BOYS BASKETBALL: REBOUNDS SUMMER LEAGUE NOTEBOOK

By Scott Stump - Senior Editor
E-mail: stump@digitalsports.com

     NEPTUNE - With the summer league at Rebounds in full swing after two full weeks of play, I stopped by to catch up on some off-season news on the hardwood during Wednesday's action and see how everyone was doing in a time where coaches are looking to get everyone on the same page and see who will be contributors in the upcoming season.
     First off, if you want to check out the league for yourself, there's a $3 admission fee, and games start at 5:15 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays and run all the way until the last games tip off at 9:15 p.m. There are four games going simultaneously, so just click on the link for Rebounds above and check out the schedule, which runs from June 18 to July 21. Most of the teams from the Shore Conference are there, with the notable exceptions of Christian Brothers Academy, Monsignor Donovan and the Central squad that features standout point guard Ibn Moye.
    Toms River North, which is now under newly hired head coach Chris Kane, is not participating in the 37-team league this summer after originally signing up, according to league director and Neptune head coach Ken O'Donnell.
     Now, let's get to some notes:

     ---Rumson-Fair Haven, which has high hopes under second-year coach James Young after a big turnaround season, was without its top two players, guards Matt Blumel and James LeCardi, and dropped a game to Keansburg. Blumel and LeCardi are out with minor injuries, but one player to watch is senior forward/center Justin Hook. He continues to add bulk and with good leaping ability, he could become a huge difference-maker in the winter. If he provides enough of a scoring threat on the block, it frees things up on the perimeter for Blumel, LeCardi and the other Bulldogs guards and gives them more flexibility offensively.

     ---Keansburg senior Carl Williams, who transferred from Academy Charter two years ago, could be this year's Josh Vital for the Titans. Vital was an all-Class B Central selection as a senior this year and was a dangerous rebounder and finisher on the break. Just like Vital, Williams needs to work on his jumper, but he's a good athlete who looks to be Keansburg's best interior player for coach Tom O'Keefe.

     ---I am officially old. A player who was playing when I first started covering sports at the Shore is now a head boys basketball coach, as former Point Boro standout Mike Puorro is Wall's new head man. I just missed him the other night, but several coaches said he has been there working with the Crimson Knights. He also was right there for the Brick job, but after two years as an assistant at Barnegat, where he was also the head golf coach, he ended up taking over at Wall. As for another open job, Ocean, coaches were saying that a parent or parents have been standing in as the Spartans coach this summer.

     ---Middletown South, another team with high expectations for the upcoming season after winning its first sectional title since 1979, pulled out a late win over St. John Vianney while playing without junior standout center Kyle Cancillieri. The Eagles are breaking in a new point guard, junior Pat O'Connell, who will be taking over for the graduated Garret Thiel, who was a first-team DigitalSports All-Shore Conference player this past winter. O'Connell is a transfer from Red Bank Catholic, and he looks to be more of a distributor and defender than a scorer (as Thiel was) because of the return of Cancillieri and the continued improvement of 6-foot-5 senior Matt Callori, a match-up nightmare who can score inside or shoot over shorter defenders from behind the arc.
       O'Connell is also no stranger to the Eagles' personnel.
       "I've been playing with Matt since I was sixth grade, and Kyle since I was seven or eight years old,'' O'Connell said. "We're like brothers.''
       O'Connell's presence also means that fans might see some more fast breaks and up-tempo play this year, as Thiel was more of a two-guard who played point guard out of necessity last year, so the Eagles didn't push the ball very much. That also attracted O'Connell to want to make the switch from RBC. Also, judging by Wednesday night, this team will be able to bury people with 3-pointers. Callori's brother, Rob, in particular, will launch it from the parking lot with accuracy.
       "It wasn't just the fact that they won the (Central Jersey Group III) championship, I just like the way they played and how they run their offense,'' O'Connell said.
      Also, one Eagles game to definitely circle on the calendar is a meeting with Neptune at the annual Battle on the Boardwalk at Convention Hall. Middletown South stunned Neptune in the Central Jersey Group III final last season, and you can tell the Scarlet Fliers are eager for revenge, as they already beat the Eagles by 30 in their one meeting this summer at Rebounds.

     ---Watch out for Lakewood sophomore Jarrod Davis. He looks like he's grown about another two or three inches and is pushing 6-foot-6 while also having added about 10-15 pounds. He has great leaping ability and threw down an alley-oop even though he was off balance and had to grab it with a different hand than he intended in a game on Wednesday night. He also showed good 3-point range. He played heavy minutes as a freshman and has the potential to be one of the top players in the Shore this season if he is consistent.

     ---Even in a league that has the team from Neptune, which returns its four top star guards (D.J. Gutridge, Lem Walker, Jabari Joyner and Thomas Jones) and is still searching for a consistent inside presence, the team that several coaches were buzzing about is Monmouth. The Falcons return Joe Willman, Anthony Gibson, Neil Thompson, Austin Whitehurst and more from last season's Shore Conference Tournament semifinalists. Willman, in particular, has drawn raves, and Gibson has packed on some more muscle that should help him continue to be one of the better offensive rebounding guards in the conference. Thompson is a bottle of lightning, and if he is consistent this season as a junior, look out.

     ---Class B North is going to be a war this season, because besides Neptune and Monmouth, Freehold has also been excellent in the summer league this far. Junior swingman Christian Garcia has added more size and is working on a consistent jumper to complement his strong slashing ability off the dribble. You might see the Colonials play a little more small ball with center Brandon Carter having graduated, with a lineup of Garcia, Lance McKenzie at the point, Gerry Plescia at 2-guard, athletic guard and football star Brandon Brown as another guard and slashing swingman Andrew Gerbehy, who also might be the team's best 3-point shooter, at another spot. That's a team that could cause some serious trouble in the open floor, and they are unbeaten at Rebounds.

     ---Watch out for Marlboro. Matt Migliori's squad has just about everyone back after playing numerous sophomores last year. The Mustangs pushed Manasquan hard on Wednesday night and have a strong group of stocky guards who never stop moving. They showed flashes last year by beating Middletown South and Freehold Township in a span of four days, so now the goal is to compete night-in and night-out in the always rugged Class A North.

     --Freehold Township senior Matt Devine has the potential to be one of the top five players in the Shore in the winter. Last season, he was effective as a spot-up 3-point shooter who occasionally put the ball on the floor. At about 6-foot-5, Devine has added size and strength and has added more of a post-up game to his strong shooting, so look for him more on the block this season. The Patriots are looking for him to be their offensive horse, and they have looked strong thus far this summer.
       "Matt Devine's been working a lot on his inside presence because everybody knows he can shoot,'' said Patriots senior Tyler McKinnon, who should be one of the top returning point guards next season. "He's been working hard on it and he's getter better.''
       Another player to keep an eye on is 6-foot-4 forward Stephen Talbott, a good all-around athlete who can finish inside.
      "We tried to get Talbott out of his shell last year, because he can be an offensive and defensive threat,'' McKinnon said. "He's definitely becoming a force.''
      Another Patriots note is that they have scheduled a regular-season game with Freehold, which should be a barn-burner considering Freehold shocked the Patriots in the Shore Conference Tournament on a last-second lay-up by McKenzie this past season.

     --Manasquan has been playing well this summer under new head coach Andrew Bilodeau, who left Toms River North to take over for Kurt Fenchel with the Warriors. One player who seems poised for a breakout season is junior Matt Vadas, who will be teaming with sharpshooter Kyle Wehner to lead the usual up-tempo attack. His absence due to injury in the latter stages of last season showed his importance to this team. He was burying threes right and left in a game against Marlboro on Wednesday, but that's not the part of his game that he has been working the hardest on.
       "I know my shooting is going to be there, so it's more moving without the ball and scoring inside,'' Vadas said.
      Bilodeau has not made too many wholesale changes, either, which has eased the transition.
      "It's hard getting a new coach just before the summer, but we all like him and we're getting used to each other,'' Vadas said. "It's going to be run-and-gun, same as last year.''

     ---Toms River South returns four starters from a team that hovered around .500 most of last year, and its best player, DigitalSports Baseball Player of the Year Tyler Gebler, is trying to juggle his allegiance to his two favorite sports, although baseball is going to be his ticket to college. Gebler missed an American Legion baseball game on Wednesday to play at Rebounds.
        "I've grown up playing basketball and baseball, so I just want to make the best of it,'' Gebler said. "Basketball definitely keeps me in a shape. There's a lot more running.''

      ---In the age of $4 gas, Pinelands still makes the 110-mile round trip two days a week to Neptune for the summer league as it tries to replace six of its nine top scorers from last season.
         "I hadn't thought about that (gas money) until a parent brought it up,'' Pinelands coach John Tierney said before chuckling. "We used to play in a league down in Egg Harbor, and when we ran into teams from the Shore Conference during the season, we would be a little nervous. Playing up here helps the guys get familiar with the other Shore teams.''

     ---Finally, keep an eye on Jackson Liberty center Hunter Forsman, who is about 6-foot-5 and is still a little raw in some aspects but has a big body and is very active. He is a solid rebounder and a good finisher, as his dunk over a Long Branch player on Wednesday will attest. He might be one of the more underrated big men in the Shore next year.

       Well, that's it for now, and next week I'll be stopping in to check on some of the other teams that I didn't really get to see as well as see how the summer is going on the girls basketball side.