MBB: Liberty League

[magicman]

Results of Saturday night's games.

Union   68   Hobart   88   Final 
   
Clarkson   60   RPI   66   Final   
   
Skidmore   75   Hamilton   72   Final 
   
St. Lawrence   71   Vassar   56   Final


Standings after this weekend's games

1.   Hobart       3-0

2.   RPI             2-0

3.   Skidmore    2-1

4.   SLU             1-1

4.   Vassar         1-1

6.   Hamilton      1-2

7.   Clarkson      0-2

8.   Union           0-3

   

[magicman]

Magic...  how bout dem Engineers??!!!!!

hopefan,
I think they will make the Liberty League playoffs this year. I guessing they will finish in 3rd or 4th place for the regular season. Of their 4 losses, 2 of them were to highly ranked Williams and Middlebury. When the season started I thought that St. Lawrence, Hobart, and Skidmore would duke it out for the top spot and then Union had an impressive start going 8-1 to enter into the mix. 

Since then however St. Lawrence has been so inconsistent they may not make the playoffs. They lose to 1-10 Keuka, the weakest school in one of the weakest conferences in D3 and yet on January 5th they travel to Oswego and beat the SUNYAC leaders 58-57. That was a day after they barely lost to 2nd place Brockport 75-71 at Brockport. And how do they follow those 2 games? By getting blown out by your Engineers 85-52.

Union is also on a downward spiral and today I discovered that their leading scorer Justin Gallo didn't play the last 2 games and played very little in the game before that. He also is no longer  listed on the roster, and has been deleted from many of their season stats. Haven't heard a word about that. Hoping someone can fill in the details. He was an excellent receiver on Union's football team (3rd most receiving yards in school history, I believe) and didn't play basketball until this year, his senior year. He was averaging over 17 ppg so that will hurt the Dutchmen.

RPI's chances of finishing in the top 4 are definitely improving. I think you'll enjoy checking up on them more this year than you did last year.

Sadly this board is in worse shape than your SLIAC board. Very few posters and not much discussion. I come on when I have time and post results, so keep checking in.
 

[hopefan]

Thanks Magic.. I may attempt to step up my communications with old buddie Mike griffin and add anything I can find out about RPI....   kind of disappointing about the lack of activity in this room considering it is so entertaining in the LL football room... wish those guys would support the hoops teams too!!..   When I was a b ball player at RPI, the football players came to our parties!!!!

[magicman]

Thanks Magic.. I may attempt to step up my communications with old buddie Mike griffin and add anything I can find out about RPI....   kind of disappointing about the lack of activity in this room considering it is so entertaining in the LL football room... wish those guys would support the hoops teams too!!..   When I was a b ball player at RPI, the football players came to our parties!!!!

It is funny that the LL football posters never seem too interested in hoops. Dlip made a brief appearance when Union was hot, but he has been the only one in the past several years. I guess those guys have so much fun year round on the football board, they just stay there.

[labart96]

I am happy to see Hobart's 3-0 start to LL play, but yeah, I generally am more of a football than BB fan.

That said it's great to see the Statesmen off to such a great start.  Embedded in the link below is a youtube clip with Coach Metz's (H98) reactions after beating the Dutch by 20.

Hobart beats Union, Coach's reaction

[with age came?]

Come on Golden Knights- a L to Vassar - not good. Looks to be the year of the Statesmen but I am pretty removed these days.  Figure that excellent recruiting class of 2008 for the Throughbreds may also figure into the final fray.  SLU and Hamilton look down and RPI will always by around in the playoffs.

[magicman]

Results of Friday night's games.

Skidmore 65 Clarkson 57
Knights remain winless in league play. Skidmore now tied with RPI for the 2nd spot

Hamilton 73 RPI 66  
Engineers lose a home game to the one team they could least afford to. Now their playoff hopes may come down to the last game of the reguar season when they have to play the Continentals in Clinton.

Saint Lawrence 72  Union 66  
Saints move into 4th place by themselves. Union's freefall continues as they lose their 6th straight game.

Hobart 88  Vassar  57
Hobart takes sole possession of 1st place and is the only unbeaten team in the conference. Vassar will duke it out with Clarkson and Union for the other end of the standings.


Saturday's games: All will start at 4 PM

Hamilton @ Vassar
Hamilton will win this game and could move into 3rd place. Continentals 76-61  

Hobart  @ RPI
Statesmen win but Engineers keep it close. Hobart 81-75  

Union  @ Clarkson
Tough game to pick but I think Clarkson gets into the LL win column here 70-66  

Skidmore   @ St. Lawrence
St. Lawrence could move from 4th to 2nd with a win here. Biggest question is which SLU team will show up. My head says Skidmore as they've been more consistent but my heart say SLU. It's time this team turned their season around. Saints in a barnburner 69-67.





 
 

[with age came?]

Finally a league win for my Knights.  Props to Magic believe he called every game correctly.  4 for 4!!  The man knows his hoops!!

[magicman]

Saturday's results:

Hamilton 84  Vassar 44
A bigger margin than I predicted but it's not cool to predict a win by more than 20.  

Hobart 83  RPI 75
I had it 81-75. Can't get much closer than that

Clarkson 70 Union 65
Well, I guess I can, I had it 70-66.

St. Lawrence 74 Skidmore 66
Sometimes it pays to go with your heart. I had it 69-67 SLU.  Bigger margin than I thought as the Saints behind a career best 29 points from Ralph Temgoua run away from the ponies. I almost had Skidmore's score though.
Saints use a 15-1 run midway through the 2nd half to turn a 6 point deficit into an 8 point advantage and Skidmore never gets closer than 4 after that. SLU also moves into 2nd place all by themselves.  

Here are the standings heading into next week's action. Top 4 places right now are exactly as the pre-season coaches poll had them ranked. Long way to go yet. 

1.  Hobart                  5-0
2.  SLU                      3-1
3.  Skidmore               3-2  Holds tiebreaker over Hamilton & RPI
4.  Hamilton                3-2  Holds tiebreaker over RPI
5.  RPI                       3-2
6.  Clarkson                1-3
7.  Vassar                   1-4
8.  Union                     0-5

Another battle for 1st place next week as SLU travels to Hobart then Hamilton. Skidmore and RPI will duke it out next Saturday to try and improve their position.

[magicman]

Finally a league win for my Knights.  Props to Magic believe he called every game correctly.  4 for 4!!  The man knows his hoops!!

with age,
My ultimate goal is to nail both ends of a score right on the money. My second goal is to come close on the point spread. Don't think I'll do any better all year than I did with your Knights on Saturday afternoon. Glad to see them get a league win. I saw them play when they came to town against the Cardinals. Solid, scrappy team with good fundamentals, they've been in most every game and the loss to Vassar is probably one that got away and may come back to haunt them. They are starting 2 freshmen now that they don't have their 6'6" senior George Koduah. Don't know if he used up his eligibility or if he got hurt but he hasn't been around in the new year. It leaves them a little short for experienced bigs, and doesn't look good for a top 4 finish for the Knights. Now what's all this stuff about having to root for Oswego.

[buck1053]

After the first 5 (4 for St. Lawrence and Clarkson) league games, it's apparent that Hobart is the class of the LL. Now, St. Lawrence is 3-1, but I'm not sure they belong in elite status yet. I'd still group them in the bunch that's 3-2 -- Skidmore, Hamilton and RPI. Skidmore, I thought, was going to be right there with Hobart, but they stumbled this weekend.

Magic, how would you rank these teams in the LL hierarchy?

Clarkson will pose problems for teams in the second time through the schedule, though it seems like they won't make the top four. Vassar being toward the bottom of the standings isn't that much of a surprise, though.

That Union is at the bottom of the standings -- and winless in the league -- is somewhat surprising, given their 8-2 record coming into league play. But, as was previously mentioned here, Gallo is not on the team anymore, taking his 17 point a game average with him. What also is hurting them is the absence of guard Joe Mason, who apparently hurt his ankle in their game against Columbia and hasn't played in any league contests.

[magicman]

After the first 5 (4 for St. Lawrence and Clarkson) league games, it's apparent that Hobart is the class of the LL. Now, St. Lawrence is 3-1, but I'm not sure they belong in elite status yet. I'd still group them in the bunch that's 3-2 -- Skidmore, Hamilton and RPI. Skidmore, I thought, was going to be right there with Hobart, but they stumbled this weekend.

Magic, how would you rank these teams in the LL hierarchy?

buck,
I'd rank them pretty much the way the standings are right now. I would probably flip flop SLU and Skidmore though. Earlier I thought St. Lawrence would battle Hobart for the top spot but the Saints have been too inconsistent and the loss of graduated point guard Josh Sharlow has been tough to fill. SLU is averaging almost 11 points per game and 4 assists per game below last year's numbers.
Saints came on strong last year finishing 12-3 in conference games starting with a win over Skidmore on 1-23-10. After Saturday's win over the Thoroughbreds, almost a year to the day later,  they look to repeat that effort but I now think they'll fall short of those goals. Hobart is where I think the LL playoffs will take place this year and the Statesmen have yet to lose at home. LL will only get 1 bid for the NCAA tournament if Hobart wins the playoffs as every other team in the league has no chance for a Pool C bid. If Hobart gets upset in the LL tournament and they continue to embellish that 13-3 record they'll be in the running for a Pool C bid. That's the only scenario that would see 2 LL teams dancing.

Skidmore and SLU will duke it out for 2nd place and 3rd place,with the Saints having a slight edge right now. One thing in Skidmore's favor is the 2 road wins at Hamilton and Clarkson while the Saints only road win is at Vassar. SLU has yet to play Hamilton, Clarkson or Hobart, much less play them on the road as Skidmore has done. Hamilton and RPI will look to gain the final playoff spot but with Hamilton beating the Red Hawks in Troy the other day it clearly puts the pressure on RPI. They have to win that rematch at Hamilton on the last day of the regular season Feb. 19th, would be my guess. Maybe not, because they get real hot, or the Continentals get real cold but I'm betting neither of those things happen. It's Hamilton's last year in the league and they may not go out as the winner but they'll go down fighting. The bottom 3 spots will go to Clarkson, then Union, with Vassar bring up the rear.

That's the way I think it goes down, buck.  What are your thoughts. I know you've followed the league on a regular basis and I respect your imput . Need more of it is all, as this board gets kinda quiet.    

[with age came?]

C'mon Magic - what did you do with that point for Union?  (Just kidding) Koduah elected to leave the team and focus on graduating.  He could have played.  Son #1 tried to change his mind but could not. Now team will I think suffer inside and pretty much live or die by outside shooting of Llanos and other guards. Hood is strong slasher but at about 6'3" he can not "dominate" a bigger team.  Haven't seen the freshman play so this is solely on last years observations.  If Knights can pull off upset over the Saints tomorrow it will really create an interesting logjam.  However I believe the Saints will win a close game.  As for the league I agree I think Hobart is the clear frontrunner with the next closest competitor being Skidmore. I envisioned that with their recruiting class from 3 years ago.  After that I think playoff teams will be Saints and Hamilton with RPI on the outside.  Loss to Vassar will be Clarkson's bane.  As far as the Laker's - just really like Stockwell alot - I'll root for the Cards in every other game though!!

[magicman]

Tonight's games
Middlebury      Hamilton      Postponed
The game which had been rescheduled from Jan. 18th because of adverse weather has been postponed again because of an unplayable surface at Hamilton's field house. 

   
Williams      Skidmore      7:00 PM LS
Thoroughbreds take on #6 Williams. This one won't be close as Ephs win by double digits, 82-65.
   
Clarkson      St. Lawrence
North Country bragging rights on the line and Saints not ready to relinquish their supremecy. SLU 72-64 

[thebear]

Looks like Clarkson shot light out from long range and defeated SLU 63-55

Balance scoring on both sides with 9 players hitting double figures in points.

Clarkson playing small without Koduah for second semester, but picked up a much needed LL road win.