I’m taking a bit of a break from work the next couple days, which, unfortunately, means I’ll miss Saturday’s quarterfinals in the CHSAA. I’ll be somewhere on a mountain in the snow, putting myself in dangerous spots like this and trying to escape without hurting myself.
Seven local Catholic schools remain in the “A” and “B” intersectional quarterfinals, but only two will meet: Stepinac and Fordham. The winner will likely play Mount St. Michael on Tuesday at Spellman in what will be the area’s biggest non-Section 1 game of the season.
Before then, let’s take a peek — and a stab — at this weekend’s matchups:
SATURDAY
“A” Intersectional Playoffs
At Mount St. Michael, Bronx:
Mount St. Michael vs. Monsignor McClancy, 11 a.m. — Despite being the top seed from the toughest league and the team most deserving of a top seed, Mount earned a very tough playoff draw. Yes, the Mount earned a bye into this round, but McClancy is a relatively challenging opponent. Although Mount won the only head to head meeting 77-54, that was back on Dec. 7. This should be closer. McClancy has improved, winning eight of its last 11, but still won’t be on the level of Mount, the tournament favorite. The backcourt of Peter Aguilar, Malik Gill and Clarence White are too athletic and tough. The pick? Mount 71, McClancy 59
Stepinac vs. Fordham Prep, 3 p.m. — Stepinac’s season has been remarkable in a sense. When the Crusaders win, they win in bunches. But same goes when they lose. In fact, they haven’t won fewer than two straight or lost fewer than two straight all season. Everything’s a streak. Well, Stepinac seems to be on one of its good runs lately thanks to the improved play and leadership from its seniors. It also already has a 55-49 win at Fordham that came during a six-game winning streak in mid-January. Something tells me Stepinac’s season will be defined, good or bad, by its third meeting with Mount, and that’ll come Tuesday. This may be ugly, but every win looks beautiful this time of year. The pick? Stepinac 59, Fordham 52
Iona Prep vs. St. Edmund’s, 6 p.m. — Don’t let the seeds fool you. Yes, Iona is the fourth seed out of A-North and St. Edmund’s is the top seed out of A-South, but they were locked in a 57-55 game back on Jan. 2, a game where Edmund’s prevailed. But the Brooklyn-based school is just 7-6 since, while Iona, despite its record, has absolutely improved. This game is basically a toss-up, but I think Iona’s tougher schedule has prepared it to advance. The pick? Iona Prep 51, St. Edmund’s 50
“B” Intersectional Playoffs
At Salesian, New Rochelle:
Salesian vs. Cathedral, 12 p.m. — The pick? This one’s easy. Salesian hasn’t lost a game to a CHSAA B team all season. The Eagles won their two head to head meetings with Cathedral by a combined 70 points. Something tells me it won’t be “third time’s a charm” for Cathedral. The pick? Salesian 74, Cathedral 40
Blessed Sacrament vs. St. Agnes, 1:30 p.m. — It’s been a difficult season for the Cardinals, who have won just twice in 2011. One of their losses came to St. Agnes, 58-51, on Feb. 16. It will have been 10 days ago, but it was the last game for both teams. Hard to believe anything will change, right? The pick? St. Agnes 66, Blessed Sacrament 60
Sacred Heart vs. Monsignor Scanlan, 4:45 p.m. — Two teams in the B division would be co-contenders for the championship if it weren’t for defending champ Salesian. Nazareth would be one, but Sacred Heart would be the other. The Irish, which beat Edgemont, Saunders, Tuckahoe and Gorton and lost close games to Blind Brook and Rye, have impressed more than one Section 1 coach, especially dynamic guard D’Andre McPhatter. The senior and his Sacred Heart team has also beat Scanlan twice, winning by 21 and 27 points. Same goes, here. The pick? Sacred Heart 66, Scanlan 40
8 Comments
1pm Saturday at mount st.m. championship between rice vs. St rays that’s a good game
Yeah, haywood, that should be a good one. Wish I could be there. I could be wrong, and I don’t mean to be disrespectful to either team, but aren’t they both maybe a notch or 2 below what they’ve been in the past?
Past as in last 2-3 years? Not completely. NYC as a whole has dropped a lot in the last 3-4 years due to the high amount of kids fleeing for prep schools and basketball factories.
The CHSAA has also lost some of its luster with the advent of the PSAL’s you can go to whatever school you please rule, therefore Lincoln, Boys and Girls, etc have the ability to get whoever they want just like the CHSAA’s do and some of the kids are staying home. It’s not just the CHSAA that gets the love anymore.
The amount of talent that grows up in the city is amazing as usual, but mainstream fans don’t even know the kids anymore.
I consider myself a pretty in depth follower of NYC hoops, and I had no idea that Momo Jones and Kevin Parrom were at Arizona because I lost track of them when they left for South Kent and Oak Hill.
That one class had some many dynamite players in it. I remember when they were freshmen.
P.S. I’m pretty sure that game at Mount is just the diocesan championship which is a really stupid tournament. My opinion. It forces someone to beat their rivals usually twice within a week or so just to get out of the city.
Twitter do you really feel the city as a whole is down the past 3-4 years? Or just the Catholics? The public schools are not down. They are way up. If we are going back to 2007, that includes Lance Stephensons Lincoln teams. His 2008 team was one of the best in a long, long time. Furthermore since 2007 a NYC team has been the Federation champ. I can’t see that as being down. And if the Catholics are getting depleted due to the NYC new rule, wouldn’t that strengthen the NYC scene? Which essentially just balances the basketball area?
You are right in that guys like Parrom, Momo, Harkins, Jack etc are leaving for prep but the core product is still up. Yes the whole city isn’t great. It is mostly Brooklyn schools, but it pretty much has always been that way. Yes there are exceptions(like Truman back in the day with Arnold Bernard) but the Boys, Lincoln type schools were always top notch.
I am just trying to get an idea of how far you go back and to when you feel NYC was at its strongest. I go back to the 80’s and have continued to follow NYC scene. The Catholics are def. down if you compare it to the early 2000’s Cook, Barrett, Saterfield, Fields, the list can go on and on…
HRs and Twitter,
You guys will thank me – http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/high_school/basketball/best_nyc_class_of_last_years_5GZ4snU9HCcUpmOxHwXlCM
Article in the Post about the best class of HS players in NYC over the past 25 years – 1990. The CHSAA had 4 McDonalds All Americans that year – Brian Reese (Tolentine/UNC natl champ), Khalid Reeves (CTK/Arizona/lottery pick), Derrick Phelps (CTK/UNC natl champ/NBA) and Adrian Autry (Tolentine/Syracuse). Jamal Mashburn was the POY in NYS, led Hayes to the CHSAA title, yet didn’t even make the McD’s game. Derrick Phelps – a McD’s AA – didn’t even make first team All-CHSAA – Robert Phelps (Nazareth/Providence) got the 5th spot!!! Tom Konchalski had 7 of the top 25 kids in America from NYC/CHSAA – the 7th was Anthony Cade was transferred from Tolentine to Oak Hill. Around the league there were also guys like Shawnelle Scott at All Hallows who went on to be a star at St Johns and played in the NBA for years. The year before, 1989, probably the greatest HS guard ever out of NYC Kenny Anderson came out of Molloy. In ‘88, Malik Sealy led Tolentine to the national championship.
So yes, is the city and CHSAA down compared to 1990 or 2000 (3 McD’s AA’s – Omar Cook/CTK/SJU/NBA, Andre Barrett Rice/Seton Hall/NBA and Taliek Brown St Johns Prep/UCONN natl chip. However, don’t have a short memory, last year the CHSAA had the 3 best teams in the city hands down – Rice, CTK and Loughlin – all of which were ranked in the national Top 25 at some point. Pinkston from Loughlin was a McD’s AA. Boys won the PSAL title yet had lost to the top 3 CHSAA teams. The CHSAA might be down this year, but it was still top notch last year and looks to be good again next year with the two big time forwards from St Rays, Omar Calhoun from CTK, etc, coming back.
Hoops great info. I saw every one of those names mentioned play live. We have said it before on this blog, but that Tolentine team with Autry and Reese was probably the best team ever. Gompers won the Feds in 85. Within two years I was up there again. They wound up losing to CTK with Jamal Faulkner. How crazy is it that CTK was considered a B team back then. Chris Brooks would have been with all these names had he not went to oak hill. Not a plug for my father, it is fact. Kid got worse once he left the city.
That Our Sav. Lutheran team had a little point guard who flew under the radar his entire high school career. His name was Danny Terrio(I think that is how you spell it). This kid was so fun to watch.
I still tend to think the Publics are a little better right now, but could be proven wrong next year. Anyway, good info Hoops.
HRs,
I remember all the guys from ‘90 as well – all amazing players. Great memories.
If your point is that the top teams in the PSAL are better than the top teams in the CHSAA this year – you might have a point, though that has yet to be determined. Boys has fallen off with Taylor suspended and they’re just generally so undisciplined, its hard to bet on them. Lincoln beat St Rays by 11 a couple weeks ago. Lincoln is a good bet to win the PSAL. I don’t think St Rays comes out of the CHSAA – I think it looks like CTK is the favorite. If your argument is last year the PSAL was better as well, I couldn’t disagree more. Boys won the PSAL, while all three top CHSAA teams beat Boys – Rice, CTK and Loughlin. Next year remains to be seen. Rice has some young players this year, CTK returns the best player in the city Omar Calhoun, St Rays returns everyone. Loughlin even has 3 or 4 freshmen this year who played serious varsity minutes this year and made a nice run in the Diocesan playoffs
Hoops. My point was this year in terms of CHSAA vs Public. As a whole my point was that NYC isn’t down the past 304 years as mentioned above. The past 4 years all Fed champs came out of NYC, it cant be down.
On to the next thing, did the vote for the top 25 HS players happen yet? where can we vote?
Lets throw some names out. Off the bat the following need to be considered(aside from the ones mentioned in the article)
Lloyd Daniels
Pearl Washington
Boo Harvey
Kenny Anderson
Stephan Marbury
Sebastian Telfair
Felipe Lopez
Lamar Odom
Carlton Screen
Arnold Bernard
Lance Stephenson