After a season away, Abraham Lincoln boys’ basketball coach Dwayne “Tiny” Morton is glad to be back in his comfort zone.
Morton spent a year as Seton Hall’s assistant coach before returning to the team at the Coney Island school. There haven’t been many changes — except for some of the faces on the bench — as he enters his 21st season.
“We are all learning together,” he said. “It is my first year coaching all of these guys.”
Morton, who departed from the Big East program in late August, said he returned to Lincoln with the blessing of his kids, who attend Seton Hall. He missed teaching and the responsibilities that come with being a high-school head coach.
“I wasn’t used to getting up in the morning and not being able to do even a lesson plan,” Morton said. “I was getting up on the morning and waiting to see what practice was going to be about.”
He watched many of his current players compete for Lincoln last year and during the summer. Morton is impressed with the group he inherited from Kenny Pretlow, the team’s former coach and Morton’s assistant for 12 seasons. He’s even coached some of them — though none are active.
But Morton’s return surprised Pretlow, who is now an assistant at Thomas Jefferson, leaving behind a roster that is one of the favorites to win the school’s first Public School Athletic League Class AA city title in three years.
“They’re good,” Morton said. “They’re very good.”
But just how good Lincoln shakes out to be could depend on star wing Jahlil Tripp’s eligibility. The fifth-year senior is seeking an extra year on the court after playing just one league game as a junior, but he was on the inactive list for the Dec. 1 opener.
He caught a stray bullet to the right calf two years ago and a month later broke his left tibia in two places while taking a layup during warm ups for the game he was supposed to return him to the court — an injury that kept him sidelined for the rest of the season.
Tripp hopes for one more go-round in the Public School Athletic League, but he is frustrated with the appeal process, and Morton said they could take legal action if the league denies Tripp. Still, the star is confident the Railsplitters can do well without him.
“I think we have a real good chance of winning the PSAL season even if I am not eligible,” he said. “Hopefully I am.”
That’s because Lincoln is once again loaded with talent. Its young nucleus experienced a 25–4 season and trips to the Brooklyn borough final and city quarterfinals. In addition, Lincoln added St. Raymond transfer and Coney Island native Cahiem Brown, who can score, defend, and rebound and Patrick School transfer Rakym Felder. The bolstered squad won three of the city’s top summer tournaments.
“I think playing the tournament with these guys helped us a lot, just with team chemistry, being able to know what people can do,” Brown said.
Sophomore shooter Tyler Bourne and senior slasher Donald Cannon Flores complement each other in the backcourt. Junior Kyree Johnson, a 6-foot-6 forward, will be a force inside, and junior Michael Reid and Christ the King transfer Clay Brown will see time at guard.
“There is a group of guys who can score the ball at will,” Brown said. “I think we play well together, so when one guy is not going, we have another guy to fill in.”
Dealing with new faces has reinvigorated Morton, who admitted he was getting “bored” coaching in his last couple seasons at Lincoln before heading to Seton Hall. And his players have a new-found motivation as well.
“It would be a real help for us to win a championship his first year back,” Tripp said. “That way everyone will know the king of coaching is back.”
