New Season, New Team, No Problem for Mike Mastro and Jeurys Familia

GARDEN CITY: Week 2 Power Rankings

 By Anthony Leo | Garden City Co-League Coordinator

1. Jeurys Familia (1-0)

New season with a new team, no problem for Juerys Familia. Jeurys Familia opened their season last week with a win over CST Elite. Mike Mastro and Jordan Oringer picked up right where they left off last season. Mastro lead the way scoring 18 points and grabbing 13 rebounds while Oringer scored 19 points and shot 4-7 from beyond the arc. It’s only one game, but all the new guys on the team including Corey Altman and Ivery Bell Jr fit perfectly into the offense. If Altman can consistently knock down shots and Bell rebounds the ball, Jeurys Familia will be just as good if not better than last season’s championship team.

 2. Gale Force (1-0)

Gale Force, led by Richie Byrd, opened their season against a talented Ref Elites team in Week 1. Gale Force was able to win that game 75-68 with Byrd leading the way putting up 27 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists. Sky Khaleel made his debut in Week 1 and put up solid numbers as well. Gale Force is going to have one of the top offenses in the league all season long. If they can play defense consistently they will be a tough team to beat.

 3. Red Storm (1-0)

Steven Medard and Matt Gelsomino opened their season against a shorthanded Shore Shack team in week one and took care of business winning 80-73 lead by Medard’s 30 points and 15 rebounds. The Red Storm are one of the deeper teams in the league with a strong starting five that has no holes in it. They have size with Medard and Carl Garcia, outside shooting with Gelsomino and Haron Hargraves and finally a play maker with Chris Hoffmann. If they can play together as a team and spread the ball around they are going to be a really good team this season.

 4. Savage Storm (1-0)

Savage Storm came out firing in week one putting up a league high 82 points in Week 1. Matt Mehler was go to guy scoring 22 points and pulling down 15 rebounds. Despite team captains Mark Thomas and Will Cheatham not playing their best they still won the game by 21 points over the Monstars. Heading into Week 2 Savage Storm needs to find ways to get everyone involved and not rely on one guy to get the job done. Mehler is their go to guy when they need a bucket, but for this team to be successful the rest of the way they need to repeat what they did in Week 1.

 5. Ref Elites (0-1)

Ref Elites is by far the best 0-1 team to start the season. They had a tough Week 1 matchup against Gale Force, but they showed how good they can be as a group. They are easily one of the most talented teams in the league with a really strong starting five. Jon Ager was impressive in his first game of the season scoring 24 points and Lavjinder Singh was just as good scoring 18 points knocking down six threes. The only downfall for this team is their bench that isn’t that strong. Ref Elites will for sure be one of the top teams as the season goes on and they get more time playing together as a group.

 6. Shore Shack (0-1)

Shore Shack played their Week 1 game without their two best players and still put up 73 points and nearly beat the Red Storm. With team captains Chris Frey and Chris Pisciotta back in the mix shore shack is going to be a really deep team that has a lot of experienced UH players. Their starting five will have Frey, Pisciotta, Will Hennep and Unstuck legend Craig Rallo to run point. That four alone is good enough to compete with any team in this league. The surprise of week one was Mohamed Ibrahim who had a big game and now the question is can Ibrahim continue to put up big numbers and knock down the shots he gets with Frey and Pisciotta back in the mix.

 7. Monstars (0-1)

The Monstars started their season off on a bad note with their loss to Savage Storm. They only scored 61 points and their defensive effort was also poor allowing 82 points. Heading into week two the Monstars need to turn things around and to do that they need to play better defense as a team. You can’t allow 82 points in this league and expect to win any games. Team captains Kevin Archbold and Chris Albano should have this Monstars team ready to go for their Week 2 game and I expect a better performance from them.

 8. CST Elite (0-1)

CST Elite opened their season against the defending champions and played a close game despite not having two of their most important players. With Mike Gahan back in the mix hopefully for week two CST Elite will get an added bonus on both sides of the ball. The key for CST Elite this season is going to be their defense. They will have plenty of weapons on offense to score the ball, but they have a lot of big guys who may get exposed against smaller teams who run high-paced pick and roll offenses. If they can defend well and slow games down they will be a tough team to handle with their size.

 9. Threat Level Midnight (0-0)

In Week 1, Threat Level Midnight had the bye week. For now, all we have is their roster on paper and we won’t know what this team really is until they hit the court this week. What we do know is they have a great duo as team captains with Donte Howell and Brandon Perez leading the way. Howell is a top three player in the league who can score on anyone whenever he wants and Perez is an athletic big man who can run the floor, block shots and rebound the ball at a high clip. We’ll see what this team looks like when they play their first game Tuesday night.