Former GMC Standouts Still Dancing

Towns, DeCosey, and Owen of St. Joseph’s as well as Ukawuba of NJIT Enjoying the Ride of March Madness

Former St. Joseph’s standout, Quenton DeCosey follows through on a three pointer in the 2nd half of Temple’s NIT quarterfinal round victory over Louisiana Tech on Wednesday night.

NEWARK, NJ–On Saturday night, GMC Hoops will travel over to the Estelle and Zoom Fleischer Center on the campus of NJIT to see the Highlanders in action against Canisius in the quarterfinal round of the 2015 CollegeInsider.com Tournament. Two former players from the GMC will be representing both NJIT and Canisius although they are not likely to play due to injury. East Brunswick’s Rob Ukawuba has not played since the final two regular season games, and wasn’t dressed for GMC Hoops last visit to the Fleischer Center on March 16th when NJIT defeated New Hampshire in the opening round of the CIT. Meanwhile, former St. Joe’s standout, Raven Owen has been out all season with a stress fracture to his foot.

Ukawuba and Owen are not the only former GMC players that have experienced March Madness 2015. Several other players have had solid post-season runs. Highest on the list is former St. Joseph’s standout, Karl Anthony Towns, who has become a significant piece to the top ranked and undefeated Kentucky Wildcats. Currently, the University of Kentucky is 37-0, and is scheduled to take on 3rd seeded Notre Dame this evening in the Midwest Regional at the Quicken Loans Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The Wildcats, which reached the NCAA Championship Game last year before losing to UCONN, is attempting to become the first team since the 1976 Indiana University Hoosiers to go undefeated in a season. Kentucky would also be the first ever team to go 40-0 in a season if they go all the way to the finals and win.

Towns has gradually become a force, and seen his minutes increase although this year’s Wildcats squad is very deep in talent, and all the players have had to buy in to not playing the entire game. Entering Saturday night’s game against Notre Dame, Towns has played in all 37 games for UK, and has averaged about 20.7 points per game. According to ESPN.com, he has connected on 128 of 232 shot attempts for 55 percent, 2 of 8 from beyond the arc, and 102 of 125 free throws. Towns is averaging 9.7 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.3 blocks, and 1.1 assists per game. Another former St. Joseph’s player that is enjoying a solid post-season run of his own is Temple’s Quenton DeCosey, who scored a game high 21 points on 7 of 11 shooting overall including 3 of 4 from three point land in a 77-59 victory over Louisiana Tech in the 2015 NIT Quarterfinals at the Liacouras Center in a game that was covered by GMC Hoops on Wednesday night.

DeCosey, who was teammates with Towns three years ago when the dynamic duo led St. Joseph’s to their first ever state crown and Tournament of Champions appearance, has helped lead an Owls squad to Madison Square Garden for a NIT semifinal matchup against Miami of Florida on Tuesday night. DeCosey, a Union Township native, has played in all 35 of Temple’s games including 33 starts. He is averaging 29.9 minutes, 12.2 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 2.2 assists per game. DeCosey is averaging just 37 percent shooting from the field overall this season, but has made 47 of 135 attempts from beyond the arc for just under 35 percent while also making 115 of 170 attempts from the foul line for 68 percent. For his career, DeCosey has played in 94 games including 64 starts, and averaged 25.2 minutes, 10.2 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 1.7 assists per game. He has connected on 324 of 832 shots overall for just under 39 percent including 113 of 333 from downtown for 34 percent, and 196 of 296 free throw attempts for 66 percent. So far this season, Temple, a member of the American Athletic Conference, is 26-10 overall including a 13-5 record in conference (3rd place finish behind SMU and Tulsa).

Another teammate of Towns that has made a home for himself in the SEC this past year was freshman, Wade Baldwin IV, who played at St. Joseph’s during his junior and senior years, and helped lead the Falcons to two more GMCT Championships, two NJSIAA T of C Finals appearances, and one T of C Championship. Now playing at Vanderbilt, Baldwin as well as Towns earned SEC Rookie of the Week honors during the course of the season, and are teammates on the 2015 SEC All Freshmen Team. Baldwin helped guide Vanderbilt to the quarterfinals of the 2015 NIT before losing on the road at Stanford (78-75) on Tuesday night. In that game, Baldwin made 2 of 3 attempts from three for 8 points while grabbing two rebounds, and handing out an assist. In the previous round, Baldwin turned in a tremendous performance in leading Vandy to a 92-77 victory over South Dakota State. Baldwin almost collected a triple-double with 20 points on 5 of 8 field goals including 2 of 3 from beyond the arc, and 8 of 10 from the foul line while pulling down 10 boards, handing out 9 assists, and swiping 2 steals. Baldwin also had 10 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 assists, in Vanderbilt’s 75-64 opening round victory over St. Mary’s.

Baldwin was 44th out of the Top 50 scorers in the SEC this past season. He played in 35 games including 24 starts, and averaged 28.8 minutes per game. He connected on 99 of 227 shots, or 43.6 percent including 43 of 98 from three point range for just under 44 percent. He also converted 85 of 106 free throws for 80 percent. Baldwin averaged 9.3 points per game, 4.4 assists per game, 4.1 rebounds per game, and 1.4 steals per game while compiling an assist to turnover ratio of 2.31. Vanderbilt finished the season at 21-14 overall including a 9-9 record in the SEC. Before suffering an injury at the end of the regular season, Rob Ukawuba had been a solid contributor to NJIT’s historic season in NCAA Men’s Division I basketball. This season, Ukawuba had played in 27 games with no starts. He averaged 18.9 minutes, 6.4 points, 3.5 rebounds, and just under an assist per game. He has connected on 61 of 116 shots overall from the floor including 16 of 37 from three point land, and made 36 of 55 from the charity stripe. In another game covered by GMC Hoops back on December 28th, Ukawuba collected 6 points on a perfect 3 of 3 shooting, 2 rebounds, an assist, and a blocked shot in a 76-71 loss at Lafayette.

Another former GMC player that performed well at the Division I level this past season was Amir Bell, a teammate of Ukawuba’s at East Brunswick, who just completed his freshman campaign at Princeton. The Tigers didn’t participate in the post-season after finishing 16-14 overall including a 9-5 mark in the Ivy League, which was good for a third place finish behind Harvard and Yale. The Yale Bulldogs were led by former Plainfield High standout, Justin Sears. Bell played and started in all 30 of Princeton’s games, and averaged just under 29 minutes per game, and made nearly half of his shots from the floor (89 of 180) including 13 of 45 from three, and netted 74 of 117 from the foul line. He collected an average of 8.8 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 2.6 assists per game with an assist to turnover ratio of 1.6. Not to be left out is former St. Joseph’s standout, Marques Townes, who got increased minutes as the season went along for an FDU team that finished 8-21.

After making some nice contributions in limited minutes in a game covered by GMC Hoops, a 69-60 loss at St. Peter’s on December 23rd, Townes turned in a career high effort in a victory over Towson on December 29th. In the 85-84 overtime victory over the Tigers of the Colonial Athletic Association, Townes made 7 of 13 overall from the floor and 4 of 8 from the line for 18 points in just 19 minutes. He then followed that up with a 16 point performance in a 73-67 victory at Central Connecticut State. Townes ended up scoring double figures five more times this past season, and had 9 double digit scoring games overall while averaging 9.1 points per game. The former Cardinal McCarrick and St. Joseph’s standout, played in 24 of FDU’s 29 games including two starts, and averaged 21.8 minutes per game, and made 88 of 167 shots for just under 53 percent including 12 of 41 from three point range. Townes also connected on 31 of 55 from the foul line while also averaging 3.3 rebounds, 1.6 steals, and 1.3 assists per game.