MILTON, Mass. – Lamar Reddicks enters his third year at Milton Academy, the basketball team now established as not just a team of bright kids who have little ability on the hardwood. This year’s team isn’t loaded, but they have a few pieces and should be able to win more than their fair share of games, especially since there appears to be some leadership.
To that last point, the team’s floor leader is also the captain and unquestioned leader of the team, Travis Sheldon (5’10” Sr. PG, Woodstock (NY)). Sheldon actually ran Sunday’s open gym from start to finish, competing all the time and showing how much of a vocal leader he is for this team. He has a good body and can get to the basket despite not being overly quick, and he passed well while hitting enough jumpers to look like his shot must be respected.
The likely starter alongside Sheldon is Eric Davis (6’0″ Sr. PG-SG, Middleton (MA)), who is out indefinitely with a spleen injury. In his stead, two brothers, Jesse Pagliuca (6’1″ Sr. SG, Weston (MA)) and Nick Pagliuca (6’3″ Jr. SF, Weston (MA)) could see a lot of action there. The sons of Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca, both will get minutes off the bench at the very least. Jesse shot the ball better as the day went along, as he had some struggles early but more success later. Nick has a relatively mature body and moved well without the ball, and is looking to play more like he did early last year when he started well before having his struggles later.
Max Motroni (5’10” Jr. PG, West Warwick (RI)) figures to back up Sheldon and may occasionally play alongside him. He has a mature body and on this day finished with contact when he got to the basket. Ryan Rizzo (5’10” Jr. PG, Needham (MA)), who is very athletic and plays running back and wide receiver on the football team, will also be in the mix.
Nick Bland (6’4″ Jr. SF, Milton (MA)), who is the starting quarterback on the football team, will play a significant role in the frontcourt. He figures to start or be the first forward off the bench, depending on matchups. If he starts, that means Ike Ngwudo (6’6″ Jr. SF-PF, Baldwin (NY)), who did some individual drills during the day and sat out game action due to a minor wrist injury suffered in football, will start at power forward. Ngwudo has a developing body and is coming off a spring and summer where he had some struggles at first before coming alive later, including during a trip to Russia in July. Although he wasn’t playing on Sunday, he was very much into the action as he constantly encouraged players and pointed out things he saw.
One player he was constantly on is Alec Brennan (6’8″ So. PF-C, Weston (MA)), who should have been the best player on the floor but wasn’t. Brennan has plenty of potential, as he has solid face-up skills and a good frame but lacks the assertiveness to be as good as he can be right now. His jumper was a mixed bag, although he’s shown good range on it before, and most of his rebounds were uncontested as he was generally too passive.
Another forward sure to be in the mix is Greg Blaize (6’4″ Sr. PF, Milton (MA)), who starts on the defensive line for the football team and like most of the football players did not work out with the basketball team on Sunday.
Milton is in the same boat as a number of teams in Class A in having lost key players, with Dennis Clifford being the big one for them. But contending is very much a possibility with their frontcourt talent and the veteran presence on the perimeter, especially if Ngwudo picks up where he left off and Brennan plays more assertively to start approaching his potential.
