Just back from Central’s 75-56 win over St. John’s Prep. The Raiders, rated No. 1 in the Rallynorth.net rankings, turned this one into a laugher early.
Some thoughts on the important stuff first. Credit the classy folks at CC for understanding the immense emotions this version of Senior Night took on with the tragic passing of Raider Ryan Bourque this past fall.
The Central community paid tribute to the late Bourque’s family, presenting them with a special basketball autographed by the team members and with Ryan’s red framed No. 45 team jersey.
If tears weren’t welling up through the ceremony, you’re not human. The family members and team exchanged hugs at midcourt.
It was a clearly touching moment, one that had dads like myself hugging his son and praying that something this tragic never happens to another youngster with so much life to live.
Following the ceremony the teams took the court and they were clearly on different planes.
Central played hungry, like a team that took the loss to BC High in the Comcast tourney personally.
The Prep played like a team that was quite satisfied blasting Fenwick off the floor for the North Shore Invitational.
Watching Adrian Gonzalez play like he is right now, I’d have to say there are 150 Division 1 college programs who he could definitely have impacted. In the end, Bentley, a Division 2 national power, is probably a great place for Gonzalez, who’ll be hanging on rims from Adelphi to Waltham for the next four years.
Speaking of college legends of the future, Bowdoin bound Ryan O’Connell will sell some tickets up there in the North country. Talk about a kid who is fun to watch play offense.
Call me crazy … I’m no varsity coach … but I say zoning Central is asking for trouble. The prep tried it tonight, and it was a license for AG … That’s AG, Adrian Gonzalez (you know, like KG) … to score at will. If you collapse on him, he kicks to Walson Constant or Billy Marsden.
It also allows the bigger Raiders like Carson Desrosiers and Tim Wheeler to attack the glass with free runs.
Just an observation.
By the way, the Raiders got some special work done recently against the zone as coach Rick Nault called in the veteran, Dick Licare, who was in town, to work on the offense. Great move by Nault as Licare has seen it all in his nearly 450 wins.
We’ll dig into the tourney stuff soon enough.
