The people who helped shape Nicole Melious‘ monstrous work ethic have all been on hand to witness the Class of 2023 guard’s emergence as one of the country’s best shooters and a prolific scoring guard.
There’s a basketball junkie father in Dan Melious, a former high school coach who has helped spur her love for the game and desire for the unrequired work.
There is a local coach, Bryan Williams, who saw the advanced skill set at an early age and implored her to gauge her grit at a higher level.
There’s one coach, Gerry Mosley, who instilled in her the gift of shooting that’s translated to the immense green light she has with another coach, Susan Wagner HS head man Tom Rizzo.
Melious left her stamp on the city as a freshman, displaying quick-strike 3-point shooting consistency and range capable of breaking games open and evoking scoring surges.
She averaged 27.9 points, hit 97 total 3-pointers, and shot it at 96 percent from the free throw line. She also led the team in assists (6.8) and rebounds (7.2), solidifying her status as a do it all guard with high majors vying for her services.
Georgia Tech, Rutgers, UCLA, Oklahoma, Butler, Seton Hall and several others have offered the sophomore as she writes her own chapter in regal Staten Island basketball lore.
“A while back they said Nicole can only shoot,” recalls Bryan Williams, who has been instrumental in her day to day development and evolution.
“I told her father to have her work on her handle and he goes out and gets Kyrie Irving’s trainer. They said she needs to work on her defense. She’s a gritty and great defender now.”
How good is Melious? What is her ceiling as a high scoring guard?
“She’s the best shooter I’ve soon on the girls side in 30 years,” Williams deadpanned.
“Half court is her range. I have told college coaches she’s the girls version of Steph Curry.”
That quick release and ability to heat up in a hurry was evident all summer, as she represented the Hoopers on the AAU circuit.
Melious posted 58 games of 30 or more points, 21 games of 40 or more points, and nine games of 50+. Her ability to read and dissect a defense and unbridled energy enable her to score at such a rapid pace.
Through a whopping 123 games, she was held under 20 points in just five.
Melious’ pure shooting ability knows no limitations. With her quick release, range, and fearlessness in pulling that momentum rolling 3-pointer, she’s become deadly for her vaunted shot.
She’s got a rare trait in her ability to reel off points at a frenetic pace and also avoid the funks that tend to derail streaky shooters.
Becoming quicker and adding ambidextrous scoring, a floater, and the ability to elude defenders in one on one sequences and her hard surges to the rim have accelerated her scoring production.
The NYC Rookie of the Year and All State AA selection hasn’t been nary the slightest bit deterred by the pandemic or the threat of no scholastic season taking place as the calendar shifts to 2021.
The game consumes her. Whether it is firing up shots, speed and agility training, Cross Fit, and skill refinement with or without the ball, she puts in around 4-5 hours a day. She’s even taken up Tae Kwon Do to increase her strength, focus, and discipline.
How It Began
In her earliest memories of basketball, Melious is able to hark back on a clinic she attended with Mosley.
She also recalls intensified training sessions with Candice Bellocchio, the former Hofstra guard and fellow Staten Island native who starred at St. Peter’s High School.
It was Bellocchio who Melious tried to emulate early on, citing her as an inspiration who sparked her desire to get in shape and make the game a livelihood. She wears no.10 in honor of Bellocchio, the source who sparked a young scorer on pace to break the 3,000 point milestone by her senior year.
By Melious’ eighth grade year, when her CYO team won the City and State title despite missing a key player due to injury, Melious began to take the game more seriously.
The significant strides she made that year, tightening her handle and quickly evolving into a playmaking and scoring guard, were noteworthy.
Greg Percoco, her then coach at St. Teresa and now the coach at Xavierian, has been an important presence in her development.
Though Percoco coaches at a different school, he still made it to several of Melious’ games last year.
Team Success
Playing for the Hoopers, Melious is flanked by several other hotly pursued recruits and signees, several of whom happen to be her closest friends.
Melious creates a stabilizing inside outside tandem with forward Morgan Lee, a skilled inside outside scorer and rebounder who recently committed to Georgetown.
“I love my Hoopers girls,” Melious explains.
“To have Morgan Lee with me the last four years has been special. We trust each other on the court and off it. We understand each other. We know we always and will always have each other’s back.”
The same tight bond she shares with Lee is also evident with teammates such as Nicole Sanfilippo, Iris Azcona, Sara Moschella (their playing days stem back to the fourth grade), Iris Azcona, Vivian Knee, and several others.
Azcona, a sharpshooting guard at Trenton Catholic Academy who recently committed to Butler, has been working alongside her daily the last few months. The two work hand in hand, pushing each other through arduous workouts.
After scoring 755 points as a freshman and authoring scoring onslaughts through this year’s AAU season, a hunger for more remains.
Melious works with the likes of Azeem Wilkerson, Roy Mabrey Sal Fabozzi, Mark Williams of Team Footprintz, Delson Feurmond, Mosley, and Matt Reeves.
She’s improved incrementally with her defense and transition defense. She’s become a versatile all around scorer, shedding the pigeonhole of “shooter.”
Georgia Tech, Oregon State, and UCLA are among the programs in most active pursuit of Melious.
She’s played only one full season scholastically, albeit she’s already gauging options for the next level. Given her work rate and how she relishes a challenge, however, part of this only feels like the beginning.
