Mount Vernon is a Section 1 boys basketball powerhouse, but a 5-3 start has people talking

MOUNT VERNON – Have you heard the whispers?

The quiet conversations began on the sidelines when the basketball season tipped off two months ago and are now commonplace in the bleachers.

“What’s wrong with Mount Vernon?”

This is what happens when a team with a dozen state championships and 34 Section 1 titles goes 5-3 to open the season.

“I don’t think there is anything wrong with that team,” New Rochelle forward Malik Gasper said after the undefeated Huguenots persevered in the closing minutes and posted a 64-60 win Thursday at Mount Vernon.

The Knights are going to be just fine. They beat Harrison over the weekend to give hall-of-game coach Bob Cimmino his 600th career win.

“We have to be patient,” Mount Vernon point guard Tavien Tyler said. “I was taught to be humble and wait, and good things will come to you.”

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It’s not like there’s suddenly a talent void in that one square mile that has produced a legion of collegiate players and sent eight native sons to the NBA. Any talk of a state title run would be wildly premature, but these guys are good enough to add one more gold ball to the collection.

We just don’t know the next generation yet.

Tyler is the lone returning headliner. Of course, the 5-foot-6 dynamo is playing a new role, but he learned to lead under the likes of Dylan Colon and is now a lohud Super 7 player. The Knights got to the Westchester County Center last season, but fell in a Class AA semifinal last year to Scarsdale. There are currently five seniors, seven juniors, two sophomores and one freshman on the roster.

It's an inexperienced group.

Mount Vernon blew a lead and lost to Yorktown in the season-opener, won five in a row against beatable non-league opponents then lost to St. Thomas Aquinas, which is a perennial contender in central New Jersey, and New Rochelle, which is the hottest team in Section 1.

There is some work to be done.

“We’re about halfway there,” Mount Vernon coach Bob Cimmino said. “These last two games, losses teach. Wins give me a false sense of confidence. After the losses, we’ll have their attention. We’ve got to do certain things. We spoke pregame and had some things set up, and in the first half we didn’t execute those. New Rochelle is good, as advertised, and they took advantage.”

The Knights did show growth from half to half, though, dialing up the defense and limited the Huguenots to six field goals after the intermission.

“I feel like once we get up to our potential, we’ll really be very good,” Tyler said. “It’s better to mess up early in the season than it is in February. … I feel the only thing really missing against New Rochelle was the effort on the defensive end. On the offensive end, we’re not bad.”

The rotation is about 10 players deep right now, which is a sure sign Cimmino is looking for productive combinations and challenging his players to step up defensively.

“I just told the fellas I don’t want to sub every 10 seconds because you play better defense but but he plays better offense,” Cimmino added. “Once the playoffs come, the rotations have to shorten. I’d like it to happen sooner than later, but we’re still going to look. We’re challenging them to see who steps up.”

Keep an eye on Nate Edwards, a senior forward who’s hyperactive around the rim and likely to be a fixture in the starting lineup. Dwight Findlay, a 6-foot-4 junior forward, is also expected back from an early-season ankle injury soon and will give Mount Vernon help inside.

"I knew that we graduated a great senior class," Cimmino said. "And these are the COVID seniors who really lost a lot. It’s a great group of young men, but they need to buy in a little more. Instead of watching the NBA, they need to watch college and they need to make layups. And if we get there we’ll be pretty good."

New Rochelle was in this position a year ago.

The inexperienced Huguenots dealt with even more health issues right from the start last season, but posted a number of quality wins and went next level by logging hour after hour in the gym over the spring and summer.

“Mount Vernon is always going to be tough,” New Rochelle coach Rasaun Young said. “That defense is always going to be aggressive. They usually have those players who can really score the basketball. They just have the one right now, but I think they will have it together for the playoffs. That’s when it really counts anyway.”

Mike Dougherty covers boys basketball for The Journal News and lohud.com. Follow along on X/Twitter @lohudhoopsmbd and Instagram @hoopsmbdlohud.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: lohud boys basketball: What's wrong with Mount Vernon this season?