By Scott Stump – Senior Editor
OK, with a couple of big regular-season games still out there on
Friday and Saturday that will affect the Shore Conference Tournament
seedings on Sunday, I’ll take a quick swipe at mock SCT seeds heading
into Friday’s action and then a pile of other stuff from this past few
days of games and the state tournament.
Also, if you’re looking for a good nonconference game tonight if you’re not venturing down to Ocean County to Central to watch it take on Monsignor Donovan, Salem, the top seed in South Jersey Group I, is coming to No. 1 Neptune at 7 p.m.
First things first – here is the SCT schedule: The seeding meeting is Feb. 10 at Rumson.
The
first round is on Wed., Feb. 13 at the site of the higher-seeded teams
unless a team is an outright division champion, then that team gets a home game even if it is seeded lower than its opponent. Second-round games will be
played on Feb. 15 at the higher seeds. All four quarterfinals are Feb.
17 at Brookdale starting at 11
a.m.
Semifinals are at the Ritacco Center on Feb. 21 at 6 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. The final will at the Ritacco Center on Feb. 23.
The seeding committee consists of Brian Golub (Freehold Twp., Class
A North); Dave Emery (St. John Vianney, Class A Central); John
MacIntosh (Toms River South, Class A South); Ken O’Donnell (Neptune,
Class B North); Dennis Devaney (St. Rose, Class B Central); and Kevin
Hynes (Point Boro, Class B South). The tournament director is Gerry
Matthews, who I can already hear jokingly and sarcastically saying,
“Well, the media already seeded this **** thing, so why should we bother?”
I’m not going to seed every team just yet because we don’t know
everyone who is in, but I’ll try the top 18, which is still fairly
impossible. Just to let everyone in a little bit on the process, teams are pre-seeded based on their best wins, committee opinions, division titles, etc. Then, if a team is pre-seeded behind a team that it beat head-to-head, that team’s delegate can challenge to jump the team pre-seeded ahead of it. The delegates then take a vote as to whether that team can jump up a seed.
Mock SCT seeds heading into Friday’s games.
1. Neptune: This one is pretty much in stone, regardless of what happens against Salem tonight, unless Lakewood does a Villanova-Georgetown on Saturday.
2. Monsignor Donovan: The Griffins lock this one up with a win over
Central on Friday night. A loss to the Golden Eagles would really shake
things up. Their best wins are over Monmouth and Freehold Township, and they lost 69-66 to No. 1 Neptune. Big game alert: at Central on Friday night.
3. Freehold Township: I know I have Christian Brothers Academy
ranked third in my rankings, but I think the Patriots might get the nod
here. This one is going to be like splitting hairs because CBA and
Freehold Twp. tied for the overall Class A North title. Usually when teams are really even like this, the team that won the most recent meeting between the two gets the higher seed, and that would be Freehold Township, which beat CBA on a tip-in by Chris Ballester at the regulation buzzer in their last meeting. There will be a fight for this seed because if everything holds true, teams don’t want to have to see Neptune until the final in hopes that someone else might pick the Scarlet Fliers off. This also means that there could be a rematch in the semifinals of Thursday night’s overtime thriller that Mon Don won 59-53 over the Patriots.
4. CBA: This team has been kind of lurking in the shadows for the past week or so, but should be ready to go come tournament time. The Colts have wins over Freehold Township, Monmouth, Middletown South and Colts Neck to help bolster their case. A Neptune-CBA semifinal would be a rematch of the Holiday Jubilee Tournament final that Neptune won.
5. Monmouth: This is where we’ll find out just how much respect Class A North will get from the committee because Middletown South and Colts Neck could also argue for this position. Monmouth has won 13 of 14 games heading into Friday and boasts wins over Colts Neck and Asbury Park, so we’ll see if that’s enough to overcome the bloc of Class A North teams. If it shakes out this way, Monmouth would meet CBA for the second time after losing to the Colts in an opening-round game of the Holiday Jubilee Tournament.
6. Colts Neck: The Cougars have plenty of quality wins to lean on, but Monmouth’s head-to-head win over them should be enough for the Falcons to claim the No. 5 seed. Colts Neck has beaten CBA, Freehold Township, and Middletown South, including wins over the Patriots and Eagles in just over a week that dramatically rocketed them back into a high seed.
7. Middletown South: The Eagles continue to rise, having already won 18 games after winning 13 last season. They have wins over CBA, Colts Neck, Rumson-FH and Class A South champion Toms River North.
8. Asbury Park: The Class B Central champs should get this seed because I think the team that would challenge them for this seed is Manasquan. Asbury Park beat Manasquan, 55-51, on Thursday, and the Blue Bishops’ only other loss to a Shore Conference team this season is to Monmouth.
9. Manasquan: The Class A Central champs have a win over Red Bank and two wins over Rumson-Fair Haven. I could see teams with bigger quality wins making a run at this seed, so this one is definitely not firm. It just seems like the Warriors slipped up less than the other teams jockeying for this spot. If these seeds happen, the Warriors could get a rematch with the Blue Bishops in the Round of 16. Big game alert: Saturday at home at 2:30 p.m. vs. St. Rose.
10. Red Bank: OK, OK, here’s where we really get into the meat of the madness. The Bucs will hang their hats on a win over
Manasquan and, despite splitting with Rumson-FH, they have a win over
the Bulldogs in their most recent meeting. They also knocked off fellow
qualifier Shore last Saturday. They also have a loss to SCT
non-qualifier Holmdel on their record. We’ll see if nonconference wins
over Peddie and South Brunswick can lock the Bucs in as the 10th seed
over a Central team that boasts a win over No. 2 Monsignor Donovan.
11. Central: Central has wins over No. 2 Monsignor Donovan and Freehold, but also losses to St. Rose and Toms River North, which will argue to be higher, as well as SCT non-qualifier Barnegat. They have won six straight heading into Friday night’s rematch with Monsignor Donovan. That initial win over the Griffins might be enough to propel them to this spot, and another win would put them much higher, but losses to some non-SCT qualifiers could also sink them a little bit. It’s hard to tell. I could see Central getting anywhere between this seed all the way down to 13 or 14. It’s anyone’s guess at this point. Big game alert: at home against Monsignor Donovan on Friday night.
12. Rumson-FH: Wins over Red Bank and Freehold and also one over Shore will be the ones that the Bulldogs will be using as ammunition for their case, but by this point, the arguments could be all over the place for numerous teams.
13. Freehold: The Colonials have not played well lately, with a loss to non-SCT qualifier Southern recently, but if you look at their whole body of work, they have wins over No. 1 Neptune and No. 5 Monmouth, which are better than any of the other teams below them. It also means that they could get a seed as high as possibly No. 10 or so based on those wins. However, they could also take a hit for losses to Central, Southern, Shore and Rumson.
14. Toms River North: The Class A South champions’ best win is a victory over Central from the WOBM Classic, which they could use to try and pass the Golden Eagles, but losses to Brick, Ocean and Toms River South could hurt.
15. St. Rose: The Purple Roses split with Keyport, losing the most recent game, but I think their additional quality win over Central from the WOBM Classic consolations might be able to propel them ahead of the Red Raiders. Big game alert: Saturday on the road at Manasquan at 2:30 p.m.
16. Keyport: Shore has a win over Freehold, but I think the Red Raiders get the nod here because they beat Shore twice head-to-head in Class B Central. Keyport’s best win is a triple-overtime thriller over St. Rose. Big game alert: at Point Boro, 11:15 a.m. on Saturday. Point Boro has to have this game to get in.
17. Shore: The Blue Devils have been up and down, but they have a win over Freehold, which is better than any other team left on the board at this point.
18. Toms River South: Their best win is over Toms River North, which should help them here.
From here on out, you’re looking mostly at teams fighting to get in this weekend.
STATE BRACKET THOUGHTS
First off, you can check out the NJSIAA brackets here if you haven’t seen them yet.
Just a few quick-hitters off of initial impressions:
- The most hyped first-round game will clearly be CBA at Mon Don in the Non-Public South A first round. These teams have battled in the SCT and state playoffs the past few seasons, and the place is always jammed way before tip-off. The winner of this has a chance to win the overall Non-Public A title, although top-seeded Holy Spirit and others won’t make it easy to get out of the section.
- I think a healthy St. Rose team can at least make the Non-Public South B final, and I would love to get a glimpse of Cardinal McCarrick and its two big scorers, Mike Burwell and Vince Rosario.
- The sleeper in Central Jersey Group IV is Colts Neck. Can the Cougars take out Trenton on the road? If not, a Trenton-Freehold Township final would be fun given that the Patriots spiced things up by beating Trenton for the first time in school history in an earlier round in last season’s state tournament.
- Central Jersey Group III is the juiciest local bracket, and I think Neptune is hoping Middletown South might do some of the dirty work and take out Freehold and Monmouth on the other side of the bracket before the final. If Freehold or Monmouth advances along with Neptune, it could be an all-Class B North affair for the title. Monmouth is the defending champion in this section as well.
- If Shore advances to the second round to see Manasquan, I could see the Blue Devils being a tough out for the Warriors. Then they have to get past Weequahic. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Rumson-Fair Haven make a little noise in this bracket as well, although a potential 26-hour bus ride to Delaware Valley for a second-round game might make things tough.
- I like this Central Jersey Group I bracket. A potential Keyport-Academy Charter semifinal with Asbury Park at Middlesex potentially in another semifinal. I would love to see Asbury Park vs. Keyport in a Class B Central showdown or, really, Asbury Park vs. Academy Charter. There is a big rivalry between Academy Charter and the Blue Bishops, as a lot of Asbury residents attend Academy Charter.
- In South Jersey Group IV, Toms River North has a shot to at least make the semifinals against perennial power Atlantic City or Vineland, and then see if it can pull the upset.
- In South Jersey Group III, I’d like Central better if they didn’t have to see top-seeded Hammonton in the second round with a win, but the Golden Eagles are dangerous and could pull a stunner.
AROUND THE RIM
I’m interested to hear what everyone’s take is on teams picking up games to try and qualify for state and Shore Conference tournaments. I’m not a big fan of it. I know you want to badly get into the postseason, but I’m of the opinion that if you couldn’t get it done against the schedule you were given, you don’t deserve to be in. I could see if a game got snowed out or some other unforeseen circumstance canceled a game, but other than that, you play your schedule and you either get in or you don’t.
Here’s a few more quick observations from this past week:
- While it’s not hard to tell why St. Anthony is so ridiculously good (defense and an unreal set of guards), here are a few telling things. They have the 6-foot-7 son of an NBA player, senior Madute Bol (son of former NBA curiosity Manute Bol, the best 7-foot-7 3-pointer shooter ever), and a player committed to Fordham (Alberto Eastwick) and neither of them really sees any real minutes until garbage time. Also, legendary coach Bob Hurley Sr. rarely yelled in either the CBA or Mon Don games that I saw, and he is a perfectionist that is often right in the face of any player who messes up. That means that they are playing nearly flawlessly, and I certainly agree with that.
- Freehold Township point guard Tyler McKinnon is the type of player who can be indispensable in tournaments. He can get by just about anyone in the Shore and make something out of nothing, which is huge when time is winding down late in big games.
- I like the guts by Freehold Township and Mon Don scheduling that game before the seeding. I’d love to see more of that.
- No team needs a rest and a bye in the SCT more than Monsignor Donovan. What a seven-day stretch. Neptune, St. Anthony, Lakewood, Freehold Township and Central. Their shots were a little off on Thursday night against Freehold Township, but luckily Kyle Milana and Tom Carter are lethal weak-side rebounders on the offensive glass. Now as for those free throws….”We just have to focus more and get it done,” Milana said before smiling after Thursday’s game.
- Middletown South has its band play in between timeouts and quarters. Any band that can play the intro from a Dr. Dre song during a timeout is more than OK with me.
- Even though Brick is out of it, you’ve got to admire the resilence of the Green Dragons. They knocked Brick Memorial out of a state playoff berth last week, then stunned Toms River North this week. Great job by Tim Reddan and Co.
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