The Lower Hudson Basketball Coaches Association voted on its annual awards this morning and Dobbs Ferry junior Eric Paschall won the section’s top award.
The 6-foot-6 swingman earned “Mr. Basketball” honors. It as a rarity for two reasons. First, Paschall became the first player from a school other than Mount Vernon to win the award since New Rochelle’s Geoff McDermott in 2005. Secondly, Paschall was just the fourth junior to claim “Mr. Basketball” in the last generation, and he joined some pretty exclusive company: Peekskill’s Elton Brand and Mount Vernon’s Ben Gordon and Jabarie Hinds.
Joining Paschall on the Lower Hudson first team were the following: New Rochelle’s Joe Clarke, Somers’ John Decker, Mount Vernon’s Josh Doughty, Mahopac’s Brendan Hynes and Albertus Magnus’ Jack Sullivan. All five players are seniors.
The top coaching honor went to the very deserving Fred DiCarlo, who led Eastchester to a 17-1 season. The Eagles could be seeded No. 1 in the Class A tournament when the playoff brackets are announced Monday night. They accomplished this despite losing 1,000-point scorer Dave Solano to graduation.
45 Comments
Really surprised that Joe Clarke is on the first team. He had a very mediocre season on a less than mediocre team.
GREAT JOB BY ALL,CONGRATS
LET’S GET THIS LAST GAME OVER,THE BRACKETS OUT,AND THE PLAYOFFS STARTED,THE “GOLD”IS WHAT COUNTS,WHO WILL EARN IT?
I agree basketball jones. The most over hyped team and player in the last 10 years
I agree. Maybe MV would be able to get by only on reputation but not NR. Clarke’s a good player but I would even take Scarsdale’s Hewitt as an impactful player on a team that at least achieved some measure of success.
max twyman from rye is playing at cincinatti next year and he gets no love, whats the deal?
A WORD TO THE WISE;
I THINK IT GIVES SOME OF THE PLAYERS THAT FEEL THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN PICKED A CHIP ON THEIR SHOULDER HEADING INTO THE PLAYOFFS,WITCH IS A “GOOD THING”
I gotta say I saw Joe Clarke play 4 times this year and he looked like a first team guy to me. New Ro has no guards which is there main problem not Joe Clarke.
Hey Basketball jones, anon and john john johnson, THESE ARE KIDS MAN. IF YOU HAVE NOTHING POSITIVE TO SAY SHUT UP. CLARKE IS A VERY GOOD PLAYER AND DESERVES ATTENTION.
YOU CAN GOOD THINGS ABOUT A PLAYER YOU LIKE WITHOUT PUTTING DOWN A KID.
I HAVE SEEN CLARKE PLAY AND HE IS VERY DESERVING
basketball
where did you hear twyman is playing at cincy?
That’s deserving of a Re-Pete –
Hey Basketball jones, anon and john john johnson, THESE ARE KIDS MAN. IF YOU HAVE NOTHING POSITIVE TO SAY SHUT UP. CLARKE IS A VERY GOOD PLAYER AND DESERVES ATTENTION.
YOU CAN GOOD THINGS ABOUT A PLAYER YOU LIKE WITHOUT PUTTING DOWN A KID.
I HAVE SEEN CLARKE PLAY AND HE IS VERY DESERVING
basketball,
post it. Josh asked for info on players going on to play at the next level and that’s some level. congratulations to Max
I couldn’t agree with you more Pete. If you are one of the adult bloggers who spends half of their day’s time on here criticizing and gossiping about high school ball players then maybe its about time you get a new hobby. I can’t believe the comments that Lohud allows to be posted on here. These are kids, not professional athletes.
Congratulations to all the players who were honored
Joe Clark deserves it!! And shout out to his family!!!
Joe Clarke is deserving and a tremendous athlete. If you have watched him play you would not only notice his athleticism, aggressiveness and rebounding ability, you would also notice his DEFENSE. The kid usually guards the best big man on the court and many times he is giving up 2-4 inches. Personally I love kids like this.
And in terms of Tywman going to Cincy…. he wasn’t offered a scholarship, so is he attempting to walk on? As much as I want to applaud a Sect 1 kid for playing anywhere, it would be nice to confirm the accuracy of a claim like this.
You guys are all right, these are high school athletes and should be treated as such. Lay off the negative comments and congratulations to all who were honored.
HRs, Basketball etc.
Twyman comes from a HUGE basketball family. His grandfather was an NBA all star and Hall of Famer who attended Cinncinati. So there is likely the connection. Twyman is a very good HS player, not a Big East player but that said, hope he makes the most of his opportunity, good for him !.
As for the All Section selections, everyone is always going to have their opinions. and its all going to be based on your own criteria. Best Player ?, Most recruitable ?, Most Indispensable to their team ? Best Player on best team ?
While I love the way Clarke plays, I was surprised to see him on 1st team. There are other players who had better individual stats, for teams with better records , who played comparable schedules. Eric Pascal is clearly the best college prospect in Section 1 by far, but plays for a 12-6 team with the fewest strength of schedule bonus points in the entire section !
Agreed that one need not denigrate one player when making a comparison to another. For example perhaps one could argue Degnan over Sullivan, but Albertus beat them and had a better record. In that same vein, I would have to have gone with Jack Daly over Clarke. based on the 17-1 record and the talent surrounding him…
But thats why these awards will always be subjective…Congrats to all the honorees, these are great accomplishments and memories
Great choice on Freddy DiCarlo.. great job
The Award is short lived and remembered for many…Kids move on to the next level and hopefully get a College degree. Basketball can only take you so far, then you better have a fall back – College Degree!! So for all you complaining parents – GET OVER IT!! Deserving or not – the votes are in and we have a winner. I for one applaud the all the kids who were in consideration.
Old Head… I am aware of his family ties. I am also aware of his talent level. That is why I nicely questioned the info. He isn’t a scholarship player for a Big East program. We all know this, but nothing wrong with walking on and being a part of something special.
I am a PR guy and I love Degnan. He will be the first D1 player to grace those courts since Jerry Houston. And that goes back a long time. But with that being said no way or how does he anyone in my opinion get an honor over Sullivan. And to me its not about head to head, its about the level the kid has played every game. He has been lights out and is a tremendously hard worker. Another type of player I love to root for!!
All in all its a great accomplishment for these players and their families!
Didn’t I say Clarke is a good player? I didn’t say anything bad about him. You all said that I can say something good about a player without putting a kid down…which is exactly what I did if you read my post. Sorry some took it as such an offense. I agree that we shouldn’t be putting down high school kids. And Pete, please don’t tell me to shut up…in caps.
I totally agree with assessment of Clarke. What an athlete. But let’s call a spade a spade with Twyman from rye. Good highschool player but he is certainly not a division 1 basketball player . Also I thought daly from eastchester may have deserved first team honors even though he is a junior.
Many things going on here… one i really agree with is Sullivan at Albertus being top dog in section this year. NO team lost more than Albertus, they moved up to “A” and had a great year (.750 winning percentage). Unfortunately, the award came down to “most upside” and “most recruited”, not most impactful player on a winning team. Eric is young and has unlimited upside. That being said, congrats to Eric and maybe he can lead his team to a special place. If not, than maybe the voters got enamored with the D1 coaches in the crowd. Regarding the kid from Rye… stop it. 16TH seed this year and a terrible team last year doesn’t put someone in the rare air of special players. No offense to him but please… at some point, it’s about winning. Like it or not, that’s the standard that Mount Vernon has set in the area and it’s a good standard. To the victors go the spoils. Congrats to all and let’s get ready for a fantastic tourney.
Congratulations to all the kids. Their hard work payed off.
And a most deserved congratulations to Fred D. The man is truly one of the best “coaches” in Section 1. A gentleman and great role model.
HR’s
I could not agree with you more. Sullivan had an awsome year and is a great player and hard worker. No attitude either. I think it was Kevin Houston you meant, not Gerry. I thought Gerry played at STAC.
Paschall just turned 16 four months ago. A very young junior.
no love for byram hills?
Return… Jerry went to Iona and played in 92-93. Kevin…we all know what he did. Degnan will be the first kid to since Kevin to have a 4 year career at a D1 school.
HRs,
I watched highlights of Luhi/lincoln. Luhi is legit. I initially questioned if their guards could hang with the elite nyc teams – yes, they can! I was basing my earlier comments on what I saw of Luhi the last 2-3 years – some of the guards on this year’s team must be new. They are very good and more than held their own with Lincoln. Lincoln is really a vulnerable team. Whitehead apparently is having issues with Morton and not having a big year. If Whitehead is playing average, the rest of that team has no superstars. I think MV could definitely beat Lincoln if they see them in the Feds (if Lincoln makes it – I might pick South Shore at this point).
Luhi gets another big test on Friday against Loughlin. From what I’ve seen of Lincoln, I think Loughlin is better. Loughlin/LUhi should be a good one.
For those of you believing that Paschall may not be the most deserving of the bunch, I encourage you to go watch him play. Mr. Basketball could have gone to so many players this year, and so I think because it was such a tight race coaches decided to give it to the player with the most talent. I think they probably should have given it to a senior just because there were many other deserving candidates , it wasn’t a very clear cut choice and Paschall will probably get it next year as well. However, looking at the field, it’s not shocking that he won the award.
However, just being truthful, Paschall’s raw athletic ability and basketball skill set is through the roof. He contains size and athletic ability as a 16 year old that you really don’t see often. In that regard, he is superior to anyone else in the section. He is a legit 6’6 with freakish athletic ability and a very smooth stroke. He has so much room to improve his game and is far from a finished product, but if he reaches his potential he could legitimately contribute at a major d1 school, hence why many of these coaches are interested. if you havent seen him play, hopefully you’ll get a chance to watch him, as he normally has one or two plays a game that just amaze you.
HOOPS FAN,
VERY NICE WIN YESTERDAY,YOUR THOUGHTS ?
Hoops, I love their guards. In the other thread I mentioned Chris Atkinson. To me he is the fuel that ignites the fire. He was on the team last year as a freshman but didn’t get the burn he does now. He is a top player in class of 2015. I have to send you some highlights of him. Insanely quick, a great passer and his handle is ridiculous. They get out on the break and this kid is leading, tough to catch him. Then throw in an athletic big man like Vacey and it spells trouble. They are 3 guards deep with a awesome big man. Going to be VERY hard to knock off in the post season.
Agree with you on Lincoln/Whitehead. Whitehead will peak in college. Hopefully he makes the right choice. He needs real coaching. Tremendous talent but isn’t getting better at Lincoln. Was and am high on him, but hasn’t progressed like he should have. Southshore can knock them off, but they lost to Lincoln twice already. Saw a nice piece on Wings this year. Maybe this is there year
Hoops,
You should’ve been sold with LuHi since the Cardinal Hayes win and the tough loss at St. A’s. To be honest I know this sounds cheesy, but when they handled Burke Catholic in the beginning of the year, I was sold. Burke is well coached and even if they don’t win they can hang with most teams (case in point with CTK last year). As smart and good as Burke was, LuHi had their way with them and made them look like a sloppy middle school team. I haven’t even seen top NFA teams do that to them. They are reallly good.
As for Lincoln, it is true they need Whitehead to win a chip, but don’t count out the other top players. Elijah David is a pretty darn good player. For his size he can play on the perimeter and can clear space down low. Dezi Rodriguez is good too…he’s sporadic at times but he’s good. I was at the Lincoln-Jefferson game the other day when jeff pulled off the upset. Lincoln ran NO PLAYS in crunch time. It was literally…one-one-one give the ball to Isaiah. Jefferson was way hungrier and aggressive and moved the ball better.
If South Shore gets Shamiek Sheppard back at full strength they can win it all. If not they won’t. Jeff also has the potential if they’re firing on all cylinders and same goes for Wings. Regardless Lincoln is still the favorite for now.
Rocket… good to hear from you. What is your take on Troy? decent coach? Haywood bought them up the other day and when I looked at them, they have nice size and speed.
Also you are up on the city., where did Carlos Galan(guard from Gompers) wind up? I know he got in some trouble, but was wondering if you have heard anything.
Lastly, any half decent coach with talent can knock off Lincoln. We spoke about this before. Tiny is awful!!!! He wins because of his kids.
HRs,
WOOOOOOOOOW,LLLLLLOOOOOLLLLL
Got to reach for the stars my brother. Wings is going to break through one of these years. They had South Shore beat this year and blew it in the final two minutes(and proceeded to lost by 2)
They are deep and aggressive. Can’t stand the schedule, but they proved they can play with one of the top Brooklyn schools. They should cruise through the playoffs until they face a top team.
A lot of chat on Section I players, any thoughts on the orphans from Dutchess County, I think there are some players up there…........
Rocket,
I knew Luhi was legit after they beat Hayes 70-68 and hung with St Anthonys, but I didn’t see either of those games. Seeing the Luhi guards – particularly Atkinson and Anderson – go at Lincoln’s guards on tape this morning really brought it home to me. For the record, I never said I didn’t think Luhi was a top team this year, what I said was I wanted to see what Luhi’s guards against the big boys before anointing them a Fed contender. The SNY already put them in the mix as Fed contenders – if they weren’t already – but beating Lincoln solidly was impressive. Loughlin will be a big test for Luhi because Loughlin’s guards are in my opinion better than Lincoln’s – and they have better coaching.
Hrs,
Whitehead needs to leave Lincoln. I hate to see nyc players head for prep school, but he just isn’t getting better at Lincoln. Morton gets these superstar 8th graders (Telfair, Steohenson and Whitehead) – Telfair showed some growth (which may have been more due to his cousin Stephon’s tutoring) and improvement, but Stephenson and Whitehead really have had stunted growth as players.
I’m just not sold on Wings. I know you generally are a “buyer”, I’m generally a “seller” on Wings. I know they played South Shore tough and I’m sure they can play with the top PSAL teams…I just find it puzzling why they only play 1 top psal team this year. Some years they don’t play any. I find it tough to pick a team to win multiple tough games back to back against top city teams in the playoffs, when they don’t play those top city teams during the year. For Wings to win it, they’d really have to catch fire at the right time and ride that wave. Otherwise, in a tight game, I’d usually go with the more battle-tested teams like South Shore, Jeff, Lincoln, even Boys. If Sheppard is healthy for South Shore, I like them to take it this year. Personally, I think CTK, Loughlin, Luhi and maybe Hayes are better than anyone in the PSAL this year.
Hoops good point about the Lincoln studs. Morton is even worse with big men. Look at some of the recent bigs that have gone on to college and showed what they could actually do. Padgett and Justin Greene really came into their own. Not due to Lincoln, due to excellent college coaching.
Here is my thing with Wings.. I am with you on the schedule and I do think this has impacted them in the close games. But even with that, the past 2 years they have made it to the semis and were right there against the big boys. And they are going to be there this year again.
What I like about Wings is the depth, athleticism and style. There isn’t one star, they all produce. They come at you in waves. I was listening to their coach the other day and I feel he has learned his lesson.. .he was saying how the close games(against the top teams) they were playing to hold the lead not playing to win it. He essentially stalled out and attempted clock management instead of keeping the pace and going at the opponent.
I liked hearing that because if you think about it, they only know one way and that is foot on the gas beat teams badly. You can’t expect them to all of a sudden stop and run 4 corners. If you look back on their big games, they were always winning and pretty much blew it down the stretch doing what was mentioned above. If Coach really looks to avoid this, I give them a real shot to get over the hump.
Your last point on the catholics vs PSAL… we are on same page.
HRs,
It will be interesting to see what Wings does in the playoffs. They are clearly talented enough to play with any of the top PSAL teams and beat anyone in that league this year. Maybe I’m old fashioned, but in addition to Turnage coaching better in crunchtime, part of playing well in crunchtime is having confidence that you can get it done – if a team hasn’t won close games against top teams, its hard to have that confidence down the stretch. It really puzzles me why Turnage wants to go to Baltimore and Boston, but doesn’t want to go to Hayes, St Rays or Brooklyn for more good games.
I am with you in regards to Turnage and your comments. It is mind boggling. Very possible he may do it for playoff positioning but that is weak. If he wants his kids to get better, you know you have to play the best. And Wings can get games, they are far from no-names throughout the city.
Again, the wrong pick…..all because he is expected to be great. Not taking anything away from the kid but he is NOT Mr Basketball. the kid Decker from Somers is the most talented player to come along in years. Hate to say it but they got this one wrong. Decker is a northern westchester talent that got overlooked for what reason ???? he’s the top scorer, leads section in his ppg average…...I saw him play in a tournament and the kid just carried the team right into a victory. I congratulate all of the nominees , but John Decker IS truly MR BASKETBALL
I have been at alot of the local high school games .I miss watching my kids play but I have to agree with choice for Mr Basketball being incorrect. I am not going to put anyone down because all of the nominees deserve the nomination, BUT as bball players mom eluded to a kid from Northern Westchester really had no chance even though his stats are the best out of all of the nominees. Makes you wonder who’s really watching. The vote should have taken place after all games were played. John Decker should have been Mr Basketball. With that said, I hope he is awarded something to make up for the injustice of the vote.
Decker doesn’t not have the best stats out of all the nominees. Paschall avg 25.3ppg and 10.9rpg. Paschall has the most upside and the most talented. He is a 6’6 guard for his team and has the total package. For college he will need to out some muscle on but no one in section 1 can do everything he can do. Decker is very good but cant say Paschall is the wrong choice for Mr. Basketball. He totally deservesd it and good for him to get this award. Hope he keeps doing well
Big ups to John Decker for leading sec. 1 in scoring by .5 or whatever. Paschall averaged 25ppg and 11rpg had more assists more blocks and is 6ft 6in.d1 talent not d2. Mr Basketball is an individual award. The gold ball is team award. It really was not as close as people are making it out to be.
I wonder what those critics who posted questionable comments about Joe Clarke and the “lack of guards” by New Rochelle are thinking now that the Huguenots have reached the Final Four? To those critics, always remember, “He who laughs last, laughs BEST!”
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