Wilmington University men’s assistant tabbed as the new women’s basketball coach at Salem CC; one former Mighty Oaks player who has come under his wing gives high praise

UPDATED WITH NEW MATERIAL

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

CARNEYS POINT — Wilmington University men’s basketball assistant J.J. Rapczynski will be the new Salem Community College women’s basketball coach, pending approval by the board at its meeting next week.

Rapczynski, a former Ursinus College guard, just completed his third season with the WilmU men’s team. He also was associate head men’s coach at Immaculate, and coached at West Chester, Widener and Neumann.

“I’ve known who he is for a long time,” Salem athletics director Bob Hughes said. “He comes from a long line of basketball people.”

The Mighty Oaks received 90 applications for the position. Rapczynski was among five finalists who included a longtime South Jersey high school head coach, two women’s assistant coaches from within Region XIX and a former Division I women’s player just starting her coaching career.

“He clearly had an understanding of recruiting in-state (and) knowledge of the region,” Hughes said. “He really seemed to the best fit … the one who the committee felt would work well here.”

Coach Rap scores high marks with one former Salem CC player, who predicts he’ll become a “historically great coach” with the Mighty Oaks. Akeem Taylor transferred to WilmU after leading the Mighty Oaks to a fifth-place finish in the 2025 national tournament and worked with Rapczynski on a daily basis.

“Coach Rap is a great coach with a high-level basketball IQ and a real understanding of the game,” Taylor said. “He’s big on player development and puts a lot of time into helping players improve their skills, confidence and overall approach. He holds players accountable, but also supports them, so you grow both on and off the court. He’s detail-oriented, communicates well and knows how to build relationships with his players.

“I think he will end up being a historically great coach at Salem and build a very successful program on and off the court.”

Rapczynski succeeds Brian Marsh, who stepped aside after a tumultuous 2025-26 season cut short with three games left when the arrest of four players left by the team without enough players to field a competitive team. Marsh coached the program through the first three seasons of its revival. He was 23-43 with a high-water mark of 11 wins last season.

Rapczynski brings a diverse collegiate coaching background to Salem, with experience across NCAA Division II and Division III programs on both the men’s and women’s sides of the game. He most recently served as an assistant men’s basketball coach at Wilmington University, a position he has held since August 2023.

Prior to Wilmington, Rapczynski spent four seasons as the Associate Head Men’s Basketball Coach at Immaculata University from 2019-2023. During that same stretch, he also worked with East Coast Power AAU as a National Coach and Skills Academy instructor, helping develop high-level student-athletes throughout the region.

His coaching résumé also includes a season as Assistant Women’s Basketball Coach at Neumann University during the 2018-19 season, along with assistant coaching stops at West Chester University from 2016-18 and Widener University from 2012-16.

Rapczynski said he was “incredibly grateful” for the chance to become the Mighty Oaks’ head coach.

“I want to thank the college for the trust they’ve placed in me, and I cannot wait to get to work,” he said in a statement when the school announced his hiring Thursday. “I look forward to bringing enthusiasm and a strong culture back to the women’s program.

“One of the things that stood out to me most about Salem Community College was the momentum surrounding the school, the quality of the facilities, the positive campus environment, and most importantly, the people. I want our program to reflect that same standard every single day in everything we do. The people immediately made this opportunity feel special. From the administration to the staff, there’s a genuine sense of support, pride, and positivity throughout campus, and I’m excited to build a women’s basketball program that reflects that same culture.”

Salem CC finishes third in national tournament after beating DC-North Lake on Rines’ late 3-pointer; Gibson makes all-tournament team

JUCO DIVISION III TOURNAMENT
At Herkimer, N.Y.
Saturday’s Games
Fifth-place game
Richland 70, Joliet 66
Third-place game
Salem CC 76, Dallas North Lake 75
Championship game
Northern Essex 68, Dallas Richland 62

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

HERKIMER, N.Y. – Idris Rines didn’t just hit the shot of the game, it was the shot of Salem CC’s record-breaking year. No, it did not win a championship. It did more than that. It salvaged a season.

The Mighty Oaks came here to the JUCO Division III national tournament to win a national championship. That dream was dashed Friday night, but Rines made sure they made good on coach Mike Green’s overnight boast of going home with something when he delivered a pure 3-pointer from the top of the key with 17 seconds left to bring them a 76-75 win over third-seeded Dallas College North Lake.

Back-to-back losses to end the season would’ve been a bummer for a team that had the best record in the country coming into this JUCO Division III national tournament. Instead, thanks to Rines’ shining moment, just like last year, the Mighty Oaks (32-3) are one of the few college basketball teams in America that will end their season with a win.

By beating the Blazers (23-12), they finished third in the national tournament, two spots higher than they did when they won on Saturday here a year ago.

“You want to go out winning, man,” Green said. “You want to go out smiling. You don’t want to be in here all sad. Our guys answered the bell.

“You come down here to win everything, you lose one and then you kind of get sidetracked. Try to tell those boys to fight. They worked way too hard to leave here with nothing. The light switched on.”

The play that produced the winning basket was supposed to be Rines setting a back screen for Nayeem Johnson to get a layup. But when he saw how much room the defense had left him, he called for the inbounds pass from Nasseem Wright and let it fly. He finished with nine points and six rebounds.

“That wasn’t my first game-winner, but that might have been like the biggest game-winner,” Rines said. “I had a couple in high school, but nothing like a championship game-winner.

“MG trusted me. The play wasn’t designed for that, but we just executed it. And that might have been our biggest execution play out of a timeout. We struggled all year executing out of timeouts.

“The biggest thing was sending our sophomores out with their last game and winning it. We wanted to come out of here with something. We knew we didn’t win the (district) and once we lost that we thought we had nothing, but third place gets a trophy and we’d love to send Mike (Goodwin), Stef (Phillips) and Nayeem (Johnson) off with something. Once MG told us we had an idea we could win something we just knew we had to.”

Asked if he ever saved a season before, he said, “not like this.”

“We all knew it was going in,” said guard Zyaire Gibson, the Mighty Oaks’ true 3-point specialist. “We practice that shot every day. Wide open. He had it. I heard coach Mike Green say ‘Shoot it!’ and we knew it was good.”

Rines had something of a reputation as a 3-point shooter in high school despite a 6-5 frame that would hint otherwise and he showed his worth from beyond the arc with the Mighty Oaks from the very first game at Atlantic Cape. He hit a clutch one in that game and shot it at 30.1 percent for the season. His two Saturday gave him 31 for the year.

“He’s versatile,” Green said. “He’s a guard in a forward’s body. He’s just so much stronger than everybody so we post him. Everything we told him before the season what we were going to do with him we did it and he bought into it.”

The Mighty Oaks had to play a little defense after Rines’ basket but Nayeem Johnson said “that was the easy part.” Because of all the foul trouble they had in the second half, they knew they had to stay disciplined, and they pulled it off.

Johnson came off his man to help Jarrell Little close off Elijah Black’s drive down in the lane with the clock winding down and then stepped out to challenge Zach Thompson’s off-balanced 3 at the buzzer that missed everything.

The Mighty Oaks had a lot going against them. They played without injured point guard Saaid Lee, their two leading scorers (Little and Wright) were in heavy foul trouble, North Lake was in the double bonus midway through the second half and Salem hadn’t taken a free throw yet, and they were down 10 with 9:57 to play.

They brought it back with a 10-2 run to made it 60-58 with 8:25 to go. They tied it on a three-point play by Rines at 8:08 and took a 64-62 lead on Nayeem Johnson’s three-point play on either side of the 8:00 media timeout. It went back and forth the rest of the game.

Romiel Carter gave the Blazers a 75-73 lead on a free throws with 24.5 seconds left and Green called time with 19.2 to set the stage for Rines’ winning 3.

“We definitely matured during the season,” Gibson said. “We talk about adversity all year. We’ve had games, certain teams that weren’t supposed to be in it as long that stayed in it and we had to fight and fight and fight. Today we made sure we didn’t harp on yesterday’s loss and we came together as the game went on and we made sure everyone was still on the same page. We kept executing and as MG preaches execute plays, we made shots and got stops and we got back in the game and won it.

“We came out at halftime and told each other this is our last 20 minutes playing with each other for this season. For our sophomores we’re going to send them home on a good note. We’re walking home with a trophy – trophies – and they feel good. Everybody’s walking out of here with a smile, nobody has their head down, it feels great.” 

Gibson made the all-tournament team for his body of work in the event. He had 39 points and seven 3-points in three tournament games. He 11 points, eight rebounds and three assists in the consolation game.

Little was their leading scorer with 18 points despite playing the last 17 minutes with four fouls. Johnson, making his first start in a Salem uniform, had 17 points.

ACORNS: Top-seeded Northern Essex won the championship game, beating Dallas College Richland, 68-62. Richland was bidding to become the lowest seeded team (10th) to win the national championship … With his 597 points this season, Little is now 16th on the Mighty Oaks’ all-time scoring list. Wright (557) is tied for 21st and Lee (5-7) is tied for 29th … The national tournament the next two years will be played in Rochester, Minn.

This story will be updated.

SALEM CC 76, DALLAS NORTH LAKE 75
SALEM CC (32-3): Jarrell Little 6-15 3-3 18, Zyaire Gibson 4-11 2-3 11, Nasseem Wright 2-6 2-2 6, Nayeem Johnson 4-12 9-11 17, Stefan Phillips 4-6 2-2 13, Jahseir Sayles 0-2 0-0 0, Qua Smith 1-2 0-0 2, Idris Rines 3-9 1-1 9, Mike Goodwin 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-63 19-22 76.
DALLAS NORTH LAKE (23-12): Santana Spivey 2-8 0-0 5, Jordan Edwards 5-8 6-8 16, Elijah Black 2-8 0-0 4, Zach Thompson 2-7 8-12 12, Romiel Carter 8-16 6-8 22, Zaedyn Owens 0-8 2-4 2, JaDen Stiggers 4-7 2-2 12, Damian Smith 0-0 0-0 0, Ngozi Ofili 0-0 0-0 0, Marco Assirifix 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 24-63 24-34 75.

Salem CC	37	39-	76
Dallas North Lake	38	37-	75

Salem CC basketball will play for third place in the national tournament after losing to top-seeded Northern Essex in Division III semifinals; Knights’ Robinson scores 39

JUCO DIVISION III TOURNAMENT
At Herkimer, N.Y.
Friday’s Games
Joliet 102, Genesee 100 (OT)
Riverland 97, Ridgewater 89
Northern Essex 88. Salem CC 85
Dallas Richland 67, Dallas North Lake 59
Saturday’s Games
Fifth-place game: Joliet vs. Riverland, noon
Third-place game: Salem CC vs. Dallas North Lake, 2 p.m.
Championship game: No. 1 Northern Essex vs. No. 10 Dallas Richland, 5 p.m.

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

HERKIMER, N.Y. – The Salem CC basketball team hasn’t felt the pain of defeat very often this season, but each one hurt worse than the last. The one Friday cut deepest of all.

The Mighty Oaks had their dream of winning a national championship shattered on a snowy night here when they suffered an uncharacteristically mistake-prone 88-85 loss to top-seeded Northern Essex in the semifinals of the JUCO Division III national tournament.

The fourth-seeded Mighty Oaks (31-2) have lost only three games this year and all carried some significance. The first, to Brookdale, ended their season-opening 22-game winning streak and knocked them from No. 1 in the country. The second, to Montgomery County, cost them the district championship, an automatic bid here and maybe even the No. 1 seed. Friday’s loss ended their dream of winning their first national championship.

“We made the same mistakes against Montco we made tonight,” Salem coach Mike Green said. “(Giving up) offensive rebounds when it mattered the most, no stops when it mattered the most. (The loss to) Montco hurt more than anything, the championship and the way my guys played. At least they went out and competed today. It’s unfortunate. So close, but so far.

“I thought we played well enough to win. We just didn’t guard and turned the ball over.”

The most frustrating element of the loss was once the Mighty Oaks did fall behind every time they would get close, the Knights (32-3) answered to turn them away, either by creating an empty possession through a turnover or missed shot or answering with points of their own.

They got within 52-50, Alex Johnson hit buckets on consecutive possessions to push it back to 56-50. They closed to 61-59, Jacob Mercedes answered with a basket. They drew within 62-61 with 12:00 left then missed three straight shots and Jayvon Depina made them pay with a 3-pointer. They tied it at 66, then the Knights went on a 9-0 run through the 8:00 media timeout while the Mighty Oaks went through six straight empty possessions. It was like that the whole second half.

“Their pressure really wasn’t nothing,” Nasseem Wright said. “Our team is young, so like none of us want to make mistakes and that causes us to make mistakes. I don’t want to discredit their team, but it was moreso like we were just giving away possessions. We’d come down and score and then we’d give up a backdoor layup. That’s not anything they did, that’s on us by not guarding our man. We were literally giving them those possessions. 

“If they were outright better than us it’s like I won’t be able to accept (the loss) but I’ll be able to see from it. I can’t see it now because I don’t think none of these teams are better than us. I just feel like we’re literally just giving away championships by not being disciplined. Those same things we’ve been dealing with throughout the whole season versus lesser teams who aren’t playing for anything, it didn’t really harm us. But now when you’ve got guys who are coming out there, they might not be the better team, but they’re going to play as hard as ever because they’re playing for something, those mistakes are going to come back and bite you. 

“Those same mistakes you can’t do because it’s not about skill at the end of the day, it’s about who’s going out there willing to die on the court. That’s something we didn’t do. We didn’t die on the court. We didn’t leave it all on the floor. That’s not like us. It happened in the Brookdale game, which was a loss, it happened in the Montco game, which was a loss, and it happened today.”

The Mighty Oaks were charged with 21 turnovers and gave up 36 points in the paint. They let sophomore guard Alex Johnson get loose for 39 points. It’s the most points the Mighty Oaks have given up by one player since Sussex’ P.J. Ross went for 39 against them near the end of Green’s first season. Johnson was 12-of-23 from the field and 15-of-19 from the free throw line. 

Alejandro Delgado, the Region 21 Player of the Year, had 15 points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots, including one of a Saaid Lee layup with 11.7 seconds left that kept Salem once again from getting within two.

“My guys didn’t follow the scouting report,” Green said. “They did it their way and so you give up 40 points to one guy. Let right-handed drivers go right-handed drive. That’s the game: 20 turnovers, 39 points to a right-handed driver.”

Their own top scorers, Jarrell Little and Wright, both fouled out in the final two minutes. They finished with nine and eight points, respectively, the only time this season they’ve been held to single digits in the same game. Lee wound up as their leading scorer with 23 points, two shy of his career high. He was 6-of-9 from the field, hit all three of his 3-pointers and all eight of his free throws.

The freshman point guard hit a deep 3-pointer over Johnson with 5.9 seconds left to draw his team within 87-85. Johnson hit a free throw at the other end with 4.6 seconds left to make it a three-point game and Green called his final time out immediately after the shot went through to set up a game-tying play.

They just wanted to get any shot, but Lee tripped shortly after crossing mid-court and may have had a case for a blocking foul against the Knights, but was called for traveling. Lee defended the inbounds pass to Johnson and replays looked as if the ball went out off Johnson’s hands, but the officials awarded the ball to the Knights with four-tenths of a second left and they simply passed it in with the Mighty Oaks standing near their bench to end the game.

“I pulled it,” he said of the turnovers. “I feel horrible.”

The Mighty Oaks can still leave here on a positive note if they beat third-seeded Dallas North Lake in Saturday’s 2 p.m. consolation game. It would allow them to end the season with a win, just not the win they came here to get.


NORTHERN ESSEX 88, SALEM CC 85
SALEM CC (31-3): Jarrell Little 3-11 2-4 9, Saaid Lee 6-9 8-8 23, Zyaire Gibson 4-5 3-3 14, Nasseem Wright 4-10 0-2 8, Stefan Phillips 1-3 0-0 3, Jahseir Sayles 0-1 0-0 0, Qua Smith 1-1 5-6 7, Nayeem Johnson 6-13 3-4 15, Idris Rines 3-5 0-0 6. Totals 28-58 21-27 85.
NORTHERN ESSEX (32-3): Alex Johnson 12-23 15-19 39, Joan Vidal 2-3 1-2 5, Yunosuke Matsuda 2-7 0-0 5, Christian Sanders 3-4 4-6 11, Alejandro Delgado 6-12 2-4 15, Jayvon Depina 1-5 0-0 3, Cristian Moscat 0-4 2-2 2, Johnarieus Davis 2-4 0-0 4, Jacob Mercedes 2-2 0-0 4. Totals 30-64 24-33 88.

Salem CC	42	43-	85
Northern Essex	49	39-	88

3-point goals: Salem CC 8-19 (Little 1-5, Lee 3-3, Gibson 3-4, Wright 0-1, Phillips 1-2 Sayles 0-1, Johnson 0-1, Rines 0-2); Northern Essex 4-13 (Johnson 0-2, Matsuda 1-1, Sanders 1-1, Delgado 1-2, Depina 1-4, Moscat 0-2, Davis 0-1). Rebounds: Salem CC 41 (Wright 9, Smith 7, Johnson 7); Northern Essex 32 (Delgado 7, Moscat 7). Fouled out: Little, Wright. Total fouls: Salem CC 26, Northern Essex 19,

Top photo: Northern Essex guard Alex Johnson brings the ball up against Salem CC Friday. Johnson scored a career-high 39 points as the Knights downed the Mighty Oaks 88-85 to advance to the JUCO Division III national title game. (NJCAA photo)