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Post by bartmitchell on May 13, 2020 11:21:29 GMT -5
Tom Konchalski has retired at73. Those of us of a certain age will know Konchalski as a guy who has scouted h.s. Basketball for the benefit of college coaches and fans for almost 40 years. He was old school, working without cell phone or computer, typing up his reports which went to hundreds of subscribing coaches in its hey-day.
Konchalski is a link between the ‘60’s and ‘70’s, when recruiting was still a game of ‘secrets’, ‘undiscovered’ kids, word of mouth, etc. Yea, some skullduggery, but mostly the kind coaches eventually could laugh about over a drink. Still a lot of secrets, hiding kids and slight of hand, but not the payola and dirt of the last 30 some-odd years for the top 100-200.
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Post by faffy444 on May 13, 2020 11:53:33 GMT -5
speaking of hiding kids didnt WEISE allegedly hide GLENN PRICE? perhaps one of the senior posters could respond.
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Post by az63 on May 13, 2020 12:58:40 GMT -5
I had a reason to call Tom in the late '80s when I was living in Denver. I was trying to help a business associate whose son was a point guard at Cherry Creek HS. I got Tom's # from my longtime friend Vinny Cannizzaro (former Christ The King girls' hoops coach). When I called and introduced myself he said "sure, I remember you. You coached at St. Andrew's (7th & 8th-grade boys) and you guys played for the Diocesan Championship in '71. The starting 5 on your team were ......" and he proceeded to name all 5 plus 3 others on the team - off the top of his head, 18-19 years later!!! He had notes on every kid who ever played ball in the Metro area. Quite a guy.
BTW, he could not help the kid I called about because he only did that for kids he had seen in person.
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Post by fjs64 on May 13, 2020 13:04:51 GMT -5
I had a reason to call Tom in the late '80s when I was living in Denver. I was trying to help a business associate whose son was a point guard at Cherry Creek HS. I got Tom's # from my longtime friend Vinny Cannizzaro (former Christ The King girls' hoops coach). When I called and introduced myself he said "sure, I remember you. You coached at St. Andrew's (7th & 8th-grade boys) and you guys played for the Diocesan Championship in '71. The starting 5 on your team were ......" and he proceeded to name all 5 plus 3 others on the team - off the top of his head, 18-19 years later!!! He had notes on every kid who ever played ball in the Metro area. Quite a guy. BTW, he could not help the kid I called about because he only did that for kids he had seen in person. Nice story. Can't wait to hear some stories from WGT on Tom.
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chazzie
Sophomore Member
Posts: 155
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Post by chazzie on May 13, 2020 15:51:24 GMT -5
Glenn Price lived next to me in Shay, back in the day. I had Glenn stand in the hallway to block the view one time when I had my own “inter-visitation” ...not a co-Ed.
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Post by fortytwo on May 13, 2020 17:03:10 GMT -5
Glenn Price lived next to me in Shay, back in the day. I had Glenn stand in the hallway to block the view one time when I had my own “inter-visitation” ...not a co-Ed.
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Post by fortytwo on May 13, 2020 17:07:03 GMT -5
Lived on First Shay also with Glen's roomie "Cookie Man" Murray and also on the floor also from Scranton Billy Jenkins. Alas Jenks had a love back home and left after one year. All pretty grounded and smooth guyz.
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Post by wgt on May 13, 2020 22:16:44 GMT -5
az63's account of his phone call to Tom is further testimony to KONCHALSKI's incredible memory and attention to detail. For decades he has been acclaimed by top college coaches for his knowledge of the game, ability to assess talent, sincere interest in players and immediate recall of players he watched play over the years. About 7 years ago I had the opportunity/honor to meet him at the "Rumble in the Bronx" with his yellow legal pad in hand. That tourney is played at various venues in the Bronx, Manhattan & lower Westchester County. This day it was on the East River off the FDR drive. As I walked in I bumped into Dave Moore who was heading down to Philly. I approached TOM & introduced myself as having played (actually observed from the bench) at La Salle Academy (NYC) in 62, when he was just starting to cover HS city hoops. He immediately named our two best players Val Reid 6'9" (Cuse) and Chris Chimera 6' PG (Princeton) & that we won the NYC Championship before Power Memorial dominated the next 3 seasons. He recalled they were first team "All City" along with Alcindor, Willie Wolters (BC & Supersonics) and Sony Dove (St John's). INCREDIBLE! It would not surprise me if he knew that Billy Kenville went to La Salle Academy but never played HS ball before his Bona & NBA careers. That fact still stuns me! TOM'S recall of everything he saw on the hard wood is hard to believe. As Bart Mitchell points out, recruiting has changed dramatically from a time when Top schools would take a kid SOLELY on Tom's recommendation without ever seeing the kid play. That's how highly regarded he was. I was delighted to have met him on that one occasion. I can't remember the kid I went to see that Bona had interest in at the time but I will never forget TOM KONCHALSKI. He had a priest like demeanor. Being a daily communicant at his Queens parish most likely nurtured that persona. Tonight, I'll probably wake up recalling the name of that Bona recruit. His insight on NYC hoops is detailed in this interview last January. There will never be anyone like him. www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmhFx91H80sRemembered it was Rich Williams from Transit Tech Voc HS I went to see. He had a nice career at Manhattan College where I saw him play a few times. 15 ppg, 43% treys, 44% FGs & 78% FTs.
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Post by derhut on May 14, 2020 6:07:24 GMT -5
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Post by az63 on May 14, 2020 11:30:01 GMT -5
wgt, thanks for the video - great stuff about a very special man.
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Post by derhut on May 14, 2020 11:42:19 GMT -5
upon further review...i think jenkins was at sbu for at least 3 years...as i recall...jenkins, murray, wally shafer and slim price were all in the same recruiting class. i think that jenkins, murray and shafer quit hoops prior to their senior seasons. this coincided with weise stepping down and satts taking over the head coaching position.
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Post by faffy444 on May 14, 2020 11:46:14 GMT -5
GLENN PRICE is an underrated bona star. really consistent player for 3 years. none of the other 3 guys of that recruiting class were D1 caliber players.
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Post by 123Rob on May 14, 2020 12:28:42 GMT -5
Many moons ago, recruiting news came from Eastern Basketball, dial in, pay by the minute phone recordings, and The HSBI Report. I used to get copies of the HSBI report from a friend of a friend in coaching. Konchalski's blurbs on players were always fun to read. Typed (and he wasn't a great typist), concise breakdowns often brutality frank re players weaknesses.
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Post by derhut on May 14, 2020 14:14:22 GMT -5
123 rob..funny you mention this stuff....when elloyna tiny green twitter.com/CoachTinyGreen?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthorwas an assistant at sbu...there was a bona recruiting page on Rivals.com or the insiders report sites.google.com/site/rscihoops/home/the-experts from 20-25 years ago. the site was moderated by Russ Blake ...several long time bandwagoneers were on there..coach green would regularly engage in verbal spats with die hard bona fans on the site...it was hilarious...and a bit unprofessional...often times, the parents of bona recruiting targets would hop on the site and dig for info on the team and school...ex bonnie dr ray floriani was a long time writer for eastern basketball...dark ages !
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Post by sony on May 14, 2020 19:38:50 GMT -5
Tom was the log time protege of Howie Garfinkel, the legendary scout and founder of the very successful Five Star Basketball Camps! They were practically inseparable, so much so, early on I thought they were father & son! I was always impressed that he never touted a kid he hadn’t personally seen.
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