Syracuse-bound Malachi Richardson celebrates TCA’s last-second win against Rancocas Valley, at left. He scored 18 points in the 63-62 game. (Photos by Suzette J. Lucas.)
Trenton Catholic Academy senior Malachi Richardson’s eyes are up.
It’s minutes before a routine Feb. 3 regular season basketball game versus Medford Tech, and Richardson breezily goes about his pre-game routine. He’s on to the next warm-up drill, a handful of free throw exercises, some practice three-pointers. He nails every one of them.
He drains shot after shot, making dozens in a row from all over TCA’s half of the court. It’s not an anomaly, said TCA boys’ basketball head coach Fred Falchi.
“I’ve stayed around after practices and seen him make about 55 in a row,” he said. “That’s what he’s known for, it’s what he’s going to college for. If he makes it to the next level, that’s what he’s going to be known for.”
Not once does Richardson glance down. He always seems like he’s looking ahead, whether he’s figuring out his next move on the court or thinking about his future. It’s not hard to see why.
At 6-foot-6, Richardson towers over his teammates—and most of their opponents. He sees the whole court over their heads, always anticipating his next move, the next play.
Mentally, he’s at the next level—both figuratively and literally. The Hamilton native is headed to Syracuse University in the fall, where he is committed to play basketball under Hall of Fame head coach Jim Boeheim. He hasn’t let an NCAA investigation into the Orange shake him. He remains 100 percent committed to Syracuse.
His success is the result of hours spent playing one-on-one with his father, of practicing shooting with his mother after team practices nearly every day. It’s something the mother-son pair still does regularly, even after Richardson reached the pinnacle of high school basketball by being named one of 24 McDonald’s All Americans Jan. 28. It’s one of the most prestigious awards a player can earn. He’s the first player from Mercer County to earn the honor.
The lineup of past All Americans reads like an NBA greatest of the great list: Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Kevin Durant. It’s an impressive group to be a part of, but for those who know Richardson, it’s no surprise he ended up there.
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It all started with a little push from his mother, Jacquie.
She played basketball as a high school student at Trenton Central, and she thought Richardson would enjoy the sport. She started her son on basketball at four-years old.
“I just thought he would be a good basketball player,” she said. “I wanted him to experience something besides being in the house all the time, just extra activity.”
Around the same time, they started their practice routine. The pair often walked over to Shady Brook Park and ran dribble and shooting drills. Now, they use the Trenton Catholic gym after team practices, usually around 9 p.m., until 10 or 11.
And every night, they’re there. Richardson shoots, Jacquie retrieves.
“They’re just inseparable,” Falchi said. “Whenever you saw one of them, you saw the other. There’s rarely talking going on [when they practice]. It’s a lot of hard work.”
The sessions had local coaches like Falchi talking when Richardson was in grade school.
“He was probably around 7 or 8 years old,” he said. “We’d heard of some kid always out playing, always out with his mom. When I first saw him, I just realized it was him. He was a lot better than everybody.”
A couple of hours almost daily for the last 10-plus years adds up to a lot of hours handling a basketball—and Richardson said each one helped get him where he is today.
“It’s getting that extra work in when I’m with her,” he said. “It’s just extra work that a lot of other people don’t do. It’s really helpful.”
One-on-one games with his father, Lewis, also played a part in developing Richardson’s skills at a young age. The two faced off in their backyard, at the park and other local spots.
“We played all the time,” Lewis said. “He beat me some, I beat him some. Once he got older, that’s when he started beating me.”
They both remember the first time Richardson came out on top. He was in sixth grade, around 12 years old, and they were playing in Princeton.
“He was mad that he couldn’t score, he couldn’t do anything,” Richardson said. “I think I beat him 16-1 or something. It was bad. He doesn’t even want to play anymore.”
Richardson’s accurate shots and quick movements made Lewis feel lots of things, but chief among them?
“I felt like I was old,” he said, laughing.
It was clear early on that basketball would take Richardson somewhere. He was part of the eighth grade boys’ undefeated team at Grice Middle School and immediately jumped up to Trenton Catholic’s varsity squad as a freshman the following year.
His sophomore year, he transferred to Union County’s Roselle Catholic, where he helped the team to a Tournament of Champions victory that same season. But he missed playing close to home, so it was back to Trenton Catholic for his junior and senior seasons. This year, the Iron Mikes are 12-4 heading into the postseason. Richardson had 308 points and counting, as of Feb. 11.
As the season winds down, Richardson is well aware that the window on his high school career is closing.
“These are my last few games coming up,” he said. “It’s time to put up or shut up.”
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But with the end of high school comes the beginning of college, and April’s All American game will be Richardson’s first taste of Division I life.
He flies out to Chicago on March 28. The East and West squads each have four practices, a banquet and a local Ronald McDonald House visit on the itinerary, leading up to the game, which will be broadcast on ESPN, at the United Center on Apr. 1. The All-Star Weekend-like event also includes a three-point shootout, dunk contest and skills contest, airing on ESPN2 Mar. 30.
Playing in the game was always a goal of Richardson’s, something that motivated him to put extra effort into his workouts.
“That was one of his goals,” Falchi said. “To achieve something like that is quite a feat.”
Richardson found out he earned a roster spot during the third quarter of a Jan. 28 game against Bordentown.
“They were shooting a free throw,” he said. “Next thing I knew, I heard my parents scream. That’s how I knew I made it. It was like, ‘Whew, I finally made it.’ I could focus more on the game.”
They were keeping up with the announcement on a smartphone, while Jacquie’s sister watched on television.
“Before, with him, it was ‘Syracuse-bound Malachi Richardson,’” Jacquie said. “Now, it’s ‘McDonald’s All American Malachi Richardson.’ Every time I see that, it’s just unbelievable to me.”
Even the fact that he’ll be playing for Syracuse is sometimes hard for the family to comprehend.
“My vision was for him to maybe get noticed by Rutgers or Seton Hall, but then all those other schools started noticing him,” Jacquie said. “It was just different. I just envisioned him staying in-state, family being able to go watch him play. It got much bigger than I anticipated.”
Richardson agreed. After he received his first offer from Seton Hall, he was satisfied, but he never envisioned the number of schools that eventually came calling. He committed to Syracuse in December 2013, choosing the Atlantic Coast Conference school over Indiana, UConn and Rutgers.
And he’s still standing by the Orange in the wake of the NCAA investigation into the basketball program. The NCAA has dug for years into allegations of academic fraud, drug testing and impermissible benefits against athletes who played at Syracuse 2012 and earlier. None of the allegations are related to current athletes. So far, it’s resulted in a self-imposed postseason ban put in place for this season, but the possiblity of harsher NCAA-inflicted penalties like losses of scholarships and a longer playoff ban loom.
Richardson, though, is not fazed.
“I’m not really too worried about it,” he said. “If [the postseason ban] was a thing for next year, too, I would still be going there. Hopefully, it doesn’t hurt anybody next year.”
His preparations for his freshman season include getting stronger, and he’s gained about 20 pounds of muscle since the beginning of the summer. Boeheim also made the trip down to Hamilton to attend a Trenton Catholic practice earlier in the season and discussed with Falchi what he wanted Richardson to improve on, mainly moving around the court when he doesn’t have the ball.
“It’s different knowing that some things you work on now will be done in college,” Richardson said. “It’s like an advantage, but I just want to have a complete game, work on everything I possibly can now and be as good as I can be before I get under coach Boeheim.”
Maybe his biggest worry, though, is weather-related. Syracuse receives 124 inches of snow each year on average, more than the height of a basketball hoop and about 100 inches of snow more than Hamilton gets each winter.
“I’m nervous about the cold weather and the snow,” he said. “It’s crazy up there, how much snow they really get. I think that’s going to be something I need to prepare for.”
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For now, though, it’s all about a milder winter and the Iron Mikes. As the Medford Tech game heats up, Richardson’s expression stays stoic. He’s all over the court—with and without the ball—and so are his eyes, always looking up.
He hits a three and barely reacts. After an aggressve battle for the ball, he dribbles away like nothing happened. It’s all a part of his laid-back nature, Lewis said.
“It’s good that nothing rattles him on the court, and that’s what Syracuse really likes about him,” Jacquie said. “He never lets the game speed him up. He plays at a nice pace.”
Staying calm and collected is something Richardson makes an effort to work on.
“I try to keep a straight face, never get too high, never get too low,” he said. “I always want to just keep my composure and be smart on the floor.”
With Boeheim’s reputation as someone who knows how to motivate each of his players, whether it’s by shouting or offering up a sly comment, Richardson’s presence of mind will be beneficial, regardless of the route his coach takes.
“If he does yell at me, it’ll be like he’s coaching and teaching me instead of just being negative towards me,” he said. “I know if I just take it and listen and do what he says, I’ll be fine.”
All he has to do is look ahead.
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