Monsignor Martin League Season Preview: St. Joseph’s Mauraders

<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 article will preview the 2020-2021 St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute Mauraders.</i></b></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>2019-2020 St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute Mauraders - Overall Record: 20-6, Conference Record, 10-2 </strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute Mauraders broke out and cemented themselves as legitimate conference contenders a season ago. Compared to the season prior, they improved in nearly every way. Most importantly, they improved a sub .500 record both overall and in league play to a 20-6 overall record, while finishing 10-2 in the Monsignor Martin League. Though it does not make up for their Manhattan Cup Championship game defeat to Canisius, the Mauraders can pride themselves in the fact that they were the only Monsignor Martin League team to defeat Canisius in league play at any point in 2019-2020.</span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">St. Joseph’s greatest strength a season ago was simple: they had a team full of outstanding shooters. They not only led the conference in overall field goal percentage at 48%, but they also led the conference in three-point percentage at 38% teamwide. The best news for the Mauraders is that the majority of their shooting returns. [player_tooltip player_id="1046811" first="Josh" last="Haskell"], now a Junior, connected on 44% of his three-pointers on 159 total attempts. Couple that with Senior [player_tooltip player_id="1047658" first="Jaden" last="Slaughter"]’s 41% on 51 attempts and Junior Soloman Jackson’s outstanding 48% on 27 total attempts and it becomes clear that coach Gabriel Michael should try and do two things in order to succeed in 2020-2021: challenge the entire team to shoot more three-pointers, and, more specifically, feed Jackson so he can take more shots from beyond the arc than he did last season.</span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Judging off of their success from last year, it can be assumed that St. Joseph’s will now have a major target on their back. The Mauraders return all but six players, meaning they should exhibit continuity and comfort playing with each other from the jump. If there is one area that the Mauraders can significantly improve upon, it comes in the form of team rebounding. They finished near the bottom of the pack (5 out of 7) in rebounding at just 30.4 per game; a leap on the boards and another step up in shooting may very well make the Mauraders Manhattan Cup favorites in 2020-2021.</span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>*</strong><em>Statistics come from MaxPreps.com. All analysis is my own.</em></p>