Howard Levy gained a great deal of his basketball knowledge from the legendary Princeton coach Pete Carril, and besides a backdoor cut here and there, Levy learned to recognize talent. When Levy, the Mercer County College coach, saw Joell Idrovo, he knew he had a diamond in the rough. Idrovo has dev eloped into one of the premier junior college players in the region. Idrovo, now a sophomore at Mercer, has put together a remarkable season and will lead the Mustangs (18-11) into the Region XIX playoffs on Thursday against the Lackawanna and County College of Morris winner. Moris and Lackawanna are meeting on Wednesday night at Lackawanna, the site of the Region playoffs. Over the last two years, Idrovo, a Hamilton resident and former Solebury star, has grown as a person and a player and become a dominant force on the court. “Joell is a great student and one of the best players I have ever coached,’’ praised Levy. “He does everything so well and he’s a tough young man. He had been the focus of every opponent’s defense and he still manages to succeed, it’s mindboggling. I believe he can play at a very high level. I have never seen him overmatched.’’ Idrovo averages a team-best 19.8 points a game and he grabs 4.5 rebounds. He has been the catalyst for one of the greatest turnarounds in Mercer sports history. Mercer started the season 0-8 and the playoffs looked like a faraway dream, but the sophomore leadership of Idrovo, Drew Parrish, Torren Green and the return of Brandon McCain got the Mustangs pointed in the right direction. “Once we saw the first win we just kept that momentum and saw what we needed to do to win,’’ recalled Idrovo. “All the games in the beginning were close and we needed to figure out how to win the games at the end.’’ Mercer did, and since that 0-8 beginning it has gone an incredible 18-11. “Defensively, we needed to step it up as we were giving up too many points and committing a lot of turnovers,’’ said Idrovo. “We have cleaned that up in the second half of the season and been able to execute the offense really well, and that allowed us to score easily.’’ Idrovo is a consummate team player and understands he is just a part of the success. Sophomore Torren Greene is averaging 15.8 points a game, freshman Roman Frenklah averages 12.3 and 5.8 caroms a game, sophomore Drew Parrish has 136 assists and scores at a 10.5 clip, and sophomore Brandon McCain has been averaging 14.0 points and a team-high 6.4 rebounds. “It was all of us sophomores stepping up to be leaders, not just me,’’ said Idrovo. “It was Drew (Parrish), Torren (Greene) and Brandon (McCain) when he came in and we all knew what we needed to do allowing us to win games and make the playoffs. All of us together have a great bond that helped us to lead the team.’’ One of Idrovo’s greatest strengths is the confidence he has in himself and in his team. “When you start 0-8 and wonder are you ever going to win a game,’’ said Idrovo. “But, once we won one I had confidence because of what we did last year. We had to win six straight to get to the playoffs. I love the playoff environment, and everything becomes more meaningful and you want to keep going.’’ One of the problems facing the Mustangs is they will not know their opponent until late Wednesday when Morris and Lackawanna meet. But, they can take heart that they beat both of them twice this season. None were cakewalks, however. “I always want to try my best to win the region and then try to go as far as we can,’’ said Idrovo. “That’s my goal. I just want to see the team win, and all the guys that play a lot, we have a great chemistry. We enjoy playing with each other and we know how to play off of each other.’’ Levy and Idrovo agree it’ll be the defense that will carry Mercer far. “We have to play intense defense and run our stuff and keep the momentum that we’ve had,’’ stated Idrovo. “We don’t want to defer from what has been working.’’ As Idrovo begins to weigh his four-year college options he knows Mercer has been the perfect proving – and improving – grounds for him. “I have a lot more experience now and Mercer has allowed me to work on the things that I wasn’t as good at coming out of high school,’’ admitted Idrovo. “These two years have been great for what is coming next.’’ He hopes that will be a Region title. ...read more read less