Upper Dublin senior Drew Stover has committed to continue his basketball career at Millersville University. (Game and fan photos provided courtesy of Geanine Jamison Photography. Postgame celebration photos provided by UD basketball)
It’s been quite a week for Drew Stover.
The Upper Dublin senior reached the coveted 1,000-point milestone in the Flying Cardinals’ 74-30 rout of Hatboro-Horsham on Feb. 11. Six days later, Stover accepted a scholarship to continue his basketball career at Millersville University.
While scoring a thousand points was all but a foregone conclusion, finding the right fit for his basketball talents was another story. Under normal circumstances, a 6-8 center who’s averaging 25-plus points a game and still has room to grow would have been snatched up a long time ago, but these are hardly normal circumstances.
COVID-19 has turned recruiting into something of a nightmare for this year’s seniors.
“Coaches said if it was a normal year, I’d have a ton of options, but because of COVID, seniors that didn’t have a season this year have the ability to stay or leave,” Stover said. “Coaches I was talking to couldn’t even tell me if I’d have a chance to come because they don’t know who’s staying or leaving.”
Millersville had a spot available when one of its players left the team. Stover was offered a scholarship.
“I got the offer the end of January,” he said. “They came out to see my game, and I got up there to see the campus as soon as I could. I got a really good feeling.
“I went back up Wednesday to meet some players and watch them practice, and I just knew from there, it was the right choice.”
On Wednesday night, Stover committed to take his talents to Millersville, at long last putting the college decision behind him.
“It’s a complete relief,” he said. “It was starting to get to me.”
Making the choice even sweeter is the fact that his father, UD football coach Bret Stover, is a Millersville graduate.
“It was always an idea, but I never really thought I would be there,” Stover said of attending his dad’s alma mater. “It did not influence my decision, but I think it’s a really cool thing that he also went there.”
As for the 1,000-point milestone – it certainly wasn’t something Stover aspired to achieve. When he entered the program as a freshman, the UD senior had his sights set on a baseball career. Basketball was little more than a sport he played in the winter.
“Baseball was his thing,” UD coach Chris Monahan said. “He played for the ninth grade team – he didn’t even come out for the varsity his freshman year. He didn’t want the commitment.
“His sophomore year – he gets in, he makes the varsity team, and he’s starting right away. I don’t think he realized how good he could be. He had some good games, and going into the spring, there were some pretty big AAU teams interested in him. All of a sudden, he’s like, ‘This is something I’m pretty good at.’”
Pretty good hardly covers it. As a junior, Stover averaged close to 20 points a game and was destined to be a coveted recruit, but then came the pandemic and recruiting all but came to a standstill.
“Over the summer when I had nothing, it was a little discouraging,” said Stover, who competed with the Jersey Shore Warriors on the AAU circuit the summer before his junior year and this fall the Philly Pride. “But once I got the first (offer) and the second one, I was a little relieved.”
Gannon was the first to make an offer, but it wasn’t until Millersville entered the picture that Stover found a place he could call home for four years.
Playing collegiate basketball and adding his name to the banner for reaching the 1,000-point milestone certainly were not something Stover could have imagined when he entered high school.
“It’s honestly weird to think about because sophomore year when I played basketball and my coach talked about (scoring a thousand), I was like, ‘Maybe, whatever,’” Stover said. “As I got closer and closer to it, it felt unreal.”
After a junior season that saw him score 450 points, Stover had in the neighborhood of 700 points and knew scoring a thousand was well within his reach. In front of family and friends, he scored on a shot around the rim late in the first half of the Flying Cardinals game against the Hatters.
“Going into it, I was obviously nervous,” he said. “I wasn’t worried about not getting it before the season ended, but I was kind of worried because all my friends and family were there.
“I don’t think it would have been the same if the people hadn’t been there, and I’m extremely thankful to have everyone there during the COVID situation.”
Stover is the first UD male basketball player to surpass the milestone since Jamil Brown in 2010.
“It tells me how far I have come from sophomore year to senior year,” he said. “It shows me I have some serious potential in the sport.
“This is definitely a wake-up call showing that there’s so much more I think I can do. Especially when I go into a college setting, I just feel like I’m going to be able to elevate my game a lot more.”
Stover’s high level of play has not surprised Monahan.
“We knew he could be a force because he did it last year,” the UD coach said. “He had games last year where he almost scored 40, but we also knew teams were going to be gearing up around him. What’s most impressive is that he’s been able to score with double teams, triple teams.
“I talk to the refs every game. He doesn’t get nearly the foul calls that happen. It happens to every big guy. He just absorbs the contact. Drew being able to do this when every team – their game plan is to shut down Stover, and he’s still producing.”
And for Stover, this is only the beginning.
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