MBB: Liberty League

[magicman]

Liberty league results today.

Hobart defeats RPI 104-89 and wraps up the regular season title and will host the LL playoffs. They are now 12-2 and with games remaining against Bard and Vassar will most likely end up 14-2 in the conference.

Vassar defeats St Lawrence 58-57 in the upset of the weekend. Saints could have put a strong hold on 2nd place today with a win but now will probably have to defeat Skidmore on Valentine's Day to claim the 2nd spot. Hard to figure how a team can beat #18 Oswego State and League Champs, Hobart, yet manage to lose to Vassar in their own gym.  They are now 10-5.

RIT in another big upset topples Skidmore 73-71 giving the Thoroughbreds their 2nd loss of the weekend. They miss an opportunity to reclaim 2nd place. They are now 8-5 and will have to beat St. Lawrence  and win at least of one their remaining games against RPI and Union to get the 2nd seed.

Clarkson downs Bard 82-70 and for the time being is all alone in 4th place with an 8-6 record. With RPI losing 2 games this weekend and falling to 7-7, that helped out the Golden Knights chances a little. Clarkson ends their season next weekend with games at Union, then at RPI. Both of those two teams have to face Skidmore in Saratoga.

Union has played 1 less game and was idle this weekend. They are currently 7-6. They finish at RIT, home against Clarkson, and at Skidmore.

RPI is now 7-7 and ends with a game at Skidmore on Friday before hosting Clarkson on Saturday.  It's possible that all 3 teams could end up with 8-8 records. I'm not sure of the tiebreak scenario with 3 teams. Union and Clarkson would have split their head to head meetings. RPI and Clarkson would have split their head to head meetings. Union has already beaten RPI twice. If it's head to head between all 3 teams combined that would give Union a 3-1 record, Clarkson a 2-2 record and RPI a 1-3 record. If RPI is eliminated then Clarkson and Union would be determined by who beat the higher ranked team in the standings. If SLU finishes in 2nd place that would give the edge to the Knights. If Skidmore finishes in 2nd then Union would win the tiebreaker. RPI and Union could both win out and Union would claim 4th place. Clarkson could win out and they would claim 4th place. Neither Union nor RPI can win out if Clarkson does. RPI can only win 4th place if they win out and Union beats Clarkson and loses their other two games. I think that's correct but if somebody told me I was wrong I probably wouldn't argue.

Both RIT and Vassar with big weekends.
Hard for any team to make the North Country trip and come away with 2 W's as Vassar did this weekend. Even harder when you're one of the lower ranked teams in the conference. The Brewers improve to 4-9 in the conference.

And RIT struggling all year, ends up with back to back wins over RPI and Skidmore to improve to 4-9 in league play. Brendan Harder with a monster game against Skidmore today with a career high 36 points and he also grabbed 15 rebounds to complete a double double. Yesterday's stat line against RPI was pretty fair as well, with 16 points and 12 rebounds to give him back to back double-doubles. He also added 4 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks. Sounds like Liberty League  Player of the Week to me.

Bard found the North Country inhospitable but at least stayed competitive in both games this weekend. Down by 19 early in the 2nd half against SLU on Friday, the Raptors came back to close within 7 at 42-35. Another SLU spurt built the lead back up and the Saints coasted home 79-59. On Saturday Bard hung fairly close to Clarkson and the final score of 82-70 was better than a number of other LL teams managed when they visited Alumni Gym this year. Bard's record is 1-12 in the conference.

[7express]

Vassar defeats St Lawrence 58-57 in the upset of the weekend. Saints could have put a strong hold on 2nd place today with a win but now will probably have to defeat Skidmore on Valentine's Day to claim the 2nd spot. Hard to figure how a team can beat #18 Oswego State and League Champs, Hobart, yet manage to lose to Vassar in their own gym.  They are now 10-5.
---------------------------------

Same way Western Connecticut can sweep Keene state, yet lose games to Plymouth state & Southern Maine 2 of the worst teams in the LEC.  That's what makes basketball great, anybody can beat anybody on any given day.

[with age came?]

Hadn't noticed that RIT has beat RPI.  Clarkson still has a little hope then.  Strange times this weekend.  Vassar going 2-0 up north.  Skidmore losing.  Very balanced league this year.  Hey Magic - do you think Hobart might get a little love in the D-3 poll this week?  Let's face their Coach has a pretty good pedrigree being at U of R for so many years.  I would think that might count for something.  Saw that Mitchell turned his ankle yesterday but he continued to play after tighenning up his sneaker so I thought he would be OK.  Tough to have them (the bengals) lose 2 over the weekend.  I really hope they get it together and go deep in the YAC tournament but without Mitchell that will be tough.

[magicman]

Hadn't noticed that RIT has beat RPI.  Clarkson still has a little hope then.  Strange times this weekend.  Vassar going 2-0 up north.  Skidmore losing.  Very balanced league this year.  Hey Magic - do you think Hobart might get a little love in the D-3 poll this week?  Let's face their Coach has a pretty good pedrigree being at U of R for so many years.  I would think that might count for something.  Saw that Mitchell turned his ankle yesterday but he continued to play after tighenning up his sneaker so I thought he would be OK.  Tough to have them (the bengals) lose 2 over the weekend.  I really hope they get it together and go deep in the YAC tournament but without Mitchell that will be tough.

Hobart might get some love in the poll but it would be as you said, a little love. The Statesmen with their 19-4 record lack a signature win that would resonate with the pollsters. The only ranked teams that they played, that would give them some credibility had they won, were Franklin & Marshall, who beat them 81-71 and Rochester, who was ranked in the Top 25 back in December, when they met Hobart. The Yellowjackets  beat Hobart in that meeting 72-62. In their other 7 non-conference games which were all wins, the only team with a record better than .500 was Nazareth. The loss to a 10-12 RPI team hurts as well. Maybe if they run the table and finish at 23-4 they might work their way near the top of the Others Receiving Votes category. If a lot of teams currently in the bottom 5 spots in the rankings and most of the teams currently getting votes in the ORV category continue to lose then Hobart might crack the Top 25 in two weeks, but I wouldn't count on it.

Buffalo State has shot themselves in the foot. I think they only go dancing now if they win the YAC tournament. Trying to do that without Mitchell will be hard to accomplish. Mitchell's injury is not his ankle. I'm sure Bengalsrule will be on the SUNYAC board with an explanation. Tough to lose a player of his ability and not feel the pain.

Knights need to take care of business. And they have a lot of hope not just a little. Where's your faith? They don't need any help from anyone else now. Too bad they lost to Vassar, they could have really been in the catbird's seat with a W in that game. Glad you got to see a Buff State game. Too bad you're a jinx.    
   

[Bengalsrule]

Saw that Mitchell turned his ankle yesterday but he continued to play after tighenning up his sneaker so I thought he would be OK.  Tough to have them (the bengals) lose 2 over the weekend.  I really hope they get it together and go deep in the YAC tournament but without Mitchell that will be tough.

Buffalo State has shot themselves in the foot. I think they only go dancing now if they win the YAC tournament. Trying to do that without Mitchell will be hard to accomplish. Mitchell's injury is not his ankle. I'm sure Bengalsrule will be on the SUNYAC board with an explanation. Tough to lose a player of his ability and not feel the pain.

Mitchells situation won't be known until later this week. Let's keep hope Alive!!

P.s Nice to finally meet With Age .........Wish we could have done better with you in the arena!

[with age came?]

One thing I learned when my son was playing.....there is always hope...his team backed into the playoffs after two tough losses on the last weekend of the season but won the the league beating two very tough teams - one on their home court.  Two things that Bengals are not short of is talent and heart.  Many of those young men have been in far worse situations than this and rose to meet the challenge!

[magicman]

In Tuesday night's action there were 3 games.

Skidmore defeated St. Lawrence in a barnburner that came down to the last few seconds. SLU on the line with a chance to tie the game and send it into overtime but Saints only make 1of 2 and Skidmore escapes with a 76-75 win.

Saints end their regular season with a 10-6 record. Skidmore is 9-5 with 2 games left to play.

Vassar loses to Bard for the 2nd time this year as they fall to the Raptors 56-55. Go figure. Vassar can travel nearly 300 miles and beat SLU and Clarkson on back to back nights. Yet a short hop away to play the last place team results in a season sweep for Bard.

Union keeps their playoff hopes alive with an 82-73 win at RIT. They are now tied with Clarkson for the 4th playoff spot.

Brendan Harder was not only chosen as a Liberty League Performer of the Week for his big effort in last weekend's games, he was named as the ECAC Upstate Player of the Week. Good for Brendan. After seeing him play as a sophomore several years ago I always thought he was the hardest working player the Tigers had. Nice to see him get his due.

Big finish for this weekend. I think it's possible that 3 teams could end up with a 10-6 record. Not saying they will, just that's it's possible. SLU is already 10-6. If Skidmore beats RPI and loses to Union they will be 10-6. If Union beats Clarkson, then Skidmore they will be 10-6. Clarkson could also end up at 10-6 by beating Union and RPI, but then of course Union couldn't be 10-6. That will be a fun tiebreaker to figure out. Hey "with age" get busy on that for me would you?  

[hopefan]

Magic... on the other hand.... ever hopeful hopefan, still hoping for alma mater RPI, needs Clarkson over Union, Skidmore over Union, RPi over Skidmore, RPI over Clarkson...

RPI 9-7
Clarkson 9-7
Union 8-8

and RPI gets the tie breaker with the win over Hobart...

[magicman]

Anything's possible hopefan, but I think the Redhawks are on the outside looking in. That loss to RIT is gonna come back to haunt them.

[magicman]

New set of Regional Rankings have just been released. Not a lot of changes in the East. The only change was Hobart leapfrogging over NYU.    Here's the East rankings:


EAST                      In Region     Overall
1.   Hartwick               21-2          22-2

2.   Oswego State       19-2          19-3

3.   Hobart                 18-4          19-4

4.   New York U.         18-4          18-4

5.   Medaille               20-2          21-2

6.   Nazareth              16-6          16-8

For the complete list of Regional Rankings, here's the link to the NCAA page:
http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-men/d3/regional_rankings

[magicman]

Liberty League action Friday night has determined the 4 playoff contenders.

Union defeated Clarkson 76 to 61

Skidmore beats RPI 102-96

Hobart stops Bard 65-48

Vassar edges RIT 72-69


Union's win over Clarkson, coupled with RPI's loss to Skidmore, gives Union at least the 4th seed with RPI and Clarkson eliminated from post-season play. Union can still finish as the 3rd seed if they defeat Skidmore on Saturday afternoon. That would give SLU the 2nd seed, Union the 3rd seed and drop the Thoroughbreds down to the 4th seed. All three would end up with 10-6 records but SLU would win the tiebreaker as they hold a victory over Hobart and the other 2 both went 0-2 against Hobart. Union would then win the head to head tiebreaker over Skidmore having defeated them twice.

If Skidmore beats Union they would claim the 2nd seed with an 11-5 record, SLU would get the 3rd seed with a 10-6 record and Union would be the 4th seed with a 9-7 record. If Clarkson wins against RPI and ties Union's 9-7 record they will still come in 5th place as they lose a tiebreaker based on Union's earlier victory over Skidmore. Clarkson needed SLU to come in 2nd in order to win a tiebreaker against Union.

I'm thinking that Skidmore will hold home court this afternoon and beat the Statesmen by a score of 74-69.

That will make the matchups for the tournament like this.

#4 Union at #1 Hobart

#3 SLU vs #2 Skidmore   

[magicman]

Pretty close with my Skidmore-Union prediction of 74-69 as the Thoroughbreds take care of business and beat Union by a score of
75-63.

Hobart defeats Vassar 69-43 but the score has been posted wrong on the D3 scoreboard.

Clarkson downs RPI 100-78

RIT defeated Bard in overtime 76-73

The matchups for the tournament are what I posted earlier today. Both games will take place on Wed. Feb. 22nd and start at 7 PM

#4 Union at #1 Hobart

#3 St. Lawrence at #2 Skidmore

The Championship game will take place at the highest remaining seed.

[with age came?]

Vassar loss on Alumni weekend was the one that allowed the playoffs to get away for the Knights.  Hope that Clarkson might get the opportunity for a ECAC game!?!  When is that announced?  I can trust Magic to know......  Also saw that Hobart got a very faint amount of love this week.  The League I think as a whole was up in talent this year from last (both Skidmore and Hobart did not lose too much and Clarkson SLU and Union were all better too).  Obviously Hamilton's departure does factor in but overall I though the LL acquitted itself quite well.  Highlight was probably SLU's win over Oswego St so far but there is still time to improve on that!!

[7express]

Here's the list for declared ECAC teams:

http://static.psbin.com/j/3/ws74l5g5ilg3kp/Declared_Teams_M_Basketball.pdf

[magicman]

Hobart defeats Union tonight 73-53 to advance to the Championship game of the Liberty League. Matt Pebole with 21 points and 10 rebounds for Hobart. Also in double figues for the Statemen are Joe Gibbons with 19 and Stefan Thompson with 14. Union's Kevin Donohue with 13 and Joe Mason with 11.


Skidmore leading St. Lawrence 67-57 with 4 minutes to play in the game.