Random Ravings

Posted by Tim McCollum

follow me on twitter @nep84s

For those of you who may be new to the ShoreLine I like to post my top 10 on Sundays for a couple reasons. It’s usually a nice quiet afternoon after Church with no basketball to disrupt the rankings. The risk of doing the top 10 during any of the other days you risk basketball Armageddon forcing it to be ripped up before it even hits
the website.

Take yesterday for example. If you’ve been following along I figured A North to be a bit topsy turvy this year with the fun starting last night. I’m glad to see these kids making me look smart this is ridiculous.

I’ve had a hunch about Manalapan for awhile now. I had them in my top 10 first. I had a funny feeling North was heading into a rough night going to the ‘pan for their A North opener. So I’m not very surprised the Braves scored the upset. Great win for this program.

So I picked Raritan #1, they lose to Freehold. Then I pick North #1, they lose to Manalapan, and every else’s #1 Neptune loses to Lakewood.

I would much rather have a nice a stable top 10 where I could just punch in the team names and there we go. Wouldn’t you? This is no fun
at all right?

NOT!

I think the last time CBA was 0-2 Grover Cleveland was president. This is very rare because typically a Shore team has another shore team in one of their first two games. Since CBA rarely loses to shore teams, they rarely go 0-2.

Even if this isn’t your run of the mill CBA juggernaut the effort by the Patriots cannot go unnoticed. In consecutive games now they’ve knocked off last year’s Shore Conference champion returning the conference POY and one of the conference’s prouder programs.

That a pretty good week’s work. Good job Coach Golub and the kids out there.

Yeah I think A North will be fun this year with — get this –Freehold and Manalapan with the early advantage, and North and CBA playing catch up. You think it was odd reading this it wasn’t an easier typing it.

So who is #1 now anyway? It has to be either Colts Neck or Asbury.

Asbury finally played a game and knocked off the Roses 65-60 at the Bishop Den. I call it a den because the gym is about as big (or should I say small) as the den in my house. Two important takeaways in this game; Asbury is going to be a pain in the neck all season again this year; and this was a very solid outing for the Roses.

This time of the year is when I learn a lot about these teams. I underrated the Roses this year.

As much as I underrated the Roses I appear to have overrated the Rockets.

While this is a great win for Shore Regional, I’m really starting to get concerned about Raritan. I hope they turn things around and make another run with Aaman. What this also does is make the 30 point win by Manalapan over Shore a little bit more impressive.

I wonder when the last time Manalapan won A North in basketball. I know they didn’t with Omar a few years ago (I’m not talking about this goofy “public” championship). This could be their year.

Two other quick rants….

I would love to see Neptune play Long Branch today. But 3:45???? Really???? Give a junkie a chance! Boo!

It’s not like I’m missing a chance to visit Long Branch high school because I will be there all day next month for the Battle on the Boardwalk.

Yeah you heard me right. The NCAA in their infinite wisdom decided that in order to protect precious little children from the fact that the NCAA is in fact a foreign syndicate (a little Charlie Brown Christmas reference for those of you not awake yet) the showcase shouldn’t be staged at the beautiful MAC right in the heart of the
conference.  God forbid they should actually run into a college coach or two. Naaah that wouldn’t be exciting at all.

Don’t get me wrong. Long Branch has a sweet new gym. But it ain’t the MAC. I was reading another blog where the blogger let the NCAA off the hook. I say Humbug! This decision calls for the NCAA to be boiled in their own pudding with a stake of holly through their hearts.

It makes absolutely no sense to deny a kid a chance to say to his kids, I played here a long time ago….

Well at least it’s still on …. The ShoreLine.

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