Boys Basketball: Jackson Hicke, Cooper Mueller set to lead Radnor’s super seniors

RADNOR — Jackson Hicke was busy working in early July, so he missed the call from Cooper Mueller.

When he finally called back his Radnor boys basketball teammate, Hicke got news that brought a smile to his face. Mueller, a midfielder on Radnor’s state title-winning lacrosse team, had committed to Princeton, where Hicke had pledged his basketball future just a week earlier.

“I was like, that’s awesome,” Hicke said at practice Monday. “He could go wherever he wanted to go in the country, and I knew his family history there and it’s a great school. I’m super pumped to be able to spend another four years with him.”

Before their adventures in the Ivy League, the Radnor teammates have business to attend to on the court, a culmination years in the making. A core of Raptors connected since elementary school have grown together, some contributing to varsity since their freshman years. That group is now a nine-strong senior class, led by a quartet of college players.

Hicke’s future is set at Princeton, a possibility he’d hoped for early in his recruitment.

“I think I knew early on in the recruiting process that if there was a possibility, I definitely wanted to go to the Ivy League,” he said. “Just a great education that sets you up for life, and it’s a competitive league, Princeton’s usually pretty good and can compete for a league title. I think it’s a great dynamic where I could potentially play in the tournament and get a top-three education in the nation.”

Point guard Danny Rosenblum has signed with Rochester (N.Y.). Swingman Charlie Thornton is fielding Division II and III offers, while Jackson Gaffney, a 6-5 senior transfer from St. Joseph’s Prep, is getting low Division I interest and Division II pursuit.

Add in Cliff Smith, a freshman at Cabrini, and Washington & Lee junior Jack D’Entremont, and the Raptors have become a significant cultivator of talent under coach Jamie Chadwin. It’s particularly impressive for what is traditionally a lacrosse school, with both Mueller and junior Michael Savadove (Harvard) committing to top Ivy lacrosse programs.

Mueller’s recruitment was a whirlwind. He embarked with family connections in his back pocket – dad Kit was a Princeton hoops standout, and his older sister, lacrosse All-Delco and basketball 1,000-point scorer Ellie, plays on the Tigers’ lacrosse team. But his sensational junior season, as the Raptors repeated as PIAA Class 3A champs, led to a brief but torrid recruitment where he garnered interest from national powers like Notre Dame and North Carolina.

Ultimately, Princeton is where he felt at home. His Instagram announcement of his commitment, pictured as a toddler at a Princeton hoops game, underscores the link.

“When I went to Princeton, I was like, wow this is where I want to be,” Mueller said. “I want to set my own path, but I think I can do that while I’m there. … It’s great to have some familiarity with the school, but I find I can still be my own person there.”

Both Hicke and Mueller hope to collect some hardware first. Radnor got a taste last year, a 23-5 campaign among the best in program history. The Raptors reached the Central League final, falling to Lower Merion, and in the District 1 Class 5A title game, losing by one in overtime to Chester. They won their states opener, behind 38 points from the All-Delco Hicke, before being eliminated by eventual state champion Imhotep Charter.

The Raptors return five of their top six scorers, accounting for a shade under 80 percent of their points from last year. Hicke averaged 16.5 points per game, followed by Thornton at 10.3. He and Mueller are stat-sheet stuffers, with their defensive work and passing ability, while Rosenblum (6.4 ppg) settled into a more pass-first floor general role. Adding a wing like Gaffney, who had moments for a Prep team that finished 12th in the Catholic League last year, will only lessen his offensive burden.

“Last year, it would be like, ‘a young and inexperienced Radnor squad,’ but now it’s the opposite,” Hicke said. “It’s weird that it’s our last year here, but I think we’re better than ever. We’re really one of the best teams in the state, I think. I don’t think there’s any team that we can’t beat. We all know how to play, and we’ve been playing together forever. We’ve lost some big games, and we know what the environment is going to be.”

Mueller’s lacrosse experience offers insight on both what a championship team looks like and how eras change. Each of the title-winning lacrosse teams, he said, had their own unique dynamics. Some of the aspects of leadership he’s learned there will work with this nucleus of basketball players.

Even with so many familiar faces, the 2022-23 Radnor team will be subtly different than last year’s. At the heart of both, though, is a group bonded for more than a decade playing for each other.

“We all love playing with each other,” Hicke said. “We play unselfish, we play together. That’s what we always say before the game, together, and we really mean it. We definitely stand with each other, help each other out. We all want each other to succeed as much as we want to succeed, and we just want to win.”