A year ago, a Kentucky-bound New Jersey high school senior had two goals: win the New Jersey Tournament of Champions and then follow that up with an NCAA championship as a freshman at Kentucky.
That was Karl-Anthony Towns’ message to me in February.
Towns did in fact lead St. Joe’s-Metuchen to the TOC title in March and is now part of an undefeated No.-1 ranked team in Lexington.
A year later, Isaiah Briscoe is in an eerily similar position.
His Roselle Catholic team is ranked No. 5 nationally by USA Today and is just about everybody’s favorite to win this year’s TOC, which features the Garden State’s four public school group winners and its two non-publics in a six-team winner-take-all event.
“TOC or bust,” Briscoe, whose team opens the 2014-15 season on Friday against Plainfield, told NJ Advance Media in the above video shot Saturday. “We went through the schedule, like I said it’s TOC or bust.”
In each of the last two seasons, the 6-foot-3 Briscoe has come up short of a championship.
A year ago, Roselle Catholic lost to Newark East Side, 46-45, in the TOC semifinals.
In 2013, Briscoe was part of a St. Benedict’s Prep team that featured current Phoenix Suns guard Tyler Ennis and lost an epic 67-65 decision to Montverde (FL) Academy in the championship game of the ESPN National High School Invitational.
“I don’t want that feeling, I didn’t like that feeling,” Briscoe said of last year’s loss. “The year before that we lost in the national championship to Montverde, so that’s even worse. So I don’t want to have that. I don’t want it to be bittersweet at the end, and I don’t want to say we could’ve, we should’ve. I just want to take it all.”
While Towns and St. Joe’s were loaded with Division 1 talent a year ago, so too is Roselle Catholic this year.
In addition to Briscoe, the team features highly regarded 2016 point guard Asante Gist, 2016 wing Matt Bullock, South Carolina-bound forward Chris Silva, Monmouth-bound forward Pierre Sarr and 6-9 freshman Naz Reid.
“The sky’s the limit for us,” Briscoe said. “We’re not as good as everybody is saying we are yet…but we got the potential to be the No. 1 team in the country.”
The Lions will play a loaded schedule that includes games against St. Anthony, The Patrick School, DeMatha, St. Benedict’s Prep, Montverde and Our Savior New American.
Montverde features LSU-bound point forward Ben Simmons and is coached by former St. Pat’s coach Kevin Boyle. Our Savior includes Kentucky target Cheick Diallo. Both those game are in February.
While Diallo is still mulling his college choice, Briscoe is pleased to have his over with.
“I know that Coach Cal [John Calipari] is going to push me and get the best out of out me, so that’s how I made that decision,” he said.
He added: “That’s one less thing I have to worry about and now I can turn all my focus to my team and just try to win the TOC.”
Photo: Saed Hindash/The Star-Ledger
