Ex-Ranney School star Scottie Lewis looks to represent Shore Conference in 2021 NBA Draft

If former Ranney School star Scottie Lewis hears his name called during the NBA Draft on July 29, he wants the basketball world to know where he played his high school ball.

Not just that he was a McDonald’s All-American from New Jersey, but that he helped Ranney become the first Shore Conference school ever to win a prestigious Tournament of Champions title.

“Everywhere I go, I kind of represent the Shore Conference,” the 6-foot-5 Lewis said Friday on a Zoom call from the NBA Combine in Chicago. “We’ve had players in this situation before, but I think we’ve yet to have a player come from the Shore Conference and create the kind of history that I did there and actually get drafted, so if that happens, I hope to just be an example for people coming out of the Shore Conference.”

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The Hazlet native is one of several players with New Jersey ties either at the Combine or in the mix to be drafted, including projected top-10 pick Jonathan Kuminga, who spent the 2019-20 season at The Patrick School in Hillside; Sandro Mamukelashvili, who won a share of Big East Player of the Year honors at Seton Hall; and Newark native Sharife Cooper, who spent a one-and-done season at Auburn this past season.

After a roller-coaster sophomore year at the University of Florida that included a bout with COVID-19, Lewis has shown his athleticism in front of personnel from all 30 NBA teams at the Combine. He had the fastest shuttle run, the fastest lane agility, fastest sprint, second-highest standing vertical and was tied for the second-highest max vertical.

In the ESPN.com mock draft from the fall of 2018, Lewis, was the projected No. 5 pick. After averaging 7.9 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.6 steals last season, he is not currently projected to be drafted on ESPN.com’s latest mock, but he has met at the Combine with the Wizards, Heat, Bucks, Timberwolves, Nuggets and Hornets, among others. He has eight workouts scheduled, including one with the Bulls next week.

“As one of the people who has seen Scottie since his freshman year a lot, I’m probably surprised by the lack of production in his college career because many of us thought that he would be a rock solid first-round pick based on his combination of athleticism, talent and competitiveness,” ESPN college basketball analyst Fran Fraschilla said by phone.

“Scottie has to run a different race now. The likelihood is he’s going to be a second-round pick, the likelihood is he’s still got a lot of things to improve on but it would not surprise if over the course of the next 2 or 3 years, he develops into a good NBA player. He has a lot of work to do on his shooting, but he’s got terrific athleticism and he’s got a competitiveness that will serve him well, especially defensively. He has to become a ‘3-and-D’ guy but the three is a major component of that.”

Lewis’ sophomore season was complicated by his own battle with COVID and the collapse on Dec. 12 of his teammate Keyontae Johnson, who fell face-first onto the court following a timeout in the first half of a game against Florida State in Tallahassee. Johnson’s collapse was deemed “not related to or a result of a previous or current” COVID-19 diagnosis, his family said in February.

The team then shut down for two weeks, and Johnson did not play the rest of the season. After the Gators re-started, Lewis missed another two weeks with COVID. Then the team had another bout of cancellations due to COVID. As the team searched for a new identity without Johnson and dealt with stops and starts caused by COVID, Lewis wasn’t able to get back in rhythm and struggled with his breathing. He had some great games, including against Florida State, West Virginia, and Virginia Tech.

“Last year was definitely a roller coaster ride,” Lewis said. “We missed four games with Keyontae [going down] and then I had COVID. I missed three games for that and then Colin Castleton caught COVID, and I missed three games for that so following that flow for the team and myself was hard to do. We had to figure it out, but we made our way into the [NCAA] Tournament and into the second round so obviously we wish our season ended better and differently but it was learning experience for all of us.”

After finishing at the Combine, it remains unclear where Lewis will get drafted, but he has many opportunities to impress in workouts in the next month. And, as they say, it only takes one team to fall in love and draft you.

“Scottie has one of the widest projections of anyone in this draft,” said Brian Klatsky, a longtime mentor to Lewis who runs the Team Rio National AAU program. “He was off the charts in the combine testing and has all the tools the league is looking for. His upside will be very rewarding to whomever invests in his development at the next level.”

While Lewis is headed to the NBA, his former Ranney running buddy Bryan Antoine is getting ready for his junior season at Villanova. Like Lewis, Antoine was once a projected NBA lottery pick before shoulder surgery slowed his timeline. He is expected to be fully healthy next season with the Wildcats, and Lewis hopes to ultimately reunite with Antoine in the NBA, putting two former Shore Conference stars in the league.

“That would be awesome, to one day be on the court and play against my brother again,” Lewis said of Antoine. “So I’m rooting for him, I’ve never not been there for him and even though it’s from a distance now, I’m praying that he does exactly what he’s always done and fits into that role of being the Bryan Antoine that we all know and love.”

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Adam Zagoria is a freelance reporter who covers Seton Hall and NJ college basketball for NJ Advance Media.

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