It didn’t take long for Seth Berger to see the potential in Dereck Lively II.
Westtown’s coach saw Lively, now a class of 2022 Duke signee, play for the first time at a HoopGroup event in New Jersey. Back then, he was a 6-foot-10 eighth grader playing for Team Final.
His court awareness intrigued Berger, along with the way he used his voice and his ability to run the floor nonstop.
But one specific sequence caught his attention.
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“They were playing against a zone,” Berger said. “He caught the ball in the high post and immediately looked short corner opposite. … An advanced skill [at that age].”
Berger pulled out his phone midgame to open a height calculator site that he swears by. It has been correct — give or take an inch — for every player he has seen for over 10 years, Berger says. You input the person’s age, height, and weight. Then add the heights of both parents. The site spits out an “expected adult height.” For Lively, it read 7-foot-1. Right on the money.
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After seeing him play for all of 12 minutes at the HoopGroup game, Berger told Lively’s mother, Kathy Drysdale, “I might be wrong, but I think Dereck could be the best player I ever coach.”
That was high praise considering Berger’s coaching resume: three state titles, eight straight Friends League championships, and three future NBA lottery picks (Mo Bamba, Cam Reddish, and Georgios Papagiannis).
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Lively’s height is hard to miss. The five-star recruit, ranked No. 1 nationally by 247Sports and ESPN, has long been a foot taller than his peers. Yet he remains comfortable in his skin. Away from basketball, he just enjoys connecting with others and hopes they don’t see him as some “big, scary dude.”
Arriving at Westtown’s West Chester campus in 2018, Lively was a couple of inches shy of 7 feet and weighed 185 pounds. Despite his size, Lively quickly realized playing right away wasn’t in the cards.
“I knew that I was not ready to play against 18- and 19-year-old men,” said Lively, now 7-1 and 230 pounds. “Being able to compete physically against them was just something I couldn’t do.”
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Other high school programs tried to poach Lively, promising a chance to come in and compete right away. Berger was straightforward with him and said, “You’ll probably clap, play, start, start.”
His “clap” season was largely wiped by left ankle surgery when he was a freshman. That year, Westtown was led by future Division I prospects Franck Kepnang (Oregon), John Bol Ajak (Syracuse), and Noah Collier (Pittsburgh).
“I was able to take that time to sit back,” Lively said, “to really watch and absorb what it means to be a basketball player at Westtown.”
Kepnang helped answer that question. He had a saying that has since stuck with the program. Every time the Moose leave the locker room, they say, “Act like pros. Be like pros. Play like pros.”
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Over the next three seasons, Lively put that into practice and became a self-described stretch big with an endless motor who can impact a game in different ways. By today’s basketball standards, he’s considered a unicorn who combines rare height with a smooth jump shot and polished footwork. Lively’s motor is what separates him from past Westtown stars.
“Dereck Lively is the only big I’ve ever coached with the blessing of the cardiovascular ability of a 6-2 guard,” Berger said. “It’s tough to carry a 7-foot body up and down the court. Somehow Dereck never ever, ever, ever gets tired. It’s amazing. If all he ever does is never stop running, rebounding, block shots, catching and dunking, and making a three, dude would be an amazing NBA player. Just because he has the ability and desire to never stop running.”
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Lively averaged 13 points, 14 rebounds, and 5 blocks per game during his senior campaign for a Westtown team that begins its state championship run at 6 p.m. Friday against Friends Central. He also recently eclipsed the 1,000 rebound mark.
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Much of his basketball prowess can be attributed to his mother. Drysdale herself had a successful career at Penn State. Now the director of marketing and fan engagement at Penn State, she finished a four-year career with the Nittany Lions totaling 1,295 career points, 717 rebounds, and 89 blocks.
“She’s definitely one of the biggest influences in my life,” Lively said. “She’s always someone I can turn to no matter if it’s something technical or something off the court. She’s just been like my rock and my whole life. She’s the one I do it for.”
Lively announced his commitment to Duke coach-in-waiting Jon Scheyer on Sept. 20, 2021, from a press event at Westtown. He followed that with an Instagram post. The only other person featured in the social media video? His mother, standing at center court under his arm wearing a blue Duke T-shirt.
Lively’s first phone call from Scheyer came during quarantine. It made him feel as if the work was starting to pay off. It also made him realize the expectations were growing.
Long term, his goal is to learn as much as he can in one year at Duke and enter his name in the NBA draft the following summer. For now, Lively’s hope is to validate Berger’s original assessment and become the best player he has ever coached.
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Dereck Lively II could become the best player Westtown has produced - The Philadelphia Inquirer
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