Unbeaten New Mission worthy of a lot of attention

By Evan MacDonald, Globe Correspondent | January 25, 2010

New Mission boys basketball coach Cory McCarthy calls his Titans “the best team that nobody’s ever heard of.”

If the Titans keep up the pace they’re on now, it won’t be long before people begin to take notice.

New Mission entered Sunday’s game against East Boston with a perfect 12-0 record, including 9-0 in the Boston City League. Furthermore, the Titans have been dropping opponents by more than 25 points per game; a 72-67 win over Brighton Jan. 8 was the only game New Mission failed to win by double digits.

Still, McCarthy feels his team hasn’t been getting the respect it deserves.

“People say we’re big and athletic,” McCarthy said. “It’s never that they can get up and down the court, and that they play the game right.”

Last season, the Titans finished 12-9 but failed to qualify for the City playoffs. That squad did advance to the Div. 4 North semifinals, where it lost to eventual sectional champion North Cambridge Catholic.

A large part of why the Titans are so improved this season is that the players have matured together. This year’s team is filled with juniors and seniors. Furthermore, seniors Ousmane Drame and Osmel Odena and juniors Samir McDaniels, Jonathan Basile, and Kachi Nzerem play together during the summer on the Boston Warriors AAU team.

“We have a lot of returning players, and the chemistry is great,” said the 6-foot-4-inch McDaniels, who leads the team in scoring at 22.1 points per game. “Most of us have been together since we were freshmen. So as the years have gone, we’ve gotten stronger.”

Drame, a 6-8 center, has only been playing basketball for three seasons. The native Liberian, who has grown 8 inches over the past two years, averages 16 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 blocks per game while anchoring the team’s 2-2-1 press.

“I get better every year, because I work hard in the summer,” Drame said. “I think I can get better, and I can get stronger. I still have a lot of stuff to work on.”

McCarthy, who coached the New Mission girls for four years before taking over the boys’ program last season, said Drame is especially effective when the Titans’ coaching staff pushes him.

“The more you motivate him, the better player he is,” McCarthy said of Drame. “I feel like if I’m really hard on him, I get a lot out of him.”

Odena, the team’s shortest starter at 6 feet, averages 16 points and nine assists per game. McCarthy considers him to be one of the best point guards in the state.

Rounding out the starting lineup are Nzerem (6-4) and 6-2 junior Charles Gunter.

Off the bench, McCarthy can turn to even more size in freshman Nathaniel Anderson (6-6), senior Taj Banks (6-5), junior Darius Davis (6-4), and Basile (6 feet). Junior James Morgan (5-8) is the team’s only regular who stands less than 6 feet tall.

All that size is especially helpful in making New Mission’s pressure defenses effective. McCarthy likes to employ a half-court press, and he said it’s difficult for opposing guards to throw the ball over the top of McDaniels and Davis at mid-court.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about the Titans’ success is that New Mission, which is located at Roxbury Crossing, is the smallest school in the Boston City League - the MIAA’s alignment figures from last year list the school as having just 264 students. (The next-smallest school, Snowden, has 612 students.)

But the Titans have exceeded expectations, even against schools such as East Boston, West Roxbury, and Brighton, which have five times as many students.

McCarthy said he thinks New Mission’s size is partly to blame for its perceived lack of respect. He said critics think he and his staff recruit players to come play basketball at New Mission.

“They think, ‘What’s the smallest school in the Boston City doing with these players? Are they recruiting?’ McCarthy said. “But how could we recruit? [It’s just that] nobody’s ready for someone to come in and take what they’ve been doing for so long.”

The Titans’ experience against larger schools should aid them when the Div. 4 North tournament begins in about a month. The playoff landscape figures to be tough, as both Winthrop and defending state champion Cathedral loom as potential foes.

McCarthy, who won a state title with the New Mission girls in 2007, said he expects his current team to make a run, and that it will keep playing with the same tenacity that’s helped push it to the impressive start.

“You have the approach every game the same way, whether it’s the regular season or the tournament,” McCarthy said. “That’s the best thing about basketball. It stays the same, but you never know what you’re going to get out of it.”

Ultimately, McCarthy said he doesn’t care what other teams think of the Titans, because the players and the coaching staff enjoy being a part of the program.

“They’re loyal to each other, and loyal to the game. They know each other inside out,” McCarthy said. “As long as my kids go to work, go to study hall, respect each other, and play the game the right way, I’ll be happy with that.”