MBB: Liberty League

[stlawus]

League is just tough. It's bad for the league's pool C aspirations but good for entertainment purposes. It's not like it was even 5-6 years ago where there were one or two elite teams within the league and then everyone else. There was the occasional upset but that was the exception. Now anyone can beat anyone regardless of standings and any result is completely unsurprising.  Especially when home and away splits continue to be more extreme.

[Bartman]

Agree that the league is extremely competitive this year. Hobart has two games at home that feel like must wins given the home-away schedule after this weekend(6 of 8 will be away games after this weekend). Tonights game against SLU will be intense as SLU with a 3-5 record will be desperate for a win and their defensive intensity should be at a maximum.If Pat Healy and Alex Moesch are hitting their threes , Carter Meshanic is getting more than his share of rebounds and the Statesmen can make free throws, they'll make short work of the Saints. But if the Saints are the Saints and those threes are heavily challenged and missed, turnovers overcome the Statesmen and they are cold from the stripe the Saints will get a critical win. Looking forward to the battle.   

[stlawus]

To show you how tough this league is, SLU was up 11 with 49 seconds left yet it felt like a tied game due to Hobart's excellent full court press.  SLU missed plenty of free throws but Hobart definitely had a shot that whole last minute despite it being a several possession game.  With that said, just an incredible effort from the Saints tonight. Before the season if you were to ask me the one game SLU was guaranteed to lose it would be @ Hobart.  SLU's defense traveled, shutting out the Statesmen for the first 8 minutes.  Even despite Hobart's ice cold first 10 minutes I always knew they were going to come back, and they did.  Closest it got was a tie game at 36, but as I've mentioned previous games the SLU bench did excellent work to secure the win.  Made critical threes to open the game back up to secure the win. Dan Anderson and Troy McPherson are just pure athletes. I thought Hobart got a bit unlucky on some missed threes, which SLU needed since that's Hobart's game.  Hobart adjusted at halftime but they made the mistake of trying to run SLU off the 3 point line in the first half which played into their game as the Macaulay twins are lethal going downhill to the rim.  Really entertaining physical game and I can't wait to watch these teams play again in a couple weeks.

RPI absolutely pulverized Ithaca.  I thought RPI would win but not in that extreme fashion. Engineers go back on top for at least the next 10 hours.

Union came back from down 12 with about 4 minutes left to force OT but came up short.  Vassar is definitely a lot better than I expected. Their sophomore class is developing very well and as mentioned by another user Shea Fitzgerald is playing his way into POY honors.

Clarkson might finally put it together to make the league playoffs.  Good 2nd half comeback against RIT who still can beat anyone.

Can't forget about Bard as well, road wins are not easy.  Really like what Sloan is doing down there.

[Bartman]

Well earned win by SLU at Hobart. The Statesmen looked like absolute crap in the first 10 minutes. While SLU is always a defensive challenge, that start was self imposed. Hobart has started slow in most games but this was really bad. They finally scraped and clawed to tie the game , but a combination of killer threes by SLU and strong defense won this for the Saints. I think Hunter Meshanic did a great job of defending Dudzinski, so with a better start in Canton, the Statesmen might return the favor and even the series.
 Great to see Ithaca get beaten by RPI to keep the standings compressed.

[LLFan23]

Shocking result from RPI - Ithaca, Ithaca is inarguably a top 3 offense in the league this year and to see them get blanked like that shows how well RPI can defend when they are at their best. Tomorrow will be a huge day in the league I think we may gain some clarity as to what the playoff picture will look like.

[Jersey42]

League is just tough. It's bad for the league's pool C aspirations but good for entertainment purposes.

Unfortunately I still believe the Liberty League will be a one bid team.  Even if a bunch of the LL teams could win some games in the NCAA tournament, it his highly likely that the only team that will have an opportunity will be the LL tourney winner.  Matt Snyder's computer simulation (https://d3datacast.com/npi/mbb-projections/) currently gives RPI an extremely longshot chance at getting a pool C bid.  For that to happen, they would pretty much need no more than one loss the remainder of the season.  Then they would have to lose in the LL tourney and lots of other games across the country would have to fall in place.  In his simulation, no other LL teams had any shot at pool C.

Yes, the games have to be played and it is only a simulation.  But the longer we go into the season, the more accurate the simulation becomes.

Shocking result from RPI - Ithaca, Ithaca is inarguably a top 3 offense in the league this year and to see them get blanked like that shows how well RPI can defend when they are at their best. Tomorrow will be a huge day in the league I think we may gain some clarity as to what the playoff picture will look like.

I have seen many of RPI's games and I expected this one to be a mail biter.  Like everyone else I was wrong. 

Here is my take on what you always get from RPI this season.:

• Excellent defense
• Excellent coaching
• Well disciplined

This has been enough to win many games.  Unfortunately while they have some excellent "basketball players", they are not a consistently good shooting team.  Seven of their top eight can all hit the three, and when one or two get hot, RPI is tough to beat. But you can't count on it every game.  When RPI struggles from three point range and their opponent is lighting it up, RPI can be in trouble.

When RPI is hitting their threes and their opponent is struggling to make shots, blowouts can happen.  Last night Logan Wendell had two threes in the first 3 minutes for Ithaca. Ithaca as a team had two more threes the rest of the way. For RPI, Andrew Deppe and PJ Scalisi went 7-11 combined from three point range.  RPI's smothering defense bothered Ithaca and Ithaca had a lot of shots that rolled off the rim.

RPI also blew out Hobart in Troy, but Hobart got revenge in Geneva.  In the win,  RPI shot 9-14 on three pointers.  In the loss they were 5-21, including 0-9 in the second half.

[Pat Coleman]

38 points is crazy.

[stlawus]

Solid weekend for RPI taking care of business at home.  Union led most of the game but then went ice cold.

Vassar also takes care of home court getting 2 good wins.  Very much in the picture for a first round bye.

SLU must have had a great week of practice because that was one of the best road trips they've put together in quite some time.  Scorching hot from 3 against RIT shooting 15-24, with most of them once again coming from Troy McPherson and Dan Anderson off the bench.   SLU pulled the starters and 2nd unit with 10 minutes left in the first half while RIT pressed full court the remainder of the game, I guess to make the score line look more flattering? I doubt Downs cares but as a first year head coach that's a good way to get the score ran up on you in the future.  Doesn't get any easier as the dreaded Vassar/Bard road trip looms next week for the Saints. Some of the worst games I've ever seen the team play has been the Vassar road matchup.

[LLFan23]

Interesting situation with RPI playing Friday - Sunday this weekend. Not sure the reasoning for deviating from the normal league schedule.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Interesting situation with RPI playing Friday - Sunday this weekend. Not sure the reasoning for deviating from the normal league schedule.

Skidmore is hosting swimming and hockey on Saturday.  I'm sure they just asked for the staff relief.

[Bartman]

Hobart traveling down to Ithaca for a big game. Will the Bombers protect home court or will the Statesmen sweep the regular season? League leading RPI should stay on top with away  wins against RIT and Skidmore. Everyone is running out of time to catch the Engineers to host , but you never know in the LL this year.

[stlawus]

RPI gets a win for the standings but shows that they are not invincible. Hobart slow out of the gate again starting the game down 17-0.  They did briefly take a 1 point lead late in the 2nd but couldn't close it out.

Clarkson is now entering the danger zone, starting their all too familiar late season slide.  They desperately need a win tomorrow or could be on the outside looking in.  I do not understand why they only show up against SLU and no one else.

SLU gets a good win at Bard,  In control for pretty much the whole game despite Bard making it feel a bit close in the 2nd half due to the 25 fouls whistled on SLU.  I believe Aidan Macaulay got a career high 26 points.  He was a scorching 6 of 6 from three.  This team has had some bad shooting luck from beyond the arc this season but that's starting to positively regress.  Tomorrow is a crucial game for both Vassar and SLU.

[Bartman]

Hobart starts cold again(17-0, yikes) and claws back but falls short(63-60) and splits the season series with the Bombers. It looks like RPI and Ithaca will battle for regular season title at this point. The LL tournament will be very competitive, though....if you're in it you could win it. 

[LLFan23]

In terms of significance seeding wise the two games to watch will be SLU vs Vassar and Bard vs Clarkson. If Vassar can find a way to overcome the SLU zone, they can position themselves to push for a first round bye with games left to play against both of the top two. SLU on the other hand can solidify their standing amongst the top 4 of the league with a win.

On the flip side Bard needs a win to stay alive and Clarkson sorely needs to right the ship or risk another last season collapse as other folks have mentioned on this board.

Outside of that RPI, Ithaca, and Hobart should all handle business against inferior opponents but as we know anything can happen in the league. I would look towards a Union team desperate to preserve their seeding and an RIT team that played a close one tonight to both put up good fights.

[stlawus]

And just as I expected, SLU coughs it against Vassar.  6th year senior Trey Syroka misses 2 free throws in the final minute to lose the game.  Just cannot have that from a player with that much experience.  Every year is a new adventure in the Vassar road game.  0 surprise a player off of Vassar's bench who hasn't made more than 4 threes in a game goes 7 of 9 from 3.  Dan Anderson's 6 of 6 from the arc was the only reason the team stayed in it.  Now two 1 point losses on the road for SLU, extremely disappointing from a team with this many seniors.  SLU's 6th straight road game versus Vassar's 7th straight home game.  Going to have to hope the home splits the next few weeks sort things out for SLU because this could be the back breaker.   The new SLU AD needs to do something about this schedule inequity next year, there is no reason SLU and Clarkson should be the only teams to play 6 straight road games 2 years in a row.