MBB: Liberty League

stlawus · December 30, 2024, 04:06:14 PM

Excellent weekend for SLU to start things up for the 2nd half of the season. 2 solid wins against Nichols and Clark at Clark. Nichols is down compared to last year, and Clark got dismantled by Tufts (the best team I've seen play this season) the day before, but Clark is now fully healthy and were looking to rebound on home court. They were a 20 win team last year and brought back almost every player. SLU was down 11 points in both contests, but held both opponents to below 60 yet again. Clark's reigning Region 2 first teamer Bruce Saintilus was limited to just 2 points on 0 field goals. 36 point, 22 rebound effort from Adam Dudzinski on the weekend. Us SLU fans are incredibly lucky to be able to see a player like him wear the Scarlet and Brown. SLU goes 6-0 in non-conference games, and now play Clarkson next Monday to kick the 2nd half conference slate off. Really impressed with Downs's coaching this weekend. Perfect rotations and 2nd half adjustments won them the weekend.

d3d3d3 · December 30, 2024, 04:54:32 PM

Not too far removed from a 13-point home loss to Bard, Union leads #1 Emory by 11 at the half ...

stlawus · December 30, 2024, 07:48:23 PM

Really good effort from Union to only lose to the #1 team on their home court by 6. Not unusual to see a team really bring it against a team that's ranked, but so far no one had really given Emory a game until today.

A great weekend made even better for SLU with Nichols taking down Tufts. I think the Liberty League back to back schedule helped them pull it off today, looked more poised and fresh the final few minutes compared to their opponent.

stlawus · January 02, 2025, 07:08:45 PM

If my math and history is correct, Chris Downs is 2 victories away from win #400. Opportunity to get that this coming week.

d3d3d3 · January 04, 2025, 05:46:34 PM

Boy, Hobart just torched RPI at home. Game was never close. Statesmen led by 10 at half, were up 23 at one point and cruised by 14.

stlawus · January 04, 2025, 06:11:45 PM

I thought RPI would regress a bit. Massey is imperfect but you can glean some useful things from there, and the one thing that stood out to me w/r to RPI was the massive disparity between their overall ranking and power ranking. They had a nearly 70 spot difference between the two a few weeks ago which to me meant they were over their skis for the first part of the season. They barely beat Castleton and Cobleskill who are 390 and 370 in Massey, and also got a bit of fortune against a cold shooting and banged up SLU team. But don't get me wrong, they are still a very good team and will probably not lose many more games going forward. Add that to the fact Hobart is a tremendous home court performing team.

Ultimately, it's just a tough league that will cannibalize itself. RPI is still an elite defensive team that I suspect will finish 1st or 2nd in the league. Better to hit a skid now than later. If Hobart can get the type of shooting off their bench they got today they'll be in pretty good shape going forward.

Bartman · January 05, 2025, 08:27:55 AM

Hobart dominates RPI and avenges slap down in Troy earlier in the season. Hobart has Pat Healy back from early season injury and he elevates the overall team performance. RPI defensive intensity is very impressive so Hobart finding open shots was hard work. If they continue this unselfish level of team play, they might meet the pre-season projection to lead the league.
William Smith is a very young team and came together with a convincing win over the RPI league leading women, to gain their first win of the season.They worked their butts off on defense and hustled all over the court.Hope they can turn the 1-9 season around.

Pat Coleman · January 06, 2025, 03:27:47 PM

Quote from: LLFan23 on December 10, 2024, 10:21:27 PMI think another issue is that it takes so long to be approved, I know a few folks that have been trying to get on for awhile.

If they have addresses that don't look like spam, they get approved from my end pretty quickly. But they have to respond to the email verification that gets sent, and sometimes that ends up in Spam or Promotions or some other folder.

stlawus · January 06, 2025, 08:52:51 PM

It Clarkson misses the league tournament again this season that should be a fireable offense for their coaching staff (I say this in jest) There is 0 reason why they cannot bring the effort they do against SLU against the rest of their opponents. They play this game like the national championship and clearly have the capability to beat anyone. To start the 2nd half shooting 13-17 and 7-10 from 3 gives them absolutely no excuses to not at least make top 4. This isn't the first group of players to experience the rivalry, they have to realize that to play like they do twice a year against SLU has be replicated throughout the season. The sky is the limit with this effort I just saw.

SLU surprisingly almost erased a 18 point deficit down to 3 with a chance to tie, but conversely this group has to recognize that Clarkson will gun for them every time and they can't assume their defensive metrics will reign just because they showed up.

Bartman · January 07, 2025, 08:11:23 AM

Clarkson's win over SLU is more evidence of a very competitive LL season. Hobart has two games at home this weekend against RIT and a league leading Ithaca. They need both wins if they want to make the tournament and possibly host as home court is big. That said, I hope every player is practicing their foul shots because you can't win close games shooting less than 60% from the foul line as a team...a big weakness that needs work.

UfanBill · January 08, 2025, 11:11:47 AM

After last night's 63-62 win over Bard the Union men's basketball team is 5-0 at home and 0-5 away. They did win a game at a neutral site by 2 pts. Without a center on the roster the Garnet Chargers are forced to shoot well to win. Here's the interesting thing. Going into last night's game Union was ranked 1st in all of the NCAA D3's 407 teams in Free Throw % at 81.5%, 123/151. Their 6/10 last night sank them to 80.1% still 3rd. That's great shooting right?...But their overall FT's attempted is only 14.6/g and ranks 372/407, way down at the bottom. So they're a great FT shooting team IF they can get to the line. Sometimes you win games at the FT line.

How about 3's? Probably good from the arc too right? NO, while they do shoot a lot of 3's by necessity 26.1/g 78th, they only make 8.9/g or 34.1% which ranks 148th and with a very limited inside game their overall shooting is just 42.9%, ranked 259 out of 407 teams. More often you lose games with poor shooting.

Against Bard the Garnet Chargers came out hot. Scoring the first 12 points of the game, making 7/15 3's and led 40-26 at the half. In the second half they shot 0/12 from behind the arc and barely survived a last second shot for the win by the Raptors.

Why do I tell you all this? Well Union is and always has been a dangerous team. They can win any game if they shoot well and look dismal when they don't. Example...in a recent game at #1 Emory the Garnet lit it up in the first half and led 47-36 at halftime. Then the basket shrunk. Emory took the lead with 9:37 left and from there Union only hit three shots from the field. They were 8/33; 1/8 in the second half. Huge opportunity lost.

Union is also a young team as they do not have a senior on the roster. On a good shooting night they'll be a factor in the Liberty League. Especially at home.

Bartman · January 11, 2025, 09:33:49 AM

Looks like the Dogfight part of the LL season is well under way. Hobart battles back for a nice home win against RIT. Huge game today against league leader Ithaca. Good luck to the league members in 2025.

stlawus · January 11, 2025, 06:59:54 PM

A lot can happen in 12 more games but I think the league will eventually separate a bit with the top 3 being any combo of RPI, SLU and Hobart. Clarkson was a possession away from getting swept on the weekend. Ithaca could very well finish at the top but they have too many defensive deficiencies right now for me to lock them in.

Chris Downs gets win #400 today as the SLU bench pours in 63 points on the weekend. Trey Syroka being fully healthy has put him back in the starting lineup and Dan Anderson terrorized Vassar and Bard off the bench. SLU's depth this year could end up being a major factor down the stretch.

stlawus · January 12, 2025, 01:52:59 PM

There's a lot going on in the current d3 hoops season, lots of good teams, interesting narratives etc but I would think Downs getting his 400th win would garner some sort of acknowledgment from the powers that be. I guess if you're not from the NESCAC/UAA/CCIW/WIAC/some other d3hoops darling or have some sort of tangential connection to a team from those leagues you're SOL.

Pat Coleman · January 12, 2025, 02:10:19 PM

Quote from: stlawus on January 12, 2025, 01:52:59 PMThere's a lot going on in the current d3 hoops season, lots of good teams, interesting narratives etc but I would think Downs getting his 400th win would garner some sort of acknowledgment from the powers that be. I guess if you're not from the NESCAC/UAA/CCIW/WIAC/some other d3hoops darling or have some sort of tangential connection to a team from those leagues you're SOL.

How would we know? St. Lawrence didn't tell us.

It takes 500 to make the front page. The Baldwin Wallace coach (not NESCAC/UAA/CCIW/WIAC) who is on the front from last night won her 700th.