Brother James Catalano: Ranked #25 in Asbury Park Press Poll

Thank you Brother JJ Dowling for contacting me about Brother Jim Catalano’s achievement.

The following is an except from the Asbury Park Press, February 9, 2021, indicating Jim’s ranking and record while coaching at NJIT:

“At New Jersey Tech/NJIT from 1979-2001, Catalano posted a mark of 431-176 at the Division II and III levels. His teams captured three conference titles and made five Division III NCAA Tournaments.”

Doing some research on Jim coaching, here are some additional stories that were written about Doctor Jim Catalano PhD (aka “Cat”. Yeah, he is pretty good at hoops and intelligent too!

3 thoughts on “Brother James Catalano: Ranked #25 in Asbury Park Press Poll”

Robert sisko February 11, 2021 at 10:07 pm

I was a high school girls’ jv basketball coach for 10 yrs and a head coach also for 10 years. A wonderful job that is really a yr. round activity. I want to congratulate coach Catalano for his outstanding record and the hard work he put into his programs to make them so successful. Jim have another great season!

Kevin White February 12, 2021 at 12:27 pm

I was only a playground basketball player throughout my less than notable sports career in high school and college. However, I played against a number of outstanding H.S. players at Gompers in Garwood with Danny Pocus included in this group. I still believe to this day that Jimmy Catalano was the purest basketball shooter I personally had ever seen( no offense Dan). He only needed the smallest space between him and his defender in order to fire one of his patented jump shots.I think he took advantage of that big rump of his to create space. In the 1972 Tau versus Chi game I think he scored something like 42 points (or it seemed like that much to me). He is a great athlete and an even better person. So glad to hear that he has had so much success in his life.

Ronald Goldfaden February 16, 2021 at 2:38 pm

I agree with Kevin’s recollections of Cat and Danny. They were both great shooters and even better people. Dan actually was dating my wife, Cindy’s, sister at Newark State and was responsible for “hooking us up”. I’m so happy that Dan and his lovely wife, Mia, are still two of our dearest friends to this day. I do feel that I contributed somewhat to Danny’s very successful college hoop career in that I worked my butt off getting all the hard earned rebounds and then passed the ball off to Dan who would then just “drain” a relaxed 20 foot jumper without breaking a sweat. Just once, it wouldn’t have hurt if he considered passing the ball back to me but alas it never happened.

The thing that made Cat so great was how quickly he could get the ball off for his shot. He was uncanny for

“juking” (faking) to the right, crossing over with one dribble to his left and then immediately getting his shot off while the man guarding him was still on his heels. Along with my late-great big brother Jimmy Marino… Cat, Danny, brother Fred Boff and George Gilcrest were a great team to be part of.

I’m also so happy and proud that Cat has done so well in his coaching and teaching career as did Dan and George (working with the State Dept.) and Fred (with the FBI). I think about them all often.

Other articles to read about Jim's accomplishments.

The Observer of Kearny 12/2017

The Two River Times 06/2013

USA Today High School Sports 06/2013

The Observer of Kearny 01/2020

NorthJersey.com 11/2017

Hoops HD 07/2018

NJIT Coaches Database

College Hoopla

The Vault 10/1995

Essex Daily News 03/2020

The Observer 01/2020

The New York Times 01/1995

Anybody want to have a pickup game? Be sure to pick Jim first!