Monteiros Perseverance Pays Off as he is Headed to the A-10
B.J. Monteiro came into last summer’s July live period as one of the region’s hottest players as he had already picked up scholarship offers from schools in the Atlantic 10 and Big Ten. However, by the time the month was over Monteiro’s options were drastically smaller as coaches began to question his ability to shoot the ball from the perimeter.
“I lost some confidence and a lot of people backed off in all honesty,” he conceded to the New England Recruiting Report.
But Monteiro is no stranger to beating the odds and this was just one more chance to prove his doubters wrong.
“I definitely looked at it as motivation because coming from Waterbury and especially from Crosby [High School], a lot of people don’t make it out,” he said. “A lot of people were telling me I should go to prep school to increase my options, but I figured I had worked so hard to qualify, I had gotten straight A’s the last two years and a good score on the SATs, that I owed it to my parents and my coaches to go straight to college.”
Fast forward six months and Monteiro is in a familiar position. After making 300 jump shots a day in the fall he has quickly re-established himself as arguably the best pure scorer in the CIAC. Meanwhile, he has led Crosby (Waterbury, CT) to a record of 19-1, the NVL regular season championship, and the #3 seed in the upcoming Connecticut state tournament.
“In a way it turned out to be a blessing in disguise,” he said of his experience from last summer. “Coming into the season I knew I had to get my game together so I spent a lot of time working on my perimeter jump shot. But it also showed me how to get points in other ways like getting on the offensive glass and into passing lanes.”
Ultimately, it was Monteiro’s ability to put points on the board that made him so appealing to the coaching staff at Duquesne.
“They like that I can score the ball,” he said. “They told me a lot of their guys don’t have the scoring mentality off the dribble that I do and that they believe I’ll be a good fit in their style of play because it is the same way we play at Crosby.”
Duquesne has been actively recruiting the talented swingman since the beginning of the high school season with Assistant Coach Bill Barton and Head Coach Ron Everhart having been frequent visitors in the Crosby gym. Last weekend, Monteiro officially visited them at their Pittsburgh campus as they fell in a close game to Richmond.
“Me and Coach Everhart just have a good relationship and when I went down there we spent a lot of time together,” he said. “I felt like they really wanted me and I was there number one priority so that felt good.”
At Duquesne, Monteiro will be playing with his former teammate Damian Saunders. After graduating from Crosby, Saunders did a post-graduate year at Notre Dame Prep where he played for current Duke’s Assistant Coach Bill Barton. Another Connecticut native, Aaron Jackson from Northwest Catholic High School (West Hartford, CT), is also on the team and will be a senior next year.
Damian Saunders
B.J. Monteiro