MBB: Coast 2 Coast Athletic Conference

[Salem, VA]

Looking foward to the Salibury coming here to York, should be 32 in a row after tonight.  Salisbury really struggled here and never was really in the game in late January.  They have been on a tailspin and dont expect much of a game. 

As for Garritt and Russo being on the first team or even 2nd, give me a break.  They have to take at least 75% of the teams shots.  Anyone can score that many points when you take 15-25 shots a game.  Granted the rest of the team is weak, its not fair to not take 2 York or Catholic players who are having awesome seasons.  Kenny Fass better be on the 2nd team, what he does for York is more important then any other player.  People who see him daily know exactly what I am talking about. 

Pat- if York has a bye when is the 2nd round game and can York host.  If they dont have a bye, do they host both games.

York and Catholic on Saturday my prediction
York by 20
Catholic by 5

[mwgoonie]

Again, for MW, the Catholic matchup is all about A.J. running the point.

Game 1 (Goolrick w/ AJ) was a win for MW 87-73 (+14)
Game 2 (DuFour W/o AJ) was a loss 67-70 (OT, -3) but could have gone MW way too.

As far as I'm concerned, MW should win this one. Mike Lee coming off his CAC high 25 on Tuesday (Baker had his worst day). 

In either case, two different styles of basketball, always a grudge down in the Bird Bath. Should be a great one  and a good last home game and last game ever for the CUA seniors. On the MW side, lets see some Mad Dog Mattson, the lone MW senior.

[cuabigdog]

CUA over UMW by 8
YORK over SALISBURY by 15 (starters get loads of rest)

CUA upsets YORK on Sat by 4
BOTH TEAM go to NCAA's !!!

[Matt Letourneau]

Goonie--

I understand why you're looking at it that way, but Catholic's playing much better right now than they were for either of those games--in particular, Shane's playing better.  They should be able to do more insde than they did.  There's no reason Shane can't get 15 points against the Mary Wash interior defense, but in the game at DuFour he only took 5 shots.

Catholic had a horrible shooting night--Satalin 0-5, Fumai 2-7 so there were getting virtually zero from outside.  If they can continue their good shooting, they are a totally different team.  Also in that game, Catholic pretty much had the game wrapped up, up double digits, but then sort of fell apart before recovering in OT.  I can't imagine them having that kind of let down in an elimination game.  But we'll see--I'll be particularly interested to see how MW uses Baker.

I certainly don't think Mary Washington is the favorite, let's put it that way.  Should be a good game.

[mwgoonie]

Yeah, I don't think their could be a favorite in this game. Just looking at the last 5-6 seasons between the two teams shows you that either team can win at home or away, regular season or CAC tourney. Your points about fumai, shane, etc not shooting/taking shots are just as valid as AJ being or not being there. So yeah, who ever plays better should win. Yeah CUA has been playing well late in the season but MW has been playing well (enough to finish #3) without AJ. So, MW is a team that should play better than they have.

We can talk all we want, lets see what happens tonight.

[x33ycp]

cuabigdog,

You are dreaming if you think Catholic is going to come into Wolf and beat York. They showed me a couple weeks ago (when they lost by 30) that they simply dont have the firepower to beat York at Wolf Gym....wont happen...not a chance....York has too many weapons, and is playing the best basketball ive seen them play in the past 2 years!!

YCP- 88
Sal.-70

CUA-66
MWC-63

YCP-76
CUA-59

[cugrad]

Catholic has to worry about MW.  These guys blew the Cards out in December.  Mary Wash has an outstanding group of guards. Those guys play tough on defense, and shoot the ball extremely well. Catholic has to find a way to shut down Baker and Lee. If the Cardinals are to win tonight, they must play at the same level that they have during their last three games. Hopefully Catholic will have a big crowd! That would help a great deal. X33 is right about somebody coming into York and knocking off the Spartans. It ain't gonna happen!!!

Go Cards!!!

[Matt Letourneau]

Oh yeah, absolutely.  They need a total effort to beat Mary Washington.  Those guys have forced me to respect them whether I wanted to or not because of how well they've held up playing as many minutes as they have.  They've got some guts.  And I like Baker as a player, I like all the things he can do.  Nobody is looking past this game--you do that, you're going home. 

Grad--I'm not going to be like bigdog making that sort of prediction, but I'm also not willing to go as far as your 'ain't going to happen' comment.  I'd say it was unlikely.  But if Catholic were to play at the level they did Tuesday night, then a game against York would be very tight and come down to the last few posessions.  And once you get to that point, anything can happen. 

I think the YCP people who didn't make the trip are probably going to seriously underestimate Catholic because the team they saw was terrible.  I can't blame them, you can only judge what you've seen.  But as I was saying that night, that performance was not indicative of the quality of the team.   York got knocked off twice this year.  You could argue both times it was a fluke, and in the Salisbury case it probably was.  But when you get knocked of a team that's also 19-5 (D3), then you should expect a good game.

Anyway, all of that doesn't matter if you don't win tonight.  In terms of the matchup, I think the key is not to let Baker AND Lee to go off.   You could probably survive one of them having a great night, but not both.  This isn't Goucher where you can let 2 guys score 50+ points and still win.   Fumai and Satalin have to create a deep threat, I think if that happens the inside game takes care of itself. 

[mwgoonie]

UMW 77
CUA  72


YCP  84
SAL  75

[andre james smith]

York 77
SAL  69

UMW 69
CUA 65

The forgotton man Jon Pierce (who is actually 8th in the conference in ppg) will come up huge tonight and lead the Eagles to York for the CAC championship.

[John Rusnak]

I really want to take Mary Wash tonight, but I just can't do it...

YCP 82
SSU 65

CUA 71
MWC 66

No prediction for the title game just yet, but if Catholic wins both teams should be pretty locked in for the big dance.

[cuabigdog]

I remember back in 2001 that everyone said then that Catholic wouldn't make it past the second round and if i recall correctly they happen to win it all that year.. i'm not saying the same thing will happen this year (different teams/different talent) but i will never say never when it comes to the CAC. i recall that preseason pick had CUA finishing 6th ...only time will tell

GO CARDS!!!!

[Matt Letourneau]

6th?? I know people did have Catholic down a ways, which I thought at the time was silly.

Rusnak, I wish you're big dance statement were true, but I fear that's not the case.  It's close, very close.  QoWI for Catholic right now is #55.  Now, 2 wins this week might bump them up a little bit, but over #50 I would think is a precarious position.   

But a win tonight would certainly give them a shot, and that's all you can ask for.

[mwcsid]

Historically, EVERY time Rusnak picks against UMW, they win, so that's a good omen!!!

[Pat Coleman]

Pat- if York has a bye when is the 2nd round game and can York host.  If they dont have a bye, do they host both games.

There's a link on the front page as of 10 this morning ... that's a repeat of a feature we ran last week ... detailing the tournament.