Tristan Thompson Done at St. Benedict's; Gray Bees in Turmoil
by Alex Schwartz
The St. Benedict's (NJ) Gray Bees are in a massive downward spiral. After being demolished by arch rival St. Patrick's (NJ) by 26 last week—the team's first loss of the year—Danny Hurley's team suffered a 12-point loss to Mater Dei (CA), the number one team in America, despite the fact that the Golden State team was without Stanford-bound Andy Brown '09. A win over Pass
aic Tech (NJ) Tuesday night didn't do much to make things better; things got even worse. According to Adam Zagoria of ZagsBlog, Danny Hurley kicked Texas-pledge Tristan Thompson '10 off of the team that night. Hurley told Zagoria that he booted the Canadian superstar for "public insubordination" at the game (see the full article here). Thompson is considered by many to be amongst the top five juniors in America, and was in the Boost Mobile Elite 24 Classic over the summer.
Yesterday night a spoke to a source close to the St. Benedict's program who wished to remain anonymous about what happened to Thompson, and I found out that this runs much deeper than just problems with the junior combo forward. It seems that Coach Hurley has been having problems with a handful of his players. Today two players were supposed to have meetings with Hurley and the headmaster at the Newark-based school. It seems that the school plans to either kick Thompson out, or the Grassroots Canada AAU star will leave on his own accord. Either way, it is extremely unlikely that the 6'8 Thompson will remain at St. Ben's. As well, it appears that Kabongo will also leave the school. Thus, signs seem to point to Kambola and therefore his younger brother—meaning all for members of Ro Russell's Grassroots Canada program—will leave as well. I know that a few others players are considering transferring as well, though at least one plans to wait until the end of the season. From what I hear the only regular stater expected to be in the starting lineup on Saturday in the team's big game at the Prime Time Shootout against Mountain State Academy (WV) is Rice-bound senior captain Tamir "Pop" Jackson, a 6'2 combo guard. He is the lone regular who has been at St. Ben's for four years. There also appears to be a bit of team drama going on in the background that may have also led to a lot of these issues. The St. Benedict's Gray Bees' once promising season is starting to fall apart, and it seems that the squad may have a much different look next year.
Note- photo is from http://scouthoops.scout.com/
The St. Benedict's (NJ) Gray Bees are in a massive downward spiral. After being demolished by arch rival St. Patrick's (NJ) by 26 last week—the team's first loss of the year—Danny Hurley's team suffered a 12-point loss to Mater Dei (CA), the number one team in America, despite the fact that the Golden State team was without Stanford-bound Andy Brown '09. A win over Pass
aic Tech (NJ) Tuesday night didn't do much to make things better; things got even worse. According to Adam Zagoria of ZagsBlog, Danny Hurley kicked Texas-pledge Tristan Thompson '10 off of the team that night. Hurley told Zagoria that he booted the Canadian superstar for "public insubordination" at the game (see the full article here). Thompson is considered by many to be amongst the top five juniors in America, and was in the Boost Mobile Elite 24 Classic over the summer.Yesterday night a spoke to a source close to the St. Benedict's program who wished to remain anonymous about what happened to Thompson, and I found out that this runs much deeper than just problems with the junior combo forward. It seems that Coach Hurley has been having problems with a handful of his players. Today two players were supposed to have meetings with Hurley and the headmaster at the Newark-based school. It seems that the school plans to either kick Thompson out, or the Grassroots Canada AAU star will leave on his own accord. Either way, it is extremely unlikely that the 6'8 Thompson will remain at St. Ben's. As well, it appears that Kabongo will also leave the school. Thus, signs seem to point to Kambola and therefore his younger brother—meaning all for members of Ro Russell's Grassroots Canada program—will leave as well. I know that a few others players are considering transferring as well, though at least one plans to wait until the end of the season. From what I hear the only regular stater expected to be in the starting lineup on Saturday in the team's big game at the Prime Time Shootout against Mountain State Academy (WV) is Rice-bound senior captain Tamir "Pop" Jackson, a 6'2 combo guard. He is the lone regular who has been at St. Ben's for four years. There also appears to be a bit of team drama going on in the background that may have also led to a lot of these issues. The St. Benedict's Gray Bees' once promising season is starting to fall apart, and it seems that the squad may have a much different look next year.
Note- photo is from http://scouthoops.scout.com/
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