LeMoyne title highlights Norwich’s offseason hoops campaign
NORWICH – Seth Thomsen hit two free throws in the final minute and Cory Dietrich added the critical winning point from the free throw line with under 10 seconds to play in a 49-48 Norwich victory over Jamesville-DeWitt at the LeMoyne Team Camp Tournament earlier this summer.
Check that: Norwich beats Jamesville-Dewitt?
A quick Google search on the Internet revealed that J-D was the New York State Class A state champion in Glens Falls last March. It was a team that blew out East Hampton in the finals, and rolled over perennial power Peekskill in the semis. Many of those championship players have moved on, or in the case of prodigy Brandon Triche, were not on hand at LeMoyne. Still, J-D is a “program” in the truest sense of the word, and will be darn good this coming season.
The win over J-D and the tournament run was the culmination of an excellent offseason of basketball for the Norwich-based squad.
Beginning with a 22-game AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) schedule, and followed by team camp tournaments and summer league schedules in Norwich and Johnson City, Norwich finished with an impressive 55 victories in 69 games.
It wasn’t a slate of cupcake matchups either as the LeMoyne title attests. Norwich weathered a difficult AAU schedule playing all-star squads that usually drew its players regionally rather than a single town. And with a group of young men made up entirely of NHS students, it went 12-10 overall, said head coach Mark Abbott. The arduous AAU slate paved the way for a propitious finale. Doing the math, Norwich was 43-4 in its post-AAU contests. “Playing that many games will not guarantee you success later on,” Abbott warned. “You need to have the right mix of players and you need to find the happy medium of not overworking them and not underworking them.”
For years, Abbott and assistant coach Tom Collier worked through the Norwich YMCA as heads of the Vipers basketball program. It was an AAU unit that included not only Norwich residents, but also kids from surrounding towns. In an effort to improve strictly the Norwich players, Abbott said that parent and volunteer Tim Borfitz broached the idea of forming a Norwich-only AAU team. “The first thing we had to do is talk to the players and find out if they were interested,” Abbott said. “A big key was also finding the financial backing, and we were able to get some private financial backing. From that point, it was finding practice time and getting the schedule set.”
Abbott, Collier, and Borfitz then invited 14 Norwich High School sophomores and juniors to play, and 11 responded with a desired interest. Abbott’s primary rule to his players was to follow through on an expressed commitment. “If they wanted to be a part of it, fine. If not, that was fine too,” Abbott said. “We asked them for a commitment. Academics, family, and spring sports came before this, then we were next in the pecking order.”
Abbott quickly learned that this team wanted its own identity, one removed from Norwich High School sports. The group of players picked out its own colors (green and white), numbers, and a new nickname, the Hurricanes. “There was no affiliation to Norwich High School, we were just the ‘Hurricanes,’” Abbott said.
Armed with a new name and new colors, the Hurricanes found success on the AAU level fleeting at times. Heading to Albany and Springfield, Massachusetts for two of the biggest AAU tournaments in the Northeast, the Hurricanes won just two of seven games. “In order for us to get to the next level of play, we knew we had to play against high-caliber competition,” Abbott said. “We obviously wanted to do better (than 2-5), but we were not discouraged considering the level of competition. Other than a loss to a team from New York City that beat us up pretty good, we felt we held our own against everyone we played.”
The AAU season progressed to the team camp tournaments. First on the slate was the Hartwick Team Camp Tournament. Norwich swept through all six of its games winning by no less than 30 points each time. “The tournament at Hartwick was definitely a level below what we saw during the AAU season, but we were able to maintain our high level of play,” Abbott said.
Next came a trip to the Hamilton College Tournament, and for the first time, Abbott said, he did not have a full complement of players. Still, the team won seven of 10 games losing to Messina in overtime in the championship game. In spite of being undermanned, Norwich walked away from Hamilton College with victories over Fulton, East High of Rochester, and Utica Notre Dame. “I think at the Hamilton College team camp, people started to take notice of what type of players we have,” Abbott said.
Norwich was in the same boat heading to its final tournament at LeMoyne College. Abbott and Collier were down five from its regular 11 players the opening day of the tourney. Dietrich would later join the team for Sunday’s contests. To fill the roster, Thomsen, Jeff Handy and Jon Foulds were added to the squad joining Vaughn Labor, Derek Hughes, Josh Borfitz, Tim Clark, David Carson, and Richie Bonney.
Norwich rolled to three comfortable wins the first day including a blowout win over the same Messina team it lost to in overtime at Hamilton College. After a win early Sunday over East Syracuse-Minoa, Norwich earned a top-four seed, and all 32 tournament teams were placed in a bracket similar to the NCAA Tournament.
Norwich advanced to the semifinals with three wins, and it met Marcellus in its toughest test of the weekend. A late bucket tied the game forcing sudden-death overtime. Each team failed on its initial possession, and after a Marcellus miss, Norwich fast-breaked and Dietrich’s drive to the basket drew a foul. Dietrich made his second free throw attempt for the victory.
A late surge set up Norwich’s victory in the finals against J-D. Labor’s basket broke a 42-42 tie, and Clark hit two free throws upping the lead to four. J-D hit a three ball to cut the lead to one, and buried another trifecta at the buzzer to fall a point short.
The win was a statement on the progress Norwich made during a fruitful offseason that could portend big things six months down the road. “This is not another ‘93-’94 team, this is the ‘08-’09 team,” Abbott said. “I’m not going to compare this team or that team, but given the makeup of our players, this group could be pretty special.”
Other players who made up the Norwich’s core roster included Brian Wightman, Casey Edwards, Cory Law, and Andrew Austin.
Check that: Norwich beats Jamesville-Dewitt?
A quick Google search on the Internet revealed that J-D was the New York State Class A state champion in Glens Falls last March. It was a team that blew out East Hampton in the finals, and rolled over perennial power Peekskill in the semis. Many of those championship players have moved on, or in the case of prodigy Brandon Triche, were not on hand at LeMoyne. Still, J-D is a “program” in the truest sense of the word, and will be darn good this coming season.
The win over J-D and the tournament run was the culmination of an excellent offseason of basketball for the Norwich-based squad.
Beginning with a 22-game AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) schedule, and followed by team camp tournaments and summer league schedules in Norwich and Johnson City, Norwich finished with an impressive 55 victories in 69 games.
It wasn’t a slate of cupcake matchups either as the LeMoyne title attests. Norwich weathered a difficult AAU schedule playing all-star squads that usually drew its players regionally rather than a single town. And with a group of young men made up entirely of NHS students, it went 12-10 overall, said head coach Mark Abbott. The arduous AAU slate paved the way for a propitious finale. Doing the math, Norwich was 43-4 in its post-AAU contests. “Playing that many games will not guarantee you success later on,” Abbott warned. “You need to have the right mix of players and you need to find the happy medium of not overworking them and not underworking them.”
For years, Abbott and assistant coach Tom Collier worked through the Norwich YMCA as heads of the Vipers basketball program. It was an AAU unit that included not only Norwich residents, but also kids from surrounding towns. In an effort to improve strictly the Norwich players, Abbott said that parent and volunteer Tim Borfitz broached the idea of forming a Norwich-only AAU team. “The first thing we had to do is talk to the players and find out if they were interested,” Abbott said. “A big key was also finding the financial backing, and we were able to get some private financial backing. From that point, it was finding practice time and getting the schedule set.”
Abbott, Collier, and Borfitz then invited 14 Norwich High School sophomores and juniors to play, and 11 responded with a desired interest. Abbott’s primary rule to his players was to follow through on an expressed commitment. “If they wanted to be a part of it, fine. If not, that was fine too,” Abbott said. “We asked them for a commitment. Academics, family, and spring sports came before this, then we were next in the pecking order.”
Abbott quickly learned that this team wanted its own identity, one removed from Norwich High School sports. The group of players picked out its own colors (green and white), numbers, and a new nickname, the Hurricanes. “There was no affiliation to Norwich High School, we were just the ‘Hurricanes,’” Abbott said.
Armed with a new name and new colors, the Hurricanes found success on the AAU level fleeting at times. Heading to Albany and Springfield, Massachusetts for two of the biggest AAU tournaments in the Northeast, the Hurricanes won just two of seven games. “In order for us to get to the next level of play, we knew we had to play against high-caliber competition,” Abbott said. “We obviously wanted to do better (than 2-5), but we were not discouraged considering the level of competition. Other than a loss to a team from New York City that beat us up pretty good, we felt we held our own against everyone we played.”
The AAU season progressed to the team camp tournaments. First on the slate was the Hartwick Team Camp Tournament. Norwich swept through all six of its games winning by no less than 30 points each time. “The tournament at Hartwick was definitely a level below what we saw during the AAU season, but we were able to maintain our high level of play,” Abbott said.
Next came a trip to the Hamilton College Tournament, and for the first time, Abbott said, he did not have a full complement of players. Still, the team won seven of 10 games losing to Messina in overtime in the championship game. In spite of being undermanned, Norwich walked away from Hamilton College with victories over Fulton, East High of Rochester, and Utica Notre Dame. “I think at the Hamilton College team camp, people started to take notice of what type of players we have,” Abbott said.
Norwich was in the same boat heading to its final tournament at LeMoyne College. Abbott and Collier were down five from its regular 11 players the opening day of the tourney. Dietrich would later join the team for Sunday’s contests. To fill the roster, Thomsen, Jeff Handy and Jon Foulds were added to the squad joining Vaughn Labor, Derek Hughes, Josh Borfitz, Tim Clark, David Carson, and Richie Bonney.
Norwich rolled to three comfortable wins the first day including a blowout win over the same Messina team it lost to in overtime at Hamilton College. After a win early Sunday over East Syracuse-Minoa, Norwich earned a top-four seed, and all 32 tournament teams were placed in a bracket similar to the NCAA Tournament.
Norwich advanced to the semifinals with three wins, and it met Marcellus in its toughest test of the weekend. A late bucket tied the game forcing sudden-death overtime. Each team failed on its initial possession, and after a Marcellus miss, Norwich fast-breaked and Dietrich’s drive to the basket drew a foul. Dietrich made his second free throw attempt for the victory.
A late surge set up Norwich’s victory in the finals against J-D. Labor’s basket broke a 42-42 tie, and Clark hit two free throws upping the lead to four. J-D hit a three ball to cut the lead to one, and buried another trifecta at the buzzer to fall a point short.
The win was a statement on the progress Norwich made during a fruitful offseason that could portend big things six months down the road. “This is not another ‘93-’94 team, this is the ‘08-’09 team,” Abbott said. “I’m not going to compare this team or that team, but given the makeup of our players, this group could be pretty special.”
Other players who made up the Norwich’s core roster included Brian Wightman, Casey Edwards, Cory Law, and Andrew Austin.
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