With the exception of a few exposure games over the next few weeks, the high school basketball season in New York is over, ending at the state Federation tournament in Glens Falls last weekend.
All-boro and all-city awards will be handed out soon and The Post will honor the best of the best of the city game, at least on the boys end.
So let me get the awards process started with what I will call “Butler’s Best.” We’ll let you know who the best players and coaches are in the coming days, but I will honor some of my favorites from the hoops season, including most quotable, best atmosphere, top game and best concession stand.
As The Post does with every professional team in New York, our four high school reporters, myself included, were responsible for a specific hoops beat. My responsibility was the CHSAA boys.
There are 33 teams on three levels in the Catholic league and I saw them all. In various tournaments I also got the chance to see a number of PSAL teams and a handful of those private school warriors. In all, I covered 93 games in all five boroughs in four months.
With that in mind, here’s some of Butler’s Best for the 2009-10 high school basketball season.
Best Game: CHSAA Class AA intersectional final, March 14 @ Fordham University
There were some quality games, and there were some clunkers, but this one became a no-brainer when I left Fordham University on March 14 following the CHSAA Class AA intersectional title game between Christ the King and Bishop Loughlin.
The Royals won the game, a triple-overtime thriller that some have said is the greatest in the 83-game history of the championship game.
Now it wasn’t the most crisply played game, but there were so many twists and turns, so many changes in momentum that it left many spectators breathless.
Honorable mention: CHSAA Class A intersectional second round, February 23 @ Cardinal Spellman
Regis and Xavier renewed their bitter rivalry with a berth in the quarterfinals at stake. Like the Christ the King-Loughlin game, there were a number of lead changes and momentum switches and one very memorable shot by Bobby (The Assassin) Bruns, who beat the buzzer at the end of the second overtime to win it for Xavier.
Best Atmosphere: Holy Cross at St. Francis Prep, Feb. 5
This was a tough one for me. I was at Bishop Loughlin’s steamy gym where a standing-room only crowd watched Jayvaughn Pinkston (more on him later) and the Lions face defending champs Rice on a Friday night in January. I was at also at packed Baruch College for the now infamous meeting between McDonald’s All-Americans Pinkston and Tobias Harris.
But the best two atmospheres for me happened over the course of three days. On a Friday night the Battle of the Boulevard moved to St. Francis Prep and fans of both Francis Lewis Boulevard schools came out en masse. There was friendly, and not so friendly, banter between the rival fans who sat on opposite sides of the court. The game itself wasn’t especially memorable, but for all those old-timers who long for the type of atmosphere they saw during their days just needs to come out to St. Francis Prep for the annual Holy Cross game.
Honorable mention: Rice at Christ the King, Feb. 7
I’ve never seen Christ the King so crowded as I did on Super Bowl Sunday, when approximately 3,000 fans came out for the highly anticipated rematch of the 2009 CHSAA title game. Some unlucky ones were left on the outside looking in that afternoon.
Much like the Super Bowl, the game was an event. Rick Pitino, Billy Donovan and David Lee sat courtside, rapper Fabolous performed at halftime and the Knicks City Dancers did their thing. Nike shelled out six figures to promote the game.
As for the game itself, Christ the King dominated until Rice woke up late. The only thing that puts this game behind the St. Francis Prep-Holy Cross game is that the buzz generated in the Battle of the Boulevard was fueled by the rivalry, not by rappers or dancers.
Don’t hate me, CK, I’m showing you some love now.
Best concessions: Christ the King
You go to enough high school gyms, you know who serves the best snacks and hands down it’s Christ the King. Gotta love the hot pretzel, ice-cold Diet Coke combo, though I’ve seen fans noshing on a number of items throughout the game. Though not a personal favorite, the pizza bagels are always a hot commodity.
Honorable mention: Cardinal Spellman – Great hot dogs!
Best upset: Xavier 78, Iona Prep 75
It was supposed to be a foregone conclusion that Iona Prep and Mount St. Michael would meet in the CHSAA Class A intersectional final and the Gaels were the odds-on favorite to claim a second straight title. But that memo didn’t make its way to Xavier, who pulled off what we called “The Miracle at the Mount.”
Iona Prep, a machine many thought could even contend for the ‘AA’ title with a pair of Division I players in Brian Voelkel and Sandro Carissimo, was would trample Xavier, right? Wrong. The Knights pulled off a memorable upset a few hours after St. Joseph by the Sea stunned Mount St. Michael. Speaking of that game…
Honorable mention: St. Joseph by the Sea 58, Mount St. Michael 55
Mount had the best player on the court in junior swingman Peter Aguilar, had a distinct size advantage and, perhaps most importantly, had home court advantage for this CHSAA Class A intersectional quarterfinal. But the Vikings weren’t intimidated by anything, controlled the pace, hit all the big shots and came away with a stunning victory. Speaking of the Vikings…
Best Cinderella playoff run: St. Joseph by the Sea
The Vikings were the unknown entity heading into the postseason, a random bunch of athletes from the depths of Staten Island. One guard is the star quarterback, another is the ace of the baseball team’s staff. But Sea, a gritty group of kids who played together, and well, since the third grade, made a fantastic run in the Class A playoffs before losing to Cardinal Hayes in the semifinals.
Honorable mention: Xavier
As indicated, Xavier pulled off a major upset against Iona Prep, but the Knights were an underrated squad, in part because they were ravaged by injuries throughout the season.
Best Team Manager(s): Chirag Jethanandani and Johnathan Fu Tom, St. Francis Prep
Their basketball team didn’t win a lot of games, but these guys always provided information from the games over a variety of mediums, from tweets to texts, from Facebook messages to e-mails. The bar was set by Christ the King’s Henry Dickman last year. Chirag and John Tom were well-respected throughout the league.
Best Mr. New York Basketball: Not Tobias Harris
That’s right, I said it. Loughlin’s Jayvaughn Pinkston should have won this award or, at worst, shared it with the Half Hollow Hills West diva. Here’s why. Pinkston was the best player in a superior league and outplayed the Tennessee-bound forward in a head-to-head meeting. Harris wasn’t even the best player on his own team — that honor goes to explosive guard Tavon Sledge.
Following a scintillating performance in the CHSAA title game, Pinkston handled the end of his high school career with class, while at the Glens Falls Civic Center, Harris ended his storied high school career with a technical foul and a temper tantrum, tossing the second-place metal he was awarded at the scorer’s table and was soundly booed by the upstate New York fans.
Harris might project better, he might have a better upside, but if I need to pick a high school player, I’m choosing Pinkston.