Kevin Boyle is set to step off a plane in Newark Friday morning after flying to his native New Jersey from his new digs in Montverde, Fla.
The former St. Patrick coach will be in town this weekend when Montverde, the defending ESPN NHSI champion and No. 3 team in the USA Today Super 25, plays two games at the Metro Classic at Kean University.
Montverde, which features a half dozen Division 1 commits, faces Isaiah Briscoe and Roselle Catholic — the reigning New Jersey Tournament of Champions winner — on Saturday night at 9.
Twenty-four hours later, Montverde will take on Kentucky-bound big man Karl Towns Jr. and St. Joe’s-Metuchen on Sunday night.
“I always love going back to Jersey and New York,” Boyle told SNY.tv recently. “It’s great basketball, and great crowds.”
Boyle’s former Montverde big man, Dakari Johnson, is a freshman at Kentucky now, and could well be Towns’ teammate next year in Lexington assuming Johnson doesn’t leave early.
Towns is looking to face off against Boyle’s current big man, LSU-bound junior Ben Simmons of Australia.
“I’m really looking forward to that game,” Towns said. “It’s just a great game. Monteverde is a great team and [Simmons] is obviously a very good player, but they’re just one of the biggest names on our schedule. It’s just one of those games that you get to compete against a truly great team that’s loaded with players. You look forward to those games. We’re fortunate that we get to go play basketball against them next week.”
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Here’s the schedule for the event which features teams ranked No. 3 (Newark East Side), No. 6 (Long Island Lutheran), No. 8 (Patrick School), No. 9 (St. Joe’s), No. 10 (St. Peter’s Prep) and No. 16 (Hudson Catholic) in the MSG Varsity Tri-State Poll.
2014 Metro Classic
Match Ups for Saturday, February 15th
- 6:00 PM: Point Pleasant Borough (Girls) vs. Governor Livingston (Girls)
- 7:30 PM: Long Island Lutheran (#1 in NY) vs. The Patrick School (#5 in NJ)
- 9:00 PM: Montverde Academy (#1 in US) vs. Roselle Catholic (#10 in US)
Match Ups for Sunday, February 16th
- 11:00 AM: Marist vs. Union Catholic
- 12:30 PM: Hudson Catholic (#11 in NJ) vs. Newark Eastside (#1 in NJ)
- 2:00 PM: Hunterdon Central vs. St. Benedict’s Prep (#17 in NJ)
- 3:30 PM: Our Savior New American (#3 in NYS) vs. St. Peter’s Prep (#12 in NJ)
- 5:00 PM: Life Center Academy (#10 in NJ) vs. Pope John XXIII (#24 in NJ)
- 6:30 PM: Montverde Academy (#1 in US) vs. St. Joseph (Metuchen) (#12 in US)
Tickets are $15.00 per Day
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Roselle Catholic will host a Coaches’ Clinic April 11 featuring Larry Brown of SMU, Steve Lavin of St. John’s, Mick Cronin of Cincinnati, Jim Larranaga of Miami, Eddie Jordan of Rutgers, Mark Gottfried of N.C. State and Kevin Ollie of UConn.
The event starts at 7:30 a.m. with registration and breakfast and is open to coaches of all levels. Registration fee is $125 if registered, $150 after March 25. For info, contact NJCoachesClinic@gmail.com or call Coach Dave Boff (908) 656-3894 or Coach Tom Sacks (908) 565-2617.
