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Adam Zagoria covers basketball at all levels. He is the author of two books and an award-winning journalist whose articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Sports Illustrated, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide.
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Saturday / December 14.
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    • St. Anthony

    MIDDLETOWN, N.J. — Despite another financial crisis that threatened to shudder the historic school at the end of this semester, St. Anthony’s will remain open going forward and Bob Hurley plans to continue coaching at the Jersey City school past his 70th birthday.

    “I think we’re a little ahead of where we needed to be at this point,” the 69-year-old Naismith Hall of Fame coach said following his team’s 41st straight win, a 51-48 victory over the Ranney School on Tuesday night at Brookdale Community College. “We’re moving forward for high school registration on the first Saturday of February. We’ve put together a plan for next year which we’re going to give to the Archdiocese shortly. And anyone who registers for school will get a refundable deposit in the event we’re not open because we feel that strongly that it can happen.”

    Back in September, St. Anthony’s said it needed $10-$20 million or the doors would close after the 2016-17 school year. The school held a massive fundraising dinner called “50 Years of Chasing Perfect: A Tribute to Coach Hurley,” and also launched a GoFundMe campaign.

    St. Anthony, St. Patrick

    The last time Bob Hurley and the St. Anthony’s Friars lost a basketball game, it was March 14, 2015.

    That came against a Roselle Catholic team led by Isaiah Briscoe in the New Jersey Non-Public B title game in Toms River.

    For a frame of reference, the last time St. Anthony’s lost, Donald Trump was three months away from announcing his candidacy for President.

    Now, nearly two years since that Roselle Catholic loss, the Friars have won 40 straight games after edging a tough Blair Academy team, 52-48, on Sunday at the Hoops to Help Basketball Showcase at the County College of Morris.

    The winning streak includes a perfect 32-0 campaign last season that resulted in the school’s 13th New Jersey Tournament of Champions title and an 8-0 start to the 2016-17 campaign.

    Recruiting, Roselle Catholic, St. Anthony, St. Benedict's, St. Patrick

    In past years, the Metro Classic at Kean University in New Jersey has featured future NBA players Karl-Anthony Towns, Ben Simmons and Wade Baldwin.

    This season’s event — slated for Feb. 10-11 back at Kean — will once again be loaded, with national powers Montverde Academy (FL) and Oak Hill Academy (VA) joining New Jersey powers St. Benedict’s, St. Anthony’s, Roselle Catholic and Hudson Catholic, among others.

    Montverde features Class of 2019 Canadian stars Andrew Nembhard and R.J. Barrett.

    St. Anthony

    R.J. Cole, the 6-foot-1 Class of 2017 point guard at St. Anthony’s, verbally committed to Howard University on Monday, spurning Monmouth and Boston University in the process.

    For Howard, Cole could end up being a program-changer who could change how other recruits look at coming to the school.

    “I got really close with the coach [Kevin Nickelberry] and he’s been there from the beginning,” Cole said of choosing the historically black institution.

    The Linden, N.J., native is a pure point guard who helped St. Anthony’s win the New Jersey Tournament of Champions title in 2016.

    Hurleys, St. Anthony

    After all the epic battles that St. Anthony’s and St. Patrick’s staged over the years across the New Jersey basketball scene, it would be more than ironic if St. Anthony’s now followed St. Patrick’s lead and transitioned from a Catholic school to a private one.

    Yet if you listen to Bob Hurley as he attempts to save St. Anthony’s from its latest — and perhaps greatest — financial crisis, it sounds like that is a path he and the school are considering.

    “We’re going to come up with a plan,” Hurley said during a recent interview with WFUV. “Will it be the plan to sustain it through whoever replaces me in the future? I don’t know about that. But I think we could probably reinvent ourselves somewhat like The Patrick School did and still be able to give an affordable education to a kid in the inner-city that stimulates them to be perhaps better than their counterparts.”

    Copyright 2016 Zagsblog. Partner of iOne Digital / Cassius Network
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