MBB: Liberty League

[buck1053]

Just wondering what is happening with Hamilton? They got beat by both SUNYIT and Utica, which doesn't necessarily mean anything. But then Union beat SUNYIT, 75-60 last night. I know it doesn't mean Union is necessarily better than Hamilton — in fact I don't think coaches in the league think so — and I never like those sort of arguments, where a D3 team would beat a D1 team just because they beat someone who beat someone else, and so on. But, it does make me wonder if there is something happening with Hamilton. Anyone have any thoughts or ideas?

By the way, things seem pretty screwy with the LL teams. I know it's the non-league slate with many variables in play, but this was the preseason prediction by LL coaches (with first place votes in parentheses, followed by their current record):

2009-10 Liberty League Men's
Basketball Preseason Coaches' Poll
1. St. Lawrence (5) — currently 0-4
2. Hamilton (2) — currently 2-3
3. Clarkson (1) — currently 3-2
4. Rensselaer — currently 3-1
5. Hobart — currently 3-2
6. Skidmore — currently 5-0
7. Union — currently 3-2
8. Vassar — currently 2-4

Again, I know it's early and all, it's just that the top two predicted teams seem to be struggling quite a bit. Just curious about what others are seeing, hearing and thinking.

[magicman]

Skidmore falls from the unbeaten ranks as they drop a 77-67 decision to Johnson State College, in the opening round of Skidmore's invitational. Thoroughbreds will take on the loser of the Wells-York game on Saturday afternoon at 1 PM. Don't think Skidmore saw this one coming as the Vermonters were only 1-5 coming into this game. Skidmore falls to 5-1 on the season.

[magicman]

Clarkson downs Morrisville State 71-57 to up their record to 4-2. Golden Knights are now off until January 4th when they travel to Rochester to take on the U of R Yellowjackets. Clarkson reaches double figure lead at 27-15 but only go into the break up 32-26. Extend lead to double digits early on in 2nd period and never let the Mustangs get closer than 10. Keith Murray with 17 pts, Felix Llanos with 13 pts, and Elson Pickering with 10 pts paced the Knights.

D3hoops team pages for both Clarkson and Brockport show them playing a game on Dec 15th at Brockport but schedules on both school's websites don't list that game.

[magicman]

St. Lawrence, down by 16 against Ithaca College with 9:48 left to play comes all the way back to gain the lead 87-86 with 3:42 left. After 7 more lead changes the Saints miss a 3 point attempt, and turn the ball over on their next possession. Bombers hit 4 straight free throws to claim the victory 101-97. SLU had 5 guys in double figures led by Ralph Temgoura with 24 and Garrett Sharlow with 18. Both Josh Sharlow and Nick Meunier had 15, while Terry Parham added 10. Saints fall to 2-5 and travel to Elmira for a 3 PM Saturday afternoon matchup.

Skidmore travels to Trinity (Conn.) and comes away with an 82-79 road win to move to 7-1 on the season. The Thoroughbreds took the lead 3-2 on a 3 pointer by John Douglas and were never headed, stretching their advantage to 36-10 with 6:41 left in the 1st half. Trinity down by 20 at the break and still down by 23 with 10:05 remaining nearly came all the way back and missed a 3 pointer at the buzzer that would have forced overtime. Skidmore placed 5 players in double figures led by Terron Victoria with 15, Jeff Altimar with 14, and Douglas with 14. Raoul Oloa and Sakhile Sithole both added 10 pts.
Skidmore is now off until Jan. 3rd when they travel to Vermont to take on the Castleton State Spartans.

[magicman]

St. Lawrence handles Elmira 89-70, as expected, led by a trio of players in double figures. Ralph Temgoura once again was the high scorer for the Saints,with 20 points on 7x11 fg, and 6x6 ft. Terry Parham had 13 pts and Garrett Sharlow added 11, as the Saints shot 55.75 from the field(34x61). Eleven different players broke into the scoring column as SLU took control early and led by double digits for most of the game. Saints shot 8x15 from behind the arc and 13x19 from the line. SLU record now stands at 2-5 and somewhat disappointing but 4 losses have been on the road all against decent teams. The only game they weren't competitive was on the road against 9th ranked Middlebury, a 79-57 setback. Saints are a young team that should get better as the season progresses and I still think they'll be in the hunt for league honors. They need to take better care of the ball, especially when it's crunch time to turn some of those close defeats into victories. SLU off until Dec. 29th when they take on a decent McDaniel team (4-2)
in the 1st round of the St. John Fisher holiday tournament.  McDaniel already owns a victory over #16 ranked Franklin & Marshall. If the Saints should win that game they will probably play Fisher, if not they will probably play St. Vincent.     

[magicman]

Union drops to 3-4 on the season as they lose to Western New England 58-56. Next up they go for the Utica sweep as they take on Utica College this Tuesday Dec. 15th. The Dutchmen already own a 75-60 win against SUNYIT.

[magicman]

Clarkson's Elson Pickering hits a 3 pointer with 6 seconds left to play to tie Rochester at 61 and send the game into OT.

[magicman]

Big win for Clarkson as the Golden Knights travel to Rochester and come away with a 66-63 overtime victory over the Yellowjackets. Brandon Linton led 4 Knights in double figures with 14. Keith Murray had 12, Elson Pickering 11, and Felix Llanos added 10. Clarkson goes to 5-2 and will host Cortland St. on Wed Jan. 6th.

[with age came?]

I swear this may be the biggest regular season road win for Clarkson in years. The @ Hamilton win in the 2007-2008 season was big but not like this one in my opinion. Pickering seems to be healthy and playing better this year and Linton & Murray are always pretty solid.  Hood & Llanos seem to be coming of age too.  If they can carry this momentum into the season they will definitely compete in the LL.

[magicman]

I swear this may be the biggest regular season road win for Clarkson in years. The @ Hamilton win in the 2007-2008 season was big but not like this one in my opinion. Pickering seems to be healthy and playing better this year and Linton & Murray are always pretty solid.  Hood & Llanos seem to be coming of age too.  If they can carry this momentum into the season they will definitely compete in the LL.

Newspaper article in Watertown Daily Times said it was the 1st time since the 1982-83 season that Clarkson had beaten Rochester. I was following the game online last night and Clarkson was down 3 in regulation and had about 4 or 5 attempts to tie it up and kept missing until the big bucket by Pickering sent it to OT. Knights were never headed in the extra session. Would love to see them make a good run at the Liberty League title this year. Still think St Lawrence will have a lot to say about that despite their early struggles. 

[magicman]

Another good win for Clarkson Wednesday night as they take down one of the top SUNYAC teams, Cortland St. 58-54. Here's a post from jdex off the SUNYAC board:

"Cortland bettered at Clarkson 58-54. Knights 25-22 midway and hold slim margin, but for one reversal, throughout second half. RDragons have 54 reb to hosts 32, but shoot 23x68fg, 5x17 3s, 3x9ft. Knights 19x53fg, 6x23 3s, 14x18ft. CSt's P. Oliver 12 pts(5x13fg), 7 rebs in 25'; J. Winter 10 pts(4x6fg, 2x4 3s), 8 trnvrs, 5pf in 23'; B. Nagle 16 rebs, 8 pts(4x8fg) in 33'. Little from M. Lewis. Clarkson gets 13 pts from K. Murray, 12 from F. Llanos, 11 from R. Jefferson."

Knights improve to 6-2 and next travel to Elmira on Saturday Jan. 9th. They wind up the non-conference portion of their schedule with a tune-up against Division I Cornell University on Monday Jan. 11th. The Big Red have turned into The Big Red Machine this year as the Ivy Leaguers own victories over Alabama, UMASS, St Joe's, Davidson, and St. Johns among others. On Wednesday night they barely got beat by #1 ranked Kansas 71-66 and are sporting a 12-3 record. The Clarkson game will be Cornell's final non-con game as they head into Ivy League play. No D3 team has beaten a D1 team yet this season and it looks like the Knights string of upsets will come to an end. But hey, we can dream. They will open conference play hosting Vassar and RPI on Sat and Sun Jan 15th and 16th. Go Knights.

with age,
Cornell game is one you might want to take in if you've got the time.

[with age came?]

Great week for Clarkson with Cortland win also.  Magic you are so right about me getting to Ithaca to see Knights take on Cornell but Monday is a brutal day for me.  If it were any other day I might give it a shot.  Saw the clips of Cornell vs Kansas.  There is no way even a "dreamer or two like us" can hope for a victory.  If you saw the clip a ref looked "the other way" on a Cornell 3 to take the lead with a few seconds left as the defender lunged and hit the shooter's arm.  Cornell is probably a tournament team that may give a high seed a real scare if they keep playing like this.  Think Gilbride (Clarkson's new coach) must have used his "Ivy" connections to get that game. Son's now in Boston and he wants to get up for a game so maybe I'll try to get as far as Potsdam and catch 2.  Your Cards lookto be in the thick of the SUNYAC & I agree SLU will be a contender in the LL before the end of the season.  Think the Knights will be there 2.

[buck1053]

Here's a link to the game report from the Cornell Web site about their game versus Clarkson tonight.

http://www.cornellbigred.com/news/2010/1/11/MBB_0111100627.aspx

Obviously, there was no big surprise here.

[with age came?]

Did anyone see what Skidmore did to Union tonight.  I have been saying that I thought that Skidmore had a very good recruiting class but to put the hurt on Union on the Dutchmen's home court really says that Skidmore might be a "contender"!  Move over Marlon Brando!!!

[magicman]

Did anyone see what Skidmore did to Union tonight.  I have been saying that I thought that Skidmore had a very good recruiting class but to put the hurt on Union on the Dutchmen's home court really says that Skidmore might be a "contender"!  Move over Marlon Brando!!!

with age,

Actually that game took place on Tuesday night but the score was never reported to
D3hoops. Skidmore did put a hurting on them for sure. Union has been all over the place this year. They start out with a loss to 3-9 SUNY-Cobleskill, Beat a decent SUNYIT team, by 15 points that was undefeated at the time. SUNYIT had just come off double digit wins against Utica College and Hamilton prior to playing Union. The Dutchmen then proceed to drop 4 in a row of which the losses to Western New England and Utica by a total of 3 points should have been games they won. They then beat a good Elms team that owns wins over Amherst and Plattsburgh St. So you never know which Union team is going to show up.

And then there's Skidmore. I remember everything you said about Skidmore's freshmen group last year so I've kept a close eye on them all year. When they beat NYU in their 2nd game of that opening 5 game win streak I thought, wise old with age knew what he was talking about. Then came that Johnson State debacle on the Thoroughbreds home court no less to put an end to their streak. That was bad. I mean Johnson State couldn't even beat Canton. The Skidmore sophs must have played like a JV squad in that game. Also a little disappointed with the Castleton St and Norwich loss. I'm guessing this team is a lot like Plattsburgh was last year. They're in every game but are young and make poor decisions when crunch time rolls around. Ponies could very well be sporting a gaudy 10-1 record right now istead of 7-4.They will certainly contend this year for the LL title and with the conference having graduated a ton of talent from last year it's a wide open race. They may or may not win the crown this year but next year and the year after will be Skidmore time I'm sure. About the only thing I can say with any certainty is that Vassar won't make the playoffs.