Apparently not many people really care about Skyline Basketball. Any news from the rest of the conference and outlook for next year.

Look out for Bard's role players to make big jumps next year. There are a lot of shooters around J White next season. David Polett struggled with his shot this season but expect him to come back strong next year and have a big season. Adam Shear quietly had a big 2nd half of the year as he was gone first semester and came back to hit 42 3's in 15 games. These two guys both are within striking distance of Demetrius Washington's career 3 pt record and expect them to both break it!

Add in incoming Freshman Greg Gainey who is a straight gunner from Allentown, PA and you have a lot of threats around White to shoot the ball when you help off on him!
Returning sophomore Forrest Alvarez-Ringer will come back with a vengeance and surprise some people with the development in his game. He didn't play 2nd semester as he was getting his academics straight but having him come back is like having one of the best big man recruits in the conference. His 3 pt shot will be much improved and his interior strength will be a big bonus.

Add into that the fact the gang leader Justin White hit 56 threes last year and is only a mere 9 3s from breaking the career record himself and you have a deadly offensive unit returning. This is a team that will still lack size but they will be very experienced and have one of the best returning players in the country! With some of the losses of the conference powers expect a much improved Raptors bunch. The best thing about D3 is that guys who were once ok as underclassmen can really become stars when they commit to working on their game. Like we say every year, don't sleep on the Raptors. Everyone is coming back and hopefully this year we can keep the entire roster playing the whole year, crazier things have happened.

Talk about getting it wrong, all-region for Atlantic was not even close. No issues with the 1st team what so ever but having Tim Wesley, Rashawn Smalls (a freshman) and even Nick Brady on over Justin White is an absurd proposition. Not to take away anything the three of these guys did but this team is made based on individual performance and White's season was far above anything these guys did. Wesley avg 17 and 9 (46% fg 30% 3pt) Smalls avg 16 and 8 and Brady avg 17 and 7. All nice seasons but you can't tell me they are deserving over the year Justin put up. Don't give me the team argument because none of the 3 of these guys played in meaningful conference games either as all 3 teams were sub .500.

Youre telling me 3 seasons where guys avg 17 and 8 reb (which is a nice year but fairly average in the scope of all region seasons) are more deserving than this kids numbers. These guys werent playing in the Wisc league going against top tier comp every night so I just don't get it. Look at the season White had, 22 pts 5 reb (from guard) 3 ass 3 steals, shot 40% from 3, went to the line 9 times a game, and did all this while getting double and triple teamed with the focus of every defense on him. Not to mention his 46 point game. SID's got it right with Billups who had an outstanding season for an ok team, they missed on this one. Not sure if it was because Bard didn't have the overall exposure to the region those 3 guys did but however this one was done it was done wrong. I know everyone is a Bard hater and the team is no good and all that but it was a little disrespectful to put those 3 guys on 2nd team over Justin.

RAPTORS 2010!!!

Farmingdale vs Bridgewater should be a great matchup and Farmingdale has more than a legit shot to win! Bridgewater has a lot of weapons, athletic bigs, one great shooter and a legit PG. Farmingdale matches their athleticism and this game will come down to which guys make big plays down the stretch.

If Farmingdale pulls it out they can also play with a Stockton team that is loaded with guards and shooters or St Lawrence. Scary as it may be this could be a Final 4 team and looking at the other side of the bracket makes me believe they could feasibly go to the title game. CRAZY!

Farmingdale up 6 with 7 min left... Middlebury in a tight one. As of right now Farmingdale has a very legit shot of going to the Elite 8 and after seeing Stockton last night they can play with them as well. Little Skyline might be making some noise!

Great season for St Joe's. I hope they soak all of this in because it is a once in a lifetime experience to make the tourney at any level. Great run and I am sure they are feeling bad now but looking back in a couple weeks they will be proud of the year they had.

Late answer Mid Range. Desales is real deal. I didn't see them but heard a lot about them from coaches in the Freedom. Braswell was awesome at William Allen in HS and he has been tremendous in college. Kid is just a beast all around. Like 6'1 but plays bigger and does everything. Lipinski is 6'6 and a great d3 big. After that the PG from Emmaus is tough and runs their team well and they go 8 deep.

These are all kids from the area around our camp so I have seen a lot of them playing coming up. Scariest thing is they return Braswell and Hunter and have a kid Jamey Bersier who a lot of people thought was a d2 level talent so if he comes along and fills Lipinskis shoes they will be back again. Not a bad loss for St. Joe's at all. I thought Walsh and Acree would cancel out Lipinski and Braswell and then the role players from St. Joes would take over but it seems like Desales toughness was too much.

Not sure ive seen one farmingdale fan here all year long. I don't think they have much of a following! Best team in the conference and no one talks about them.

St Joes will beat DeSales and lose to Ithaca most likely. Will have to play incredible to beat Ithaca, that is a tough squad!

I think Farmingdale will also beat U of New England. Well coached team in NE vs a talented bunch in Farmingdale. I think the talent wins out and two Skyline teams get NCAA victories.

Second Round is also very winnable game for Farmingdale as both MIT and RIC are beatable teams for them. I can't see them going past that, it would take a big time effort to upend Middlebury this year but it is possible. They have the talent but unfortunately they will come up against someone with just as much and a little bit of coaching to go along with it.

I think Farmingdale is just a bit too much. Walsh has to keep Campbell in check and have a big game on his offensive end for St. Joe's to play with them. This matchup the last two years has been lopsided in Farmingdale's favor, including last year smacking in the final. Good luck to both squads tomorrow and if St. Joe's wins we might see two teams in the NCAA's from the Skyline.

Can anyone compare St. Thomas to a team like Wash U or the Wisc schools?

The high school team wouldn't be able to stay with the d3 guys in a basketball sense. The d3 guys are 4 or 5 yrs older and more mature. The high school guys would make some unreal plays but I have seen some form of this scenario play out during camp staff games and the older, more experienced, less talented older guys seem to always win.

Every year we at camp with Coach Hurley we have a staff vs St Anthony HS game. Our team is made up of mostly former d3 and d2 guys (most a few years away from playing shape) and each year in a 7 game series the older guys find a way to win. Two summers ago we were playing against the 2008 National Championship squad that sent six seniors on to play d1 basketball and had a junior (Dom Cheek) that will be at Nova next year. We won the series 4-2. Now you could say these aren't controlled games and maybe the guys aren't playing hard but trust me those kids are going all out and definitely playing hard because the last thing they want to do is lose to a bunch of washed up guys.

This past summer the team had three 6'8 kids and athletes all over the court and we washed the court with them. They had one game in which Dom hit just about everything he threw up to beat us but we continually screened them, boxed them, moved to find good shots and just out bball IQed them to win.

To me this is a small sample set of how years of experience and learning how to play high level team basketball is going to beat out athletes. Now there is no disputing these kids after just one or two more years of experience and college coaching would wipe the floor with us just like the High School guys would with the D3 guys but if the game was played during the HS senior years I take the d3 guys. Those extra years make all the difference!!

How good is St. Thomas for you that have seen them play? What are there big wins this year and how do you guys think they will fair in the tourney?

There aren't many boards on this site that are weaker than the Skyline board by the way.

Monster win for Maritime and Old Westbury pulled it out as expected. Guess the big run by Purchase didn't quite work out. Sometimes coaching and having talent that knows how to play together helps! Where did our favorite Purchase fan go?

In all seriousness great turn around by the Panthers this year and it shows how one year can make a big difference! This time last year if I said Purchase will be a playoff team everyone would have laughed! Who knows, next year we could be sitting here having the same conversation about (the team that shall not be named).

All great points guys and something Coach Wood has done since getting to Bard is help create the SAAC (Student Athlete Advisory Committee) which has handled a lot of situations we are talking about. They have helped get lights on the soccer field to allow night time practices. Also, this committee helped bridge the gap between professors and athletics and created a policy where as an athlete you can miss classes for certain games and practices as long as you give the schedule to the professor ahead of time. When I was a student fellow athletes got marked down grades for choosing to go to games over classes. Some professors are so full of themselves and their classes and think that this type of academic success is all that matters in a kids school experience. Thankfully, we have made it illegal for a professor to mark kids down for fulfilling team commitments. One of the small battles we have won the past 7 years on the way up.