Leading off today: Virginia-bound senior
Sylven Landesberg of Holy Cross has been named Mr. New York Basketball. The award that will be presented to him at the state Federation tournament in Glens Falls this weekend.
Landesberg is the career scorer leader at Holy Cross, having gone over the 2,000-point mark while averaging 29.4 points per game this year. The 6-foot-7 swingman helped Holy Cross to its first CHSAA championship in 40 years.
He is in Milwaukee early this week to prepare for Wednesday's McDonald's All-America Game.
Landesberg is the second Holy Cross player to earn the honor. Willie Dersch was recognized as the state's top senior in 1996.
Federation thoughts: I took yesterday off once I realized that columnist Rick Carpiniello of The Journal News had pretty much summed up many of my thoughts about the Federation basketball tournament.
Aside from the usual problems with the event — CHSAA schools waiting until about 10 minutes before their playoffs to determine classes, etc. — Carpiniello came up with another reason to dislike the Federation tourney as he explored why Maria Regina won't be playing this year despite winning the CHSAA's Class B girls championship.
According to Carpiniello, the CHSAA "doesn't like the idea of teams dropping down a level just to win a title. So it decided that it wouldn't send a B rep to the girls Federation this year.
"That was before Maria Regina, a legit B team, won the CHSAA title. And yet, Christ the King, not only a AA school by any standards but a national AA power, which lost the CHSAA Class AA title, will play for the Federation Class A crown.
"And Maria Regina stays home."
Even though this was a rebuilding year at Christ The King, which hovered around .500 all season, having the Royals play in Class A is like Tiger Woods entering a tournament at your neighborhood par-3 course or having the Denver Nuggets drop down to the NCAA Division I tournament if they don't make the NBA playoffs.
