{"id":623,"date":"2011-03-11T19:18:32","date_gmt":"2011-03-12T00:18:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/?p=623"},"modified":"2011-03-11T19:18:32","modified_gmt":"2011-03-12T00:18:32","slug":"boys-basketball-player-of-the-year-mhs%e2%80%99-mccoy-grew-into-bigger-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/archives\/623\/","title":{"rendered":"Boys Basketball Player of the Year – MHS\u2019 McCoy grew into bigger role"},"content":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.centraljersey.com\/articles\/2011\/03\/11\/athlete\/doc4d794dd1d621d502486301.txt<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

On a bus ride home after a tough loss two years ago, Kris Grundy decided it was time to turn his team over to Ryan McCoy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201dWhen he was a sophomore we tried different players at that position and after we lost to Franklin in the county tournament and had just been turning the ball over too much, I turned to coaches and said, \u2018We\u2019re making Ryan our point guard,\u2019\u201d Grundy recalled. \u201cAs a sophomore he grew into it. His junior year he was our point guard all season. It was just a feeling we got from watching him play that he could handle the position.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0McCoy not only handled that position for two years, but when called upon handled many others for the Cougars. At 6-foot-7 he creates plenty of problems for opposing teams as a point guard. But he also had the ability to go inside when needed.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201dAfter our last game on the bus ride back I told the other coaches we\u2019re not going to realize how good Ryan was until next season when he is not around,\u201d Grundy said of the MHS senior, who will be heading to Manhattan College to play next year. \u201cHe did everything for us. He was our best scorer, best rebounder, best assist guy, best steals guy and best shot blocker. He did it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This season McCoy finished as the Cougars\u2019 leading scorer, averaging 14.1 points per game. In addition, he was also the team leader in assists (4.8 per game), rebounds (10.9 per game), blocks (5.2 per game) and steals (2.5 per game).<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Ryan McCoy is the Princeton Packet Boys Basketball Player of the Year.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201dLast year I was more of just a point guard and bringing the ball up and distributing,\u201d said McCoy, who helped the Cougars to the Central Jersey Group IV championship as a junior. \u201cThis year I was looked at more to be the main scorer. Last year I scored, but I wasn\u2019t the main look-to guy. This year was a different role. I had to do more rebounding and I was the big man now because we didn\u2019t have the height we had last year.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201dIn college I\u2019ll be playing more outside like I did last year. I think playing in the post some this year helped me develop some skills and improved my rebounding. I just tried to do whatever is needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0McCoy benefited from being in a high school program where the coaches didn\u2019t look at a 6-foot-4 freshman and immediately send him to the low post. Grundy and his staff noticed right away there was something unique about McCoy and the way he played the game.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201dWhen he was a freshman and 6-foot-4 he started a couple games at end of the year,\u201d Grundy recalled. \u201cMidway through the year he became a varsity player and you could tell in practice he had a high basketball IQ and that he could really handle the basketball. At the time we had Kevin Tarca at point guard. We knew when Kevin graduated we would struggle for a point guard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But after that bus ride back from Franklin, the Cougars\u2019 point guard woes were under control.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201dHe is the best pure passer I have had the opportunity to coach,\u201d Grundy said. \u201cBeing 6-7, he is a phenomenal passer. He can see the floor so well. There were so many times we as coaches marveled at passes he would make. He would thread the needle and make passes when as coaches we didn\u2019t think a kid was open. He is the type of player that spoils you when he is around.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201dLast year he was content being the primary point guard and giving the ball to James (Loupos), giving the ball inside to Josh (Prevost), and scoring when we needed him to. This year he knew he would have to be the point guard as well as score. He knew his responsibilities would be greater.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0McCoy certainly lived up to those responsibilities, helping Montgomery to a 15-11 record and a Skyland Conference Raritan Division championship.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201dI thought it was a pretty good year,\u201d McCoy said. \u201cWe won the conference for the second year in a row, which is a big deal. I wish we would have gone further in states, but we played every team tough against a tough schedule.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201dI like playing the better teams. It\u2019s more fun. We played a tougher out of conference schedule this year and that made us a better team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Having McCoy to go along with the outside scoring punch of Matt Mignon made the Cougars a tough team to beat.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201dHe\u2019s a matchup nightmare,\u201d Grundy said of the problems McCoy creates for a defense. \u201cHe is a guard we can put in the post and a big who can go outside. He presents so many matchup problems for teams. We didn\u2019t want to limit Ryan. There were games he felt comfortable in the post. In practice he would go 10 minutes with the guards and 10 minutes with the bigs.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201dWith him you have to go beyond the numbers. He\u2019s a point guard who leads our team in blocks and steals. He runs himself ragged on the court. His points per game are 14.1, but he does so much more than that for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Next year he\u2019ll be doing what he does for Manhattan College. But he leaves Montgomery having helped the program grow.<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201dWhen we were freshmen we won our first state game in a long time and it was a big deal back then,\u201d said McCoy, who played his AAU ball for Team NJABC. \u201cBut now the expectations are higher. We\u2019re not happy with winning just one state game. We want to win the states like we did last year.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201dWe had nine seniors, which is not common. They all stayed with the program. A lot of us have been together since fourth grade and we\u2019ve played travel together. It seems strange that I won\u2019t be playing with them anymore.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.centraljersey.com\/articles\/2011\/03\/11\/athlete\/doc4d794dd1d621d502486301.txt On a bus ride home after a tough loss two years ago, Kris Grundy decided it was time to turn his team over to Ryan McCoy. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201dWhen he was a sophomore we tried different players at that position and after we lost to Franklin in the county tournament and had just been turning the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":624,"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623\/revisions\/624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}