Off-Season Changes Around The GMC

December 10, 2012 Greg Machos Amboy Tech Hoops, Cardinal McCarrick Hoops, Carteret Hoops, Colonia Hoops, Dunellen Hoops, East Brunswick Hoops, East Brunswick Tech Hoops, Edison Hoops, General, Highland Park Hoops, J.F. Kennedy Hoops, J.P. Stevens Hoops, Metuchen Hoops, Middlesex Hoops, Monroe Hoops, New Brunswick Hoops, North Brunswick Hoops, Old Bridge Hoops, Perth Amboy Hoops, Piscataway Hoops, Piscataway Tech Hoops, Sayreville Hoops, South Amboy Hoops, South Brunswick Hoops, South Plainfield Hoops, South River Hoops, Spotswood Hoops, St. Joseph's Hoops, St. Thomas Aquinas Hoops, Timothy Christian Hoops, Wardlaw Hoops, Woodbridge Hoops 0

Some Schools, Coaches And Players Change Addresses

SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ–While GMC Hoops went on hiatus for much of the off-season, there were still a number of changes around the Greater Middlesex Conference.  There were players transferring, coaches taking over programs at different schools, and players making college commitments.  Below is a sampling of what occurred since St. Joseph’s played Plainfield in the T of C Semis and the GMCBCA Senior All-Star Game.

College Commitments

There have already been several notable college commitments involving players from the Greater Middlesex Conference.  Over the summer, East Brunswick’s Rob Ukawuba decided that he will be attending NJIT next year.  He will be joining a Highlanders team that is improving and competing in the Great West Conference.  Teammate and junior guard at EB, Amir Bell gave a verbal commitment to Princeton in late November. More recently, North Brunswick’s Iverson Fleming indicated that he is close to making a verbal commitment to Hofstra, and St. Joseph’s sophomore, Karl Towns, Jr. announced that not only is he going to attend Kentucky, but he also intends to graduate from St. Joe’s with the Class of 2014.

Familiar Faces In New Places

There was quite a bit of activity over the summer with players moving to new locations.  Most notable was over the summer when Cardinal McCarrick’s big three of Marques Townes (St. Joseph’s), Alonzo Hamilton (Linden), and Jonathan Rodriguez (Bound Brook) all left the school.  The three combined to average about 42 points per game for the Eagles last season.  

There were additional changes over at McCarrick as well.  Two reserves from last year’s varsity team, Anthony Manning (Sayreville) and Carlos Morales (Perth Amboy) also transferred.  The Eagles did have a couple players transfer in with Sky Harris (J.P. Stevens) and Jaquante Madden (St. Patrick’s).   Meanwhile, St. Joseph’s, which lost out on the Tyus Battle sweepstakes (the son of former Colonia 1,000 point scorer Gary Battle decided to attend Gill-St. Bernard’s), got another player coming in with Wade Baldwin from Immaculata.

Other players that were on the move this off-season were Will Joyce and Jalen Jackson, who both left Piscataway Tech.

Coaching Changes

There were several coaching changes around the Greater Middlesex Conference  during this off-season.  First and foremost, long time McCarrick head coach, Joe Lewis stepped down over the summer after 17 seasons.  Lewis is looking to spend more time with his family, and support his youngest son, who is a wrestler at Toms River North High School.  

Lewis won three Non-Public B South Championships (2003, 2005, and 2011), two GMCTs (2003 and 2008), and 11 division titles among three different divisions (Gold, Blue, and White).  The Eagles also made seven GMCT Final Four appearances between 2003 and 2012, and 11 GMCT Elite Eight appearances since 1998. Replacing Lewis at McCarrick is Eric Woroniecki, a graduate of Old Bridge High School, and a member of the Knights team that last to Trenton (54-40) in the 2003 Central Jersey Group IV Championship and also included Tim Lucas, Shawn Williams, Spencer Corbett, and Fichel Cuffy.

Other coaching changes included Piscataway where Guy Jensen stepped out at the end of last season.  He was replaced a couple months later by New Brunswick head coach Antoine Allen, who helped rebuild a Zebras team from a 1-19 squad in 2007-08 to two GMCT Elite Eight berths in his last three seasons at NBHS.  Jensen helped P-Way win GMCT titles in 2007 and 2009 as well as a North Jersey Section 2 Group IV championship and State Finals appearance in 2008.

Replacing Allen at New Brunswick was assistant coach Rory Levine.  In Woodbridge, Antoine Patterson, stepped down after four seasons at the school. He helped the Barrons qualify for the state tournament last season, and also coached two 1,000 point scorers at the school in Kyle Pearson (FDU) and Keith Hughes (Robinson School).  Taking over for Patterson at Woodbridge is former Monroe standout and assistant coach at MTHS and  St. Joseph’s, Matt Gigliello.

Gigliello graduated from Monroe in 2002 after helping the Falcons to earn a 10th seed in that year’s GMCT before losing to Highland Park in the round  of 16.  After playing college ball at Western New England College, Gigliello became an assistant and eventual JV coach at Monroe, where he guided the Junior Falcons to an East Brunswick JV Tourney title over Cardinal McCarrick in 2009 (70-66).   He then moved on to St. Joe’s in 2010, where he coached the Falcons freshmen program, and guided the St. Joseph’s Green team to a Perth Amboy Frosh tourney title in 2011 (defeated South Plainfield 54-41), and did a terrific job getting St. Joseph’s-White, a 20th seed in the 2012 Amboy tourney to the Final Four before losing to North Brunswick (38-35) in the semifinals, and to Monroe in the consolation.

Division Realignments

There were some changes in all four of the divisions this year for boys basketball.  Seven teams are in the Red,  Eight teams are in the White, Nine are in the Blue, and 7 in the Gold.   Moving down from the Red to the White was J.P. Stevens.  Moving down from the White to the Blue is South Plainfield, and moving up to the Blue from the Gold is two time division champion, Piscataway Tech.  Below are the list of teams again:

Red Division:  Colonia, East Brunswick, Old Bridge, Perth Amboy, Piscataway, South Brunswick and St. Joseph’s.

White Division:  Cardinal McCarrick, Edison, J.P. Stevens, Monroe, New Brunswick, North Brunswick, Sayreville, and Woodbrige.

Blue Division:  Bishop Ahr, Carteret, Highland Park, J.F. Kennedy, Metuchen, Middlesex, Piscataway Tech, South Plainfield, and Spotswood.

Gold Division:  Dunellen, East Brunswick Tech, Perth Amboy Tech, South Amboy, South River, Timothy Christian, and Wardlaw.