With the prevalence of charter schools live Thrive Charter and College Achieve Asbury Park in basketball, as well as public schools that draw students from outside their traditional geographical boundaries, the NJSIAA created a success formula, that moves team up in Group size for playoff qualification. And now, Middlesex County has seen its first team be affected by the new rule, as the Colonia boys' basketball program - which has won five straight sectional titles and six of the last seven - is moving up to Group 4.

After a third straight sectional championship in Central Jersey Group 4, and a second straight trip to the Group 4 state finals, Montgomery boys' basketball coach Kris Grundy has been honored with the John Wooden Legacy Award, given annually to one boys' and girls' coach in every state. It's from the New Jersey and National High School Basketball Coaches association in conjunction with the John Wooden Family and the Wooden Foundation.

Losing a guy like ace pitcher Casey Cumiskey or Will Buchan, both of whom were among Spotswood's best hitters a season ago, is tough for any team. But they're not all the Chargers lost to graduation after the 2025 season. Six players with 40 ore more at bats are gone from the lineup, and only one - Leo Carone, who only had 14 at bats - hit over .300 on the year.

Basketball is a team sport, but without Ethan Lin, it's highly likely Montgomery isn't Central Jersey Group 4 champions three years running. The smart, skilled, and unflappable point guard was the Central Jersey Sports Radio Somerset County Boys' Basketball Player of the Year in 2024-25, and now he's repeated the feat in 2025-26. Last season, he was coming off a horiffic broken leg injury that truncated his sophomore season.

First came the recognition from the league's coaches, now from everyone else. Or at least, in this case, Central Jersey Sports Radio, which has named East Brunswick' Travis Retzlaff its GMC Girls' Coach of the Year for 2025-26. The Bears had a special season, winning 23 games, its best season since Keith Lane's squad went 22-4 a decade ago and won the GMC Tournament championship.

Someone will always complain about something - a seed, a snow day - but on the whole, things seemed to go quite swimmingly these last few weeks in the state tournaments for the NJSIAA. After some hot controversies over the last couple of years, it's welcome news. There was Manasquan-Camden's controversial ending in basketball two seasons ago, then the Anthony Knox wrestling saga last season.

The 2024-25 girls' basketball season hurt for Rutgers Prep, and then-junior Ava LaMonica. There was no division title - at least not outright - they got knocked out of the Somerset County Tournament by her hometown public school of Hillsborough, and lost to eventual Non-Public B group champion Gloucester Catholic in the South B finals. That wasn't want LaMonica was used to her first two years at the Somerset school.

A year ago, St. Joseph boys' basketball was a mess. Karl Towns, Sr. - the father of Falcon great Karl-Anthony Towns, who brought the Metuchen school a Tournament of Champions title in 2014 - was on his way out after a disastrous 6-16 season, where he barely coached the team, and seemed to spend more time watching his famous son play at Madison Square Garden after being traded from Minnesota to the Knicks.

When high school basketball teams open their preseason, hitting the gym in earnest for the first time, they can set all kinds of different goals. For most with high-end aspirations, there are four main ones: win the division, win the county, win a sectional, win a state championship. In 2025-26, it was check, check, check, and check one more time for…

Sure, the Rutgers Prep girls' basketball team won 20 games last year, but it still wasn't up to Mary Klinger's standards. The coach calls the regular season the "preseason." A division title is nice, but the county and state tournaments are the goals. Win those, and it's a good year for the Argonauts. In 2025, they won neither. But this year, with much of the same crew back, the Argonauts returned to their familiar spot as Somerset County Tournament champions, and finish the year No.

This season, the Colonia boys' basketball team went further than any other Patriot team in program history in the state tournament, all the way to the state finals at Rutgers for the first time in eleven previous sectional championship season. But they will have to wait one more year for a chance to take it one step further and win it all.

Despite a 20-point game from Penn-bound senior Ethan Lin, Central 4 champion Montgomery lost 49-40 to North 2, Group 4 Champion Plainfield in the NJSIAA state Group 4 title game. It was Plainfield's second straight state championship. Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel call all the play-by-play from Rutgers University's Jersey Mike's Arena in Piscataway on March 14, 2026.

North 2, Group 3 champion Colonia got 27 points from sophomore Jayce Rodriguez - including 14-of-14 from the foul line, all in the second half - and another 20 from senior Dylan Chiera, as the Patriots beat North 1, Group 3 champion Montville in the Group 3 state semifinals. The win sends Colonia to the state Group 3 finals for the first time ever, where they will take on Ocean City at Rutgers.

The Colonia boys' basketball program made history Wednesday night, but there's still some more ink in the pen, and more to write. The Patriots' 67-57 win over Montville sent them to the state finals for the first time ever. And now, a program that has won eleven sectional trophies - six of which have come under current head coach Jose Rodriguez - will look to claim its first state championship when it plays Sunday in the NJSIAA Group 3 final at Rutgers University's Jersey Mike's Arena in Piscataway.

If you ever want this reporter to go down a rabbit hole, ask him a question he doesn't know the answer to. Then again, sometimes you don't even have to ask. The Gill St. Bernard's boys' basketball team won its first-ever state title Thursday night when the Knights beat Holy Cross Prep of Delran 39-28 at Jersey Mike's Arena at Rutgers University, and may have made a little history in the process besides picking up that first state championship trophy.

In the lowest scoring game in a non-public state final in at least 27 years, North B champion Gill St. Bernard's topped South B champ Holy Cross Prep 39-38 to win its first-ever state title. Sophomore Connor Junker finished with 14 points in the win, while senior Dorsett Mulcahy added 13, and Prosper Sonkua had four blocks. Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel call all the play-by-play from Jersey Mike's Arena at Rutgers University in Piscataway on March 12, 2026.

North champion The Gill St. Bernard's girls' basketball team got a combined 28 points from the Platt sisters - 15 from senior Addy, and 13 from junior Kaity - in a 62-39 loss to South champ Gloucester Catholic in the Non-Public Group B state final. It was the second straight and second overall title for the Rams. Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel call all the play-by-play from Jersey Mike's Arena at Rutgers University in Piscataway on March 12, 2026.

At the end of the day, throw the seeds out, and just look at where the two teams playing in Saturday's Group 4 state boys' basketball title game rank statewide. Montgomery was a three-seed in its Central Jersey Group 4 playoff section, and beat top-seed Hillsborough in overtime to win it. Plainfield was a four-seed in North 2, Group 4 and had to beat a higher seed as well - Linden, the two - to win the title.

Central 4 champion Franklin couldn't find its shot, and fell to South 4 champion Lenape 54-35 in the state Group 4 semifinals. The Warriors were led by Nola Bright, who narrowly missed a double-double with ten points and nine rebounds. Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel call all the play-by-play from Deptford High School on March 10, 2026.

Central 4 champion Montgomery got a career high 23 points and some big blocks from Shriyans Mallavarapu and a game-high 28 points from Mike Simborski - both sophomores - as the Cougars beat South 4 champion Cherry Hill East in the Group 4 state semifinals. The win sends Montgomery back to the state Group 4 championship game against Plainfield for the second year in a row. Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel call all the play-by-play from Deptford High School on March 10, 2026.

Lisa Gedaka, the head coach in her 37th year at Gloucester Catholic, had 760 wins coming into Thursday's Non-Public Group B girls' title game. But coming into last year, the Rams had never won a sectional title. Well, now they have two, and two state titles as well, as they beat Gill St. Bernard's 62-39 Tuesday night in the state finals at Rutgers' Jersey Mike's Arena in Piscataway - in a game heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio - led by 22 points from senior Jahzara Green, and 13 from junior Amanda Eggers, who also had four treys.