Madison Boys Basketball Hopes This Season A Preview Of Things To Come

The Madison High School boys basketball team got its first taste of the "contender" label during the 2009-10 season. They expect that label to stick heading in to next year.

After a stunningly successful campaign keyed by a junior-dominated lineup, the Dodgers will use this offseason to dream of future glory. And they'll return to the court in November with suddenly-great expectations for a worthy follow up to this year's 21-4 record.

"We're definitely proud of our season," said head coach Bill Librera. "But we feel like we have more work to do."

The Dodgers won the inaugural Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference-Independence Division championship (Madison finished 11-1, one game ahead of Hanover Park), a holiday tournament title, and the program's first playoff win under Librera; Madison opened the season with an unprecedented 17-game win streak.

"We had a good season," said junior point guard Aaron Fant. "We can build on it. We want to win everything next year."

Madison's 21 wins are the most under Librera, and the highest win total since 2006, when the Dodgers won 22 games under current MHS girls basketball coach Stephen Finkelstein.

All this came from a team that began the season fighting to prove its credibility nine months after a sub-.500 Madison team made a Cinderella run to the 2009 Morris County Tournament final.

"We weren't really one of the teams people were talking about in the beginning," Librera said. "It's easier to surprise people sometimes. We weren't the best team out there, but we exceeded expectations. Now, we're going to have to deal with being expected to win."

While Madison's record this season spoke for itself, there were several notable disappointments: Madison suffered heartbreaking back-to-back losses to Hanover Park (ending the 17-game win streak) and Chatham (ending Madison's hopes of winning the Morris County Tournament), along with a home loss in the North 2, Group II quarterfinals to Newark Tech.

However, the Dodgers are in the enviable situation of having put up an exceptional won-loss record, combined with a lineup almost entirely consisting of underclassmen. Of the eight Dodgers who saw regular game action this year, five were juniors, one was a sophomore and one was a freshman.

Two of those juniors, Aaron Fant and Jake Meister, topped Madison in just about every offensive category. Matt McHale provided a consistent defensive and rebounding presence. Mike Haughey and sophomore Matt Gilbert provided spark, hustle, and solid outside shooting. Eddie McAndrew and Justin Goodwin were solid defenders and could see their roles increase next year.

All will be back next year, along with a promising younger group that led Madison's junior varsity to an 18-6 record.

"Our program is extremely healthy right now," Librera said. "Competition is going to make everyone better, and we think we have a lot of kids who could press for playing time next year. There are minutes to be had."

The loss to graduation of senior defensive stopper Robbie Savacool will hurt, but Madison figures to be among the deepest, most experienced teams in Morris County next season.

Perhaps most importantly, the youthful Dodgers learned how to win in 2009-10. After they blew out Kittatinny in the opener Dec. 18, Madison won its next eight games by eight points or less, in every conceivable fashion.

They barely held off furious comebacks–leading MKA by 22 points and barely hanging on for a 63-55 win in the Oratory Prep tournament first round (Dec. 28).

They went back-and-forth with division rivals–including a gutty 49-45 road win at Group II state finalist Pequannock and a tense 49-47 home win against rival Chatham.

They needed late-game heroics–like Fant's memorable buzzer-beating floater to send the Jan. 12 game against Hanover Park to a second overtime. Arguably the play of the year for the Dodgers, it catapulted Madison to a 62-59 2OT win over the then-unbeaten Hornets.

They needed perfection at crucial moments–like when Madison outscored Livingston, 16-0, in the fourth quarter for an improbable comeback win on Jan. 16.

The clutch plays continued going Madison's way. By Feb. 6–the NJSIAA's state tournament cutoff date–Madison improved to 17-0 and locked up the top seed in the North 2, Group II tournament.

The Dodgers' finish wasn't quite as perfect–Madison split its final eight games, beginning with a last-second layup loss to Hanover Park in an all-time Morris County classic Feb. 9.

Four days later, two Chatham free throws with five seconds to play in regulation ended Madison's dream of a repeat run to the County College of Morris.

Madison's last two losses, to Morristown and in the state tournament against Newark Tech, revealed a fatal flaw that Librera hopes to correct next season.

"We're going to try and schedule some different styles of play," Librera said. "Our league was a little homogenous, and we know we have to get out and schedule more teams like Morristown, Morristown-Beard, Newark West Side, that push the tempo and can run on you."

Still, the end of February and early March each had high points for the Dodgers:

• Fant put up an incredible line of 16 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists, willing Madison to a 70-67 quadruple-overtime victory over Chatham days after the county tournament defeat.
• Meister's 19-point effort against Dover helped the Dodgers clinch a share of the NJAC-Independence title (which they won outright after Hanover Park's loss to Pequannock a week later).
• Madison got off to a horrid start in their first-round playoff game against Parsippany, a 19-4 second quarter lifted the Dodgers to their first playoff win in four years.

In the end, the 2009-10 season will likely be looked at as a transition year for Madison. The Dodgers began the year with a chip on their shoulders, needing to prove they could contend for conference, county and state titles.

It didn't always go exactly as planned, but the Dodgers think they have put themselves in an excellent position for a blockbuster season in 2010-11.

"A lot of us have been playing together for a long time on varsity, and we'll be seniors next year," Meister said. "We want to do something big before we leave."