MONTVALE, NJ: Season's Greetings

Winter 2015 UHoops is here with a few new squads and many new faces. The real question is…Do we have any new contenders?

This season we’ve got two brand new squads – Black Ops and Underdogs. We also have a few re-tooled teams that should be improved from last time around… “Should” being the key word.

Sure, it’s just Week 1, but it’s never too early to stir the pot. First off, how about the so-called new and improved Dream Team? They returned after a season off by grabbing the likes of Chris Brundage and Alexis Drullinsky and don’t seem to have a weak-link on the roster. What do they do? They put up 38 against Just Ball, a team who started off the season with an overhauled roster that didn’t exactly light it up on offense. Still, their 42 was good enough for the W.

How about the Bad Boyz? On paper, they look really good too. The problem seems to be that their full roster never shows up all at once to play. They only had five guys show for the opener! They fell to RUNt, so it was hardly an embarrassment. Still, as was the case for much of last season, the Boyz can’t become real contenders if they continue to play shorthanded.

Now for the newbies. It didn’t look good when the Underdogs went what seemed like the first quarter of the game without registering a point. But they wound up keeping it close against the McNuggets, who got a stud performance from Evan Lampert in his first UHoops contest. A double-double and a beast down low, he was the difference in a low-scoring affair. Do the Underdogs have a chance to make some noise? Well, if not, at least their team name will be fitting.

The other new club, Black Ops, didn’t exactly blow anyone away with their Week 1 performance. The Ferrall Ballerz took them down relatively easily. The Ballerz are back with the same cast of characters – for the most part. Give them the early recruiting award for snagging Dunkin’ Damon Cameron. Yes, he threw one down in his first UHoops game. Not too often we see that around these parts…

In his first interview of the new season, Ferrall sat down with Gary Lew and Mike Barry of Black Ops. Barry wasn’t short of confidence, but he might want to settle down after his team’s performance. Of course, things can always change next week. The fun has just begun.



On a final note, Ferrall brought up Old School and the regional tournament in our video. No, we aren't about to trash Old School again. Let's give the guys a break for a minute. What we would like is for you to check out the awesome coverage from the very-first Northeast Championship.

A lot of fun was had by all, and we're looking forward to seeing who comes out of our league and gets a crack at the competition in a few short months.