St. Joe's wins Manhattan Cup

St. Joe's split the season series with Nichols, but it won the most important game.

On Sunday the Marauders completed an outstanding Manhattan Cup championship run by beating the Vikings, 55-50, to win the school's 20th championship. St. Joe's, which beat Canisius in the semifinals after losing to their rivals twice in the regular season, advance to the Catholic state semifinals Saturday on Long Island.

Nichols did win the girls title in a big way routing Nardin, 64-37, for the girls championship.

There was no live blogging from Sunday's games because there was no connection at Canisius College's Koessler Athletic Center, which otherwise is a nice facility for high school playoff games.

Out of 88 voters in our online poll, 55.4 percent correctly picked St. Joe's. This voter, however, did not. Note to self: next time there's an excruciating choice between a team led by sophomores or a team led by seniors, go with the seniors.

Be sure to check out Monday's News and feel free to let us know what you thought about the game.

---Keith McShea

Comments

[MAC]

Nichols had a great year but St.Joes was better when it counted the most. Playing each other 4 times this year played a major advantage for St.Joes, after nichols won the first two matchups joes developed a game plan that took Nichols out of there offensive rhythm.

[Keith McShea]

Read my comment again. Then read the note at the bottom of the page again. End of discussion.

[bballin]

Ive been keeping up on the latest blogs. Having certain ones being censored isnt fair, and defeates the purpose of a blog. Unlce P seems to know what he is talking about, and i agree with him.

[Keith McShea]

Unfortunately, we had to remove some comments. The reasons would all be covered by the note above the "Post a comment" window which is repeated at the bottom of this page.

Some of the comments were fine - some were very good for the most part. However, a portion of them would fall under the no-nos covered by the note. We don't want to be policing this thing, but sometimes we have no choice. We'd much rather stick to the usual great talk about basketball.

Thanks to all for your participation. It's much appreciated and we look forward to more. We obviously would just like to keep the discussion -- to use two key words below -- relevant and non-abusive.

Thanks very much.

[wnywizard]

Uncle P i wasnt able to see the blog before your comments were censored.. It must have been somethin good What were they about??

And about the game anyone that was there can see that the Joes team is playing as if it were their last game that they will ever play. (Actually these games are the last ones that the senior class will play of their high school careers) They are on a mission, and once they lose its done. Mairana, Scaffidi, Spitler, kowalski, and gaines are really diggin deep. We can also see that Nichols just self destructed. They had their chances and their oppurtunities, but some decisions led to the end of a good season. (Technical foul, and substitutions) Great year by Nichols and best of luck to Joes on saturday.

[hoopster]

One last thought. Lost in all this bogus criticism of coaches, assistant coaches, players and fans is probably one of the greatest things to happen in a long time around here in high school sports. I didn't even realize it until I read Keith's article the next day. There are now two, THAT"S RIGHT, two Phil Scaffidi's that have been MVP in the 70 year history of the Manhattan Cup. Joe's brother Phil back in the 70's and now his son in 2008. I think that's simply fantastic! Congratulations to the Scaffidi family. I know there is one proud Uncle in Heaven beaming with joy and pride!

For gosh sakes, why don't you fools who want to criticize everything try celebrating that?

[paul]

I completely agree. Nichols is a very good team, well coached too. Maybe Greg Plumb should take some tips from the girls program. This was the first time I had seen Donahoe play and I always heard she was over-rated. I saw several girls basketball games this season including Jamestown and Pioneer and many other "so called" elite teams, and Nichols is the best. If anything, Donahoe is extremely under-rated. I'm glad to see she has finally began to recieve some press by winning the MVP. She deserved it. She's impressive and a good kid.

[gimmeabreak]

Good point about the Nichols girls. Awesome performance by Donahoe, Camp, et al. Nardin left it all on the floor but was overmatched. Nichols was the superior team and probably will be untouchable next year. Donahoe was particularly impressive...a very heady player.

[Rich]

the girls championship did occur yesterday too. would anyone like to talk about how nichols killed nardin?

[04statechamps]

I'm sorry but your judging a coach that lost 3 GAMES!! Back off Plumb. He did a great job with 3 sophmore starters. Judge him in 2 more years... but until then no reason to critize him or call for his job for that matter.

[gimmeabreak]

The Nichols girls coach said it was going to be an "All Nichols show" on Sunday. Well, he was half-right.

St. Joe's played with tons of heart and verve and the Marauder guards overwhelmed their counterparts from Nichols. St. Joe's bench rose to the occasion, too.

Will Regan is the real deal and apparently the officials are already giving him the star treatment. Those boys were banging hard underneath the boards on Sunday but Regan didn't pick up a foul until well into the third quarter. C'mon.

Mark Simon had his boys ready to play...the hallmark of Simon's teams at SJCI over the years. He is a classy, under-control guy whose teams reflect his personality and as a result, seldom wilt under pressure. This might be his best win yet...everyone looked right past St. Joe's and expected a Canisius-Nichols final.

Who is this Nichols asistant everyone keeps mentioning? Sounds like he needs a vacation!

[jwh12]

I almost hesitate to get into this discussion again. Jim Palano did not manipulate this scenario. Actually, I am pretty sure that St. francis was the first team suggested to become a B school and based on ability( which IS the criterion) they probably should be the fourth B team. This process has been in place for years. This just happens to be one of the few years that things changed. Let it go.

[chris]

Hey Hoopster, I can't believe what I'm reading from Johntra and Nichols Baller. I'm ok with second guessing a coach( that comes with the territory) but to publically attack Andrew McKinnon,no way!!! Andrew is Nichols only true ball handler,and Canestro and the Reagans have McKinnon to thank for some portion of their successful seasons. The kid is a 15 year old sophmore playing against 18yr old seniors. A 24-3 record,repeat appearences in the Manhattan cup play offs,one championship and one 5 point loss in the finals. Not too shabby. The lack of intellegence shown by johntra and nichols baller deserves no further recognition

Personally,I think Joe's and Nichols should be representing WNY on Long Island (and I'm a Canisius fan)I think it was a shame the way Palano manipulated those AD's into a second vote for his own benefit. I don't know how he can feel good about himself when his team sits at 13-13,and Nichols sits at home at 24-3 with less males enrolled in school.

Best of luck to St.Joe's this weekend. Nichols will be heard from over the next two years and Andrew McKinnon will be a major player in their success..

[BBall Observer]

Congratulations to Mark Simon and his staff on what is probably their best coaching job to date. Best of luck the rest of the way.
To the Nichols coaches, players and fans: The season did not end the way you all would have hoped but you had a great year and should be favored to win the Monsignor Martin next season. Will Reagan is a stud and he will only get better.

[jwh12]

Interesting, intense and enjoyable. I think compared to the games at Buff St. it was the best game of the weekend.

Kudos to all at St. Joes for an outstanding turn around from January swoon(SHome and Canisius). They will represent well on Long Island.

Kudos as well to Nichols for an outstanding season. Please remember all you coach bashers - Nichols went 24-3 and beat Joes twice so maybe it isn't as bad as you think today. I don't believe you should beat up coaches based on one championship game.

Couldn't help but notice from afar that there still seems to be some bad blood on the part of the Assistant coach from Nichols as he blatantly refused to shake hands with the Joes coaching staff. Sad state of affairs.

[hoopster]

No secrets to this game. Joe's was the better team hands down. Nichols had its chances, especially in the third quarter when they went up 3, but turned the ball over on three consecutive possessions, which allowed Joe's to regain control of the game at the close of the 3rd and going into the 4th. Nichols did a poor job on the ball screens, which led to many uncontested 3s, while Phil squared, to their credit, nailed them time and again. Meanwhile Joe's defended tremendously and gave Nichols few easy buckets. That my friends is a pretty good recipe to win an important game.

Full marks as well as congrats and bon chance go out to the players and coaches of St. Joe's as well as the many fine parents of those kids! Good job!

PS. Anyone interested in reading a good bball book with a Joe's connection, check out "The Last Amateurs" by John Feinstein. John details a season in the NCAA Division 1 Patriot League. One of the Spitler boys, not sure exactly which one so forgive me as I can't keep track of them all, is featured prominently as is his Holy Cross team as well as Mom and Dad. Good stuff.

[Steve]

It was a great game, today. St. Joes pulled out a well deserved win. I know where Matt's coming from, too. As I drove to the game I felt that Nichols had the better team and might just go farther in the State championships, but after watching them last week, kind of knew that St. Joes would probably pull this one out. And they did.

This game came down to 2 things: Cojones and coaching. Although Nichols may have had more talent, St. Joes had the bigger cojones and the better coaching. Their seniors stepped up and won them the game. They refused to let let their younger rivals take over the game. Pure cojones!

Was that Greg Plumb or Eve Plumb out there on Nichols' sideline? So many substitution errors during this game. Why was Donahoe on the bench so long? (Did he even take a shot, or touch the ball?) And when he was out, couldn't you see that Will drew double coverage? Even Jan Brady could've seen that. A dumb technical foul. And 4'th quarter time out, then you let the shot clock run down on you 16 seconds later? You had no plan B when they took Will away from you? Thank your lucky stars you have so much coming back to make it back next year and learn from your mistakes.

Kowalski was stud. Great game Scaffidi and Young Mr. M. You shot the lights out today. Good luck next week. Win, because I want to go to Niagara to see the finals.

[Johnny]

No not neccessarly Matt this just shows who can win when it really matters and who won't fold under pressure so therefore St. Joes has the best chance in States.

[matt]

I'm disappointed at this game. Nichols had the best chance of winning a state catholic title. I wish St. Joes good luck, but I believe nichols has much better talent on there team.