MBB: Coast 2 Coast Athletic Conference

njlincolnlion · March 01, 2007, 02:55:15 PM

Any chance of getting Antonella "Ba Ba Ba Boom" Barba to sing the National Anthem tomorrow night at the DuFour?

bbald eagle · March 01, 2007, 03:03:23 PM

Didn't we already have this discussion? Wasn't the answer that you are more likely to get Pat Coleman sing the Canadian anthem than to get Antonella?

MuMu · March 01, 2007, 04:41:13 PM

Dmac,
I would love it hear who you would have filled Grey spot. This one will be good.

southbender10 · March 01, 2007, 06:04:27 PM

LETS GO HOOD!!!!

Dave 'd-mac' McHugh · March 01, 2007, 09:46:58 PM

Quote from: MuMu on March 01, 2007, 04:41:13 PM
Dmac,
I would love it hear who you would have filled Grey spot. This one will be good.

MuMu... you don't read very well. I was talking about having Russo or Jones on the 2nd team.

Matt Letourneau · March 02, 2007, 09:55:24 AM

Nice feature of Vermont & Mike Lonergan in today's Boston Globe:

http://www.boston.com/sports/colleges/mens_basketball/articles/2007/03/02/vermont_healthy_state/

MuMu · March 02, 2007, 10:30:46 AM

A couple of other notes... Ray Williams on the first team is high in my mind... and I know Gray was good, but I don't know if I would have had him on my second team. But... we don't vote..

Dmac,
No one who end the season in 7th should have any one on 1st or 2nd team. Unless your a super star and Russo and Jones are not.

Matt Letourneau · March 02, 2007, 11:09:49 AM

Well, the good news for D-Mac's argument is that Goucher ended up in 8th!

(Williams and Salisbury ended up in 7th).

Anyway, BIG games tonight for both Catholic and Hood.

It looks like Messiah is a guard-oriented team that shoots well from outside. Perhaps the Cardinal's recent experience with Mary Washington will help them here. However, Messiah has better talent inside than UMW.

One thing to watch is the beginning of the game. Lately, Catholic seems to have a habit of getting down early. I'm not sure why--maybe other teams are just coming out more fired up. I remember looking up at seeing a 19-9 score at DuFour with CUA down early. Similar thing happened at Hood. The flip side of that, especially with the Eagles is that there was a noticeable let down when their adrenaline started to run out and that enabled CUA to go on a run of their own.

So if the Cardinals do get down early, its not reason to panic--they're a veteran enough team that they won't. But it would still be nice not to have to climb out of a hole!

Pat Coleman · March 02, 2007, 03:17:54 PM

BTW, just a reminder that D3hoops.com is broadcasting the Catholic regional and Johns Hopkins regional for NCAASports.com.

http://www.d3hoops.com/audio/

Matt Letourneau · March 02, 2007, 03:23:33 PM

Welcome back to DuFour, Pat.

njlincolnlion · March 02, 2007, 04:12:54 PM

Glad to hear the Catholic Region games are being broadcast.

njlincolnlion · March 02, 2007, 09:59:12 PM

Catholic defeats Messiah 58-37 to take on Lincoln tomorrow night to decide who moves on to the sweet sixteen.

tigerphil · March 03, 2007, 01:08:09 AM

I just wanted to give a huge thanks to Matt for his scouting report on Hood. While I was at the game, what he said came true. HSC couldn't handle 55, the 6'8" Center who when double-teamed either found the open trey shooter or the cutter down the lane to give Hood an early 10 point lead, but when he got in foul trouble, HSC was able to do well on offense, of course the three ball was very big for HSC tonight who killed the 2-3 Zone with extra passes to find the open man. It was a great game and a very good scouting report. Hood very easily could have beat HSC, but both teams shot poorly from the field, HSC won with only 37% shooting. Thanks for a great game tonight HOOD

Matt Letourneau · March 03, 2007, 01:30:03 AM

Ha, well I'm glad it ended up being accurate, though, no offense, I wouldn't have minded seeing the Blazers pull that one out. But it sounds like a great game.

Congratulations to Coach Howes for his first career NCAA Tournament Win. The Cardinals played an outstanding defensive game tonight--setting an all time CUA record for fewest points allowed in the NCAA Tournament. Granted, Catholic struggled offensively, particulary inside---if the play analysis is to be believed, Catholic got outscored 22-6 in the paint!

On defense though, the Cards did a great job, particulary on Yoder for Messiah. Messiah was only 2-20 from 3, and frankly they were really didn't have many looks. A lot of shots were forced out of desperation and frustration. Overall they held Messiah to just 27%.

The story of the game was rebounding...Catholic had a 50-30 rebounding advantage. You really can't win when you are -20! That led to second chance points and offensive rebounds for Catholic, and it also helped them close the game out.

Catholic got out to a big lead and led by 15 at halftime. However, as expected, Messiah did make a run and scored the first 9 points of the second half to get it within six. That's when the senior mettle really showed, with Fumai stepping up and scoring 5 straight points. He had 19 points in a game when everybody was struggling.

A lot of the problem inside for both teams was just the way the team was officiated. It was extremely consistent so don't take this as a complaint, its just a fact that they were very much letting them play inside and that meant nobody could get decent position. Dwyer in particulary was fouled in the paint numerous times, but it just wasn't going to get called, so the teams moved on.

Now, the second round matchup is absolutely fascinating. Lincoln couldn't be more different. This is a team that had TWENTY FOUR (!!!!) guys play minutes this year (how is that even possible?) They put up 201 points against some poor sub-D3 team. The point here is that they like to score. They average 86 a game which is exactly what they did to Alvernia tonight. They play fast, uptempo basketball.

Catholic needs to slow the pace down, pound the ball inside and force Lincoln to beat itself through turnovers and bad shots. Alvernia did not have anything close to what CUA does inside, especially on defense.

This will truly be an interesting game. I'm so glad Catholic was able to get a win tonight at home--good crowd considering spring break. Its nice to see so many basketball alumni show up to support the team, including many members of the 2001 National Championship Team. Hopefully it will be another good crowd tomorrow. I'm sure the Lincoln band will be there.

tigerphil · March 03, 2007, 01:46:39 AM

The game could have gone either way over the course of the last two and a half-minutes. If 55 could have avoided foul trouble, picking up three and four early in second-half it most definitely would have been a different game, but HSC kept all three big men in foul trouble which led to them winning the game.

Catholic is tough to beat at home. I went there for a NCAA game a few years ago when HSC played and that was probably the best NCAA game I had been to, and HSC lost to Catholic, but it was a nail biter if my memory serves me correctly