As far as the city’s top seniors go, Basil Harley is arguably the most unconventional.
He’s just 5-foot-6. He heavily favors his right. He has an old school set shot he brings up from his hip.
Like those other seniors, though, Wadleigh’s swift and creative senior point guard produces. Take his last game, for instance, Harley exploding for a career-high 39 points and adding 10 assists and nine rebounds in the eighth-seeded Tigers’ 77-70 win over No. 9 Bayside in the second round of the PSAL Class AA playoffs.
“This is the last game I had here and I couldn’t ask for a better one,” Harley said after the impressive victory. “They were giving me the opportunity to score the ball and I’m a scorer. They were backing up off me and letting me get my shots off.”
Harley was brilliant from start to finish. He sank three 3-pointers, he was Wadleigh’s go-to scorer, playmaker and creator, and one of its top rebounders. He picked opponents’ pockets and started the fast break. He fearlessly drove the lane and scored over Bayside’s skyscraper forwards. It was a memorable performance by Harley in front of family and friends in his Harlem swan song.
“Years from now he can come on this block and walk into this gym and say my last game I had 40 – he can add a point,” Crump said. “He went out like Captain America, he went out like Donald Trump, he went out like Flavor Flav with all the girls. You can’t go out any better than the way he went out.”
He added: ““He carried his whole team on his back. He carried Harlem on his back.”
But it wasn’t an aberration. He averaged 17 points and eight assists during the regular season and put up 15 and six as a junior.
Crump hopes the postseason outburst catches a few college coaches’ eyes. His senior, Wadleigh’s backbone and heart and soul, is looking for any kind of college opportunity. A C+ student who has already taken the SATs and passed all but one of his Regents, he would like nothing more than a solid Division III program.
“This little dude is not getting the respect he deserves,” said Crump, who considers Harley one of the hardest workers he’s ever coached. “Maybe some of these college coaches can do their job and give him some love. This kid works hard and does what he has to do.”
For now, Harley is focused on the present, shocking No. 1 Jefferson in the PSAL Class AA quarterfinals at St. John’s University. In Crump’s eight seasons, he’s gotten to the final eight six times, but has yet to reach the final four. Harley desperately wants to make history – and that doesn’t just mean a win on Sunday.
“We’re going all the way,” he boldly predicted.