SPORTS

Linden’s Otis Livingston is the HNT Boys Basketball Player of the Year

Mike Becker

@realmikebecker

It was the perfect basketball marriage and it came at the right time.

Otis Livingston and the Linden High School boys basketball program, led by head coach Phil Colicchio, came together before the start of the 2013-14 season after Livingston, a 6-foot point guard, transferred in from the Patrick School and the culmination of the two resulted in plenty of success.

The Tigers last year won an NJSIAA Group IV title and advanced to the Tournament of Champions semifinals and this year, with Livingston playing an even more integral role, upset Roselle Catholic to win their first Union County Tournament title since 2007 and they won a North 2 Group IV title for a third consecutive season.

“I think Otis and I came together at the right time in each other’s’ lives,” Colicchio said. “I think Otis was seeking something and he’s almost like a throwback kid – he loves the game, he loves to practice, he loves to work and I think he was just the perfect final piece to our team last year and this year.”

"Me and him (Colocchio) have a special relationship, not just as a player and coach but as people,” Livingston said. “I can talk to him about everything that’s going on in my life and he can do the same. We’re just very close.”

Livingston, who averaged 16.3 points and 6.2 assists per game this season, is the Home News Tribune Boys Basketball Player of the Year.

“Otis would do everything and anything he needed to do to make us win,” Colicchio said. “When we stepped on the court he didn’t worry about stats. He worried about us winning – that was really the only stat he cared about.”

This year’s Linden team had no player bigger than 6-foot-3, but that didn’t stop the team from competing with and winning against teams that may have been bigger or better.

Linden didn’t defeat nationally ranked Roselle Catholic once – they did it twice, including in mid-January when they held the Lions bigs of South Carolina-bound Chris Silva and Matt Bullock to a combined three rebounds, along with the aforementioned UCT final upset.

Livingston put in the work over the summer to take his game to the next level, and the leadership from the likes of him and Juwan Dolbrice fueled the Tigers this season.

“Did we expect him (Livingston) to have a great year? Yes we did,” Colicchio said. “Graduating Quadri Moore and Juwan Jones and Alonzo Hamilton, we had to replace scoring, we had to replace leadership. We had to replace a lot and you saw our team – we weren’t physically imposing. I think a lot of times when people watched us play the said, ‘Oh, this team’s not that good,’ and when the game was over we had more points. We kind of took on Otis and Juwan (Dolbrice’s) attitude and heart.”

It’s the closeness though of Livingston and his coach that stood out, as the two were always there to bat for each other.

In early February Livingston still did not hold a single Division I scholarship offer, which prompted Colicchio in front of a group of reporters following a win in the Primetime Shootout to question how that could be possible?

The only solution Colicchio had to his question was that schools must not like Livingston’s haircut.

As of March 16, Livingston held four scholarship offers from Robert Morris, Fairleigh Dickinson, Niagara, and Delaware State, the latter of which he took his first school visit to last weekend.

"I just want to be comfortable with the coaches, with the teammates and I think as a school, it’s just like a good fit,” Livingston said of what he’s looking for in a school. “I feel like school is really important, because playing basketball it’s like only three months, but you're at the school for more than that. I think how you feel about the school is really important and I just want to get a good vibe about it and I think once I meet the coaches and players and everything I’m going to get a vibe and just see how it goes from there.”

The Livingston-Colicchio pairing only had a two year run, but it’s tough not to say they were anything other than successful together.

“I’ve been coaching 28 years, I don’t know if I’ve ever clicked that much with a kid in such a short period of time,” Colicchio said. “These other guys – Juwan Dolbrice and Josh Carter, kids in the past like Desmond Wade and Darrell Lampley – I’ve had those guys since they were in first grade coming to my camps. I didn’t really have that association to really develop that relationship with Otis from the time he was a little kid, and to develop that relationship that I did with him in two years, it’s amazing. I’m going to miss the kid on the court just as much as I’m going to miss him off the court. Our conversations, he brightens up a room when he walks in. He’s such a positive kid around our building. The family is just so supportive of him and all our kids. It’s just been a win-win situation for both of us.”

“Coming into our program at the time he did, I think he needed us and we needed him and I think it was a perfect marriage. I’m really, really glad I had the opportunity to coach Otis, but I’m also glad I got the opportunity to develop the relationship with Otis and his family, which is just as important.”