MBB: MAC Freedom League

[kate]

Brian Hunter, an all-star player from Emmaus who started at Lehigh, has transferred to DeSales where he will play immediately.  Ugh, will this be an "all DeSales" year?  Gotta challenge em teams (that goes for the women, too). 

[Coach K]

Wow, I guess Wilkes will be pretty solid! I always liked the Kresge kid from back in his days at Pleasant Valley in HS. The Freedom will definitely be fun to watch. Kate, you mentioned Brian Hunter. With him, Darnell Braswell and Matt Zwetolitz in their back court, they will be in games every night. They might be a little thin with their big men, but those are three guys who can light it up any given night.

Miseri has a returning 1000 point scorer in Baumunk and solid guards, and I also think Woodruff is a pretty solid coach. Alvernia is always tough, and Matt King is another guy that can fill it up on a given night. Del Val has a new coach, Kings looks to be rebuilding after losing a lot from a big and physical team last year. It's going to be a lot of fun to watch this year!

[G-manWU]

ColonelJohn,

Give me a yell and let me know if you will be in the house tomorrow evening for the season opener. I'll be there, and if I don't see you then I will track you down at another game soon- I also ahve it planned to make the first game vs. King's and I figure you will be there as well.

[MACfan08]

Well the season started for some of the teams around the league and it is looking a bit interesting already.

Alvernia start off the year with a loss to etown by 5.  Not a bad loss at all etown is a good team and a tough place to play at. 

Desales starts off the year on the right foot with a win over st. john fisher by 6 on the road.

Eastern opened up is year witha  blow out vistory over philadelphia biblical didnt seem to be much of a game with a 20+ point vistory maybe not the best team to start off with knowing the MAC is going to be good competition. 

FDU opened up at home with william patterson where the lost by 15. thought this was going to be a little better year for FDU getting everyone back and having one of the best players in the league so we will have to wait a little longer to see if they pan out. 

Manhattenville opened up in a tip off tournament where they took on washington and jefferson the first night and won by 5 then in the championship game they took a hard loss to stevens by 22 where the game was played at stevens.

Misericorida opened up on the road in a tournament down at york college where in the first night they played susquehanna and lost by 9. Susquehanna is said to have a good team this year and are very big and physical. In the second night they beat york by 8 who my guess is on a little bit of a rebuilding year after lossing a stuf like mcgowan.

Finally to round out the opening weekend King;s hosted its own tip off tournament where in the first night they play some tech school from new york city. They beat them by 9 and moved on to play sunday in the championship. On sunday they took on #23 Widener and pretty much handled them from the tip. King's out hustled them, out played them, out coached them, and just did everything that was needed. Ended up beating them by 15 was very shocked with this because noone gave King's a chance going into that game on sunday.

[ColonelJohn4Life]

Wilkes 100, Baptist Bible 84.  50 in the first half, and 50 in the 2nd. Adds up to a c-note, my friends.

Baptist Bible's tallest guy was 6'3".  That obviously presented some match-up problems against a Wilkes team with 6'5"s Kline, Kresge, and Gabriel at forward and a much improved 6'6" John DeFeo at center.

With about 7 to go in the first half, Baptist Bible brought it to within 4.  A nice Wilkes run extended it to 15 (44-29), and it was never close again.  Chris DeRojas has 22, Tom Kresge had 24 and 14, and Steve Kline had 27 pts, 9 boards, and 8 assists. (Credit to the Wilkes website for the actual numbers)

[ljk]

Col.:  Wilkes does have some nice size this year (4 returnees and 2 Freshmen 6'5 or over).  Combined with the steady guard play of last years Rookie of the Year, DeRojas, it creates a nice inside/outside game.  The addition of former King's great, Big John Soboleski, as new assistant coach, has really helped the big men.  He has been working with the big guys and you can see the improvement in their foot movement and aggressiveness.   Some of the drop steps and spin moves displayed in the first game were very reminiscent  of the former King's star.  With two more home games coming up this week, Coach JR will get a better look at some of the new guys, and have a chance to work on a good solid 8 man rotation.  The conference opener is not far away,  and it is King's on December 3.  Might as well get right into the mix from the get go. 

[ColonelJohn4Life]

LJK: I think you nailed it.

However, as an alum of Bishop O'Reilly AND Wilkes, I've pretty well hated John Soboleski for every year starting with a 2.  The positive impacts he had at Hanover and King's... he's the sort of guy that you have nightmares about.  I saw the list of coaches this season and thought, "Heh, what are the odds? Some other Soboleski working for Wilkes. Weird."

All that having been said, I'm thrilled to have him on board.  Last night, saw him symbolically wearing blue.  All is forgiven.  Since '03 or so, the influence of a solid big man has been the difference between very good Wilkes (and DeSales) teams and the teams that eventually won the Freedom.  Think about it.  Huggler and the other guy at Lycoming, Bicknell at Scranton, Soboleski at King's.

[MACfan08]

I was at the wilkes game and i have one question to ask... where the hell was the defense?  Against a smaller less talented team in baptist bible there is no way wilkes should have let them put up 84 points in a 40 minute game just should not have happened.  I saw a team in wilkes that let guys get to the paint at will and i saw a wilkes team that did not contest three point shots at all.  Every college player can make a three without a hand in his face. On the other end they looked good.  They were playing well of offense and really were able to fill it up. The only questions i have is it looks like there may be some tension between gulla and derojas i noticed on many trips down the floor if gulla was wide open and derojas had the ball he did not pass it to him almost looked the other way as if he didnt see him and vice versa this could lead to some problems down the road if their two starting guard wont play together and be willing to let the other guy gets his too.  My last point is the MAC is going to be very guard based this year with two great ones at desales a great one at fdu a very good one at alvernia and from what i hear mahattenville has a quick shifty guard as well so my question is how is wilkes going to match up with that because number 12 from baptist bible did what ever he wanted and owned derojas off the dribble almost as if he wasnt there.

But again i will say wilkes looked good looks like they may have taken a step forward from last year which is good to see but you will not win a mac championship giving up 84 points that just all there is too it.

[ljk]

MAC:  I agree with your assessment on Wilkes lack of "D", as it was evident in the first two games.   They did not contest the 3 ball and guys were driving right past them for the most part.  They have to tighten up on this end of the floor for sure.  DeRojas is a terrific offensive player but does have some deficiencies on the defensive end of the floor.  I have seen bigger, stronger, and more athletic guards give him trouble and take advantage of him.  I think Wilkes has to get more production out of the other guard spot to lighten the load for DeRojas.  I don't believe DeR was taken our of either game, if he was, it wasn't for long.  He is going to log a lot of minutes.  As far as the tension between Gulla and DeR, I didn't see it, but certainly doesn't bode well if there is something there.  I'll have to check that out as the season progresses.  Overall, it does look like Wilkes is a much improved ball club,  but it is only 2 games in, and we'll see as the competition gets better down the road. 

[G-manWU]

Hi everyone, sorry for my lack of contribution with the season under way but I have been overloaded with grad school work for much of this weke and had little time to spare. I was in the house on Monday night, and plan on being there for the game vs. Kean on Friday as well.

In terms of the defense, I would hope that those scores reflect a team that is still finding an identity in all phases of the game at this point in the season. BBC was a scrappy team that always play hard for 40 minutes, and I would put my money on the Wilkes "D" getting much tougher as conference play approaches. Friday night brings in a good squad that will be a great test for the Colonels, so let's see what happens.

ColonelJohn- Great catching up with you on Monday night. Good job also on the list of opposing big men, but be sure not to forget everyone's all-time favorite, Mike "Lumpy" Kreuter of the Royals.

[ColonelJohn4Life]

Good job also on the list of opposing big men, but be sure not to forget everyone's all-time favorite, Mike "Lumpy" Kreuter of the Royals.

G-Man,
You laugh, but in the '06 Title game, friggin Lumpy was the difference maker.  Bicknell went out, Walters went out, and there was NO answer for Lumpy. Dude hit three baskets in about a minute, and the game had changed.

And as far as Wilkes's defense goes against Baptist Bible... it was 50-33 at the half.  With everyone playing full-on, BBC was on pace for 66.  At about the 18 minute mark in the 2nd half, the game just got a lot looser.  I put no creedence in "garbage time" stats.  If it's a 100-66 final, no one's saying a thing about "a lack of defense".

[jabstep08]

Just returned from the del val and york game and it was the same result as last years team a lost. Del val was up by 11 at the half and ended up losing 91-77. Del val has the talent but the coaching is bad.

[ljk]

In a ugly but entertaining game, Wilkes lost its first game of the season, in overtime to Kean.  Both teams shot terribly from the field, with a big difference being the free throws.  Kean made 17 of 30, while Wilkes canned 35 of 47.  It was a bad match up for the Colonels, as they had trouble with the up tempo style of Kean.  The defensive pressure of Kean created a lot of turnovers for the Colonels.  It looks like a team who has a lot of speed and quickness could cause problems for this years Wilkes squad.  As I mentioned in my previous post, I think DeRojas needs someone to step up at the other guard spot and the lack of speed at that spot was very noticable.  All that being said, Wilkes led for most of the contest.  They were given a gift when a Kean player fouled Kline with .02 on the clock and Kline made the 2 pressure packed FTs to send it into overtime.  Wilkes made only 15 FGs the entire game and just 4 in the 2nd half as the pressure defense of Kean created havoc and made Wilkes set up their offense way too far from the basket.  Wilkes tried to spread the floor but the quickness was just not there.  After 3 home games to open the season, the Colonels go on the road against Susquehanna for their next game.

[naismith]

re/ Wilkes-Kean
Wilkes jumped out to early 13 point lead within first 10 minutes. Used up tempo offense to get decent looks and DeRojas was able to get his shot.
From tht point on, Kean controlled the tempo.  They slowed down the Wilkes attack by subbin on every made basket and Wikes FT to set up a trapping press. This, in turn, forced Wilkes into 1/2 court sets.   
{Check the game summary and it is noticeable. (sub sub sub sub).}

The press itself did not create turnover havoc (Kline and Ruby once each and a 10 second violation).  Chris G logged a lot of minutes, was the most effective ballhandler against whatever pressure Kean applied.

The 2nd noticeable defieciency (tempo being #1 imho)  was the inability to get the ball inside in good position.. No doubt Tom K was bothered by the mask on his broken nose. But, by and large, Kean forced the Wilkes bigs to set up too far from basket, doubled and tripled them  once the ball entered.... and Wilkes did not respond well.  Slow decisions and forced shots resulted.

Kean had terrific team speed and some real UPS!! And it showed on the boards. They put a very very atheltic and quick player of DeRojas (#2) and he had
difficulty getting his shots  during the 2nd half. 


For Kean, once the tempo was in their favor, they continued to peck away. No.25 was very sound and effective and their one PG #5 had solid handle and hit the big 3 at the end of regulation.

At game end, some missed FT's and an untimely TO sealed it.

Overall, --the Wilkes bigs were pretty ineffective.  (Guard Chris G had team high 10 boards) Really not much from Anthony G, Steve K or John D. Frosh Kyle H had a few nice minutes and Tom K did play a solid game.   Chris G, in addition to handling the press,  took a couple of charges, played solid D.  When  it appeared the Colonels would win (whhich was most of the game)< I'd have handed him the game ball.

Most will remember a few missed ft's (I think Wilkes missed 4 of 6 down the stretch and in OT) and the 1 turnover.

I think Wilkes needs to improve their defense (too many guys get beat off the dribble)...and the interior defense has to step up. (a little better against Kean but a loang way to go).

As to Freedom,  I have yet to see anyone else so little to say.....but if Wilkes thinks that they will win Freedom via graduation losses, that just won't happen. They will need to play better.

Naismith

[ljk]

Nais:  As you pointed out, Wilkes looked good in the first ten minutes of the game leading 27 to 14 and on pace for another 100 point game.  A nice coaching tactic by Kean, subbing on every made Wilkes basket, enabling them to set up full court press and control game tempo and momentum.  Two critical plays come to mind down the stretch.   Wilkes called time out to set up out of bounds play and threw it away and Gulla on 3 on 1 fast break picking up a charge foul.  I think Gulla played a good floor game for the most part, , handling the ball, and picking up a few charge calls.  However, I think he tried to to way too much in the last 2 minutes and came up a little short.  I would have liked to see the ball in DeRojas hands as the clock was winding down.  He usually makes the right decisions and hardly misses on the free throw line.    The old Wilkes nemesis of missing free throws at crunch time came back to bite them again.