Shore Sports Insider Boys Basketball 2025-26 Preseason Top 10

Shore Sports Insider Boys Basketball Preseason Top 10

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Shore Conference boys basketball has been through an exciting decade with some of the best teams in the conference’s history, not to mention 25 NJSIAA sectional championships in the last 10 state tournaments and five overall NJSIAA Group champions since 2019. Exciting, however, has not meant unpredictable when it comes to the Shore Conference Tournament and, subsequently, the No. 1 ranking in conference Top 10. Between the Shore Sports Insider of the last two seasons and the Shore Sports Network rankings prior to that, you have to go back to the 2015-16 season to find a preseason No. 1 team that did not go on to win the Shore Conference Tournament championship.

In the Shore and around the state, we are in the era of the superteam, and this year’s superteam looks a bit like last year’s super team, only with a different uniform. Christian Brothers Academy has loaded up with three transfers from last year’s St. Rose team, plus a strong nucleus already in place as Brian Lynch takes over after four years spent making St. Rose into a state power.

After CBA, the race for the No. 2 spot and the right to take a shot at the SCT championship in late February will be wide open. Many of the usual suspects will be part of that competition, but there could be some surprises as well, and the Shore could still be in play for at least one overall NJSIAA group title after winning two (Manasquan and Colts Neck) last March. As for a conference champion that is not the No. 1 team on this list: That would be the ultimate surprise.

1. Christian Brothers Academy

In the 2010-11 boys basketball season, CBA entered the Shore Conference Tournament as the No. 1 seed and got bounced in the quarterfinals against a talented Point Pleasant Beach team, ending the Colts’ pursuit of a third straight conference title. The loss was the beginning of a SCT championship drought that enters its 16th season for the 16-time SCT champions, who have been the No. 1 seed in the tournament three times since their last title in 2010, but not since 2016.

That last bit figures to change in 2026, when the Colts will take their deepest team in years into the postseason under Lynch, their former star player and a member of CBA’s last state championship team. In four years at St. Rose, Lynch led the Purple Roses to three NJSIAA South Jersey Non-Public B  championships, back-to-back Shore Conference titles in 2024 and 2025, and an overall state championship accompanied by the No. 1 ranking in the state in 2025.

This year’s CBA team effectively combines eight players from the two 2025 Shore Conference Tournament finalists: five returning rotation players from last year’s runner-up CBA team and three of St. Rose’s top seven players from last year’s SCT championship team that beat CBA in the final. There is no four-star prospect like Jayden Hodge was for St. Rose, but CBA’s depth has a chance to overwhelm the rest of the Shore Conference if Lynch can successfully turn the two sides into a cohesive unit like the one he coached in Belmar for the last three seasons.

2. Manasquan

It would not be a Manasquan boys basketball season without a little bit of adversity heading into the year, or in this case, a lot of adversity. Graduating four-year starter and two-time Group II champion Griffin Linstra was enough of a mountain to climb to begin with, but the summit got much higher when junior guard and 2025 All-Shore First-Team guard Rey Weinseimer underwent surgery on his knee that will likely keep him out for the entire season. On top of the injury to Weinseimer, 6-foot-7 forward Logan Cleveland is recovering from an ankle injury and will miss the start of the season.

So, you ask: how is Manasquan still ranked No. 2? The answer comes down to a number of factors, but ultimately, the Warriors under coach Andrew Bilodeau have the most consistent program in the Shore Conference. Even when the Warriors lack next-level talent, they still have talent and know what to do with it. This year’s team will have to get it done with defense, but some way or another, they will probably get it done because that’s what Manasquan does.

3. Rumson-Fair Haven

If there is a challenger to Manasquan’s perch as the Shore’s top public school team, it remains Rumson-Fair Haven, whose pursuit of a championship has been foiled by Manasquan many times over the last eight years, with the exception of the one season in which the two teams were in different NJSIAA Groups (2022). This year could be yet another collision course between the two Group II contenders in Central Jersey, who met in Manasquan in each of the last two sectional championship games.

This year, Rumson will get two regular-season cracks at the Warriors and will be taking those shots with a new coach, who is hardly new to coaching. George Sourlis coached the girls program at Rumson for 30 seasons and spent the past three as the boys coach at Red Bank, which won 20-plus games in each of the past two seasons. Senior 6-foot-9 wing Luke Cruz leads the team and is motivated to get the Bulldogs over the hump after starting each of the last two championship losses to Manasquan.

4. Jackson

Last season was a disjointed one for the Jaguars in their final official year as Jackson Memorial. Now Jackson Township after the merger of Memorial and Jackson Liberty, the Jaguars are hoping that a full season of their senior-laden roster will be the formula for the program’s best season in program history. Senior guard George Boley sat the first 30 days of the 2024-25 season as a transfer, but will be on the court from the opening tip this season. Senior Randy Holmes Jr. returns from a knee injury that sidelined him for the better part of six months. Ocean County will have other contenders for the county’s top spot, but none have the combination of established top talent and depth that the Jaguars have riding into Friday’s opener at home against Lacey.

5. Southern

Jackson will be looking over its shoulder at Southern all year now that the two rivals are back in the same division. The Rams return a duo in senior Jake Sliwinski and junior Noah Perna who combined to average better than 35 points during a 16-win season a year ago. One of those 16 wins was a home win over Jackson prior to Boley gaining eligibility, so there is already familiarity between the two teams that figure to battle for the top spot in Class A South. If Southern prevails, it will be on the collective back of a deep junior class that will attempt to best Jackson’s senior-stacked roster.

6. Freehold Township

The rigors of the season challenged Freehold Township in 2024-25 and forced a talented sophomore class to assume a lion’s share of the responsibility. By the time the NJSIAA Tournament started, it was clear the Patriots had a promising class on their hands. Freehold Township reached the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group IV semifinals with a junior-heavy group that returns for a two-year run that the Patriots would like to end with their first championship since winning Central Jersey Group IV in 2019. Former championship coach Brian Golub returns to the sideline, this time as an assistant to his former assistant, Todd Smith, as Smith embarks on his third and most exciting season as Monday’s opening night against Red Bank Catholic approaches.

7. Holmdel

Whether it is a small, skilled guard-heavy team of basketball junkies or a team of two-sport athletes moonlighting as basketball players, Sean Devaney’s team is going to be a hard team to play. This year’s team is more the latter than the former, with two Division I pitchers (Jack Vallillo and Dylan Zammit), an FCS quarterback (Jack Cannon) and his sophomore receiver (Anthony Serini) and an All-Shore fullback in soccer (Connor Paul) comprising the starting five heading toward opening night. The Hornets have reached back-to-back SCT quarterfinals with two very different teams and look poised to make a run at three straight with yet another style change on tap.

8. Wall

Last year was a return to championship form for Wall, which rolled to a Class B Central championship as part of a 21-win season. There will be some talent to replace, but most of last year’s top contributors are back, namely the trio of point guard Liam Killea, two-way standout Brian McKenna and slashing guard Dan Hennessy. With those three varsity mainstays leading the way, Wall will attempt to finish at the top of a deeper, tougher Class A Central division while priming itself for a run at the Central Jersey Group II championship – a pursuit that ended with a loss to Manasquan in the sectional semifinals last season.

9. Marlboro

Coming off a losing season, Marlboro took its lumps in 2024-25, some of them probably literal. Injuries threw the Mustangs out of whack at different points of the season, which made navigating a challenging schedule an even more daunting task that it already would have been with a young roster. Now on the other side, Marlboro has a deep, skilled, balanced roster with players who are now juniors and seniors ready to challenge for their first division championship since the legendary 2022 team that fell just short of playing in the final Tournament of Champions ever. While the ceiling is not that high, it is high enough that Marlboro could be an under-the-radar candidate to challenge for the Shore’s top public school spot.

10. Red Bank Catholic

Most of St. Rose’s potential returning players from the 2024-25 team migrated to CBA, but RBC managed to attract one of the more intriguing players on the Purple Roses roster from a year ago. Junior Tyler Hager is an athletic, 6-foot-7 forward who is also a standout baseball player, which made RBC an appealing landing spot for him. Hager will fit in well with RBC’s guard-heavy roster of players who were mostly first-year varsity players a year ago and figure to be significantly better after learning from year one.

 

The Next 10

Point Pleasant Beach – The Garnet Gulls will go six deep, which was enough to make them a dangerous Group I team a year ago and should make them an even greater threat with an older, more experienced team this time around.

Howell – Two year-long starters return for Howell, and they are two of the hardest type of players to find: a skilled point guard (Cayden Parker) and a legitimate big man (Noah Musto).

Middletown South – The Eagles also bring back a lead guard (Matt Trimble) and a 6-foot-6 big man (Beckett Oliver) to go with a freshman duo prepared to make an immediate impact in the starting five.

Central – Only one starter returns from Central’s best team ever, but the sixth man from that team was Elijah Reeder, a 6-foot-7 Iowa State football commit who now joins returning junior Derek Roth in the starting five.

Ranney – The Panthers will have to overcome the lack of a true big man (other than on their coaching staff) but they can light it up from three, and senior Shaan Nayar returns as one of the Shore’s best guards.

Brick Memorial – Two key players (Jason Lajara and Nyzier Matthews) from Brick Memorial’s outstanding, sectional championship football team headline an experienced Mustangs roster, which also boasts a pure hooper in Sean Collins as a lengthy, talented wing.

Point Pleasant Boro – The Panthers have one of the Shore’s top gunners in Hunter Hynes and will feature a nice mix of youthful talent and varsity experience around him.

Manalapan – The return of junior Joe Farino from College Achieve will boost Manalapan’s lineup in January. In the meantime, point guard Dean Aviles will lead the way after his breakout junior year in 2024-25.

St. Rose – It will look much different than it has for the last three years, but St. Rose still has a group of players good enough to win on most nights, led by fourth-year varsity player and second-year starter Tyler Cameron.

Toms River North – The Mariners are eyeing a return to the top of a Shore Conference division after a rare down season in 2024-25 landed them in Class B South for this year.