It was an informal workout, really just an open gym, in the middle of the summer. Not the sort of session from which basketball conclusions can usually be drawn.
But this was Lamar Patterson's first taste of life at high-school basketball's elite level. He learned something. So did his future coach.
Patterson, one of the best players in the Lancaster-Lebanon League for McCaskey as a sophomore and junior, had already decided to enroll at St. Benedict's Prep, a Benedictine school in Newark, N.J. that has become a national hoop power.
This would be the first time he'd run with his future teammates.
"It was a very laid-back workout for us," St. Benedict's coach Dan Hurley said. "He only got halfway through it."
Patterson started cramping, and had to sit down, sweating and gasping and embarrassed.
"These guys were doing it like it was nothing," Patterson said.
Hurley wasn't surprised by that. He was surprised, and impressed, by what happened next.
"I imagine he was embarrassed, but I talked to him, and he said that he knew this was exactly what he needed," Hurley said.
"We've had kids do that before, and I never hear from them again. I wasn't disappointed. I was more pleased with his reaction."
Patterson verbally committed to take a scholarship from the University of Pittsburgh early in his junior year. But by the end of that year Patterson, a 6-foot-5 swingman, was struggling with his shot, his game, and seemingly to stay out of his own way.
McCaskey won a fourth straight L-L League title, but lost in the first round of the District Three playoffs.
"Lamar's mind-set in coming here was to embrace the things he needed to do to prepare for a place like Pittsburgh," Hurley said.
"I imagine the experience is the most difficult thing he's had to do in his life, but the experience is going to prepare him."
St. Benedict's is a 600-student, all-male boarding school. Hurley is a former Seton Hall point guard. You may remember his brother, former Duke point guard Bobby Hurley.
Hurley's father, Bob, runs the longtime national power St. Anthony's in Jersey City. He's probably America's best-known high school coach.
Dan Hurley is 182-17 in his eighth season at St. Benedict's. He's 136-7 from year three on, 51-2 the last two years.
Hurley says he was offered the head-coaching job at Siena last year, and the job of associate head coach at Pitt the year before that.
He turned them down, he said, "Because I like being at a place like this, where the kids are at an age when you can help them, before they think they know everything."
He helps them by pushing them. Practices near the three-hour mark. The players are up in the morning by 7 a.m., in school until 3 p.m., at practice until 6 p.m., and in study hall from about 7:15-10 p.m.
"There's no, or very little, TV time, or video games or talking on the cell phone, or interaction with females," Hurley said.
From about 10-10:45 p.m., Hurley said, "they probably question why they came to St. Benedict's. Then they go to bed, get up and do it again."
The 10-11 a.m. hour is ostensibly free time, but Patterson said when he gets back to his room, "I usually go straight to bed."
The Grey Bees have a 15-player roster, but only 11 dress for games. Hurley said this year, all 11 will be Division I scholarship players.
They will play games this season in Florida, Puerto Rico, California, Massachusetts and, on Jan. 10, against Trinity in the Harrisburg Hoopfest.
"We try to create, or replicate, a Division I basketball program," Hurley said.
"This year, we could probably play with some of the D-1 colleges in New Jersey."
Patterson has wanted this, or something like it, for a while.
His mother, Loreen, said Thursday that unlike Lamar's relatively laid-back brother Perry, who played quarterback at Syracuse, Lamar "always said, this is what I want, and he tries to grab at it, like 'I want it now.' "
Which is why the grass has always been greener ... somewhere.
"He was always bugging me to transfer," Loreen said. "First it was Germantown Academy. Then he wanted to go live with [an AAU teammate] and play for Pennsbury [a District One public school]."
Mom resisted. She wanted Lamar to graduate from McCaskey, like her other sons. She wanted to see him score his 1,000th high-school point there.
"His brothers ganged up on me," Loreen said.
The Pattersons insist none of this should be read as dissatisfaction with McCaskey.
"I felt I needed it," Lamar said. "I knew how hard you have to work in college."
"It's nothing against [the McCaskey coaches], nothing like that," Loreen said. "He just thought [St. Benedict's] would be a good fit for him."
It hasn't been easy. Patterson simply wasn't in good enough shape to play at St. Benedict's level when he got there. He's lost 18 pounds since.
"The game's still the game," Lamar said. "But everything's 110 percent here, all the time. I like it now."
The operative word there, one guesses, is "now."
"He probably thinks I'm the devil," Hurley said.
Patterson isn't starting, but he is playing 20-25 minutes a game, for a 3-0 team ranked fourth in the country by USA Today.
He's had one double-figure scoring game, 10 points, in a defeat of Provine (Miss.) in last weekend's Marshall County Hoopfest in Benton, Ky.
"We envision him being one of our leading scorers and most productive players, but it's taken time," Hurley said.
"The first hurdle is conditioning. He has outstanding feel for the game and a very nice skill package, but we're just now getting to see it.
"He's a very talented guy. The game comes easy to him, maybe too easy. He didn't understand how hard you have to compete."
Patterson owns up to that.
"I know now," he said.
Mike Gross is assistant sports editor of the Sunday News. E-mail him at mgross@lnpnews.com.
