There are certain players you remember because they were great.
Then there are players you remember because, when you were young, you saw something in their game that made you want to play like them.
For me, Courtney Wallace was one of those guys.
Before I ever got to West Virginia. Before my own name became known around Western Pennsylvania basketball. Before I really understood everything that went into playing the point guard position at a high level, I was a junior-high kid watching Wallace play at Perry.
And I was a fan. Courtney was probably my first favorite point guard growing up.
A big reason was his size. Wallace was a 6-foot-4 point guard at a time when seeing somebody that size legitimately running the point wasn’t nearly as common as it is today.
For a young, tall guard like me, that caught my attention immediately. I could look at him and see something that I could relate to.
But it wasn’t just that he was tall.
The boy could play.
A Different Kind of Point Guard
When I think back to Courtney Wallace’s game, the first thing I remember was how complete he was offensively.
He could score at all three levels. He could get to the basket. He had the midrange game. He could knock down the 3.
But what really stood out to me was his vision. His vision was wicked.
Courtney saw things on the basketball court before they developed. He wasn’t just a scorer who happened to bring the ball up the floor. He could actually run a team and create for other people.
That’s a huge difference.
At 6-foot-4, he had the ability to see over defenders, but having size doesn’t automatically give you court vision. You still have to understand angles, timing, where your teammates are going to be and where the defense is coming from.
Courtney understood that stuff. He played the game like a point guard.
You Had to Be Tough in the City League
People who didn’t experience Pittsburgh City League basketball during that era might not completely understand what it meant to be nice in that league.
That wasn’t soft basketball.
You had to be physically tough. You had to be mentally tough. You were playing against athletic guards, physical forwards and dudes who weren’t backing down from anybody.
And you weren’t getting anything easy.
Perry was right in the middle of that environment.
Wallace played for coach Chuck Franklin and helped lead Perry to the City League championship game in 1997. He was a wiry, quick, athletic guard who became one of the best players in the entire Pittsburgh area.
That’s why one accomplishment from his senior year always speaks volumes to me. Courtney Wallace made the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Fabulous 5.
Think about the company.
The 1997 Fab 5 included Wallace, Blackhawk’s Archie Miller, Franklin Regional’s Aaron Lovelace, Schenley’s Brian Carroll and Chartiers Valley’s Isaiah Stewart.
Making that team out of the City League said something.
Wallace wasn’t just considered one of the best players in the city. He was considered one of the best players in Western Pennsylvania.
From Perry to Duquesne
And his game translated.
Wallace stayed home and went to Duquesne, where he developed into an excellent college guard.
His freshman season was unusual because he didn’t become eligible until late December, but he still played 20 games and averaged 6.7 points and 4 assists while getting his first taste of Division I basketball. By his sophomore season, he had become Duquesne’s full-time point guard.
Over four seasons, Wallace played 106 games for the Dukes and finished with 1,394 points, 509 rebounds, 364 assists and 137 steals. He averaged 13.2 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists for his career.
But his senior season really showed how good he had become.
Wallace averaged 16.6 points, 4.7 rebounds and 3.4 assists while shooting 44.2% from the field, 44.1% from 3 and 79.8% from the foul line. He led Duquesne in scoring that season.
Those are numbers.
But numbers aren’t why I remember him.
Sometimes You Remember Who Inspired You
Basketball is funny because when you’re young, you don’t always realize which players are influencing you.
You’re just watching.
You see a move. You notice how somebody carries himself. You watch how somebody controls a game. And without even realizing it, pieces of what you’re watching start becoming part of how you think basketball should be played.
That’s what Courtney Wallace was for me.
I was a tall young guard myself, and here was this 6-foot-4 point guard from Perry doing exactly what I wanted to do.
He could score, but he wasn’t just a scorer.
He could pass. He could see the floor. He could control the basketball. He could play with toughness. And he was doing it against some serious competition.
I looked up to that.
Years later, I would have my own journey through Penn Hills, college basketball and professional basketball, but I haven’t forgotten the players I watched before people were watching me.
Courtney Wallace was one of them.
Give Him His Flowers
One of the reasons I started DrewSchifino.com was to preserve stories like this.
Western Pennsylvania basketball history is deeper than the handful of names everybody continues to talk about.
There were dudes who could really hoop. Courtney Wallace was one of them.
And there’s actually something pretty cool about his story today.
His son, Courtney Wallace Jr., grew up to become a big-time player himself. The younger Wallace averaged a triple-double as a senior at Neighborhood Academy, won WPIAL and PIAA championships, made the Post-Gazette Fabulous 5 just like his father and went on to play at Yale.
That’s a basketball legacy.
But before the son started making his own name, his father was one of the coldest big guards in Pittsburgh.
Perry. City League. Fab 5. Duquesne. Nearly 1,400 Division I points.
And for a kid from Penn Hills sitting there watching basketball and dreaming about where the game might eventually take him, Courtney Wallace was one of the first point guards who made me pay attention.
He was 6-foot-4, he could get buckets from all three levels, and his vision was wicked.
I’ll always remember that.
Give Courtney Wallace his flowers.