Bill Lloyd is making no secret about it. He wants Maddie Wylie to step up and be a dominant force for the Bordentown High girls’ basketball team.
“We’re looking for more consistency out of her, especially defensively and rebounding,” the Scotties coach said prior to a preseason scrimmage with Allentown. “So that’s something she’s gonna work on and hopefully lead us in that this year.
“I told her she also needs to be a leading scorer in our league, she needs to be a leading rebounder in our league. That’s the challenge I gave to her. I think within our (Burlington County Patriot) Division she has the capability of doing that.”
Is she ready to meet that challenge?
“We’ll find out,” Lloyd said with a laugh. “Her and I talked a few times in the preseason and she wants it. She put the work in over the summer so we’ll see what happens.”
And what does Wiley think?
“I love that kind of a challenge,” the junior said assuredly. “I need to work on stuff, everybody needs to work on stuff. But I love that challenge. I want to be the leading player. I strive for that.”
Wylie is in her second year with the Scotties, having transferred from Nottingham after her family moved from Hamilton to Bordentown.
As a freshman with the Northstars, Wylie was a bright spot in a bleak situation. She averaged nine points and 10 rebounds per game while blocking 39 shots. While she got the enjoyment of playing with her older sister, it was not a great situation as Nottingham won just four games.
In her first year with Bordentown, Wylie’s scoring dropped off to seven points per game. Her rebounding stats were unavailable but they also fell.
“I’m not sure how much time she got at Nottingham, but we were rotating our bigs about every four minutes last year so that may have made a difference,” Lloyd said. “She kind of came out of nowhere and really helped us defensively, blocking shots. Before that I didn’t know much of anything about her until she showed up on our doorstep. The first day she came on the floor was my first introduction to Maddie Wylie.”
The newcomer admitted it took time to blend in with new teammates that had played together for years prior to her arrival. But the overall experience was a great improvement.
“I just had a lot more fun when I came to Bordentown,” she said. “The people were better, I played better. The coaching was better. The coaching helped me fix a lot of things. The competition was 100 percent better.”
Asked what Lloyd and the staff helped her with, Wiley didn’t leave much to the imagination.
“Everything,” she said. “I’m not the best dribbler. I don’t really dribble, I’m under the basket so they can pass to me. I worked on my dribbling. I worked on my shot. He helped me with some moves that no one taught me my freshman year. I just always knew about going to the basket, that’s what I did. But Lloyd helped me do some moves so I could get around my defenders.”
Wylie took what she learned and worked on it over the summer.
“The number one thing I worked on was just doing moves to get around my defenders,” she said. “I didn’t have that last year. I’d just put it back up and it would get blocked or I didn’t make it because I didn’t have a move to get myself open. I was a one dimensional player.”
The one thing that immediately jumped out in a good way to Lloyd, was Wylie’s 5-11 frame. She provides the Scotties with their first true big in a while, and her rebounding and shot blocking made an immediate impact. Now, the coach wants to see more offense.
“The biggest thing this year is her scoring,” he said. “She didn’t score enough for us last year. I feel like between offensive putbacks and how we run our offense through her, that she should be averaging 14 to 16 this year. Stepping up, that’s the big goal for her this year.
“She’s working on her moves, but the majority of her points will come off putbacks and layups. Which, in the girls’ game, if you can do that, you can score points.”
While Lloyd is expecting a lot from his post player, he is also looking for help from the senior backcourt tandem of Lauren Scharko and Lillian Nucera, along with a bevy of sophomore guards.
“I feel our season will go as Maddie and those sophomore guards go,” the coach said. “I think that initially we’ll have a halfcourt offense. As the sophomore guards progress, they want to push the ball. So if I can bring them along I’d love to play at a faster pace. Maddie can get up and down the floor. She can run, so that’s the goal, to be able to push the ball.”
Wylie is certain that she can handle whatever comes along in the offense, but realizes his biggest responsibility will be to get those points underneath.
“I feel pretty confident,” she said. “I need to work on finishing and I feel pretty confident with my shot. I’ve been working on that. I hadn’t been doing it right but I’ve been working on it and feel a lot more comfortable with it. I just need to finish more, get it in the basket, focus on the basket and not who’s guarding me. My job is to make lay-ups.”
Wylie has always been tall for her age, although when she started playing athletics softball was her main sport. But after a while “I quit softball because it was too much. I got more interested in basketball.”
She did not start until fifth grade with Hamilton PAL, and then joined her middle school team when the Hamilton district began middle school leagues. She has learned a lot from her sister, Kamryn, and is learning even more with the Scotties.
With Lloyd asking her to pace the offense, does he want her to be a team leader as well?
“I never like to press that on a kid and say ‘I’m looking for leadership,’” he said. “I think that needs to be organic. I would love for her to take that role. We’ll see how that progresses. I have a couple seniors coming back and sometimes when you’re that junior with those seniors in front of you it’s tough. But we’ll see how it happens.”
Whether she takes on a leadership role or not, Wylie will be a leading player in any success Bordentown enjoys.
Bordentown basketball coach Bill Lloyd is looking for a big season from 5-foot-11 junior Maddie Wylie. (Photo by Rich Fisher.),
