MBB: Coast 2 Coast Athletic Conference

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Hey... busy weekend of basketball and I am at the Provident Pride of Maryland Tournament where St. Mary's, Salisbury, Hood, and Villa Julie are playing, along with former CAC school, Goucher.

If anyone is curious about what is happening and can't make the game, I am blogging court-side on the Daily Dose.
http://www.d3hoops.com/dailydose/2007/11/24/court-side-at-the-provident-pride-tournament/

Enjoy!

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Got to watch four CAC teams this weekend, each playing two games and one of which was a CAC match-up.

Hood is certainly better than most teams in this region, though they lost to a very gritty and hard-nosed McDaniel team in the Provident Pride of Maryland championship game. Gutekunst is tougher inside than I remember last season; Junghans is certainly a major threat outside; Bennett is a very good guard with a pretty good jumper; Scott showed he may be a decent point for the Blazers; and we shall see how Abercrombie fits in to the group when he returns.

St. Mary's showed they are a very good up and down the court team with some potential. But once again, the lack of composure, especially from some of their senior players , is their achilles heal. I know that having emotion is sometimes a good thing, but I have yet to see this squad have it help them. That emotion cost them in a tough game against Hood, and while they beat Salisbury easily on Sunday, I saw several times where they were losing the composure game.

Salisbury is a young squad who obviously misses the leadership of Ray Williams - along with his points. They were simply out-matched against McDaniel and while half of the game with St. Mary's was good, they couldn't compete in the 2nd half. Salisbury does have some young talent I like and they are aggressive on defense, but they have to get used to playing with each other first.

Villa Julie is in a similar position as Salisbury, but maybe a bit more polished. They gave Hopkins a good run into overtime Sunday with hard-nosed, aggressive, and quick defense... along with some timely shooting. But they are in a bit of rebuilding stage and probably won't be looking to win the conference (they did lose a lot from last year - 7 of their top 10, I think), but they are going to cause PLENTY of problems for teams. The CAC may have lost Goucher and its tough defense, but they gained a Mustang squad that may have some people have flashbacks to that tough Gopher defense.

Early season pick is Hood for the title in this conference, but I must admit, I don't know what to expect from MWU, Marymount, or Wesley. However, Hood has most of what they had last year back... in what was a regular season CAC crown!

[mwcsid]

Halftime at Goolrick...

UMW 28, Salisbury 21

Ugly, ugly. 22 turnovers combined in the first half.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

I didn't see any "pretty" basketball from the Sea Gulls on Saturday and Sunday... so that doesn't surprise me.

UMW on the other hand, I am a bit surprised.

[Salem, VA]

York falls to Hood 74-68

Very tight the whole way....York falls to 2-3 and below 500 for the first time in I believe 3 years (03-04).   The York starting 5 is prolly the best in the conference but where is the bench?  2 bench points against Hood is not going to cut it.  You can not have your starting 5 playin 30-35 minutes a night, this league is too deep.  Luckily its early and I think York is still finding there identity.  Hood came in and played well and looks as if they will be at the top of the conference this year.  Levi Winters looked great (first time I have seen him).  He adds a different dimension to this team. 

To all of the York Faithful, let's show some enthusium.  Where is the crowd that was there the last 2 years?  Did they all graduate?  Those two guys in the front who used to lead the cheers were great.  We need them back...If anyone knows them please tell them to get to the games. 

Anyway LEt's Go York and pick up a win on Thursday!

[mwcsid]

UMW ended up winning, 69-53.
Eagles shot very well, and started making threes in the second half. Limited the TO's in the second half as well, but it's early.
Altmann and Pierce had 15 each, Hale 14, and Baker 11-8 rebs-7 assists.

Palmer had 18 for Salisbury, and Ward 10.

[bbsquared]

Big game Wednesday at Grumbacher for UMW against York, Any early predictions? Will York be at full strength?

[CACsportsnut]

York finally has everyone back. However Kelley is still nursing a serious ankle injury.

I can see York pulling this one out at home. They have not been able to get everyone going on the same night, but if they could they would put alot of points on the board. McGowan seems to be as his usual self, Lankford is his usual steady eddy self, and there Winters (transfer) has had some very nice games. Throw in the two super soph's, Brady and Keefer (both over 10 ppg and 5 rpg) thats a tough lineup to match up with.

However, Mary Washington's ability to press and run effective offensive sets could prove valuable to a York team that is still attempting to blend all there fire power together.

York by 5 in a close one

[bbsquared]

UMW and York head to overtime, tied at 63 all! Great game! Sounds like some serious clock issues on the Live Audio feed!

[ex_mu14]

Marymount is off to a 5-1 (2-0 in the conference) start this year...

[Salem, VA]

York with a nice win against Mary Wash to get to 2-1 in the conference.  They get Salisbury on Saturday to finish the first portion of the schedule.  They should get to 3-1 in conf and headed in the right direction.  The time off should get there players healthy and make there run for the conference in January. 

York and Hood are still the best two teams and expect both teams to contend for the CAC Championship. 

With Chad, Pat Kelley, Brady, Levi, and Nate they have a great starting five.  If they can get the bench going consistently they will be very scary.

Let's get this board going, it has been very quiet since we lost Goucher and Catholic

[ex_mu14]

I think Marymount will be there right with York and Hood at the end of the year. Yeah, it doesn't seem right this year without all of our CU friends around to call players thugs etc. LOL

[bbald eagle]

quite an ending to regulation at York last night; time put back on the clock followed by last second York bucket to tie score with UMW

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Ok... while you may not think the CU guys are around to say "thug"... I will say - don't count your chickens before they hatch... or assume there is a win before the game is played!

I, and many others, have been down this road before with Marymount. Either on paper the team looks great, but they never come together to make the season work. Or the team starts off good with important wins (like this year with St. Mary's), but then self-destructs eventually leading to a disappointing season.

This has happened many times, not just once in awhile. I would love to see Marymount finally put things together and Coach McClary get a good season from his team... but I will wait to see how the team is playing in late January before I jump on the bangwagon.

[bbsquared]

I agree that York and Hood are contenders, for the regular season title, but let's remember that Mary Wash beat Hood on the road and took York to OT on McGowan's time added bull rush. The race for the top is still very wide open with Marymount another horse in the leaders group. Should be another interesting race for the CAC title!