Mike Grenier
In The Paint
Mike Grenier
The honeymoon is officially over for the St. John's Prep basketball team.
But here's the good news: the Eagles know it — and plan to do something about it.
St. John's was the feel-good story of the season on the North Shore, morphing from a perennial one-and-done tournament team into a unit that threatened to go all the way in Division 1.
The catalysts on the floor were 6-foot-4 junior Pat Connaughton (24 points, 17 rebounds per game), 6-4 1/2 sophomore Steve Haladyna (14 ppg, 9 rpg). and head coach Sean Connolly, who steered the Eagles to a 21-3 record and their best season since 1974 in just his second year.
Everyone talked about the new mentality at the Prep, specifically the team's toughness. The word that was often used by rivals, including Central Catholic superstar Carson Desrosiers and his coach, Ricky Nault, was that this Prep team was "different."
It was all true.
St. John's held off a very good East Boston team, 60-56, in the Division 1 North quarterfinals and, in one of the classic games in the program's history, topped Lynn English, 79-78, in the semifinals before an overflow throng of 3,477 at the Salem High fieldhouse.
The Eagles then lost to a superior Central Catholic team, 74-62, at the TD Garden in the North final, but the overall message was that St. John's Prep will be heard from — perhaps in an even bigger way — next season.
However, even with all five starters slated to return, there's no guarantee that St. John's Prep can reach the state championship game in March 2011. It's not just about talent; team chemistry and injuries play into it, and even the best clubs need luck along the way.
The Eagles will be the hunted rather than the hunters, but the players and coaches already understand that to be the case nine months before the opening game. They won't be in a position to surprise anybody. The key is to be good enough to avoid surprises from opposing teams.
"We'll definitely have a target on our backs," said Connaughton, who plans on improving his outside game, among other things, in the offseason. "We saw that a little bit this year when we started off 14-0. St. John's hasn't been known as a basketball (power), but now every team wants to take us down. We'll have to be tougher and bring our best game every night."
Haladyna has dropped any thought of playing other sports at the Prep because he wants to concentrate on basketball. He's starting to tap into his potential and he wants to do his part in taking the Eagles to the next plateau.
"We have to put in a lot of work in the offseason," said Haladyna. "We're losing kids like (defensive specialist) George Sessoms and (outside threat) Tripp (Doherty), so we have to make up for it."
The Eagles do have some substantial pieces of the puzzle coming back. In addition to Connaughton and Haladyna, long distance shooter Mike Carbone will be a junior, point guard Conor Macomber will be a senior and underrated forward Mackenzie Burt will be a senior. All of them started and got significant minutes this season. Burt showed what he could do on the biggest stage, scoring 19 points against Central Catholic in the season-ending tourney loss at the Garden.
But as Coach Nault masterfully demonstrated in Central Catholic's state title win over St. John's of Shrewsbury in Worcester last Saturday night, when he didn't hesitate to use six guards in a close game, the best teams also have depth. That's going to be a key for St. John's next season: developing a long bench that can really contribute.
Owen Marchetti gave the Prep some promising moments as a sophomore, as did 6-2 freshman Nick McKenna. Chris Flood, who'll be a senior, also returns, but what's down on the farm? Who will be able to make the transition from the junior varsity or freshman team? Connolly needs more bodies to make the Eagles the kind of team he wants it to be.
"It was a great thing for the program to have the season we did, but we want it to be more than once every 20 years," said Connolly. "We want to build on what we did and go even deeper in the tournament.
"Division 1 North is so tough," he added. "There are no guarantees we're going to get back (to the Garden), but the best way is by taking advantage of the talent we already have and adding to it. We weren't that deep at the end of the season. We were playing 7-8 guys, but I'd really like to see us with 11-12 kids who can contribute. Central Catholic had 10 very good players. That's the direction we want to take."
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The Salem High players weren't in the best mood after losing to Falmouth in the Division 2 state semifinal at the Garden last week, but they're likely to remember it as a night that they also got to tour the Celtics locker room.
"It was a great opportunity for our kids to get in there and see what it's like," said Salem coach Tommy Doyle. "They were actually sitting in the chairs that the Celtics players use. I thought that was an awesome thing for them."
Salem, which went 19-8 and advanced to a state semifinal at the Garden for the first time since 1995, should be a tourney factor again next season. Its top two scorers are back in guards Antonio Reyes (19.4 ppg) and Raphy Medrano (14.5). Raphy's twin brother, Dario, who was injured for the second half of the season and missed the state tourney, should have a much larger impact.
Brad Skeffington, the football quarterback who played a valuable role for Doyle, is also back along with 5-9 guard Chris Dunston, who'll be just a sophomore.
"Reyes might be like a point center for us next year," Doyle said of his team leader. "We'll have a bunch of guards, but it looks like we'll be small. We need some 'bigs' and kids who can rebound."
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Hamilton-Wenham coach Doug Hoak, who guided the Generals to a 16-4 mark, talked about how much he'll miss Cape Ann League Small Player of the Year Matt Cook, a senior who led the Generals in scoring, rebounding, assists, defensive execution and leadership.
On the other hand, CAL coaching rivals might envy the returning talent, including guards Steve Tam and Isaac Carp, forward/center Chris Hamilton and forward Jake Prince. Hendrickson had a couple of 20-point games off the bench this season and the 6-3 Prince, who averaged eight points and eight rebounds, brings football toughness to the court.
However, there is uncertainty surrounding Tam (10 ppg.), who may opt to go back to Brimmer & May prep school for his junior year. Tam spent his freshman season at Brimmer & May, which is in Chestnut Hill.
"We'll just have to wait and see how that turns out," Hoak said of Tam's situation. "For now I just want our team to draw from the experience they had this season (winning a Division 3 North tourney game to advance to the semifinals)."
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Can't remember the last time we had as many dramatic state tourney finishes as we had this season. From this basketball junkie's vantage point, it felt like Groundhog Day, with one classic finish after another.
The best postseason games this reporter saw, in no particular order:
St. John's Prep 79, Lynn English 78 (Division 1 North semifinal): Just about the greatest atmosphere you could ever envision, with 3,477 fans occupying every inch of the Salem High fieldhouse. Salem athletic director Scott Connolly said fans who couldn't park anywhere near the building were still streaming in late in the third quarter. Lynn English hit a three at the buzzer to make it a one-point game and, strangely enough, some of the English players thought they'd won because of the malfunctioning digital readout on the bench side of the floor.
Salem 70, Dracut 67 (Division 2 North semifinal): Salem's dynamic junior guard, Raphy Medrano, drains a very deep, stepback three-pointer at the buzzer.
Salem 74, Masconomet 71 (Division 2 North quarterfinals): The Witches overcome a 12-point deficit in the third quarter as Reyes takes over and finishes with 37 points. Masco misses the last second shot that could've tied it.
Salem 61, Brighton 59 (Division 2 North first round): Salem is in serious trouble, trailing by one with less than a minute left, but Reyes hits a difficult three from the corner with 27 seconds left to put his team up by two. Salem's defense then shuts down Brighton on four consecutive inbounds passes in the final 7.4 seconds.
Reading 69, Beverly 67 (Division 2 North first round): This is the first of the crazy finishes I saw as Beverly takes the favored Rockets to overtime before losing. Ironically, Reading eventually makes it to the Division 2 North final and loses to Salem, 62-53. Before the game, Reading assistant coach Buddy O'Neil says, "Scott Lewis (the Beverly High coach) could be here just as well as us."
Next year's state tourney can't be as fabulous as this one was. Can it?
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In The Paint, a column on North Shore boys high school basketball, appears every week during the season in the Salem News. To reach Mike Grenier, call 978-338-2676 or e-mail mgrenier@salemnews.com.
