Cardozo senior big man Ryan Rhoomes grabs a rebound. (Kendall Rodriguez)
It didn’t take very long. When Ryan Rhoomes first set foot inside the doors of Cardozo before last season, he and fellow big man Dwayne Brunson became friends almost immediately.
“Me and Dwayne just connected,” the 6-foot-8 senior said.
It’s a friendship that has been very beneficial for the Judges so far and, seemingly, the sky is the limit.
The pair led Cardozo to an impressive 92-57 win against Thomas Edison in a PSAL Queens AA boys basketball game Tuesday afternoon in Jamaica. The two seniors owned the paint, on offense and defense. Rhoomes had 22 points and the 6-foot-7 Brunson had 16 points, including a personal 7-0 run in the third quarter when Edison (5-3, 3-2) cut the Cardozo (4-0, 4-0 Queens AA) lead down to 41-34.
“We feed off their energy,” senior Norfolk State-bound point guard Reynaldo (Junior) Walters said. “We have to ride the bigs all year.”
It wasn’t just that Rhoomes and Brunson controlled the game, it was how. Their passing was on point, whether it was to each other or to the guards on the perimeter. Rhoomes would pass up a short jumper for a Brunson layup and vice versa.
“They always know where each other is,” coach Ron Naclerio said.
But what will make Cardozo a PSAL Class AA city title contender down the road is the play of its guards. Walters and junior Shelton Mickell each had 15 points. Mickell was absolutely lethal late in the game – he didn’t score his first points until he nailed a 3 with 3:37 left in the third quarter.
“If I was a college coach, in the second half I would have been saying ‘Who’s No. 5?’” Naclerio said of Mickell.
Walters has had a rough go of it early this season. He wasn’t shooting well and, coming in, he had seven assists compared to 20 turnovers. Assistant coach Mike Blissett reminded him how poorly former Cardozo guard Trinity Fields, who is now at Iona, started his senior season. Fields also happened to show up to the Bayside school Monday and had a talk with Walters.
“He spoke to me,” Walters said. “Everybody spoke to me. I had to figure it out for myself.”
Naclerio said something similar about figuring out his team. Cardozo has just played four games so far, but this victory against Edison, albeit without senior wing Josh Gray who was rushed to the hospital due to an allergic reaction, was a very impressive one. Inventors coach John Ulmer said the Judges have to be ruled the favorites to win the city title, that this group is better than the ones Naclerio had in 1999 (city title) and 2004 (city runner-up).
“They’re hands down the best team I’ve seen all year,” Ulmer said. “We played Jefferson – they would destroy Jefferson.”
Naclerio isn’t ready to crown his team yet, simply saying, “we could be good.” He touts Cardozo’s depth and size, with guys like 6-foot-7 rebounding machine Marquis Barnett, 6-foot-7 sophomore Victor Reid and 6-foot-4 wings Tajay Henry and Tyrel Hunt. Then there’s guards Chris Gayot, Malcolm Brooks and Shaquille Pearson. The coach said, unlike his previous teams that made the Garden, this one could go 11 or 12 deep.
“We have bigs for days,” Rhoomes said. … “If you have stop one of us, you have to stop all of us.”
There’s also no “all about me” attitude that has been present on Cardozo’s past teams. This group – thus far – has bonded together for the common goal.
“We weren’t together,” Walters said of last year. “We weren’t jelled the way we are now.”
And that’s a scary proposition for the rest of the city.