Blog | Sports: The Hot Corner

Considering the Heat and LeBron James have played largely inconsistent in this year’s NBA Finals, the last thing you’d expect to relate the down play to is Long Island. We have North Babylon native and St. Mary’s High School alum Danny Green to thank for that.

Sports media has chronicled his story high and low, especially in the last month as the San Antonio Spurs have had a dominant run through the Western Conference and now face James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh and company. Green, who has started 80 games this season alongside Tony Parker and Tim Duncan, has risen as a key cog for the Spurs.

“Danny is a really good basketball player,” said Roy Williams, Green’s coach at North Carolina. “But he’s even better if he’s around really good players because then he has so many different skills that can blend. He’s a fantastic shooter. Danny’s also the guy that’s going to get you a tip-in, he’s going to get you a blocked shot that nobody else is going to be able to get to. [Spurs coach Greg Popovich] really appreciates all those little things that Danny does.”

Green and James were teammates on the Cavaliers during the 2009-10 season before one was out of the NBA shortly after and one was off to South Beach with a new contract.

Green spent some time in the NBA’s D-League, cut and signed twice by the Spurs, and had a brief stint playing in Slovenia before settling into his own comfort zone eventually with the Spurs full-time.

Now he’s a resilient defender and clutch three-point shooter. His three-point basket with 2:13 in Game 1 was enough to spur San Antonio to victory and catch the eyes of many.

“I had many doubts; I didn’t know where [my career] was going,” Green told the Boston Globe. “Losing confidence was something I dealt with but I had a great support system with my family and they did a good job of keeping me confident to attack this goal. [Game 3] was very surreal, kind of like a dream. I still think it’s a dream but right now I can’t think about it. The last game is the last game.”

Move over Carl Yastrzemski and Craig Biggio, there are 13 new ball players from Long Island schools who were drafted by major league teams this week. Some will go to the minors, some will head to college, and all will remember the day their names popped up on the MLB.com Draft Tracker.

Highlighting the 13 athletes is Bryan Verbitsky, an Island Trees High School alum out of Hofstra University. The Padres made him the 86th overall selection in the third round on Saturday.

He is the ninth player in Hofstra history to be drafted and third in the last four years. As a junior he was 3-4 with a 2.66 ERA in 19 appearances and led the Pride with 51 strikeouts and had just 10 walks. A bullpen pitcher at one point, he ranks second in Hofstra history with 11 career saves.

Verbitsky played in the Cape Cod Baseball League last summer where he was named an All-Star and grabbed considerable attention from area scouts. At Island Trees he was a two-time Diamond Award recipient as the top baseball player in Nassau County. He was also two-time All-New York State, two-time All-Long Island and three-time All-County.

“It was quite a surreal moment to hear my name get called,” said Verbitsky in a release from Hofstra. “My family and I could not be happier. I knew that the Padres were interested in me, but it was still a pleasant surprise to get selected when I did. I want to thank the Padres organization for giving me this opportunity.

“I also want to thank Coach Russo, Coach Haynes, Coach Johns, Coach Colasuonno and all of my Hofstra teammates for all that they have done for me. I would not be in this position without them. I would also like to thank the entire Hofstra University community and fans of Hofstra Baseball. It was great playing right in my backyard and I have many great memories of my three years here.”

The next highest Long Island native drafted was Kyle McGowin, who went at No. 157 in the fifth round to the Los Angeles Angels out of Savannah State. The right-handed pitcher from Sag Harbor’s Pierson High School was the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Pitcher of the Year after finishing with a 1.49 ERA and 12-1 record in 96.1 innings pitched. He also had 111 strikeouts to lead the conference and was ranked No. 6 in the nation.

Also selected out of colleges were Connetquot alum James Lomangino (431, Athletics) out of St. John’s University, Kellenberg alum Kevin McCarthy (474, Royals) out of Marist College, Pat-Med’s Junior Mendez (491, Athletics) out of Southern New Hampshire, Roslyn’s Matt Soren (571, Phillies) out of Delaware, Islip’s Rob Rogers (964, Dodgers) out of Keystone College, and Max Watt (1,103, Red Sox) out of Hillsborough Community College.

There were also four ball players selected out of high school from Long Island: Hills East’s Stephen Woods (188, Rays), Anthony Kay (866, Mets) out of Ward Melville, Joe Palumbo (910, Rangers) out of St. John the Baptist and Matt Vogel (1,080, Diamondbacks) from Pat-Med.

Vogel has already said on Twitter that he is committed to playing at the University of South Carolina and will be draft eligible again in three years.

2013 MLB Draftees connected to Long Island

Pick, Name, Current School, High School
-86, Padres: Bryan Verbitsky: Hofstra University (Island Trees HS)
-157, Angels: Kyle McGowin, Savannah State University (Pierson HS)
-188, Rays: Stephen Woods: Half Hollow Hills East HS
-431, Athletics: James Lomangino: St. John’s University (Connetquot)
-474, Royals: Kevin McCarthy: Marist College (Kellenberg HS)
-491, Athletics: Junior Mendez: Southern New Hampshire (Patchogue-Medford)
-571, Phillies: Matt Soren, University of Delaware (Roslyn HS)
-824, Yankees: Dillon McNamara, Adelphi University (Staten Island native)
-866, Mets: Anthony Kay, Ward Melville HS
-910, Rangers: Joseph Palumbo, St. John the Baptist HS
-964, Dodgers: Rob Rogers, Keystone College (Islip HS)
-1,080, Diamondbacks: Matt Vogel, Patchogue-Medford HS
-1,103, Red Sox: Max Watt, Hillsborough CC (Babylon HS)

It’s not exactly the head coaching position he petitioned for, but he’ll take it. Speedy Claxton has officially returned to the Hofstra men’s basketball program after new head coach Joe Mihalich tabbed him as his new special assistant.

Claxton spent the last two seasons as a college scout with the Golden State Warriors and played in the NBA for a decade. A former first-round draft pick of the Philadelphia 76ers, he won an NBA title with the San Antonio Spurs in 2003.

A 2000 graduate of Hofstra, he is one of six players in school history to score 2,000-plus career points (2,015). He also graduated as the program’s all-time leader in both assists (660) and steals (288), and was a two-time Player of the Year selection in the America East Conference (1998, 2000).

Among Claxton’s other highlights, he was also named the 2000 winner of the Haggerty Award, given to the top player in the Metropolitan New York area, after leading Hofstra to an America East Conference championship and its first NCAA Division I tournament berth in 23 years.

He will begin his Hofstra duties on July 1, according to the school’s Office of Athletic Communications.

So what if Chris Davis hit his major league-leading 16th home run and the Orioles walloped the Blue Jays, 10-6, last Friday night. Seaford native Sean Nolin made his big league debut for the Jays.

It was a slugfest, some of it on behalf of Nolin. The teams combined for 33 hits and 16 runs. Nolin allowed three earned runs before retiring a batter.

He allowed six earned runs on seven hits and one walk.

Nolin played briefly at San Jacinto Junior College before taking his journey to the majors. Interestingly, he was drafted three times by three different teams between 2008-2010: Brewers in 2008 (50th round), Mariners in 2009 (48th round) and Blue Jays in 2010 (6th round).

Nolin is not the only Long Island native affiliated with the Blue Jays. Patchogue-Medford High alum Marcus Stroman is currently pitching in Double-A and is likely headed for a spot on the big league roster at some point this year.

Smithtown’s Rob Pannell and West Babylon’s Alyssa Murray were both named finalists for this year’s men’s and women’s Tewaaraton Trophy, respectively, resented to the top male and female collegiate lacrosse player in the nation.

Pannell, in his fifth year at Cornell after suffering an injury that wiped him out last year during his senior season, is a two-time Tewaaraton finalist.

Murray was recently named BIG EAST Attack Player of the Year at Syracuse and leads the Orange in points with 90 this season. This is her first Tewaaraton nomination.

Pannell Notebook

*Owns the longest point-scoring streak in the nation, having registered at least one point in each of his 69 career games, and he has the most career assists of any active player in Division I men’s lacrosse.

*Pannell set the Cornell record for career points (332) and career assists (193) and is third overall in career goals (139). He is the Ivy League’s all-time points leader and ranks second in conference history in career assists.

*Pannell is just the eighth player in the history of Division I men’s lacrosse to amass 300 career points is currently third overall with 332 points.

Murray Notebook

*She leads the team in points (90) and assists (34) and ranks second in goals (56).

*In the NCAA, Murray ranks sixth in points and 10th in points per game and goals scored.

*Sixth player in school history to record 200 points in her career and ranks fifth on Syracuse’s all-time scoring list with 238 points.

The 13th annual Tewaaraton Award Ceremony will be held May 30 at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC.