Catholic Central’s Alex Decker Is Ready To Shine

Alex Decker, a 6’3″ guard from Catholic Central is ready to step into the spotlight for the Crusaders next season.

Decker came on strong as a sophomore a year ago, and now after an offseason of playing and hitting the gym, he should be ready to have a major impact. “Offensively, he can just a lot of things with the basketball,” said head coach Chuck Mack. “He can play inside and outside, he shoots the three very very well, handles the ball really well. He’s physically a good basketball specimen. Long arms really big hands, really strong, a lot of years in the weight room.”

CCHS will need Decker to step up after Mack’s son Anthony has moved on to Blair Academy in New Jersey, and at 6’3″ with the ability to play multiple positions on both ends of the floor, Decker should be able to succeed with increased role. “He’s going to play the one through five, literally,” said Mack. “It will depend on the game.”

Decker is comfortable playing all around the court and has the ability to bang inside or take his man off the dribble, and Mack says he plans to take advantage of Decker’s versatility by exploiting mismatches. “We’re also going to run plays where we send him to the block if they try to put a smaller guard on him, on the other hand we’ll try to do a lot of switch offs, we play a lot of mismatches. We’ll run him off of pick and rolls, and if a big comes out on him, I will also take him a little but further outside, where he can take someone to the basket.”

With Anthony Mack gone, Decker will receive a lot of the focus from the opposing teams and should be guarded by the opposition best defender often times have to deal with double teams, but Mack believes Decker’s strength and smarts, along with CCHS’s experienced backcourt will help him with the transition. “I think he’s going to be playing a lot off the ball and he’s got two guys who can handle it really well and can pass really well and are very unselfish….He gives such great shooting and so I think in that way we are going to be able to cover both the left side and the right sides of the court. He’s such a physical guy that he’s going to be able to do that.”

Decker is only going into his junior season but he already has many looks from division two schools and Mack believes that he eventually will get offers to play at the low division one level due to his commitment on and off the floor to the game, and his hard work in the classroom where he is an AP student.

Mack says that Catholic Central plans to score a lot of points and play fast this year, and with Decker’s athleticism, ball handling skills, and ability to score in several different ways, he has all of the tools to fuel the Crusaders high powered attack this Winter.

Ross Bentley- Staff writer