GMC Hoops Blogosphere

Video Highlights–Monroe vs. St. Joseph’s–GMCT Championship–February 28, 2010

Here are the video highlights from the game played between second seeded Monroe and top seeded St. Joseph’s for the 2010 Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament Championship at Woodbridge High School. St. Joe’s got two early threes from Steve Rennard and a slam dunk by Quenton DeCosey to take an 8-0 lead, and never looked back in a 65-45 victory for the school’s four ever county/conference title. Enjoy.

Video Highlights–Sayreville vs. Monroe–GMCT Final Four–February 24, 2010–Part II

Here is the second installment of video highlights from the game played between Sayreville and Monroe in the semifinals of the 2010 GMCT Semifinals at South Brunswick High School. Monroe, the second seed, had a double digit lead in the second half only to have Sayreville rally back with a huge surge in the fourth quarter to force overtime. However, the Bombers ran out of gas as the Falcons pulled away in overtime to win and advance to its first ever GMCT Championship. Enjoy.

Video Highlights–Sayreville vs. Monroe–GMCT Final Four–February 24, 2010–Part I

Here is the first installment of video highlights from a tremendous overtime game in the GMCT Semifinals between sixth seeded Sayreville and second seeded Monroe at South Brunswick High School. The Falcons built up a huge lead in the second half before Sayreville rallied to tie and force overtime. The Purple Birds ultimately prevailed by a final score of 74-67 for its first ever trip to the Championship Game of the GMCT. Enjoy.

Danny Brix Transfers To St. Joseph’s

MONROE, NJ–On Friday morning, GMC Hoops received word that Monroe standout, Danny Brix has transferred to St. Joseph’s. Brix, an incoming junior, helped Monroe make back to back GMCT Final Four berths in both his freshman and sophomore years, win its first ever divisional championship, and reach the school’s first ever GMCT Final this past season. During the two years that he spent at Monroe, the Falcons were a combined 44-12. Brix, the younger brother of another Monroe standout, Timmy Brix, made The Home News-Tribune all freshman team in 2008-09. He will be joining a St. Joseph’s squad that lost the likes of Steve Rennard and Andrew Morgan, but still has Quenton DeCosey among others.

Video Highlights–New Brunswick vs. Monroe–GMCT Elite Eight–February 21, 2010

Here are some video highlights from the second game of the 2010 GMCT Quarterfinals held at Middlesex County College between seventh seeded New Brunswick and second seeded Monroe. The Falcons jumped out to a 17-8 first quarter lead, and then increased it to a 33-18 advantage at halftime en route to a 65-46 victory. Enjoy.

Video Highlights–Monroe vs. Ridge–Prime Time Shootout–February 12, 2010

Here are the video highlights from the fourth quarter of action in the opening game of the Prime Time Shootout quadrupleheader held on Friday, February 12, 2010 at Kean University. The game between Monroe and Ridge matched two teams that were ranked in the N.J. Hoops Pre-Season Top 50. Led by team MVP, Tom Gambino, Ridge defeated Monroe by the score of 79-59. Timmy Brix was team MVP for Monroe.

2010 Middlesex County College Summer League–Team Stats

EDISON, NJ–On Thursday afternoon, GMC Hoops took all of the results from the games played this summer at the MCC Summer League, and put together the team stats for all 14 teams in the league. These stats are sorted by Point Differential, Total Offense, and Total Defense.

2010 Middlesex County College Summer League–Team Stats–Point Differential

2010 Middlesex County College Summer League–Team Stats–Total Offense

2010 Middlesex County College Summer League–Team Stats–Total Defense

2010 Elizabeth Summer League–Analysis

ELIZABETH, NJ–On Monday, the 2010 Elizabeth Summer League concluded at the Dunn Center with Roselle Catholic defeating Elizabeth for the title. There were 20 teams in two separate divisions in this league. Four of the teams came from the Greater Middlesex Conference including: Carteret, Monroe, Sayreville, and St. Joseph’s. Three teams from the GMC that competed last year: Metuchen, Piscataway, and Woodbridge did not compete this summer with Piscataway and Woodbridge playing in the Rahway Summer League while Metuchen played in scrimmages down the Jersey Shore in Manasquan.

Once again, only eight teams qualified for the playoffs with the top four teams in each division getting into the post-season. Once again, Monroe and St. Joseph’s qualified for the tournament while Elizabeth and Roselle Catholic played in the Championship. Monroe lost to Columbia in the quarterfinals while St. Joseph’s fell to Roselle Catholic. St. Joe’s had defeated Linden in the playoffs at LHS earlier in the day before taking on the Lions. Teams from five different conferences, and two states competed in the league as the Elizabeth Summer League was among the top leagues involving GMC schools this summer.

GMC Hoops was only able to journey up to the Dunn Center once this summer, and that was on July 1st. The site saw three of the GMC teams in the league that day including: Monroe, Sayreville, and St. Joseph’s. The Falcons and the Bombers played each other while St. Joseph’s took on Monsignor Farrell. All of the games were played at 5:00 PM and 6:00 PM, which made it difficult for the site to come up to see the action, especially on Monday and Tuesday. All four teams competing in this league should be very good this upcoming season with Carteret moving down to the Blue Division, and fielding a JV team that reached the Final Four while Monroe and Sayreville will be returning key pieces from teams that reached the GMCT Final Four, and St. Joe’s may have lost Robbie Ashamole along with a solid senior class led by Steve Rennard, but Quenton DeCosey, Jimbo Long, Slay Sudah, and Brandon Dolan lead a team that will be again in the hunt for the GMC title.

Bob Turco Leaves Monroe To Take Over Notre Dame Program

MONROE, NJ–Last week, an era in Monroe Boys Basketball came to an end. After coaching the Falcons throughout the summer, Bob Turco stepped down as head coach to take the vacant coaching position at Notre Dame High School in Lawrenceville according to an article in the Trentonian. Turco takes over for former Rider and Rutgers head coach, Kevin Bannon, who stepped down after a 9-14 season this past year.

Turco took over a Monroe program that hadn’t made the state tournament since 2002, and made its furthest advance in the GMCT back in 1996 when it lost to St. Peter’s in the quarterfinals. The most wins ever at the school prior to his arrival was 17. In his first year in 2005-06, he made an immediate impact by taking a team led by Stonehill standout, A.J. Rudowitz to the GMCT Final Four, and to the Central Jersey Group III Championship before falling to Hamilton. The 2005-06 squad won a school record 23 games. At the same time, he began to build a foundation of success that the Monroe basketball program never enjoyed prior.

In his five seasons at MTHS, Turco guided the Purple Birds to its first ever GMC Division Title this past season, its first ever GMCT Finals berth, three GMCT Final Four berths, and five straight state tournament berths. He compiled a record of 97-42 over the five seasons including a 44-12 mark over the past two years. Monroe equaled the school mark for victories with 23 this past season. The Falcons fell to St. Joseph’s in the 2010 GMCT Championship, but have a good nucleus of players returning for this season including Ahmid Williams, Danny Brix, Ryan Genevieve, Mike Walp, Mike Mahmoud, Victor Sorrento, and youngsters Nick Isola and Ryan Stolte among others.

Most importantly though, Turco has left behind a strong foundation for the program to continue to be successful on. Monroe now has good young talent going all the way down to the 5th and 6th Grade level with a traveling basketball program. Prior to taking the head coaching post at Monroe, Turco had served as an assistant to his brother Dave at Carteret and South Brunswick winning a GMCT Championship at CHS in 2002, and reaching the Final Four at SBHS in 2005. The Turco brothers built the foundation that eventually brought about the first sectional title at South Brunswick since 1974, and the first state finals berth since 1968 back in 2007.

Turco, who works for Diebold, was a three sport star at Carteret when he was in high school. This is the second coaching change at Monroe this summer. Earlier this year, JV and assistant coach as well as former MTHS hoops standout, Matt Gigliello, took a position to coach on the staff at St. Joseph’s.

2010 Middlesex County College Summer League–Analysis

EDISON, NJ–With play completed at the MCC Summer League for almost a week now, GMC Hoops wanted to take some time to look back at what transpired in the league this summer. The site has been covering this league since its initial season back in 2000-01. Out of all the leagues GMC Hoops has covered through the years, the MCC league has been covered the longest. There were 14 teams in the league including ten from the Greater Middlesex Conference if you count the latest addition in Timothy Christian. Eight teams made the playoffs. Four from the GMC, two from the Shore Conference, one from the Skyland Conference, and one from the Union County Conference.

All four non-conference teams qualified for the playoffs, and had a combined record of 29-14. The four GMC schools that qualified ended up with a combined record of 31-12. East Brunswick earned the top seed in the post-season tourney by completing the regular season with an unblemished 9-0 mark. However, the Bears, which were the defending champions, fell to South River, a team it defeated in the finals last summer, in the opening round to finish at 9-1. J.P. Stevens ended the regular season at 6-3 with two of those losses coming in the second week when the varsity squad played at the East Brunswick team camp. The Hawks also lost to South Hunterdon late in the regular season.

However, Stevens put together a solid run through the playoffs with three straight wins including an opening round victory over Perth Amboy Tech, a 50-37 victory over South River in the semifinals, and a 37-32 win over Keyport in the Championship. Winning this league was a positive step for a Hawks team that is going into year two of rebuliding after two seasons where they posted a combined record of 38-15 with the likes of Kenny Bland, Myles Reuben, Nick Pol, and Tahir Swinton. Veterans Mike Reuben and Victor Quan, two reserves on the 2008-09 Hawk squad that went 18-9, lead the team. Reuben earned MVP honors while Quan made several key plays in the victory over Keyport. Marvin Crawford and Brandon Ahmed also play prominently on the squad while Pete Prontinicki will be looking to come back from injury this upcoming winter.

For the second straight year, the South River Rams reached the Final Four of this summer league. The Rams got in as the eighth seed after getting to the Championship game last season. South River was hitting all their shots in the opening round against top seeded East Brunswick, and that propelled them to the semifinals. However, the hot shooting didn’t last as the Rams only went 15 of 45 from the floor including 3 of 21 from three point range against J.P. Stevens. In all fairness to the Rams though, it was the first game of the summer that Nick Boyler, Tim Huff, and Craig Huff all played in after going through the summer baseball season. Xavier Foster and Gavin Campbell struggled though, especially from beyond the arc.

South River played well in a number of games at MCC. First, they opened the season by defeating Timothy Christian in the final seconds. Then, they only lost by one to South Hunterdon (40-39) late in the season on July 6th. They also lost to playoff contenders J.P. Stevens, Keyport, and Roselle Park. Coupled with the play at the Hoop Group Headquarters Spring League, the Rams are off to a good start en route to their first season in the GMC Gold. With a good nucleus returning such as Foster, Campbell, Boyler, Larry Smith, Tyler Harris, Tim and Craig Huff, the Rams are solid contenders for GMC Gold Honors. One of the teams that they will be competing against will be Perth Amboy Tech.

The Patriots had a good summer with a 7-2 mark in the regular season to earn the fourth seed in the playoffs. However, Amboy Tech stumbled in the first round to eventual champion, J.P. Stevens. The Pats have perhaps the best two players in the GMC Gold with Rashad Adams and Malcolm Batts, but they will need to have a solid supporting cast to contribute if they are to overtake South River. The Pats three losses in the league were to teams (East Brunswick, Keyport, and J.P. Stevens) that had a combined record of 28-6. The Pats did beat Gold Division rivals: East Brunswick Tech, South Amboy, Timothy Christian as well as playoff teams such as Keansburg and Roselle Park.

The other six GMC teams that competed at MCC did not make the playoffs including: Monroe, Bishop Ahr, East Brunswick Tech, Sayreville, South Amboy, and Timothy Christian. The squads from Monroe, Bishop Ahr, and Sayreville were mostly JV although occasionally some varsity players did compete such as the case when Monroe and Roselle Park went at it in a very close game that was played on June 29th. That leaves us with East Brunswick Tech, South Amboy, and Timothy Christian. All of these teams will be in the revamped GMC Gold in 2010-11. The Tigers were only 2-7 on the summer, but have some good players returning including Rob Brown, Mike Hardy, Quincy Ross, and Dequan Calimese. They played competitively against the likes of playoff teams such as Amboy Tech (lost 51-39) and Keansburg (lost 21-14). Expect the Tigers to be chasing the likes of South River, Amboy Tech, and Dunellen though.

South Amboy went 1-8 with a victory over Timothy Christian late in the summer. The Guvs lost standout Joe Charmello to graduation, and the likes of role players such as Christian Geant, Dan O’Connor, Luke O’Connor, Tim Simko, and Matt Reagan. But have Dustin DeVoe, Michael Zammit as well as some good youngsters coming in. South Amboy is also working hard to build a solid foundation at the lower levels with teams in each of the three divisions over at the Raritan Bay Summer League. The Guvs are looking to Zammit to fill the void left behind by Charmello. South Amboy may go through some short term pain, but the future does look bright. Timothy Christian’s first year in the Gold will be an interesting one.

The Tigers always had a good turnout of players when they played at MCC. Timothy Christian will be a newcomer to the GMC along with fellow former Patriot Conference member, Wardlaw. TCS has done well against the GMC, particularly the Gold Division in recent years. However, at MCC this summer, the Tigers struggled with a 1-8 mark including tough close losses to South River (42-40), South Amboy (36-34), and Sayreville (42-39). However, if it had won those three games, Timothy Christian may have been able to qualify for the playoffs. So, the Tigers will still not be an easy out in the GMC Gold