The Gray Bees of St. Benedict's Prep have experienced a rebound that comes as quickly as the program's fall from grace. New coach Mark Taylor has a lot to do with that.
Photo courtesy of St. Benedict's Prep
Fresh off the worst season in recent
St. Benedict's Prep (Newark, N.J.) memory, Mark Taylor inherited a bare roster and a clean slate before a phone call to Toronto helped restore his new program to its customary place as a national power.
"Thank God
Tyler Ennis decided to come down and discuss things with me," Taylor said.
Tyler Ennis, St. Benedict's Prep
Photo courtesy of St. Benedict's Prep
Ennis initially explored other options after Roshown McLeod departed the private school located in the heart of New Jersey's largest city after a 13-12 campaign. Then he met Taylor and received an assurance any rising junior point guard would love to hear.
"I said, 'Listen, Tyler we're going to have players, we're going to have a good group of kids and we're going to work hard. I can promise you that we'll be better than last year,'" Taylor said.
Months later, St. Benedict's Prep is back among the nation's best thanks to a new coach and almost entirely new roster. For however it happened, this is essentially an instance of addition by subtraction: The Gray Bees are 28-1 after turning back Blair in Wednesday's New Jersey Prep A title game and ranked third in the
MaxPreps Academy Top 10 Basketball Rankings, with only a 51-50 loss because of a late basket against No. 1 St. Anthony on New Year's Day separating them from perfection.
And it all started with keeping Ennis, one of the top recruits in the Class of 2013.
"We pretty much started over," Ennis said.
During their initial chat, Taylor encouraged Ennis to bring some of his Canadian friends south from the Great White North, which led to senior
Denzell Taylor and junior
Isaiah Watkins fortifying the St. Benedict's Prep frontcourt.
However, the repercussions of that conversation proved far reaching. Hyper-athletic freshman guard
Isaiah Briscoe, a Newark native, decided to enroll despite initial reservations related to McLeod leaving because, "When I met coach Taylor, he made me feel like I was at home."
Melvin Johnson, St. Benedict's Prep
Photo courtesy of St. Benedict's Prep
From there, when New York City power Rice shuttered its doors,
Melvin Johnson was seeking a new place to display his sharpshooting talents. He heard from Ennis that the Gray Bees got lazy and played far below their individual and collective talent, but the reality has been a 180 from what he initially heard.
"It's a real good environment," said Johnson, a Miami commit.
Combined, the Gray Bees might have the nation's best three-man backcourt between Johnson (21.8 ppg) catching fire from long range, Ennis (15.7 ppg, 7.7 apg) running the show for an offense averaging 82.5 points per game, and Briscoe's (12 ppg) prodigious slashing ability.
"Nobody's better than me, Melvin, and Tyler," Briscoe said.
From March 15-17, the nation's top non-public teams can see for themselves at the prestigious Alhambra Catholic Invitational Tournament being held at Frostburg State University in Maryland. And there is talk of them playing in ESPN RISE's national championship tournament.
This is so much different than last season. In other words: St. Benedict's Prep is back.
"It's a special group of kids that really likes each other, who want to win, who want to compete, share the ball and listen and execute pretty well," Taylor said.
