Map of NYC hoops...
- Thread starter firestorm
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LOL... I almost forgot about Elander and "Mr. B" (Marcus) Broadnax. Elander was highly recruited but was way overrated and left after his freshman year if I remember correctly. Marcus I think was the brother (cousin??) of Horace Broadnax who I think was a Hoya. I was in a class with Marcus it was obvious academics weren't his thing. Sorry if my memory is fuzzy but neither lasted long at SJU. They were always a pair of recruits we had high hopes for and never materialized. However, Steve did get some run but that time dried up after he was kind of exposed as over his head.
Woe!!! Easy with the old guy talk. I played a little with Kenny at Molloy. He was living in Lefrak City. He was a special PG. I always hoped he would stay home but Mark Jackson was going to SJU. There was some kind of Looie/Jack Curran rift at least at the time. Looie was a Stanner too literally having gone to St. Ann's academy that became Molloy. I believe Curran wanted SJU job when Looie went to Nets for a year or two but that never happened. I never saw Looie at Molloy recruiting. I did see Terry Holland the Virginia coach trying to poach Smith from eventual UNC destination. Hey, got a cool 7 foot Ralph Sampson poster at the time.
One last thing, I didn't see anything about Tony "Red" Bruin in NYC hoops. I saw Red Bruin play a game at Molloy (before I was in HS) and I always thought he was a very very good HS player. He played for the old Mater Christi that became St. John's Prep. I think he may have played with Vern Fleming as well. At only 6'5 he had hops. Obvious 4 year player at the 'Cuse never a pro but he was a HS menace. Fun remembering old times. Sorry but hoops around here is not really as deep talent wise as it used to be!
Ricky Smith
Member
Yes
Yes to both those points, in fact. As for Lewis, he left after two years, going to VCU after seeing little PT behind newcomers Boo Harvey and Michael Porter. As noted in other threads, Looie had this weird pattern of starting him in his freshman year, only to replace him 4 or 5 minutes into the game, then never putting him back in. Broadnax, who was a top 50 recruit, left after the first semester of his sophomore year. Here's how the NY Times reported it:
Marcus Broadnax, a sophomore reserve guard at St. John's, said yesterday that he would leave the university after this semester, which ends Dec. 23. ... Broadnax, who averaged 38.9 points a game in his senior year at Fort Walton Beach (Fla.) High School, said he had been misled during the recruiting process by Coach Lou Carnesecca and his assistants, Ron Rutledge and Brian Mahoney. ''They said that I was going to play, that they wouldn't recruit over me, and that myself and Elander Lewis were the future of St. John's basketball,'' Broadnax said. Carnesecca has confirmed the promises to Broadnax, but said that when Michael Porter said he wanted to come to St. John's along with Greg (Boo) Harvey, the coach had no choice but to take him. ...
Ironically, by signing Lewis and Broadnax, the staff couldn't honor it's supposed commitment to Gary Payton. And so it goes.
beast of the east
Active member
It takes a lot of work to come up with an all-time NYC list. Red Bruin was a very good college player at Syracuse. Having said that, Brian Winters (NBA) and Kevin Joyce (ABA) both had great HS careers at Molloy. Len Elmore was considered the next great center out of NYC, having followed Alcindor at Power, and having his own stellar career at Maryland before the pros.
Simply making a varsity squad at Molloy is an accomplishment, whether you got serious run or not.
beast of the east
Active member
I worked a summer with Bob Bogad, Rudy's younger brother. He had just graduated from Fairfield, where he had a pretty decent college career. I was just out of HS. To put it in proper perspective, without cable TV back then, we knew he had played college ball, but to us even the fact that Fairfield was D1 was lost on us. We knew his brother had gone to SJU, but to us, Bob had gone to a "nothing school" which of course wasn't true. The lack of broadcast media coverage probably explains how the NCAA pool of potential at large teams for a 16 team field was much smaller than today.
Think about this, in 1983, Mark Jackson was the 4th best PG in the City behind Pearl Washington, Kenny Smith, and Kenny Hutchinson. Billy Donovan was killing them in Long Island also. The only PG from the city who merits discussion over the past 10 years is Sebastian.
Reading through this post, one of the things that sticks out is people talking about their neighborhood parks. I can drive by parks now and they are empty during the summer. When I was in high school over 50 years ago, we would be in the park all day long. That is where toughness was learned. Instead of playing in the park, they have 8 year old travel teams. SMH.
We also used to travel to different parts of Queens to play against kids in other parks, we learned how to form relationships and friendships through all the train and bus rides. Nowadays, kids wait for their coach to pick them up. Parents all want their son to be the Man, even at 8 or 9 years old. If that isn't happening, they find another team. In my day you had to just keep working harder because you sure couldn't just find another neighborhood and think that you would be accepted, lol.
When basketball stopped being a game, and became a business, it was ruined for New York City. Everybody was was looking for the next one, hoping to get paid. A lot of AAU coaches are no better than pimps trying to recruit players to their stable.
When Looie was a SJU assistant both Willie Hall and Donnie Burks who were top ten recruits were signed out of Molloy.
I believe those guys played there for Louie. Before he was Lapchick's assistant, Louie was head coach at Molloy (which was in Manhattan at the time, and under a different name - It moved to Queens while he was still there). Jack Curran took over when Louie left to join us.
basketballjones
Well-known member
This has been fun to look at with old clips and all. Especially enjoyed Marty Glickman's audio. An old friend of mine, who is from Brooklyn and now lives in LA and a long time St. John's fan said the following.....FWIW
I think they left out 2 players from Brooklyn. One was Rico Petrocelli, The Boston Red Sox great. He was something special. The other was Howie Furman from my school, New Utrecht.
In 1963, he was first team All American and he averaged 44 points a game. He went to North Carolina, but he left when Dean Smith wanted to make him a point guard, and he wanted to be the shooting guard. It was a terrible mistake on his part. He had a difficult personality. Never talked much, hard to get to know. That North Carolina freshman team had Bobby Lewis who eventually was a pro, and a kid from Florida, Ian Morrison, who in high school averaged above 40 points a game.
I think they left out 2 players from Brooklyn. One was Rico Petrocelli, The Boston Red Sox great. He was something special. The other was Howie Furman from my school, New Utrecht.
In 1963, he was first team All American and he averaged 44 points a game. He went to North Carolina, but he left when Dean Smith wanted to make him a point guard, and he wanted to be the shooting guard. It was a terrible mistake on his part. He had a difficult personality. Never talked much, hard to get to know. That North Carolina freshman team had Bobby Lewis who eventually was a pro, and a kid from Florida, Ian Morrison, who in high school averaged above 40 points a game.
beast of the east
Active member
What about Billy the Kid Cunningham? Doug Moe. Roger Brown.
How about Joe Lapchick - though from Yonkers was regarded as the best center of his era. In his own words, the only thing that kept him from going to college was not going to HS.
Ricky Smith
Member
Was Keydren Clark on that Rice team?