The Poll

11 Tony Meola
The Kearny native was the starting goalkeeper for two U.S. World Cup teams ('90, '94) and later played for the MetroStars.

12 Anne Donovan
The 6'8" Hall of Fame center from Ridgewood won gold medals at the 1984 and '88 Olympics.

13 Piscataway
The city of 52,000 is New Jersey's SI Sportstown for having the state's best community sports programs. It is also the site of Rutgers' basketball arena (the RAC).

14 Atlantic City
Since its first casinos opened in 1978, the city has been a regular venue for world championship fights,

15 Pine Valley
The 85-year-old golf club has the No. 1-rated golf course in the United States.

GREATEST MOMENT
"This is a great state with so much to offer, but it sort of doesn't have an identity," said Devils center Jim Dowd, a Brick native, after scoring the winning goal in Game 2 of the 1995 Stanley Cup finals. "That's like our team. We don't have much of an identity either." The Devils began forging one by sweeping the favored Detroit Red Wings and winning their first of three Cup titles.

NUMBERS

2
Major sports in which New Jersey claims to have hosted the first game: baseball (1846, Hoboken) and college football (1869, New Brunswick, Princeton- Rutgers).

25
Playoff wins for the Nets since Jason Kidd joined them in 2001; the team had nine postseason wins in its 25 previous NBA seasons.

33
Division I men's and women's basketball teams that ran the Princeton offense last season.