By: Ken Weingartner
A.J. Rudowitz knows making the transition from high school to college basketball won’t be easy, but he figures to get by with a little help from his friends.
Rudowitz, a senior at Monroe High School, last week signed a National Letter of Intent to play basketball in the future at Stonehill College in Easton, Mass., an NCAA Division II program in the Northeast-10 Conference.
There, he will be joined on the Skyhawks’ roster by friends Nick Smith, from Colonia, and Randall Stallworth, from Monsignor Donovan
"I know the game is a lot faster in college and everybody is at the same level," said Rudowitz, who averaged 18 points and 11 rebounds last season for Monroe. "There’s not going to be any easy games. But I’ll have some friends there and that will make things a little bit easier."
Rudowitz, who is 6-foot-5 and should top the 1,000-point mark this season for the Falcons, plans to major in business management at Stonehill, which is located 30 miles south of Boston. He selected Stonehill over several other schools, including Lipscomb University in Tennessee, Northwood University in Florida, and Massachusetts-Lowell.
"I sat down with my parents and decided which one felt right for me," Rudowitz said. "I felt like Stonehill had the environment that suited me best the coaches, the people, the location. A couple of the other schools were pretty far away. And it has a really big business department.
"I think it’s a place that I can go and play a lot of meaningful minutes right away," he added. "They’re losing two of their big men, so I feel I can help them out."
Stonehill was 20-8 overall last season and 16-6 in the NE-10, which features schools such as Pace, Bentley, Lowell, American International, Assumption, and Southern Connecticut.
Rudowitz considers his strengths as defense and having "a good head for the game."
"I know what to do in different situations, and I always play hard," he said. "I need to improve my jump shot and my quickness. That’s what I worked on over the summer. I know in college that I’m going to need to be quicker. I did a lot of shooting and running for endurance. That’s helped out a lot."
Right now, Rudowitz is focused on helping the Falcons turn around last season’s 9-12 record.
"My goal is to win 20 games and break the school record of 17," Rudowitz said. "I want to try to make it as far as we can in the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament and states. This is it. I really think we can do a lot of good things."

