Isaiah Whitehead and Desi Rodriguez weren’t the only valuable assets that the Seton Hall men’s basketball team got out of Lincoln High School. Not only did the team get the two star players from the Brooklyn high school, but they were also able to acquire Lincoln’s longtime head coach, Dwayne “Tiny” Morton.
Seton Hall Athletics
Morton had been Lincoln’s head coach for the last 19 years and was an assistant coach for a year before that. He won the Public School Athletic League championship 10 times, winning in 2002-04, 2006-09 and 2013 as a head coach. He also won the New York State Federation title in 2003, 2008 and 2009.
Morton has played witness to a number of stars through his program including Stephon Marbury, Sebastian Telfair and Lance Stephenson. He hopes that Whitehead and Rodriguez are the next future stars that have learned under his program. Morton has built Lincoln’s program up to be the biggest and brightest in the city. His legacy of being able to consistently produce All-Americans and NBA-level talent has been remarkable. His experience and familiarity with the young players on the team made him a perfect fit for Kevin Willard’s staff.
"Dwayne was highly successful as a head coach at Lincoln, where he worked with some of the top players to come out of New York City over the last two decades,” Willard said in an official release back in September.
Morton was ready to take his career in a different step and advance on to higher levels of coaching.
“After many years of coaching at the high school level it was a dream come true to take this next step in my career,” Morton said.
He still carries that head coaching mentality to his new role as an assistant and now that all he has to focus on is basketball he’s ready for the new challenges that await.
“I’m more observant with what the system is,” he said. “Being in my first year I sit back and listen to what the head coach wants and how he runs things and I really just try to absorb all that I can.”
Having his own players here at Seton Hall as well, only helped the transition from Brooklyn to South Orange.
“They’re high-character kids, you can’t pick better guys to be at the same place at the same time,” Morton said. “I think the transition process has been good for all of us because like I said they are high-character guys so I don’t have to worry about them much.”
Morton also said that the character of Whitehead and Rodriguez will come in handy when dealing with tough situations and dealing with all the “media hype” because they know how to handle tough situations from they’re days in Lincoln.
“These guys aren’t out here reading their own press clippings,” Morton said. “That’s the reason why this team can do well, I don’t see any individual goals, the team only has one goal and that’s to win and make it to the NCAA tournament.”
Christian Pierre-Louis can be reached at christian.pierrelouis@student.shu.edu or on twitter @CPierreLouis_
