MBB: Liberty League

[Hoaf]

Williams wins by 2 63-61

[met_fan]

Hamilton played as bad as possible for the first 25-30 minutes, down 38-21 in early second half - TK didn't make the trip.  Then they suddenly started to play and tied it at 61, only to give up a layup on an inbounds play with 2 seconds on the shot clock and 9 seconds in the game.  They are truly a poor team in the half court offense and besides a few streaky periods, really struggle to put the ball in the basket, despite being vastly more athletic than Williams and killing them on the boards. 

[woot returns]

you are prob waiting for me to say something but i wont.

[b4the3isme]

Here comes the weekend of truth.  Union travels north to take on SLU and Clarkson while Hamilton travels & takes on RPI & Vassar.  If Vassar sweeps this weekend I'm officially on board the bandwagon.

[Hoaf]

I'm with you. If Vassar wins out through this weekend they'll be the team to beat in the Liberty League.

Does anyone else find it weird that a school that was originally a women's college could be the top team in the Liberty League?

Who do you think is going to make the tournament?

I'm putting my money on St. Lawrence, Vassar, Hamilton, and either Clarkson or RPI. I think Union starting (4-1) is a fluke in my book.

[Hoaf]

I was looking through some team stats on the NCAA website. Thought you might find some of these interesting.

St. Lawrence has the 8th ranked Field-Goal Percentage Defense in the nation at 37.6%. New York U. leads the nation at 34.2%.

St. Lawrence is also 4th in Blocked Shots per game at 5.8 a game. Gettysburg leads the nation with 6.8.

Vassar has the 12th best rebound margin at 7.9 per game. New York U. leads the nation with 13.1 more boards a game than their opponents.

This is out of the 380 D-III basketball teams.

Check it out for yourself:http://web1.ncaa.org/stats/StatsSrv/ranksummary

[FisherDynasty]

Interesting stats Hoaf, however, sad to say neither of those teams besides maybe NYU will do any damage in the NCAA.  Most of those stats are against bad teams.  For comparison, if you did D1 stats, im sure some of the better small conference schools have better stats then the big conference schools.  Gives no indication on how good a team is in comparison to the rest of the country.

[Hoaf]

No, I know that. I just thought you guys would want that tad of info.

[shooters]

I think St. Law and Hamilton are locks. There is no way Clarkson does anything in the tournament, they won't even be in the Liberty League tournament, that is pretty much a lock at this point. My prediction is Hamilton is back to championship form this weekend w/ TK and they sweep the weekend and shut up this Vassar is god talk. BUT if they don't then I might even jump on the Vassar bandwagon.

[bucketsallday]

i could sit here and argue with you for hours about whether vassar or hamilton is better, but just look at the records. their only loss is to the team they are in a first place tie with in the LL, and their other three losses are to Wash. U. (#12 in the country) and Babson at the opening tournament of the season at Babson, and to a very underrated manhattanville team on the road. hamilton lost to skidmore .... SKIDMORE.

now that ive run my mouth, im really hopin vassar steps up and sweeps this weekend. should be a great game against hamilton.

[shooters]

buckets,

no need to argue, we will get the answer Saturday evening, correct? I promise Vassar is going to get a much needed and deserved smacking! Yes we lost to Skidmore, and yes its hard for me to even type that.....but we're talking about Vassar, Vassar.........Vassar? If they win then I'll jump on the bandwagon, but lets all get serious here, I will find it hard to believe that Hamilton will lose to Clarkson, Skidmore and Vassar all in the same season! Let the fun begin!

[b4the3isme]

If it were a perfect world and to make it really interesting...  Hamilton beats Vassar and Union loses to both Clarkson and SLU. Everybody with 2 losses minimum and let the fun begin, but that being said I think Union splits up north beating Clarkson and losing to SLU and Vassar nips Hamilton at home forcing me reluctantly to jump on the Vassar bandwagon.  In terms of the tournament Vassar, SLU, Hamilton in then a dog fight between RPI, Union, and Clarkson (particularly if Clarkson gets healthy).  Clarkson does need to win twice this weekend to right the ship.  Game against Union is huge for them.  Think they'll be able to hold off Skidmore on Sat. at home.

[woot returns]

im a hamilton fan, but im rooting for vassar to win this game. Hamilton doesnt deserve to be in the tournament after losing to skidmore. sorry to be negative, but i dont understand why teams with a long standing history of winning like hamiloton dont hold their coaches and various programs accounatble. given it is dIII, but when hamilton plays st. john fisher in the ncaa tournament, it is a dI atmosphere. coaches need to be held accounatbel by their athletic directors for losing and inner-team turmoil. i dont like how most d3 coaches coach at the same program for minimum 15 years even if they run a mediocre program or run a program where players and coaches are continually fighting. I know the top programs in d1, coaches will get fired if they do not perform year after year or are strongly disliked by players.

[FisherDynasty]

Agreed Woot, there are a number of bad coaches in the E8 that year in and year out do not bring their teams to maximum potential, but yet, never get fired.

[labart96]

Does anyone else find it weird that a school that was originally a women's college (Vassar) could be the top team in the Liberty League?

Nope - TGP imagines that the high ratio of women to men was a BIG factor in helping out recruiting great players into their program!