Lakewood Ranch gears up to face top-ranked basketball team in nation

It was a no-brainer, yet Lakewood Ranch High boys basketball coach Jeremy Schiller still went through preliminary steps.

He asked each of his three core senior players, Damien Gordon, Evan Spiller and Jack Kelley, if they wanted to play in the prestigious City of Palms tournament in Fort Myers.

Knowing their competitive spirit, the answer was yes.

So the Mustangs accepted the invite to the 45th annual City of Palms tournament.

And when they lock up with Memphis East, the No. 1-ranked team in the nation, in Tuesday’s first round, they’ll become the first public high school from Manatee County to play in the City of Palms tournament since the Clifford Rozier-led Southeast High team in 1989, tournament director Donnie Wilkie said.

IMG Academy played in the event last year.

“I’m excited,” Spiller said. “First year I’ve been able to do it. There’s always been a lot of hype around it.”

After finding out Memphis East was the first-round opponent, Schiller turned to the one player who had some potential background on the future opponent in Josh Young, who transferred from Collierville High – a school in the Memphis suburbs – this year.

Young’s team had a chance to play East (7-0) last season, but a playoff exit came one round shy of meeting the Memphis powerhouse.

“All I knew when I was there was that they were tall and they were good,” said Young, who is Lakewood Ranch’s tallest player at 6-foot-6.

A limited scouting report, but the height differential, where East possesses one 6-foot-11 and two 6-foot-9 players, isn’t something new to Lakewood Ranch and Schiller. East, where former Orlando Magic player Penny Hardaway is the head coach, also has Tennessee’s two-time reigning Mr. Basketball Alex Lomax, who stands 5-foot-11.

“We come in not scared,” Schiller said. “We lifted weights. We feel like we work harder than everyone else in the country. Whether that’s true or not, that’s how we feel. So what happens is when we go line up and tip it off, we go at them. And that’s what we do every single day in practice.”

The Mustangs (5-0) are the underdogs, but it’s a position they relish.

“Everybody has their doubts at first,” Spiller said. “You think No. 1 team in the nation. But then you look at teams like Duke, they have a good streak and end up losing to a team like Boston College the one time they come out asleep. Hopefully, we get the jump.”

The City of Palms features some of the best teams from around the country and Lakewood Ranch’s inclusion only speaks to how much the program has evolved since Schiller took over in 2011.

The year prior to Schiller’s arrival in East Manatee County, Lakewood Ranch had a senior-laden squad that qualified for the playoffs.

However, Schiller wanted to change the culture and his teams began hitting the weights and conditioning harder with year-round commitment in mind.

That culminated with the program’s first playoff victory two seasons ago en route to a region final, and then the Mustangs backed it up with a state final four run last season.

“Things have changed since I’ve been here, but it takes a lot of people to make that happen,” Schiller said. “... We’ve worked really, really hard and we’ve been fortunate to have some great kids.”

It was the program’s first trip to the state semifinals. While many contributing players graduated, this year’s squad got a taste of the big-time atmosphere it will encounter in Fort Myers this week when they began the season facing Plant City at the Lakeland Center, site of the state final four.

But like all tournaments in December and early January, they’re all designed to begin morphing the team into a state title contender.

And there’s no better opening test than Memphis East or the City of Palms tournament.

This story was originally published December 18, 2017 at 4:08 PM with the headline "Lakewood Ranch gears up to face top-ranked basketball team in nation."