HS BASKETBALL
Tournament of Champions format needs to be overhauled
The Nottingham High boys basketball team completed an amazing season with a loss to Roselle Catholic as the Lions defeated the Northstars, 7562, Thursday night in a NJSIAA Tournament of Champions semifinal.
Nottingham (30-3), which claimed the Group 3 state championship last Sunday with a victory over Chatham, ended the season with a loss.
All these people talking about moral victories don’t know spit about competition. It’s about winning and whether Nottingham hung with No. 1 Roselle Catholic and lost by one point, supporters of this bogus TOC showdown miss the point. Moral victories are for losers.
The NJSIAA has sponsored this event 30 times, and come Sunday night after Roselle Catholic and Don Bosco Prep finish up this fake competition, non-public schools will have won 26 of these events.
Non-public basketball teams have counted 18 consecutive TOC championships as public schools end their seasons with losses and a tired anthem of being able to compete. Win? That’s a completely different story as non-public schools engage in the fine art of recruiting and moving student-athletes around like chessmen.
A Ranney High supporter engaged in a conversation recently when his high school dispatched Trenton Catholic Academy.
“We don’t give scholarships,” he said defensively, after a Trenton-area coach mentioned a player or two from Ranney who birthed in other climates and time zones.
“It’s an endowment,” he added. Public school basketball coaches should dream of such large player endowments like Ranney’s Bryan Antoine and Scottie Lewis.
The junior swingmen could start on any Division I school, which underscores why every coach worth his weight in NCAA hardware courts these two students.
NJSIAA officials know they participate in the perpetration of fraud and brinkmanship without giving consideration to the fact that they take away from five girls and boys basketball teams of ending their career with victory.
And should a team say, no thanks, we love the fact that our players can walk off with a state title, then NJSIAA rules come down hard and heavy, offering a disqualification of playing in next year’s tournament.
Until Thursday night, Nottingham had lost a Jan. 16 game when Hightstown nudged the Northstars, 66-63, and on Feb. 10, as Our Savior New American won, 62-54.
Nottingham fans who ended their season with the Chatham victory received a significant prize as that’s the final memory of this incredibly successful basketball team guided by a coach who put players first. Me? About 12 Nottingham games and never witnessed a loss.
An interesting scene occurred at Rutgers University after Nottingham had claimed the school’s first boys basketball state championship.
An NJSIAA official approached Nottingham coach Chris Raba who had positioned himself behind his players. Raba seemed content to stay put, but the official made several attempts to pull the Northstars coach toward the front.
Raba eventually moved, but he seemed uncomfortable. Even his raised index finger seems like a half-hearted gesture. The Nottingham coach made this season about his players and that remains one of the most significant story lines about this squad.
A Colonial Valley Conference boys basketball coach recently declined an interview about his state tournament team. “No comment,” he said. “I’m not talking to you. No comment.”
Somehow, the coach, who never voiced any reason for his discontent, had created a scenario that made him more important than his players.
C’est la vie. Life moves on and people either grow up, adapt or maintain status quos. Another basketball season ends with the same request being made to NJSIAA officials.
End the Tournament of Champions or change the format to allow the nonpublic schools to play one championship game and the four other public schools to have a two-game championship.
Or, allow teams the option to take their state championship title and experience the grand feeling of winning their last basketball game.
L.A. Parker is a Trentonian columnist.