MBB: MAC Freedom League

[BJ - DSU SID]

CCIWchamps...welcome to the Mid-Atlantic board.  Glad you chimed in.

Huge congratulations to your team making the Sweet 16.  Quite an accomplishment, especially seeing the two teams you've beaten thus far.

As for Braswell and Raymond.  Please understand I was not the one comparing the two.  I was simply replying to someone else who started the comparison.  I was just filling in the missing stats because the original comparison only compared shooting/scoring.  Braswell's game is so much more than that and I wanted to make sure his others numbers were noticed.

I respect your opinion on Raymond, etc...but I am not gonna engage into a discussion with you over who's better, who's more of a complete player, etc...It would be completely unfair for me to comment on a player I have never seen play, thus my comments earlier that he is one of the if not the best player in the country.  I'll take everyone's word for it.

If DeSales and Wheaton are both lucky enough to each make the Final Four, I will be in attendance, and I will pay close attention to his game and maybe then I'll give my opinion.

My comments on Braswell were simply made because he has had an unbelievable year to this point.  He deserves All-American consideration and as the SID of DeSales, it is my job to campaign, publicize, and promote an athlete's accomplishments.  So after his dominating performance on Saturday, I wanted to get the word out in as many places as I could to promote him for All-American.  The more people that read this, the better.

I wish you would pay us the same respect and not pass judgement on whether he was or was not a complete player just by looking at a stat sheet.  Sure he may have more turnovers than assists, but when a guy plays 35+ minutes in all of our key games and touches the ball as much as he does, he's bound to turn the ball over a few times.  Hopefully you'll get to see him play (if we can continue our post-season run) and if you do, I'd be more than happy to hear your thoughts.

I wouldn't come on here and talk about a guy that I did not think was worthy.

And for the record 2.6 fouls per game, playing 35+ minutes in all of our close games...is pretty darn good in my opinion.

[CCIWchamps]

CCIWchamps...welcome to the Mid-Atlantic board.  Glad you chimed in.

Huge congratulations to your team making the Sweet 16.  Quite an accomplishment, especially seeing the two teams you've beaten thus far.

As for Braswell and Raymond.  Please understand I was not the one comparing the two.  I was simply replying to someone else who started the comparison.  I was just filling in the missing stats because the original comparison only compared shooting/scoring.  Braswell's game is so much more than that and I wanted to make sure his others numbers were noticed.

I respect your opinion on Raymond, etc...but I am not gonna engage into a discussion with you over who's better, who's more of a complete player, etc...It would be completely unfair for me to comment on a player I have never seen play, thus my comments earlier that he is one of the if not the best player in the country.  I'll take everyone's word for it.

If DeSales and Wheaton are both lucky enough to each make the Final Four, I will be in attendance, and I will pay close attention to his game and maybe then I'll give my opinion.

My comments on Braswell were simply made because he has had an unbelievable year to this point.  He deserves All-American consideration and as the SID of DeSales, it is my job to campaign, publicize, and promote an athlete's accomplishments.  So after his dominating performance on Saturday, I wanted to get the word out in as many places as I could to promote him for All-American.  The more people that read this, the better.

I wish you would pay us the same respect and not pass judgement on whether he was or was not a complete player just by looking at a stat sheet.  Sure he may have more turnovers than assists, but when a guy plays 35+ minutes in all of our key games and touches the ball as much as he does, he's bound to turn the ball over a few times.  Hopefully you'll get to see him play (if we can continue our post-season run) and if you do, I'd be more than happy to hear your thoughts.

I wouldn't come on here and talk about a guy that I did not think was worthy.

And for the record 2.6 fouls per game, playing 35+ minutes in all of our close games...is pretty darn good in my opinion.

I mean no disrespect to him at all.  Averaging a near double double is great.  But you have to admit that the FT% and turnovers are KEY weaknesses against an argument of an all-around player.  I would argue against your definition, not his play.  And yes, comparing people only on paper is tough, if not pointless.

But consider your job accomplished as I am a new member of the audience that had not previously heard of Braswell!

[BJ - DSU SID]

Key weaknesses - No.  He is trusted with the ball in his hands at the end of games all the time and we are 24-5 and in the Sweet 16.  Could it be better.  Absolutely...but so far he's been good enough.

Thanks for the conversation and we at DeSales wish you lots of luck this coming weekend.

[chizwiz]

Okay, so I tossed a spark into a haystack regarding the Braswell-Raymond thing.  That was me having fun at BJ's expense.  No disrespect to Chair, but I think there are other ways to prove the point that Braswell might not be an All-American (if that is the case).

Enough negatives of Braswell.  Here is what I like.  He is a lock-down defender who actually has a better chance of defending top guards than most I have seen lately, which admittedly is not as many as I would like to see.  He is a senior and is dependable, he is tough.  I'm sure BJ and others can say more.  I, however, think he barely falls short of being an All-American.  If he gets it, that would be awesome, for him, his team, and the MAC-F.  I hope he does.  Enough from me on that.

[chizwiz]

Congratulations to DeSales for their win against Ithaca on the road last night.  You are definitely making our conference proud with every win.  Please, feel free to get yourself into the Final Four.  I, and many others in this conference, are rooting for you.

Hope to be able to travel to Richard Stockton on Friday and/or Saturday to see you all play.  Good luck.

[ronk]

Congratulations to DeSales for their win against Ithaca on the road last night.  You are definitely making our conference proud with every win.  Please, feel free to get yourself into the Final Four.  I, and many others in this conference, are rooting for you.

Hope to be able to travel to Richard Stockton on Friday and/or Saturday to see you all play.  Good luck.

   DeSales will be playing @ F&M, not Richard Stockton.

[chizwiz]

Thanks, my mistake.  Been staring at the bracket on and off all day.  Good thing, too, cuz F&M is closer than Richard Stockton.

[ronk]

  I know the feeling; I've been trying to turn a 7-hr trip to Rochester into a 4-hr trip to Scranton or a 1 1/2 hr to York.

[chairman]

I think defensively he is an outstanding candidate. He is a tremendous rebounder, and by all reports he has shut down some really top kids. He is playing very well in the most important part of the season. I would think the thing that would keep him off the list would be his overall shooting percentage.

I think its funny how you (the chairman) like to do comparisons with two players (IE - Tucker/Pointer over the past month) and you only pick out the stats that support your argument.

Given the fact that they were the top two kids under consideration for Rookie of the Year,  think the Tucker/Pointer comparison was germane-- I even gave Pointer leeway for the whole rim of doom thing.

In terms of Raymond and Braswell, I picked the one first team guard I'd seen play. That's obviously a tough comparison for anyone, but the attempt numbers were so similar, I thought it was worth doing. In terms of rebounding, I would venture a guess that if they switched leagues and or teams, the two players' rebounding numbers would be different. Probably not inverted, but different.

It also seems like every time I check Livestats or tune into a game in the post-season he is hitting a big shot.

The question posed was not whether Raymond or Braswell was a better basketball player-- I don't think even the most ardent DeSales supporter should attempt to make that argument. The question was whether Braswell is an efficient enough offensive player to be in the top ten Division III guards in the nation.

My feeling is that if DeSales makes the elite eight, the people making the selections will be able to look past the shooting percentages.

It was fun to see the board explode after sitting quietly for so long.

[mid-range j]

chiz - i believe that braswell is a junior - which makes it even crazier that he is coming back next year

bj - dont worry to much about chairman, he is a very very bitter person, hes prob mad that jason reels didnt get put up for all american status, and at the end of the day he will blame that on mvilles rims as well..


braswell is an all-american in my book..ive seen all americans play this year and in the past and i dont go by the "numbers" (even though thats what many people who are voting have to really look at) the kid is a problem and has a mid-range game that is also overlooked , his DEFENSE is great, and he also makes players around him better, he is a leader and he is coming back, we will see what happens tho..

congrats to desales..keep it going!

[Coach K]

Okay, so I tossed a spark into a haystack regarding the Braswell-Raymond thing.  That was me having fun at BJ's expense.  No disrespect to Chair, but I think there are other ways to prove the point that Braswell might not be an All-American (if that is the case).

Enough negatives of Braswell.  Here is what I like.  He is a lock-down defender who actually has a better chance of defending top guards than most I have seen lately, which admittedly is not as many as I would like to see.  He is a senior and is dependable, he is tough.  I'm sure BJ and others can say more.  I, however, think he barely falls short of being an All-American.  If he gets it, that would be awesome, for him, his team, and the MAC-F.  I hope he does.  Enough from me on that.

For the record, Braswell is a Junior. Just wanted to clear that up. BRASWELL FOR ALL-AMERICAN!

[chairman]

MRJ--

Reels has too many turnovers. He shoots 42% from the floor and 71% from the line, neither of which is high enough to merit consideration. Plus SOS is not quite high enough-- (289) [for the record Manhattanville is at 106, DeSales 184, Wilkes has the highest Freedom number at 84 (in part due to two games each against M'ville, DeSales, and EU who all have good in region records.)]  But I have no complaints if you want to start pushing him.

Not bitter-- objective. I saw Braswell play twice. You can see the box scores for the two games he played against Eastern. So I will not spell those out for you, but my impression from those two games was that he was a very good rebounder/ defender, and that he took a lot of shots to get his points. The season box looks similar to that.

It's good for him and the league if he gets the recognition. My opinion is that if DeSales wins another game, he will probably get it. If they don't, I think the shooting numbers will keep him from being named, and we can blame Manhattanville's rims. Whether or not he gets it, DeSales is on a great post-season run, and he has been enormous in it, which will put him on the tip of many tongues at the start of next year.



Chiz, I didn't realize what you meant by the spark until I checked into the CCIW room.

[chizwiz]

I don't know why I thought Braswell was a senior.  That's even better for him and DeSales.  Not good for the rest of the conference, except when DeSales is in the NCAA playoffs

Mid-range, please don't make more statements like the ones you just did about Chair.  It's not what this page is about.  I have made this mistake before and it only creates more unpleasantries.  It's unnecessary and you might not say these things if you knew Chair.

Reels might not be an All-American, but he is a great player with the potential to do some great things in his final year.  And let's also remember that DeSales' last loss was to EU and it wasn't pretty.  Where was Braswell against the second-rate EU team?

Chair, I quoted BJ's post on the CCIW page and WOW did I get a kick out of their reactions.  They post at about a 10:1 rate or more to our posts, and there are so many more posters there (which I'm sure you know).

Anyway, here's to a great win by DeSales on Friday night.  I truly hope I can make it.  I will be screaming for Lapinski to shutdown the UMDart bigmen.

[hoopzwiz]

I don't know why I thought Braswell was a senior.  That's even better for him and DeSales.  Not good for the rest of the conference, except when DeSales is in the NCAA playoffs

Mid-range, please don't make more statements like the ones you just did about Chair.  It's not what this page is about.  I have made this mistake before and it only creates more unpleasantries.  It's unnecessary and you might not say these things if you knew Chair.

Reels might not be an All-American, but he is a great player with the potential to do some great things in his final year.  And let's also remember that DeSales' last loss was to EU and it wasn't pretty.  Where was Braswell against the second-rate EU team?

Chair, I quoted BJ's post on the CCIW page and WOW did I get a kick out of their reactions.  They post at about a 10:1 rate or more to our posts, and there are so many more posters there (which I'm sure you know).

Anyway, here's to a great win by DeSales on Friday night.  I truly hope I can make it.  I will be screaming for Lapinski to shutdown the UMDart bigmen.

CHEEZ,
You sure do throw around the word 'great' pretty easily.
If Reels is 'great' as you put it, what would you consider the players that are better than him?  Really, really, super 'great'?

Braswell is an all-american.  They pick 5 or 6 teams for goodness sakes.
Jones from Widener and Johnson from Wesley should also make the list.

Cheez is a first team all-world scorekeeper in my book.  Maybe second team, the girl that keeps the book at Gwynedd has better legs.

[chairman]

Thanks for the effort Chiz, but I'm cool with mid-range jabbing here and there. His concern that the Rim o Doom will be fixed by Conference Mandate for next year is well-founded, and I'm sure he blames me, so let him jab away. As for Reels being a great player, I think we all know that he is a good player who can have great moments. He has taken over some big games, but he has also been overtaken by some games as well. He has the strength to play at a top level, but he has to either let the game happen or be able to completely take over before he gets the great call.

Hoopwiz--how do you rank the three? I f you look at the national top 25, there are not a lot of Mid-Atlantic teams in it. Some might say that is because the region is so competitive that it chews up it's best with in region losses etc. etc. etc. I would argue that there might be a little of that, but also that the lower left (particularly) and upper left (additionally) quadrants of the bracket have more talent. It would be quite a task for you to walk into the multi-region board and argue otherwise. So, my point is, there is probably not room for all three of those guys on a 25 man (10 guards) All-America team.

Not that they are not great players, but there are a lot of Division III players in other regions of the country that are really good as well.