MBB: Coast 2 Coast Athletic Conference

[want2b]

my choice would be lee from mary wash. haney from galli, bushey from york, sowden from cath, and odemura from sals

[Matt Letourneau]

Hard to argue with the first 4, at least...

[bbald eagle]

Argue? It sounds like last year's end of the year all-conference team with one of the 2 underclassmen on last year's 2d team moving up to replace the senior-POY  who graduated! Pretty safe forecast, I'd say.

The CAC women's honorary first team only had one senior last year, so you could probably make a safe forecast of who's "preseason" all conference there too.  But the women's POY didn't graduate. 

[cuguy]

It was mentioned a bit back that CUA was playing Navy in the preseason. Is that a scrimmage or an exhibition? Anybody got any idea when and where?

[Matt Letourneau]

Well I know they did last year, but I don't know anything about that now. Sadly, esad used to fill me in on these things, but he's not longer with us...but I'm sure he'll be watching.

[ycp]

The new York College arena won't be ready until the 2006 season so one more year at good old Wolf Gym. The new center is coming along but, unfortunately, won't be ready yet.
Once it is done, it will be the best facility in the conference. (of course, I am a little biased)

[bisonpride]

Beside basketball for this weekend to a exciting and special family affairs football game.

In front page of the d3hoops.com's "brother", the d3football.com website, it had a feature story on the Ricca brothers (QBs at Catholic and Hamden-Sydney) who will play against each other this weekend at Catholic University... Riccas hold multiple of schools record and State of Maryland High School passing records. It's VERY interesting and GREAT story for you all to read and/or attend to the game!!!

Click link of the story..   http://www.d3football.com/features.php

Probably the biggest tailgate in D-III football history this weekend at CUA. Support the Ricca Family! 

[want2b]

catholics game against navy will be one of the games where the coaches can walk on the floor at any time and there are a zillion timeouts, the game against american is just like a regular game. at this point of the pre-season on paper at least, it looks like york and catholic will go deep into the post season. both teams have the majority of the starters returning and have good depth on the bench. any early thoughts who is the leading candidates for poy in the cac? 

[cuguy]

Thanks want2b-- sounds like CUA and Navy are scrimmaging then. Any idea when or where?

[Coach C]

want2b -

CUA deep into the post-season?  What post season? 

That would be a HUGE step up from last year and I am wondering what you would be basing the quantum leap in accomplishment from last year to this year.  I would think that a top 3-4 finish in the CAC would be in line, but how does that translate to deep into the post-season?

[Matt Letourneau]

How do you figure top 3-4 finish in the CAC???

This team finished 2nd last year and gave York a good game in the final. It wasn't like there was a huge gap between the two.  They graduated virtually no one.  Why would they REgress over last year?

They will unquestionably be better.  They had some guys that showed real improvement over the year, and they will be much, much stronger at point guard this year--they have the luxury of depth there, which was badly lacking last year.

They have three guys with good size, one of which will be a Player of the Year contender.  They have a good shooter who won't have to play the 1 this year.

There is no question that York will once again be the team to beat, but I think Catholic has narrowed the gap and it is quite reasonable to envision postseason play for them.  Now, DEEP...I don't know. We'll see.  But they should be contenders.

[Coach C]

Matt -

I didn't say they were going to regress.  But other teams might have improved more that CUA.  There is nothing shabby about being in the top 4 in a tight league and then winning it in the league tournament.   I dont see the 22 wins on the CUA schedule that a CAC team would need to make a Pool C big viable, so they will have to win the league to make post-season a reality. 

C

[want2b]

coach-   the crystal ball your looking in to must be a little hazy. other teams might have gotten better is a little cloudy at best. i know for a fact other teams have lost key contributers . cua and york had three great games last year  that could have gone either way. both teams have almost the entire starting team back and both have upgraded their bench strength. if i am not mistaken york went deep into the ncaa's. with both teams improving it not to much of a stretch to say they could both go deep into the tourney. good luck to both teams and to all the cac teams. let the madness begin.   

[Coach C]

want2b -

York went deep into the NCAAs, but they also did better on their schedule than CUA did last year.  You can't just point to 3 games and say that they teams were pretty evenly matched.  How about the rest of the season?  There are at lest 2 other teams that will have improved over the off season.

C

[muchacho]

If you think that two teams have improved enough to be better than Catholic, then who are they. Without much knowledge of what teams are doing right now in the preseason, I think the conference will wind up looking like this.

1. YCP - Just 2 conference losses in '04-05. Lost only 1 contributing senior if I remember correctly.
2. CUA - Lost no starters. Aaron Kelly returns after last years season ending injury. He and a group of quality freshman provide Catholic depth that they lacked at guard last season.
3. UMW - Mike Lee and co. return...they can put up points in a hurry but need to get tougher as a team.
4.  SMC - Improved last year with a young team and small roster.
5.  MU - Still just a middle of the road team.
6. Goucher - Lost their 2 top players.
7. SAL -
8. GAL - Haney and Jackson still at Gallaudent I presume, but still lack the supporting cast to turn them into a competitive team.