Picks for 2/21

Dickinson
McDaniel
Ursinus
Washington
Haverford

Green Terror Regular Season Champs!

Picks for 2/18/09

F & M
McDaniel
Muhlenberg
Ursinus
Washington

Great game in Westminster last night. All 6 active seniors played a significant amount and scored on Senior Day for McDaniel. I am severely regretting not picking my team for the win this past week. Any thought of an upset was thrown out of the window when Dickinson allowed the terror to get 15 offensive rebounds, the very big majority of them coming in the first half.

Dickinson was struggling to block out and McDaniel was capitalizing. Statistically McDaniel beat Dickinson in every single category, besides free throw percentage, but the key matchup was denying the ball from Grell. In their previous matchup this season Grell had 20 points on 7 of 10 shooting, last year in the play in game to the conference tournament he had over 20, so coming into this game most McDaniel loyalists knew that he could and probably would be the deciding factor. Coach Curley established 100% denial in any front court situation for 40 minutes of the game. With Miguel Jones playing limited minutes due to the flu it gave the opportunity for Senior TJ Odunlami to shine on senior day. Odunlami did a terrific job on both ends of the court, forcing Grell to shoot just 3 for 10 from the field and also making Grell work hard on Defense. Odunlami ended up with 15 total points and 6 assists. With this win over Dickinson the Terror have now set a school record for wins in a single season with 17. Great outing and final home salute to the seniors to McDaniel!

Few comments on Dickinson... with just under 2 minutes to go McDaniel was up 10 with the ball and Dickinson seemed to fold: not fouling to stop the clock especially when McDaniel shot less than 50% free throw percentage. McDaniel swung the ball with ease against Dickinson's lackadaisical defense, Players on McDaniel who shoot free throws just above .500 for the season were taking the ball and holding it. Didn't understand Dickinson's lack of effort on that.

Leszczynski had a great game ending up with 22 and 13 but it seemed like They had to slow the ball up each time down to get the ball inside to him. Why are they not pushing the ball and letting Grell try to take his man 1 on 1? Granted last night it was VERY hard against a swarming Defense like McDaniel's but every time Grell would drive it seemed that the middle would be so jammed with his own teammates and their defenders that it was tough to get any type of shot. It seems like the season is already over for them but I'm just curious after 4 years of seeing the quickness and speed of Grell why he wouldn't have more freedom. What are your comments?

Good to see McDaniel get some love in the rankings too! Big time win for McDaniel! and I'd like to publicly apologize for doubting!

pick ems for 2/11

Gettysburg
Ursinus (really impressed me by the way they played last sat)
Muhlenberg
Washington
Dickinson(upset on Senior Day)

pickin 2 big upsets in Ursinus and Dickinson

Wow! What a year it is turning out to be. I was in Westminster for the game against Ursinus on Saturday. An incredible game. Ursinus played very well and looked like the team who owned everyone in the CC last season. The bears shot the ball very well especially during the 2nd half where they shot 55%.

Noonan had a spectacular outing and didn't seem fazed by the tough McDaniel D. He would post up smaller opponents or take the ball to the hole on bigger mcdaniel players. Ursinus really caused some matchup issues with McDaniel, running a 4 guard offense or sometimes even a 5 guard offense with Noonan as the center limited the playing time of McDaniel's center Josh McKay. Early in the 2nd half McDaniel had some let downs on Defense and Ursinus converted on many and 1's, because McDaniel players refused to step in and take charges.

Miguel Jones took over the game for McDaniel in the final minutes. Jones scored 8 of his team high 19 in the final 2 minutes of the game. Including a huge 3 pointer to put McDaniel up 5 with 13 seconds left. Overall a great game... glad to see McDaniel pull it out!

Even if McDaniel wins out and loses in the Championship, I still think its really going to be tough for them to get an atlarge bid into the NCAA's. I am expecting some love in the polls this week though! What are your thoughts?

2/7 picks

F & M - dip's scorers will rebound from sluggish game on Wednesday
Hopkins
Gettysburg
McDaniel - havent seen Ursinus this season but from what I hear McDaniel will have too much size.
Dickinson - No upset there.

Excited to see Ursinus at McDaniel.

Good articles about McDaniel:

Ryan Finch finally getting some publicity for his 4 years of dedication and hard work!
http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/articles/2009/01/30/sports/bsports13009.txt

This is a good article about this years McDaniel team published today.
http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/articles/2009/02/04/sports/csports2409.txt

d3hoopsfan:

No one was saying "McDaniel will be in the top 3 teams in the league" in the preseason... I know that the preseason polls voted on by coaches and SIDs doesnt mean anything but  they were seeded 6th (in the lower half of the conference).

The program has continued to progress throughout the past 3 years. You have to remember that just 2 and a half seasons ago the terror lost their coach in the middle of the season. Before then they had been on a winning season and looking to clinch 4th in the conference. Kevin Curley has taken a "decent" team and turned them into a 2nd place team focusing on defense.

Jones, Henry, and Sarris-Grau are all very good players and are having great years! Other than those 3 players there is only 1 player returning next year that has played in 9 or more games (McDaniel has played 19 games total) and I mean this in all due respect but I dont know what you mean by "key backups."

Its a definite that they need a great recruiting class next year to fill the gaps that they will lose with McKay, Arrington, Finch, Odulami, and others. You have to remember that 6' 7" Senior/Captain Steve Wilson (who gave them some size before tearing his labrum in his shoulder) is also graduating. There are 11 players who average 10 minutes or more on McDaniel's Team so it is really hard for you to see what they are losing unless you watch them play. The core group of Jones, Henry, and Sarris-Grau will be good but what will they have past that? Jones has to be a huge leader next year being the lone senior.

D-Mac

You are right! Gettysburg has really been slipping the past couple of games but overall they are not performing as they did last year. After seeing them play early on in the season against a very below average York team, I didn't understand where the fire and passion had gone from a year ago. In knowing that Gettysburg returned almost everybody I was really excited for this upcoming season and to hopefully see them make a legitimate run through the NCAA's. Last year, Capkin proved to me that he was the purest shooter in the league and that he was capable of hitting the clutch shot. WHAT HAPPENED??? Powers, coming off a tremendous freshman year, seemed to be with no to very little improvement. He is still having a good season but I think that a lot of people can agree with me when I say that he has not lived up to his potential... The good thing about Powers though is that he is only a sophomore and with the other 4 starters graduating it is his team from now on. I was looking forward to a dominant Gettysburg team.

And As I've stated before I just don't see the togetherness and the fire that they showed to us last year. Maybe it's because of rising negative attitudes? At McDaniel, Dorsey seemed to bring the whole team down. He scored 2 points and clearly had a beef with Coach Pietrie. Showing disrespect to Petrie and his fellow teammates by not listening in huddles and trying to consume attention with his pouty attitude. After playing 28 minutes and fouling out of the Washington game he had only 2 points for the second game in a row. Gettysburg has been the biggest disappointment for me this year as well. I'm hoping Capkin can turn his season around in these last 6 games by showing us what he did last year, SHOOT THE ROCK!!!

I have to say that McDaniel is the biggest surprise of this season. I am going to be a little biased here but stick with me. I would have never thought, at this point of the season, McDaniel would be fighting for first place... After losing their bigmen -  All Conference Chris Prior (graduation) and leading scorer Brett Foelber (graduation), as well as Chad Arrington due to Team Violations, McDaniel and Coach Kevin Curley have really put themselves in a great position. Josh McKay has thrown out his arrogance and selfishness to play TEAM basketball. If you remember 2 years ago McKay would try to play more of a perimeter game by shooting 3's. Not saying he wasn't a horrible 3-point shooter, but at 6 foot 9 has had a very successful season playing great defense (except for the Muhlenberg Game) and dominating games (F & M and Hopkins). Chad Arrington has had his most productive and consistent season averaging almost 9 ppg and 7 rpg. The guard play, which is lead by Miguel Jones and Kevin Henry, is either on or its off but the defense that Coach Kevin Curley has established makes up for that and seems to be a lot more consistent this season. It's now or never for McDaniel. They lose 8 seniors at the end of this season. In the end, the lack of experience will hurt them. But I am excited to see how it turns out...

What you think?

2/4/09 picks

McDaniel (Too athletic for Swat Especially at home where the Terror have won their last 6)
Gettysburg (Both teams struggling but Gettysburg will get it together)
Johns Hopkins (Upset! I think Bill Nelson will have the Jays ready to play at Tough F & M)
Muhlenberg (In a close one! In the end too much size for Haverford)
Ursinus (I think this will be another battle! especially at Washington)

McDaniel has 6 tough games remaining... Including at Gettysburg, at Hopkins, Home vs Ursinus, and at Washington... Yes that is correct "AT WASHINGTON" where the terror have not won in something like 10 years.

I cannot agree more that the teams on top of the conference are just shooting themselves in the foot with losses to these teams that are below .500. I'd just like to see the conference get a little more respect I guess in particularly McDaniel. They strung together 8 wins in a row including defeating an Ursinus team that was ranked #21 at the time, then defeating F & M who was also ranked #21 at the time. No doubt that there losses to Dickinson and Haverford are killing them in the rankings right now.

No disrespect to anyone, but ANY road you take to the final four is a tough road! Especially beating the National Champs (VA Wesleyan) from two years prior, even if it was at home. I'll agree that it probably turned out to be the easiest bracket to get there but as all of us know the NCAA tournament can be crazy on all levels. And I was incredibly happy for our two teams that made it to the Sweet 16. Ursinus got flat out beat by Amherst, who again was the National Champ from the year before. And I think we all know that the final game they played would have been a lot different if Shattuck would have played more than 30 seconds.

Thanks Old Ends, Pat Coleman, D-Mac, Reserved Seat, DDM28. You can plan on me getting more involved in the future!

Im gonna go ahead and try this pick-em out,

1/31
Gettysburg - Bounce Back strong
Franklin & Marshall - guards to athletic for swat
McDaniel - Always a gamble at Muhlenberg but I gotta go with my team
Dickinson - I banking on Grell showing up
Ursinus - toss up havent seen either team play yet this year

Reserved Seat

I agree. They havent EVER been there and it is all new to them. But even when Ursinus and Gettysburg were dominating the league last year and went through the NCAA tournament to meet for a 4th time they still didnt gain any respect. It took Ursinus to go undefeated in the CC and win like 25 games straight to gain any national recognition. I really think the CC is underrated... I mean Ursinus made it all the way to the Final Four last year with over 20 wins in a row and ended up in the final rankings 7th??? How does that work??? THEY MADE IT TO THE FINAL FOUR! lol. Ursinus, Gettysburg, and F & M have been ranked and have earned respect within the past 10 years. McDaniel, before last year, hasnt had a winning season in 25 years so I understand and I know that I am biased towards my team so I wanted to get some feed back from everyone to see if my bias is logical.

Great game in Westminster last night! The Terror seemed to have the game sealed with about 10:30 left but Gettysburg game back to make it a great finish. Chad Arrington really mixed it up for the Terror especially the first half. Foul trouble really hurt the bullets, with both Powers and Spierenberg picking up 2 fouls each in the first half.

Arrington who is not at all known for his offensive game seemed to be hitting the big shots and making big plays, he had a huge play that really got the crowd stirred up with a tremendous put back dunk right on top of 2 bullet defenders. This dunk was something that I have NEVER seen in a D3 game, and trust me I have been around a lot!

Granted for the first 10 mins of the second half McDaniel got all the calls and got away with a lot. During the final 10 mins of the game the refs started calling the game more evenly and thats when the bullets made a very valient comback that directly mirrored the game between these two teams last year in Westminster. McDaniel's Finch put in 2 free throws to go ahead 3 with about 7 seconds left, at that point everyone in the gym knew where the ball was going for the bullets. Petrie (sorry for mispelling) drew up the same play that sent the game into a second overtime last year in Westminster, a handoff to Capkin
who came off a ball screen and then a second ball screen for a 3-pointer at the top of the key. This year the shot was in and out and the terror won the game in regulation. I really would like to credit Gettysburg though because their comback was unbelievable, Powers and Spierenberg really came alive in the last 10 mins of the game.

Let me end with 2 comments... (1) Why has McDaniel Not gotten any love in the rankings? If they win on Saturday I see no reason why they atleast shouldnt get some votes. Yes their record is 13-5 right now and I understand at this point of the season that 5 losses really sticks out but look who they are from- St. Mary's (pre-season ranked I think 20th?), F & M (ranked as high as 21st), Guilford (tough ODAC team), Then the 2 upsets - Haverford (who beat Gettysburg), and Dickinson (who is a team that had high hopes entering the season and has not lived up to that except for when they played the terror). Any Comments?

(2) Everyone has their rough/bad nights every once in a while, Corey Dorsey Had a bad night last night. With him all he has is his offense, going up against one of the best defense squads in the nation it is expected to not have the open looks or jumpshots that he usually gets with playing other teams but his reaction was the thing that really disappointed me last night. After he got pulled (probably not for hustling) he completely took himself out of the game - sitting on the end of the bench, not paying attention in the huddles... 1 specific instance where the team called a 30 sec timeout and everyone besides him was standing up in the huddle, he was a lone ranger sitting on the bench by himself throwing a hissy fit because as a senior his defensive ability is still absolutely horrible and his shots werent falling. I frankly cannot believe that he was nominated for an all conference player last year, offensively he has the ppg average, but on defense he just flat out doesnt look like he wants to be out there. It was very apparent that last night he didnt want to be on the floor against McDaniel's swarming defense and there was a little beef between him and Coach Pietrie. Comments???

Hello all,

Have been following this blog and the Centennial Conference for a long time and decided to get involved...

1/13 F & M at McDaniel:
First of all it was an overall sloppy game... both teams combined for 40 TO's. McDaniel was on top right from the tip. F & M shot 8 of 24 for the first half against a defense that allowed them to get VERY FEW clean shots at the basket. F & M got no open shots in the first half, seemed like every attempt was a struggle. F & M was not the team they were drawn up to be at all! Glenn Robinson was obviously frustrated with his team and the referees. McDaniel's offense was very patient, as they have been all year. They would get the shot clock under 15 almost every possession and got a lot of second chance points. And as people have said before they had no answer for McKay. He would get the ball in the post, back down his man, and shoot right overtop of the defense. There is no doubt that McDaniel had the experience and the defense in this game holding a team that was averaging 82 to 57 points. and there is no doubt that F & M has some room to improve and will be GOOD the next couple of years.