MARTINSVILLE, NJ–About a month ago, GMC Hoops made a trip up to The Pingry School at the urging of a friend to watch The Big Blue take on Newark Academy in a matchup of two teams in the Hills Division of the Colonial Hills Conference. One player was the focus of this visit, and that was Pingry’s Jeff Tannenbaum.
You may recall Tannenbaum from our coverage of the 2007 Bound Brook Summer League last summer. In that league, Tannenbaum was the leading scorer as well as one of the top three point shooters. As a sophomore, and under the direction of former Bridgewater-Raritan West standout, Eric Murdock, who enjoyed a good career in the NBA after attending Providence College in the late 1980s, Tannenbaum led a Pingry Squad to the 2005 Brearley Bear Tournament Championship over Highland Park, which had current McCarrick standout, Mike Burwell on the squad. The Somerset County school eventually went on to finish at 19-6 overall, and lost to Paramus Catholic in the 2006 NJSIAA Non-Public A North bracket’s Quarterfinal round.
Murdock left before last season, and The Big Blue suffered through a subpar season. However, in 2007-08, Jason Murdock, the cousin of Eric, and served as an assistant on the team two years ago, returned to be the head coach after spending one season at New Brunswick. The team has fared better under the younger Murdock’s direction with a 13-11 record overall, and a berth in the Non-Public A North bracket against Delbarton in the first round that begins next week. Although, Tannenbaum only scored six points in the tough loss to Newark Academy, he has been amongst the top on the team in almost every statistical category.
According to the most recently compiled statistics on MaxPreps.com, Tannenbaum has accumulated the following numbers:
- Total Points Scored: 368 (leads team)
- Points Per Game: 16.0 (leads team)
- Two Point FG %: 43 (97 of 226)
- Three Point FG %: 45 (33 of 74)
- Free Throw %: 70 (75 of 107)
- Total Rebounds: 82 (third on team)
- Rebounds Per Game: 3.6 (third on team)
- Total Assists: 66 (leads team)
- Assists Per Game: 2.9 (leads team)
- Total Steals: 42 (leads team)
- Steals Per Game: 1.8 (leads team)
- Total Blocks: 14 (leads team)
- Blocks Per Game: 0.6 (leads team)
- Turnovers: 42
- Assist To Turnover Ratio: 1.6 (leads team)
Aside from these numbers for this season, Tannenbaum, who played very well in a game covered by GMC Hoops back in December against Highland Park in the Consolation Game of the 2007 Brearley Bear Tournament, also recently became the all time leading scorer at the school with over 1,400 career points. A disciple of Mike “SHOTMAN” Lanza, Tannenbaum has also excelled off the court in the classroom, where he has an A/A- average, and an SAT score that measures 1450 with the old standard, and 2150 with the new standard that includes an essay portion. He has taken a number of Advanced Placement courses including English, Spanish, Economics, and Calculus. His top three college choices are Division II Skidmore, Division III Wesleyan, and Albright.
After the game, I had a chance to talk with Jeff quite a bit, and it was a real joy to talk to him. We talked about a variety of topics including Basketball, Calculus, Spanish, and College. He is a very bright young man, and even if basketball doesn’t work out for him, he will still be ok thanks to his fine intellect.