Nipmuc grad Anthony Leonelli and WPI coach Chris Bartley will guide the Boston vs. Cancer team playing for a $1 million prize at The Basketball Tournament.
Creative recruiting has been a key component of Anthony Leonelli’s men’s basketball coaching duties at Fisher College, the small, private school in Boston and the only remaining National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) institution in New England.
Last year’s 15-man roster, for instance, had players from eight states, Puerto Rico and Australia, all keen to playing Leonelli’s high-speed offense and adaptable to traveling around the country by bus to Fisher’s road games.
When Brian Tobin, the CEO of Tobin Scientific in Beverly and a former Becker assistant was looking to form a team to compete in The Basketball Tournament (TBT), an open invitation, single-elimination event played each summer at sites across the U.S., he asked Leonelli to coach the squad.
“He knew I had a reputation for putting together interesting groups,” Leonelli, an Upton resident and Nipmuc Regional graduate, said, “and he thought I would be the guy for the job. I was thrilled.”
Leonelli helped assemble Boston vs. Cancer, one of 64 teams that will play for a $1 million prize in The Basketball Tournament, now in its 12th year. Boston vs. Cancer travels to Louisville to face the Louisville Cardinal Alumni at 12:30 July 19. The game will be televised on Fox Sports.
There are seven other opening-round sites.
“It’s a unique opportunity for everyone,” Leonelli said. “I’ve been enjoying it a ton.”
Tobin Scientific has a strong relationship with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Leonelli said, and the team’s participation in TBT has a fundraising component for Dana-Farber. Additionally, one of the team’s players, Mikey Rodriguez of Boston, who played at Southern Illinois, is battling cancer and practicing in between treatments.
“He’s an amazing young man,” Leonelli said.
Rodriguez is one of 13 on the Boston vs. Cancer roster.
“The only parameters for the roster are you can’t be under contract with an NBA team,” Leonelli said, “and you have to be out of college eligibility. We cast a wide net and wound it down to a fun combination of older guys who have been playing around the world and guys who are right out of college.”
The team includes players such as 29-year-old Abdul-Malik Abu, who was at N.C. State from 2014-18 and currently plays professionally in Poland, Bensley Joseph, who played last season at Providence, and Ke’Andre Penceal, one of Leonelli’s former Fisher players.
WPI coach Chris Bartley is on the Boston vs. Cancer staff.
Leonelli was one of Bartley’s WPI assistants in 2012.
“He has always been a huge mentor to me,” Leonelli said. “When I got this job, I asked him if he would be interested in helping out in any capacity and he said he was all in. I’m not comfortable regarding him as an assistant; he’s one of the great small college coaches ever. He’s awesome to have around. He has a great view of the game. He’s a brilliant coach.”
Boston vs. Cancer will have practiced six times before playing its first game of the tournament.
“We’re getting them used to playing with each other,” Leonelli said. “We’re not putting in intricate offensive and defensive systems.”
Leonelli, who helped Nipmuc capture the 2001 Division 3 state baseball championship, will enter his fifth season at Fisher. In addition to WPI, he was an assistant at Wentworth, Green Mountain College and Rhode Island College. He was the general manager and coach of the ABA’s Worcester 78’s.
“Our goal for (Boston vs. Cancer) is to be long running,” Leonelli said. “We want to do this every year, grow the brand and visibility for Dana-Farber, and get exposure for the guys. We think this year is a proof of concept kind of thing – put a good showing out there, learn to be an even better team next year and keep doing that.”
—Contact Jennifer Toland at [email protected]. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @JenTolandTG.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Local coaches Leonelli, Bartley assemble squad for The Basketball Tournament
Category: General Sports
