State College boys’ basketball emerging as one of state’s top teams
Joe Walker can still remember sharing his vision for the future with a pair of eighth-graders at Mount Nittany Middle School in 2014.
Walker had taken over as the State College boys’ basketball coach that year, and he could already picture the Little Lions playing for a state championship in a few years. He knew it would be a real possibility with the talent in State College’s program, so one day the coach told future Little Lions Keaton Ellis and Tommy Friberg to keep working hard because they were going to do something special.
Sitting in a classroom at Mount Nittany, the eighth-graders smiled as Walker talked about playing in Hershey for the state title. The coach isn’t sure if they knew he was serious.
“When I told them that, I believed that,” said Walker, who teaches science at Mount Nittany. “It wasn’t kind of this far-fetched dream. I really thought it was realistic, or I wouldn’t have said it.”
In Walker’s fourth year at the helm, the Little Lions are aiming to finish their season in the PIAA Class 6A championship game at the Giant Center. They set a goal of winning the state title at the start of the season. Through 17 games, they’ve proven to be one of the top contenders. The Little Lions, who are ranked No. 3 in Class 6A in City of Basketball Love’s state rankings, suffered their first loss Saturday against No. 7 Reading at the Trinity Play By Play Classic.
The Little Lions know one loss in January doesn’t get in the way of their plans for March.
State College started to build toward this year in Walker’s first season in 2014-15. Drew Friberg immediately stepped into the varsity lineup as a freshman to help the Little Lions reach the state playoffs. The following year, Ellis and Tommy Friberg joined Drew Friberg and Brandon Clark on the varsity team. That’s when the players started to see what their coach saw.
“We kind of realized how, in a few years down the road, we could be special,” Drew Friberg said.
They gained experience during the 2015-16 season, falling in the first round of the state playoffs to Carlisle. The Little Lions took the next step last season, winning the Mid Penn championship to establish themselves as one of the state’s top teams. The league was loaded last season — Harrisburg, Carlisle and Central Dauphin East each won state playoff games — and State College emerged from that tough division and captured the Mid Penn title before finishing its season in the second round of the state playoffs.
This year, the Little Lions know they have what it takes to get to Hershey.
Princeton commit Drew Friberg, a third-team all-state pick last year, is leading the way. Ellis, a Penn State football commit, attacks the rim with ease. Clark, an all-state wide receiver headed to Penn State as a preferred walk-on, provides another scoring threat. Tommy Friberg can knock down 3-pointers and drive to the basket. And Ryan McNulty can hurt opposing teams in the paint and on the perimeter, too.
They’re all capable of scoring in double figures.
“Our whole team knows that if we play together, we have enough talent and enough skills, and we have the pieces that we could beat any team in the state,” Friberg said.
Until Saturday’s loss, State College dominated the competition.
This past week, the Little Lions cruised past Harrisburg 78-52 and earned a hard-fought 51-46 win over Chambersburg in back-to-back road games. They added a blowout win over Cumberland Valley to their resume before falling to defending state champion Reading 75-66.
Though Walker is looking for more consistency from his team, the Little Lions have played with confidence during their 16-1 start.
“We knew we had the ability and the chemistry from playing together all those years to do something special this year,” Ellis said. “I think everyone’s buying in to what we got going here, so it’s just really exciting.”
Walker believes the Little Lions are just getting started. They want to be playing in Hershey this March.
“It’s been an incredible year so far. We’re not even close to being done in terms of when I think we should still be playing,” Walker said. “It’s a coach’s dream to see success, hard work pay off, and they’re experiencing that this year.”
This story was originally published January 28, 2018 at 3:39 PM with the headline "State College boys’ basketball emerging as one of state’s top teams."