Mike Grenier
In The Paint
Mike Grenier
Perhaps nothing gets a crowd more pumped up in high school basketball than an authoritative dunk. More often than not, it lifts people out of their seats.
Fans are also fascinated by great three-point shooting, or by anyone who scores a ton of points.
But rebounding? Who notices? Who cares?
Well, Salem High's Derek McIntyre cares. So do Pat Connaughton of St. John's Prep and Jordan Smith of North Shore Tech.
Depending on how much the coach's message gets through to them, some players understand the significance of rebounding in the grand scheme that leads to winning. In any given year, there are a lot of pretty good rebounders out there.
McIntyre, Connaughton and Smith happen to take eating glass to another level. They don't mind getting knocked around underneath. They treat every rebound as precious. They're hungry for the ball and they're willing to do anything to get it to it first.
McIntyre is only 6-foot-3, 180 pounds, yet he's averaging 14.2 rebounds for the Salem Witches. Connaughton, who goes 6-4 and plays like a guard, pulls down a whopping 18 rebounds a game and sometimes reaches the 20s. Then there's the 6-5 Smith, who averages 13.8 rebounds even though he's sat out a lot of minutes in North Shore Tech's blowout wins.
McIntyre is a vision when he attacks the glass — quick off his feet, quick with the putbacks, a terrific leaper who refuses to give up an any errant shot.
"Rebounding has always been a big aspect of my game," said McIntyre, who is often going up against bigger, stronger players in the Northeastern Conference. "When I was younger, I could always jump higher than other kids for rebounds and I'd block a lot of shots. It wasn't until I got to Salem High that it became more like another skill that you learn. Coach Tommy Doyle and his staff teach us the rest of that stuff, like boxing out."
While it may seem like an individual skill, McIntyre believes that overall team aggressiveness opens things up for him as a rebounder.
"Getting into position is a big thing," he said. "You want to have (inside) position, but it's also about not being satisfied with being on someone's back. And (rebounding) is not all me. When my teammates are crashing (the boards), I'm able to get the ball a lot easier."
McIntyre checks the coaching staff's rebounding chart after games. It doesn't matter if he's scored 10 or 15 points. He wants to know if he's done enough on the glass to help his team win.
That kind of attitude impresses coach Doyle.
"What he does for us rebounding and defensively does not go unnoticed," said Doyle. "He's extremely valuable to our team. He plays the top of our zone and with his long reach he makes it difficult for teams to pass, yet he still drops down close to the basket and gets 15, 16 rebounds. That's not easy to do.
"Derek focuses on rebounding and defense," continued Doyle. "He takes it personally. He understands that the game is so much more than scoring. Rebounding is grunt work, dirty work and we can always count on him to do it. When he's rebounding and blocking shots, it's one of the sparks that gets the team hyped."
McIntyre is aiming for a 20-rebound game this season. Although Salem doesn't play St. John's Prep, he's noticed that Connaughton has attained that number and then some. More than anything, he realizes that any huge rebounding game will help the Witches win. From afar, he respects the way Connaughton goes after it.
"I take a lot of pride in rebounding," said McIntyre, who toughened up on the football field as a defensive tackle for the Witches last season. "I see that Connaughton gets a lot of rebounds; he's a really good player. To be put in a category with him (as a rebounder) feels great."
Connaughton leads the North Shore in scoring at23 points per game, yet he puts as much effort and energy into rebounding as he does in creating offense. It's not uncommon to see his stat line include 20 rebounds to go with 30 points. He puts up crazy numbers that make your eyes blink when you read them in the newspaper.
"It's not like we have a true center, so for Pat to be able to do what he does is unbelievable," said St. John's Prep coach Sean Connolly, whose team is 16-1. "I just think he makes up his mind to get the ball. He goes after it harder than anybody else."
Connaughton had another outrageous game Friday night, putting up 32 points and 23 rebounds against Xaverian. He says that while playing ball as a kid, his father, Len, would emphasize rebounding, so he's always been conscious of it.
He views every rebound as a possible four-point swing in a game.
"You've got to attack the ball," said Connaughton, who isn't exactly the biggest kid around at 188 pounds. "When you rebound, it not only gives your team another (two or three point) opportunity, but it takes away an opportunity for the team you're playing against."
Connaughton has the mentality of a rebounder with regard to his willingness to throw his body around. At the same time, he's smart enough to avoid foul trouble. He understands that his team needs him to score and play defense, too.
"It makes you tougher when you go inside to rebound," said Connaughton. "If you want to succeed in that aspect of the game, you have to have that sense of toughness. I think it gets you more into the game when you're mixing it up underneath."
Connaughton insists he still hasn't achieved his rebounding goal at St. John's.
"I'd like to put up a few 30-rebound games before I'm done," he said.
At 6-foot-5, Smith is taller than either McIntyre or Connaughton and in the Commonwealth Coast Conference, he sometimes makes it look like it's man against boys when he attacks the glass. One referee told Tech coach Jody Norton that Smith is the best pure shot blocker he's seen this season, but Norton points to Smith's rebounding as integral to the team's success (12-6).
"Jordan has athleticism, great hands and long arms, but the biggest thing is being hungry for the ball," said Norton. "He's come up big for us against the better teams we play. Most of the single digit rebounding games have come when we've had big leads and he's on the bench."
McIntyre, Connaughton and Smith won't be spending much time on the bench in a couple of weeks when the state tournament is under way. Their teams will be counting on them — heavily — for rebounding and other things that don't show up in the box score.
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Michael Carter-Williams of Hamilton missed 10 games earlier this season with a torn hip flexor, so it's nice to see good things happening again to him in his junior season at St. Andrew's School in Barrington, R.I.
Carter-Williams, a super talented 6-foot-5 junior point guard who has verbally committed to Syracuse, eclipsed 1,000 career points last week when he scored 14 against Tabor Academy, bringing his total to 1,004. What's remarkable is that he accomplished the feat in just 60 high school games.
The new milestone probably wasn't even on his mind this past weekend when he played in the National Prep School Invitational at the University of Rhode Island, where he had a total of 73 points, 11 assists and 14 rebounds in two games. Carter-Williams was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.
Carter-Williams played 19 games at Hamilton-Wenham Regional his freshman season before switching to St. Andrew's, where he developed into a big time college prospect. This season he's averaging 15.8 points, five assists and eight rebounds.
He'll be a busy kid during the summer. Among other things, Carter-Williams has been invited to the NBA Development Top 100 camp. Past campers have included Kobe Bryant, Joe Johnson and many other NBA standouts.
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North Shore Invitational alert: The popular tournament is set for this holiday weekend at Danvers High. The opening round on Saturday has St. John's Prep taking on Bishop Fenwick at 4 p.m. and Beverly going against Danvers at 8 p.m. The consolation and championship games take place on the Presidents Day holiday Monday.
St. John's Prep will be heavily favored to win it all.
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Ipswich (3-14) is nowhere close to making the state tourney, but promising young players such as Colin Smith and Brendan Gallagher are getting valuable experience. Smith is a 6-3 freshman who is back in the starting rotation and Gallagher is a 5-8 sophomore point guard.
"Smith has size and his fundamentals are very good," said Ipswich coach Alan Laroche. "He's someone that teams will be keying on in the future. With Gallagher, we're living with his sophomore decisions, but he sees the floor the best out of all our guards. Having him run the show now will pay dividends for us later."
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In The Paint, a column on North Shore boys high school basketball, runs every Tuesday during the season in the Salem News. To reach Mike Grenier, call 978-338-2676 or e-mail mgrenier@salemnews.com.
