Posted By Tim McCollum
Some tidbits before I get to this week’s top 10.
First some messages for my fellow bloggers out there….
To the ShoreScout, anyone who gets to more games than I do is a friend of mine. Someday soon we need a hoop junkie convergence. The only thing that would have been better at the Boardwalk Classic is three more games, and three more pizzas.
I’ve seen many people ripping Tiny Green’s blog because he talks about “his favorites”. Really? Aren’t we all fans? As fans, don’t we by definition all have our favorites? Some of us talk about our favorites in a blog like this one, or “Talking with Tiny”. Some of us post about them in a forum.
Where is the difference?
Nothing drastically surprised me with the outcome of the CBA / St. Anthony’s game yesterday. There is a big difference between playing a team with a boatload of talent that doesn’t know how to play your game (Lincoln, NYC) and a team with a boatload of talent, who does (St. Anthony).
I wasn’t surprised at all to see that CBA played well and trailed by only 3 points at halftime. The problem is Coach Hurley is a master of adjustments and knew what exactly the buttons to press and his team is smart enough to carry out the gameplan. Believe me when I say I’ve seen his teams do that to my club on many occasions.
As Matt McMullen said in our game story, they are Lincoln with 100 times better coaching. I’ll give Lincoln’s coach a little more credit but point well taken. BTW Mr. McMullen, no one likes to lose a ballgame but there is no shame to losing to the #2 team in the country. Pick your head up. You can lose a basketball game and walk off the floor a winner.
By the way Mr. Hurley, the shore conference is in CENTRAL Jersey.
Speaking of another kid who showed wisdom beyond his years this week. Everyone makes a big deal about rankings. They are really nothing more than someone’s opinion. If everyone who made a ranking was always right the rankings would never change. If a team never improved they would never move up in a ranking.
Earlier in the week a read a game story about Raritan. I’m going to paraphrase a quote from one of the kids in the game story. He said that he thought they had the best team but that it was simply an honor to be included in the top 4 of the rankings, that they don’t pay too much attention to them, and if they get the opportunity to play other highly regarded teams he hopes they will have an opportunity to show the fans how good they are.
Wow. What a refreshing perspective. Confident without even a shred of cockiness and very wise. I found it to be a very impressive statement.
Is there any team more underrated than Shore Regional? They took the above-mentioned Raritan to the wire the other night and missed a three pointer that would have won the game at the buzzer. Shore plays you tough, with outstanding defense and Hoffman is one of the best players you’ve never heard of.
Speaking of underrated players, Wall’s Kyle Janeczek is 3 points shy of 1,000 for his career. I’m going to assume he’s gonna get there soon.
Another underrated team is Manalapan. I saw CBA barely scrape by and I thought it was the post upset hangover that affects many teams. Then I saw North barely scrape by them in the same week and said wow, you really need to be careful when you go into their building. I suggest keeping an eye on their SCT matchup. Manalapan looks like a team that will give a higher seed a nightmare game in the first round.
I had a bit of a deja vu moment this week after watching a Seaman and Calandrillo back door my Fliers to death. All we needed was a Tripucka, a Wheeler, and a Bradley and we could have had an all ex-JSBL offspring team.
Speaking of Neptune everything that I was complaining they lacked in the RBC loss was evident yesterday against Trenton.
While I’m snowed in this week I’ll try compile one of my bubble watch posts as the SCT cutoff is coming up in two weeks.
Now for my top 10.
#1 Lakewood: How good has Tony Walker been this season? I’ve seen a couple early All Shore teams and Walker and not Davis is on the first team. Speaking of Davis, Coach Holmes was accurate and the residency was a non-issue. Here’s to hoping a good rest of the way for my rival Piners.
#2 Middletown North: A quiet week after the Lakewood loss albeit with the aforementioned scare from Manalapan.
#3 CBA: The showing the first half against St. Anthony’s is commendable. It takes great basketball to hang with the Friars for one minute, let alone 16. Unfortunately the outcome is as inevitable as the tidal wave that will hit on Hawaii Five-Oh tonight.
#4 Raritan: You are right Raritan. It is great to be thought of in the select company that you are in. I watch the guard play in every box score. Furlong and the other snipers appear to be the perfect complement to the big stud in the middle. They are right again in that I REALLY want to see how they measure with a deep SCT and NJSIAA run.
#5 St Rose: A little consistency is required. I completed disregarded what Asbury did without Dickerson, what Pt Beach did without Reischel and now what St Rose did without Kukoda. It would be nice guys to see this B Central race to be settled with 100% of the teams on the floor please. Am I asking too much? Given the loss from Asbury and just about everyone else in the 2nd half of my top 10 I’ve got no choice but give a little B Central love to the Roses.
#6 Pt Beach: The interchangeable bottom of the top 10 continues as the Beach survives their way up the poll this week.
#7 RBC: I was all set to make them debut at #9 until the Bishops lost to Red Bank, the Dawgs lost to Academy Charter, and the Griffs lost to Point Boro. Welcome to the party guys.
#8 Asbury Park: It’s hard to argue the home court advantage issue when you lay an egg against Red Bank when you leave the comfy confines of your gym. This is a somewhat benefit of the doubt positioning of Asbury.
#9 Neptune: As bad as they looked against RBC they looked as good against Trenton. Tough sledding this week (pun intended) when they (hopefully) take on Colts Neck this Thursday.
#10 MonDon: Why not Point Boro who just beat them? This is a body of work pick. The Griffs are on thin ice while the Panthers tend to get the snowball effect once they get rolling. Oh yeah, I’m ready to shovel more snow.
On the bubble:
Point Boro – another signature win is needed.
Jackson Memorial — won the battle of the Memorials they deserve more love but who do I remove?
Colts Neck — will leap back into the top 10 with a win this week at Neptune.
