The BCANY Summer Hoops Festival kicks off tonight in Johnson City and the Hudson Valley boys team will vie with nine other teams for gold.
The team completed its three-day minicamp last night at Croton-Harmon High School. It will head north today without its top player — Dobbs Ferry’s Eric Paschall will miss the event with a knee injury — but believes the parts remain in place to compete.
Coach Bill Thom said this team reminds him of the teams he coached at the Empire State Games — aggressive and balanced with interchangeable parts. Half of the players on the roster — Eastchester’s Jack Daly, Pleasantville’s Jack Eisenberg, Kennedy’s Mike DeMello (pictured above) Croton’s Ian Thom, Somers’ John Decker and Panas’ Vaughn Dweck — play point guard at the varsity level. And forwards like Mahopac’s Brendan Hynes, Pearl River’s Kevin Degnan (pictured right) and North Salem’s Umar Singh are all skilled enough to play on the wing.
The 6-foot-7 Degnan has been a revelation to coaches this summer because of his size and skill. He anchors a strong group of juniors along with DeMello and Daly that could’ve very easily included Paschall as well.
The team’s weakness could be its lack of size up front. Degnan, Singh and Briarcliff’s Brian Daniels are the only players 6-foot-5 or taller, but Hudson Valley hopes to use speed and its depth and balance as an advantage.
Here’s a look at my story from today on both the boys and girls teams.
You can also find the rosters for all the teams here. Iona Prep guard Isiah Ice will play for the New York City team.
The Hudson Valley boys play their first game at 7:45 p.m. tonight against Rochester (Section 5). They play two on Saturday and at least one on Sunday.
Degnan will participate in Saturday’s Slam Dunk contest. Degnan and DeMello were selected for the 3-point competition after winning a shootout Thursday at practice.
I’ll post updates throughout the weekend.
26 Comments
I WISH THEM WELL,2 WINS WILL BE A GOOD JOB,IF YOU ARE PUTTING TO MUCH PRESSURE ON THE 3 POINT SHOT TO WIN,YOU ARE ROLLING DICE,WATCHOUT FOR “SNAKE EYES”
Wood… I told you about the kid from PR earlier. And you also know I am not a homer. He will be one of if not the best player in the Rockland county this year and next. And will be a top kid in all of Section 1. Hasn’t been a kid with that size, shooting touch and athleticism at PR in a long time. Luke was 5-6 inches shorter than him. He is a legit 6 7. He gets a killer instinct…watch out.
If Degnan could play with his back to the basket he would be a monster. He’s got a pretty decent stroke, but often is content on jacking a 3. He obviously must have grown a few inches since the season ended if he stands 6’7.
Sports … he is a legit 6 7. My bro is 6’5 and when we went to a PR game last year, Degnan was a solid 2 inches taller.
He can play with his back to the basket, it depends on the team they are playing. Personally I would rather he roam the perimeter at times because even at 6 7 if he wants to play at the net level, he needs to show this part of his game. Look at Sayre, his improvement from the outside last year helped his game out a lot.
Pretty decent stroke is an understatement . For his size, he has an excellent touch and his form is legit. I do agree with you about the 3s but that’s part of PR’s offense and guys will continue to play off him out there… so if its open, fire away.
HRs,
The kid is legit,and he should go d1 without a dought,I just think the lack of post play will kill this team
All about the summer and competition to get better and tougher. He goes that route, has a shot. Needs to get stronger and a little more agile. Can happen with right training.
HRs,
Not disparaging Degnan at all. I actually like him alot as player. He will be a top 5 player in Rockland this year, possibly even second behind Jack Sullivan. You can’t throw a big man at him or he’ll take him on the perimeter. Throw a smaller guy on him and he’ll take him to the post. He is going to be an extremely tough cover. As a young player, he has room to improve to bring his game to the next level!
HRs,
Curious. I think Degnan should have played JV his freshman year and got some court time and experienced some game situations. He was on the Varsity and never really got off the bench. Do you think this slowed down his progression? He is a good player. Has to develop an inside game. Seems to be playing a lot this summer against good competition. If PR can find or develop a point guard they could surprise some people this year. Keep an eye out for Byrnes, Degnan’s first cousin.
Best player in Rockland is joe Letizia, 5 year veteran 2 gold balls state finalist best defensive player in the section, I’d say Sullivan and Degnan are behind him…
Sports.. my bad wasn’t attacking at all. Jack Sullivan as a top player. Interesting selection. Excellent shooter and defender but can he handle the ball well enough? And do you think he can take over the team.?He knew his role the past few years with McGuinness/Sayre, but can he excel as a feature player? You know AM like the back of your hand so curious as to your thoughts..
Return I am going to have to agree with you about playing JV. I could have understood keeping him up to practice against superior players but at that time their best players were guards. The kid Hart was a tough nosed player but limited and that was his match up in practice. Not worth it to me, better to get game situations. With that being said, it isn’t too late because he got a year under his belt as a sophomore and at the end of the year he was by far the go to player. In the last game against TZ he showed glimpses of what he can do. I am not easily impressed but he caught a lot of peoples attention. He did go down low and was also showing a nice short jumper around the hoop.
I like when these types of players are out on the wing a lot in the summer. They need to develop a better handle, pull up jumper and all around athleticism. 6 7 is big for Rockland but not for big time hoops. So at that height he needs to be a double threat.
I do agree he needs to enhance his game down low. I have faith in the elder Houston to work on this. He is in good hands when it comes to coaching..that is for sure.
Byrnes I don’t know, but you know the small schools. What grade is he in?
Tz I am with you bud, but I am looking at playing on the next level. Think Degnan if he so chooses will play at the next level. The other two prob will not be. Doesn’t take away from their accomplishments though.
Stand corrected, you and Sports are 1100% correct if we are rating kids right now on what they have done, not what they can potentially do.
Love talking hoops!
Byrnes will be a Soph. If that kid Casey from TZ did not graduate, him and Degnan will be a nice matchup. Sullivan from AM will run wild this year. A lot of points.
nice, when I see Jerry I will ask about him. Casey is back. He will be a senior. Great read on their match up. I am fan of Sullivan, love kids who won’t back down. Maximum effort every time he steps on the court.
I have seen Jack play a few times this summer and he is looking outstanding. His range is almost unlimited at this point. I don’t see him having to handle the ball a ton this year. I think Albertus will rely on a McFadden/Bernadone combo to handle the ball. They can’t rely on Jack to handle the rock, score a majority of their points, and guard the best player every game. He’ll be hurt/burnt out midway through the season.
Tz,
Your argument for Letizia doesn’t fly with me. So he has two gold balls? That’s great, so does Jack. Letizia is the best defensive player in the section? Fantastic, he’s got nothing on Sullivan on the offensive end and Jack is a pretty good defender in his own right so that cancels each other out. You’re going to tell me that since he was on varsity two more years then Jack that that is going to get him player of the year. Eh, I don’t think so. If there was a DPOY award then I would give the edge to Letizia. But no one has ever won an MVP award for playing great defense.
Random but has anyone heard of an update on the Kennedy coaching situation supposedly boys still have no coach and its august
Paschall will be the best player in Westchester. He has flown under the radar but he is about to blow up, I do believe he is a high division 1 player. People need to see him play.
Sports good info on Sullivan. interesting discussion about Letizia vs Sullivan. You ask me I take Letizia’s leadership and big game situation/management as the deciding factor. You may not like him, but the kid has done extremely well in his tenure. Fan of both, I choose Degnan just so I don’t have to choose between those two!
Gotta side with sports guy on this one. To me, Letizia has always been a football player who happens to be a pretty good basketball player. Sullivan is all hoops all the time. Letizia has never been about the numbers. He’s been a glue guy on great teams the past three or four years. If the award was about team performance then sayer and Peterson would have had a more legit claim to the award over McCahey last season.
sports guy,
Sure, I think that Sullivan showed last year that he was probably a better offensive player than Letizia as far as scoring is concerned, but from the Albertus games I watched (which werent nearly as much as you watched i’m sure) his job seemed like it was a spot up shooter role more so than as an all around offensive threat, now in Letizia’s case, his job the previous 4 years at TZ was to be the point guard who sets up the offense and attempts to shut down the best perimeter player on the defensive end, not to score, in fact i’ve seen games where he has taken maybe 3 shots, so his numbers don’t show his importance to the team as much as watching the game would show. I think this will be the year Letizia comes out and becomes the main scoring option.
I just feel that although Sullivan is a better jump shooter, I think Joe is more athletic, a much better defender and like HRs said a better game manager, escpecially in the big situations against great point guards like Woodhouse, Lynch, Brickhouse, and McGuiness. Also, while I don’t feel that two more years on Varsity should automatically earn him player of the year, I think 2 full years gives him a lot more experience, and while not trying to take a shot at the team, Albertus does have 2 gold balls which is a great feat, but they wouldn’t have won those two in class A.
That being said, I feel those two, along with Degnan are the top three in the county by a considerable margin, and even though there was a mass exodus of talent this year I still think were in for another fun competitive year of Rockland basketball, even though it is a long ways away.
(P.S. Bill Russell used to win MVP awards for playing great defense over Wilt who was a scoring machine)
Just wanted to remind everyone the New Roc Classic Basketball Tournament’s final day of regular season games in this Tuesday, August 7th from 6:00pm – 10:00pm at Lincoln Park in New Rochelle, NY. The featured game will be Mount Vernon vs Stepinac at 8:00pm. Should be a good one…
Is paschall coming back to Dobbs next year?
GREAT JOB SO FAR,VERY SURPRISED,
Just wondering how the whole process works when you pick this team….. Anyone know? Because PK finished 2nd to TZ and neither one of them have guys on this roster. Just seems weird to me if your trying to put the best team out there and your missing some of your best players. Just a lil clarity please
DC Guy- The team is picked based off the kids who attend the tryouts, not who the coaches think are the 12 best in westchester, duchess, putnam and rockland.
tz,
Woodhouse destroyed Letizia at Glens Falls. Lynch sat out one game and played about half of the other on one leg. The other two I don’t know about. Letizia was the right glue guy for a talented team, but let’s see how he steps up when he has to be the man.
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