. It’s a huge credit to him and how hard he’s worked.”
As McNeil has matured as a scoring point guard, he is able to walk that fine of knowing when to get others involved and when to look for his shot.
“It’s whatever is open,” he said. “If I know I can take the guy I’m gonna take him. But also if they’re helping too much on me, I’m swinging it out. My teammates are all capable of making shots. We all can score; we’re all good.”
And with McNeil’s improvement in running the point, he’s making good players even better.
“He’s playing with a lot of confidence,” Molinelli said. “I knew he’d have a good year but he’s really playing well. We’ll be in a lot of games because of how well he’s playing.”
McNeil would have it no other way. He’s doing what he loves, and is doing it better than ever.
LHS Junior Marvin McNeil has been the driving force behind the resurgent Lawrence High basketball team. The point guard leads the Cardinals in scoring and assists. (Photo by Sam Pastorella.),
