MBB: Colonial States Athletic Conference

[Pat Coleman]

Actually, they asked for and received the password a week ago, but I can understand why it might take a while to get into a new routine, especially reporting a score for a road game. You'd expect the home SID to post. A new SID wouldn't know which schools in their conference habitually do not report.

[Jon]

Guess the other guy never got the password then 

[chizwiz]

Understood.  Obviously Arcadia is not on the ball.  I will refer to the school's website in the future when it's not posted.

[Pat Coleman]

Guess the other guy never got the password then 

The departed guy? Let's just say I knew him when he worked at St. Mary's and Western Maryland as well so his lack of reporting did not surprise me.

[chairman]

While I'm sure the other guy's lack of reporting is what made him the former Cabrini SID, I am sure that it was probably one of the contributing factors. The acting SID gets a pass on this one, whereas we cannot be sure what to do with Arcadia.

C- what is the 5 spot? Did I miss something? More importantly, did you see the game?

I sat down for twenty minutes last night and tried to  make heads or tails of the whole thing and am trying to figure out if it is possible for a ten win team to miss the playoffs this season. My brain cannot figure out a scenario where that would happen, but my gut tells me that it has to be possible. If it is , can anyone identify which team could miss with ten wins?

I am interested in determining whether a team can say they have secured a spot with ten wins. Right now, the Vern is the only team to have reached that point in the league (congrats on the cover piece Jon). It's funny, but you can see a lot of team's stuck at 10-8, but I think there would have to be some nine loss teams to make that happen.
If I'm Neumann, I 'm hoping for snow and trying to push the Misericordia trip back to after the Cougars have been eliminated by Alvernia. Not sure that's plausible, but the Knights have not been hot, and Misericordia will be tough to beat in an elimination game at Miseri. Not saying they can't or won't, but it could be tough. Perhaps made even moreso if Gwynedd hands the Knights their fourth straight.

If I knew how to do it, Jon I would double applaud your posts for the matrix (I should have taken the blue pill), and Chiz, you would get one of your Karma points back (not that it would help in any substantial measure) for your post season pick ems. Not sure they'll all come true, but some good analysis, (not to mention an unpacking of tiebreaker criteria.) Since I cannot figure out how to applaud or have not yet determined if I am allowed to, I issue these public (such as it is) words of affirmation.

Thursday night should be interesting. Pre-season favorite Wesley has to win three straight to get in. The road game in Glenside is a BIG obstacle.

[chairman]

read the FAQ's 200 posts before you can smite.

[chairman]

And 200before you can applaud

[chairman]

need to go with fewer 600 word posts. Stick to the 5 or six word reports.

Maybe I could beg a dispensation from on high in order to remain marginally salient.

Oh well. 102 more posts to go.

[Coach C]

5 spot = 5-0

Yes, I attended.

Yes, it was painful.

C

[chizwiz]

Okay, Coach C.  I give up.  I'm completely missing this whole 5-0 thing.  Call me crazy, stupid, or just plain clueless (or all three), but give me a hint, please.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to the end of Thursday night to see what happens to the conference standings.  I haven't really thought about the whole 10-win and not in thing specifically, but, WOW, that would suck.

[chizwiz]

Preseason rankings are out.

1. Wesley
2. Gwynedd-Mercy
3. Eastern
4. Alvernia
5. Arcadia
6. Neumann
7. Cabrini
8. Immaculata
9. Misericordia
10. Marywood

Anyone out there with any thoughts?

Just thought I would remind everyone of this ranking.  How things change . . .

[chairman]

C-- When you said I'll take the 5 spot, I thought you were implying that there was a small wager on the outcome of the Cabrini-Arcadia game. I was very confused on about three counts. First- I know you are too much of a purist to bet on DIII hoops. Second- I knew that you were smart enough to realize that if you were betting on DIII basketball that you wouldn't admit to it online, much less on this forum. And finally, who would take the other side of that bet?

Congrats on a good night of pick ems. The only surprise in the bunch was the Wesley-Immaculata score, and even that is only surprising because of the dramatically different common results against Cabrini. Immaculata has a couple guys who can keep Johnson on the perimeter, and that means it comes down the other Wesley scorers and Rashawn's three point shooting, which comes and goes in spurts. A cold night and the Wolverines are in trouble.

Wesley needs to win out or get help. The preseason rankings show about how much everyone knows. Hard to believe that Alvernia slipped under the radar by that much. But I guess a POTY candidate from out of thin air (Rutgers Football) and a ROTY candidate who has done very well, combined with steady performances from experienced guards is a way to make a run at another title. I can't blame the voters for not seeing the Immac thing coming. Chadwin's charges are at least a year ahead of schedule.

Thursday night WILL tell us a lot.

[chizwiz]

I'm still surprised by the pre-season rankings right now, wondering what the coaches were thinking with Wesley at 1 and Alvernia at 4.

[Jon]

I added a column for preseason rankings to the Matrix for the sake of comparison.  Maybe after Thursday if things clear up a bit we'll start adding some playoff scenerios to the notes section.

http://athletics.alvernia.edu/Pdfs/mbball/2007/1/29/0607%20PAC%20MB%20Matrix.pdf

[chairman]

Chiz-

While I agree it is a big miss, it is not had to see how they missed it. Alvernia returned one starter from last year's team and a good role player in Finger (I would say the first big miss is that probably most people thought that Finger had serious limitations and that is why he is a role player rather than realizing that the kid is a really good player who understood what role he needed to play on a given team.)

Even if the PAC coaches knew about Shawell, and I'm sure some did and some didn't, he would, having not played competitive basketball in a year and a half, at best be an unknown commodity. The emergence of a whole new crop of complimentary players is always to be expected, but to add a rookie of the year candidate and a player of the year candidate in the same season is 40% of a starting line up. Everyone knew Etzel was good, but I think they would be right to disbelieve that he woudl flourish as a the #1 option in an offense without a couple 1a's.

Have to look at the Wesley pick as a "it's got to be someone pick" anyways. They returned the most talented offensive player in the league and looked like they would be able to run and score with the best teams out there. I am sure that no coach saw Wesley running away with the league, but you have to put someone there. That being said, I think that the inconsistency of the Wolverines has really been a dissappointment to their fans and coaching staff on the year. I posited earlier in the year that they would struggle in closely officiated games, and I would imagine there is some truth to that, I also think their offensive abilities are not always enough to overcome their defensive liabilities. Talentwise, it would be tough to pick them outside the top four.

The big surprise of the year is Immaculata. Their non-conference losses against high quality teams seems to have toughened them for the rigors of Conference play, and the year of maturity and added depth of a second recruiting calss has the Mighty Macs positioning themselves for a run at the top four.

Post # 100 Nice to see Me and Lenny D reach milestones in the same week.