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 (Photo by Bill Allen/NJ SportAction) caption:
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Princeton's Owings Finding the Range Quickly In Debut Season With Summer Hoops League
Bill Alden
Luke Owings came to the Community Park basketball courts on the night of June 15 in a supporting role.
The Princeton University basketball star was on hand to cheer on Tiger teammate Noah Savage as he played for George's Roasters and Ribs in the opener of the Recreation Department men's summer basketball league.
Owings, however, left the courts that evening as a member of the Merrill Lynch squad, courtesy of some on-the-scene recruiting by former Princeton stars Ahmed El-Nokali '02 and Kyle Wente '03.
The 6'6, 195-pound Owings has quickly taken a leading role for Merrill Lynch, scoring more than 20 points twice to help the team get off to a 4-0 start this summer.
Owings has enjoyed his indoctrination into the rough-and-tumble style of the summer league. "It's tough, I like that," said Owings, a native of Hyattsville, Md. who averaged 6.3 points a game last winter for Princeton. "The refs let you play. They don't care much about reach-in fouls."
Despite the league's physical play, Owings has been able to find the range offensively. "I work out during the day with good players and then come out at night to play with Ahmed and Kyle," asserted Owings, who displayed his long-range shooting prowess last season for Princeton as he shot 45.6 percent from three-point range, hitting on 26-of-57 of his shots beyond the arc. "I'm putting the ball in the hole. It's not that tough when you have Ahmed and Kyle setting you up."
For Owings, getting the chance to get to play with El-Nokali and Wente, two of the headier players in recent Princeton history, has been a pleasure.
"Ahmed and Kyle know how we play," said Owings of the two who were both Princeton team captains as seniors. "They are two of the best players I've ever played with."
The summer league has proven to be an ideal supplement to the off-season program Owings is currently going through for Princeton.
"We're lifting three days a week, then two or three of us will get together and work on whatever we need to work on," said Owings, describing his weekly routine.
"Noah and I play a lot of one-on-one, working on our shooting off the dribble and our defense. You can only play one-on-one or two-on-two so much. It helps to play different people and see new faces. The league is good, clean fun."
After Princeton's tough season last year in which it went 6-8 in the Ivy League for its first-ever losing season in league play, Owings is looking to have more fun this winter.
"Last season was a learning process," maintained Owings, who was hampered last season by a stress fracture in his right foot which is now fully healed.
"We're adjusting to a new coach and learning a whole new mentality. It wasn't so much the strategy that was a problem but the implementation."
In Owings' view, the Tigers are poised to execute the approach that head coach Joe Scott has brought to the program.
"We're getting over the hump," said Owings, noting that the team last season played well in spurts but not for the whole 40 minutes.
"We know what it takes to go hard every second. There is a sense of hunger and excitement about next season. We're all getting on the same page."
With the hard work Owings is putting in on the Community Park courts this summer, he could be looking at an exciting winter.
