Monsignor Martin League Player Spotlight Series: Joe Ciocca

<p>&nbsp;</p> <p><b><i>Western New York is an underrated basketball hotspot chockful of promising, talented recruits. The 2019-2020 Monsignor Martin League (Buffalo NY) was highly competitive and produced many memorable moments for both teams and individuals alike. This series will focus on the individual members of the 2020-2021 Canisius Crusaders.</i></b></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">[player_tooltip player_id="1047777" first="Joe" last="Ciocca"] - G - Class of 2021</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">[player_tooltip player_id="1047777" first="Joe" last="Ciocca"] is coming off of a terrific 2019-2020 campaign that saw him reach averages of 12 points per game, 1.9 rebounds per game, 1.9 assists per game, and 0.6 steals per game. Appearing in 25 contests, Ciocca was a key cog for a Crusaders team that won the Monsignor Martin Conference. Teams will have to gameplan for Ciocca in 2020-2021 to prevent him from exceeding last year’s outputs.</span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The strongest aspect of Ciocca’s game is his long-distance shooting. Simply put, his range needs to be respected and planned for. Astonishingly, there were only 4 games in which he shot </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">under</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> 33% from deep. Impressively, there were double-digit games in which he shot </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">over </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">40%, including contests in which he managed to sink 5 of 8, 6 of 10, 6 of 11, and 6 of 12 three point attempts. An accurate volume shooter is one of the most deadly weapons a team can have in high school basketball in the state of New York today.</span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">One area that Ciocca can improve upon is the rate he turns the ball over. Too often in 2019-2020, he was unfortunately consistent in this area; he registered at least one turnover in 21 out of 24 games last year. His worst outing came in a January 2020 victory over St. Mary’s, in which he coughed the ball up 5 times.</span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As a secondary ballhandler on the team, Ciocca should try and pick his spots more consistently for this Crusader iteration. Cleaning up his turnover rate would give his team another weapon to dispose to try and wear teams out on defense. If Ciocca can improve this aspect of his game, as well as continue his scorching shooting, he should play a ton of minutes this year and cement himself as a solid, consistent contributor for the second straight season.</span></p> <p>**<em>All Stats Come From Maxpreps.com. All Analysis Is My Own.</em></p>