A Discussion About 2016-17 GMC Hoops Pre-Season Rankings

Good morning everyone. I have a lot on my mind and a lot to say. I also have a ton of things that I would like to do before I head over to St. Joseph’s for the Falcons Non-Public A Semifinal game versus Bishop Eustace. I would like to start out by talking about my pre-season rankings and season previews.

I would like to talk in particular about St. Joseph’s since there were some in the Falcons camp that felt I disrespected them when I put them fifth in my Pre-Season Top Ten, and third in my GMC Red Division Preview’s predicted order of finish. As a matter of fact, I was told that it was used as bulletin board material. I have mixed emotions about that. In some ways, I took it as a badge of honor, and in others I took it personally.

Perhaps, I was a little bit too sensitive. To be honest, I’ve always been like that. Let’s forget about that for a second, and talk about this year’s St. Joseph’s team before the season started. In the fall, I had posted in the blog about a number of players transferring out of St. Joseph’s. Ten in total. Three of which were part of the six or seven Man rotation on last year’s team that won the GMCT over South Brunswick and lost to St. Augustine’s in the Non-Public A South Championship.

In addition, I had forgot to mention that Dexter Jackson also didn’t play this year. Jackson was a talented player who was on the St. Joseph’s JV team two years ago with Malachi Walker and Xavier Townes that lost to South Brunswick in the 2015 East Brunswick/GMC JV Championship. So, now, you have 11 guys that were somewhere in the program a year that were either playing somewhere else, or not playing at all. All of that in addition to the graduation of Tyus Battle (Syracuse) and Bree Tyree (Mississippi), two NCAA Division I players, who combined to score over 2,700 points in their high school careers.

Let’s also not forget that things didn’t exactly start out so well for the Falcons at the Immaculata Fall League. St. Joseph’s started out 2-2 at Immaculata including a 51-38 loss to Ridge in week two. Some people there were telling me that St. Joe’s didn’t look that good, and that Bishop Ahr looked better. The Falcons just had three guys back from last year’s team that combined to score 110 points (Letrell West–56, Mike Granda–37, and Malachi Walker–17). When you throw all of that altogether, I honestly didn’t know what to do with St. Joseph’s when I started putting together my pre-season stuff. I did now this: St. Joe’s finished the Immaculata Fall League with 3 wins in their last 4 games including impressive wins that I saw against Hillsborough (won 62-37) and Franklin (won 50-28).

However, I still didn’t know where to put the Falcons. Sayreville had 7 guys back from last year’s team including a 1,000 point scorer in Ryan O’Leary. Plus they had one of the 10 St. Joseph’s kids that transferred out in Xavier Townes coming over. The Bombers also put in a very good off-season by playing all year round including the Kean Spring League, Hamilton Park Summer League in Jersey City, and the Hoop Group Headquarters Fall League. South Brunswick did lose Eric Savage as well as Jaier Garrett, Sean Nally, Isaiah Franklin, and Danesh Thirukumaran, but they still had Mike Ugarte, who eventually would score 1,000 points, and sharpshooter Ryan Moran as well as a ton of talent from a group of seniors such as Tavian Alford, Chris James, Vic Huetz, Kunal Thakral, and Anthony Blakey that had been chomping at the bit at the JV level for the most part of two years. Alford, James, and Huetz were members of the South Brunswick JV team that defeated St. Joseph’s two years ago, and were on last year’s JV squad that reached the final before losing to North Brunswick. Woodbridge also had everyone back while Old Bridge still had Kyle Parris, Will Osvald, Rich Calandrino, and Brandon Milling. Woodbridge made it to the GMCT Final Four, and only trailed Joes by one late in the fourth quarter.

The Home News-Tribune actually ranked South Brunswick second behind Linden in its pre-season poll, and ahead of St. Joseph’s. They didn’t even have Old Bridge ranked. Old Bridge at least made it to the GMCT Quarterfinals and to the Central Jersey Group 4 semifinals, which last year’s team didn’t do, and last year’s squad had two Division 3 players in Stephen Strom (Rutgers-Newark) and Connor Romano (Ramapo), who finished up with over 1,000 points for his career. I also believe that HNT also didn’t have Sayreville in the top five while I had them pre-season number one, and although the Bombers didn’t win the title, they were at least in the Championship Game, the first time since 2000. John Wojcik and Samir Sanu were in the program at that time. They are now head coaches at Sayreville and New Brunswick respectively. And, I’m not doing this to criticize HNT, I’m doing it to support my case for why I thought the way that I did.

So, there were a lot of things that I thought about when it came to St. Joseph’s, even something that I never thought I would ever consider. And, there are some folks at St. Joseph’s, who may not like what I’m about to say, but I will say it anyway:

I considered not having the Falcons in the Pre-Season Top Ten at all.

Yes, as crazy as that sounds, I gave it some thought, but I said to myself that I couldn’t do that, and for two reasons: 1.) St. Joseph’s was defending GMCT champion, and 2.). THEY ARE ST. JOE’S!. However, on the other hand, if you think that I was going to give the Falcons pre-season number one ranking, and mark them as favorites to win the GMC Red in light of all the evidence that I presented, I respond simply by saying you’re crazy. No, St. Joseph’s was going to have to be like Missouri, and show me something, and you know what, they did! Why do you think I drove all the way down to Neptune to see the Falcons play Lakewood in the holiday tourney? Simple. Because I had seen what they had done in the first four games of the season, and it sparked my curiosity. I could sense something special was brewing there. My hat’s off to the players and the coaching staff including Dave Turco. I made sure that I conveyed those sentiments to St. Joseph’s Athletic Director, Jerry Smith in an email I sent to him on Sunday night.

I will finish with this: I spoke with my long time friend Korbid Thompson via twitter over this past week. And, he told me this, “You’re not going to say everything right, and you’re not going to always say what everyone wants to hear. As long as your opinions are both professional (meaning based on the facts) and honest, that’s probably the best you are going to do.” My thoughts about St. Joseph’s during the pre-season were both professional and honest, and honestly, I didn’t know where to put them. So I placed them in the middle, and No. 5 in my Pre-Season Top Ten, ahead of the very same Bishop Ahr team that some thought were more impressive at the Immaculata Fall League, and said to myself, “Let the chips fall where they may.” And for St. Joseph’s, all the chips were cashed in at the RAC last Friday night! Congratulations! It is a great story, and I’m proud to have witnessed it this year.