MBB: Liberty League

[Jersey42]

Does anyone know the tiebreaker rules for seeding the LL tournament? The six teams have been determined, but there are lots of potential ties with conference records.
Here is where I think things stand going into the final weekend:

[stlawus]

I believe the tie breakers after head-to-head is record against common opponents above you in the standings, followed by h2h against common opponents below you.

[stlawus]

Recruiting is also starting to pick up.  Looks like the Liberty League is loading up on central NY talent. 

RIT just got a commitment from Lowville's Brody Brown.

Hobart secured a commitment from Alex Moesch out of Chittenango.

Ithaca picked up one of the top point guards in the region, Jaylon O'Neil, from Central Valley Academy. Yoav Regev from Worcester Academy will also be heading to Ithaca. Originally from Tenafly so the Bombers continue to mine their New Jersey pipeline.

SLU just landed one of the best shooters in the region, Brayden Shepardson, from West Canada Valley. SLU also got a commitment from Colton Suriano, 6'4" F from New Hartford. Would be nice to get his teammate Zach Philipkoski as well but that's probably a long shot.

[stlawus]

With a win tomorrow Ithaca clinches the regular season title and home court throughout the playoffs.

For a minute it looked like SLU was going to go from 2nd to 5th but the finest performance of Trey Syroka's career and the best coaching job by Downs this season gives them a crucial road victory at Skidmore.  That performance should have sealed defensive player of the year honors for Syroka.  He's now at 67 steals for the season, and as far as I can deduce the record for steals in a season for the Liberty League is Tom Horvat's 74, followed by 70 from Peter Ezema.  67 steals is now the program record, as Syroka's 66th steal broke Josh Sharlow's record of 65.

As it stands SLU has the tie breaker against RPI and so I believe SLU can finish no lower than 3rd.  Hobart split with SLU and I don't know their tie breaker off the top of my head so I suppose Hobart can theoretically finish 2nd after tomorrow. 

Vassar is really reeling from the loss of Zach Johnson to injury.  But the Brewers have the senior leadership to steal a win tomorrow and/or make a run through the league tournament. 

[Jersey42]

Here are the standings with season series records after last night.



This will all be moot after 6:00 pm today, but I have taken a shot at how the standings will shake out based on this afternoon's games. I assume if two teams are tied and one swept the season series, that breaks the tie.  I still cannot figure out what happens if the tied teams split the season series.  Thanks stlawus for your insights, but I believe in any of these situations both teams will have the same record against common opponents above and below them in the standings.

   
• ITH - ITH loses and SLU wins - T1 with SLU.  Otherwise 1.
• SLU - SLU wins and ITH loses - T1 with ITH.   SLU loses and HOB wins - T2 with HOB.  Otherwise 2.
• RPI - RPI wins - 3. RPI loses - 4.
• HOB - HOB wins and SLU loses - T2 with SLU.  HOB wins and SLU wins - 3. HOB loses and SKD loses - 4.  HOB loses and SKD wins - T4 with SKD.
• SKD - SKD wins and HOB loses - T4 with HOB.  Otherwise 5.
• VAS - 6

There was a lot of parity in the league this season.  While the host team will be the favorite in the league tournament, I think any of the top five can win it.  Vassar without Johnson is a longshot at best.

[Caz Bombers]

Here are the standings with season series records after last night.



This will all be moot after 6:00 pm today, but I have taken a shot at how the standings will shake out based on this afternoon's games. I assume if two teams are tied and one swept the season series, that breaks the tie.  I still cannot figure out what happens if the tied teams split the season series.  Thanks stlawus for your insights, but I believe in any of these situations both teams will have the same record against common opponents above and below them in the standings.

   
• ITH - ITH loses and SLU wins - T1 with SLU.  Otherwise 1.
• SLU - SLU wins and ITH loses - T1 with ITH.   SLU loses and HOB wins - T2 with HOB.  Otherwise 2.
• RPI - RPI wins - 3. RPI loses - 4.
• HOB - HOB wins and SLU loses - T2 with SLU.  HOB wins and SLU wins - 3. HOB loses and SKD loses - 4.  HOB loses and SKD wins - T4 with SKD.
• SKD - SKD wins and HOB loses - T4 with HOB.  Otherwise 5.
• VAS - 6

There was a lot of parity in the league this season.  While the host team will be the favorite in the league tournament, I think any of the top five can win it.  Vassar without Johnson is a longshot at best.

table should say Vassar is 0-2 vs Hobart.

Ithaca and St. Lawrence have clinched byes; IC is the 1 with a win or SLU loss. Saints need a win and Vassar to beat IC.

Hobart at RPI winner gets the 3 seed. RPI would be the 4 with a loss; if Hobart loses they probably need Skidmore to also lose in order to be the 4 seed and host the Thoroughbreds on Tuesday. If Hobart loses and Skidmore wins, that tiebreaker would go all the way down to at least RIT and Union. Expectation is RIT finishes 1 up on Union as they play Bard while Union finishes with St. Lawrence...but stranger things have happened. Vassar is 6 no matter what and taking a bus ride to either Troy or Geneva (winner of HOB@RPI).

[Jersey42]

table should say Vassar is 0-2 vs Hobart.

Ithaca and St. Lawrence have clinched byes; IC is the 1 with a win or SLU loss. Saints need a win and Vassar to beat IC.

Hobart at RPI winner gets the 3 seed. RPI would be the 4 with a loss; if Hobart loses they probably need Skidmore to also lose in order to be the 4 seed and host the Thoroughbreds on Tuesday. If Hobart loses and Skidmore wins, that tiebreaker would go all the way down to at least RIT and Union. Expectation is RIT finishes 1 up on Union as they play Bard while Union finishes with St. Lawrence...but stranger things have happened. Vassar is 6 no matter what and taking a bus ride to either Troy or Geneva (winner of HOB@RPI).

You are right, I missed Vassar 0-2 vs Hobart 

Help me more with the tiebreaker rules (unless there is a link somewhere).

For example, if HOB and SLU end up tied at 12-6 and they split the season series, what gives SLU the tiebreaker? They were both 1-1 against ITH.  Do you look at their records against the next team in the standings and see if there is a difference?  If not, do you keep going down the standings looking for the first difference?  If this is the way it works, SLU at 2-0 over RPI is ahead of HOB at 1-1 over RPI. If not, how does it work?

[Caz Bombers]

table should say Vassar is 0-2 vs Hobart.

Ithaca and St. Lawrence have clinched byes; IC is the 1 with a win or SLU loss. Saints need a win and Vassar to beat IC.

Hobart at RPI winner gets the 3 seed. RPI would be the 4 with a loss; if Hobart loses they probably need Skidmore to also lose in order to be the 4 seed and host the Thoroughbreds on Tuesday. If Hobart loses and Skidmore wins, that tiebreaker would go all the way down to at least RIT and Union. Expectation is RIT finishes 1 up on Union as they play Bard while Union finishes with St. Lawrence...but stranger things have happened. Vassar is 6 no matter what and taking a bus ride to either Troy or Geneva (winner of HOB@RPI).

You are right, I missed Vassar 0-2 vs Hobart 

Help me more with the tiebreaker rules (unless there is a link somewhere).

For example, if HOB and SLU end up tied at 12-6 and they split the season series, what gives SLU the tiebreaker? They were both 1-1 against ITH.  Do you look at their records against the next team in the standings and see if there is a difference?  If not, do you keep going down the standings looking for the first difference?  If this is the way it works, SLU at 2-0 over RPI is ahead of HOB at 1-1 over RPI. If not, how does it work?

You are correct. The SLU sweep of RPI is the deciding factor, if 2 teams are tied and split, compare results from the top down.

[stlawus]

With RPI winning the tie breaker over Skidmore we end up with:

1. Ithaca
2. SLU
3. Hobart
4. RPI
5. Skidmore
6. Vassar

Hobart will be highly motivated against Vassar given what happened last year, this year the Statesmen get the game at home. 

Ithaca handled Vassar with relative ease to clinch the regular season.  Four 5th year players and several seniors certainly benefited the Bombers this season.  They are extremely tough at home and now get all remaining playoff games at Ben Light. 

SLU finishes the regular season winning 6 straight.  5 of these games the Scarlet and Brown were Massey underdogs.  One of Downs' best coached seasons that I can remember.  Union seniors put up a great performance in their last games wearing the garnet.  I just kept waiting for their outside shooting percentages to go down but they hit shot after shot. 

RPI and Skidmore should be a good one, they match up pretty well and RPI will also be looking for some revenge after last year's playoff performance against the Thoroughbreds. 

[Bartman]

With RPI winning the tie breaker over Skidmore we end up with:

1. Ithaca
2. SLU
3. Hobart
4. RPI
5. Skidmore
6. Vassar

Hobart will be highly motivated against Vassar given what happened last year, this year the Statesmen get the game at home. 

Ithaca handled Vassar with relative ease to clinch the regular season.  Four 5th year players and several seniors certainly benefited the Bombers this season.  They are extremely tough at home and now get all remaining playoff games at Ben Light. 

SLU finishes the regular season winning 6 straight.  5 of these games the Scarlet and Brown were Massey underdogs.  One of Downs' best coached seasons that I can remember.  Union seniors put up a great performance in their last games wearing the garnet.  I just kept waiting for their outside shooting percentages to go down but they hit shot after shot. 

RPI and Skidmore should be a good one, they match up pretty well and RPI will also be looking for some revenge after last year's playoff performance against the Thoroughbreds.

Nice summary, and a good tournament to look forward to. I think Hobart and RPI should make it to the final four, but not without some drama.. Ithaca will be the favorite at home, but I think any of the final four could get hot and take it. I know Hobart will not be intimidated having won at Ithaca this year, but they'll have to get by a hot SLU team to make it to the final by limiting turnovers. RPI always seems to have the capacity to defend well under pressure and could surprise Ithaca. It certainly will be entertaining.

[ucaafan]

Not that the outcome matters regarding an off year for Union, but how does the Home Team have 0-0 free throws versus St. Lawrence 18-25

[stlawus]

Not that the outcome matters regarding an off year for Union, but how does the Home Team have 0-0 free throws versus St. Lawrence 18-25

All of Union's shots were from 12+ feet.  Even their points in the paint were shots with one foot in the paint from the elbow.  It was pretty impressive how they kept making them, but they did not go inside at any point in the game.  Glad to see ucaafan back from a 3 year hiatus!

[ucaafan]

Good to be back and appreciate the welcome! Looking forward to a better year for the Dutchmen and wish the Saints good luck in the playoffs!

[stlawus]

Anyone have thoughts on league awards?  I think it will be as follows:

Player of the year:  Jackson Meshanic, Sr, Hobart.
Defensive player of the year: Trey Syroka, Jr, SLU.
Rookie of the year: Calvin Mader-Clark, Bard.
Coach of the year: Chris Downs, SLU.

First team:

Dom Black, Gr, RPI.
Jackson Meshanic, Sr, Hobart.
Trey Syroka, Jr, SLU.
Luka Radovich, Gr, Ithaca.
Tautvydas Kupstas, Sr, Skidmore.

Almost the same as last year with the exception of Syroka.

2nd team:

Trent Adamson, Sr, SLU.
Logan Wendell, So, Ithaca.
Kevin Ryan, Sr, RIT.
Avni Mustafaj, Sr, Vassar. 
Riley Greene, Sr, Skidmore.

Honorable mention:

Greg Skoric, Sr, Skidmore.
Skylar Sinon, Gr, Ithaca.
Blake Gearhart, Sr, Clarkson.

[Bartman]

RPI and Hobart move on as expected. As far as the finals, I think all four teams have a decent chance.