There's nothing amateur about this hoop rivalry

TJ Gassnola (rear left) lured former Celtics coach John Carroll away from the BABC to lead his New England Playaz program. (Robert E. Klein/For the Globe)

MANSFIELD - Two years ago, former Celtics coach John Carroll wanted nothing to do with TJ Gassnola, a Springfield-based youth basketball recruiter who declared himself "hell bent on destroying" Leo Papile's Boston Amateur Basketball Club, the top program of its kind in New England.

Carroll was helping to coach the BABC. His son, Austin, was playing for the team whose alumni include numerous NBA veterans, Hall of Fame nominee Patrick Ewing among them. Carroll described the Adidas-backed Gassnola as one of the "bottom-feeders" who use unsavory means to recruit inner-city teens to basketball teams sponsored by giant sneaker companies.

Now, Carroll coaches for Gassnola. In a sign of how dramatically the landscape can shift in the world of big-time amateur basketball, Carroll guided Gassnola's New England Playaz into yesterday's championship game of the 17-and-under division of the Massachusetts AAU tournament.

The opponent was Papile's BABC squad, which two weeks earlier captured the gold medal at a prestigious national showcase, the King James Shooting Stars Classic, in Ohio.

In the first showdown between the programs, the BABC extended its decades-long dominance by besting the Playaz, 70-64, at the Mansfield Sportsplex for the state AAU title.

Papile, who told the Globe two years ago that operators such as Gassnola "are not good for basketball," expressed pride in the victory, while making clear he no longer wants his name associated with Gassnola's.

"We were clearly superior in all aspects of the game," Papile said. "Our defense dominated them."

The game featured many of the region's top players in the high school classes of 2009 and 2010, led by the BABC's 6-foot-9-inch Alex Oriakhi, who has committed to UConn, and the Playaz's 6-10 Erik Murphy, who is bound for the University of Florida. Oriakhi, 18, of Lowell, is a junior at the Tilton School, while Murphy, 17, of South Kingstown, R.I., is a junior at St. Mark's.

AAU rules allow teams to carry as many as three players from abutting states and permit age exceptions for players who have not entered their senior years of high school.

Though New England is hardly considered a hotbed of basketball talent, the classes of '09 and '10 are striking exceptions, and virtually every major college coach in the country has recruited the leading stars who have aligned with the BABC and the Playaz.

"I can't recall the last time the talent level was this strong," said John Kottori, the AAU's chairman of youth basketball in southern New England. "We're talking about a few potential NBA players and maybe even an NFL player."

The football star is the BABC's 6-4 Darryl Bishop, an 18-year-old junior at Lawrence Academy, who is being recruited in two sports. Bishop led all scorers in the championship game with 27 points, on a variety of 3-point bank shots and power drives.

Bishop and Oriakhi have formed the core of the BABC squad for four years, along with 6-7 Jamal Coombs-McDaniel, a 19-year-old junior at Tilton, who has committed to UConn.

Although foul trouble limited Oriakhi to 2 points and Coombs-McDaniel finished with 8, the BABC surged to a 19-point lead in the first half and thwarted a second-half comeback by the Playaz thanks in part to point guard Phil Pressey (17 points) and swingman Gerard Coleman (14).

Pressey, 17, the son of former NBA player Paul Pressey, is a junior at Cushing Academy, while Coleman, 17, will play for Tilton next year after transferring from West Roxbury High School.

Carroll was not in a reflective mood after the loss.

"They beat us fair and square," he said. "Good game, well-coached game, well-played game, great job BABC, yada, yada, yada."

Carroll declined to explain why he left the BABC and Papile, who also serves as assistant executive director of basketball operations for the Celtics, to coach for Gassnola. He said only, "There are a lot of really, really good basketball players in the classes of 2009 and 2010 in the Massachusetts area, and I've been very fortunate to work with a lot of them, some with the BABC and some with the New England Playaz."

Gassnola's teams were banned from AAU competition for several years after he failed to pay an estimated $2,500 in tournament fees. A Globe series two years ago also cited Gassnola's considerable criminal record and raised questions about his recruiting practices.

But Gassnola since has made amends with the AAU, strengthened his ties to Adidas, and ramped up his program, with backing from Hall of Famer Bob Lanier, among other current and former NBA players. His credibility also was enhanced last year when Carroll and his son Austin, an 18-year-old junior at Worcester Academy, left the BABC to join the Playaz.

Murphy, the son of former Boston College and NBA player Jay Murphy, also left the BABC for Gassnola's team, along with 6-8 Nate Lubick, a 16-year-old sophomore at St. Mark's who has received offers from numerous Division 1 teams, including UCLA and UConn.

Murphy led the Playaz yesterday with 24 points, while point guard Nadir Tharpe, 16, of Worcester, added 10. Lubick was sidelined with a knee injury.

Gassnola, who has clashed verbally with Papile through the years, took the high road after the defeat. Gassnola, 36, played on a youth team from Springfield with Travis Best and Derek Kellogg in 1990 that defeated Papile's BABC squad. Papile, 54, founded the BABC in 1977.

"Leo did a great job then and he does a great job now," Gassnola said. "Guys like him are the reason guys like me are around, because he has done it for so long. I give him his due. I hope I'm still doing this when I'm his age."

After the game, however, Papile and Gassnola expressed no interest in their teams facing each other again.

Bob Hohler can be reached at hohler@globe.com.