When Tom Fraher got to his office at Mount St. Michael the morning after his team’s big win against Christ the King, he had a ton of messages waiting for him. Many of them were college coaches inquiring about senior guard Malik Gill, who dropped 30 points on the two-time defending champion Royals in the CHSAA Class AA intersectional quarterfinals.
“The word got out quickly that Mount St. Michael’s got a special point guard,” Fraher said. “When he basically puts us on his shoulders against CK, people took notice.”
Coaches from Davidson, James Madison, Vermont and Columbia had left voicemails. Iona, Quinnipiac, Marist, Fordham and Hofstra were in contact.
Gill had the same response to all of them. He wasn’t interested. He had already found his dream school.
On Wednesday afternoon at Mount, Gill made it official, announcing his commitment to Dartmouth, one of the first Division I schools to make a serious play for him. An Ivy League education was too good to pass up. American and George Washington were also in the mix.
“I feel accomplished when I hear the words Ivy League,” Gill said. “When I came into high school, that was my goal, to be able to use basketball to get an Ivy League education. I have an opportunity to do that now.”
The Big Green began recruiting him in January and Gill went on a visit there last month, before his wildly successful postseason and before many started characterizing him as the best pure point guard in New York City.
“They didn’t come after the playoffs, they didn’t come during the playoffs,” Gill’s mother, Lona, said. “They came months before.”
Fraher said Dartmouth head coach Paul Cormier, who has NBA experience, was at six of Mount’s last eight games, clearly making Gill the program’s priority.
“That’s not driving from Harlem to The Bronx,” Fraher joked.
Gill transferred from New Rochelle HS to Mount after his freshman year. He was initially supposed to attend Mount St. Michael out of eighth grade, but followed his friends to the nearby public school. He has been a huge success story since then, helping the Mountaineers win the CHSAA Class A title last year and leading them to the program’s first semifinals at the highest classification this season.
Lona also noted that he took care of business in the classroom, which she and his father Anthony emphasize.
“There’s a special ring to [the Ivy League], a special tone to that,” Fraher said. “Malik Gill is a diligent student, he stakes his studies seriously and just kind of transforms into a gym rat at 2:30. He’s a very serious kid with his priorities and his priorities are academics, obviously his education, then basketball.”
Dartmouth also has Gill St. Bernard’s (N.J.) sharpshooter Alex Mitola coming in next year. Fraher said he was told that Mitola and Gill could end up playing major minutes right away. The Big Green, one Division I assistant said, is an excellent fit for someone with Gill’s skill set.
“He’s an explosive athlete,” the assistant said.”He shoots the ball, he handles the ball and is tough and strong. I think his game translates well to being successful in the Ivy League, because there aren’t a lot of guards like him.”
Gill’s parents hammered home using basketball as an outlet for a free college education while he was growing up. During his career, that’s really all he wanted – a scholarship, whether it be Division I or Division II.
Now, though, he has taken it to the next level. Mount might not have won a city title this year, falling to Holy Cross in the semifinals. But Gill in on his way to the Ivy League.
“I accomplished the top goal,” he said.