January
29, 2007
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| Wood-Ridge's Ed Rendzio coaching his team to a win over Leonia in the final Jambo game of Day 1. |
As if introducing a new site sponsor to go along with the five game stories and exactly 188 photos (I counted) that we posted from the five games in the first round of the Jambo weren’t enough, I decided to bang my head against the keyboard for another hour or so to pass along some observations from Day 1.
First off all, the first round this year had more buzz than another other opening day in tournament history. That is not a quantifiable stat, but in the seven years that I have covered it and the 18 years that I have paid attention to it, I’ve never seen such a madhouse (meant as a compliment) as at Paramus Catholic yesterday.
Everybody on the Bergen County hoops scene (players, coaches, administrators, Jambo committee, assorted hoops junkies and even the media) seemed to be pumped up from the get go. I am a notoriously late-arriver for games, a reputation I have carefully nurtured over the years by showing up just before (or just after) the opening whistle, but I was at Bergen Catholic by 11:20 a.m. for the Indian Hills/Cresskill noon start and I was far from the first one there.
I couldn’t even beat Jim McConville, who had covered four ice hockey games on Friday night and submitted his last story somewhere north of 2 a.m.
Although the gym never really filled up for the two games at BC, things were much different over at PC, which was just about full by halftime of QP/Garfield.
To make it all better, Garfield, the 20th seed, played a heckuva game in fighting the Griffins to the wire. Like in boxing, styles make fights and the Garfield’s slow-it-down approach vs. Q of P’s run-and-gun style brought the chess game between Boilermaker coach Chris Annibal and QP’s Bill Schoener, coaching his first Jambo game, into full view.
The stars were also out as Wayne Chrebet, the former New York Jet and Annibal’s high school teammate, was in attendance with his father supporting the hometown team.
By the time that one was over, the line to get into the gym was down the hall, out the door and into the parking lot. Some waited nearly 45 minutes to get into the gym and others, I am sure, never made it at all.
That issue is one that is weighing on the minds of the Jambo Committee. With Hackensack High School and its 3,000-seat gym out of play because of the increased municipal costs associated with using it and the 1,100-seat gym at Paramus High School out of play this year because of construction, PC was the best option and it has plenty of parking.
It is also impossible to predict attendance for any given year. Had the committee known 2,000-plus people would have shown up for Day 1, the increased costs at Hackensack would have been offset. But what if only 1,000 showed up? The Jambo, and its scholarship fund that handed out 27K in awards last year, would have taken a bath.
This year is probably an exception more than a rule because there are so many parallel stories going on in addition to the on-the-court action.
Many of those stories have to do with Westwood. The Cardinals, who are tied for first place in the BCSL-American Division, were greeted with a surprisingly low 16th seeded considering their past success and tough schedule.
The case that the BCSL-American is the second best hoops league in Bergen County behind the NNJIL was pretty much cemented yesterday. The league went 2-0 while Ridgefield Park and Englewood had first round byes, and the league’s play gives a second thought to the exclusion of Rutherford, which beat Englewood, the No. 8 seed, during the regular season, but was not granted entry with its 9-6 record at the cutoff.
Just about all of Westwood, a school district fresh off celebrating its state football title, showed up en masse to support the Cardinals and those that were in attendance for the first game stuck around to get another look at Corey Raji, the Westwood senior who has over 2,000 career points and is heading to BC next year.
Westwood made a statement by pretty much putting the game away in 10 minutes and it only adds intrigue to next week when St. Joseph’s reward for being a finalist last year and gaining this year’s No. 1 seed turns into a Round of 16 matchup against the county’s best player.
Westwood's solid performance led right into the Leonia/Wood-Ridge game, which was the marquee matchup of the first round. Wood-Ridge has been hovering around a breakthrough in the county and state tournaments for the last few years and, with a shot as the underdog against a fellow Group 1 school, the Blue Devils put on a show.
They play fast and loose, but there is a method to the madness as Wood-Ridge blitzes passing lanes, switches and switches back in its hustling man-to-man defense and goes hard to the basket on the offensive end with an undersized lineup.
Good for Anthony Taborda, the Wood-Ridge senior, who scored 31 points and silenced any ‘can’t win the big one’ critics who for some reason have rode him hard for the last three years. It’s not like Wood-Ridge is Jersey City in terms of depth of talent and that the Blue Devils ran off a 27-game winning streak in the BCSL-National Division that was only recently snapped should have been more than enough for the naysayers.
Wood-Ridge’s win means the tournament will move on with just one 2,000-point scorer as Leonia’s Ahmad Hassan exits. The Leonia senior, who has had a brilliant varsity career and has the Lions undefeated in league play, is 40 points away from the career milestone. Hassan will either pass the mark on Tuesday at Pal Park or on Thursday at Cresskill.
If he does it on Tuesday it will be in the same gym that Cresskill head coach Marty Rivard broke the all-time record for wins by a Bergen County boys coach earlier this season. C’mon go easy, Pal Park is my alma mater.
OBSERVATIONS: Here’s another reason why I am a fan of Garfield head coach Chris Annibal. With 11 seconds to go and when it finally became apparent that the Boilermakers weren’t going to pull the upset, one of his players was guilty of a hard foul, a border line hack that could have been called intentional.
As the teams headed to the other end for the QP free throws, Annibal pulled his player toward the bench and sternly, but not hysterically, explained that the way his players repesent the basketball program and greater Garfield as a whole, was just as important as winning a game.
It was one of those great pieces of coaching that usually goes unnoticed in the grand scheme of things.
The last two times I have seen Annibal coach tournament games I have come away impressed with his approach and his players’ ability to execute against long odds. In 2005, the Boilermakers were outgunned by Ramapo in the opening round of the North 1, Group 3 state sectionals, but they almost pulled an upset that would have changed history. That Ramapo team went on to win the section title and give Shabazz all it could handle in the Group 3 semifinals.
Indian Hills head coach Kevin McBain won his first Jambo game and so did all of his players, none of whom were in high school the last time the Braves were in the tournament. Wood-Ridge’s Ed Rendzio also broke through this year and the Blue Devils are fun to watch.
QP’s Bill Schoener made no bones about his desire to reach the Jambo when I covered him earlier this season in a win over Rutherford, no bones about his excitement, even after a loss to Ridgefield Park, when his team had already clinched a spot and he’s got the Griffins playing well at the right time, adding Sunday’s Jambo win to the upset of Westwood last week.
All this, and the ‘Big Boys’ haven’t even taken the floor yet.
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