SSN Awards Finalists: 2024 Boys Basketball Player of the Year

Shore Sports Network's Postseason honors are a matter of days away from their release and the most prestigious of those honors is the SSN Player of the Year. The Boys Basketball All-Shore First Team will have six players on it, so in an effort to recognize the top candidates for the Player of the Year without spoiling the entire first team prior to its release, we have selected the following three finalists for the Player of the Year Award. Here they are, in alphabetical order.

2024 Shore Sports Network Boys Basketball Player of the Year Finalists

Matt Hodge, Sr., 6-8, Forward, St. Rose

2023-24 Stats: 17.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.6 steals, 1.2 blocks, 63 3-pointers, 82.6 FT%

St. Rose senior Matt Hodge. (Photo: Ray Rich Photography)

Hodge was in the running for the 2023 SSN Player of the Year Award as a junior and, statistically speaking, he turned in a year similar to his 2022-23 campaign. With a close look, however, Hodge was considerably better as a senior. He took over games on the offensive end against quality competition and was routinely the best player on the floor in every one of St. Rose’s games. St. Rose challenged itself against Montverde Academy and while Hodge was not the best player on the floor in that game, he proved he belonged on the floor with some of the best players in the country. With Hodge leading the way, St. Rose went on to win its first ever Shore Conference Tournament title, its first NJSIAA Non-Public B championship since 1977 and finished No. 1 in the state for the first time in program history.

Griffin Linstra, Jr., 6-5, Forward, Manasquan

2023-24 Stats: 17.1 points, 11.4 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 1.2 steals, 81.4 FT%

Manasquan junior Griffin Linstra gets off a shot inside. (Photo: Tom Smith | tspsportsimages.com)

Linstra went from the perfect role player as a sophomore to the ideal team leader as a junior and that was not necessarily in anybody’s plans at Manasquan. With Darius Adams transferring to national power La Lumiere and Ryan Frauenheim suffering a torn ACL, Manasquan lost to First Team All-Shore guards over the summer, which forced Linstra to turn himself from a seldom-shooting, pass-first, defense-focused forward into a point forward who had to both look to score and make his teammates better. Linstra delivered all that and then some, leading Manasquan to its sixth straight Shore Conference championship game, its fifth straight NJSIAA sectional title and to the cusp of one of the great New Jersey high school basketball upsets of the last 25 years.

Jaycen Santucci, Jr., 6-4, Guard, Central

2023-24 Stats: 21.0 points, 9.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 2.7 steals, 1.4 blocks, 75 FT%

Central junior Jaycen Santucci. (Photo: Tom Smith | tspsportsimages.com)

Central just finished what might have been its best boys basketball season in its history and Santucci was a force from start to finish for the Golden Eagles. Santucci’s 2023-24 résumé includes the second-highest scoring total in the Shore Conference this season – both total points and per-game average – and he came up just 12 rebounds shy of becoming the Shore’s only player to average 20 points and 10 rebounds for the 2023-24 season. Santucci’s efforts led Central to 20-plus wins, a division championship, a trip to the Shore Conference Tournament quarterfinals and another to the NJSIAA sectional semifinals – the first time Central has accomplished each of those things in the same season.

Check back this week for the unveiling of the 2024 Player of the Year, plus the 2024 All-Shore Teams.