Consortium Closes In on Fantastic Finish

March 20, 2014

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

EAST LANSING – The memory of coach Al Anderson is not far from Detroit Consortium as it attempts to win its first MHSAA boys basketball championship this weekend.

The Cougars just missed making it to Breslin Center in 2013, falling to eventual Class C champion Flint Beecher by two in their Quarterfinal. But Consortium is now one more win from finishing the quest it began when Anderson died unexpectedly last February.

Three players scored 18 or more points as the Cougars downed Negaunee 69-54 in Thursday’s Semifinal to advance to Saturday’s 4:30 p.m. championship game against Pewamo-Westphalia.

Consortium, ranked No. 2 at the end of the regular season, has now beaten the rest of the top three this week, having downed top-ranked Mount Clemens on Tuesday before eliminating the No. 3 Miners.

“We knew we had to win for (Anderson last year). We came back playing harder, with more intensity, just playing as a team,” Consortium senior Ronald Booth said. “We were heart-broken last year not getting it done. But we’re here this year, and we plan on finishing it.”

“We’ve been fighting for this state championship for the last four years,” senior Malik Dawson added, “and we’re going to win it.”

Although Consortium (24-2) is playing in its first MHSAA Final on Saturday, the Semifinal was its second in four seasons and followed its third Quarterfinal over the last four years.

Former Deaborn Edsel Ford standout Tobias Tuomi took over the Consortium program this winter and inherited not only arguably the state’s best player – 6-foot-8 sophomore wing Joshua Jackson – but a group of scorers around him that have made the Cougars even tougher to stop.

Jackson had 18 points, seven rebounds, four assists and five steals Thursday. But sophomore guard Luster Johnson added 20 points and senior Rudy Smith scored a game-high 22 points with five rebounds, three assists and three steals.

“We needed to really keep the other guys down. You look at Rudy Smith, Luster Johnson, that killed us,” Negaunee coach Michael O’Donnell said. “We needed to keep everybody else (but Jackson) under 10. When they got up to 20 plus, that was a big hurt for us.”

Consortium led only 12-11 after the first quarter. But the Cougars turned that lead into nine points halfway through the second quarter and 14 by halftime.

They shot 54 percent from the floor for the game, with an incredible 65 percent success rate during the second half.

It matched with what Consortium has done all season. Booth, Smith and Johnson also average at least 10 points per game, and eight players have had high games of at least that many points.

“We’ve had six or seven guys all year, pretty consistently,” Tuomi said of his team’s scoring balance. “Josh will be up there as one of our leading scorers, but we’ve got seven or eight really talented guys, and all of them have had a game where they’ve been the leading or second-leading scorers. It’s something you expect.”

Negaunee (24-2) has been a picture of consistency as well over the last four seasons, making the Quarterfinals at the end of all of them and the Semifinals the last two.

Senior guard Tyler Jandron was a constant on those teams and finished his four-year varsity career with 12 points. Senior Eric Lori, another top scorer on the last couple Miners teams, had 11 points. Sophomore forward Jay Lori led with 14 points and seven rebounds.

“We started something. Just getting here, making it twice, is unbelievable,” Jandron said. “But it’s tough losing this. I want to push myself to the limit, and tonight we came up short.

“We talked to our underclassmen about what these seniors did for us, and we’re going to miss them,” O’Donnell added. “At the same time, we wanted to take the time to thank them and make sure they understand we appreciate what they did for us.”

Click for the full box score and video from the press conference

PHOTO: (Top) Detroit Consortium’s Joshua Jackson (11) dunks as Negaunee’s Robert Loy gives chase Thursday. (Middle) Negaunee's Tyler Jandron looks for an opening while defended by Consortium's Rudy Smith.

HIGHLIGHTS: (1) Joshua Jackson blocks the shot, Detroit Consortium goes on the fast break and Kenneth Turner lobs to Jackson for the dunk to finish the play late in the first half. (2) Jay Lori of Negaunee takes a pass from Zane Radloff and powers to the basket for two to pull the Miners to within a point at the end of the first quarter.

Lumen Christi Building Toward Banner Aspirations under Tropea's Guidance

By Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com

March 26, 2024

Among the first things Josh Tropea noticed when he took the boys basketball coaching job at Jackson Lumen Christi were all the state championship banners.

Greater DetroitNot for boys basketball, but for multiple other sports.

“I’m a confident coach, confident in my abilities and knowledge,” Tropea said. “You have to have some self-confidence to come in here when there are 54 state championships in other sports and none in basketball.”

Tropea wants to change that. In his second year at the Jackson County school, he came close, getting the Titans to the Division 3 Quarterfinals. The Regional title was the program’s first since 2013. He feels, however, the foundation has been set for what he thinks will be a bright future.

“We are super deep,” Tropea said. “Our freshman class is very good, the eighth-grade class is very good. We have talent coming for years. I believe we will have the ability to play for state championships in the future. We were there this year, I think.”

Tropea has made a habit of resurrecting programs during his coaching career.  The South Lyon native started at Walled Lake Western while still in college. He had brief coaching stints at Whitmore Lake and Howell before settling in at Milan, where he built that school into a Class B powerhouse, winning the Finals championship in 2013-14 and going 92-27.

Lumen players, including Lundon Hampton (23) apply defensive pressure.He left Milan for a job at Chelsea, did that for a couple of seasons and left to become an assistant coach at Spring Arbor University. He came back to Chelsea for two seasons before resigning and landing at Lumen Christi two years ago.

The Titans have had moderate success over the years, winning several conference and District titles and six Regional championships in all. They have just one trip to the Semifinals, that coming back in 1975. In 2016 the Titans fell on hard times, winning just once and starting a seven-year span of failing to reach .500 once.

Enter Tropea and an 11-win improvement from 3-18 in 2021-22 to 14-10 last season.

This year’s team went 22-5 and became just the seventh in school history to win 20 games in a season.

There were several big moments, and the Lumen Christi gym was packed night in and night out.

“I told people when I got here that I’ll know I’m successful when I can pack this gym. It seats about 3,500,” Tropea said. “When we walked out of the locker room to play Hanover-Horton in the Regional, every seat in the gym was filled. Where there weren’t bleachers, there were people standing. It was unbelievable. In the second half of the game, you couldn’t hear. Everything had to be communicated through hand signals. That was a huge moment. My players may never play in front of anything like that again in their lives.”

Lumen Christi has been a football powerhouse for decades, and Tropea is fine with that. This past season all of his players but three were from the football team that won the Division 7 championship.

Tropea said it was an easy transition to their winter sport.

“I coach great athletes who are prepared for success, who are coached hard, watch film and know how to compete,” Tropea said. “The football program takes all the hard stuff off my plate. I just get to coach basketball.”

The next piece to sustaining a top-five team, he believes, is improving the players’ skill level. For that, he’ll lean on a coaching staff that includes Tyler Aldridge, the varsity coach for five seasons before Tropea arrived.

“Tyler is incredible with the kids, great at skill work,” he said.

Tropea joined a coaching fraternity at Lumen Christi. The school’s first basketball coach was Justin Perticone, followed by Mike Ramker, Dan Crowley, Rick Karasek and, before Aldridge, Pat Neville.

A full bleachers of Titans fans cheer on their team.“At one point or another, all six of those guys were at practice or at our games this year,” Tropea said. “It’s such a cool thing. Coach Ramker was in the front row for all our games. After the games, I hang out with some of our former coaches. I’m in a golf league with one of them. We are all connected and support one another. It truly is a brotherhood here. Once you are here, you are part of the Lumen family.”

Ramker called it unique. He coached Ann Arbor St. Thomas to a 1974 Class D championship, then Lumen Christi from 1977 to 1994. He returned for one more season in 2009-10 and was coaching in the program until last year.

“The school definitely has built that culture,” Ramker said. “That’s one of the things I’ve always loved about Lumen Christi.”

A tough non-league slate helped the Titans get on a roll when the postseason began.

Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Prep, Adrian Lenawee Christian, Michigan Center and eventual Division 3 champion Niles Brandywine were on the regular-season schedule, along with Catholic High School League foe Riverview Gabriel Richard, another Division 3 Semifinal team that Lumen Christi played three times, winning once.

“We feel like we are way more prepared going into the state playoffs than the teams we are playing,” Tropea said.

As he builds next year’s schedule, the goal remains to get ready for the MHSAA Tournament.

“We return six kids who played major minutes for us and four guys who started for us,” he said. “Our young guys will be in tough situations next year, but I know they are ready.

“The seniors I have returning next year were on a 14-win team as sophomores, and a 22-win team as a junior. We’ve changed our mentality. We’re not playing for league titles. Our focus is on March, and our kids have bought into that. If we lose a game in the middle of the season, that’s not going to bother them.”

Doug DonnellyDoug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.

PHOTOS (Top) Jackson Lumen Christi coach Josh Tropea, kneeling, huddles with his team this season. (Middle) Lumen players, including Lundon Hampton (23) apply defensive pressure. (Below) A full bleachers of Titans fans cheer on their team. (Photos by Rick Bradley.)