‘Every kid’s dream’: North Philly’s Clarence Rupert returns home with Cinderella St. Peter’s for Sweet 16
Rupert left North Philly when he was in the seventh grade as his mother moved him before high school to live with family in Virginia. But Rupert still received a Philly hoops education.
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St. Peter’s had just clinched the sweetest of spots in the Sweet 16 when a reporter wanted to know last Saturday how the tiny school from Jersey City was able to keep up with the physical play of its bigger opponents.
“I got guys from New Jersey and New York City,” Peacocks head coach Shaheen Holloway said in a news conference that soon went viral. “You think we’re scared of anything? You think we’re worried about guys trying to muscle us and tough us out? We do that.”
It was the perfect answer to explain how 15th-seeded St. Peter’s knocked off Kentucky and Murray State to advance to this weekend’s East Regional at the Wells Fargo Center. But Holloway forgot to mention that March’s Cinderella squad also has a tough kid from North Philadelphia.
“I had to tell him, ‘You forgot, Coach,’” said freshman forward Clarence Rupert, who started both tournament wins. “I guess since he’s from New York and all. But he knows what’s up.”
Rupert left North Philly when he was in the seventh grade as his mother moved him before high school to live with family in Virginia. But Rupert still received a Philly hoops education, coming back each summer to play with the Philly Pride AAU program.
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“It gave me a hard edge,” Rupert said of growing up in North Philly. “You have to always watch your back and watch your surroundings. I still play with a chip on my shoulder because nobody thought I would be in the situation that I am right now. It’s hard growing up there.”
The 6-foot-8 Rupert found his way to St. Peter’s after his college plans fell through. He had offers to play for bigger programs while attending a Charlottesville, Va., boarding school but those scholarships were retracted during the pandemic as coaches were unable to see Rupert play.
He committed to Murray State, but even that offer was taken away before he could sign his scholarship. And then Rupert received a call from Holloway, who had seen him play and liked him enough to offer him a scholarship.
“That was the only thing on the table for me, so I took it,” Rupert said.
The Peacocks are made up of players like Rupert, players who were overlooked in high school before receiving a chance at the commuter school with a student population of roughly 3,000 and a basketball gym that holds nearly the same.
“Everyone on the team has something to prove because everyone on this team has been looked over plenty of times,” Rupert said. “Everyone wants to show the world that we can hang with everyone and we can beat everyone.”
The size of St. Peter’s arena didn’t matter when the Peacocks bounced Kentucky in the first round and knocked off Murray State — “Knowing that they did me like that,” Rupert said of the school that took away his scholarship, “I was saying, ‘We have to get them out of there.’” — to become the third 15th seed to reach the Sweet 16.
A win on Friday against Purdue (the Peacocks are double-digit underdogs) would make them the first 15th seed to reach the Elite Eight.
“We’ve known this. Everyone says it’s an upset or a Cinderella story. But it’s not,” Rupert said. “We put in the work every day and give 110% in practice. It’s not no upset. We knew exactly what we were doing.”
It’s not a 15th-seed’s job to look ahead, so Rupert did not know that his tournament path could bring him back to Philly until assistant coach Ryan Whalen — who played JV ball at St. Joseph’s — told him so after the Peacocks topped Kentucky.
“I’m like, ‘No way.’ Then he finally showed me and I’m like, ‘Oh. That’s crazy,’” Rupert said. “You don’t know how many people have been calling my phone, ‘I need tickets.’ I’m going to have my whole family there.”
Rupert grew up a 76ers fan but has never been to the Wells Fargo Center. He’ll finally get his chance on Friday night when he takes the court as the tough kid from North Philly on a team full of tough kids from New York and New Jersey.
“Me playing there right now, I can’t explain it,” Rupert said. “This is every kid’s dream.”