Boys hoops laying foundation
By Bob Nuse, The Packet Group
While first-year Robbinsville High boys basketball coach Kyle Flanagan would like to see his team’s record be better than it is, he is happy with the way the Ravens have gone about their business this season.
”The team is trying to constantly get better and learn from one game to the next,” said Flanagan, whose team took a 5-9 record into Tuesday’s scheduled game against Allentown. “A lot of the games we have lost, in previous years we were not in a position to win those games.
”This year we have been in situations where if this or that had gone our way we could have won, which we couldn’t say before. We’re No. 1 in the county in defense this year and our point differential is only seven points. So we are closing the gap as far as how bad our losses are.”
The Ravens also have five wins, which already matches last year’s season total. And with nearly half the season still to be played, Flanagan is hoping for big things down the road.
”The program is going in a good direction,” Flanagan said. “We hit a little rough patch and went 0-6 to start January. But we just got our fifth win, which we wanted to get to equal last year. We were 4-2 in December and made the championship game of the Score at the Shore Tournament against Hammonton.
”We were playing good basketball. We had a lot of but then we got away from what was working a little bit. We lost some close games that could have gone either way.”
The Ravens came into the season with only three returning players that saw significant playing time a year ago. So the process of learning to play at the varsity level is one most of the players have had to be a part of this season.
”One thing we had to overcome was as far as key returning players, we only really had three,” Flanagan said. “Some of the seniors that we have started JV for me last year and are now in a role starting on varsity or playing a key role. They had to make a leap.
”We have encouraged guys that no one person we have is going to carry or take over a game for us. We have been preaching the team concept. Mark Carnevale and Mason Cueto are our returning seniors with experience and Anthony Massi is a junior. They have been the leadership core. They are doing a great job with that along with our other seniors.”
Flanagan is hoping the experience the Ravens gain this year, plus another productive summer, can help the program continue to move forward.
”We’ve only has the one summer working with them,” Flanagan said. “In the fall they played in the Monroe League but we can’t do much with them during that time. This is my fourth year with the program and in summer we never had as big a turnout as we did this past summer. By end of the summer had 20 to 23 guys showing up to the gym for workouts, which we had not seen before. That is the path we are on. We want to get better every single day. The basketball season is a long season and we have to take it one step at a time.
”We have guys that are committed to basketball. In the past we have had baseball players that play basketball or lacrosse or football players that also play basketball. Slowly that is starting to change as the years go by.”
With a month to play and the Mercer County Tournament and hopefully state tournament still ahead, the Ravens will continue to look to improve each day.
”We still have a lot of basketball ahead of us,” Flanagan said. “After Allentown we have a tough part of the schedule with Trenton, Notre Dame and South. But then we get back into our division and then the MCT and hopefully at the end of February we have put ourselves in position to make the states.
”I feel like we are laying the foundation of how the program will go for years and years and I couldn’t be happier.”

