NYC CHSAA AA Predictions

I'll follow this up with profiles of each team once I see them in action.

Christ the King, Middle Village
Rice, Manhattan
Holy Cross, Flushing
St. Raymond's, The Bronx
Molloy, Briarwood
Loughlin, Brooklyn
All Hallows, The Bronx
Xaverian, Brooklyn
St. Francis Prep, Fresh Meadows


Christ the King is deep, has strong guards, good outside shooting, and size. That's a recipe for winning at any level. They feature Florida commit Erving Walker and George Mason commit Ryan Pearson.

Rice is the defending State Catholic champion, and they feature Connecticut commit Kemba Walker and Drexel commit Chris Fouch. Their inside game is suspect, but they have terrific perimeter skills and relentless pressure defense. The loss of Momo Jones to prep school could impact that perimeter game siginificantly, but Coach Hicks has a knack with developing guard play. The road to the CHSAA title must pass through Harlem.

Holy Cross has the best player in the league in Sylven Landesberg and a strong supporting cast in Blaise Ffrench, Kayvon Roberts, Ernest Freeman and Tim Beinart. It remains to be seen if they have the guard play to compete with CK and Rice in what is traditionally a guard-oriented league.

St. Raymond's features West Virginia commit Truck Bryant in the backcourt, as well as high major recruits Omari Lawrence and Kevin Parrom on the wing. This team is a little height challenged, but with their own brand of pressure defense, slashing offense, and outside shooting, they are never out of a game, as Holy Cross found out last year in the playoffs.

Molloy has big man Ashton Pankey, who must improve on his strong showing as a freshman last season, as well as ultra quick Russ Smith, who flashes signs of brilliance on occasion. Matt Grogan and Mark Wnukowski are senior front court players that will make Molloy strong on the boards. Ryan Dillon and Jin Hong are up from the JV and may have an impact this season. The loss of transfer Reynaldo Walters may cut into this team's backcourt depth, but they have the personnel to beat any CHSAA team, particularly at home where long time coach Jack Curran often seems to work some kind of magic.

Loughlin has Quinnipiac commit James Johnson, Kevin Phillips, and wunderkind Jayvaughn Pinkston, who has been ranked among the top 10 for his age group since at least the 6th grade. It remains to be seen if they can get off to a quicker start this year than last season, when they finally began to put it all together and throw a scare into the teams at the top of the standings. Dan Jennings left school last spring and will not be around to help this year.

Xaverian has been devastated by the transfer of five of it's key players since the end of last season. James Padgett, Vincent Council, Reggie Davis, Brandon Romain will be vying for the city championship, but on behalf of Lincoln and Boys & Girls, not for Xaverian. Rasheem King may have to carry the load of the scoring, but Jamel Fuentes looks like he has some potential as a PG. Phillippi Bochkov also looks like he'll develop into a fine player, but Xaverian will be hard pressed to succeed in this league. Don't count out Coach Alesi, though.