It isn’t just that Josh James and his team have turned in a successful senior season. It’s who they have done it against.
Two days before his team meets loaded Bishop Loughlin in Thursday’s CHSAA AA semifinals at Fordham University, the Stepinac senior guard learned he became the first Crusader ever selected to compete in the Jordan Brand Classic.
The 6-foot-1 James, a Greenburgh resident, was selected for the Regional Game of the Jordan Classic, which is in its 12th year. It will be part of a tripleheader at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Apr. 14.
“This is definitely one of the Top 5 things I’ve accomplished,” said James, a two-time all-CHSAA guard who scored his 1,000th career point in Sunday’s win over St. Raymond. “It’s being recognized on a national scale kind of. Even those it’s a regional game, it’s still special being honored in a game like that.”
James has averaged 18.1 points, 5.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game for the Crusaders, who will enter Thursday’s 6 p.m. semifinal with Loughlin at 20-7. Their success in the program’s second season since moving into the AA division earned James first-team all-CHSAA honors and Tim Philp the league’s coach of the year.
Along the way, James has shined against major Division I recruits, like Christ the King senior Jon Severe, Cardinal Hayes junior Shavar Newkirk and Bishop Loughlin juniors Mike Williams and Khadeen Carrington.
“That definitely validates it,” Philp said. “When you’re playing against the top teams like (Cardinal) Hayes, Christ the King, and Loughlin, they all have three to four Division I players. When you can get to this point and help us win, help us have success, i would definitely think that helps.”
“When you play against the caliber of guys we play against, when you have the kind of success in the league we’re having, it gives you a lot of confidence,” James said.
18 Comments
CONGRATS AND GOOD LUCK IN THE GAME
We have had some great accolades in athletics. This ranks right up there, and couldn’t happen to a nicer kid. Congrats Josh. Represent Westchester well.
Congrats to the best player in westchester…from the best team in westchester..josh well done..stepinac well done…see you in the finals guys…
I think Paschall is better but congrats to James. Big accomplishment.
Cuse,
Paschall has great upside and lots of potential (he’s obviously only a junior), but as far as what they’ve done on HS basketball courts…particularly considering the levels of competition they play at…it’s not even close.
Hoops he plays for the town he lives in, it’s his competition and he did what he was supposed to and dominate. He played great AAU ball this past summer and if he played on Stepinac right now I think he would be the best player on the team.
Step fan said he was the best player in westchester, we can agree to disagree. If he said best senior in westchester, I would agree.
Cuse,
Sure, you can’t fault a kid for playing against the competition he faces. However, you also can’t give a kid the same credit for playing against less competition than a kid playing outstanding competition and excelling. I agree Paschall has the most talent and upside, but in terms of what has been proven as a HS basketball player, I don’t even think its close. Paschall is a great player and I hope I get to see him play next year.
Both young men are great basketball players.Ive seen both play many times.Paschall is with out a doubt more talented and just 16 years old, plays with and against the same players as James on the aau circuit.
With Josh being named to play in the Jordan Classic and being a senior one could say he has accomplished more on the H.S. level,
and is more polished.
Westchester is lucky to have both.
also,hoops its kind of hard to chime in if you never seen one of these young men play{Paschall}
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I saw Paschall play last year in person and watched him on MSG this year twice. He is way, way too talented to be playing on that level. Its not helping his game at all.
How many kids do you think Paschall played against this year that will even play college basketball? Maybe 4 or 5? McGuiness at AM, Brown at Greeley, maybe one of the Mamk kids, maybe one of the Lourdes kids, Singh from No Salem – all D2 or D3 kids. And I’m not sure if Paschall would’ve matched up with any of them head to head much. Paschall is a super talented kid – great height, nice handle, very nice stroke – I like his game a lot, but watching him as a Jr against Sect 1 Class B competition is silly.
Josh James easily played against 20-25 future D1 players this year and probably 8-10 of them will be big time D1 players (Severe/CTK, Carrington/Loughlin, Williams/Loughlin, Newkirk/Hayes, Fuchs/CTK, CJ Davis/Molloy, De la Rosa/CTK and Santos/St Rays all have major offers already. Chris Robinson and Mustafa Jones from Hayes could get those kind of offers next year. Govan/St Marys, Devonte Green/St Mary’s and Rawle Atkins/CTK are future big-timers).
Next Year the two best player in Westchester will be Paschall and current Iona Soph Matt Ryan- Ryan has already been offered by Fordham but soon more big programs will be calling- When you pour in 26 points against Loughlin and carry a team in the CHSAA AA as a sophomore like he has then he will be looked at as one of the best in the area.
IP,
Ryan is a great shooter and a big recruit because of his height. I like his game a lot. As far as “best player”, I think Naim Thomas will definitely be in that conversation along with Brandon Martin, Walter King and Demarcus Miller. Miller more than held his own head to head with Ryan.
I have seen Josh James on a couple of occasions and he is a good player and has played big against the better competition. He deserves the accolades and deserves to be in the Jordan classic game. This is his thread and I shouldn’t have even brought up Paschall. I apologize to him.
However, It is annoying (not singaling out you hoops) that the Step bloggers have a huge inferiority complex. “The best player in Westchester on the best team.” Between football and basketball it doesn’t end. Within 1 hour of Mt Vernon losing a Step fan goes on the game thread and gloats, best team in westchester. News flash, nobody cares or remembers a 2nd, 3rd or 4th place team, even if your team is in a better league against better competition. Win something.
Paschall has played on the same aau team w/ Michael Williams of Loughlin since he was 8 years old.Mustafa Jones also plays on that team. In fact he was the MVP of the Metro Classic dropping 35 against the best in the city,most of the above mentioned kids His high school season was 19/20 games.He will play that many games in one month of aau against top notch comp.Many d1 players THIS YEAR. Silly NOT even!!
Nuff said,
Congratulations Josh make us proud!!!!
Cuse,
You seem like in general a classy guy, but I couldn’t disagree with your comments more about bloggers comments. Is it wrong for a fan of a team to say they think their team is #1? I don’t think so. Peekskill fans were doing it all the time with Mookie Jones. Iona fans did it with Voelkel and co. New Ro football fans do it all the time in football. Rye fans used to do it in football. Stepinac fans have done it this year…so have MV fans! Why is it ok for MV fans to do it this year, but if Stepinac fans do it there is something wrong??? It seems quite normal for ANY TEAM’s fans to do it when their team is deserving, right?
As far as best player, again, I don’t think its wrong for fans to want to trumpet great players for their team. MV fans did it with Hinds. Dobbs’ fans have done it with Paschall, Somers fans have done it with Decker. Why is it ok for other teams to do, but you object when a Stepinac fan does it.
As far as timing of comments, of course any fans can be overzealous in trumpeting their team. But in fairness, three weeks ago when Stepinac lost in the Archdiocesan playoffs within minutes there all kinds of classless comments attacking Stepinac – they were so bad that Josh had to chime in to admonish the multiple bloggers who did it. There were no negative attacks on MV after they lost on Sunday. This is a blog about HS basketball, shouldn’t bloggers to encouraged to support and trumpet their teams accomplishments?
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I know Paschall plays big time AAU basketball, but this wasn’t a conversation about AAU competition – it was about HS basketball. Josh James started for New Heights and played great all summer.
Well… I just wanted to step into say what an honor. I hope he does well in this game. Paschall will get his shot in his own time.
Really… Josh James is the Player of the Year in Westchester. Sure there are others who played well, but what he accomplished on a team that was predicted to go about 500 in the CHSAA ‘AA’ League was ridiculous. Kudos to Josh!