Number zero a master of the three-pointer

Posted

As far back as his days in middle school, Shane Richards had heard the talk. There was no chance the skinny kid from the Upper West Side was ever going to have the goods to play big-time college basketball. If he was hoping for a scholarship to college through basketball, he better come up with a Plan B. And on it went.

“It started as a joke with my teammates in middle school,” said Richards, Manhattan’s senior guard. “They always joked because I had high aspirations to play at the Division I level and they made fun of me all the time, so I started wearing the number zero in middle school and it just sort of carried over to my high school career and then into my college career. The zero is just a symbol of what people really thought of me. No one ever thought I’d be able to play at any school on the Division I level.”

Fast forward to the present, and no one is doubting Richards now. In fact, the doubters have been few and far between ever since Richards landed in Riverdale for the start of the 2012-13 season as all he has done in that time is compile one of the more historic careers in Jaspers’ basketball history.

“I really didn’t have any Division I scholarship offers going into my senior year [at York Prep in Manhattan] and it was early September or October so it was getting late,” Richards said. “Then [Manhattan] coach [Steve Masiello] recruited me and the rest is history.”

“I saw two things in Shane, his size and his ability to shoot the basketball,” Masiello said. “He shoots it as well as anyone I’ve ever coached. But I also loved his attitude. Some kids are very lackadaisical but Shane was the epitome of a gym rat. He basically lived in the 92nd Street Y. If you were ever looking for Shane, just go there and look on the basketball court and you’d find him.”

Ah yes, the 92nd Street Y. It was Richards’ second home in his pre-college days. It was where he worked tirelessly on his craft, took countless shots to perfect his shot and laid the groundwork for silencing the doubters who said he could never play Division I basketball.

Sean Brennan, basketball, Manhattan College, Shane Richards
Page 1 / 4

Comments