Point guard Derek Simpson is assisting in St. Joseph’s turnaround: ‘We can be unstoppable’

It’s part of Derek Simpson’s job to be a good communicator, which has led the St. Joseph’s point guard to have some tough conversations.

Before this season started, Billy Lange departed from the program for a role with the New York Knicks and newly hired assistant coach Steve Donahue was promoted to take over the helm. Then on Dec. 23, Deuce Jones II, the team’s leading scorer, left the team, and St. Joe’s went on to drop its first two Atlantic 10 games.

It was time for a realistic evaluation. With 16 games remaining in the regular season, the players and coaches held a meeting to air out their grievances on Jan. 3.

“It turned into like, ‘How do y’all want to do this?’” Simpson said. “Like ‘Derek, do you want to go out as a senior losing all these games?’ That was the question. ‘Justice [Ajogbor], did you come back this year to do all this [expletive]?’ It was eye-opening for a lot of us and it just helped us get some of our feelings out.”

The Hawks went back to work. Practices improved, pregame shooting was taken seriously, and more importantly — they started to win.

St. Joe’s is 19-10, riding a four-game winning streak entering Wednesday’s contest at Davidson (7 p.m.), and sit third in the Atlantic 10. Simpson has been one of the driving forces to the Hawks’ turnaround.

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“It’s just those connections and those questions we have to ask each other that we’ve been doing.” said Simpson, who’s averaging 13.7 points and a team-high 5.1 assists. “When those things get on the money, we hit the shot. It’s like ‘Oh yeah, we already talked about that.’ So it turns into, ‘We good now.’

“Then all the fun starts to happen. Then we get the back door cuts, we get the dunks. If you’re not having fun, why are you playing the game?”

Simpson has had that mindset since he was a child.

His father, Ron, played basketball and is Rider University’s seventh all-time scoring leader. His mother, Kelli, swam and played tennis, while his sister, Courtney, was a soccer goalie at Loyola Maryland, and his other sister, Marissa, played softball.

Safe to say, sports run in the family.

Simpson often found himself on the sidelines of the South Jersey Titans, an AAU team Ron founded, watching the action as early as first grade.

» READ MORE: Derek Simpson became Lenape’s all-time leading scorer and now wants a challenge at Rutgers | From 2022

“That kind of got me into the sport,” Simpson said. “My dad was like, ‘If you’re going to play, might as well take it serious, just like anything else.’ So I played basketball and football growing up until eighth grade. I stopped football because it was getting too much. … My dad, my mom always encouraged me if you’re going to do something, you might as well go full throttle.”

So that’s what he did, he played travel ball under his father, but eventually stopped because it was affecting their relationship.

Lenape High School coach Matt Wolf recalled seeing Simpson play in a summer showcase as a rising freshman and was blown away.

“We had three games that day,” Wolf said. “The first game I looked at the former head coach, and I said, ‘Oh man, he’s definitely varsity.’ Then the second game he played I looked at him like, ‘Oh man, he’s going to play a lot this year.’ Then after the third game [I] went, ‘Oh my God, he’s going to be the starting point guard as a freshman.’”

Simpson made his impact at Lenape. He finished with 1,553 career points, the most in school history. He even played future teammate Dasear Haskins, then at Camden High School.

Simpson is still close with his former coach. Wolf reaches out after every St. Joe’s game, and last Christmas, Simpson returned to his old stomping grounds with former players.

Simpson landed at Rutgers in the 2022-23 season, where he spent his first two years of college ball. He averaged 7.7 points across 66 games before entering the transfer portal as a junior. There, he bumped into familiar faces.

Lange and former assistant coach Justin Scott recruited Simpson when he was in high school, and Lange clicked with his parents due to their South Jersey backgrounds.

A few years passed, and the opportunity to come to St. Joe’s arose again. He joined a team that had lost guard Lynn Greer III, but had Xzayvier Brown, all-time leading scorer Erik Reynolds II, and Suns forward Rasheer Fleming.

“Their stats, their achievements showed a lot in the games,” Simpson said. “Shooting the ball well, because they’re staying after practice for 30 minutes, just shooting, shooting, and shooting. Little details that they really picked up on were very eye opening to me.”

However, the three left the program this past offseason. Simpson, who averaged 8.7 points last year, was primed for a bigger role. But there was an adjustment period, the team didn’t click at first. A lot of the players, even the returners, didn’t play together much.

Simpson believes that has changed.

“It turned to me having a ball in my hands most of the games,” Simpson said. “Not that I was ever bad at that — I was always really good at that. That was my strength. I never was on a team in college where I had an opportunity to just have the ball in my hands, so this was the opportunity and I kind of just slowly stepped into it.”

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Simpson became the main ball handler with ease, and it’s the first time since high school where he’s serving as a true point guard. His team leading assists are tied for first in the conference.

With two games remaining before conference tournament, the Hawks are in position for a top-four seed, which gives them a double bye. The team has clicked as of late, and Simpson is confident that St. Joe’s can hit its stride in the tournament.

“We can be unstoppable, honestly,” Simpson said.