NJ's Joe Gallo is a star college basketball coach, and doing it his way
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MILLTOWN – The aroma of prosciutto and salami fills the air at Mike’s Country Market, an old-world store that specializes in landscaping (four different kinds of mulch in stock) but also has a deli counter that produces a killer eggplant, fresh mozzarella and roasted red pepper sandwich.
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When Joe Gallo comes home to Milltown to visit his father, this is where he goes for a sub (his preference is the No. 5: a blend of meats and cheeses known as “Italy’s favorites.”). The good folks behind the counter know his dad Steve Gallo, a regular customer, and they’re generally aware that Joey (as he’s known locally) is a successful college basketball coach.
Soon enough – perhaps later this month – the whole country is going to know.
The 46-year-old is a proven star in coaching circles, having guided Merrimack to four conference titles in the seven years since the school from North Andover, Massachusetts upgraded to Division 1. That includes this season’s Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference crown after his Warriors finished 17-3 in league play.
The only thing missing from his resume is an NCAA Tournament appearance – after Merrimack’s first two league titles, it was ineligible for March Madness due to arcane rules about new D-1 programs. The Warriors are favored to cut down the nets next week at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, where the always unpredictable MAAC Tournament unfolds March 5-10. It’ll be a homecoming of sorts, with folks from Milltown family members and his old teammates from Princeton Day school in the stands.
“His success doesn’t surprise me – he was always like a coach on the floor as a point guard,” said his former coach at Princeton Day, Alan Taback, who will be there. “He was an amazingly hard worker, he always had a lot of fun and he lifted everyone’s spirits. I’ve seen his practices and they’re amazing – everyone is learning and having a good time. He’s created a special culture up there at his school, of togetherness and a winning attitude. He’s got all the goods.”
Word is spreading. Gallo’s star has risen to the point where high-major job offers are due to come pouring in soon. To understand how he got to this point – his use of a customized 2-3 zone, his ability to find dusky gems in highly scouted cities like Philadelphia, his judicious embrace of the transfer portal not to load up on individual talent, but to complete a team – think of Mike’s County Market as a metaphor. You’re not walking out of WaWa with shrubbery in one hand and capicola in the other. As free agency turned college basketball upside down, Gallo has paved his own unique lane – and it works.
'When Joey talked, everybody listened'
“Joey was dribbling a basketball before he could even say basketball,” said Steve Gallo, a U.S. Army veteran who served two years in Vietnam and later worked as a safety engineer, settling in the southwestern Middlesex County hamlet of Milltown (population: 7,000) around 1990. “In school he breezed through his math courses. His analytical mind is a big reason why he’s successful.”
In 1999, as a senior Princeton Day, “one day in practice he stops everything and with a couple of expletives says, ‘Why am I winning all the wind sprints? I’m not the fastest guy on the team,” Taback recalled. “When Joey talked, everybody listened. He was loved, respected, and that team from his senior year, those guys are all still tight. They go to his games.”
That Princeton Day team went on to win the state Prep A title, toppling a St. Benedict’s squad that had pummeled them by 39 points in the regular season.
It was good preparation for Gallo’s tenure at Merrimack, where he played guard and served as an assistant before taking the helm as the program transitioned to Division 1. In the Warriors’ second game at that level, they won at Northwestern. Their zone comes at heavy hitters like a knuckleball – something rarely seen and hard to solve (keep that in mind if Merrimack appears on your Big Dance bracket).
“We have it down to a science, how we implement it,” Gallo said. “We know it takes some time (to learn), especially with new guys. But they’ve never played it before, so they can’t question anything, really. It’s won us a lot of games.”
So has Gallo’s eye for overlooked talent. He found eventual standouts Jordan Derkack at Colonia High School, Budd Clark at Philadelphia’s West Catholic and current MAAC Player of the Year Kevair Kennedy at Philly’s Father Judge. Those aren’t exactly out-of-the-way places.
“All these guys we’ve had, people pick apart what they can’t do, and we’re looking at their superpowers – the things they can do,” Gallo said. “Everyone was down because Budd didn’t shoot threes. Well, he did a lot of other things well, and he doesn’t really miss midrange shots, which people don’t let anyone shoot anymore. Other people’s miss was our gain.”
Gallo scouts prep players both on the AAU circuit and in high school action – the former shows off skill, but latter is where he can assess how they handle the “tension in the air” in a setting where winning matters.
“Our guys have toughness, they’re battle tested,” he said. “They have this irrational confidence about them that I love – they don’t care who they’re playing against.”
When using the transfer portal, he does deep dives on the attitude and work habits of potential additions.
“You’ve got to make the pieces fit,” he said. “You’ve got to build a team – you can’t just throw a bunch of talent out there.”
Here in Jersey, Seton Hall fans can attest to Gallo’s acumen. Clark, in his first season as a Pirate, has been the engine behind a squad that has nearly tripled its win total from last season. Gallo is loving it from afar, catching snippets of Hall games whenever he can with his two young sons, who consider “Buddy” part of their extended family.
Recently, after Merrimack won a game that aired on ESPNU, Gallo got a congratulatory text from Derkack, who was watching with his teammates in Ohio.
“We have a saying: Once a Warrior, always a Warrior,” Gallo said. “I stay in touch with these guys, they root of us and we root for them.”
More than a job
A throng of Warrior faithful will be descending on Boardwalk Hall this week. Earlier this season, after a win at Rider, “there were probably 100-plus Merrimack fans still hanging out on an hour after the game on Rider’s court,” Gallo said.
It’s a testament to what he’s built from scratch. As his players cut down the net for winning the MAAC’s regular-season title, Gallo granted himself a moment take it all in.
“You know sports, it rallies people, so to see all these students there and the smiles on everybody’s faces made me happy,” he said.
The kid from Milltown is putting North Andover on the college sports map, and he’s done it his way.
“He always says, ‘Dad, this is not a job – I love it,” Steve Gallo said.
It shows.
Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. Contact him at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: March Madness: NJ's Joe Gallo a rising-star coach at Merrimack