GMC Championship Preview

To me, this is the most intriguing matchup the county championship game could ask for. Anything less would not be representing the best two teams in the county. These two clearly are. Saint Joe's is coming into the game with a 2007 Patriots (gulp) record of 18-0 in conference play and 21-4 overall. They ahve only 2 in-state losses to the 3rd and 5th best teams in St. Anthony and Plainfield and those are the only 2 games they've lost in 2 months. Monroe comes into the game with a 13-1 record (their only loss being to New Brunswick by 2 in the beginning of January.) Their other 2 losses came to Ridge and Brick Memorial. One of the interesting stories to go along with this game is that the head coaches of both teams, Bob and Dave Turco are brothers. They have never faced each other as head coaches so it will be interesting to see who can go 1-0 against the other. These two teams have been two of the more dominant teams over the past few years so it is surprising to see that this is only the first time they're meeting, but it should be a great game.

Although Born Power Index has us as a 3.5 underdog, I really don't see us as one. We have a couple things heavily leaning in our direction. The first is that we've been here back to back years and this is our third time in a row. Normally if you have 3 chances in a row, unless you're the 1990's Buffalo Bills, you'll win one of the three times. We were just outmatched last year but as I make mention in one of my earlier blogs, the Cardinal McCarrick game 2 years ago was bullshit. It was the worst officiated game I've ever seen. There was so many out of bounds against McCarrick they didn't call and these absurdly ticky-tack fouls called against us that McCarrick never got. It was a HORRIBLY officiated game so I'm really hoping that this year's the year we get our first county title since back with Jay Williams at the end of the 1990's. Another thing in our favor is that this is Monroe's first county championship game so obviously that should be a advantage to Joe's because they're more used to the big games. St. Joe's also has a more veteran team than Monroe. Obviously, both teams have a few seniors like Steve Rennard, Ken Pace, Andrew Morgan, Tim Brix, Blake Bascom, etc., but Monroe uses a lot more younger players than we do such as Ahmid Williams and Danny Brix, so it will be interesting how they fare against our juniors who play. I think defensively we could have a good day as well because in the couple games I've seen Monroe play, they don't look great offensively. They were much better than New Brunswick in the game they played and almost coughed up a 17 point lead in the 4th quarter vs. Sayreville the other night. Their offense does look stagnant at times which is why I like our chances to win this game. Another reason why I like our chances is plain and simpe, we have played like shit our last 2 games. We limped out of the starting game vs. Cardinal McCarrick before outscoring them 52-29 the rest of the game after falling behind early 20-7. Then we played close with Spotswood. After they had a 6-0 run to take the lead back at 38-37, we went on a 11-0 run of our own over the final 6:22 to win 48-38. One of these games, we are going to play great, because we are due to have one. Both of the last 2 games are as sloppy a basketball game as you're ever going to see. Monroe, on the other hand, as besides the scare of Wednesday night has destroyed their competition in the prior 3 rounds of this tournament. It should be a great game and I expect the game to go down to the wire with Quenton DeCosey and Rob Ashamole to make the difference for Joe's and guys like Danny Brix and Ahmid Williams to make the difference for Monroe. In the end, I expect Steve to pull this one out and finally establish himself as one of St. Joe's elite. As I said in another one of my blogs, you can't be considered one of a program's best players without walkin away with a county, sectional or state tournament victory. Today I think he gets it done and hopefully fine tunes us for an even tougher matchup Friday night against CBA.

#1 St. Joe's+3.5 over #2 Monroe by 5, 63-58