MBB: Colonial States Athletic Conference

[Coach K]

A couple of thoughts after watching the PAC title game.

Congratulations to Coach Miller, his staff and the team. You guys did a hell of a job, and you made at least one alumnus (me) proud! Good luck in the NCAA! Hopefully you will get the opportunity to host the opening rounds!

Immaculata is going to be scary to watch next season if they can keep this squad together. I believe I saw only one senior on the roster. Jon, you were right on with your comments about how hard they played and how they attack the rim.

Great atmosphere at the PEC Friday night. Best crowd I have ever witnessed at Alvernia. I was sitting right behind the AC cheering section, and there was definitely more then a little bit of juice between both team's cheering sections.

[chairman]

Let me also chime in with congratulations and best wishes to the Crusaders. I was very impressed with their senior leadership and their newcomers for this year. Coach Miller should be commended for winning back to back with two very different teams. I will be very interested to see what kind of a team it is going to take to beat them, but I think their ability to take care of the ball and to space the floor with three very good three point shooters will make them very difficult to beat on night when shots are falling.

Alvernia will be an outstanding representative from the PAC into the NCAA tournament.

[Coach K]

Would it be possible for Alvernia to be shipped out to another region, but yet be a host site for the tournament?

[Coach C]

Yes

[chizwiz]

The tournament selection committee is a joke.  We should start calling it the BCS.  How does the ODAC get 3 bids and the MAC Freedom get two when the WIAC and the CCIW get only one?  UW-Oshkosh is ranked 7th, Elmhurst is 14th, and UW-Lacrosse is 18th.  And Messiah gets in with a pansy schedule?

How do ho-hum teams like Brandeis, Messiah, and Hood (and even Guilford) get in when some of these aforementioned great teams don't?

[cold_case]

The tournament selection committee is a joke.  We should start calling it the BCS.  How does the ODAC get 3 bids and the MAC Freedom get two

Nozwiz, you're posting on every message board making a clown of yourself. Where do you see the Freedom getting two bids? King's is the lone Freedom rep and they got bumped out of their own region, yet they're not complaining.

[chizwiz]

The tournament selection committee is a joke.  We should start calling it the BCS.  How does the ODAC get 3 bids and the MAC Freedom get two

Nozwiz, you're posting on every message board making a clown of yourself. Where do you see the Freedom getting two bids? King's is the lone Freedom rep and they got bumped out of their own region, yet they're not complaining.

cold case, pardon me.  I meant MAC Commonwealth.  Same difference.  Plus, I don't think Kings should complain.  They aren't a good enough team to be asking for home games and I hear It's beautiful up there in Amherst/Mass this time of year.

I'm not making a clown.  You still have no answer for my point.

[cold_case]

When you make a point, I'll answer. But it's hard to argue with somebody who claims the Freedom is the same as the Commonwealth.

[lefty2]

Mr. Case,

Are you lost?

The All-PAC team has been announced.

Player of the Year: Garrett Etzel, Alvernia College
Rookie of the Year: Matt King, Alvernia College
Coach of the Year: Jamie Chadwin, Immaculata University

First Team:
Garrett Etzel , Alvernia College
Rashawn Johnson, Wesley College
Terrence Shawell, Alvernia College
Dave Boettcher, Arcadia University
Chris DelBrocco, Gwynedd-Mercy College

Second Team:
Ryan Finger, Alvernia College
Randy Reid, Cabrini College
Kyle Finklea, Immaculata University
Vinny Baumunk, College Misericordia
Mike Johnson, Eastern University
Robert Jones, Immaculata University

Honorable Mention:
Ronnie Fields, Neumann College
Derahn Patrick, Neumann College
Dave Smith, Gwynedd-Mercy College
Lenny DiMaria, Eastern University
Adam Wildasin, Marywood University

Push the Rock Sportsmanship Awards
Alvernia College: Brandon Woods
Arcadia University: Andrew Martin
Cabrini College: Randy Reid
Eastern University: Dan Piotrowski
Gwynedd-Mercy College: Rashid Santiago
Immaculata University: Josh Alderson
Marywood University: Matt Johnson
College Misericordia: Tony Rezykowski
Neumann College: DJ Fritz
Wesley College: Joe Ransom

[Coach K]

Not too suprised by the Player, Rookie or Coach of the year awards.  Thought that since Alvernia won the title, and I am a bit biased, that Finger would have gotten on the First team as well. But overall, no complaints.

Saw Alvernia drew Lincoln. It's an intriguing matchup. Any thoughts?

[Coach K]

And hey...


eh... who am I kidding, I just wanted to be post #1000, I have nothing more to contribute.

[chairman]

K-
I would agree on the Finger point. Each school can only put one player up for POY (which makes sense, because the last thing in the world a team wants to do is split up the votes among players from their own team and let someone else slide in, but in my opinion he was one of the top three players in the league on the year. The fact that the other two guys on the list wore the same color jersey as he did every night is the only thing that kept him off the first team.

I didn't count on getting 6 second teamers, but I guess Smith missed too many games and fell behind Reid and Baumunk and the voters switched DelBrocco and Finger, and the rest of the list was published here about two weeks ago.

Alvernia Lincoln should be a very interesting match up. If the game were at Alvernia, I would think the Crusaders by 16. On a neutral court, I think the Alvernia ball handlers will control tempo and frustrate Lincoln into a walk it up game and win by 8-10. The Lions will want to try to push tempo and force turnovers, but I think Alvernia's ability to spread the floor will make it very difficult for Lincoln. Catholic's gym is a nice shooter's gym, so Etzl, King, and Shawell should have no problem finding the range.

Some very odd decisions by "the committee." Hard to believe only one CCIW and one Wisconsin school made it in. I'm sure there is a mathematical explanation, but I'm struggling to believe that the second place teams in those two leagues wouldn't absolutely throttle some of the lesser pool c's.

Congrats to all the players who earned all-PAC.

[Jon]

I'd be interested to see how many Players of the Year were not first or second team the year prior to winning the POY award.  Etzel was honorable mention as a junior up to POY as a senior.  Zach Straining, Daimen Hunter, and Lonnie Walker, the three previous Alvernia POYs, were all First Team the year before winning.  Obviously Willie Chandler was in high school the year before winning, and transfers can skew the numbers.

Alvernia v. Lincoln will be webcast in some capacity on Friday at 6:00 p.m.  Speaking of webcasts, the company that hosted Friday's PAC Final webcast estimated that we had 1,700 people check into at least some portion of the webcast, which is only a slightly larger number than the crowd at the PEC on Friday.  It's not quite the last episode of M.A.S.H., but a fairly impressive number none the less.

[Pat Coleman]

... should have been singing Suicide is Painless

[njlincolnlion]

chairman:

I think Lincoln/Alvernia game will be a good one also, however the Lions have shown they they can change the tempo as evidenced by their win over North Central in Orlando, FL in December.

I see from Alvernia website and posts, Alvernia primarily relies on three peiple, Etzel, Shawell and King.  Lincoln has a deep bench and the team goes about 9-10 deep and do not rely on one or two key players the way they had in the past.  The Lions will "wear" teams down, and if the Crusaders "big three" gets in foul trouble, it cold be a long evening.  Last year the Lions lost to VA Weselyan by one at their place, and led going into the final seconds intil Balenga hit the trey to win by 1.

I'm looking for a good game between both teams, and of course hoping the Lions will win.