Wednesday Hoops Ramblings/RBC’s O’Leary Commits to Campbell for Football

Before I get to some quick hoops thoughts, Red Bank Catholic senior quarterback Connor O’Leary has committed to Division I-AA (or FCS, whichever you prefer) Campbell University in North Carolina, which is a member of the Pioneer League, whose champion plays the winner of the Northeast Conference (the league Monmouth University and others are in) in a bowl game every season. Campbell just completed its first season of football in 2008 after a 58-year hiatus. Congrats to O’Leary, an All-Liberty Division selection who was part of a Caseys’ team that finished the season ranked No. 1 in the All Shore Media Top 10.

If any coaches or players out there have football commitments to report, please e-mail them to me at stump@allshoremedia.com.

Now, on to the hoops. The boys basketball Shore alumni page is up and running now and can be found by clicking here or by going to the “Boys Basketball” page on the site and clicking on the “Alumni” link. I’ll work on the girls page tomorrow because it is insanely tedious, but worth it to keep up on all the former Shore players. I’m sure I probably missed some people, so feel free to fill me in on anyone who is not on the list by sending an e-mail to stump@allshoremedia.com. I also will try to post some blog entries with the latest news on the accomplishments of former Shore players.

Time for some ramblings, starting with the girls hoops side.

Can a freshman make All-Shore if she doesn’t start but is excellent in big games (cough, cough, Michaela Mabrey)?…Can Jackson Memorial finish strong and close out the Class A South title despite a loss to Southern on Monday? If they can, that would be a great confidence-booster for a team that is experienced but still fairly young…Holmdel’s Alex Diekmann might be known a little more as a field hockey standout but has been an underrated scorer for the Hornets…When Red Bank Catholic‘s guards get used to getting Sam Guastella and Chyna Golden the ball in the right spots to score and consistently knocking down 3-pointers to allow the Caseys to play inside-out, this could be a much different team. Think about the Achilles’ heel of St. John Vianney and Colts Neck – defensive rebounding. Guastella and Golden are built to punish teams on the offensive glass, but RBC’s guards have to avoid the large amount of turnovers that have doomed them in big games this season…Senior Alex Eagle played a great game on both sides of the ball for Freehold, including a huge steal near the end, in its upset of RBC…It was a little under the radar, but nice win for Manasquan over Shore on Tuesday, with Tori Grille leading the way with 19 points…Brick is quietly playing much better as the season goes on and that was an impressive win over Toms River North on Tuesday given that the Mariners had recently knocked off Southern. Vicky DeTata is one of Ocean County’s more underrated players….Mater Dei and Keansburg played an overtime game and a 3-point game, both of which the Seraphs won, in their two meetings this season, which is a nice showing for the Titans because Mater Dei and St. Rose have usually had a decent amount of separation from the rest of Class B Central for the past few seasons…Wondering just how good Middletown South is – not quite in Neptune and Colts Neck’s league, but could the Eagles beat RBC, Freehold or St. Rose? I would like to see one of those games happen…While Mabrey, St. Rose’s Samantha Clark and others deservedly get recognition as top freshmen in the Shore, Point Beach’s Brianna Feerst has quietly emerged as one of the Garnet Gulls’ top scorers and has them on pace for another trip to the postseason…Can we just skip to the Shore Conference Tournament semifinals now so we can see the match-ups we’ve been waiting for?

And now on to the boys side...

Class A Central, you’re killing me. Shore Regional is the hottest team in the division right now, and a week ago it was Red Bank Catholic, and before that it was Manasquan and Holmdel. It’s getting hard to pick a team to rank because once one of them starts to look good, another one yanks they back down into the moshpit. This race looks like it will come down to the last week, with the winner getting a home game in the SCT. Things aren’t looking too good over at preseason contender Rumson-Fair Haven, either, as leading scorer Matt Blumel went scoreless and was benched in the second half of a loss to Matawan, which was winless in the division before the win over the Bulldogs on Tuesday. RBC got back on track with a win over Raritan, which has already surpassed last season’s win total (6), but is being ravaged by injuries to its front line. RBC plays at Manasquan on Thursday, so we’ll see if the madness continues…Middletown South could be gaining steam now that point guard Pat O’Connell is eligible, as the Eagles avenged an earlier loss to Colts Neck. The more this team can get into its halfcourt sets without turnovers, the more difficult it becomes to stop because with the emergence of Rob Callori and Jake Brodsky as 3-point threats, they can make teams pay for doubling down on Kyle Cancillieri and Matt Callori. It also means that those last two will have to handle the ball less and can worry more about just lighting up their defender…I’m curious to see how Middletown North does on its second trip through Class A North because the Lions were on a roll before running into CBA, who would halt pretty much any team’s momentum right now. Can they recapture that momentum and keep making a push to the postseason? It’s certainly not going to be easy because guess who the Lions play on Thursday? That’s right, No. 1 and undefeated Monmouth. That’s the most brutal 1-2 punch a local team could face right now…

Holmdel’s Erik Shirvanian returned with a vengeance after sitting out the Manasquan game as he put 30 on St. John Vianney on Tuesday night. With him as a 3-point threat, the Hornets are a different team because opponents can’t sag in the lane, which slows down junior forward Mike Kelly and allows more defenders to rotate and help when point guard Mike Perillo takes it to the hole. With Shirvanian out there, it helps court spacing and keeps teams honest or he will just fire away from behind the arc. Manasquan’s players essentially said that they defended Holmdel much differently than they would have had Shirvanian not been out of the lineup with an injury…Brick Memorial almost got caught looking ahead to a big game against Toms River East on Thursday when Toms River South took the Mustangs to overtime. However, that’s what seniors are for, to bail out the team in those situations and pull out the win, and that’s what Matt O’Brien did with 24 points…Senior forward Corey Whitman quietly had a 28-point night for Wall against the No. 3 team in the Shore, Freehold, on Tuesday…Marlboro showed how treacherous Class A North can be when the two-win Mustangs pushed Freehold Township to quadruple overtime on Tuesday. There are no days off in that division. The Patriots have a big one on Thursday as they face off with No. 3 Freehold after having lost to the Colonials in the Jack Kuhnert Holiday Tournament semifinals and in last season’s Shore Conference Tournament. Both of those wins took place on Township’s home court, where the game will tip off at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday in front of what is sure to be a raucous home crowd.

B/G Hoops: 10 Things We Learned This Weekend

After a loooooong weekend of basketball in which I basically lived at Convention Hall in Asbury Park for the Battle on the Boardwalk slate (and have the annoying sniffles from the frigid temperatures to prove it), let’s get to some of the things we found out from an exciting weekend of basketball. Also, I promise that I will get the Players of the Week from this last week posted by early tomorrow or even late tonight if possible, so look for those. I also am looking to have the alumni page going by tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest.

Also, congrats to St. Rose coach Dennis Devaney on picking up his 400th career victory in a win over St. John Vianney on Saturday, and I’m sure he had plenty of wisecracks to celebrate his long and successful tenure with the Roses. This was a big weekend for the Devaney brothers, as in addition to the milestone, Dennis’s brother Sean and his Holmdel Hornets fell to Manasquan in a showdown for first place in Class A Central on Friday night and the other Devaney brother, St. Louis Rams general manager Billy Devaney, hired the Rams’ new head coach, former Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo.

BOYS

1. Christian Brothers Academy can hang with anybody: Looking at the video replay numerous times, St. Patrick’s Paris Bennett got that final shot off in time to beat CBA at the double OT buzzer in my opinion, so that was just a great play by him. I’m sure CBA coach Geoff Billet needed a cold one after that game because the Colts were right there. Certainly, St. Pat’s is a different team without North Carolina-bound guard Dexter Strickland or junior guard Kyrie Irving because it’s next group of guards are not even close to that level. The thing I always like to see is who can make individual plays against St. Pat’s level of talent, which always includes several Division I players, which is where Brian Neller and Pat Light showed me something, Neller in particular. He really turned it on at the end, particularly from downtown, which makes you wonder where that was for three quarters but also shows that Neller can seize the moment and make a big play. Light is just the ultimate competitor who backs down from no one, so I wasn’t surprised by his strong performance. Now the Colts just have to show that they can finish off a top opponent with a trophy on the line when we get to the postseason.

2. Monmouth’s Neil Thompson is the best junior guard in the Shore Conference: As a long-time boys basketball follower and coach said to me during Monmouth’s win over Lakewood, “If you’re a college coach and you’re recruiting junior guards in the Shore Conference, how are you not starting with Neil Thompson?” Thompson has elite level quickness, can reliably knock down threes, can defend, and can get into the paint and finish or find open teammates. I know that’s a strong statement given the fact that players that are also highly regarded like CBA’s Roy Mabrey and Manasquan’s Matt Vadas are out there among others, but that’s the way I see it right now. Thompson continues to work on his game and add more and more every season.

3. Monmouth’s Joe Willman is the most efficient scorer in the Shore Conference: He has to be shooting over 60 percent from the field easily this season, and it isn’t just lay-ups and dunks. That 12-foot jumper of his is nearly automatic. I was joking with Monmouth coach Larry Cirignano that I’m almost surprised when he shoots and it doesn’t go in, and he smiled and said, “So are we!” before laughing. Also, kudos to Cirignano, who dug into any info the school had and went through old newspapers to try and find all of the Monmouth school records, which Willman is breaking one by one as he became Monmouth’s all-time leading scorer on Saturday. It’s a nice problem to have. Yeah, we have a guy who’s obliterating every school record in sight, so we just want to make sure what those records are.

4. Asbury Park is a good team, but take the Blue Bishops out of their home gym and they’re vulnerable: With their fullcourt, trapping, end-to-end style, the Blue Bishops’ tiny home gym is perfect for their style. I should know because I played there on a visiting team when I was in high school and when you take the ball out of bounds on one side of the court, your feet usually are actually over the end line because there is so little space between there and the concrete wall in which the Asbury Park faithful feel like they are right on top of you, roaring for their team. The other side of the court is the end of the stage, which I nearly went off the end of once while diving for a loose ball. One good outlet pass and it’s a lay-up in an instant on the other side on that court. However, on the bigger court at Convention Hall, Rumson could handle the Blue Bishops’ press because there was more space to work with, and the Bulldogs kept the game low-scoring in the 40s. Asbury Park is averaging much more points at home than away, and don’t think other teams weren’t taking notes when RFH sat in a zone and forced the Blue Bishops to beat them shooting jumpshots. AP’s Dave Johnson is a good coach, so certainly they will make adjustments now that they’ve seen it, and Asbury Park also has an army of good offensive rebounders, led by senior Lamar Young, who has developed a knack for late-game heroics with last-second buckets in wins over Rumson and Point Beach.

5. Watch out for Toms River North: Quietly, while all the action was going on at Convention Hall, the Mariners had No. 3 Freehold on the ropes before Andrew Gerbehy saved the day with a 3-point play in the final seconds for the Colonials. This Toms River North team has an array of athletes and scorers, and when it cements its lineup and rotation, it will not be an easy out for anybody because it has several players who can guard multiple positions and are a match-up problem, like seniors Steve Nyisztor and Pat Szukics.

6. Middletown South has definitely improved: You knew under head coach Kevin Cullen that they weren’t going to just let the season get away from them, and we’ll see if they are really a different team when they take on Colts Neck again to start the second trip through their Class A North schedule. The good sign is that they are playing low-scoring games, which means their defense has gotten better. The big keys are guards Rob Callori and Jake Brodsky. If they get consistent scoring out of those two, this is a different team. Two areas that have to improve are ball-handling against the press and foul shooting. The Eagles tend ot overdribble against the press, and Neptune took full advantage of that to get a large chunk of points on Saturday, and foul shooting has cost South in losses to Colts Neck and Neptune.

7. We still don’t know which way Neptune is headed: The Scarlet Fliers found a way to beat a good team, Middletown South, thanks to Jabari Joyner’s game-winning jumper, but they still shot 1-for-19 from 3-point range and 20-for-58 overall. They simply cannot continue to shoot like that and pull games out in tournaments. The good sign is that their defense caused 23 turnovers and they shot 9-for-13 from the foul line. I think senior D.J. Gutridge is the best of the four senior guards right now because he always seems to be a factor in any game, whether it’s offensively, defensively, or both, while Joyner, Lem Walker and Thomas Jones tend to have flashes here and there before disappearing at times. I would never write a Neptune team off because the Fliers have proven too many times that they are up to the challenge.

8. Lakewood has to handle the ball better against top teams: The Piners showed that when they got into transition or the halfcourt that they have good one-on-one players who can break down their man and score. However, I don’t know how many times they kicked the ball away, threw it away or had other careless turnovers that you can’t have against a team like Monmouth. Their guard play will determine how far this team can go because if swingmen Jacob Grant and Jarrod Davis can get the ball on the wing in position to score, they are tough. If they have to handle the ball more than usual, that will take them out of their comfort zone.

9. Manasquan will go as far as Matt Vadas can take it: A legitimate 6-4 guard, Vadas is a match-up nightmare who can post up, score off the dribble, score in transition and knock down threes. I think you might see teams employ Holmdel’s strategy from Friday night, which is essentially that they know Vadas will get his points, so just stop everyone else while making sure senior guard Kyle Wehner doesn’t cause drouble from behind the arc. The Hornets did that, but didn’t have the offensive firepower to keep up without Erik Shirvanian in the lineup. Someone on Manasquan is going to have to emerge as that reliable second scoring option to Vadas, and one candidate in my mind is junior forward Neal Sterling.

10. Watch out for Shore and Middletown North: Both of these teams have come on recently, particularly North, which is back from the dead and right back in contention for a postseason berth. Shore took down a Red Bank Catholic team that was playing well in double overtime. These teams might be fringe teams when it comes to making the Shore Conference Tournament, but they also could be the last teams any others want to have to beat to qualify for the postseason or solidify a seed.

GIRLS

1. St. John Vianney is built to play with anybody, but does have a vulnerable spot: The Lancers nearly stunned Murry Bergtraum, but an offensive rebound by Doris Ortega did them in at the very end. The thing that makes SJV so dangerous offensively is that anyone can carry the offense for stretches. Freshman Michaela Mabrey and sophomore Jackie Kates did it for three quarters on Sunday before the Shore’s best closer right now, senior Katelyn Linney, brought them down the stretch. However, the loss showed that the Lancers can be hurt by a good offensive rebounding team. The thing is, I don’t exactly know who that team is in the Shore Conference because the next-best team, Colts Neck, has the same problem itself. Who would be that Shore team that would be able to really exploit SJV on the offensive glass? This Lancers team is just so solid considering that it withstood a treacherous week, which was interesting because Colts Neck had its hell week at the exact same time and also finished strong. I was definitely more impressed with SJV after Ortega said that this was the first team all year that they felt hung right with them and actually made them look like the tired team that couldn’t keep pace. Considering Bergtraum is by far the fastest team I have seen all year, that’s a heck of a compliment to SJV from the best player on a nationally-ranked team that has won 70 straight games.

2. Colts Neck’s season will come down to defensive rebounding because its offense is outstanding: This team’s offense can’t really be slowed down by anyone because its guards are so good off the dribble and play so well together. Plus, if Emily Laurence is going to knock down threes off kickouts like she did on Sunday, that makes this team even tougher to defend. They run that high screen and just get whatever they want off of it. That makes sealing off the defensive boards the No. 1 issue for this team. If they can do that in that crucial four-minute stretch to end a close game, they can beat anyone, SJV included. They also proved that they have the stamina to play back-to-back games with a small rotation against powerhouse teams and compete right to the end.

3. If the rest of Freehold’s starters are aggressive offensively, this team is dangerous: While Shannon Mayrose was excellent as usual and had 22 points in an upset of Red Bank Catholic, I thought it was the aggressiveness of Alex Eagle, Ashley Lewis and Simone Dixon offensively that really made the difference. It gave Mayrose more room to operate, and it got RBC’s frontcourt in foul trouble when one of those three would penetrate and get fouled. If they can do that consistently, the Colonials will be a tough out in the SCT.

4. Sophomore guard Kasey Hobbie makes RBC a better offensive team: While I think RBC”s guards still throw the ball away way too much, Hobbie has major scoring potential because she can knock it down from deep, get to the basket off the dribble and hit mid-range floaters. Her return makes this a team that struggles a lot less to score against good teams. This is still an extremely young team, but that is no excuse any more in the Shore Conference considering that Colts Neck won the SCT with a team full of sophomores last season and Neptune won a sectional title while being led by a pair of freshmen last season. The Caseys will have to get up to speed because teams like SJV, Colts Neck and Neptune will bring back everyone next season, too, so this group has to bring it up a notch. The talent is definitely there, and you would still rather have this loss in mid-January than in February. RBC is the type of team where the light switch could go on a week before the SCT and then it makes a great run, so it certainly can’t be counted out.

5. Neptune is lurking out there under the radar: The Scarlet Fliers quietly beat a well-respected Absegami team over the weekend and are still unbeaten. They haven’t had the high-profile match-ups of those like SJV, RFH and Colts Neck, so they haven’t been at the forefront, but they are hovering out there, preparing themselves to run the SCT gauntlet. Like Colts Neck, they rely almost exclusively on their starting lineup, but with sophomores Shakena Richardson and Syessence Davis, junior Sehmonyeh Allen and senior Marley Mauvais, they are dangerous. Still, they know that no one will believe in the record until they take down an SJV, Rumson or Colts Neck in a tournament game.

6. Middletown South is improving as the season goes along: The Eagles had a nice win over Freehold Township on Friday night and have SCT quarterfinal potential behind Danielle Pankey and Meghan McGuinness. This is a team that can slow the game down and maybe steal one from a well-regarded team, although if they get a No. 7 or No. 8 seed that means a likely meeting with SJV or Colts Neck, which they obviously want to avoid.

7. Colts Neck’s Lauren Clarke is throwing her hat in the ring in the early discussion for Player of the Year: Junior guard Lauren Clarke is right at the top of the discussion along with Katelyn Linney and Kate Miller when talking about first team All-Shore Conference players as she was tremendous in a loss to Shabazz and a win over Christ the King, with 29 points and 22 points, respectively. She also does it without taking a ton of shots as she gets to the free throw line, converts in the paint, and knocks down open threes when she gets them. Granted, much of it is because of the chemistry between her and Brooke Hampton and Tiffany DeTulio, but Clarke has showed up in a major way in every big game Colts Neck has had this season, and that’s the mark of a Player of the Year candidate.

8. We still don’t really know who that No. 5 team in the Shore is for sure: St. Rose occupies that spot now, but the Purple Roses are one of those teams that has beaten every team it has been favored against but has come up way short against the higher-ranked teams (i.e., St. John Vianney). RBC was a candidate, and then lost to Freehold. St. Rose still plays Rumson and RBC, so we’ll see what the Purple Roses do. Right now, there just doesn’t look like that team that can break up that top four of SJV, RFH, Neptune and Colts Neck. It could actually be Freehold if the Colonials are going to play like they did on Sunday.

9. There aren’t a whole lot of divisional races with any intrigue in them: Colts Neck (Class A North); Neptune (Class B North); St. Rose (Class B Central); and Manchester (Class B South) all look like runaways, and it looks like St. John Vianney’s next meeting with Rumson most likely decides Class A Central. Jackson had a two-game lead in Class A South coming into Monday’s game with Southern, but still would have to stumble twice for that division to get away from it.

10. Can anyone from Ocean County crack the top eight in the SCT?: Southern looked like a candidate before a loss to Toms River North, and Manchester is playing better after some early season stumbles, but once again it looks like an uphill battle, mainly because the Monmouth County teams all seem to play one another and have tougher schedules while the Ocean County squads mainly stick to their division and county until the SCT and state tournaments, other than maybe the WOBM Tournament.