South Brunswick boys basketball will look to rely on experience this season
Coming into the 2016-17 season, the South Brunswick boys basketball team has had to take the good with the bad.
The good news is the Vikings return a number of players who are coming off of a season in which they finished 22-5, advanced to their first Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament final since 1993 and to the NJSIAA Central Group IV semifinals.
The bad news is they also lost a few starters to graduation, namely Eric Savage, a four-year starter and a 2015-16 Home News Tribune All-Area Boys Basketball First Team selection, who averaged almost 21 points a game, as well as Jaier Garrett (8.5 ppg.) and Danesh Thirukumaran, who was a big threat from 3-point range.
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"I think we’re looking pretty good, we’re definitely going to be competitive this year, we lost a lot of seniors to graduation, particularly Eric Savage, who was a four-year player for us," said South Brunswick coach Joe Hoehman, who was named the HNT All-Area Boys Basketball Coach of the Year last season. "We’re trying to find the guys to fill the different roles and replace the seniors, but this group we have this year is also a very competitive group, some of them, Mike Ugarte, Ryan Moran, they made some big shots last year, Chris James had his time late in the year, and we have a good core of seniors who will be fresh on the scene on the varsity level."
Ugarte, a 6-foot-1 senior guard who averaged 12.4 points per game last season, will be looked to for leadership after playing and practicing with the varsity team the last three years. Hoehman believes he will be the team's leading scorer, while senior guards Chris James and Tavion Alford, along with senior point guard Chris Lee, will also be looked to to step up and fill the holes left behind.
Senior guard Ryan Moran (5.6 ppg.) will also be an important piece in the lineup as Hoehman will look to utilize a number of newcomers from the JV squad that advanced to the GMC Tournament final the last two seasons.
Senior guard Kunal Thakral, a JV player from last year, will be in the mix, senior Anthony Blakey will be playing some point guard as well and senior Victor Heutz will probably get the start at center most games.
"They’ve been pretty competitive all through their high school careers, the core group made it to the finals of their respective tournaments the last four years, so we’re hoping they can make the jump," Hoehman said. "Sometimes it’s a big jump from JV to varsity, but we have a large group of seniors and we hope we can find the pieces we need to be successful."
With all the success both the JV and varsity team has had, Hoehman believes it's made his players more determined to work hard in order to get back and enjoy success in both the county and state tournaments.
"I think it definitely helped us, the guys are hungrier now. With our first trip to the championship in 20-some years for our school, it’s created a buzz around campus, people want to come out to our games and we had a big following at the end of last year," Hoehman said. "I think that’s helped us, that excitement of being there, I think we handled it well, being in a championship game and I think they kind of want to get back there and hopefully try and win one this year."
In order to do that, the Vikings will have to get past some pretty stiff competition. St. Joseph (Met.), which won its sixth GMC Tournament title in seven years last season, will be one of the teams to beat in the GMC Red Division, despite the graduation of Breein Tyree (16.2 ppg.) and Tyus Battle (19.1 ppg.). South Brunswick also scrimmaged against White Division teams Sayreville and Woodbridge and according to Hoehman both games were very competitive.
"I think the Red Division will be tough, Piscataway brings back a lot, Old Bridge is a tough match and I think Perth Amboy could sneak some teams, they’re playing very well," Hoehman said. "I think it’s going to be a battle every night."
South Brunswick opens its season on Friday at home against Old Bridge, and Hoehman is excited to get out on the court, get the season started and see what his team can do.
"The offseason is always long and we just get super excited around this time of year, excited for opening night, the guys are amped up to get the season going, but just getting back into the competitive mode night in and night out, that’s where all your hard work all year pays off," Hoehman said. "We try to train our guys to work as hard as possible in practice so games are easier and more enjoyable, and we’re hoping we worked hard enough to make that a reality."
AROUND THE LEAGUE
J.P. Stevens graduated five seniors from last year's team, and will miss the scoring from Alex Corrigan (13.6 ppg.) and Mike Lionikis (14 ppg.), but defensive standout Javon Scott returns and Rhishav Ghosh (6.2 ppg.) was the sixth man of the year last year in the GMC. Elijah Smith will jump into a starting role after missing last year because of eligibility and Jared Baptist, a transfer, will add some scoring punch.
Darius Griffin, who played basketball at Rutgers and coached with Bob Turco and Antoine Allen, takes over at Piscataway this season. Griffin expects his players to run, press opponents and play great defense in order to win games.
With the graduation of Tyus Battle (19.1 ppg., 7.5 rpg.), Breein Tyree (16.2 ppg., 4.8 rpg.) and Branislav Vujadinovic (7.4 ppg., 3.8 rpg., 2.3 apg.), and with junior Alanzo Frink (12 ppg., 7.7 rpg.) and senior Xavier Townes, who transferred to Sayreville, also gone, St. Joseph (Met.) will be a young team that has very little varsity experience this season. St. Joseph has a very talented group of incoming freshmen that will help to lead the team back to the GMC Tournament final and the state tournament, but the season will depend on how quickly the team can gel and how fast the younger players adjust to playing at the varsity level.
After losing six seniors to graduation, including Chase Barneys (19.7 ppg., 4 apg.) and Kolby Chapman (15.9 ppg., 2 apg.), Colonia is looking to reload under first-year coach Brandon Hall. Hall played at Colonia from 2004-08 where the team won four-straight White Division titles, as well as the 2006 GMC Tournament title and sectional title in 2007. Hall won the MAAC Tournament at St. Peter's University, and was the JV/assistant varsity coach at Woodbridge from 2012-16. Having returning juniors Frank Lehman and Kristian Chapman, along with St. Joseph (Met.) transfers Luke Valeriano and Tim Carroll will be a plus for such a young group. Chris Sica and Oliver French will both have an upgraded role as front court players this year, along with Connor Bevilacqua and Chris Pannone on the perimeter. Forwards Matt Zweibel, Eric Marcus and Sarim Saqib will look to add leadership.
Coach Sebastian de Voogd took over at J.F. Kennedy this season after coaching the JV team at the middle school level last season. He was also an assistant coach at New Providence and South Plainfield, played college basketball at St. Peter's University and played professionally in Europe for six years. This season, even though the Mustangs return five seniors, they will face the challenge of moving up to the White Division. Bendji Pierre, Tamaj Coleman, Peter Obertan, Kobie Wells and Carlton Sears are competing for starting positions, and the team will look to Coleman and Obertan for leadership in order to reach its goals this year.
After a season in which Linden advanced to the Tournament of Champions final for the first time since 2006 last season, and only lost four players from that team, including Tafari Lowe (4.4 rpg.), Josiah King, William Phelps (13.8 ppg., 6 rpg.) and Fritz Moncion (5 ppg., 4.6 rpg.). The Tigers will return a ton of experience as Joey Krempa, Mikey Watkins, Tavon Jones, Khalief Crawford and Derrick Lewis are the projected starting five.
Staff Writer Lauren Knego: lknego@gannettnj.com; on Twitter: @laurenknego
HNT/GMC PRESEASON TOP 10
1. Linden (25-6)
2. South Brunswick (22-5)
3. St. Joseph (22-6)
4. Woodbridge (20-6)
5. East Brunswick (18-9)
6. Sayreville (18-10)
7. Colonia (16-9)
8. Spotswood (22-6)
9. Old Bridge (18-9)
10. J.P. Stevens (15-9)