McLeod does more than fill the stat sheet

The scouting report on Matt McLeod sounds like a late-night infomercial for an all-in-one utility tool. He slices (through defenses); he dices (up an offense). But wait, there's more. He whips (passes); he blocks (shots); he locks (down high scorers).

"Whatever coach wants me to do. If he wants me to play D, if he wants me to rebound, if he wants me to score, I'm going to answer the call," said McLeod, a senior at Suffolk Class A power Harborfields. "I'll do whatever I can to get us the win."

McLeod, at 6-3, is one of the most versatile players on Long Island. The Newsday first-team All-Long Island selection averaged 20.1 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 4.5 steals. He might not match those numbers this season because Harborfields has more talent. "The thing that's a little different this year is that he's got a lot of scorers around him now. He knows his role,'' Tornadoes coach Chris Agostino said. "He's an incredible defender. He always guards the other team's best player. Sometimes he might play the point guard; sometimes he might play the scoring guard. He's really comfortable in any one of those positions."

There was evidence of McLeod's comfort zone this week as he helped Harborfields defeat South Side and host Uniondale to win the Uniondale Tip-Off Classic. Against South Side, he registered a double-double, with 22 points and 10 rebounds. Against Uniondale in Wednesday's finale, the Knights took away the perimeter game so McLeod knifed inside for 20 points and made several key steals in the second half.

"We know he'll scrap his way to the basket. He's a good slasher," said center Nick Fessenden, the tournament MVP with 16 points and 11 rebounds in the finale. "We trust him and we know he'll make shots down the stretch."

In the fourth quarter against Uniondale's swarming pressure defense, McLeod scored eight points, including two tough layups in traffic, one that broke the press and gave the Tornadoes a seven-point lead in a game they won, 68-60. "This year, it's more about letting the game come to me instead of having to force stuff," McLeod said. "I have a great point guard in Lucas . We have two great shooters and a big man down low [Fessenden]. Last year I would have to rebound; then with Lucas hurt, I would have to try to get assists and score on top of that."

Shooting is his one tool that needs sharpening. "To get to the next level, I need to get better on my outside shooting," he acknowledged. "Every day in the summer I worked on it. We have a shooting machine and I took 300 or 400 shots every day. Now, if I've got the open shot, I'm not passing it up. Instead of driving, I'm going to knock it down."

McLeod's outside shot remains a work in progress and it's what has kept mid-major Division I colleges from recruiting him. He's already drawn plenty of Division II looks. His scoring and assists are slightly down early this season, but his defense is steadfast and his rebounding is up. "My dad stressed rebounding," McLeod said. "Whenever my game is off, he said you can always get easy points off rebounds. Defense? You've got to play defense to win."

And winning is what McLeod hopes will define his senior season. "That's the best thing about our team. We all know we want to get to states," he said. The Tornadoes fell one game short of a trip to Glens Falls last March when they lost the Class A Long Island championship game to Westbury on Sheldon Hagigal's buzzer-beating three-pointer.

"That's definitely a motivator," McLeod said. "Coming so close last year hurt so much. We're not going to let that happen again."