By Tom Robinson, NEPABasketball.com
Recent Scranton High School graduate Arvel Chandler will follow the same route his uncle and future coach took, heading from the Knights to play at Misericordia University.
Will Chandler, now the coach of the Cougars, had a record-setting and All-American career at Misericordia before returning there to coach after his professional career ended.
Arvel Chandler committed in May to play National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III basketball for the Cougars. He declined a full scholarship offer from Point Park University, a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics program in Pittsburgh, to stay closer to home.
“Junior year, he would say to me, ‘you always have a spot here’,” Arvel said.
Before deciding to choose that, Arvel said it was helpful to have advise available from “Uncle Willie.”
Arvel made major progress in his game over the past year.
“Last summer, I probably played the most basketball I ever have,” Chandler said. “I think I was a better shooter in general, but I was in the right spots. I knew where to go when my teammates would drive. I think that’s what made me better and my teammates were good at finding me.”
After gaining attention for his play with the NEPA Elite Coyle 17U team in the 2021 AAU season, Chandler more than doubled his scoring and more than tripled his 3-point production from his junior to senior seasons at Scranton. He became a first-team Lackawanna League Division 1 all-star selection by NEPABasketball.com while helping the Knights repeat their division and District 2-4 Class 6A titles on the way to the state quarterfinals.
“I tried to focus on being a good point guard, passing, shooting good percentages, and trying to get as many steals as I could,” he said. “I think throughout the years that’s what I did best and got better at to wind up having a good senior season.”
Misericordia is coming off a 10-17 season, including 7-9 in the Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom.
The Cougars were in the Pennsylvania Athletic Conference during Will Chandler’s playing days and he was the four-time Player of the Year in the conference while scoring 2,898 points to finish his career in the number-two spot in NCAA Division III history. The two-time national scoring leader and three-time All-American went on to play professionally for five seasons in Europe, South America and the United States Basketball League.
“Everywhere I played basketball, people would tell me about him and how he did,” Arvel Chandler said.
