JAN. 29
CL SOUTH
Red Division Champs 78, Pink Division Champs 68
  Jr PG Maalik “WAYNS' WORLD, WAYNS' WORLD, PARTY TIME, EXCELLENT!!” Wayns is back baby!!!  He was on a lovely fishing trip in Nova Scotia with Mike Myers and Dana Carvey talking about a possible T-shirt deal with the Wayne’s World movie stars for when he makes the NBA.  He just capped off a great 18-point performance in a W against Prep by scoring 34 against the Pink Champs.  This is the kind of performance RC is going to need from him if they are going to knock off them cons of Chester High.  The 1st quarter of this game was a lot more lopsided than the scoreboard made it seem.  Roman was asleep and paid for it taking a 16-13 deficit after one.  Sr F Sergio “Tickle My” Mystil was the stud early in this game for the Pink Champs.  He had 8 points in the quarter and grabbed 5 boards.  West kept on getting second opportunities off of offensive boards in the first quarter and RC was grateful to get out of the frame down just a trey.  Then the second quarter came and a lot of scoring was done.  Wayns’ World hit two straight treys and just took control of the flow of the game for Roman.  Sr F Wesley “Papa Crunch” Kirkland (4 points 5 boards 2 dimes) got our Dellasandro’s Dunk of the Day when he stole a pass from jr PG Rob Holloman (15 points 4 steals 3 dimes) and took it down the court for a nasty slam to get the crowd going.  For this he gets a week’s worth of cheese steaks courtesy of our very own Michael Kalivas.  Sr PG Courtney “C-Smoove” Stanley scored when need to in the quarter getting 6 of his points and a big-time rejection on Holloman.  Sr F Eric “The Football Thing Didn’t Really Work Out For Me” Brennan (25 points 9 boards 2 blocks 7-8 FTs) kept his team right in the game by going at the rim and scoring early and often and giving West a one point edge at the break, 37-36.  The second half for West was a two-man show.  Almost all their points were scored between Mystil (21 points 13 boards 2 steals/blocks) and Brennan.  Roman was led in the second half by soph G Rakeem “If ya smellllllllllll what the Rahk is cookin” who scored all 14 of his points after the break.  At the end of the third, with RC holding for one and up by a trey, sr F William “Da Fresh Prince” Kirkland (13 points 4 boards 2 steals 1 block) banked in a trey to make the lead grow to six.  In the fourth quarter, after Da Fresh Prince fouled out, soph G/F Kevin “STRINGBEAN!!” Regan came in and played shutdown defense on Brennan.  Regan also played good offensively with 2 points, 3 dimes, and 6 boards.
  Game Notes: We noticed that Prep coach Speedy Morris was at the game and had his filming it and we would like to tell him about the Spy gate scandal happening in the NFL.  You aren’t supposed to film other teams there, Speedy.  And it also looks like you have been served a few too many cheese steaks down at Delasandro’s by Vin Miller.  Curtis Drake did not play in this game and we are not sure why.  Probably FEAR of Courtney’s D-block “D”.  Wade Phillips and Conan O’Brien were our celebrity referees for the game.  And Huck said in his report about true froshman F Aaron “Natso” Brown was not playing because of an illness.  This is not true!  He was playing in a celebrity game of Candyland with Greg Oden, and Matt Geiger.  And even more exciting for Roman fans, Aaron had a choice of learning some new post moves from either Greg Oden or Matt Geiger after the game and he took advantage of it.  Matt Geiger taught him all the tricks of the trade and Todd McCullough taught him how to successfully fake a foot injury for four years and still collect a paycheck.  And I would like to apologize for taking George “I bench more than Bob DeLucas” Sloan El’s last name without permission.
  Todd and Lownes Player of the Game: Maalik Wayns.  The kid scored 34 points, dished 5 dimes and grabbed 8 boards.  And more importantly showed everyone that his injured big toe is feeling a heckuva lot better.  He is going to have to play like he did against West for Roman to keep up with Chester's up-and-down pace.
  Celebrities at the Game: Fresh Villanova QB commit Christopher Grady Johnson, Eric “SOUP” Campbell, Amir “I play BIG not” Little, Wolverine, Tahir Basil, and Thanksgiving Day Star Aziz Williams, Mayor Michael Nutter (dressed very casually), and McDevitt hoops coach Jack Rutter.
  Next Home Game: Saturday, February 2 at Villanova aka the future home of Wayns World.  We are playing Chester High, who is #6 nationally by USA Today. Our targets will be Karon “Hurtin’ for a Squitin” Burton and Nasir Robinson.
Much Love…
Todd and Lownes

JAN. 21
CL SOUTH
Is that FIVE straight on you?? 62, Can’t Win Close Games 60
  “Didn’t O’Hara beat N-G?  Yeah. Prep too? Yep.” This was the car ride down to the home of the CHEESESTEAK (better known as South Philly).  Took the hour-long drive only to get told at the gate (along with seniors Andrew Regan and Matthew Johnston) that the game was sold out!!  What should we do?  Well I told the man at the gate that I was Ted Silary, a not-so-funny columnist for the Daily News, and these are my assistants, Amauro and Duck.  The man said he expected us to be a lot older looking but he trusted us, especially after I showed him my ID card, drawn in orange Crayola crayon.  Anyway, as we got into the game we saw a RC JV win, which just got us juiced up for the varsity game.  We had to grab a seat over next to RC’s bench, behind administration and in front of Mrs. Johnson, mother of Kristian (Bonner TE) and Ray-Ray (RC LB), the coolest/sweetest lady I’ve ever spoken to.  More importantly we were behind Tony “Lil Bow Wow” Chennault’s relatives/friends, which made for a terrible game of being able to yell/taunt at him.  Don’t worry, Tony, that’s just more stored up for playoff time pal, at The Palestra.  You’re probably going to cry when we are done with you, I’m not going to lie to you.  During warm-ups, we noticed some N-G players working on their 360 dunks and we noticed Michael Strahan’s son, (tell your daddy congrats on the NFC title by the way) JamAL Wilson throwing down, which we thought was a technical foul. Well, as we saw the refs enjoying the dunks instead of doing their jobs, we knew that this officiating crew was probably going to favor N-G heavily.  A lot of weird things happened at the start of this game.  First we saw jr. PG Maalik “Wayns' World” Wayns warming up.  We were ecstatic seeing the best player in the state back in the lineup.  But it just wasn’t to be.  Even though he had 7 points and played good offensively by passing and getting to the hoop, he was injured and you could tell when he was playing D that he couldn’t do everything that he was used to being able to do.  Another weird thing was there was two taps to start the game.  But starting off the game, the best set of twins this side of the Mississippi came out ready to play.  Sr. F Wesley “Finally!! I got some Daily News INK, man” Kirkland (15 points, 8 boards, 5 swipes) and F William “Bel-Air” Kirkland (20 points, 7 boards, three takeaways) made most of their shots in the quarter to draw Roman within five at 16-11.  The second frame was when Maalik did most of his offensive work and Roman was down 2 but then sr CG Courtney “But fellas, who had that game-winner??” Stanley (11 points 3 dimes) had to sit with 3 personal fouls, hurting Roman defensively.  They still only trailed by 6 at the half.  During halftime, the Goretti gorillas came out and did their routine which wasn’t at all as bad as it has been in the past.  The third quarter saw things get pretty out-of-hand for RC at the start.  N-G went on a run and went up by 12 points, at 42-30 with a little over 2 minutes left.  When Roman called a timeout, Lil’ Strahan went to the water cooler and wanted to uncork the bubbly they had on ice (bought legally by Tony Chennault).  Coach Arrigale said, “If we have a 10 point lead with 5:10 left in the game, you can drink it, but not until then!!” and slapped Strahan’s hand away.  Well this upset N-G’s players.  But with C-Smoove picking up his fourth foul in the quarter, RC had to rely on soph G Quasim “Osmosis” Jones.  Quasim handled the pressure very well and teamed with the Kirkland twins, to will (or wes) Roman to a 43-42 lead early in the fourth frame.  At this point, N-G called timeout and Michael Strahan and Tony Soprano entered the packed gymnasium.  Seeing his father in attendance, sr F Jamal “CLUTCHness” Wilson (Rhode Island; 17 points, 10 boards, 3 dimes, nicely missed FTs in 4th quarter) took this great opportunity to show his father how good his team was.  N-G went on a 11-0 run to put them up 10 in the game with exactly 5:10 left on the clock.  Roman called timeout and N-G began celebrating like Coach Carl said they could.  They drank up and came out of their break drunk on life.  There was no way that them kids at BROOOOOOOAD and VINE were gonna come back on them again.  The only thing they forgot to do was tell RC’s leader and floor general Courtney “The name’s Smoove, C-Smoove” Stanley that.  Courtney handled  the ball gracefully and scored 8 points in the final 5:10.  Will and Wes made jumper after jumper and lay up after lay up after RC got steals from pressing N-G’s weak ball handlers (Bow Wow had fouled out with 3+ mins left).  So CLUTCHness stepped to the line yet again in another critical FT situation against RC.  If you remember last time the teams met, he went to the line with 26.6 seconds left and calmly missed both foul shots.  Now with this fresh in his mind and trying to impress his father, he shot and…MISSED the first.  He made the second to put N-G up 60-54 with 2:18 left in the game.  After 2 C-Smoove freebies and a Wesley “Papa Crunch” Kirkland jumper made it 60-58, true freshman F Aaron “Natso” Brown calmly, and I mean calmly (FTs are always scary when RC is at the line) popped deuce FTs to tie the ballgame at 60-60.  RC got another possession and missed a jumper and F Shane “KRINKY” Irwin went to the line for a pair.  Now Shane was ultra-confident on these shots, as he had practiced all week long with Jamal Wilson on them.  Shane took two confident dribbles and hoisted the first…UHHH…EHHH…NOOO GOOOOD!! (he was practicing with Wilson all week after all).  The second one was up…AND…NO SIR!!  Will cleaned the board and RC called timeout.  During the TO, I asked Mrs. Johnson who she thought was making the game-winner for RC.  She agreed with me that it would be Sir William.  My dad, however, said “C-Smoove.”  As Courtney wound down the clock, he went off a Wesley screen and drove the right side of the hoop, near N-G’s cheerleaders.  He kissed a lay-in off the glass with 5.2 seconds left and watched as CLUTCHness hoisted a trey to give N-G a win.  But it was not to be!! Roman 62, N-G 60 FINAL.
  Game Notes: Great win for RC without Maalik in the lineup.  It says alot about our talent level to win against a big-boy like N-G without our best player.  Andre Gillette is not “The best a man can get.”  He did have four blocks but doesn't show much offensive skills.  Still don’t know why everyone is so high on him.  Maybe it's cause he's 6'9''.  Shawn Bradley was tall, too.  C-Smoove is the toast of the school now.  He will receive free lunch all next week at school courtesy of Lownes.  All this talk on Ted’s website about the Looney Bin being the best student section in the city is grade “A” BOLOGNA!!  You were dominated last year in the playoffs by us, don’t you remember that?  Thought so.  Despite what people think me and Jamal still hang tight on weekends.  And Tony, just wait til The Palestra pal when we hold nothing back on you. That’s all I’m gonna say.
  Todd and Lownes Player of the Game: Kirkland Twins.  They combined for their best performances of the year and had 37 points, 15 boards, 4 dimes, and 8 steals.  NOT BAD!  For their heroics against N-G, they do not have to pay for their student section shirts; they are compliments of Todd and Lownes.
  Celebrities at the Game: My papa, Michael Ray Todd Sloan-El, Senior, who showed up even though his boys, Paul Nolan and McDevitt froshman bball coach Chris “$1.05” Palmero, bailed on him.  Mr. Nolan had bball practice for Region 10 powerhouse Queen of Peace bball and Chris couldn’t go because his mommy wouldn’t let him.  Former RC WR/CB Troy “Trizzy" Richardson, the Doublemint twins, Jewhan Edwards (Minnesota) and Chris Palmer (WVa), Bonner TE Kristian Johnson (Delaware State), baseball coach and Star Magazine's Top Ten Beach Bodies of the Year Joseph Tremoglie, the best trainer in the area and a heck of a teacher to have me learn anything, Ken “KENNNNNN EAAAVVVVESSSS!!!” Eaves, the best AD’s money could buy, Mr. Pensabene and Mr. Falcione, and the coolest man to even don the purple and the gold, Brian Conroy.
  Next Home Game: Friday, January 24th at Philly U vs. the much hated Hawks of SJP.  Come to the game.  It’s a good way to blow off steam after a long, stressful week of exams.  And bring your girlfriends because it’s Mormon Night. If you bring one girlfriend, you get one free.  Just kidding.  But seriously . . .
Much Love…
Todd Sloan-El #71

JAN. 15
CL SOUTH
Roman 64, K-K 42
   Roman Catholic had their annual charity basketball game against the Wolverines of Kennedy-Kenrick on Tuesday afternoon.  There was a whooping sell-out crowd of 37 people that took in the showcase event.  Most of those people came to see Roman star sr. CG Courtney “C-Smoove” Stanley and jr. PG Maalik “Wayns' World, Wayns' World, Party Time…Excellent!!!” Wayns.  But Maalik injured his big toe when he got it caught in a bear trap while hunting and C-Smoove was at a Fashion Facial Hair Event modeling off his world-class moustache.  Sadly, he finished in 3rd place in the contest, behind former Oakland A’s relief pitcher Rollie Fingers and our very own history teacher and school counselor Mr. Sinclair.  Even with these star prospects out, there was a great battle down in the paint between Roman sr. PF Scott “Matt Melady is courting my cousin” Stratton and former Indiana Pacer/Sacramento King all-star C Bradley “The BIFF” Miller.  At first glance of him, it caused Roman senior and baseball star Matthew Hodges to say, “Look at the hair, Cotton. It’s feathered and lethal!”  Lethal it was NOT!  Stratton played excellent defense on the former NBA All-Pro holding him to 2 points.  He also had a nice block on BIFF and took a charge from K-K’s best player, sr G Karlton “So what if I take all of my team's shots?” Byrd.  Stratton finished with just 4 points but had 6 boards as well as 3 dimes with his C-Webb like passing ability.  He was a light spot on the court for RC all game.  Another standout contributor in this game was personal favorite soph G Kevin “STRINGBEAN!!!” Regan.  He played very well and had 7 points and 3 boards.  The Dippin’ Dots Dunk of the Day goes to true freshman SF Aaron “Natso” Brown.  He threw it down after a first quarter steal on an errant pass from Greg Santangelo (9 pts, 6 TOs) and put RC on their 21-4 first quarter run. Sr F William “Da Fresh Prince” Kirkland played an UNBELIEVABLE game.  And I mean great.  He was pretty much hacked every time he touched the ball and calls were limited.  But did he complain?  Absolutely not!  He had a fill-up-the-stat-sheet game with 11 points, 5 dimes, 4 boards, 2 steals, and a block.  His twin Wesley “Papa Crunch" Kirkland scored 14 points with 3 dimes, 5 boards and a block.  Both of the twins played good defense on Karlton (22 pts 8boards), and although he scored 22 points, it was because he took almost every single shot down the floor.  The emergency PG for this game was soph Rakeem “If ya smellll what the Rahk is cookin” Brookins.  He stepped into the role well and had 16 points 3 boards a steal and dealt 6 dimes.
  Game Notes: Although K-K did get crushed in this game, they played well in the 2nd half.  They only got outscored by three, 30-27, after the break. Brad Miller has really gone downhill since his All-NBA days and his new hair-do is a NO-NO.  The Rahk had a 6:1 assist to turnover ratio, excellent for his first game at PG in the PCL South.  The Kirkland twins were sporting some beautiful yellow Roman student section T-shirts underneath their jerseys.  And also Lownes did not attend this game because he went home to watch the replay of Ohio State-Michigan to cheer him up after his team lost another national title this year.
  Todd and Lownes Player of the Game: Scott “Matt Melady courts my cousin” Stratton.  Getting his first extended appearance of the season, Scotty put together a great game with 4 points 6 boards 3 dimes and a powerhouse block.  He also gave up his body to the floor a few times taking some charges.
  Celebrities at the Game: Baseball star Matthew Hodges, former RC baller and current O’Hara baller Matt “When the Moon hits your eye like a big Pizza Pie that’s” Romano, the entire Roman LAX team, and the Johnson boys, Christopher Grady and Ray-Ray.
  Next Home Game: Monday, January 21st at St. John Neumann.  We are all off on Monday for MLK Day so what better way to spend it than by renting out a motor scooter and taking it down to Little Italy, a k a South Philly.  You can grab some cheese steaks and head over to N-Gs gym and root hard against them.  Our targets for the game will be none other than Michael Strahan who is playing in this game even though he has an NFC Championship Game the day before in Green Bay.  And Andre “The Best a Man Can Get” Gillette. Can’t forget Tony Chennault, who will be trying to defend his Most Hated Player title in this game.
Much Love…
Todd Sloan-El

JAN. 11
CL SOUTH
Roman 62, Carroll 58
  7th year senior Ellis “I’m the oldest senior since Earl Pettis” Rogers woke up at 7:04 Tuesday morning.  He had the pre-game jitters.  He got out of bed, kissed his Derek Fisher Sports Illustrated for Kids poster and stretched.  He stared up at his numerous high school awards (6-time All- Catholic in football and 2-time in basketball).  He got out of his Bananas in Pajamas p-jays and put on his school uniform.  He went downstairs ate a bowl of Fruity Pebbles and got on the bus for school.  At school, he went through his usual routine of classes like every other Carroll student: gym, arts and crafts, nap time, coloring in between the lines, ball is life 101, lunch, and then SAT Prep.  After 7th period, he and his Carroll basketball teammates left for their journey to Roman Catholic’s third floor gymnasium.  Ellis was doing his homework for his coloring in between the lines class and had his IPod on and was listening to his favorite pump-up jams: “Uptown Girl” by Billy Joel, “Miss Independent” by Kelly Clarkson, “Like a Virgin” by Madonna, and “Crocodile Rock” by Elton John.  He arrived in Roman’s parking lot at 2:53pm to a chorus of BOOOOOOOOs from the Roman faithful playing basketball outside and enjoying the beautiful January weather.  One student asked him to autograph a photo of him from 2001 when he was a sensational 15-year-old true freshman.  He declined and went inside to get ready for his team’s Super Bowl: playing the defending Champs.  The game started out very evenly matched, with the team’s sharing buckets at each end of the floor.  The Kirkland twins combined for 8 early points in the quarter and sr. CG Courtney “C-Smoove” Stanley (10 points 6 boards 4 dimes 2 steals) added 4.  The 2nd quarter went to Roman with them taking a 9 point lead into the break, although they did give up 2 points to Carroll’s main man, sr. F Bender Retif (2 points 1 rebound 1 not nice comment to Todd: all done in 3 mins and 27 seconds of play).  In the quarter, Carroll’s head coach was constantly whining about jr. PG Maalik “Wayns World” Wayns’ physical brand of D-block defense and how terrible he thinks it is to play in our historic 3rd floor gymnasium.  To this, The Crackdown guys say that maybe if you guys were better we would play you where we play all of our big games, at Philly U and Maalik can do whatever he wants because he is Maalik.  When you get a superstar and turn your team into a contender year-in and year-out you will know what we mean.  Something to shoot for!  Carroll came storming out in the 2nd half and kept the game close and tied it at 44 in the 3rd behind the physical down-low dominance of jr. F Kasheef “Tractor-Traylor” Festus (22 points 14 boards 2 blocks) and soph G D.J. “My initials stand for Daniel Jackson” Irving (14 points).  Towards the end of the 3rd quarter, Ellis Rogers slapped on the floor after his first basket of the game, pointed at Wayns World and screamed, “He’s only got 6!!”  He was talking about Maalik’s points in the game so far.  Well Roman’s students noticed how good he is at backing up his trash talk as he was torched in the final quarter for 11 points by The Chosen One (finished with 17, 4 boards, 5 dimes).  The Kirkland twins made a couple of nice brother-to-brother looks with Will (4 points, 4 boards, 3 dimes) dishing it to Wesley (17 points 7 boards 2 steals) for easy lay-ups.  Contributions during the game were added by true froshman F Aaron “Natso” Brown (8 points 6 boards) and some quality minutes logged by Todd’s personal favorite soph G Kevin “STRINGBEAN!!” Regan.  We would just like to thank Ellis Rogers for waking up Maalik by talking trash and then by shooting 2-13 from the floor for the game.  Ellis, maybe the next time you play us you can shoot a few jumpers at halftime or before the game instead of messing with Roman’s student section.  And for anyone in the gym who didn’t hear us yelling it around: Cardinal O’Hara defeated Neumann-Goretti in basketball the other day.  We would like to congratulate our former classmate and stud RC junior varsity basketball player, Matthew Romano on the big W.  We miss you here at Roman, Romano.
  Game Notes:  Ellis Rogers scored one less point (6) than years he has played varsity basketball.  To the Carroll moms who complained to administration and are offended by our cheering section's booing and trying to get into the other team's head: get over it!  We are trying to give our team the best home court advantage possible and you're lucky your not N-G or Prep because then you would get our ALL. This was the first time that any of us students from Roman can remember that a team that played us in our gym didn’t get a beat down by more than 15 points.  And after our 1-pt win over Bonner last night it looks like we are gonna need kids to stay after school more than we thought.  So you kiddies had better take off from work and cheer you hearts out.  STUDENT SECTION SHIRTS are finally on sale!!  Get them quickly before we play Chester because they are gonna be gone real soon.
  Todd and Lownes Player of the Game: Wesley “Papa Crunch” Kirkland.  Wes played great all game long scoring 17 points and grabbing 7 boards.  Every one of his baskets came at a crucial point in the game and he made 2 great defensive plays down the stretch with a steal and a block.
  Celebrities at the Game: My brother and the Philadelphia Daily News Football Player of the Year Balial Lewis Sloan El, the only man to pave the way for a 2,000 yard rusher in RC history Amir “I Play Big Not” Little, FB star Geoffrey “Ray-Ray” Johnson, crew superstar John Pagano, N-G head man Carl “I probably should spend my time scouting O’Hara, not Roman” Arrigale, former ESPN analyst Michael “Not D.J.” Irvin, All-State FB player Christopher Grady Johnson, and former Houston Playground Black basketball team legends Kyle Sutcliffe and Nicholas “Marlon” Lohse.
  Next Home Game: Tuesday, January 15th vs. Kennedy-Kenrick High at 3:30.  Our target for the game will be sr. G Karlton “Man I wish that Dwayne Davis and Courtney Stanley still went here” Byrd.
Much Love…

Todd Sloan-El and Lownes

DEC. 27
CL SOUTH
Roman 65, Neumann-Goretti 62
  This was not a typical atmosphere for a traditional Roman/N-G affair.  The gym at Philly U was more often than not a quiet one, with the only sounds being chants coming from Roman’s little student section located behind their basket.  N-G started the game off with a BANG.  Sr. F and Rhode Island commit Jamal “It’s CLUTCH TIME” Wilson (21 points 10 boards...more on his CLUTCHness later) scored 7 early points and 19-year-old soph G Tony “T-O-N-Y” Chennault (17 points 3 steals; AWARD in unanimous fashion for being Most Hated Player to Face Roman this Year) added 6 to put N-G up 18-6 early.  Then Roman’s student section woke up and jr. PG Maalik “WAYNS' WORLD” Wayns (27 points 4 dimes 5 treys) would hit consecutive treys as Roman ended the quarter on a 10-2 run.  They would battle all the way back to a 36-35 halftime deficit when on the final play of the first half sr. CG Courtney “C-Smoove” Stanley grabbed one of his countless boards on a missed shot (15 in all) and threw a great pass to a wide open soph G Rakeem “If ya smelllll what the Rahk is cookin” Brookins (7 points) for an easy layup as time expired. C-Smoove not only had those 15 boards (9 offensive) but he added 9 points, 2 steals and 5 dimes to his collection (now $2.70 this year).  Oh yeah and he is playing hurt.  I bet N-G’s big men can’t wait till he is healthy (smile).  The highlight of the 1st half and our Dunkin’ Donuts Dish of the Day goes to Wayns World, who uncorked a b-e-a-utiful no look 30 foot left handed pass to true frosh F Aaron “Natso” Brown (9 points 8 boards) for an uncontested lay in.  Aaron really stepped up and played brilliantly when Rahk and the Kirkland twins got into foul trouble.  The 3rd quarter went to Roman, with them taking a two point lead, 50-48.  The fourth quarter was a back and forth event with N-G taking a 59-57 lead with a little over 2 minutes remaining.  Jamal Wilson calmly drove the baseline and showed the Roman faithful what his “CLUTCHness” was all about.  He missed an uncontested slam and Roman rebounded.  Maalik went up the court and dished to none other than sr. F Wesley “CLUTCH” Kirkland (8 points 7 boards 2 steals) giving Roman the lead, 60-59.  After a pair of free throws by C-Smoove put Roman up by 3, one of N-G’s sophomore Haverford imports, PG Tyreek Duren, missed a layup.  It was boarded up by none other than RC’s new big man, C-Smoove, who dished to Wayns.  Wayns was then fouled intentionally and converted the front end of two, giving RC a four point edge at 63-59.  Jamal “CLUTCHness” Wilson did come through this time, draining a long trey to cut the lead to one.  After the inbounds, Courtney was fouled and missed both freebies at the charity stripe.  CLUTCHness took hold of the board and got fouled (We couldn’t believe it either in the student section) by one of the Kirkland twins.  Well CLUTCHness calmly stepped up to the line and the first shot…CLANK!  Roman’s section went nuts.  And shot number two…CLANK…CLANK!!  He missed both.  Wesley grabbed the board and threw a pass to his brother, sr. F William (5 points, 2 steals) who threw a pass to the Rahk who drove the left side of the court and had his layup attempt blocked by N-G’s other sophomore Haverford import, F-C Daniel Stewart (11 points, 6 boards).  Roman inbounded and William hit the second of two giving Roman a two point edge.  On N-G’s final possession, sr. PG Tyrell Taylor lost control of the ball and a melee on the floor resulted in a jump ball with 1.0 seconds left granting RC possession and a win in what should be a preview of a 3rd straight title game.
  Game Notes:  This is Roman’s sixth win in their last eight games vs. N-G and fourth straight overall.  We would like to thank three celebrities for taking the time out of their holiday schedule to referee this game: former American Idol champion Ruben Studdard, Golden State hoops head coach Don Nelson, and Tim Donaghy, who sadly is now on the high school level after some law trouble.  Todd would also like to point out how much he likes Jamal “Michael Strahan” Wilson and hopes that even though they went back and forth with each other all game, that they can still continue their Facebook friendship and listen to “Thug Life” when they next hang out.
  Todd and Lownes Player of the Game: Maalik Wayns.  The kid put on another show for everyone to show why he is the best player in the area.  And lucky for him, Villanova coach Jay Wright was there to watch it.  Wayns World has stepped up as a big time scorer this season for RC with the loss of the Wanamaker twins’ production.  He is averaging 25.4 points per contest this year (up from 9.4 as a sophomore) along with 5.7 dimes through one of the toughest opening schedules that Roman has had in years.
  Celebrities at the Game: Former RC football/basketball superstar and current JMU WR Rockeed “NFL Draft Pick” McCarter, Al Roker, Jay Wright, Roman swimmer Joseph “Hot Chocolate” Trinacria, Caron Butler, All-Catholic football/wrestler Andrew Regan, 1st team All-State selection and FSU bound Nicholas Walter Moody, and #16 on Huck’s returning FB players list and Todd’s best friend jr. DE/OT Tahir “I got beat on a swim move by Todd during two-a-days and he will never EVER let me forget it” Basil.
  Next Game: Tuesday, January 8th of the New Year vs. Archbishop John Carroll at 3:30 p.m.  Our targets for the game will be seniors Ellis “I’m The oldest senior since Earl Pettis” Rogers and Bender “Over” Retif.  Stay after school if you don't have plans, which most of you never do, and take in the action.
Happy New Year Everybody!!!
Much Love…
Michael Todd Sloan-El and Ryan “The Rocketship” Lownes

DEC. 23
CL SOUTH
2007 CL Red Champs 55, Runners-Up 42
  To many Hawks people this was a rematch.  It was a chance for St. Joe Prep to get a quality win against a powerhouse league opponent and revenge for that defeat to them kids down at Brooooad and Vine.  It was a role reversal of the chip game where Roman was a severe underdog (by almost everyone except the coaches, players, and school).  St. Joe’s came into this game having lost to CL South powerhouse Bonner (yes…Bonner) in their CL South opener clearly hurting from missing their main man, sr. G and Lafayette commit Jim “Ginger” Mower.  The first quarter started out a defensive minded slugfest with a 7-7 tie after one.  True frosh F Aaron “Little Mike Ringgold” Brown (6 points 5 boards) started out very strong again and had 4 of his points and 2 of his boards in the quarter.  The second quarter started out exciting but ended up being just as boring as the first, with Roman taking a 21-18 lead into the break.  When the second half began, ALL-EVERYTHING jr. PG Maalik “Can you guys make my nickname Wayns’ World in your column? Cause I kinda printed out all these shirts and don’t want them to go to waste!” Wayns went absolutely nuts.  He scored 18 points in the 2nd half (21 total along with 6 boards 5 dimes and 5-9 on treys) and had some excellent passes on fast breaks to wide open teammates.  Sr. CG Courtney “C-Smoove” Stanley played his usual all-around wonderful game with 6 points, 11 boards and 4 dimes and lockdown “D-BLOCK” D on Prep players.  Soph G Rakeem “If ya smellllll what the Rahk is cookin” Brookins tallied 15 points (3-4 deep treys) 4 boards 3 steals and one powerhouse block on a Prep guard in the 4th quarter.  I asked one of the Prep kids if he smelled what the Rahk was cookin after the game and he said, “Smelled like BACON actually.”  Sr. F Will “I’m gonna call Todd every Friday night with Chris Johnson and Jewhan and talk about chants for the game” Kirkland had 7 boards and his brother sr. F Wesley “I'm getting a haircut just because of Ted’s terrible nickname” Kirkland contributed 7 points and 3 boards.  I also got a brief glimpse of our fan favorite (sorry Court) soph G-F Kevin “STRINGBEAN?!!  Did you see my hit on that 4th down?” Regan.  A special thank you and shout out to the best announcer in the area, Mr. Hoban for all the stats and putting up wth me.
   Game Notes:  Roman owns the PREP.  Enough said.  To all the fans sitting in Hawk Nation or whatever you call yourself that were chanting “Ballll Hogggg” at Wayns' World.  I would be a ball hog too if you tried to cover me with a kid that had a biff.  Give me a break.  And for the chants of “Ashleyyy” to C-Smoove, that’s just embarrassing for you because your big men just got dominated on the glass by someone that you are calling a girl.  Last but not least, to that husky student in the Prep section who we had a fun time going back and forth with on who was numero uno (still Roman), the Crackdown kids would like to invite you to our weekly game of Monopoly at Courtney Stanley’s house with Matt Melady, Nicholas Walter “Lindsay or was it Lizzie, maybe it was Lauren or Jen” Moody, and Balial Lewis Sloan-El (my brother).  Congats to Roman Coach Dennis Seddon on his 500th W last weekend in the Gonzaga Classic.  You’re the best coach in the league and you deserve it.
  Player of the Game: Roman Student Council President, Adam “G-Unit” Gault.  He put up our Roman pride flag in our student section to show Hawk Nation whose house it was.  Well done, G-Unit.
  Celebrities at the Game: Mr. Falcione, our AD, and Mr. Pensabene, our Assistant AD, we would like to thank them for our championship football sweaters and all the hard work that they put in for our school. Former RC stud and current Pitt baller Bradley “I know you guys all saw me jumping around on ESPN after we beat Duke” Wanamaker and brother Brian, former CL South basketball MVP Mike Ringgold, All-City DT Jewhan “My job is to blow up the line!!” Edwards (Minnesota), Roman lacrosse superstar Matthew “The GOON” Melady, Shane Clark and Reggie Redding (NOVA), former CL South baseball MVP Dave Deodato, former Bullies Captain Mike Mooney, former All-City FB star Sean Woods, BIG 33er Dom Joseph (Virginia…also the coolest kid I know) and last but not least RC FB coach James Murphy and coach/principal/everything to RC, Brian “Yeah I was on ESPN last year” Conroy.
  Next Game: Thursday, December 27th at 2:30 at Philly U vs. the always hated Saints of N-G.  Our targets during the game will be sr. F Jamal “Michael Strahan” Wilson and 19-yr-old soph G Tony “Lil’ Bow Wow” Chennault.  If you don’t show up for this game, you have no Roman pride.  Period.
Merry Christmas Everyone!!!
Much Love… Michael Todd Sloan-El #71

DEC. 8