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Festive First Annual IZOD Showcase
Concludes With St. A’s Edging CBA

By Anthony Sorce
for sidelinechatter

St. Anthony forward Devon Collier (44) goes hard to the basket as CBA's Roy Mabrey (3) falls back while defending during Sunday night's feature game in the first Izod High School Showcase at Caldwell College. The Friars edged the Colts, 49-48. Photos by Sean Buldiger. Darryl Dawkins (center) is joined by Game 4's MVP's, Derrick Williams of St. Anthony (left) and Roy Mabrey (right) of CBA following the thrilling 49-48 Friars' victory in Izod Showcase. CALDWELL- The top sports story this past Sunday may certainly have revolved around whether or not the New York Jets could beat the Indianapolis Colts and advance to Super Bowl XLIV; however, don’t tell that to Darryl Dawkins or Ed Bright of Team Izod. Caldwell College’s George R Newman Center hosted the first annual Izod High School Basketball Showcase with four games matching some of the best teams and players on the East Coast, including those from schools such as St. Anthony, St. Benedict’s Prep, NIA Prep, Blair and Christian Brothers Academy. The best game of the day came as the nightcap featuring two perennial New Jersey high school powers St. Anthony and CBA treating fans to a memorable thriller as coach Bob Hurley’s third-ranked Friars (14-2) rode an Elijah Carter fullcourt drive and runner in the lane with three seconds left for a 49-48 win over Geoff Billet’s Colts (12-3). While the hoops entertained devoted fans ranging from the beloved “Manny of Elizabeth” to current Caldwell College star and former Bloomfield Tech standout Dante Rollins and his dad, the clear message of the Izod Showcase came crystal clear through the voice and smile of one of the great worldwide ambassadors of the game, who is also closely associated with the unique AAU program. Legendary gentle giant Darryl Dawkins, the beloved “Chocolate Thunder,” who went straight from high school to the NBA in the 1970s, is a coach for Team Izod, and he is one of the chief messengers behind the revolutionary AAU team’s credo about education enrichment being paramount to whatever occurs won-loss-wise on the basketball hardwood. As Chocolate Thunder made crystal clear to those who would listen: education comes first and foremost for Team Izod, and cheating and bad sportsmanship are simply not options. Those were messages he noted that apply to the AAU team he helps coach, but he also hopes follows his players with their high school teams and beyond into the general realm of life itself. “It’s all about the kids, but they have to continue to work hard and be willing to put in the necessary work both on and off the court in order to succeed in the game of life,” said Dawkins, who was on hand all day long to meet and greet players, coaches and fans, and present MVP trophies to players from all eight high school teams involved in the showcase. “We had some great talent here today and it’s great to see them compete in a high school setting.” Several of Hurley’s St. Anthony players are members of Team Izod for which Dawkins helps coach, and Bright serves as general manager. The folks on hand who are involved with the AAU program had to be pleased with the performance that St. Anthony and CBA put forth in a classic New Jersey scholastic hoops clash between two perennial state powers. CBA had taken its first lead of the night with just 12 seconds left in regulation when its game MVP, Roy Mabrey, hit a jump shot following a steal by Matt McMullen off a Friars’ bumbled inbounds play. Billet, a superb schoolboy player under the legendary Ed Wicelinski at CBA during his own memorable high school career before going on to be a college standout at Rutgers, has developed into a fine, young coach in his mentor’s tradition, and his Monmouth County parochials battled right to the bitter end for them with St. Anthony’s Carter’s late runner proving to be the ultimately most critical points of the game. “This game went right down to the wire as both teams were well coached and it was a joy to watch,” said Dawkins. “St Anthony is a mega-power and CBA played great. “There is not a person in this gym that is sorry they came here today!” Hurley, who has been through so many classic games in his 38-year coaching career, breathed a sigh of relief afterwards. “This type of game is not good for an older guy” said the renowned Friars’ mentor with a wide smile. “Give CBA credit because they played great and we were fortunate to come out of here with a victory. “I am drinking a lot of fluids, and trying to keep in shape, but lately when I leave the building at night, I am drenched like I played” “But, this was just a typical ‘no-quit’ CBA. They hung around the whole game even when we were up by eight or nine points. They just kept coming after us.” Hurley has no plans of quitting coaching anytime soon despite his words about feeling drained after the type of nip and tuck game he had just coached his Friars through. “I still enjoy this and I have a great bunch of guys that just need to be more aggressive,” he said. Hurley’s son Danny, who is the head coach of St Benedict’s Prep (14-1), guided his squad to a very convincing 82-43 victory over Long Branch (7-6) in Sunday's Izod Showcase behind 20 points from Aaron Brown, less than 24 hours after his Grey Bees created a buzz around elite Jersey hoops circles with their stunning 65-64 victory over Michael Gilchrist-less St. Patrick in Saturday night’s Elizabeth Coalition to House the Homeless Classic at the Dunn Center. Gilchrist, the No. 1 rated junior in the country, was out of town for a family matter, but beating the previously No. 1 ranked Celtics was nonetheless still a huge win for St. Benedict's. “Our program has improved a great deal and it’s been a great weekend for us,” said Danny. “The early loss we had this season has galvanized us.  “We are a much better team than we were in December” Another anticipated match-up in the first annual showcase was NIA Prep (5-2) taking on Blair Academy (7-4). This contest saw Shaquille Thomas, the 6-foot-8 Montclair resident, and nephew of NBA standout Tim Thomas, score 17 points and receive MVP honors for leading the way in NIA’s 69-57 win over coach Joe Mantegna’s fine Blair program. Other key players for NIA Prep include former Science Park guard Rameel Johnson and ex-University standout Devon Gibson, who combined for another 16 points on the day against Blair. Meanwhile, while watching all the excitement of the day, and realizing the clear message about the theme of the Showcase, namely “Go Big or Go Home,” the man who has traveled the world to spread the goodwill of people and basketball, was happy that he was in the Newman Center for an entire afternoon of high school hoops. “I do this for the love of the game,” said Chocolate Thunder. “There is nothing I do in basketball for money. What I get out of this whole program is that I am blessed to see kids go to school and get a great education, and play basketball “ When Dawkins was asked how he feels about when he sees a kid he coached make the NBA, he said: “If you go pro, fine, but I’m just as happy to see you go and be a doctor, a lawyer or a judge. “I just want to see these kids do the right thing and stay in school!” That clearly was the message of the day. Beyond some terrific high school hoops there were the overriding words about education from Dawkins and Team Izod, a message that seemed to reverberate for all to hear and take home with them after a memorable first annual Izod High School Showcase everyone enjoyed. SHOWCASE NOTES- CBA coach Geoff Billet is a 1995 graduate of the Lincroft based school and was a starting point guard for the 1995 Non-Public A state championship squad coached by his mentor, Ed Wicelinski, who retired in April of 2007 after a brilliant 27-year career that included 625 victories...In Sunday's first game of the Izod Showcase, an improving St. John Vianney team (9-6) knocked off Immaculata of Somerville, 66-53...One of the supporters on the Immaculata bench, wearing his Spartans' golf shirt, was ABC, Channel 7 Metro traffic reporter Joe Nolan, a longtime supporter of Immaculata sports...Blair has produced such NBA players as Luol Deng (Chicago Bulls), Charlie Villaneuva (Detroit Pistons) and Royal Ivey (Philadelphia 76ers)...St. Benedict's Prep's fine junior guard Myck Kabongo has already committed to Texas, while St. Anthony's senior forwards Devon Collier (Oregon State) and Derrick Williams (Richmond) along with senior guard Elijah Carter (St. Bonaventure) are all sealed with their college basketball commitments for next fall.