Gill St. Bernard’s could sweep top seeds in the Somerset County Tournament, but earlier start means some top boys’ matchups won’t matter

The top seed on the girls’ side of the Somerset County Tournament for basketball may have been decided Thursday night, when No. 2 Gill St. Bernard’s knocked off No. 1 Rutgers Prep, handing the Argonauts their first loss against a Skyland Conference foe since 2019, but the boys’ seeding could get interesting.

It all gets hashed out on Monday, January 27th at 7:30 pm at Immaculata High School, as it does every year. Sometimes its easy, sometimes it’s tense.

The girls’ side should be easy. Though Gill and Prep split their two meetings this year, the upper hand might go to the Knights.

The Argonauts lost four starters coming into this season, three to graduation, one to transfer out-of-state. And even still, they beat the Knights 61-38 on December 17th, the second game of the season for both teams.

But Gill’s 64-27 win Thursday night evened the score. With a split between the two, there are a few factors where the edge goes to the Knights.

On margin of victory, it’s advantage GSB. They won by 37 Thursday evening up in Peapack-Gladstone, while the Argos’ won by 23 in Somerset a month ago. And that’s the second factor, the more recent result.

At the moment, Gill is 11-2 overall, while Rutgers Prep is 9-3.

Taking out Prep’s loss to Gill, their other two defeats came to St. Rose and Upper Dublin (PA), while Prep lost to St. Rose – at the same Holiday Hoopfest showcase at Paterson Kennedy over the holidays where Gill beat the Purple Roses. Gill St. Bernard’s also has solid wins over St. John Vianney and St. Thomas Aquinas, which was No. 2 in the Bellamy & Son Paving rankings when they beat them back on Sunday.

The scale is definitely pointing towards Gill.

Meanwhile, on the boys’ side, it may not be too murky, but we have a lot of apples and oranges being compared elsewhere.

The Gill St. Bernard’s boys’ won a slugfest over Rutgers Prep in Somerset a couple of weeks ago, and even though the two are in the Skyland Conference’s Delaware Division together, they won’t play again before the seeding meeting. Their next meeting is February 5th, with the SCT seeding meeting nine days before. That’s a shame.

Meanwhile, you have Montgomery and Ridge at 10-1 and 11-2, respectively. The Cougars beat the Red Devils, 55-52, back on Tuesday in their first meeting, but again, they won’t play for a second time until February 11th, the week leading up to the SCT semifinals, which are the 15th at Franklin High School. (Yes, it’s at a neutral site this year.)

The Cougars at least should be in that No. 1 seed conversation. They’re very good, and it could be a toss-up. But here’s the rub:

None of the four teams play each other before the seeding meeting – no Ridge or Montgomery crossover matchups with Rutgers Prep or Gill St. Bernard’s – and the SCT will be seeded on even more of an incomplete body of work.

Who’s going to be No. 1 in the SCT? Likely Gill or Montgomery, since Rutgers Prep and Ridge lost their only matchups to the other top teams. The Knights have four losses – to Don Bosco Prep, St. Peter’s Prep, St. Rose, and Roselle Catholic – by an average of five points, while the Cougars only lost their opener, 48-44 to Hudson Catholic. They’ve won eleven straight since.

See, some coaches bemoaned the fact that over the last few years, with the tournament more like the the GMC, where the games are played every couple of days, those that got knocked out early struggled to find opponents. (Why not just play each other, then?)

So, the SCT is back to playing the tourney on successive Saturdays. Over on the GMC side, the entire conference finishes play (usually, unless snow has its say) before the tournament is seeded.

And Somerset County has some challenges, to be sure. First, it doesn’t have enough teams of similar size and skill to be its own conference.

Then, as part of the Skyland, which has no tournament, Somerset plays its own, and Hunterdon and Warren schools have their tournament with Sussex County.

But the teams are all mixed in through the four divisions in the Skyland, and no one finishes playing everyone in their own area before the tournament is seeded.

That would be like picking the College Football Playoff after eight weeks, or seeding the NCAA Tournament before the conference tournaments even begin.

What can be done?

One suggestion would be to see if the Skyland Conference could favor scheduling Somerset vs. Somerset games and Hunterdon-Warren games in the earlier part of the season. Why not? The divisions can still be settled by the end of the year anyway.

You could also go back to the rapid-fire SCT format, rather than playing on successive Saturdays. Have a consolation bracket. Think of how wrestling works with the state tournament or the NCAA Tournament.

There has been talk about doing both in the past, but so far, it’s not materialized.

Another suggestion could be to play a Skyland Conference Tournament. That’s much more radical, but they did a smaller version of it in the COVID-shortened 2021 season, with three pods and three rounds each.

Either way, it’ll make things interesting over in Somerville a week from Monday.