The Undefeated and the Winless

[sac]

January 4

(0-11) Franciscan at (0-11) Pitt-Greensburg

Current massey ratings out of 424

Pitt-Greensburg 423
Franciscan 424

Massey likes Pitt-Greensburg to win 82-74 with a 76% chance at victory.


My efficiency calculations have these two as 2 of the 3 lowest rated teams from the Great Lakes Region in the last 5 years.

[Gregory Sager]

I wish that NPU didn't have a game taking place at the same time as Franciscan @ Pitt-Greensburg, because in a perverse way I'd find that game entertaining to watch.

[hopefan]

I wish that NPU didn't have a game taking place at the same time as Franciscan @ Pitt-Greensburg, because in a perverse way I'd find that game entertaining to watch.

It's all about competition.. would rather see this game than one of our teams get blown out by 30 or 40 vs a nonconference D1 team etc.

I hope the players see this page... could help to make it the biggest game of the year for them....

[smedindy]

Franciscan has a history in this room, but Pitt-Greensburg was a huge plummet into the chasm. It looks like it's just rebuilding though. They do have a 7'0 freshman, which as we all know is rare for any D-3 team.

[Gregory Sager]

He's playing less than nine minutes per game, though, and he's averaging about 2 and 2 per game. But what really jumps out at me is that he's shooting only 42% from the field. Even for a freshman, that seems absurdly low for a guy who's six or seven inches taller than everybody who is guarding him in the low post.

I've seen 6'11 benchwarmers in D3 before, and there's a kind of poignance to their presence on the bench. You think about how everybody assumes that 6'11 guys are automatically good at basketball, and about the expectations people have for players of that size to be utterly dominant at the non-scholarship level, and then you see those guys sitting there and you realize that: a) there's so much more to succeeding at this sport than simply being tall; and b) failing to meet everybody's expectations while you're doing something you love must make for a lot of lonely feelings. Then again, as Wilt Chamberlain used to say, nobody roots for Goliath.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Wesleyan goes from 11-0 to 11-1, losing to a very subpar RIC team, 62-55.

[mailsy]

Neumann goes to 10-0 beating Marywood who remains winless at 0-11.

[7express]

He's playing less than nine minutes per game, though, and he's averaging about 2 and 2 per game. But what really jumps out at me is that he's shooting only 42% from the field. Even for a freshman, that seems absurdly low for a guy who's six or seven inches taller than everybody who is guarding him in the low post.

I've seen 6'11 benchwarmers in D3 before, and there's a kind of poignance to their presence on the bench. You think about how everybody assumes that 6'11 guys are automatically good at basketball, and about the expectations people have for players of that size to be utterly dominant at the non-scholarship level, and then you see those guys sitting there and you realize that: a) there's so much more to succeeding at this sport than simply being tall; and b) failing to meet everybody's expectations while you're doing something you love must make for a lot of lonely feelings. Then again, as Wilt Chamberlain used to say, nobody roots for Goliath.

When I was in high school, there was somebody on our varsity team who was 6"6 or 6"7 feet tall, but he was one of the worst players on the court: couldn't jump, couldn't shoot, couldn't dribble (but none of those big guys can dribble anyways), literally all I remembered him doing was standing in the paint, and then when someone took a shot he would put his arms out and maybe he got about 5 rebounds a game that way. 

Just because you are tall doesn't automatically make you a great player.

[Greek Tragedy]

Wesleyan goes from 11-0 to 11-1, losing to a very subpar RIC team, 62-55.

Yuck. Right after I drafted a Wesleyan player. I was pretty stoked about my team after reading Dave's top 25 blog on Ramapo, NJCU and Wesleyan  (I took players from all 3).

[hopefan]

Overall
Through 1/3/17


Undefeated (5)  Wesleyan lost to Rhode Island College

Rochester
Neumann
Ramapo
UW-Whitewater
Whitman


Winless  (13)  3 more drop off... Huntigdon beats Belhaven 62-61, John Jay beats Sarah Lawrence (did Sarah press charges?) 66-60,   Curry won earlier vs UMPI

Franciscan (Ohio)
SUNY-Cobleskill
MacMurray
Marywood
York (N.Y.)
Utica
Cazenovia
Newbury
Kean
Washington and Jefferson
Pitt-Greensburg
Mitchell
Rutgers-Camden


Undefeated vs D3 only   (1) 

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps



Winless vs D3 only (3)

Clarks Summit
Rivier
Maranatha Baptist

[Gregory Sager]

John Jay beats Sarah Lawrence (did Sarah press charges?) 66-60

In an office filled with women, that's the kind of joke for which I have to suppress my chuckle, lest one of them ask me what I was laughing about.

[smedindy]

I know a big guy isn't a great player automatically. It's just the magic 7'0 mark.

I mean, Chuck Nevitt and Mark Eaton weren't great players at all. Just really, really tall (and in Eaton's case, big all around).

[Mr. Ypsi]

Looks like Franciscan will come off the winless list (and, IIRC the winless contest will be over) - they lead also winless Pitt-Greensburg by 21 with less than 5 to go.

In the pickems, posters picked Pitt-G by a margin of 12-2 - good thing Pat doesn't permit betting!

[Mr. Ypsi]

UWW comes off the unbeaten list, losing by double-digits to UW-LaX.

[sac]

I really think Pitt-Greensburg might be historically bad at least in Great Lakes Region terms.