The Seton Hall Pirates May have over exceeded many expectations with their performance throughout the regular season and during the Big East Tournament. despite losing in the championship game last night to Villanova, you can’t deny how this impacts the team going into the NCAA tournament and beyond
The Pirates were down 68-59 with 3:00 to go in the game and rallied all the way to the final possession where the Pirates had the chance to win on a game winning shot. It wasn’t the result that the Pirates wanted, but you gotta respect the way they fought throughout the whole week.
From Myles Powell’s 78 points in three days to Quincy McKnight’s ability to defend the opposing teams best scorer on a nightly basis, there’s absolutely no way you can deny their ability to make a deep run in the NCAA tournament.
“ We made it here, everybody didn’t expect us to be here but we believed in ourselves and our coaches believed in us we can play with anyone in the country. We just beat Marquette twice and we beat Nova last week and gave them a hard fight tonight”. So we are playing great Basketball and we are going to be ready for the tournament. Says Myles Powell. The junior from Trenton, NJ never let the loss to the Wildcats get to him it only made him more confident in his team. ” We had a good opportunity to make history. We are definitely hurting from it, but we have a lot to be proud of.” Powell added.
It’s no question that the loss in the championship game has fueled this team, but Coach Kevin Willard believes they will be ready to bounce back in a big way. “I know they will be back Monday ready to work, and if they do come back ready as they did after the loss to Georgetown earlier in the season. I am confident in this team and I know we’ll bounce back. I’m looking forward to the NCAA tournament and I have more confidence in my team than I ever have” coach Kevin Willard said in the postgame press conference.
For all we know is that the Pirates have proved a lot during the regular season and the Big East Tournament. Most bracketologists have the Pirates ranging from an 8 to 10 seed the NCAA tournament. One thing we do know for sure is beware of the Pirates.
The St. John’s Red Storm came into MSG Last night with a sense of urgency after losing their last three games to finish out the regular season. The team’s urgency showed when they used a second-half surge to beat DePaul 82-74 to advance to the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament tonight. The Johnnies had a balanced scoring attack with Justin Simon, Shamorie Ponds, and Mustapha Heron scoring 18 points apiece while Marvin Clark III added 10 and LJ Figueroa scored 14.
The three-game skid put them in this position to be the seventh seed and face a team that has beaten them twice. Not the place where the Johnnies wanted to start the tournament but they took it and handled their business anyway. One of the best things about facing a team for the third time is that you find out a way to shut down your opponents’ top scorer. The Red Storm did just that when they limited Max Strus to 14 points on 4/12 shooting. In the previous meeting, the Johnnies struggled to keep Strus in check as he exploded for 43 points. As Chris Mullin stared in the postgame press conference, the key was Big East Defensive player of the year, Justin Simon. “From my standpoint, it was to get Justin in the game” I just told him last game he had seven at halftime. Justin picked up a few fouls. When he came out, the guy got going. He’s that type of player it only takes a little bit for him to catch fire, and that’s what happened”.
Simon’s presence in this game made a huge impact for the Johnnies on both ends but as Coach Mullin added it was a team effort.”I just thought again tonight that Justin was instrumental in setting the tone, and then Shamorie and the rest of our team did a good job. When he did catch he was looking at two, three, four bodies”.
The Johnnies have accomplished beating DePaul but their newest challenge awaits as they will face Big East Player of the Year Markus Howard tonight at 7 pm. The Red Storm was successful against Marquette during the regular season when they swept the Golden Eagles 2-0 in the season series. In both games, they defended Howard very well.
The Red Storm are well aware that beating Marquette for the third time will be an uphill battle, but at the same time, they remain confident. “It’s definitely an extra challenge, but I feel there is more confidence. I feel that those guys are going to bring their all, so we can’t lay down”. Says Shamorie Ponds the Brooklyn native has had some of his best games against the conference player of the year.
After avoiding a fourth straight loss, the Johnnies will move forward to face Marquette. It’s safe to say that this team is in the tournament. Now it’s time to make history get their first Big East tournament championship since 2000. “We packed for four days, so I’m looking forward to it,” says Ponds.
This Article was originally published on April 27th 2018,
Photo Credit: USA Today Sports/ Rob Kinnan
ACC Rookie and Player of the year Zion Williamson has taken the college basketball world by storm. The 6-7 285 pound power forward has dominated in every single game he has played in this season for the Duke Blue Devils prior to his injury on February 20th. His dominance this season may not be a surprise to many, but last year many people had doubts about his game. Here’s a throwback piece from April 2018, when we had the chance to briefly interview Zion Williamson at the 2018 Jordan Brand Classic.
Everyone in the world knows the name Zion Williamson, the high flying 6-6 Forward from South Carolina who has taken the world by storm this past high school basketball season. At Spartanburg Day school Zion averaged 32 points and 11 rebounds per game leading his team to a 21-8 record and a State championship. Fans in South Carolina have been lucky to see Zion packed every gym he has been in this season and he will continue to do that when he suits up for Duke next season.
I recently caught up with Zion at the Jordan Brand Classic media day in Brooklyn earlier this month. Zion couldn’t participate in the event due to a thumb injury he suffered during the McDonald’s All American Game, but he was still happy to be around his peers that weekend and was very welcoming towards the media during the interview.
When Zion arrives at Duke next year one of his goals is to prove to Many that he can do a lot more than just dunk and he made some strong points about it. “I would not be a McDonald’s All American and a Jordan Brand Classic player if all I can do is dunk. I have an extensive skill set and talking with coach K he saw that in me, and he would always tell me you aren’t just a dunker you are an excellent basketball player, and when you come to Duke I want to show the world how great you are”.
Zion Williamson at 2018 JBC Media Day
Zion Williamson is also continuing to show many naysayers that he’s working on slimming down. At the McDonald’s All American game, he showed everyone that he was getting in shape Williamson shared some of the things he did to slim down. “After practices, I would do some extra running on the track and get into the weight room and do some extra reps; I also cut down on my meat intake, stopped drinking soda and drink more water.”
Zion Willaimson has gained a huge fan base here in NYC. So many people across the five boroughs have become so enamored with Zion’s play that there was much speculation that he was planning to make an appearance at Dyckman during the summer of 2017. Unfortunately, Zion wasn’t able to make his appearance, but as he explained to us at that time the rumors of his debut were right, and a future presence remains imminent. “ “Yeah I have been talking to Isaiah Washington, JQ, all the NYC people including the people over at Overtime. Dyckman is the place where the top ballers go and if you are a real dog and you are a real man you can compete out there”. Zion’s high praise of one of NYC’s top summer leagues shows that many people outside of NYC still got respect for NYC Hoop culture.
We start Interviewing Zion at the 4:17 mark
With his high school career already past him, his main focus going forward will be preparing for Duke where he will be teaming up with fellow top recruits Cam Reddish, RJ Barrett, and Tre Jones. With his willingness to prove people wrong we can tell that a particular season is ahead in Raleigh-Durham.
The stage is set for tomorrow when Archbishop Stepinac will face Christ The King for the “AA” city championship. The game will be a rematch of last year’s championship game where Stepinac won the game.
Archbishop Stepinac vs Cardinal Hayes
Adrian Griffin Jr. Went off for 32 points and 11 boards in the 77-65 win over Hayes. RJ Davis scored 25 points dished out five assists and grabbed five rebounds.
Cardinal Hayes which was down double figures throughout the game went on a huge run in the fourth quarter to cut the deficit to five late in the fourth quarter. Iowa Commit Joe Toussaint led Hayes with 24 points. Jaylen Murray scored 18 and Julian Soumarou scored 15.
Christ The King vs Bishop Loughlin
Behind a great performance by Sophmore center Moussa Cisse and a strong showing by the reserves. Christ The King outlasted Bishop Loughlin 72-61. Cisse scored 22 points grabbed 19 rebounds and blocked 13 shots. Ryan Myers added 17 points for Christ The King.
This team completed a stretch of winning 5 games in six days and they beat some very good teams along the way. The Lions have beaten defending state champions Abraham Lincoln and Lawrence Woodmere along with nationally ranked Lincoln Academy out of Georgia. I caught up with some of the players after their 65-56 win over St. Anthony’s (LI) at the 2nd annual Empire Invitational. In that game Brooklyn Collegiate held St. Anthony’s to seven points in the fourth quarter while scoring 21.
This winning streak comes at a time where the school is facing challenging times. About two weeks ago the school found out that they were on the list of schools that will be facing closure in June due to poor performance. A final decision is pending from the education panel but students, faculty and parents are currently fighting to keep the school open past June 2018. As for the players they are making sure that they are handling their business in the classroom but they aren’t letting the news about their school affect them. Many of the players including junior guard Charles Brown are learning how to stay focused with everything going on. “When I first heard about it I was really shocked because this is my first year on the team and these are my brothers, but coach told us not to focus on that and focus on the task at hand and that’s taking Brooklyn “AA” basketball.
The winning streak could be the beginning of something big for the Brooklyn Collegiate Lions this season. The players are finally getting used to each other and that could possibly mean trouble for many teams in the city.
Check out the video interview with The players in the video below.
Players (Left-Right)
No. 11 G Majesty Johnson ‘20 No. 32 F Erlyn Ramirez’19 No. 1 G Glen Anderson’19 No. 10 G Charles Brown
Photo Credits: USA Today sports / Seton Hall Athletics
The Seton Hall Pirates are coming into the last two weeks of conference play on the bubble. The pirates suffered back to back tough losses last week to Xavier and conference rival St. John’s last week.
Both losses were tough and it may have made their chances of being a lock for the NCAA Tournament harder but not all is lost. Most bracketologists have the Pirates as one of the last four teams in and with new month comes new opportunities for the Pirates to get more signature wins and boost their tournament resume even more.
It all starts on Saturday when the Pirates travel to play Georgetown in Washington D.C. The Pirates will arrive into D.C. well rested and when the Pirates have a week-long break, they are more than likely to perform at a high level. We have seen this the last time they played Georgetown at the Prudential center on. February 13th. The Pirates dropped 90 points on the Hoyas and had four players score in double figures.
The Pirates then have 10th ranked Marquette coming into the Prudential center in on Wednesday, March 6th and then defending national champions Villanova to close out conference play on Saturday, March 9th. Can’t forget about the upcoming Big East tournament on the 13th-16th plenty of opportunities to get some signature wins.
Standing at 7-8 in the conference with three games remaining, there has to be a sense of urgency among the Pirates, at the same time there’s no denying their non-conference resume which could help them a lot especially if they get some big wins in the next few weeks. Winning the next two out of three conference games should make them a lock for the NCAA tournament and it will make the committee forget about the bad losses to DePaul and Xavier.
At this moment, the Pirates are a team that is looking to steal a bid. Some bracketologists have the Big East sending three teams into the NCAA tournament, but we believe there would be four and the Pirates will be that fourth team.
One thing that we have learned throughout the season with the Pirates are that slow starts are this team’s kryptonite. The Pirates have been able to bounce back from slow starts and win, but fighting back from double digits to win isn’t going to happen all of the time.
The Pirates are aware of their bad starts but one way to overcome that is to play like their down ten from the start. In many of the games, we have covered this season when the Pirates are having a strong start in the first half, they are tough to beat. With March approaching, expect to see a more focused and determined Seton Hall team.
The 2018-19 Archdiocesan playoffs are in the books and Cardinal Hayes and Bishop Loughlin have claimed their respective titles and top seeds In the Intersectional playoffs.
For Loughlin they had to overcome a furious rally by a tough Xaverian to win 61-49 on Friday night. The Lions led by as much as 22 points in the first half but that lead quickly shrunk to nine points in the third quarter then six points going into the fourth due to an 17-11 scoring run by the Clippers. The Lions were able to hold of Xaverian in the last few minutes of the game to seal the victory. Loughlin earned a bye to the quarterfinal round will play the winner of Iona Prep vs St. Francis Prep on Sunday March 3rd. The last time Loughlin won the Diocesan championship was 2016.
Bishop Loughlin survived a huge rally by Xaverian to win the Brooklyn/Queens Archdiocesan title on Friday night
Cardinal Hayes vs Top seeded St. Raymond’s on Saturday was another chapter in the rivalry between both schools. The Cardinals dominated in the second half en route to an 86-65 victory over the Ravens. Iowa Commit Joe Toussaint earned MVP honors with a 25 point/ eight rebound and seven assist performance. The front court duo of Shemani Fuller and Adam Cisse combined for 26 points while Jaylen Murray scored 18. The Cardinals also earned the No. 1 seed in the intersectional playoffs and a bye to the quarterfinals at Fordham University where they will face the winner of Mount St. Michael vs Holy Cross.
This weekend, we may have gotten a look at three teams that could possibly be in the title game on March 10th. Despite losing big at the Archdiocesan championship, St. Raymond’s is still have what it takes to make it to the title game on March 10th. It depends on how the Ravens respond when they face the winner of CTK vs Scanlan in the quarterfinals.
Hayes looks like the strongest team heading into the playoffs and their dominance in the championship game proved that. The Cardinals have the size and depth to compete with any team they also have CHSAA player of the year Joe Toussaint who led Hayes to the title game in 2017.
With a bye into the quarterfinals, Bishop Loughlin is in great shape to return to the city title game since 2016. The front court duo of Julian and Justin Champangie have proven to become a matchup nightmare for most teams this season.
With the city playoffs beginning on Tuesday, we have came up with our final four predictions for the CHSAA playoffs. HDNYC’s final four teams are
Cardinal Hayes
Stepinac
St. Raymond’s
and Bishop Loughlin
Teams that could possibly pull off an upset and sneak into the final four.
The Archdiocesan Semifinal matchup between No.1 seeded St. Raymond’s and No.5 seeded Archbishop Stepinac lived up to its expectations. The Ravens were looking to advance to the Archdiocesan title game for the first time since 2016, while Last year’s champion Stepinac were looking to return as well.
The game started out heavily in the Ravens favor as they took advantage of the Crusaders sloppy Start and raced out to a 14-2 lead. the lead soon grew to 22-8 at the end of the quarter as the Ravens dominated scoring in the paint while the Crusaders struggled to get into a rhythm. In the second quarter, that quickly changed when Stepinac outscored St. Rays 19-13. Stepinac stepped up in the second quarter to make the game more competitive but still faced a 35-27 lead going into half time.
The fourth quarter would go down as one of the best finishes ever. the Ravens were up 54-44 but Stepinac would go on a 9-3 run to cut St. Rays lead to four with 4:34 left. This is where the game got interesting because In the first quarter it looked like St. Raymond’s was going to run away with it but Stepinac refused to back. Stepinac’s Rally reached a point when they briefly had the lead. With 1:20 remaining in the game, Ed Sanchez scored to give Stepinac a 64-63 lead. Sophomore Malachi Smith would quickly respond with a layup of his own to give the Ravens back the lead. The finish in this game would be a great one down 65-64, RJ Davis would hit a floater to give Stepinac a 66-65 lead. but Jalen Reneau answered with a euro-step for the layup with 15 seconds remaining then forced a charge to regain possession and sealed the victory with free throws.
The Ravens were able to run away with the 69-66 victory thanks to their execution in yesterday’s game. Now the Ravens will prepare for the Archdiocesan championship game against crosstown rival Cardinal Hayes. The last time these two teams met in the championship game was 2016 when the Cardinals defeated the Ravens.
What We Learned
Stepinac’s rally in the fourth quarter proved how they have grown since early in the season. The Crusaders have won five straight games going into last night’s contest. RJ Davis scored 15 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter. Davis’s fourth-quarter performance proved that Stepinac is one team no one wants to face in the city playoffs early in the season not many people would think Stepinac would make it this far. With a healthy Adrian Griffin back in the fold. It makes things more interesting as we approach the city playoffs coming soon.
During the Ravens 14 game winning streak, this team has found themselves in many close game situations where they could have lost the game, and last night was no different. Their execution proved that they are battle tested and they are aware of the challenges ahead in the city playoffs. For a team that consists of mostly sophomores and juniors, they do play a higher level of basketball.
Hayes outlasts Iona Prep
In the first semifinal game, Hayes outlasted Iona Prep 64-53. Joe Toussaint scored 20 points for Hayes while Julian Sourmaro added 19. Cardinals are will face St. Raymond’s in the championship game on Saturday at Mount St. Michael game starts at 1pm.
For years, South Bronx Prep coach Paul Campbell has never backed down from challenging his players by having them compete against schools in higher divisions. “Every year I want to challenge my kids to a more significant task I don’t care about any records, I don’t care about any of that, all I want to do is challenge my kids and prepare them for a preseason run”. Says Campbell
So far this season, the Cougars are 2-1 against the A division with wins against Dewitt Clinton and an excellent Grady team out of Brooklyn. The Cougars have proven that they can compete with A division teams, but a signature win over an AA team is something that they felt would make more noise. “Mentally I just told them to understand the magnitude of this game. They needed to know what winning this game would do for our school and our program, it’s a big deal when you have a B division school beat a team in the AA division”.
On Saturday February 2nd, the Cougars went up against James Monroe the No.3 team in the PSAL Bronx AA division as a part of the Garland Alston Memorial tournament. James Monroe was the perfect opponent for the Cougars, the third best team in the Bronx “AA” division with a league record of 9-4 and an overall record of 14-7. Players and coaches from both sides know each other well and Campbell felt right at home the 12-year head coach grew up In Bronx River houses which is a block away from James Monroe Campus.
The game was a highly competitive and low scoring affair where there were tons of ties and lead changes but the last few minutes of the fourth quarter was when the Cougars proved that they were better than most B division teams. Monroe rallied back from being down by six to take a 56-55 lead with 43 seconds remaining in the game. At that moment the Cougars found themselves in a tough situation and made a timeout to regroup. After the timeout, Sophomore guard Steven Turner found Junior Eric Davis for the game-winning three-point shot with 20 seconds left in the game to give them a 58–56 lead. With clutch free throws from senior forward Jordan Agyemang and team defense, the Cougars sealed one of their best wins in the schools’ history.
Agyemang who has experienced losing to Monroe for the past three years was excited to get the win in his last year but remained focus on his biggest goal a city title “We are happy to get this win finally, but at the same time we have bigger plans.”
The showed the Cougars how to approach different game situations, and they learned how to be resilient when they lost the lead. “I’m just proud that the kids accepted the challenge and stepped up, they didn’t give up. We had the lead then we lost the point but we didn’t quit, and we held it down. Eric made a big shot to seal the win, and Jordan hit big free throws which he has struggled with this season, and it’s amazing.
The South Bronx Prep Cougars are now 22-2 on the season and are currently ranked No.10 in the state and No. 2 in the city according to the NY State Sportswriters Association. With this recent win, the Cougars have made a statement, and that statement is they are willing to compete with anyone
At the half of Saturday’s game, Floyd “Showtime” Coleman a member of James Monroe’s 1990 city championship team was honored for his contributions to the Bronx River Community.
Rasheem Jenkins was one of NYC’s top guards during his four years at Wings Academy in The Bronx. The All-city guard then was able to play Division 1 basketball at Florida A&M and play professionally in Germany and Poland, but since he stopped playing basketball a few years ago he has used the sport he loves to help the youth in his old neighborhood of the Edenwald section of the Bronx.
“If you get mad and take off your shirt you won’t be allowed to play anymore, we are trying to teach good sportsmanship here,” Jenkins says on the microphone as he commentates one of the games at his fifth annual Grenada Blacktop Classic. It’s an event that he started a few years ago after witnessing a lack of activities for the kids in his neighborhood.
“The Idea came about when I see kids doing nothing in the park, there was no morale and the kids had no smiles on their faces so I said I’m gonna start my own tournament and that’s when I started the Blacktop classic. I wanted to give kids a tournament they can play in every weekend as long as they can get along with each other” Jenkins adds. This year’s event included a Basketball clinic in which players are taught new skills from current professional and college players who are from the area. Following the clinic, the kids participated in basketball tournaments that lasted throughout the day.
Having an event like the Blacktop Classic in Edenwald is essential because it’s an area notoriously known for violence but at the same time basketball events such as his contribute to the crime rate going down.
The Edenwald and Baychester areas have produced tons of players who have played division one basketball as well as played professionally. Two notable players from the area have made lots of noise on the college and local high school scene. Dayshon “Scoochie” Smith just came off a successful 4-year run at the University of Dayton where he led Dayton to multiple NCAA tournament appearances including a run to the elite eight in his freshman year. Smith has played professionally overseas in Australia and now plays with the Canton Charge an NBA G-league affiliate of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Then there is Dashawn “Rams” Davis, a 6-2 guard from Our Savior Lutheran, a Mr. Basketball and McDonald’s All-American nominee who recently committed to Seton Hall. These two players along with many others have benefited from the help of people in their community who have kept them on the right path. Robert “Rock” Jones a coach with the Wiz Kids and Elliot Rosado founder and CEO of Books and Ball along with many others in the Edenwald area have helped kids stay on track with the sport of Basketball. Jenkins along with his childhood friend Vance Callahan are two men who are willing to do the same. Who knows, there could be some future stars in NYC basketball who could come out of the Edenwald area thanks to the Grenada Blacktop Classic.
Rasheem Jenkins announcing the games during the 2017 Grenada Blacktop Classic
On that Sunday evening, the event left a lasting effect on the kids who were there. “When the event was over, one of the kids asked me if we were coming back tomorrow or next week. They wanted to do something like this every day that’s when I know I made an impact”. It was great to see that a lot of the kids enjoyed themselves. Some kids don’t even play basketball who enjoyed it”. With the success that his event has had this year Jenkins along with his partner Vance Callahan and others hope to expand the event by making it a few weeks during the summer. It’s a challenge that they are willing to overcome but they need help from the community. “We need more help from the parents, we would like to get them involved so we can help these kids.” Jenkins is also looking for future sponsors for his event. When the event was over, the kids asked me if we were coming back tomorrow or next week. They wanted to do this every day It was phenomenal, and that’s when I know It made an Impact.
When the event was over , the kids asked me if we were coming back tomorrow or next week. They wanted to do this everyday It was phenomenal, that’s when I know It made an Impact.
Rasheem Jenkins on the Impact of the Grenada Blacktop Classic
Jenkins has a big vision for his event as well as other things he wants to do for the youth in the future. “I’m looking to start my enrichment program soon, not just for the kids who play basketball, but also for the kids who don’t play basketball as well Some of these kids want to go D1, but they don’t realize that they need to do well in school too. These kids also need to learn how to use basketball to get a free education as well as find other career paths” Jenkins added. The fifth annual Grenada Blacktop classic is over but Jenkins is not done. Later on this fall, he will be hosting a shooting stars camp and he will also continue to work with the youth in sports programs.
As for other people in communities who are looking to do the same Jenkins has some advice “just come out and show your face, also let your voice be heard. Use your strengths to help the youth.
UPDATE: In the summer of 2018, the Grenada Blacktop Classic evolved from a weekend event to a full summer tournament which Included several divisions from Middle School Boys and Girls divisions to Men’s unlimited division. When it comes to providing for his community the tournament is just one way replans to give back. Jenkins has future plans to start his own Community Based Organization organization which revolves around on education and athletics.
Hoop Dreams NYC 
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