NOV. 19
TEDBIT
  Forward Derrick Jones, a product of Archbishop Carroll, tonight made his NBA debut for the Phoenix Suns in a game vs. the 76ers. It was played in Philly and Jones' two-minute stint produced no stats. He is one of 11 Public/Catholic/Inter-Ac guys to make debuts in the NBA/ABA within four years of his high school graduation. Like Roman's Eddie Griffin (RIP), Jones played just one year of college ball. Southern's Stan "Loady" Brown, a k a The Original Kobe Bryant, also made an incredibly early pro debut in the 1940s. More info on his situation will be posted later. Thanks for your patience . . . Here we go: In the 1945-46 school year, Brown was a junior at Southern and earned first team coaches' All-Public honors while averaging 24.1 points and pumping in a one-game high of 49. In the fall of 1946, his senior year, he was approached by pro teams and decided to sign with the Philadelphia Sphas of the American Basketball League (basically a minor league team). In his pro debut, on Oct. 26, 1946, he scored 11 points in a loss to the Paterson (NJ) Crescents. He played 32 games for the Sphas that season, averaging 13.5. In May of '47, he signed with the Philadelphia Warriors and made his NBA debut in the 1947-48 season. He played 19 games in that season and then 15 more in the 1951-52 season. He wound up scoring 104 points in 34 total games (3.1 average). In between, he played in the ABL and wound up playing six total pro seasons. His dreams of stardom were hampered by a knee injury. In 1996, shortly after Kobe announced his plans to enter the draft, I met with Stan in a South Philly diner and wound up doing a rather lengthy interview. He was a very pleasant guy and I felt honored to tell his story in the Daily News. Stan passed away in 2009 (RIP). 

OCT. 27
TEDBIT
  For the first time since the 2012-13 season, and just the fourth time in this century, one of "Our Guys" last night made his debut for the Philadelphia 76ers. Gerald Henderson, a 2006 Episcopal Academy grad, started at wing guard in the 103-97 loss to Oklahoma City and played for 24 minutes. He contributed nine points, shooting 3-for-6 (two treys) from the floor and 1-for-2 at the line. The Sixers played their first season here in 1963-64, having moved to Philly from Syracuse. "G" is the first Inter-Ac product to play for the Sixers. There have been six Catholic League guys and 13 Public League guys.  

OCT. 6
TEDBIT
  What a mess this trivia question caused. Millions of apologies for being such a dope and moron, as Howard Eskin would say. While researching the names of basketball coaches who have headed programs in Catholic AND Public schools, I spent so much time trying to not miss anyone, I overlooked two guys whose names should have hit me right away. Ugh squared. Marc Ross, a long-time website supporter, sent an email early this morning to note that Mark Heimerdinger (1983-2009 at Cardinal Dougherty, 2010-present at Samuel Fels) was definitely one of the answers. Indeed! And I'd been dumb enough not to include him. Later, an email rolled in from another long-time website supporter, Dan Solis-Cohen. He mentioned another guy, Bill Tomasco (1991-92 at St. Joseph's Prep, 1993-96 at Horace Furness), whose name also should have popped immediately into my head. Phew. Nitwit time. Dan also got the names of my two original guys. Bob DiFlorio coached at Neumann from 1986-93, at Conwell-Egan from 1994-2001 and at Northeast in the 2010 and '11 seasons. Now for the way-back, most-interesting guy. Mike Saxe, who was Jewish, starred for Penn and then coached at South Philly High for a few seasons up until the 1916-17 season. He resigned for what newspapers referred to as "financial reasons." By the 1919-20 season, the first for CL basketball, he was coaching at Villanova Prep. It's tough to tell the way some newspaper stories were written, but it appears he remained in that job through the 1992-23 season, VP's last in the CL. We do know this: He was the first head coach of Villanova's college team and held that position from the '21 through '26 seasons! So he might have been coaching two teams in the same sport in the same season on the same high school/college campus. Oh, he also was the head coach at La Salle High in football and basketball in the 1927-28 school year. Later, he became a lawyer and along the way Saxe must have been popular and/or respected. For a decent amount of time -- not sure why things changed -- the Big 5's annual Most Valuable Player Award was named for Saxe. So there you have it -- Saxe, Heimerdinger, DiFlorio, Tomasco and now Jason Harrigan (Del-Val Charter, O'Hara). Five guys with Catholic-Public basketball ties. If I was idiotic enough to miss someone else (or even 27 -- smile), please let me know (smile). Thanks to Marc and Dan.

SEPT. 29
TEDBIT
  Julian McFadden today was named to coach the basketball team at SCH Academy. He was a star guard at the school (then known as Chestnut Hill Academy) and earned first team All-Inter honors in the 2005-06 season while completing his career with 1,026 points. Julian is the 10th African-American to head a basketball program in the Inter-Ac/Catholic leagues and the third to do so at his alma mater, joining Henry "Doug" Fairfax (Haverford School) and Jasmine "Jazz" Williams (West Catholic). Hal Greer, who coached Germantown Academy in the '79 and '80 seasons, was a star guard in the NBA and played 10 seasons with the 76ers. Ron Haigler, who coached Penn Charter in the '76 and '77 seasons, was an all-time player for Penn and is a member of the Big 5 Hall of Fame. Guy Moore coached at two schools, North Catholic and West Catholic. Best of luck to Julian with the Blue Devils!
  UPDATE: Jason Harrigan, formerly of Del-Val Charter, was appointed O'Hara's coach on Oct. 5. He has been added to the list below.

SEPT. 14
TUKBIT
  This comes from Malvern coach John Harmatuk . . . Thanks!

Coaches and Athletic Directors (please pass on to your coaches)
Malvern Prep Basketball Presents:
Philadelphia Area College Showcase Night 2016
Date: Wednesday October 12th, 2016
Time: 7:00 p.m. (Registration starts at 6:00 p.m.)
Location: O'Neil Center on campus at Malvern Prep
Cost: $50 per participant (cash/check); All coaches/parents/guests are free
  This is a great annual event we have put on for years to try and help area kids get exposure in front a targeted audience of Division II, Division III, JUCO, and NAIA coaches only. For a player to attend they must be nominated by high school or AAU coach. Just send an email to: jharmatuk@malvernprep.org to sign a player up.
  Space is extremely limited and it will be capped at 50 players max. All players will receive a jersey they will keep & accredited referees will officiate the event.
  College coaches there is no charge to attend this event, however please RSVP via email to let us know you or your staff are going to attend. An event program with player info will be provided free of charge. If you have any questions please contact Coach Harmatuk.

JULY 6
TEDBIT
  Over the last 41 seasons, only four "complete outsiders" could be found coaching Catholic League basketball teams. And by complete outsiders we mean guys who attended high school outside Greater Philadelphia (five-county Philly/South Jersey). This coming season, there will be at least two more. West Catholic has hired Jason Hasson, a product of Bishop Guilfoyle, in Altoona (about 35 miles southwest of Penn State), and Conwell-Egan has brought aboard Eric Kindler, a product of Trinity, in Camp Hill (about four miles southwest of Harrisburg). Hasson coached for the last five years at Pope John XXIII, in Sparta, NJ, and won a state championship in 2015. His dad, Paul, recently resigned after seven years as the coach at Altoona High. Kindler starred at Trinity and earned a scholarship to Canisius. He had only a brief stay before leaving the team and the school. Later, he attended Saint Joseph's and played as a walk-on for coach Phil Martelli and most recently he was an assistant at Boys' Latin, of the Pub. The longest CL stint among the guys below was posted by Carroll's Barry Kirsch. He also wound up coaching St. Joseph's University baseball's team along with Carroll's girls basketball team. Other talent? Doing a great job handling PA duties at Carroll games (smile). As you can imagine, the vast majority of CL coaches have been products of CL schools. The most prominent semi-outsider has been wildly successful Neumann-Goretti coach Carl Arrigale, the Inter-Ac MVP for Penn Charter in '84. While researching this posting, I found that Kevin Touhey passed away in March at age 64. His high school, Dover (N.J.), is about 25 miles northwest of Newark. Before coming to the Prep, Kevin was an assistant at Penn and prior to that he was the coach at Mount Mercy College, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. RIP, Kevin. 

JUNE 30
TEDBIT
  Matt Griffin is about to embark on a new career, but he won't be blazing a new trail. Look below to see how many other All-Catholic/All-Inter-Ac guys have coached at a school aside from their alma maters. That's what Matt will be doing. He was a star at SJ Prep and now he's the boss at Roman, succeeding Chris McNesby. The list provides details for any coach whose stint at The Other School included the 1976 season on up. Some also coached at alma maters. Episcopal coach Craig Conlin (La Salle '85) was the only one to thrice earn first team honors. Eddie Burke (RIP) also was the coach at two other schools aside from West Catholic and his alma mater, SJ Prep -- St. Thomas More (located at 47th and Wyalusing, it closed in June 1975) and McDevitt (in '76).

JUNE 24
TEDBIT
  The list below includes Public League, Catholic League and Inter-Ac League players drafted by NBA teams since the spring of 1947.
I am unsure on the high schools for some players from the early years, so please speak up if you know of someone I missed. tedtee307@yahoo.com.Also, there is conflicting info on rounds/selection numbers for some of the early years. The notation "Terr." means the player was a territorial draftee. Those players with asterisks next to their name transferred out of the listed school before exhausting their eligibility. (Also out of the three city leagues.).

JUNE 22
TEDBIT
  Three recent Roman grads -- Lamar Stevens, Tony Carr and Nazeer Bostick -- will be playing together at Penn State. Down the line, what are the chances they'll be selected in the same NBA draft? Slim, yes, but not impossible. We take you back to 1967. The total number of players selected was 162 over 20 rounds -- very few of the 12 teams bothered to make picks in the late rounds -- and three Edison guys heard their names called. All had played together on the Inventors' 1961-62 varsity. Cliff Anderson (St. Joe's) played four years in the NBA/ABA, totaling 253 points and 107 rebounds. He played just three games in the ABA. Tom "Trooper" Washington (Cheyney) did not play in the NBA, but enjoyed a productive six-season career in the ABA (4,499 points, 4.721 rebounds). George Mack (North Carolina A&T) did not play in either league. The guys' Edison point totals, as provided by long-time helper Tom Taylor, are below. Pub schools had mid-year and end-of-the-year graduations back then.

JUNE 7
TEDBIT
  When Chris McNesby recently stepped down as Roman's basketball coach, he became a member of The Won-and-Done Club . . . as in, he departed after winning a Catholic League championship. In CL basketball-football history, he's the 25th coach to do so. The reasons for disconnects have been numerous - retirements, moving on to different schools, firings, the return of coaches who'd experienced health problems, etc. For whatever reason, Roman has lost almost 25 percent of the Won-and-Dones (six of 26). Basketball had not lost a title-winning coach in 30 years (Roman's Barry Brodzinski). When Barry left, he capped a five-in-six-years run for hoops. Ed Stefanski is a now a member of the Memphis Grizzlies' front office. Dave Duke is an assistant to Temple coach Fran Dunphy. On the football side, Jack Ferrante enjoyed a productive receiving career for the Eagles. After a stretch as an assistant, Jim Murphy is ready for his second season in stint No. 2 as Roman's coach.

JUNE 2
TEDBIT
  In compiling the list below -- points scored in NBA/ABA playoffs by products of Public, Catholic and Inter-Ac schools -- one nugget came as a complete surprise . . . Overbrook's Wilt Chamberlain is NOT the king when it comes to average. He was beaten out by a guy, Paul Arizin, who never played a minute of varsity hoops while attending La Salle. Yes, Wilt played in many more games, 160-49, but the numbers don't lie -- 24.2 for Paul, 22.5 for Wilt. Pretty amazing, right? They were teammates for three seasons (1960-62) with the ol' Philadelphia Warriors. Those were the first three seasons of Wilt's pro career and the last three of Paul's. They played together in 24 playoff games. Those numbers: 24-830-34.6 for Wilt and 24-582-24.3 for Paul. His playoff norm in the pre-Wilt days was almost exactly the same -- 25-604-24.1. All guys with at least 250 playoff points are below. This list was prepared a while back, but the Eastern Conference finals were about to start so I held off in part to see how much of a climb Dougherty product Kyle Lowry, star guard for the Toronto Raptors, could make. In six games vs. Cleveland, he notched 121 points (with co-highs of 35) to go from 527 to 648 and 13.9 to 14.7. He's now in a tie with 'Brook product Lewis Lloyd, though Kyle is a sliver ahead if you expand the numbers -- 14.72 to 14.68. The No. 4 spot in terms of average is held by Franklin's Fred Carter, the father of DN/Inky sports writer Aaron "Ace" Carter. When informed of this, Ace could not resist the chance to bust Dad's chops. "He never met a shot he didn't like." Ha, ha. . . Please speak up if I missed someone. These numbers were compiled via research on http://www.basketball-reference.com/. 
  UPDATE: I sent Michael Arizin, Paul's son, an email about this Tedbit and he offered another very cool nugget: Of ALL the players who have ever played in the NBA (70 yrs---including Wilt, Kobe, Jordan, Baylor, Bird, etc), Dad has the 2nd highest average in his final year of play (21.9 ppg). Only Bob Pettit averaged more in his final year (22.5). Not bad for someone who never played on an organized team until he was almost 20 years old . . . Michael didn't mention this, but I will. Pettit played in just 50 games in his final season. Paul played in 78.

MAY 20
TEDBIT
  This morning, in an 8:30 meeting at school, Roman coach Chris McNesby told his players he was stepping down. In a text last evening (he asked us to withhold the news until 9 a.m.), Chris noted, "Everything was great at Roman! It's just that when I first started, I had no kids. Now three. Plus, I have bigger job responsibilities at work. Something had to give, eventually. I don't want to miss my kids' stuff in the next few years." Chris also said he went to visit legendary Roman assistant Thomas "Hockey Puck" McKenna yesterday morning to give him the news in person. "I called him and told him I was pulling up to his house and wanted to talk to him," Chris noted, also via text. "He said, 'C'mon, man. I'm layin' in bed. What the hell you want?' LOL! I asked him to keep it private until I tell the team." Guess what? Looks like The Puckster did! Puck didn't call me until 10:03 this morning. Ha, ha. . . . Anyway, best wishes going forward to Chris and his family. He has always been a class act. Below you'll find a list of the Top 15 hoops coaches in Catholic League history in terms of regular season league winning percentage (minimum of five seasons). Chris checks in at No. 3. Four guys with Roman ties are on the list. La Salle is next with three.

MAY 16
TEDBIT
  Cardinal Dougherty product Kyle Lowry ('04), who left Villanova after two seasons, is now in his 10th NBA campaign and he's about to experience a conference final for the first time. Yesterday, he poured in 35 points as the Toronto Raptors performed a 116-89 crush job on the Miami Heat, thus taking Game 7 in the eastern semis. Now for the big question . . . Will Kyle barge his way onto the list below? What does it include? All performances of at least 20 points by "Our Guys" in conference finals in this century. The No. 1 performance will no doubt come as a surprise. In 2003, playing for San Antonio in Game 2 vs. Dallas, Overbrook product Malik Rose was the seventh man. In 27 minutes, he scored 25 points while shooting 5-for-11 from the floor (no threes) and 15-for-18 at the line in a 119-106 victory. That would be 44 points in 48 minutes! Malik, who also played baseball (slugging first baseman) at 'Brook, is beloved by all who know him, and he had an entertaining stint during four seasons as an analyst for Sixers telecasts. This season was his first as the Atlanta Hawks' manager of basketball operations. The other eight outputs of at least 20 points were scored by Gratz guys -- five for Rasheed Wallace and three for Aaron McKie. (By the way, they also participated in other sports in high schools.) Other appearances by "Our Guys" in conference finals in this century: Roman's Rasual Butler in '05 for Miami and '14 for Indiana), Strawberry Mansion's Ronald "Flip" Murray in '07 for Detroit, and Wallace in '07-'08 for Detroit and '10 for Boston. Each of Toronto's first two series this year lasted seven games. In 14 games, Kyle scored 261 points (18.6) while shooting 86-for-235 (floor), 26-for-92 (threes) and 63-for-83 (line). He had outbursts of 25, 33, 35 and 36 vs. Miami. Malik's record might be not sittin' pretty (smile).
  I posted this back in November . . . Kyle grew up on the east side of the 2700 block of North 20th Street, right across the street from what had been right field at the ol' Shibe Park/Connie Mack Stadium. Click here for a pic from the 1914 World Series. (And here for a larger version). What became Kyle's home is second from the right.
  UPDATED on May 22 with Kyle Lowry's 20-point effort in Game 3.
  UPDATED on May 25 with Kyle Lowry's 35-point effort in Game 4.
  UPDATED on May 27 with Kyle Lowry's 35-point effort in Game 6.

MAY 10
TEDBIT
  Last week, O'Hara grad Ed Dougherty ('88) was inducted into the Middle Atlantic Conference Hall of Fame for his exploits as Lycoming's four-year starter at quarterback. He paced the Warriors to a 39-7 record while passing for 8,850 yards and 84 TDs. In its long history, the MAC has included many schools at many levels. It's now for Division III schools, but back in the day it featured Division I schools. This is year No. 5 for MAC HOF inductions and as near as I can determine, "Doc" is the first football inductee with Public/Catholic/Inter-Ac roots. There have been six basketball inductees and the breakdown is below. In all, those guys combined to score 11,444 college points! Lou Stevens is the father of Roman senior star Lamar Stevens, who's bound for Penn State with classmates Tony Carr and Nazeer Bostick. My biggest memory of Lou's career at Dougherty: He received the Daily News ink after Dougherty claimed a win in its fourth consecutive overtime win. One other thing. One of this year's MAC HOF inductees is Steve Klingman, who had a wildly successful run (324 wins in 22 seasons) as the soccer coach at the University of Scranton. He's a graduate of Haverford High (and his father, John, was the football coach at Bartram from 1948 through '57). In the 1970-71 school year, Steve and I were roommates at Ithaca College. He was a great soccer player there and was inducted into that school's HOF in 1993. Congrats on this latest of many honors, Steve! Click here for links to pages detailing the MAC's HOF inductees. Please speak up if I missed any football/basketball honorees with "Our Guys" ties. Thanks!