No. 1 recruit Darius Adams helps push Manasquan, Shore basketball forward

It was an incredible time in Jersey Shore basketball history, when future NBA players John Crotty of CBA, Tim Perry of Freehold Borough and Alex Blackwell of Toms River North were running the hardwood locally from the mid-1980s through the early 1990s.

And it was an especially vibrant period in Ocean County, where legends including Lacey’s Chris Fleming and Central’s Jermaine Clay - each with over 2,200 career points - and Lakewood’s Randy Holmes pushed the game to new heights.

“I had to guard Chris Fleming when I was a freshman and I remember that was before the three-point line and he was hitting three pointers back then,” said Manchester High School Principal Dennis Adams, a multi-sport star for the Hawks who helped write that glorious chapter in area hoops lore.

“My kids just think I’m an old dad. I mean, they know what I’m talking about a little bit, but they don’t have a sense of how competitive it was and how good guys were back then.”

The “kids” Adams is referring to include his daughter, Destiny, a sophomore guard at North Carolina, and son, Darius, a sophomore guard at Manasquan High School who has already been offered by Rutgers and Seton Hall.

More:'Definitely will have butterflies': Legendary basketball coach George Sourlis starts new chapter

In fact, Darius Adams is part of a Shore basketball renaissance also pushed along by the Ranney duo of Bryan Antoine, the Shore’s all-time leading scorer with 2,514 points, and Scottie Lewis, drafted in the second round by the Charlotte Hornets; and Manasquan’s Ben Roy, who scored 31 points in the 2020 Shore Conference final as a sophomore.

More:Here are 24 Shore Conference girls basketball players ready for breakout seasons in 2023

As a freshman last season, Adams scored 26 points in a Shore Conference Tournmanet semifinal win over Red Bank Catholic and finished the season averaging 14.3 points and 4.3 rebounds.

Beginning with Thursday night’s season-opener, when non-public power Patrick School visits Manasquan, Adams and his teammates look to return the program to the SCT final for the fourth straight time, to go with a fourth straight NJSIAA sectional championship.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL:After March Madness heroics, Seton Hall's Shaheen Holloway pulls off stunner in Rutgers rivalry

“First of all, Darius is my nephew. Not a lot of people know that. So we’re family,” Manasquan head coach Andrew Bilodeau said. “I would say it’s been exactly what anyone really close to him expected from Darius. He’s 365 basketball, like a lot of kids that reach that level of success. He’s been blessed. He knows it. But he has earned it.

“Academically, basketball-wise he’s committed. He has dreams, he has goals, but they’re not just this flirtation with something that might be cool. He’s a worker.”

Stock rising

The last year has been a whirlwind for Darius Adams, with the 6-3 combo guard’s recruiting having blown up. The four-star prospect’s gotten a host of other offers including from St. John’s and Syracuse. He’s even visited North Carolina, on both a visit and to see his sister play.

“The pressure was a little bit difficult as a freshman. There was a lot happening,” he said. “But I feel like I’m ready for that now and my teammates have been great supporting me.”

And if things progress like everyone within the program hopes it will, there figure to be a lot more big-time offers to come.

“I think it will blow up more as more schools around the country see him. Because right now he’s still a little bit underrated nationally because he is still very young and a lot of people haven’t seen him yet, but that will change as the process continues,” said long-time New Jersey recruiting analyst Jay Gomes, the founder of NJHoops,com.

“He plays for one of the top AAU team in the country and he had a good summer, too. But what happens at that age is a lot of the coaches aren’t looking at young kids yet. That’s why he hasn’t blown up with a lot of the big schools nationally he’ll get in another year or two. He has all the tools you need to be a big-time player. He shoots it very well, he’s got a quick release, he’s got range, he’s smooth, he handles the ball well, he sees the floor, too.”

There were plenty of moments that stood out from his first season of high school basketball. Like the 24-point, seven-rebound performance in a 50-48 win at Union Catholic, or the 18 points he scored in a season-ending loss in the Group 2 semifinals against Woodrow Wilson.

“He took a big leap as he started his freshman year he had made a big turn in his skill level,” Dennis Adams said. “It just kind of took off from there, He has a very, very high work ethic and so he really wants to be good, and it showed in his freshman year.

“I did coach him until eighth grade. Going back to that game at RBC, I didn’t know how he was going to be able to handle the pressure and he handled it well. I think what helped him growing up was that he always played a couple grades up. So when he was in third grade he was playing with fifth graders, and when he was in fifth grade he was playing with seventh graders. They were older and more physical, but he would go in there and he would battle and I think that helped him along the way.”

Championship contender

While Adams is the focal point, Manasquan is anything but a one-man-band.

“Darius is very fortunate that he has some good, tough experienced guys with him. There are some Division 1 players on this team,” Bilodeau said. “He’s surrounded by some big-time players.”

Returning from the team that lost to Marlboro in the Shore Conference Tournament final are junior point guard Ryan Frauenheim, who scored 19 points and dished out seven assists in their Central Group 2 final win over Robbinsville, and averaged 9.8 points and four assists.

Sophomore guard Griffin Linstra and 6-7 junior forward Alex Konov return after starting last season.

“We started two freshman and two sophomores (last year). Which is unheard of,” Bilodeau said.

“Two sophomores, two juniors sounds like a really young team. Our other guys, Quinn Peters and Jack Dettlinger and Mike Flanagan, are relatively inexperienced even though they are seniors.”

What hasn’t changed is the challenging schedule Manasquan will use to get ready for tournament play, with this year’s lineup featuring a who’s-who of the state’s best teams, including a Dec. 23 showdown with Roselle Catholic, considered by many to be the No. 1 team in the country.

“We’ve always tried to get the best teams we can get schedule-wise. We’re not afraid to get beat,” Bilodeau said. “Let’s just get ready for February and March. I think the schedule this year is as good as it’s ever been.

“We’re fortunate teams will play us. We’re just a little public school that’s had a lot of good kids and some good fortune.”

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: NJ basketball: Darius Adams, Manasquan 2022-23 season preview