An outsider to Iona basketball I had to comment on Jim McDermott. Along with Don Kennedy of St. Peter's, Danny Lynch of St. Francis and Ken Norton of Manhattan, these four were known as the Irish mafia. As a student/athlete at St. Peter's I became quite close to Coach Kennedy. Thought he was a Coach way ahead of his time and like McDermott did it with players often overlooked by the "big" schools. In any event when Coach passed away I made the trip to the Hamptons, where he lived and previously had a basketball camp (Camp Regis). When I arrived at the Funeral home there was Jim McDermott already there! They were good and close friends.
Concerning Warren Isaac, he was voted the Haggerty Award winner as the best NYC basketball player in 1965. Personally, I thought that Larry Lembo of Manhattan was the better of the two but Isacc's stats could not be overlooked. He was an outstanding player. Lembo also missed 7 games due to a broken jaw suffered in a game against Syracuse with Dave Bing and Boheim. Later when Lembo became a top class referee I always enjoyed him when working the Syracuse games. Would never let Boheim to get away with his screaming acts. Just pointed at him to sit down and shut up.
On a different note, as a high school player I always enjoyed playing in the Iona Tournament. The Tournament always had a great field of the best NYC high school teams. In 1961 my team lost to City Champion Bishop Loughlan by one point in the final. Great experience for high school players.
Forwarding to this year...I'm a St. Peter's guy... not sure how our Team will do. We have a lot of very good pieces and a lot of depth but it's really how well John Dunne picks the right combination to play together. Dunne is an outstanding Coach as Iona fans well know. Marvin Dominique is the real deal. A pro type player ( European) who is an outstanding shooter with unlimited range, an outstanding rebounder and most importantly has a "nose" for the ball. He and English are the two best players in the League.
An outsider to Iona basketball I had to comment on Jim McDermott. Along with Don Kennedy of St. Peter's, Danny Lynch of St. Francis and Ken Norton of Manhattan, these four were known as the Irish mafia. As a student/athlete at St. Peter's I became quite close to Coach Kennedy. Thought he was a Coach way ahead of his time and like McDermott did it with players often overlooked by the "big" schools. In any event when Coach passed away I made the trip to the Hamptons, where he lived and previously had a basketball camp (Camp Regis). When I arrived at the Funeral home there was Jim McDermott already there! They were good and close friends.
Concerning Warren Isaac, he was voted the Haggerty Award winner as the best NYC basketball player in 1965. Personally, I thought that Larry Lembo of Manhattan was the better of the two but Isacc's stats could not be overlooked. He was an outstanding player. Lembo also missed 7 games due to a broken jaw suffered in a game against Syracuse with Dave Bing and Boheim. Later when Lembo became a top class referee I always enjoyed him when working the Syracuse games. Would never let Boheim to get away with his screaming acts. Just pointed at him to sit down and shut up.
On a different note, as a high school player I always enjoyed playing in the Iona Tournament. The Tournament always had a great field of the best NYC high school teams. In 1961 my team lost to City Champion Bishop Loughlan by one point in the final. Great experience for high school players.
Forwarding to this year...I'm a St. Peter's guy... not sure how our Team will do. We have a lot of very good pieces and a lot of depth but it's really how well John Dunne picks the right combination to play together. Dunne is an outstanding Coach as Iona fans well know. Marvin Dominique is the real deal. A pro type player ( European) who is an outstanding shooter with unlimited range, an outstanding rebounder and most importantly has a "nose" for the ball. He and English are the two best players in the League.
Thanks for the informative post and welcome to the Board!
Larry Lembo....My favorite referee....Always fair to Iona...Many years ago met him at a diner on way home from a Marist game... Casual game time friends thereafter....Do you know, and I am interested as to later life....I always admired the good shape he kept himself in...
The '64/'65 Manhattan Team was a very good Team. Two of my high school teammates played on that Team. Larry Lembo was the star. At 6'4" could rebound or shoot long range. Averaged over 25 pts. per game not taking all that many shots. In the first round of the NIT manhattan defeated Texas Western by 20pts only to lose a heartbreaker to Villanova. Texas Western the next year became Texas El Paso ( or the other way around ) and won the NCAA. Lembo was drafted 3rd round by the Knicks and almost made the club. Bradley and Van Ardsdale did. Lembo also led the Met Baseball League in home runs and was drafted by the Cardinals as a first baseman. Guess he had some contacts and became the big time referee that most remember....but he was one of the finest basketball players I ever saw. The Manhattan chant at the Garden games was " Larry's better than Barry". Referring to Barry Kramer of NYU. Lembo eventually taught Phys. Ed at a Long Island College....perhaps Farmingdale (?)
The best St. Peter's player I ever saw was not Kee Kee Clark. It was Harry Laurie. Drafted by the ABA as a Junior and the Detroit Pistons as a Senior, Harry never quite made it, For years was the backcourt partner of the legendary street star Joe Hammond . Both played for the Allentown Jets. Harry was also, one year, the MVP of the Rucker League.
So much for memories. Looking forward to the St. Peter's/Iona matchups this year. As stated previously, we have a lot of talent but will measure how good we are against your strong Iona team.
I go to almost every home game and the fan support is, as you say , non-existent. While this is true of college basketball in NYC, St. Peter's turnout is by far the worst. However while Yanatelli is a dump think it has more to do with the poor performances ( and recruiting) of our team than anything else. This year we should be more than competitive so it will be interesting to see if fans/ students start turning out. As was mentioned, in the late 50's and 60's it was not uncommon to have 5,000 - 7,000 in the Jersey City Armory. But even then we played some pretty big names at the Armory. When we play Seton Hall, Rutgers etc. it's always an away game. The only home games are MAAC games.
Yanatelli would not be that bad if we did it Wagner, LIU or even Marist style and that has been the talk but still no action.
I'll also come to Iona and, if so, like to meet some of you guys. Found most Iona fans, unlike Siena, to be knowledgeable fans and usually have a very good team to root for. Iona has, in the last 20 yrs. has always had a much better team than St. Peter's.
One point that most of you would disagree was that our Conference Championship win over you guys was not the great upset that it was portrayed to be. Aside from leading the game wire to wire ( we did not win the game on some miraculous last second shot) I thought that we had, after Glover and Machado, the better players on the court. Leon ( whose game I loved ), Jenkins, Bacon, Berlin and the young Darius Conley were IMO better than anything Iona had to offer after your big two guys. True,Iona killed is in both regular season games but Wesley Jenkins and Bacon were missing in action in both games. So going into the Championship Game game I was very optimistic. Iona had the two premier stars but as a group/team we had the next five or six best players. Didn't mean to re-start that controversy and while Dunne did a great coaching job St. Peter's did put a very, very good team ( when healthy ) on the floor.
This year I rate Iona ahead of St. Peter's but Dominique is a super star. Welton is now a Soph, Wyche is also a Soph and underated, Hawkins and Boone ( if eligible ) will help and the newbee jc transfers are shooters. Not a big fan of Desi Washington. Too streaky for me but Desi is a player and certaInly an All-MAAC. There is depth in Fields, Desport, Rolle and Gaskins. Bottom line, lots of potential but, as with any team, it's how the pieces fit in together. Cluess has done a pretty good job of that over the years. If the SP players buy into Dunne's system we will be tough. Rate us pre-serason better than Siena but behind Iona. And by the way. Dunne is not afraid to uptempo. Off an offensive rebound we run almost all the time. The main reason for our low point production over the last several years is lack of shooters and scorers, not necessarily a "walk it up" game plan. Still too early to tell or speculate as the Siena fans do.
When I think of SPC the names that first surface in my mind are Shelton Gibbs and Coach Bob Dukiet. Gibbs and teammate Willie(?) Brown were one of the most formidable duos in the early MAAC years.
I believe the Yanitelli and Mulcahy Centers were built around the same time and though I haven't been there in a number of years, my recollection is they're extremely similar in design - antiquated by today's standards.
Agree that Marvin Dominique is one hell of a player. Watched him closely last year and felt his talent was head and shoulders above most players in the MAAC. Dangerous player who can take over a game.
SP - one of the charter MAAC members, best of luck to you guys.
When I think of SPC the names that first surface in my mind are Shelton Gibbs and Coach Bob Dukiet. Gibbs and teammate Willie(?) Brown were one of the most formidable duos in the early MAAC years.
I believe the Yanitelli and Mulcahy Centers were built around the same time and though I haven't been there in a number of years, my recollection is they're extremely similar in design - antiquated by today's standards.
Agree that Marvin Dominique is one hell of a player. Watched him closely last year and felt his talent was head and shoulders above most players in the MAAC. Dangerous player who can take over a game.
SP - one of the charter MAAC members, best of luck to you guys.
Also remember the Troy Truesdale dunk to send the semi-finals game into overtime at the Meadowlands.
Thanks guys. One of the reasons I requested to post on your Board was that I've read most of your posters and they are almost always reasonable and fair. Lot of BB information without much of the hype that others have. Will probably not post much more but wanted to add whatever information I had on Jim McDermott, Don Kennedy etc.
In fairness I post on the St. Peter's Board as "oldtimer" just like the oldtimer on your Board. Think our Board is pretty reasonable and objective...except for one or two. Good luck in your Season and unless I'm traveling hope to see and meet some of you guys when we play.
When I think of SPC the names that first surface in my mind are Shelton Gibbs and Coach Bob Dukiet. Gibbs and teammate Willie(?) Brown were one of the most formidable duos in the early MAAC years.
I believe the Yanitelli and Mulcahy Centers were built around the same time and though I haven't been there in a number of years, my recollection is they're extremely similar in design - antiquated by today's standards.
Agree that Marvin Dominique is one hell of a player. Watched him closely last year and felt his talent was head and shoulders above most players in the MAAC. Dangerous player who can take over a game.
SP - one of the charter MAAC members, best of luck to you guys.
Also remember the Troy Truesdale dunk to send the semi-finals game into overtime at the Meadowlands.
Favorite Peacock for me was Elnardo Webster.
I think Truesdale's dunk was in the 82 finals. Sort of seemed like semis because even with our Maac championship win there was no NCAA automatic bid.
The to reverse call was a joke.
I believe Iona and SPC have alternated wins every other time they play in the Maac championship.
Thanks guys. One of the reasons I requested to post on your Board was that I've read most of your posters and they are almost always reasonable and fair. Lot of BB information without much of the hype that others have. Will probably not post much more but wanted to add whatever information I had on Jim McDermott, Don Kennedy etc.
In fairness I post on the St. Peter's Board as "oldtimer" just like the oldtimer on your Board. Think our Board is pretty reasonable and objective...except for one or two. Good luck in your Season and unless I'm traveling hope to see and meet some of you guys when we play.
One Oldtimer to another....How far back do you go?......I remember well the days of Mayor F. Hague, and attending a Iona St.Pete game in a armory somewhere up the hated hill from your present site...and the days you could not drive through Jersey City without a Police Officer stopping you for some minor infraction, which could be taken care of with the purchase of a couple tickets to the old Jersey City Giants opening day game...Over 100,000 such tickets were sold to a stadium at best could hold somewhere if my memory serves no more then 30,000...
Hate to say this, but Yanatelli arena is a dump. The team for the most part has held up its end of the program, but they and the few loyal fans deserve better. I see only a remote possibility of that happening...I remember vowing a few years back before my handicap never to climb up that hill alongside Yanatelli in the cold again...
Your similar posting title caught my eye a few years back, and I often made it a point to read them, which I always found fair and interesting..........I am hoping that our freshman point guard turns out near the player Kiki was...Somewhat similar playing style and size...
If you ever visit Hynes for a Iona game, say hello...I'll be the guy sitting alone under the far basket with my aid and electric wheel chair...
Thanks oldtimer. I'll return the compliment by saying that, over the years, I've read your posts which have convinced me that you are extremely basketball knowledgeable. As for me, just turned 70 but still feel 25. So I go back to the early to mid-60's but did see, on occassion, some of Coach Kennedy's fine teams of the late 50's.
Graduated from SP in 1965 where I played golf and (hope I'm not bragging) led our Team to an undefeated Season and was selected as Student Athlete of the Year. However, as a so/so high school basketball player, basketball was my first love. Played in the local leagues and outside Tournaments until my early 50's.
As for Yanatelli and Jersey City, once I graduated I never really went back. Live in Staten Island and was never really into Jersey City. Hope I'm not revealing too much but 7 yrs. ago I was offered the Golf Coaching job at St. Peter's. Took that Program from a last placed MAAC Team to winning the Conference Championship last year. Imagine that! a concrete school winning a MAAC Golf Championship! I mention that to show my Iona connection. My first Captain and former Assistant Coach left to take a job at Iona. Don't know his exact Title but he's the Academic Co-ordinator who helps keep your players eligible as well as that of transfer students. Aside from that he is now your 2nd year Golf Coach. Quite a capable young man. We talk all the time.
Not sure what they are going to do with Yanatelli. Our main Contributor, Tom MacMahon was a starter on the '68 basketball team that defeated #8 Duke by 27 points in the NIT. Tom just contributed to our new $45 millon dollar Student Center which bears his name. Athletics is a priority of Tom and I know that inquiries are being made either to upgrade Yanatelli or knock it down. It will be interesting to see what Iona does. Could be a good role model for St. Peter's
As you know, college basketball is not what it once was in NYC. Students, now, are often into their i-pads and cell phones. Colleges that never existed or were D2 are now drawing students. I think former basketball powers like Iona, St.Peter's , Manhattan and Fordham were slow to respond. I give Iona and now Manhattan credit for seeing the trend and reacting better than St.Peter's. As you know SP use to draw 3,000 - 7,000 per game when we played in the JC Armory. The Armory still exists but has never been refurbished. It's only 3 blocks from Campus. Have the College sink money into that, strike a deal with Jersey City and you will see a big time revival in College Basketball in Jersey City....doubt it will happen. People are too short sided.
Finally, I've become pretty friendly with John Dunne. Great guy who works his tail off. Should have a very good and even underated team this year. Contrary to what other Boards post about us, we will be very, very deep with a lot of guys who aren't necessarily role players. Always amazes me that posters on other Boards think the know something, pre-season, about their opponents. For me, I let the Iona faithful evaluate their own team. They know much more than I do. All I can tell you is that SP will field it's best team in quite a while playing for a pretty good Coach.
I'll write when we play at Iona and hopefully get together with some of you guys. Hope we wind up 1/2 in the league and fight for the Championship in March.
JAZZ.........McDermot lasted so long because......He was the ;)perfect fit for a fledging Iona program...He was fair, knew his stuff and stern enough to bring forth the best in the young program.....He tried to schedule the best as possible...It was an era of the have and have nots...
His teams were always tough, and managed a upset or two along the way......Not to many small colleges had a %500. winning stat. Although he played at that time some monster teams, Iona was always a tough out....
He rates high on my list of IONA coaches and the father of Iona basketball who paved the way for the Gails.
He lived to 100 years of age, and I am attempting to follow.