Last Wednesday afternoon, Bob Hurley was making plans for an eight-hour car ride to Columbus, Ohio for this weekend, with his wife, Chris, daughter Melissa and Melissa’s two young children, Gabriel and Anna.
The Hurley clan was heading west to Ohio, because Hurley’s eldest son, former Duke All-American and NBA basketball player Bobby was coaching the University of Buffalo in the first round of the NCAA Tournament against West Virginia.
Needless to say, the long car ride was not what the legendary Hall of Fame St. Anthony basketball coach had originally planned.
Deep in his heart, Hurley believed that his basketball team would still be playing this weekend, making plans to face someone in the NJSIAA Tournament of Champions at some venue in New Jersey.
But that wasn’t meant to be, as the Friars’ season came to an end last Saturday at the Pine Belt Arena in Toms River in the NJSIAA Non-Public B state championship game against Roselle Catholic, falling 56-52, marking the fourth straight time that St. Anthony fell at the hands of Roselle Catholic, the last three coming in the Non-Public B state title game.
For the third straight year as well, the Friars had a fourth-quarter lead against Roselle Catholic and just couldn’t maintain it down the stretch.
Roselle Catholic, which appeared to struggle just a bit down the stretch of the season, falling to Monteverde of Florida (the team coached by former St. Patrick’s head coach Kevin Boyle) in the regular season, then Linden in the finals of the Union County Tournament, found itself at the right time, especially senior leader Isaiah Briscoe (headed for Kentucky in the fall), who had 17 points in the win over the Friars.
The Lions, now 26-4, also received 13 points from Pierre Sarr, 12 from Chris Silva and 11 points and seven rebounds from perennial Friar-killer Matt Bullock.
“We thought we were ready to play,” Hurley said. “Looking back, we had two days of things to get ready, but we kept realizing that we were going to see them again [Roselle Catholic had defeated St. Anthony, 62-59, in a regular season game to start the new year in January]. In a one-game deal, if your concentration and focus isn’t there, then that team is difficult to beat.
Added Hurley, “The same thing happened last year. We were facing a team that is very talented and had some failure before seeing us. We seem to have trouble with this group. They provide problems with their styles of play. Obviously, they’re doing very well against us.”
The Friars’ season, which was spectacular and dominant at one stretch, especially in January and February, came to an end with a 28-2 mark. Yes, the two losses were to the same team.
“It’s a shame and it’s disappointing,” Hurley said. “We had two kids [junior guard Jagan Mosely and sophomore forward Kaleb Bishop] who played the way they were supposed to play and the rest were a little bit short of what we needed. When so many kids didn’t play well and you’re playing a team with physically strong kids, you’re in trouble.”
Hurley didn’t understand why his team fell flat in the title game.
“I don’t know whether the game was too big or what,” Hurley said. “We were just not ready. There’s no excuse. It’s on us. We weren’t good enough and we didn’t coach well enough. We tried to get everyone to perform at a high level and it just didn’t happen. We’re all disappointed in ourselves. We’re all in this quagmire together.”
What makes the Friars’ loss difficult to swallow is the way the Friars had been playing prior to the state title game. They seemed to be hitting the state playoffs on all cylinders, then rolled through three state playoff games before disposing of Hudson Catholic, 58-45, last Wednesday in the NJSIAA Non-Public B North sectional title game at the Rutgers Athletic Center.
“Looking back, that was probably fool’s gold,” Hurley said. “We never resolved the fact that we couldn’t play well against that team [Roselle Catholic]. We just didn’t have enough to play when we needed it.Three straight years, we had a lead in the fourth quarter and couldn’t close it out.”
So there won’t be a 28th state title to add to the Friars’ overflowing trophy case.
“We have to hang our hats on the fact that we did have a good season,” said Hurley, who has earned 25 of the 27 state titles the school has collected over the years. “We won the state sectional, but that’s not good enough for the school’s standard.”
Hurley unveiled a wild statistic. Before 2010, St. Anthony had been in the state championship game 26 times.
“And in those games, we were 25-1 in the state final,” Hurley said. “We’ve been in the state final for the last six straight years and our record is now 2-4.”
St. Anthony lost in the 2010 Non-Public B title game to Trenton Catholic in triple overtime, then enjoyed two straight titles with the Kyle Anderson and Myles Mack-led teams, winning the mythical national crown in 2011, and now has dropped three straight to Roselle Catholic.
Hurley’s now 67 years old. There was a time when Hurley hinted at retirement, even announcing that in 2006 he would step down and turn the program over to former assistant coach Ben Gamble, now at Archbishop McCarrick in South Amboy.
But Hurley changed his mind about retiring and has remained entrenched at the tiny school on Eighth Street and now even acts as the school’s president as well. He’s not going anywhere anytime soon.
Hurley is already thinking about next year’s team that will feature big-time NCAA Division I players like Mosely, Bishop, 6-foot-9 forward Taurean Thompson, R.J. Cole, Shyquan Gibbs and Juvaris Hayes.
“We have a good nucleus returning,” Hurley said. “But we all have to get better. We’re not defending a championship next year.”
Seniors Markis McDuffie (Wichita State) and Mohammed Bendary (NJIT) will graduate in June and move on to Division I basketball in the fall.
So this weekend, the Hurley contingent will be in Columbus, rooting Bobby and the Bulls on against the surly Bob Huggins and the Mountaineers. In just his second year at Buffalo, Bobby Hurley led his team to their first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
“This is a whole new one for us,” Hurley said. “We had to sweat out our children playing and now we do it as they are coaches.”
The Hurleys’ other son, Dan, will also be coaching Friday, but in the National Invitation Tournament, as Dan’s University of Rhode Island team will travel to California to face Stanford.
It is astounding how many of Hurley’s former players have chosen to become coaches themselves. Former Friar Darren Savino will be on the sidelines with the University of Cincinnati Bearcats as they face Purdue in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
Former Friar standout point guard Rashon Burno is a dutiful assistant coach at the University of Florida.
There is former Notre Dame All-American David Rivers, now the associate head coach at Kennesaw State. Former Friars Pete Cipriano (Southern University) and Obie Nwadike (Central Connecticut) are also assistant coaches in college.
On the high school level, Carlos Cueto (recently at Secaucus) and Billy Lovett (East Orange Campus) were Friar teammates and are now high school coaches. Former standouts Roshown McLeod and Ajmal Basit are currently head high school coaches in the Atlanta area. Another Friar All-American Rodrick Rhodes is a successful high school head coach in Kentucky after spending several years as a college assistant.
“It’s amazing how many have jumped into it now,” Hurley said. “The number has grown over the last 15-to-20 years.”
So Hurley heads off to Columbus, but it honestly wasn’t what he had planned. He would much rather be back in New Jersey, still coaching the Friars, but it wasn’t meant to be.
Jim Hague can be reached at OGSMAR@aol.com.
You can also read Jim’s blog at www.jimhaguesports.blogspot.com.