Congratulations to the Hartwick Hawks on their win, was a great scene at Lambros Arena as the Hawks squad controled the tempo and secured a 13th trip to the NCAA's for the storied Hartwick program but first in the last 15 years. Nice to see a great atmosphere on Oyaron Hill.

Was at the Stevens-Wick game last night, the first half was much more frenetic than the second; 45-43 Stevens at half. Neither team had any ball pressure and teams both struggled to defensive rebound particularly Wick providing Stevens with some key second chance points.

Hartwick did a good job of executing offensively in the half court and Stevens did a much better job in the second half attacking the zone looks Hartwick gave off the dribble as they did not shoot the ball as well from deep in the 2nd half.

I have not seen enough conference match ups to know where Stevens fits in with the rest of the playoff picture but seem to be a handful of team still trying to establish themselves...

Hats off to Hartwick through this part of their conference schedule...but still a bunch of games left and this is unfamiliar territory for the Wick program since the Empire 8 conference has been around. I am pulling for the hawks to be in the race to the finish line, they seem to play really well together.

As of right now...heading into a couple of weeks where most teams are idle I would put teams in the following spots:
1. Hobart
2. Skidmore
    Hamilton
    Union
3. RPI
    Clarkson
4. St. Lawrence
5. Vassar

I feel it is somewhat difficult to separate the groupings of teams at 2 and 3 particularly because there hasn't been much difference in the overall strength of schedule. Of course that is only by eye ball test of everyone schedule to date. Hobart has in my opinion played the most rigorous schedule to this point and losses to above average teams have been close. It will be very interesting to see if there are teams that can get some distance early on in the conference schedule. However Union however starts off with 5 on the road in the league.

A strong start for Union a good win tonight over a Utica team that has had some solid wins during the first semester. Also Union mascot is not the Statesman that would be Hobart. Union's mascot would be the Dutchmen.

Rumors are that the following are finalists for the Skidmore Job...

Joe Burke - Assistant Coach Navy

Ed Silva - Head Coach Elms College

Rob Nugent - Head Coach Washington (MD) College

Mike Rejniak - Assistant Coach Amherst College

This was supposedly as of 6/21/10..

I wouldn't be surprised with the hiring of an established assistant coach, a lot of it may have to do with personality fit and how the prospective candidates interact departmentally. Your resume just has to be good enough to get you in the door from there who knows. We have seen head coach movement within the three big leagues in New York Empire 8, Liberty League, and SUNYAC over the past few years but the Skidmore position will likey attract resumes from I would guess 150 applicants at least from assistants at all levels and D3 head coaches. This is not only a desirable college but also location and league.

Anyone hear anything about applicants being contacted, I would think Skidmore would be interested in getting started with the process.

While school size may not affect your talent pool b/c you recruit your athletes in college it can have a drastic affect on the ease in which institutions can support or provide better committment to athletics facilities, aid, recruiting budgets etc...Now it can be clear what schools make a committment to certain sports there are many schools that commit financial means to their basketball programs that are much smaller than other schools in their conference just that it can be easier for some colleges more than others to support better than others. Now remembering that none of these schools are athletic scholarship schools and that decisions on financial aid are supposed to be based on merit (financial or academic) as it relates to there athletes. Some schools do a better job of packaging their athletes than others thus the debate previously about Alfred being a tough job because of location, but that this is a sleeping giant because it has shown an importance in football through the grapevine heard they want the same committment in basketball.

While Hartwick did not win the game particularly by buzzer beaters that go in after time expires and have been unable to convert in big games, I don't think coaches take into account whether fans are going to think its boring this is not the NBA. For all of these coaches in the Empire 8 just like all college coaches this is their livelihood and when they tip it up every game they are doing their best to put together the most effective game plan for their team to win. Ithaca is the class of the league this year based on level of talent and what they have done they are going to take every teams best shot, and I know the standings say RIT 6-0 and Ithaca 5-1 but I think most would agree that Ithaca is still the one with the target on their back and will continue to be.

I will be interested to see the outcome of the SLU - Union game being that this is a matchup of two different styles Union has done a much better job as of late controlling tempo executing on the offensive end and forcing teams to work defensively and SLU can't put up some points they have all season. This game will probably be decided by tempo being that they are generally on opposite ends of the spectrum.

Hartwick did exactly what teams need to do if you wish to stay in the game with Ithaca and have chance down the stretch, Ithaca can really score the ball. Taking the air out of the ball and keeping the game from going up and down will give you a chance. However Ithaca rebounds the ball well and if you can't compete on the boards then taking your time on offense won't work. The boxcore shows that Ithaca held a +4 rebounding margin last night so it was close.

Oh yeah and forgot to mention jamiejohn the all the wins count, not just the one against framingham state....

Well with consideration not seeing that anyone in that case in the NAC has played too many prominent programs...if you would notice my comment was that they have some experience coming in with some of the other schools in the NAC. Not sure anyone said they are going to win a national championship because they beat Bard and Paul Smith's, my point was if you would have read the post was that the unknown could be tough for the league based on the fact that it is a new team along with several new players and that they do have some understanding of the other programs in the league having played several of them in the past.

Husson in my mind is really the only one who has played too many solid teams Gordon, Oswego and Oneonta and if I had to pick one to be standing in the end it would not be Oneonta very surprised to date that they are 5-2 my hats go off to their early success.

Quote from: leelowlang on December 04, 2008, 03:47:40 PM
Husson has lost to SUNY-Oneonta & Westbury as well as Gordon.  None are poor losses in my mind.  No question, the team to beat in the NAC.

Not sure about Howe but a huge loss for the Spartans.  They will get better every game out will compete well once league play hits.

The NAC is arguably the weakest D3 conference but have still produced some good teams at the top over the last few years.  The problem is Elms and Lasell were usually those and have joined other conferences.

New to the NAC boards...but sounds like some interesting conversation and new a league always exciting. With regards to losing to three quality teams I would say so far Husson has lost to 1 quality team in Gordon, 1 team in Oneonta that the jury is still out on how competitive they will be in the SUNYAC and an Old Westbury team that I would not put down as a signature win just yet. With that being said Husson is still the team to beat until someone new unseats them they have earned that right with their overall success in the league. Noticed your comment about GMC being the unknown that could be scary for the rest of the league considering the success that GMC had last year with some of the other members in the league. Hammond and Fisher were big losses off that team but have shown a recent solid win against Framingham State which just beat Williams (granted not a typical Williams team) and closing out the Eastern Nazarene tourny with a win over Mitchell. Based on some scores looks like they can put points on the board with the exception of a tough opening loss to Medaille.

Will be an interesting league to watch....

Quote from: buck1053 on December 05, 2008, 12:52:37 PM

Quote from: d3hooperforlife on December 04, 2008, 10:53:02 PM
Hartwick College rebounds with a win over Wells College tonight 75-61 at home after a tough loss on road to Skidmore Tuesday night...

Hartwick had five players post double figures in the win and improve their record to 5-2 on the young season. Cocozziello finished with 11 points 9 boards and 7 assists to round out the evening McCann led all HC scorers with 13.

I spoke up after Alfred beat them, and I have to do so again. Even though it was a 14-point win, beating Wells isn't quality because they are a first-year program. Currently 1-5, they've only beaten Hilbert, and even AU won against them, 71-64. It's not a knock on Wells, just the reality that this is their first year playing men's basketball.

Buck...I wasn't looking to state that this was a monumental win just updating league information on a game that happened that night maybe in was poor choice of words "rebounding with a win against Wells". Hartwick has for the last few years done an okay job of taking care of winning games early on in the season against teams they should beat there biggest hurdle as a program has always come in the second semester. It will be interesting to see if it is one that they can climb over this year. This is by far Hartwick's most talented and deep team they have had in Coach Culpo's tenure. You have to have depth to compete on a playoff level Ithaca, Fisher, Utica, RIT, Nazareth and Stevens last year have always been able to compete night in and night out at a high level because of quality depth those teams have always had. Don't mean to leave any teams out of the discussion just looking at the teams that are usually in the discussion.

(modified by GS for formatting)

Hartwick College rebounds with a win over Wells College tonight 75-61 at home after a tough loss on road to Skidmore Tuesday night...

Hartwick had five players post double figures in the win and improve their record to 5-2 on the young season. Cocozziello finished with 11 points 9 boards and 7 assists to round out the evening McCann led all HC scorers with 13.