UNION, N.J. — After beating Kentucky-bound Karl Towns and St. Joe’s-Metuchen on Sunday night at Kean University, coach Kevin Boyle and Montverde Academy will now have 45 days before their next game.
Montverde is the defending ESPN NHSI champion and expects to be in New York for the DICK’S Sporting Goods High School National Tournament April 3-5.
The field won’t be announced until March 10, but Boyle said he and his team will be there for the three-day event, which culminates with a championship game on April 5 at Madison Square Garden. The first two days of the event will be played at Christ the King in Queens.
“We’re done now,” Boyle said after the St. Joe’s win. “We don’t play for 45 more days so we will be back in April. At the position we’re in, we’ll 100 percent be invited.”
Montverde features eight Division 1-bound players, including Ohio State signee D’Angelo Russell and LSU commit Ben Simmons.
A Tyler Ennis-led St. Benedict’s team lost to Montverde in last year’s final at Georgetown Prep, but it remains unclear if St. Benedict’s (20-6) will be invited back this year.
Our Savior New American — which features uncommited senior shooting guard Kobie Eubanks and uncommitted 2015 big man Cheick Diallo — could be the New York representative in the event, sources told SNY.tv.
“I just love it being in New York, I’m excited about it,” Boyle said. “I hope the one difficult thing is that the finals are at 12 o’clock at the Garden. They’re going to have to do some real marketing to get tickets sold for that type of game. I’d love to see New Jersey and New York be allowed to be in it because I think it’s going to be in New York for a while. If they get a state exemption, it would be great. It would make for great crowds.”
Currently, New York and New Jersey teams that are part of their state associations are not permitted in the ESPN event.
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Boyle also said Montverde is planning on starting a second team called “an academy or prep team.”
“Obviously, I’d like to get a lot of kids from the New York/New Jersey area,” he said. “It’s for kids that are really trying to be Division 1 players, kids that have $30-45 thousand dollars. We’re trying to get those kids where maybe there’s nobody in their league and they need a fifth year, maybe even a sophomore or junior year.”
Boyle said the team would run from ninth grade to post-grad.
