 |
Mullen
Things Over P.J. "Deuce" Mullen
is a senior at St. Joseph's Prep with an P.J. may be reached at Deuce2627@aol.com |
|
Mullen
Things Over P.J. "Deuce" Mullen
is a senior at St. Joseph's Prep with an P.J. may be reached at Deuce2627@aol.com |
MARCH
7
CATHOLIC
LEAGUE FINAL PREDICTION:
I hate to cop Sean Woods' style
but I’m going to have to go ahead and make some predictions of my own for this
weekends match up, SJ Prep versus Cardinal Dougherty. I’ve been pretty balanced in all of my
reports this year in the nationally famous “Mullen Things Over” page on
Ted’s website, but now… I think it’s time to open up a little bit and voice
what I think is going to happen this weekend based on my knowledge.
No one has been able to stop or
compete with the Prep all year. Roman
was the only team to beat them this year, that came in late January at the Prep (Sr. C Mark
Zoller was injured late in that game and eventually fouled out). Why all of the sudden would there be any reason to
believe that Dougherty has a shot at the title this Saturday? Dougherty may have THE MOST INDIVIDUAL
TALENT in the Catholic League this year, however they may also be arguably the WORST
T-E-A-M. The Prep’s motto is: There’s
no “I” in “team”, while Dougherty’s motto reads: There are five
or six or seven “I’s” in “team”.
I was able to hit up the game on Thursday night at LaSalle (Doc vs. SJN). I was cheering for SJN, and after three
quarters I thought Neumann had the game wrapped, but Dougherty came back
from as many as 14 points and won the game; it was actually impressive. The funny thing about the game was, EVERY single
time Dougherty was on offense, it was almost awkward to see someone pass the ball
to a teammate or set a pick or even look up to see if another teammate was open. The reason they came back and won was because in
the fourth quarter they finally played as a team, and they were just A LOT better then Neumann
when they finally got everything together.
Jr. C DeSean White of Dougherty
is HUGE in the paint. However as soon as he was pulled out of the game, which was shortly
after his technical foul late in the third, was when Dougherty got their act
together.
Dougherty has a
reputation for going down early in the game and having the late game comeback, that WILL
NOT work against the Prep. Coach
Morris and the rest of the team are too smart of a team and too conservative to lose
any sort of big lead.
I am obviously
predicting/guaranteeing that the Prep will win the title. I’ve watched every game the team has played
this year (besides the La Salle games) and I have watched many other games in the
CL including several Dougherty games; from what I have seen the Prep has
what it takes to be champions this year, Dougherty is young and can look back on
this year and realize teamwork is what they lack most, the talent is there already. As my good friend Howard Eskin would say,
“I give the Prep a STONE COLD MORTAL LOCK on a “W” this weekend…I even
put my job at risk.”
FEB. 28
CATHOLIC LEAGUE QUARTERFINAL
SJ Prep 58, Carroll 37
Well, for starters, the Roman vs. SJN game was awesome. I thought for sure Roman would win by more than
20. Two of my friends who game to the game
with me, Tom Hurley and Matt Silva, both said,
“Nope, you just watch, it will be a nail-biter.”
They were correct; it ended up coming down to an SJN win at the buzzer. I wish the
Prep-Carroll game was a little more like that game.
“Any objects used to
make any artificial noise is prohibited and will result in a technical foul for the home
team if used while the ball is in play,” were the first words uttered over the PA
system before the big Prep-Carroll Catholic League South quarterfinal match-up on Friday
night. All of the kids in the Prep student
section were given inflatable thunder sticks that read “GO PREP” on them…
you know, those stupid things the California Angels used in the World Series earlier in
the year.
The game was boring; the
Prep had it in the bag the whole time. Sr.
C’s Jordan Ingram of Carroll and Mark Zoller of the Prep had virtually
identical games in every area besides one. The
both had 31 minutes, both had a few solid blocks, Zoller ripped down 9 boards while Ingram had 10 and both ended up with
2 or 3 fouls. Zoller had 13 attempts at the
basket, as did Ingram. Zoller hit 9 of those attempts and Ingram only hit 5. That wasn’t the BIGGEST difference though; Zoller went to the foul line 12
times (and hit 10) while Ingram only went 4 times (and hit
4). Because of that one area, Zoller ended up with 29 points, and Ingram only had 14. It might seem like useless information, but in my
mind it did determine the difference in the game, Zoller was just more offensively
aggressive. There’s no coincidence why
he was just recently named league MVP.
The Prep held solid 10 point
lead all game, at one point it dropped to 34-28, that was as close as Carroll would get to
what would have been a miracle win if they pulled a fast one on the Hawks. Jr. G John Griffin (13 pts, 5 boards, 2 assts)
had the best all around game for the Prep besides Zoller, he started off a little cold
but finished strong and allowed the Prep to run away with the effortless win (58-37).
Coach “Speedy”
Morris once again baffled me with his subbing techniques.
The only player off the Prep bench that got more then 1 minute of play was
sr. F John Oberlies (16 min). Sometimes juniors Jared Black and Mike Kearney are getting 10 minutes apiece
off of the bench, and sometimes they’re getting 1 minute. Well, whatever he’s doing, he’s doing it
right; the Prep hasn’t had a loss for almost 2 months (Jan. 12 against Roman).
The #1 seeded Hawks will take on their arch-rivals (and my personal least favorite
Catholic League team), the La Salle Explorers on Wed. night at LaSalle University. I think "American Idol" is on that
night, so I won’t be able to go . . .
FEB.
21
CATHOLIC SOUTH
St. Joe’s Prep 50, O’Hara 18
This
match-up was scheduled for Friday the 21 at 8:00 P.M., but a viewing for Prep Soph. Pat Monaghan was held that night so the
timing of the game was changed to 3:30 at St. Joe’s.
Pat was on the Prep’s freshman basketball team last year; he died last
weekend in a very unfortunate and tragic freak-ski accident. He was well loved by all of his friends and
classmates from the Prep and in his community and he will be extremely missed.
The Prep
senior basketball players and managers were honored before the game, for it would be their
last home game of the season; those honored were: managers Dan Timby and Greg McKeever
and players Mark Zoller, T.J. Valerio, John Oberlies, Kyle Eisenmann, Brett “Crunk” Novielli and Mark Meehan.
The game had a nice little crowd for an ugly Friday afternoon game (I think
part of the big draw was the half-time million dollar shot). It opened up slow and boring both teams holding
the ball for several minutes at a time and missing 2 or 3 shots every possession. At the half the Prep led 20 to 5; yes, the Lions
threw-down a whopping 5 points in 2 quarters of
play and it never got any better for them.
O’Hara
coach Buddy Gardler didn’t seem to have
any emotion all game, as soon as his players started missing shots in the first half he
seemed to give up. I truly believe one thing
O’Hara was missing all game was leadership, no one wanted to step-it-up and get some
momentum going for the team. When the coach
doesn’t attempt to get things going, how can he expect his players to? Sr. G Craig
Haywood had 12 of O’Hara’s 18 points; he was the leading scorer for the
Lions. Sr. G John Brennan of O’Hara also had a solid game.
The Prep
came away with the 50 to 18 win. Sr. C Mark Zoller (23 pts, 11 boards, 2 steals) was the
only player for the Prep that had an above average game.
Even though they came away with the “easy” win the rest of the
team seemed sub-par. Jr. G’s John Griffin
and Chris Clark combined for 2 points, 0
FTA’s, 4 assists and 3 steals; unusually low stats for them.
Coach “Speedy” Morris was able to get
his entire team some playing time, and allowed the “regulars” to get their well
deserved final-home-game standing ovation on a great 4 years at SJP. The Prep increased their record to 24 and 1 and
faces West Catholic Sunday at WC, and they look to be the definite #1 seed for the CL
Southern Division.
FEB.
2
CATHOLIC SOUTH
St. Joe’s Prep
70, Bonner 42
Once
again the Crimson and Grey opened up with a strong presence, G’s T.J. Valerio (15
pts, 4 boards) and John Griffin (10 pts, 2 steals, block) hit back-to-back treys to
force Bonner to call a T.O. with 5:31 remaining in the first quarter, the Prep led 10-2. By the time Bonner scored its next basket, the
Prep nearly doubled its score to make it a 19-4 ballgame still with 3:13 remaining in the
first! Bonner couldn’t buy a basket,
until sr. G Mike Shalon (11 pts, 2 steals) hit a late three to get a tiny bit of
momentum going. The Prep put up just 6 points
in the second quarter, while Bonner put up just 8. The
Prep closed the half with a picture perfect, steal-pass-and-score play. Sr F John Oberlies (5 boards) stole the
rock then saw jr. G Chris Clark (5 pts, 6 assts, 2 boards) up court who unselfishly
found sr. F Kyle Eisenmann (8 pts, 2 steals, 2 boards) to complete the play with
the easy lay in, Prep led 29-17 at the half.
The Prep came into the second half
with full charge, going up 40-21 just two-and-a-half minutes into the third quarter. Valario had a beautiful four-point play
after being fouled behind the arc by the Friar’s sr. F Mike Thornton (6 pts, 2
assts). Sr. C Mark Zoller (22 pts, 12
boards, 2 steals, 2 blocks) scored 14 of his 22 points in the third quarter, Zoller
and the rest of the Hawks never looked back from then till the final buzzer.
Coach
“Speedy” Morris got the rest of the team some time in the final quarter. Sr. G Mark Meehan (2 pts, 2 steals, 2
assts) got the most out of his “P.T.” in the fourth, as did sr. F Brett
“Crunk” Novielli, these two and the rest of the bench helped the Hawks hold
the lead and go on to win 70 to 42. Shalon
was the lead scorer for the Friars (11 points), and Zoller led the pack for the
Hawks (22 points).
The
Prep (20 and 1) will host Kennedy-Kenrick on Friday at 3:30. The last time these two teams went head-to-head,
the Prep came out with the 92-35 victory.
JAN.
24
CATHOLIC SOUTH
St. Joe’s Prep
55, Cardinal O’Hara 29
A nice crowd in attendance for the big
O’Hara/Prep showdown Friday night at Cardinal O’Hara, and for at least a half, a
nice game as well. I didn’t see “El Wingadore” or “Dan the Cop” in attendance at the game,
however I did scent some sort of smell of wings which I had encountered earlier that day
at the WIP Wing Bowl. Rumor had it many of
the “Preppers” decided to attend the wing bowl earlier Friday morning before
their game against O’Hara. May I remind
you all that the Wing Bowl started at 5:30 in the morning, how these kids managed to go to
that and play in a Catholic League Game and win it is beyond my incredible knowledge. I was told by a very close source, that Coach “Speedy” Morris was not thrilled
at all about some of the players decisions to go to the Wing Bowl, and let them know that
at the half.
O.K. so the 17 and 1 Hawks had a tiny
excuse of being a tad tired in the beginning of the game, but for the ENTIRE first half
they looked like, excuse my language, the Eagles
against the Bucs last Sunday! Awful, the score was 25-15 with 15 seconds left;
as time wound down O’Hara’s sr. F Mark
Griem (6 points) put in the easy deuce then called his team into a full court press. With 9 ticks left on the clock, the Prep
effortlessly passed in the ball directly to O’Hara’s star sr. F James Mitchell (17 points, and hot off suspension)
who not only had the steal, but the bucket and the foul shot to end the half. The unexpected score at the half was Prep 25
O’Hara 20.
The Prep woke up in the second half,
and only allowed O’Hara to score 9 points for the remainder of the game, THEY WERE
ALIVE! Sr. C Mark Zoller (24 pts, 17 boards) stepped it up
defensively and offensively and the rest of the team followed his lead. Prep jr. G’s Chris Clark and John Griffin both finished with 7 points and 5
assists.
Props to O’Hara’s Offense in
the first half, not giving up and letting the Prep know not to take them lightly, and to
the Prep’s defense in the second half holding the Lions to just 9 points. I have to give a shoutout to my man John Brennan (O’Hara senior F), for
sportin’ the double deuce on his jersey and being a supporter/fan of “Mullen Things Over” (haha). The Prep extends its record to 18 and 1 and takes
on Archbishop Carrol Friday night at Carroll.
JAN.
20
CATHOLIC SOUTH
St. Joe’s Prep 67, West Catholic 51
I’m not going
to lie, this game didn’t have close to as much excitement as the Prep/Neumann game on
Friday night. It didn’t have half as
many people present and it wasn’t half as loud, however it was a historical day for a
certain Prep player. West was coming off of
a big win against Cardinal O’Hara on Thursday night and the Prep had just won a
nail-biter against Neumann on Friday night (thanks to John Griffin). Nothing unexpected happened in this match up, the
Prep opened up the game strong with an 11-0 scoring run.
West couldn’t keep up with the Prep’s fast-pace “run n’
gun” style. After the first quarter the
Prep led 23-8 thanks to an unbreakable man-to-man “D” and to sr. G T.J. Valerio’s (15 pts, 2 steals)
aggressive offensive play. He single-handedly
outscored West in the first quarter with 9 points.
The
buzzer rang in the second quarter after sr. C Mark Zoller (14 pts, 10 boards,
2 blocks) dropped his sixth point of the game. The
crowd seemed a bit confused until the P.A. announcer informed them that Zoller had just scored his
1,000 point of his Prep Basketball career. This
made Zoller the fifth Prep player to ever hit the 1,000-point mark. Joe Ryan ’55, the
all-time leading scorer in Prep history, was on hand to see Zoller hit the mark. (Congrats Zoller!). The half ended with a sweet inbound play from Prep
sr. F John Oberlies (7 points, 2
boards, 2 steals) to jr. G Chris
Clark
(11 points, 8 assts, 3 steals) who proceeded to break through West’s half-court trap
to find jr. F Mike
Kearney
(2 points) under the net for the easy deuce. Prep
led 39-21 at the half.
West
came into the second half with a full-court press to get some sort of momentum going,
which they couldn’t find in the first half. West’s
jr. G Marshall Taylor (19 pts, 5 boards,
5 steals) had a huge third quarter; scoring eight of his 19 points and accounting four of
his five steals, giving his team a reason to keep their heads up. West ended up relying a bit too much on Taylor for the remainder
of the game, he did all he could (I think they wanted him to guard all 5
“Preppers” while he was on a roll). The
Prep led 52-35 at the end of three, and to be honest with you, it was hard to stay awake
for the rest of the game.
The
Prep dominated the fourth quarter and didn’t allow West to get too comfortable with
the tiny run they had going. Friday
night’s hero jr. G John
Griffin
finished the game with 10 points and a total of 10 boards…yes 10 boards. West’s leading scorers were Taylor and jr. G Rob Latimer who finished with
10 points and 4 boards of his own. It was a
ruff one to watch. The Prep increased their record to 17-1 (16-0 when sr. F Brett “Crunker” Novielli wears his lucky
head-band) and will face Cardinal O’Hara on Friday night at Cardinal O’Hara.
JAN.
12
CATHOLIC SOUTH (Coaches vs. Cancer)
Roman 65, St. Joe’s Prep 59
This had to be the
game of the weekend. The undefeated (15-0)
Hawks of St. Joe’s Prep were set in their home gym to take on the (9-5) Roman
Catholic Cahillites, two of the Catholic League South’s best teams. The Kelly Field House was packed; I was told by a
source that over 1,500 people were in attendance. The
game started off pretty fast-paced, but the scoring stayed low. Coach “Speedy” Morris was forced to call
his first Time Out early in the first quarter (5:45), after a great steal by Roman’s
jr. F Charron Fisher (19 pts, 8 boards,
3 blocks) who finished it with a strong slam. It
was hard to tell who the home team really was after the dunk, as the place was going nuts. St. Joe’s Prep jr. G Chris Clark (17 pts, 2 steals,
2 assts) answered back to the big slam with a big trey, forcing Roman to use its first
Time Out (2:55). The score was 9-9 with 3.3
seconds left in the quarter when the Prep’s sr. F John Oberlies (board, steal,
asst) thought he saw an open buzzer beater but was SWATTED by Fisher, keeping the score
tied at the end of the quarter.
The
momentum of the first quarter carried itself into the second quarter; it was fast paced
but again not much scoring, for the Prep at least. They
couldn’t buy a bucket; big-time shooter jr. G John Griffin (11 pts, 3 boars,
2 assts, 2 steals) of the Prep couldn’t hit anything and was 1 for 9 by the half. Roman had 1 and 1 with 3:16 left in the quarter
and gradually started to walk away with the comfortable lead. Morris was forced to call
the Prep’s second Time Out (1:21) after a pretty touch-in by Roman’s jr. F Brett Johnson (11 pts, 4
boards) to increase Roman’s lead to 23-16. With
a minute left in the quarter, Roman Coach Seddon, yelled to his team
to “HOLD FOR ONE!” It was executed
extremely well, if not perfectly. Roman held
the ball down till 2.2 ticks on the clock and even forced Prep’s sr. C Mark Zoller (15 pts, 12 boards)
to commit a foul on Brett Johnson (11 pts, 4 boards)
giving him 3 fouls, and Roman a shot to increase their lead. 25-18 Roman led at the half.
The
third quarter was another 9-point-quarter for the Prep while Roman was able to throw up
11. The Prep cut the lead down to 9 points
but Roman called an immediate Time Out once they started feeling any sort of comeback
(36.7) to settle the team down. Fisher came up huge once
again at the end of the quarter with another monster block to keep the score and fairly
large lead (for such a low scoring game). Roman
led at the end of three 36-27.
The
Prep started the fourth with a man-to-man press; it worked pretty nicely and even forced
Roman to call a Time Out (6:38), when soph G Bobby Jordan was trapped in the
corner on the press by Griffin. After the Time Out Roman became more comfortable
beating the press, and eventually the Prep was forced to use its LAST Time Out with 5
minutes still remaining and now trailing 31-43. The
Prep was having a lot of problems stopping jr. G Andre Sloan-El’s (17 points,
2 boards) shot in the fourth quarter, which allowed Roman to keep a nice lead. The Prep finally started to make a little run at
Roman in the last three minutes of the game, but Zoller fouled out when
they needed him most. Luckily for the Prep in
the last 3 minutes without Zoller, Roman was issued
two different technical fouls. Technical
fouls were called on sr. G Kevin
Hightower (5 pts, 3 assts)
and F Scott Mascio (2 points). The Prep caught up with some huge treys by sr. G T.J. Velario (12 pts, 3 boards,
2 steals) and Clark cutting the lead
down to 61-57. In the final seconds,
Prep’s jr. G Jared
Black
had the chance to make it a one-point game but was blocked Mascio, that was the nail
in the coffin. Roman never looked back and ran away with the well-deserved 65-59 win.
The
Prep’s bench only put in five points, which hurt them in the long run. It was a great one to watch. If this was a preview
of the Catholic League Championships, then we are in for a great post-season. Both teams had a crowd there, however Roman’s
crowd was clearly louder led by John "Byrd" Pendergast. I had the privilege
of sitting next to long-time Roman manager and PGA Pro Dan Hoban; we were both
amazed by the great play by both teams. When
he first met me he said, “You’re not MULLEN, ARE you?” I don’t think he meant it in a good way
either (smile). Roman breaking the
Prep’s undefeated season is now 10 and 5, and the Prep drops to 15 and one.
JAN. 10
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
St. Joe’s Prep 92, Kennedy-Kenrick 35
By halftime Kennedy-Kenrick had only scored
16 points while the Prep’s jr. G John Griffin
had 18 points alone -- yes, he outscored Kenrick himself by the half and finished the game
with 21 points total. It was a very easy win
for Coach “Speedy” Morris and his Hawks.
The starters were seated for the entire fourth quarter for their hard work allowing
everyone from St. Joe’s Prep to see some nice playing time. Scoring leaders for St. Joe’s were jr. G Chris
Clark, who finished with a strong 13 points and a
whopping 9 assists, while center-sensation sr. Mark Zoller finished the game (in the third quarter) with 17 points and
4 rebounds.
There wasn’t a huge
crowd on hand at this match, not including the players; you could have probably counted
all the people there on all of your fingers (not including your thumbs). Thanks to my main man Dan Timby (Beloved Prep manager), for giving me the stats, I wasn’t
able to get them do to a late CYO game.
The Prep looks to keep its 15 game winning streak alive as it takes
on Roman Catholic at the Kelly Field house in the coaches versus cancer game, it's
expected to be a good one. Roman will be
going into that game at 9-5 (2-1 in the Catholic League).
DEC. 22
SCHOLASTIC PLAY-BY-PLAY CLASSIC
St. Joe’s Prep 61, Camden Catholic 50
This was one was truly a
joy to watch, if you were a St. Joe’s Prep fan.
It was the second of four games on the day, featuring South Jersey’s #1
team Camden Catholic and South Eastern PA’s #1 team, St. Joe’s Prep. The Prep was coming off of a huge win on Friday
night over North, while for Camden this was their season opener. There was no better place for this match-up to go
down then the Palestra, a huge crowd on hand, many of them there just a tad early out of
excitement for the LeBron James game, which was played at 7, but still
the crowd was into the game. Allen
Iverson made an appearance for the seven o’clock game, I guess I just
didn’t spot him for the Prep/Camden game; he must have been sitting in a “secret
spot”, however famous people including Amauro and Ted Silary
himself were in attendance.
Prep’s Mark
Zoller (23 points, 3 assists, 8 boards, 1 steal) and Camden’s Eric Cangelosi
(21 points, 2 assists, 7 boars) were awarded the game’s MVP awards, both very-well
deserved. The Prep increased its undefeated
record to 10-0 and they are back at it again on the 26th where they will be playing in a
tournament in Reading, PA.
DEC. 20
NON-LEAGUE
St. Joe’s Prep 94, North Catholic 56
Well, it wasn’t the most EXCITING game to watch (head-to-head
wise), North was coming off of a nice 75-64 win over K-K and the Prep had just beat
LaSalle comfortably on Weds. Night. The Prep
put on a show of their own in this one though. Scoring
almost 100 points and getting all 11 guys on the team into the game, Coach
“Speedy” Morris led the Prep to a very well-balanced win over North
Catholic. North started the game with the
first basket and were only behind by 12 points after the first quarter (not as bad as
everyone expected). The Prep however took it
away in the second quarter holding North to just five points and basically never looking
back. There wasn’t one specific standout
player for the Prep; the whole team was at their best in this one. Sr. Sensation C Mark Zoller put down a
solid 23 points with 9 boards (4 of them O-boards). Jr.’s
F John Griffin and G Chris Clark totaled for 10 of the Prep’s assists
and 26 of the Prep’s points, Clark also had 3 steals. The Prep comfortably led North 51-21 at the half. North didn’t really have anything going for
them at that point; sr. G Brian Welte led the team at half with only 5 points for
North.
When the second half started, North came out with a BANG! Welte was unstoppable totaling 12 of his
23 points in the first 5 minutes of the third quarter.
Charlie Evans of North also had a nice third quarter, coming off the bench
and dropping a clutch three and a few nice steals to keep North’s momentum going. With 3:50 left in the third, Morris called
a very well needed timeout for the Prep do to a 17-6 scoring drive held by North. After that key timeout, the Prep only let up two
points for the rest of the quarter. Sr.
(sixth man) F Kyle Eisenmann off the bench had a standout second half, 6 points, 3
steals, 5 assists, and 5 boards. Although the
Prep’s third quarter was fairly week, North still was not able to catch up to them,
and that last 3 solid minutes of flawless defense had them up 73-40 going into the fourth.
Morris gave the bench a shot for some playing time in the fourth, and they got the
job done, they held the lead and scored 24 points of their own and holding North to just
16 thanks to solid play from Sr. F Brett Novielli (7 points, steals, 2 assists) and
Sr. F Mark Meehan (4 points, 3 assists, 2 steals).
The Prep was pretty flawless in this one, almost hitting the century mark with 94
points. A nice crowd of about 180 were in
attendance, and the Prep continues to keep its undefeated season alive (9-0). A jubilant Coach Morris told the team after
the game, “Every win is a good win guys, great game.” Not much else was said; the team is more focused
on the big game this weekend at the Palestra against #1 team in Southern Jersey, Camden
Catholic. It will be a battle of the
#1’s, that game is at 2:45 and will be a nice one to watch before the “Game of
the Day” starring LeBron James, and Philly’s Maureece
Rice.