St. Thomas Aquinas head basketball coach Bob Turco, one of the state’s most respected mentors who took over the program two years ago, has the Trojans on the precipice of unprecedented success.
The balance of power in the Greater Middlesex Conference and perhaps beyond appears to be shifting from four-time defending league tournament champion St. Joseph, located just two miles down the road in Metuchen, to Turco’s Edison-based parochial school.
With nine players transferring out, six players transferring in and two scholarship players returning, Turco’s responsibility is to blend the team into a conference and sectional championship contender.
The roster, comprised predominantly of players from Middlesex County, features incumbent starters Quadry Adams, a Wake Forest signee, and Derrick Grant, a Southern New Hampshire signee, as well as newcomers Jaquan Harris, who holds scholarship offers from Auburn and Rutgers, and Kyree Henry, who GMC Hoops named the conference’s Sophomore of the Year last season.
St. Thomas Aquinas, which has not won a GMCT crown since it defeated St. Joseph for the league title in 1992, enters the preseason ranked ninth in the state, according to the rankings of venerable basketball writer Jay Gomes, publisher of NJHoops.
“I’m ecstatic about getting a No. 9 ranking because of all the sacrifice and commitment our players made to putting this program on the map,” Turco said. “But in a sense, it puts a bullseye on your back, as well. We felt that in all our scrimmages. We are the new kid on the block. Every night you are going to get somebody’s best punch.”
In addition to St. Joseph, which returns stars Tyree Ford and K-Shawn Schulters and which will face St. Thomas Aquinas in a regular-season showcase at Kean University on Jan. 5, several public schools will be contending for the league tournament crown.
“The truth of the matter is a preseason ranking is not who you are,” Turco said. “It’s where you are come March 15. To me, it’s exciting, but I believe that there’s probably five or six other schools that are going to have a say (in winning the conference tournament). They believe they have a legitimate shot at being county champions, too.”
Turco knows the Trojans, who made tremendous strides last season, winning a state tournament game for the first time in school history and finishing with more than 20 victories (21-7) for the first time in 27 years, don’t win championships on paper.
After being seeded fourth in last year’s league tournament, St. Thomas Aquinas made an unceremonious exit, getting bounced in the quarterfinals while bidding to make the program’s first Final Four appearance in nearly a decade.
Turco said he and first-year athletics director Jerry Smith, who came to St. Thomas Aquinas from St. Joseph, where Turco’s brother, Dave, a New Jersey Scholastic Coaches Association Hall of Fame inductee, groomed the Falcons into a Tournament of Champions winner, are trying to transform the program into one mirroring that of a small college.
Players have access to a full-time strength-and-conditioning coach and academic advisor, which has resulted in the Trojans not only getting bigger, faster and stronger, but in the team’s 12 top players compiling an impressive 3.4 grade-point average over the first quarter.
Turco said he and Smith meet weekly to review the grades of every player on the roster and any varsity members flirting with a “C” are required to meet with the academic advisor for 90 minutes at the end of the school day.
“When a college coach comes up to me and asks how is he in the classroom, there’s not a kid here who we are not going to say, ‘Great,’” Turco said. "Academics is No. 1 for us."
Turco is trying to parlay the preseason hype of the basketball program into a positive vibe that will transcend the court.
St. Thomas Aquinas recently hosted a wildly successful “Trojan Madness” event with the school’s boys and defending league tournament champion girls teams combining to replicate “Midnight Madness” at a college.
Turco estimated close to 150 students – St. Thomas Aquinas has one of the conference’s best student sections – attended the two-hour event, along with many adults and seventh- and eighth-graders. “Trojan Madness” featured T-shirt giveaways, a dunk contest, skills, drills and a DJ playing music.
“All the boy and girls varsity players were absolutely ecstatic about the turnout and support,” Turco said. “I can’t thank the school enough for allowing us to do it. It was really cool and something we are going to continue.”
Turco has also organized an Alumni Weekend, which will be conducted Jan. 18 and Jan. 19 during back-to-back home games against South River and Perth Amboy.
“We’re trying to get as many alumni back as possible,” Turco said. “We’re trying to bridge the past with the present and hopefully get everybody on board for the future. I think it’s important with the tradition here that the people who have played here understand Bob Turco is not trying to change what Bishop Ahr (the school’s previous moniker) and St. Thomas Aquinas is or was. We’re trying to build off the old successes and create some new ones.”
As players transferred in and out of the school before the start of the academic year, some followers of high school basketball took to social media to accuse St. Thomas Aquinas of recruiting, an allegation with which Turco said he is not at all concerned.
“We want to become strong in the county, but we want to become strong the right way,” Turco said. “Everybody has their own opinion. Everybody says what we are doing is illegal or wrong or whatever words they want to say. But every single night, I can go to sleep. Every single one of our kids pays (tuition). They are all great kids and great students. Every single one of our students reached out to us, not the other way around. I have never sat in anybody’s living room (proselytizing). It’s easy to talk about what other people are doing or not doing, especially when you have no idea. I don’t get called to the principal’s office or the athletic director’s office. I never have any worries.”
Regarding the mass exodus of nine players who were members of last year’s program, Turco said “people come and go in every aspect of life” for a multitude of reasons.
“There are kids who are already at St. Thomas Aquinas and others who transferred in because of an opportunity at St. Thomas Aquinas,” he said. “When push comes to shove, the accountability in the classroom, the performance on the floor, the style of play, the students in the hallway, the teachers in the classroom, the uniforms – all those things contribute to people saying this is the right place or this isn’t the right place for me.”
Only four players on this year’s roster saw significant varsity action last season, including transfer Tristian Jeffries, who must sit the first 30 days of the campaign under NJSIAA rules. An all-around player who epitomizes the team’s athleticism, Jeffries has generated interest from Florida Atlantic, NJIT and others.
Captains Adams and Grant set the tone on the court, in the classroom, in the training room and in life for the rest of the team. Turco said they epitomize his philosophy of building, not just Division I players, but more importantly, Division I people.
“My championship banners are 10 to 15 years from now,” Turco said, “when kids are successful in life and we (as a coaching staff) can say we had a little part in that, teaching work ethic and holding them accountable.”
Were it not for a broken leg that caused him to miss his sophomore year, Grant would have received multiple Division I offers, said Turco, who showcased Grant, Adams and others when St. Thomas Aquinas participated in front of major Division I coaches during a tournament at Philadelphia University last summer.
“There’s when he played really well and jumped off the charts,” Turco said of Adams, who also held offers from Georgia, Princeton, Columbia and Boston University. “His work ethic and all he put in to become a Power 5 (offeree) is a pretty remarkable story in itself.”
Harris, who will start at point guard, combines with Adams and Grant to give Turco the best trio of players he has ever coached.
Turco, who works in the private sector, owns a 272-94 career record over 13 seasons, five of which he spent at Monroe and seven of which he spent at Notre Dame.
In the decade prior to Turco’s arrival at Monroe, the school averaged 6.2 wins per season. During his tenure, Monroe averaged 19.4 victories per year. At Notre Dame, Turco captured two Mercer County Tournament championships and compiled a 148-46 record. Before coming to St. Thomas Aquinas, Turco spent one season as an assistant at Point Pleasant Beach, helping the school win a state title.
Turco has adapted his coaching style to the personnel at every stop, winning low-scoring games at Monroe and averaging nearly 80 points per game at Notre Dame.
Expect St. Thomas Aquinas, which is athletic and long, to be malleable and a hybrid of both schools.
“We want to get some foundation of who we are going to be,” Turco said. “We could man press you, zone press you, trap, be uptempo, make you do things that you don’t want to do. Our main goal is to make you uncomfortable. We can be exciting at times and if teams want to slow us down, we could play that way, too. We can adapt. We are big in a sense – maybe 6-foot-4 or 6-foot-5 – but we don’t have that rim protector. We have to extend the defense to make you play faster. We are also somebody that we are going to see a lot of zone. We can do things against that.”
Henry, who converted more than 60 three-pointers for Woodbridge last season, is among the team’s top shooters, along with Harris and returning letterwinners Samad Abdullah and Derrick Golden. Adams and returning letterwinner Jamie Hamilton are slashers. Transfer Jonathan Wyatt, who also must sit 30 days under NJSIAA rules, is a defensive specialist. Grant and 6-foot-7 Mehki Johnson will be a presence inside. Jalen Jones, who played in every game last season, is a combo guard. Jared Gardner, another transfer, had season-ending knee surgery last week.
Turco beefed up the schedule to prepare his team for the postseason and to showcase the program, which will play just seven of its 23 games at home this year.
St. Thomas Aquinas will face defending Tournament of Champions winner Ranney Prep, incumbent Tournament of Champions runnerup Bergen Catholic, Mater Dei Prep, Linden, University, Rumson-Fair Haven and Executive Education Academy Charter (Pa.) in showcase tournaments.
“This is just the beginning," Turco said. "I think the best years for St. Thomas Aquinas are ahead of us.”
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