After a month transitioning to a new coach, Mighty Oaks enjoying a fabulous February and entertaining thoughts of a playoff berth
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
CARNEYS POINT – As much as he wanted it to happen right away, Mike Green figured it would take some time for his way to play to kick in when he took over the Salem Community College basketball team right before Christmas.
It’s taken about a month and now the Oaks are playing some of their best ball since the school revived the program in 2019.
The Mighty Oaks’ fabulous February continued Monday night in an 87-81 home win over Williamson College of the Trades that was closer than it should have been.
It was their third win in a row and fifth in six February starts, their best stretch since a similar run in February 2022. And it keeps alive their hopes of making playoffs, which would be quite the coup considering they were a team in limbo at midseason.
“What me and the coaches have been preaching is finally coming to light,” Green said. “I thought the results were going to be there the first month. I talked with some people I know, some people who have been in basketball for years, and that’s just not the way it works.
“Sometimes we get naïve as coaches. We think it’s supposed to happen overnight, but my assistants do a really good job of wheeling me back, telling me what we’ve got. It took us a month and a couple weeks, so now it’s clicking a little better for us. The guys are trying to understand how I wanted to play and I think it’s all coming together at the right time.”
Time is the operative word. While time wasn’t on the Oaks’ side when it came to searching for a coach, the timing certainly worked in their favor for landing Green.
The old coach, A.J. Williams, who had been with the program since it restarted, resigned on the bus ride back from a Dec. 14 loss at Ocean County CC. Athletics director Bob Bunnell remembers that call vividly and it left him desperate. The Oaks were scheduled to play Brookdale two days later and they had no coach. They ended up canceling and fortunately were open until after the holidays.
Green, a two-time Philadelphia Public League All-Star and Horizon League Player of the Year at Butler, was on the staff at Penn State that left for Notre Dame, but with the recent birth of his second child he decided to stay behind. He was a finalist for the RCSJ-Gloucester job, and received a glowing recommendation when Bunnell started reaching out to his peers for advice.
Green was announced as the Oaks’ second coach since the program’s revival two days before Christmas. They have gone 8-7 since his hiring.
“There was definitely an adjustment period,” Green said. “We had to get rid of a lot of, I wouldn’t say bad habits, but not habits I needed them to play with. It definitely took time.
“I knew coming into it that it would be challenging, but I played this way. I played for a coach in Europe who got fired and I had to play for a new coach, so I knew all the dynamics that went into it. I like challenges and I thought it’d be a good challenge.”
The Green way was nothing like the way they had played before. It was fast, it promoted shooting, it maximized possessions. It was the kind of way that gets junior college players noticed by coaches on the next level and it’s Green’s goal to get every one of his players a scholarship at the next level.
February has been by far the Oaks’ most productive month of the season. They’re averaging 87 points a game this month. They’re shooting 49.3 percent from the floor, 40.9 percent from 3-point range and 76.3 percent from the line and have grabbed 30.7 rebounds a game – all better than any of the previous three months of the season. Their assists are up and their turnovers are down from the month before.
They went from averaging about 69 points a game in the first two months of the season to 80.7 in January. They hit almost twice as many 3s in Green’s first month as they did the two previous months combined. They’ve hit 166 total in the 15 games since he’s taken over.
“The transition has gone well because ever since they got here it was kind of like a new season,” freshman guard Dante Brinkley said. “There was nothing about the past, what happened; it was 0-0 at that point. There was a lot of buy-in when we looked at our coach’s resume and we just respect that. You want to learn from that and I think everyone’s bought into that.”
“He’s made us play different; he wants us to run and score,” freshman guard Niami Scott added. “The other (way) was slower. I knew the people who were coming to us, the coaching staff and all that, so I was happy for us and I felt like with the new coaching staff we can probably win more. It’s more fun, playing as a team, scoring 100 and just laughing and joking when we get the win.”
The Oaks (10-12) looked to be headed to one of those kinds of wins against the Mechanics (8-15), It started with Tajee Jordan dominating inside, getting halfway to his sixth double-double five minutes into the game and carried on with the 3s. Oh, the 3s.
The Oaks made 19 of them in their win over Harrisburg Area Saturday and were on a similar track Monday with nine in the first half. They went into halftime up by 15 after leading by as many as 19.
They didn’t play quite the same in the second half and the Mechanics nearly came all the way back. It was a one-point game with 46.5 seconds left.
It was 83-81 when Williamson’s Ronald Johnson missed a potential game-tying jumper with 10 seconds to go. Brinkley hit two free throws with 2.5 seconds left to seal it and then stole the inbounds pass and converted it into a layup at the buzzer for the final margin.
“At that time it’s win time, you’ve got to make plays, you’ve got to do whatever you can to win,” Brinkley said. “That was my mindset: Whatever I can do to seal this game up, help my team win, that’s what I’ve gotta do.”
Brinkley finished with 10 points and was one of five Salem scorers in double figures. Scott led the way with 21 points, including 9-of-11 from the free throw line in the second half. A.J. Jones hit four 3s in the first half and finished with 19. Jordan had 13 points and 10 rebounds, and Shaquez Coley-Lewis hit four 3s and finished with 12.
The Oaks are still in the running for a Region XIX playoff berth, but they have no margin for error. They have to win all three of their remaining games to qualify.
“Out of everything that we’ve been through this year I think that would be a good way to go out this season,” Brinkley said. “I think that’s what everybody’s focus is, trying to make the playoffs.”
“If we do get in there we’ll be a dangerous team to play,” Green said. “Nobody should want to see us coming at them.”
SALEM CC 87, WILLIAMSON TRADES 81
WILLIAMSON (8-15) – Jordan Draine 2 2-2 6, Abdoulaye Diallo 4 3-4 11, Garrett Watkins 1 0-2 2, Liam Pardin 2 1-1 5, Ronald Johnson 12 2-2 26, Corby Bennett 5 1-2 11, Semaj Cherry 8 4-6 20. Totals 34 13-19 81.
SALEM CC (10-12) – Niame Scott 5-10 0-11 21, Dante Brinkley 3-8 4-7 10, A.J. Jones 6-8 3-4 19, Tivon Woolford 1-4 0-0 3, Tajee Jordan 5-9 3-4 13, Shaquez Coley-Lewis 4-11 0-0 12, Joshua Ramon 3-7 2-2 9. Totals 27-57 21-28 87.
| Williamson Trades | 35 | 46 – | 81 |
| Salem CC | 50 | 37 – | 87 |
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