Morris upset at possibility St. Joe's Prep may be excluded from Class AAAA City Title game

THERE'S REGULAR fuming, and then there's the William "Speedy" Morris version.

Morris, St. Joseph's Prep's basketball coach, was livid Thursday afternoon upon learning that his Hawks might not represent the Catholic League in next week's game (M.L. King will be the Public League's representative) to decide the Class AAAA City Title.

"It's moronic. Idiotic. How the hell can that happen?" he said. "Tell me, what possible sense does that make?

"There's always talk about 'Only in the Pub.' This is 'Only in the Catholic League.' "

The CL, according to basketball moderator Joe Sette, has a power-points system based on average, not the total number.

The Prep defeated Roman, 57-50, in a CL semifinal at the Palestra, thus raising its average in the complicated system to 14.3. Roman's fell to 14.2. However, the Prep's upcoming game against Ss. Neumann-Goretti - Monday night, 8:15, at the Palestra for the overall CL title - will count in the average. If the Prep loses, it's number will fall to 13.4.

"I love Roman. That's my school," said Morris, an alumnus and a wildly successful coach there for 14 seasons ending in 1981. "But we have the same record in Catholic League play (13-2) and we just beat them in a playoff game. Right is right. This isn't. It's not fair.

"Listen, we're going to do our best to try to beat Neumann. The Catholic League is the most important thing, not this PIAA stuff. But Roman doesn't deserve to be the AAAA champ."

The Hawks fell to Roman in the regular season. That game was played at Roman, where the three-point line meets the sideline roughly halfway down the lane.

"You know what?" Morris said. "That gym is illegal. If playing in there is going to cost a team, maybe they should think about not letting them play games in there anymore."