The Twin State game returns home after a prolonged stay in Vermont and it couldn’t come at a better time for the home team.
 

The Twin State game returns home after a prolonged stay in Vermont and it couldn’t come at a better time for the home team. A rivalry that was once one sided in our direction has taken a sudden and drastic turn to the West as Vermont has kept the top Granite State seniors winless the past eight years.

 Winnacunnet head coach Jay McKenna has twice served as an assistant coach in the annual game and now takes over the reins as head man with Dover’s Mike Romps and Portsmouth’s Jim Mulvey serving as his assistants.

 A familiar storyline for Team New Hampshire continues to be as much about who isn’t on the team as the twelve players who are. Carmen Giampetruzzi of Trinity along with Pembroke Academy’s Patrick Welch & Kafani ‘Jordan’ Williams are unquestionably three of the top seven players in the state but when New Hampshire hits the lay-up line Saturday evening (expect a 6:00 tip time) you won’t find any of them within 30 miles of the Keene State College campus. Giampetruzzi, off to Boston College in the fall on a baseball scholarship, is playing for a travel baseball team while Williams turned down an offer to join the team after Welch was ruled ineligible to play because of a sportsmanship violation last March.

 Merrimack’s Eric Gendron was the player of the year in New Hampshire in 2014 and will lead the team Saturday night. Manchester Central’s Jon Martin will play a major role from the point-forward spot as McKenna expects to lean heavily on the all-state duo. “Eric, in addition to being a terrific player, is such a competitor and in practices we’ve really seen him lead his teammates as far as his effort. He was impossible to double team in the regular season because of his size and ability to see the floor and I expect that to be a real strength for us.” McKenna watched an up & down the floor scrimmage against college players like former Dover standout and current Plymouth State University star Alex Burt Wednesday night and whether the ball was being pushed up the floor or the defense was re-treating in transition the same player kept showing up on either end. “Jon Martin has just a tremendous motor, he seemingly never gets tired and that will be good,” jokes McKenna. “Because he’s going to be on the floor an awful lot Saturday night.”

 McKenna likes a trio of big men that give N.H the ability to set high ball screens and either roll to the rim or pop open 15 footers. Conant’s Eli Hodgson was slotted in as the starting center Wednesday night and was joined by Merrimack power forward Shayne Bourque. Hodgson thrives on contact and may be the team’s best rebounder while Bourque can run the pick & roll with Gendron in his sleep and has range out past the three point line. Portsmouth’s Pat Glynn will also pound the glass and knows how to read the defense on high screens after playing in Mulvey’s system for four years. “Eli has really been a pleasure to coach, he goes after the ball hard off the rim and we need that,” said McKenna. “I’ve been pleasantly surprised by Pat Glynn, he has very good instincts and he likes to compete in the paint. You can’t have enough of that against a team like Vermont.”

 Winnacunnet’s Richie Ruffin will share ball handling duties with Gendron and Martin. Ruffin has the ability to score in the open court and on Wednesday night Coach Romps was working with Ruffin and Martin on trapping the point guard just over half-court. Conant’s Rob O’Brien has played on the big floor at Keene State a number of times and could be in line for a big game Saturday night with his ability to get to the rim as well as pull-up in traffic. “I’ve been really impressed with Rob. He can really be explosive when he gets the ball on the wing and like Eli he has very good instincts and fundamentals defensively coming from that (Conant) program.”

 Look for New Hampshire to lean heavily on a seven man nucleus of Gendron, Hodgson, Ruffin, Martin and Bourque (the five starters Wednesday night) with O’Brien, Glynn and Winnacunnet’s Sam Knollmeyer coming off the bench. Knollmeyer replaced Epping’s Jimmy Stanley on the roster after Stanley did not show up at either of the team’s first two practices, ironically held at Epping High School. Bedford’s Cam Meservey will be able to stretch the Vermont defense with his range from the wing while Nashua South’s Yordy Tavarez is best utilized in the open floor where he can finish in traffic. Hollis-Brookline center Shea Whalen will be best served setting up teammates with screens and protecting the rim while Hopkinton’s Gabe Nichols is best utilized in transition where he can use his athletic ability. “The team that treats this like an all-star game is going to lose,” states McKenna. “We have to play at a playoff level intensity defensively and their communication with one another not only on the defensive end but on out of bounds plays is going to be absolutely crucial.”

 The absence of three players at Wednesday’s practice and the fact that McKenna, Romps and Mulvey only have three practices to put any sort of game plan together highlights two of the many issues with the annual event. Players have put such a premium on their AAU games that a game that once was viewed by former Division I players like Matt Bonner and Keith Friel as an honor to play in has become just another game. A point that explains why New Hampshire went from being the hammer to the nail in the past eight years of the series.

 McKenna is right..if we treat this game like an All-star game we’re going to lose again. Vermont brings their best 12 players regardless of the division and use a nucleus from their top AAU program to beat us with their cohesion and familiarity. The process of naming players to our New Hampshire team has been done in recent years with little to no creativity or thought and if it continues so will the losses.

 Where you end up on all-state ballots (and we know how those teams are influenced by coaching relationships with one another) determines if you make the team. That fact almost forced last year’s coach Jamie Hayes of Newmarket to add yet another forward when he desperately needed point guard Rene Maher of Pembroke.  The forward whose number came up couldn’t play so Hayes got his much needed point guard, and Maher went on to become a vital part of that team, but it illustrates a broken system.

 It simply comes down to this: Are we playing Vermont Saturday night to win or are we going there so the kids can get their shots up and their picture taken? If we truly want to start winning against our rivals to the West let’s lay out a plan to do it.
 

1. You need to scrap the current process of picking the team

 
 You’ll find no bigger proponent of small school basketball than me, and in fact Lisbon’s Chad Knighton would have fit in well with this team if he hadn’t chosen prep school last year, but you need to invite the best 30 players’ regardless of their division. Players who want to be on the team and willing to go through a series of try-outs to make it. Have 30 players practice and scrimmage twice, cut the team to 15 and then after two more practices cut it down to your 12. Players have to commit to being there and if they can’t, they aren’t invited. In years past both Vermont and New Hampshire would spend the week at either Plymouth State or UVM practicing twice a day. So this is not a new concept, it’s simply a renewed sense of priority.
 
 

1. Have three coaches serve as the head of the New Hampshire basketball committee much like Jerry Colangelo has with USA Basketball.

 
 Those three coaches would select the head coach and the 30 players invited to try out. Mike Soucy of Hollis-Brookline, Dave Chase of Hopkinton, Nate Mazerolle of Nashua South, Tim Goodridge of Merrimack, Paul Greenlaw of Profile…all would be good candidates for a role like that. You need some leadership in place and it has to be year over year. The current process leaves it in the hands of the current coach to hand it over to the assistant. We have smart guys in place so it can work but there has to be a far better process in place. Coaches like Eric Saucier of Conant, Trevor Howard of Littleton and Matt Regan of Pelham should all be on the short list of head coaches in the next few years. Let’s put a committee in place to make those choices.
 
 

1. The issue with ‘All-Star’ teams is that a player who may have been a scorer on his high school team doesn’t realize in three practices that he is a role player.

 
 These are why ‘all-star’ teams lose and why USA basketball completely overhauled their system (let’s not forget USA basketball actually lost a game to Puerto Rico under that old system…..PUERTO..RICO..). I can already see it from Wednesday’s practice, certain kids haven’t figured out their roles and it could be this team’s undoing Saturday night. More practices give the team time to gel and the players more time to find their role. Every kid on the team will get in the game but only a certain few are fit to be the go to guys.
 
 

1. Kids have to understand it’s an honor to represent their state and treat it as a priority for two weeks during the summer.

 
 Maybe the game being played four hours away in Vermont with little or no coverage these past few years has caused this but this was a special game and certainly can be again. Vermont treats this game as a must win and if we can’t match that effort they’ll continue to roll over us…which was extremely hard to imagine 10 years ago. The message has been lost and when kids are skipping practices or not coming out for the team at all to go camping or play their 33rd AAU game of the summer you know there is a real disconnect that did not previously exist.
 
 As Herb Brooks famously once told his USA Hockey team, “The name on the front of the shirt is a hell of a lot more important than the name on the back.” When we get back to that mindset..we start winning these games again and end what has become an embarrassing losing streak.
 
 NHsportspage will have full and complete coverage of Saturday night’s game as Pete Tarrier, Justin McIsaac, Jennifer Chick and I bring you play by play as well as post-game interviews with Coach McKenna as well as member of the New Hampshire team.

The Twin State game returns home after a prolonged stay in Vermont and it couldn’t come at a better time for the home team.
 

The Twin State game returns home after a prolonged stay in Vermont and it couldn’t come at a better time for the home team. A rivalry that was once one sided in our direction has taken a sudden and drastic turn to the West as Vermont has kept the top Granite State seniors winless the past eight years.

 Winnacunnet head coach Jay McKenna has twice served as an assistant coach in the annual game and now takes over the reins as head man with Dover’s Mike Romps and Portsmouth’s Jim Mulvey serving as his assistants.

 A familiar storyline for Team New Hampshire continues to be as much about who isn’t on the team as the twelve players who are. Carmen Giampetruzzi of Trinity along with Pembroke Academy’s Patrick Welch & Kafani ‘Jordan’ Williams are unquestionably three of the top seven players in the state but when New Hampshire hits the lay-up line Saturday evening (expect a 6:00 tip time) you won’t find any of them within 30 miles of the Keene State College campus. Giampetruzzi, off to Boston College in the fall on a baseball scholarship, is playing for a travel baseball team while Williams turned down an offer to join the team after Welch was ruled ineligible to play because of a sportsmanship violation last March.

 Merrimack’s Eric Gendron was the player of the year in New Hampshire in 2014 and will lead the team Saturday night. Manchester Central’s Jon Martin will play a major role from the point-forward spot as McKenna expects to lean heavily on the all-state duo. “Eric, in addition to being a terrific player, is such a competitor and in practices we’ve really seen him lead his teammates as far as his effort. He was impossible to double team in the regular season because of his size and ability to see the floor and I expect that to be a real strength for us.” McKenna watched an up & down the floor scrimmage against college players like former Dover standout and current Plymouth State University star Alex Burt Wednesday night and whether the ball was being pushed up the floor or the defense was re-treating in transition the same player kept showing up on either end. “Jon Martin has just a tremendous motor, he seemingly never gets tired and that will be good,” jokes McKenna. “Because he’s going to be on the floor an awful lot Saturday night.”

 McKenna likes a trio of big men that give N.H the ability to set high ball screens and either roll to the rim or pop open 15 footers. Conant’s Eli Hodgson was slotted in as the starting center Wednesday night and was joined by Merrimack power forward Shayne Bourque. Hodgson thrives on contact and may be the team’s best rebounder while Bourque can run the pick & roll with Gendron in his sleep and has range out past the three point line. Portsmouth’s Pat Glynn will also pound the glass and knows how to read the defense on high screens after playing in Mulvey’s system for four years. “Eli has really been a pleasure to coach, he goes after the ball hard off the rim and we need that,” said McKenna. “I’ve been pleasantly surprised by Pat Glynn, he has very good instincts and he likes to compete in the paint. You can’t have enough of that against a team like Vermont.”

 Winnacunnet’s Richie Ruffin will share ball handling duties with Gendron and Martin. Ruffin has the ability to score in the open court and on Wednesday night Coach Romps was working with Ruffin and Martin on trapping the point guard just over half-court. Conant’s Rob O’Brien has played on the big floor at Keene State a number of times and could be in line for a big game Saturday night with his ability to get to the rim as well as pull-up in traffic. “I’ve been really impressed with Rob. He can really be explosive when he gets the ball on the wing and like Eli he has very good instincts and fundamentals defensively coming from that (Conant) program.”

 Look for New Hampshire to lean heavily on a seven man nucleus of Gendron, Hodgson, Ruffin, Martin and Bourque (the five starters Wednesday night) with O’Brien, Glynn and Winnacunnet’s Sam Knollmeyer coming off the bench. Knollmeyer replaced Epping’s Jimmy Stanley on the roster after Stanley did not show up at either of the team’s first two practices, ironically held at Epping High School. Bedford’s Cam Meservey will be able to stretch the Vermont defense with his range from the wing while Nashua South’s Yordy Tavarez is best utilized in the open floor where he can finish in traffic. Hollis-Brookline center Shea Whalen will be best served setting up teammates with screens and protecting the rim while Hopkinton’s Gabe Nichols is best utilized in transition where he can use his athletic ability. “The team that treats this like an all-star game is going to lose,” states McKenna. “We have to play at a playoff level intensity defensively and their communication with one another not only on the defensive end but on out of bounds plays is going to be absolutely crucial.”

 The absence of three players at Wednesday’s practice and the fact that McKenna, Romps and Mulvey only have three practices to put any sort of game plan together highlights two of the many issues with the annual event. Players have put such a premium on their AAU games that a game that once was viewed by former Division I players like Matt Bonner and Keith Friel as an honor to play in has become just another game. A point that explains why New Hampshire went from being the hammer to the nail in the past eight years of the series.

 McKenna is right..if we treat this game like an All-star game we’re going to lose again. Vermont brings their best 12 players regardless of the division and use a nucleus from their top AAU program to beat us with their cohesion and familiarity. The process of naming players to our New Hampshire team has been done in recent years with little to no creativity or thought and if it continues so will the losses.

 Where you end up on all-state ballots (and we know how those teams are influenced by coaching relationships with one another) determines if you make the team. That fact almost forced last year’s coach Jamie Hayes of Newmarket to add yet another forward when he desperately needed point guard Rene Maher of Pembroke.  The forward whose number came up couldn’t play so Hayes got his much needed point guard, and Maher went on to become a vital part of that team, but it illustrates a broken system.

 It simply comes down to this: Are we playing Vermont Saturday night to win or are we going there so the kids can get their shots up and their picture taken? If we truly want to start winning against our rivals to the West let’s lay out a plan to do it.
 

1. You need to scrap the current process of picking the team

 
 You’ll find no bigger proponent of small school basketball than me, and in fact Lisbon’s Chad Knighton would have fit in well with this team if he hadn’t chosen prep school last year, but you need to invite the best 30 players’ regardless of their division. Players who want to be on the team and willing to go through a series of try-outs to make it. Have 30 players practice and scrimmage twice, cut the team to 15 and then after two more practices cut it down to your 12. Players have to commit to being there and if they can’t, they aren’t invited. In years past both Vermont and New Hampshire would spend the week at either Plymouth State or UVM practicing twice a day. So this is not a new concept, it’s simply a renewed sense of priority.
 
 

1. Have three coaches serve as the head of the New Hampshire basketball committee much like Jerry Colangelo has with USA Basketball.

 
 Those three coaches would select the head coach and the 30 players invited to try out. Mike Soucy of Hollis-Brookline, Dave Chase of Hopkinton, Nate Mazerolle of Nashua South, Tim Goodridge of Merrimack, Paul Greenlaw of Profile…all would be good candidates for a role like that. You need some leadership in place and it has to be year over year. The current process leaves it in the hands of the current coach to hand it over to the assistant. We have smart guys in place so it can work but there has to be a far better process in place. Coaches like Eric Saucier of Conant, Trevor Howard of Littleton and Matt Regan of Pelham should all be on the short list of head coaches in the next few years. Let’s put a committee in place to make those choices.
 
 

1. The issue with ‘All-Star’ teams is that a player who may have been a scorer on his high school team doesn’t realize in three practices that he is a role player.

 
 These are why ‘all-star’ teams lose and why USA basketball completely overhauled their system (let’s not forget USA basketball actually lost a game to Puerto Rico under that old system…..PUERTO..RICO..). I can already see it from Wednesday’s practice, certain kids haven’t figured out their roles and it could be this team’s undoing Saturday night. More practices give the team time to gel and the players more time to find their role. Every kid on the team will get in the game but only a certain few are fit to be the go to guys.
 
 

1. Kids have to understand it’s an honor to represent their state and treat it as a priority for two weeks during the summer.

 
 Maybe the game being played four hours away in Vermont with little or no coverage these past few years has caused this but this was a special game and certainly can be again. Vermont treats this game as a must win and if we can’t match that effort they’ll continue to roll over us…which was extremely hard to imagine 10 years ago. The message has been lost and when kids are skipping practices or not coming out for the team at all to go camping or play their 33rd AAU game of the summer you know there is a real disconnect that did not previously exist.
 
 As Herb Brooks famously once told his USA Hockey team, “The name on the front of the shirt is a hell of a lot more important than the name on the back.” When we get back to that mindset..we start winning these games again and end what has become an embarrassing losing streak.
 
 NHsportspage will have full and complete coverage of Saturday night’s game as Pete Tarrier, Justin McIsaac, Jennifer Chick and I bring you play by play as well as post-game interviews with Coach McKenna as well as member of the New Hampshire team.