Prep Profile – St. Thomas More

New England Recruiting Report | Wednesday, October 5th, 2011

The St. Thomas More basketball team has a very different look than it did a year ago.  In fact, head coach Jere Quinn’s squad doesn’t return a single player from last year’s national championship squad. 

Instead, the 2011-2012 edition looks more similar to their predecessors from three or four years ago and the style of play will likely be reminiscent as well. 

With a variety of quick and scrappy guards you can expect the Chancellors to push the tempo more this year by extending their defense more consistently, utilizing their speed at all five positions, and attempting to get easy points in the open floor. 

Depth will not be a problem, especially in the backcourt where Curtis Jones, Barrington Stephens, A.J. English, Anthony Walker, and Torin Childs-Harris are all capable of making big impacts. 

Jones is a Chicago native stopping at STM before heading to Manhattan next year, where he’ll bring an attacking game that is typical for Windy City products.  English and Walker are scoring guards with complimenting styles on the wing (English is the shooter and Walker the driver) while Stephens will be the guy asked to run the show from the point. 

Torin Childs-Harris is the familiar name on the roster.  Fresh off his state championship and subsequent graduation from New London High School, the athletic swingman has made his way down the road in hopes of utilizing a post-graduate year to play his way onto the division I level following a strong summer. 

Ky Howard will provide additional depth off the bench as a valuable utility guard while Rodney Sanders and James Outlaw will also contend for rotation minutes.   

While the frontcourt rotation won’t be quite as deep, there is undeniable talent and versatility. 

Seven-foot-two center Chier Ajou, a one-time New Mexico commit, will anchor the team on the interior, protecting the lane with his size and shot-blocking ability on the defensive end and utilizing his soft touch offensively. 

Australian native Stuart McEwn will provide the spacing for Ajou to operate with his prowess as a stretch-four man while Arthur Edwards is an athletic forward who projects as a wing at the next level but could see time at both the three and the four spots this year. 

Denzel Gregg, the team’s only junior, is an athletic and active hybrid forward who will lead a supporting cast that also includes Taylor Mulvey and Michael Rudy, two hard-working and efficient role players.  

Put it all together and this year’s St. Thomas More team doesn’t necessarily have the star power of recent years, but it does have the speed, quickness, and duplicate parts to run at opponents in waves, and that’s a recipe that will give teams plenty of problems in class AAA of the NEPSAC this year.