Monmouth hit a home run on the recruiting trail earlier this week, landing commitments from a formidable 1-2 punch that figures to make an immediate impact in the Northeast Conference.Austin Tillotson and Andrew Nicholas have become accustomed to playing side by side after teaming up both during the high school season at Eastern York in Pennsylvania as well as on the AAU circuit with the Jersey Shore Warriors.The Warriors just concluded a tremendously successful summer, finishing the year with a record of 57-7 and winning six championships along the way."They're so competitive and they just know how to win," said Warriors coach Tony Sagona. "I felt bad to have to practice because they would have to drive three and a half hours to get there, we would practice for two hours, and then they would drive another three and a half hours to get home."But practice was crucial for the Warriors as they played more like a seasoned college team than they did a typical summer club, putting five skilled players on the floor together, sharing the ball beautifully, and running a half-court system.The system wasn't all that different from the continuity variation of the Princeton offense that coach Dave Colloway utilizes at Monmouth."We play a similar way. When you don't have the big athletes you learn to share the ball and take good shots," Sagona said. "We run a lot of motion and 17 or 18 quick hitters. The kids were pretty talented, so if the defense took something away there were options off of everything. They just knew how to play."Because Tillotson and Nicholas are both highly skilled with an instinctive feel for the game they thrived with the Warriors, and project to do the same with Monmouth.Tillotson is the floor general. A 6-foot point guard with a super tight handle, phenomenal court vision, and pinpoint passing ability, he runs the team to perfection but is capable of getting into the lane and making a play if the offense breaks down. Nicholas is a super skilled 6-6 wing who shoots daggers with his southpaw stroke, can handle and pass the ball like a guard, and has the same feel for the game that can't be taught.Both players chose Monmouth over schools from higher levels. Tillotson had offers from the CAA (in addition to others in the NEC and Patriot League) while Nicholas was committed to Rugers as recently as this past season and was seeing recruitment from numerous schools in the Atlantic 10 this summer."I don't think it was a conscious decision [to go to school together]. The way it happened they both just gravitated to it," Sagona said. "They just fell in love with the school and the coaches did a very good job on the recruiting side of it."While the duo is no doubt happy to be staying close together for the next four years, the big winners are Collway and his staff at Monmouth as they have just out-recruited a variety of programs from higher levels to land two highly skilled and cerebral players who are ideally suited for their style of play and come from a winning pedigree.