Top 25 talk

[thebear]

It feels pretty dumb to rain on the Yeshiva parade after they had a 50 game win streak snapped but the reality is none of those 50 wins were against ranked teams, and consisted of 2 NCAA tournament games---WPI (the first team in the country to have players opt out due to COVID concerns) and PSU-Harrisburg, not exactly a murderer's row.

They have never had interior size and it was pretty obvious at the start of this year that Armstrong wasn't really going to solve any of their rebounding problems. Williams will be a serious problem on that front Sunday (if that game gets played) and any good tournament team is going to pulverize them on that end as well.

To that point, I went back and looked up Potsdam's streak of 60 from 1985-1987.  They were 60-1 and played opponents [whose records I can find] with a combined win percentage of .568 [excluding the Potsdam games].  They were 7-1 in the NCAA tournament, and 4-0 in their conference tournament.  They had 12 wins against teams with 20+ wins.

[ronk]

 It was mainly a matchup problem tonight: Lambesis holding Turell to 15 shots; I'd be surprised if any of the other top 25 teams have someone who could do the same. The difference was 5 3-pters, 2 that IWU made over their average and 3 that Yeshiva didn't make for their normal average. As for defense, IWU had 8 more TOs, 5 fewer blocks, and 5 fewer steals. We'll get more info after the Williams game on Sunday.

[WUPHF]

It was mainly a matchup problem tonight: Lambesis holding Turell to 15 shots; I'd be surprised if any of the other top 25 teams have someone who could do the same.

I am 100% confident that the 6-3 and 6-5 guys who held 6-7 Seth Stanley to a 3-9 performance against Washington University could do what Lambesis did tonight.

[WUPHF]

25k views on the MacsLive YouTube channel.  That has surely crushed all previous regular season records for viewership.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Yeshiva can't be one of the top 50 teams in D3; #1 give me a frickin break.

I was thinking similar yet not as harsh. But you could be right. They either had the worst game in program history or they're def  not a top 25.  Passing was horrible. They're slow on D. Can't deal with pressure. No bench. With 10 minutes left in game they had 9 rebounds. 9. How in the heck does that happen? I was highly disappointed. I thought I was going out on a limb by predicting a double digit win by IWU. And I certainly didn't see anyone who would come close to being POY.

Maybe it's the difference seeing it live vs video, but that wasn't the impression I got at all.  Yeshiva got socked out of the gate - weren't ready to match intensity, weren't moving well on either end, largely struggled to hold on to halftime - but they came out pretty well in the second.  Both teams were gassed, but they did what they had to do to stay in it.  Despite the first half shooting problems and getting entirely outrebounded, they competed well.

IWU executed a great game plan to perfection.  I'm pretty confident a rematch between the two would be closer.

[Titan Q]

#4-Illinois Wesleyan 73
#1-Yeshiva 59

https://www.iwusports.com/boxscore.aspx?id=13660&path=mbball

-Matt Leritz: 14 pts, 25 reb, 5 assists
-Luke Yoder: 15 pts, 4 reb, 2 assists
-Pete Lambesis: 13 pts, 2 reb, 5 assists
-Cory Noe: 11 pts
-Cody Mitchell: 10 pts, 5 reb

-Ryan Turell: 22 pts, 5 reb
-Eitan Halpert: 16 pts, 4 reb, 4 assists


Really an impressive performance by the Titans last night in what was probably the loudest, most electric opposing gym I can remember in my 32 years watching IWU play.  The Titans played with incredible composure and poise right from the tip. 

Pete Lambesis is an incredible defender.  Pete and his teammates made everything so difficult for All-American Ryan Turell all evening.

Anyone who watched last night saw that IWU was by far the bigger, stronger, more physical, more aggressive team.  Yeshiva looked like a team that had not seen anything close to that style of basketball.  At one point IWU had a 30-10 rebound lead.  It finished 42-21.  The Titans physically dominated the Macs.

Matt Leritz broke IWU's single game rebounding record (25).  The previous record (24) was held by Jack Sikma and Don Davidson.

IWU PG Luke Yoder had an incredible game - 4-5 FG (3-4 3-point), 4-4 FT.  His shooting early was huge for the Titans, as was the job he did as a floor general.  He was awesome.

6-7 junior Cody Mitchell really bottled up Yeshiva's 6-6 All-American Gabe Leifer.  Cody is a lot bigger than Gabe and just really made it hard on him to do what he usually does.

Extremely proud of how the Titans played last night, and also how this group of young men carries themselves.  They are impressive.

Kudos to Yeshiva's players, coaches, and fans.  That is a special place with incredible people.  I have made lifetime friends with so many people I have interacted with surrounding this game.

This game will make Yeshiva better come March.
-----

Pete Lambesis, Matt Leritz postgame on MacsLive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suxaZcWdGaA

Article: https://forward.com/news/480240/yeshiva-winning-streak-broken-by-illinois-wesleyan/

Ron Rose, Matt Leritz, Pete Lambesis postgame on IWUsports.com: https://www.iwusports.com/watch/?Archive=194&type=Archive [1:57:15]

[BaboNation]

First and foremost, credit to IWU.  I'm sure I'm not alone in wishing it had been a more competitive game.  IWU was clearly well prepared for the Yeshiva motion offense, and perhaps the game cancellations allowed them extra preparatory time.

I've seen enough Yeshiva games to say they are not as bad as they looked last night.  I did expect an IWU victory, but YU did have plenty of open 3 looks (but not Turrell) that they usually make.

Just my take, but the 'Never beat a ranked opponent' narrative dismisses the home and away wins against St. Joe's (CT) last year, a team that would have been ranked in a 'normal' year.  And YU was dismantling teams on their way to the sweet 16 the prior year before Covid shut things down.

Finally, I'd like to echo the sentiment of how classy the IWU stars were in their postgame comments.

[GoPerry]

Yeshiva can't be one of the top 50 teams in D3; #1 give me a frickin break.

I was thinking similar yet not as harsh. But you could be right. They either had the worst game in program history or they're def  not a top 25.  Passing was horrible. They're slow on D. Can't deal with pressure. No bench. With 10 minutes left in game they had 9 rebounds. 9. How in the heck does that happen? I was highly disappointed. I thought I was going out on a limb by predicting a double digit win by IWU. And I certainly didn't see anyone who would come close to being POY.

Maybe it's the difference seeing it live vs video, but that wasn't the impression I got at all.  Yeshiva got socked out of the gate - weren't ready to match intensity, weren't moving well on either end, largely struggled to hold on to halftime - but they came out pretty well in the second.  Both teams were gassed, but they did what they had to do to stay in it.  Despite the first half shooting problems and getting entirely outrebounded, they competed well.

IWU executed a great game plan to perfection.  I'm pretty confident a rematch between the two would be closer.

The final was 73-59, a 14 pt margin but I don't think it was ever really that close Ryan.  I thought Yeshiva might come out strong in the second half but instead IWU extended the 20 pt margin out to as much as 25.  The only reason the margin narrowed was that the Titans got pretty uncharacteristically sloppy in the last 5 mins just trying to end a game that was already secure.

Yeshiva looked like a good team and I agree a rematch would likely be closer.  Perhaps I'm biased having seen IWU numerous times already, but the visitors are clearly a better team in my opinion.  In any case, I'll be interested to see how the D3Hoops voters rank them.  I don't think they are top ten but I doubt they will drop that far.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Yeah, to me the question is how many teams have the defenders to shut Yeshiva down like that? It's not just a one man team.  We found out after the game, Leifer injured his toe on the first play, and the collision with Turell early on messed up his knee a bit, but he barely touched the ball all game.

We know St Joe's struggles to guard them.  I don't think Marrietta has the personnel to do it (although they could probably hang on offense better than almost anyone). I'm not sure Platteville has the defenders to do it. Oshkosh probably does, CNU might.

Half of those 0-9 threes were good looks. If they make two and IWU hits two less (20% and 50% respectively is probably what you'd expect on a typical night, given the defense played, you're looking at maybe 8-12 point difference at the half, which changes everything for the second.

IWU dominated, for sure, but it wasn't easy. I don't think anyone who was in the building would take much away from Yeshiva.

Ron Rose walked right by us on his way to do his postgame and the first thing he said was "we were sure lucky those shots went down early." You really felt anything less than maximum effort from IWU for 40 minutes could've changed things.

Even when the crowd have up early in the second half, you still felt Yeshiva was poised for a run, if IWU let up at all. They just didn't, and that was really impressive.

[SpringSt7]

Just my take, but the 'Never beat a ranked opponent' narrative dismisses the home and away wins against St. Joe's (CT) last year, a team that would have been ranked in a 'normal' year.  And YU was dismantling teams on their way to the sweet 16 the prior year before Covid shut things down.

Agreed that the SJU wins would have been ranked, but they guarded Delshawn Jackson Jr. for a total of 8 minutes across those two games. A totally different team without him.

My biggest thing is how much harder it is for Leifer to operate against teams with adequate size. I know we touched on it before but his style of play is just so not suited for physical guys that can use their size and get up in his face and disrupt his passing from the high post.

[Greek Tragedy]

Williams v Yeshiva not happening...

[BaboNation]

Just my take, but the 'Never beat a ranked opponent' narrative dismisses the home and away wins against St. Joe's (CT) last year, a team that would have been ranked in a 'normal' year.  And YU was dismantling teams on their way to the sweet 16 the prior year before Covid shut things down.

Agreed that the SJU wins would have been ranked, but they guarded Delshawn Jackson Jr. for a total of 8 minutes across those two games. A totally different team without him.

My biggest thing is how much harder it is for Leifer to operate against teams with adequate size. I know we touched on it before but his style of play is just so not suited for physical guys that can use their size and get up in his face and disrupt his passing from the high post.

I guess I'm just a lot higher on Leifer.  Having said that, he had a horrible game yesterday.  But spacing on the court is everything.  Yesterday YU couldn't hit a 3 to save their life and space inside the arc shrank.  Conversely, IWU was killing it from 3 and driving lanes opened up.  Leifer, when the rest of the offense is holding its own, is mostly a facilitator, not looking for his own shot first.  But he can operate down low effectively when afforded space.  He's extremely strong and can finish against height inside.  He had double-doubles in both games against St. Joe's last year on limited shots.

I think there are very few teams in the NorthEast that can match up well against YU.  I expect to see them in the Sweet 16.  After that, it depends on matchups.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Part of the reason Leifer played all 40 minutes, he told us afterwards, was that his knee hurt so bad he couldn't bend it to sit down anyway.  He was definitely bothered by the height on defense. I think he would've figured it out, but IWU never gave him much chance to try.

In my opinion, 2019-20 was his best season. Between grad school, marriage, and the 9-5 job, I have a hard time believing he's getting enough sleep, let alone practice.

[Titan Q]

Here is a thread of screen shots of IWU's 9 1st half made 3-pointers Thursday vs Yeshiva. 

All 9 were basically wide open.  YU had a ton of trouble guarding IWU's offense (rotating, recovering after doubles, etc).

Good shooters are going to make a bunch of wide open 3s.


https://twitter.com/IWUhoopscom/status/1477302111725629447?s=20

[WUPHF]

We know St Joe's struggles to guard them.  I don't think Marrietta has the personnel to do it (although they could probably hang on offense better than almost anyone). I'm not sure Platteville has the defenders to do it. Oshkosh probably does, CNU might.

Only two maybe three teams in the nation have the personnel to defend Yeshiva, apparently.

I would counter with the neutral court game against Rochester, the first of the delayed season for the Yellowjackets squad that went 1-5 against the top 3 of the UAA the season prior.

That game was tied with two minutes left.  Yeshiva capitalized on a Rochester defensive miscue for a three-pointer and Ryan Turrell hit two Aston Francis-like circus shots and the Macs walked away with a 70-63 win.

But sure, let's give the Massey SOS No. 393 team the benefit of the doubt because of the so-called eye test.  Obviously, we need more data.