MBB: Coast 2 Coast Athletic Conference

[Matt Letourneau]

Matt, it is no longer the CUA Pepsi classic .. now it's just the Catholic University Classic

Ahh, yes.  That's right.  Wonder what happened to Pepsi.  Well, it took me a couple years to stop calling it the Coca-Cola Classic, so I'll probably still screw this up.

(Yes, that's right, you youngins--CUA used to be a Coca Cola school, back in the day.  My freshman year of college, we were all about Coke (the beverage).  Came back the following year and everything was Pepsi.  It was very disconcerting, and I'm sure a few people probably transfered as a direct result.  But the University survived the Pepsi change, and the classic along with it.

Incidentally, this is one of the better fields I can remember.  Rutgers-Newark is 9-1, with some pretty decent wins (Conn., Hunter, Farmingdale).   E-Town is usually solid--struggled early but they've won three in a row.  Methodist, who CUA plays Sat., worries me a little.  They just got blown out by Virginia Wesleyan, but before that they took a good (and undefeated) Guilford team to double OT.  Randolph Macon isn't exactly a bad win either.

If CUA wins their tourney this year, it will be an accomplishment. 

[njlincolnlion]

Salisbury picks up where they left off before the break with a win over Washington College (MD). 

[mwgoonie]

MW has had a strange winter break schedule but ended up 3-2 all on the road. There have been huge wins and huge losses too. Mike Lee nearly had a triple double as the Eagles cruised past Frostburg 100-66. The Eagles settle into the CAC Schedule the 10th against Salisbury...

[mwcsid]

Nice feature on Justin Baker and Mike Lee of UMW in the Washington Examiner



http://www.examiner.com/a-489489~Fierce_high_school_rivals__tight_college_teammates.html

[ycp]

Live stats for the York - Hobart game in the semifinals of the Seventh Annual Coaches vs. Cancer Tournament

http://faculty.ycp.edu/~sguise/mbb/xlive.htm

Live stats for the Averett - Richard Stockton game available here:

http://faculty.ycp.edu/~sguise/mbba/xlive.htm

Enjoy, it should be two good games.

[ycp]

Pretty sloppy game in York.
The Spartans commit a season-high 23 turnovers and win 75-70.

The box score will be available at:

http://www.ycp.edu/sports/mens_basketball/2006/YCPMBB12.HTM

[ycp]

Live stats for the Seventh Annual Coaches vs. Cancer Tournament

York-Richard Stockton Championship Game
http://faculty.ycp.edu/~sguise/mbb/xlive.htm

Live stats for the Averett - Hobart Consolation game
http://faculty.ycp.edu/~sguise/mbba/xlive.htm

[bisonpride]

  Gallaudet Bison - 78   
@ Penn St. Berks - 66

More details will come later..

[MuMu]

Posting from the new home St. Thomasss. It's nice to seMu has won two in a row! Hopefully that will give them some great movement into CAC play. Mike Gray playing hugee  in the 2 W!

[Matt Letourneau]

Catholic blew Methodist out of the building today, 71-42.  Awesome game by Stephen "Wheels" Wheeler--25 points!

I'll post more details in a little bit. Great all around perfomance.  Cards will face Elizabethtown, which upset Rutgers-Newark in the first game of the CUA Classic.

[Matt Letourneau]

Just a few more thoughts from Catholic's 72-43 victory.

Neither Dwyer nor Fumai were "on" today, which makes the victory all the more impressive.   Scott had 12 on 5-13 shooting, but was ice cold (1-7) from 3.   Dwyer was even quieter, with 10 points.

Now, to an extent, those two made Wheeler's big day possible because they drew the defense.  Still, Wheels was also Catholic's leading rebounder today.  He was 12-15 from the field, mainly by gaining superior position by beating his defenders down the court and using his hands.   

I continue to be optimistic about Papageorge.  He nailed 3 3's early to set the tone for the game, and had 4 assists.  Mike Wasilenko played very well today.  I'm not sure that the rest of the league is aware of just how good his jump shot has become--he's really developed a nice jumper.

On the flip side, Methodist just absolutely melted.  Catholic hit them early and they never recovered.  You kept waiting for them to make a run but frankly the entire demeanor of that team, from the coaching staff down, was defeatist.  This is a team that came back from a large deficit to beat Randolph Macon at home and took Guilford to 2 OTs!  I don't know how that happens.   They shot 32%--28% in the second half!  Catholic wasn't letting them get much inside, so they were forced into bad jumpers. 

E-Town will be a tough opponent tomorrow.  They beat Rutgers-Newark handily and they are well coached.  Great shooters--a good test for conference games against York and Mary Washington.  If the Cardinals play their game--size and strength with clutch shooting--they're going to be tough to beat.

[Matt Letourneau]

Catholic wins the the CUA Classic with a 61-42 blowout over Elizabethtown.   Dwyer led the way for the Cardinals with 17.

[cuabigdog]

The Catholic University men's basketball team (10-2) won its fourth straight Sunday afternoon at the DuFour Center.  The Cardinals' 61-42 victory over the Elizabethtown Bluejays (6-6) gave CUA its 12th Classic championship and second is the last two years.  Patrick Dwyer (Williamsburg, Va./Walsingham Academy) was named the tournament MVP after leading the Cards in the championship game and Stephen Wheeler (Silver Spring, Md./Good Counsel) was also named to the All-Tournament squad after two outstanding performances.

Elizabethtown came out strong but CUA was quickly able to control the flow of the game as the Cards took the lead for good at 13:48 thanks to a Dwyer layup.  CUA continued to build the lead through out the first half using strong post play.  At the break CUA held a comfortable 32-22 lead.

Sean Stolzenthaler (Middletown, N.J./Christian Brothers Academy) led the Cards in the first half with nine points including a 4-4 performance from the field .  Dwyer added eight points and showed his prowess down low pulling in nine rebounds.  CUA outrebounded the Bluejays 19-14 and also outshot them hitting 41.7 percent while Elizabethtown managed 39 percent.

The second half was much like the first as the Cardinals forced turnovers and took advantage of their big men. The Cards went up by as much as 24 with seven minutes remaining allowing many of the starters to take a breather after back-to-back games.  At the final horn the score was 61-42 in favor of the Cardinals giving them the CUA Classic title.

Wheeler and Swyer played the high-low perfectly in the second half with both prospering on the stat sheet.  Dwyer had nine points finishing with 17 and Wheeler had five for a game-total of nine.  The two combined for 19 rebounds in the game.  Wheeler also finished strongly on the defensive end with four steals and on block.  Scott Fumai (Rockville, Md./Good Counsel) was the second leading scorer for the Cards with 14, Luke Ledyard led the Bluejays with nine.

Wheeler received all-tournament honors for his career-high on Saturday and continued play on Sunday.  Dwyer was named the tournament MVP for the second year in a row after two good games for the Cards.  The all-tournament team also included Rutgers-Newark's Chadd Barnes, Methodist's A.B. Lehmann and Elizabethtown's Kris Kieres as well as Luke Ledyard.

CUA now gears up for their remaining conference games.  Next Saturday the Cards will host the York Spartans at 4:00 p.m., at the DuFour Center.

[Matt Letourneau]

Pretty nice weekend for Catholic.  They faced two teams that were hardly bad, and blew them both out.  In the consolation today, Methodist lost to Rutgers-Newark by just 4 points, and apparently led for most of the game.  Considering the way Catholic totally handled them, that reflects pretty well on where the Cardinals are.

But now really is crunch time.  They go into the meat of the season schedule at 10-2.  They should be 11-1--they play Goucher 10 times, I think they win 9 of them.   They're a lot different team than they were when they picked up those two losses.  I think their identity is much stronger and they have established what it is they do best and are now doing it.   The matchup Saturday with York is not only important for the conference, but key to setting the tone for Conference play.  If the Cardinals play they way they have for the past two games, they're going to be hard for anybody to beat.  But we don't know if they are capable of doing that consistently, game after game, like the elite teams do. 

But look--you lose the pillars of your offense to graduation, you have a bunch of seniors but no upperclassmen beyond that, and you're 10-2 with some nice road wins--in region, I might add--its tough to complain.  At this stage, you look for growth, and with the Cardinals, I've seen it.  Thanks to good coaching, experience and confidence, they are better right now than they were when the season started. 

To an extent, York is probably gelling in the same manner.  They shouldn't have lost to Stockton at home, but it was a two point game and Stockton's a good, although not great, team.  Some of their younger players have probably developed and they have a horse to ride in McGowan. 

Salisbury has come out of the break with two bad losses-well, one bad loss, and one horrible loss.  I have no idea what's going on there.  If Salisbury is really going to contend for a top seed in this league, they can't be losing to Drew.  The only real notable win for them is York, they've played some bad teams they've beaten up on.  So its tough to tell if they are for real.  I don't think you can say they've grown any since the season started, at least.

Mary Washington and Hood are for real.  I think Catholic does match up well against MW, so they've certainly got a chance to beat them.  But the Eagles are experienced and shoot the ball well.  They handled York on the road in a tough game and beat Hood.  Hood already has beaten Catholic on the road, they're well coached, and they just beat a good Messiah team. 

Its going to be a fun ride!

[cuabigdog]

well it seems that the Catholic Curse is back.. new top 25 out and not even others receiving votes..  at 10-2 you'd think they'd at least get a mention... the same goes for Mary Wash... politics at it's best  i guess.. well it doesn't matter where you are in the polls at this point but where you finish in March