Garden State’s Basketball Talent Blooms in N.C.A.A. Tournament
Whether it’s teams like Princeton and Fairleigh Dickinson pulling off upsets or standout performances from players, New Jersey’s imprint has been all over the Division I men’s basketball tournament.March 24, 2023 Updated 9:15 a.m. ET
PRINCETON, N.J. — By now, many members of the Princeton men’s basketball team just groan and shake their heads upon hearing the customary refrain. They will be watching a college basketball game on television, like on Sunday when Isaiah Wong, a Miami guard from South Brunswick, N.J., threw in 27 points against Indiana.
Jacob O’Connell, a Princeton center, will point to the screen and announce, “Jersey guy.” Zach Martini, his teammate, will nod in agreement.
“We say it all the time when we see a great dunk or a big 3-pointer,” O’Connell said. “‘That guy’s from New Jersey, I played against him in high school.’ It happens all the time.”
O’Connell is from Voorhees and Martini from Warren, two Jersey guys playing for a Jersey school in another N.C.A.A. tournament drawing attention to the hoops-rich state. Over the past two years, people around the country watching some of the biggest upsets in tournament history could add, “That’s a Jersey school.”
Last year, tiny St. Peter’s of Jersey City became the first No. 15 seed to reach the round of 8 of the men’s tournament. This year, Fairleigh Dickinson, located in Teaneck, became the second men’s No. 16 seed to beat a No. 1, when it toppled Purdue. Princeton, with the help of Martini and O’Connell, reached the round of 16 for the first time since 1967.
F.D.U. lost its second-round game to Florida Atlantic, but the Tigers will play No. 6 seed Creighton in Louisville, Ky., on Friday after shocking No. 2 seed Arizona then easily handling No. 7 seed Missouri.
New Jersey has produced some of the sport’s finest players, like Shaquille O’Neal from Newark, Rick Barry from Roselle Park High School, Kyrie Irving (West Orange and St. Patrick) and Tom Heinsohn (St. Michael’s High School in Union City), and too many more to list, most of whom left the state to play at the elite levels.
At the college level, New Jersey does not boast a state powerhouse similar to Kentucky, Kansas, Indiana or U.C.L.A. However, its smaller schools have produced some of the most thrilling moments in tournament history, especially lately.
Sometimes Jersey guys, like Wong at Miami and Alabama’s Jahvon Quinerly, go out of state and win, trying to emulate Bobby Hurley and Jay Williams at Duke. Sometimes it’s an out-of-state rebounder or international shooter who helps make a New Jersey school shine. The Missouri native Bill Bradley did that at Princeton the last time the Tigers reached the Final Four in 1965, and Australia’s Andrew Gaze helped Seton Hall to the title game in 1989, at age 24.
Sometimes it’s a coach. Connecticut’s Dan Hurley, whose Jersey roots feel deeper than the Holland Tunnel, imbues his team with that signature Jersey tenacity. And sometimes there is a Jersey player helping a Jersey school, like O’Connell and Martini at Princeton.
Jersey players, for so long overshadowed by the reputation of New York ballers, play with a feisty and fearless edge. They are considered tough, cocky at times, and unafraid to go strong to the hoop, no matter the opponent. That chest-first mentality was personified last year at St. Peter’s by Doug Edert of Nutley and Bergen Catholic, and Isiah Dasher, a leader and clutch scorer from Jersey City’s Ferris High School, who earned his playground degree at Hamilton Park, one of the area’s best runs.
“Everybody in New Jersey thinks they are the best basketball player ever,” Dasher said. “It’s just a thing we carry around, our swag. Being from New Jersey, you have to have that kind of toughness just to step on the court here.”
When St. Peter’s made its historic run last year, the Peacock players were treated like international celebrities on the streets of Jersey City and in the surrounding malls. Dasher remembered one woman insisting he hold her baby while she clicked a photo, so the child would grow up with a memento.
As Quinerly, the Alabama guard out of Hackensack and Hudson Catholic High School, said on Sunday, “Jersey’s just different in March.”
Actually, New Jersey is good all year. From the playgrounds of Elizabeth to the elite Catholic high schools and the powerhouse programs down the shore and in Camden, the state is a basketball citadel, and has been for decades. It is just that historically, many of the best players are lured to bigger colleges across state lines.
Mitch Henderson, the Princeton coach, is also known as the scrappy guard that led the Tigers to a huge upset over U.C.L.A. in 1995. He grew up in Vincennes, Ind., and moved to Lexington, Ky., in the seventh grade, spending his youth in two of the most renowned basketball states in the country. He says New Jersey, particularly along the shore, has the same passion for the sport.
“I’ve always felt it was very important to have Jersey guys on the team,” he said, and noted that the two current players take pride in their Jerseyness.
Martini, Princeton’s 6-foot-7 forward with a velvety shooting touch, recalled a recent summer pickup game at Hoop Heaven in Bridgewater when he took an elbow to the face. Blood spilling from his nose and a chipped a tooth, he was back on the floor in five minutes.
“That’s just the Jersey style,” he said. “It’s competitive, hard-nosed basketball and it’s made me the player I am today.”
In high school at Gill St. Bernard’s, Martini also played for the NY Renaissance youth team during the summers and represented New Jersey at Dyckman Park in Upper Manhattan. He loved every second of it.
“Total culture shock,” he said. “You’re playing outdoors, it smells like weed everywhere, there’s an M.C. on the court named Cha-Ching who calls every white kid who can shoot Baby Love, for Kevin Love. You feel like you’re a part of that culture and then you bring it back across the George Washington Bridge and you’re playing Somerset County basketball.”
When Princeton beat Missouri, that M.C., David Teele, posted highlights of it with commentary. He wasn’t the only one following the Tigers with glee. Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey has been swept into the excitement, too. He and his wife, Tammy Snyder Murphy, visited Princeton’s practice on Tuesday. The governor, who is originally from Massachusetts, told the players that all of New Jersey, and much of the country, was rooting for Princeton.
Speaking to reporters afterward, he also noted the success of F.D.U. and St. Peter’s and made sure to mention the state university based in New Brunswick.
“Rutgers has been in the tournament and I think got a little bit jobbed in the selection, if I may add, this year,” he said. “You’re starting to see not just the talent New Jersey produces in hoops, both women and men, but the talent staying here.”
Rob Kennedy, the head of Hoop Group, a company based in Neptune, N.J., that runs camps, clinics and tournaments for everyone from small children to elite professional-bound talent, says New Jersey’s high schools compare to any in the country. He recalled the heady days of St. Anthony High School in Jersey City, before it closed in 2017. It was led by Bob Hurley Sr., one of the most successful high school coaches ever. He was eventually challenged by another Jersey icon, Kevin Boyle at St. Patrick of Elizabeth, before Boyle migrated to Montverde Academy in Florida.
Their tradition continues. This year, four McDonald’s all-Americans — a third of the East roster — are from New Jersey, including Elmarko Jackson, from Marlton, Mackenzie Mgbako of Roselle Catholic and D.J. Wagner and Aaron Bradshaw, both of Camden High School.
“It’s hard enough to have one,” Kennedy said. “To have two on the same team is amazing. Jersey high school basketball is something special. It’s a little different with St. Anthony shut down and Boyle in Florida, but it hasn’t lost its luster.”
But all four of those players have committed elsewhere, to Kansas, Duke and Kentucky. Meanwhile, Princeton has players from Australia, Britain and Canada. Last year’s St. Peter’s team featured players from Mali and Puerto Rico.
Fairleigh Dickinson had two players from Quebec and only one, Daniel Rodriguez, from New Jersey.
Tobin Anderson left F.D.U. this week after one season. He will head across the George Washington Bridge and replace Rick Pitino at Iona. But he will still be back in New Jersey, looking for players to cross the Hudson with him.
“Wherever you go in New Jersey, you find the same kinds of kids,” he said, “tough, hard-nosed, competitive — all the things you want in guys.”
