Empire 8

reelentless · November 22, 2007, 01:04:55 PM

Props to Utica freshman guard James Patterson, named E-8 ROW for last week. In addition to 11 points, five assists, and four steals against Paul Smith's Friday, and
five points, five steals and four rebounds against SUNYIT Saturday, his passing was very effective and also entertaining.

The team is long on individual talent and atheleticism but leaves plenty of room for improvement on the team play side, especially on defense. If they get on the same page and develop some chemistry, the talent is there at every positioon to be very very competitive. Will be an interesting year for UC fans

FisherDynasty · November 22, 2007, 07:06:16 PM

whatever you talk up ithaca more than i do fisher. I havnt said much positive about fisher this year so idk how i am a cheerleader.

And i think saying the loss of isiah being devestating as it isnt that much off since they ended up losing the next night to average hobart team. If smalt was playing the game would have been different. Same with ithaca without bostic just not the same team.

gobombers15 · November 23, 2007, 12:18:13 AM

Quote from: FisherDynasty on November 22, 2007, 07:06:16 PM
whatever you talk up ithaca more than i do fisher. I havnt said much positive about fisher this year so idk how i am a cheerleader.

I talked up Ithaca by doing which of the following:

1) Saying they'd come in 3rd in the conference this year? (Which I did, look it up if you want)

2) Calling them a model of mediocrity for the last five years?

3) Consistently voicing my opposition to much of what Jim Mullins does?

So, tell me, which of those things makes me a guy who talks up Ithaca too much? Or is it because I say that Bostic and Burton are two of the best players in the league (find someone who would disagree with that)? Or is it because I think Ithaca should have a better team this year than the past because they return all 5 starters, 90+% of their team scoring, their three best players are now upperclassmen, etc., etc.? You call that cheerleading, I call that making obvious inferences.

Everybody remembers you spending much of last year deifying Dan McSweeney. If you want to dispute that, I have a nice little excerpt that I found while looking at your past posts the other day. I'm more than willing to bust it out for you. I'm not disputing that McSweeney was a nice player and a very good player his senior year. But before that year, he had done very little of note. As far as Smalt goes, I'm with Tags. He's a decent player, but he is what he is, and that's a role player who will break out every once in a great while. I don't think he was the reason Fisher lost to Hobart. For that, I think you should look first to the whole shooting 58% from the FT line and 28% from distance while Hobart shot 81% and 40% in the same categories. That whole shooting thing probably had a bit more to do with the loss than the absence of Smalt.

Finally, not sure you can compare the absence of Bostic (first team all-conference player) to the absence of a guy who averaged 6 and 6 last year. Anybody can see the difference. Just sayin.

with age comes? · November 23, 2007, 01:25:32 AM

Bamm or tgf2 any news on Colin Roy? Damn fine kid I hope he's OK? I'll certainly get the scoop on Sat- going to Clarkson vs RIT game. RIT probably too athletic for Clarkson, but I'm still looking forward to it. Barrett doing anything? What I keep hearing about somewhat surprisingly is Carson??!!! He must have put in some serious work over the summer!!! Gethers is always going to be solid. Just love d-3 ball, can't wait for the season to really start taking off!!

Cadillac · November 23, 2007, 02:06:55 PM

This Smalt pissing contest is retarded.

FisherDynasty · November 23, 2007, 03:09:11 PM

next subject, i still would rather have mcsweeney then bostic, mcsweeney once again started and was the go to big man on the open empires this summer and is playing over in london doing very well. Cant compare stats on teams. its liek saying dan mueller who i said before last season was going to have a huge year, would have avg the year before? nothing. bc he was behind obrien. Smalt is an all conference play year if he plays up to his ability. Is he going to? dont know in the past he hasnt but also hasnt seen the minutes. Yes the loss of bostic is worse then loss of smalt, nevertheless fisher will not win the conf without or have a 20 win year without smalt healthy just as ithaca will not have a shot a winning the conference without bostic.

any predictions on upcoming games this weekend?

with age comes? · November 25, 2007, 11:36:35 PM

RIT manhandles Clarkson. Jumps out to 20-4 and never looks back. I was impressed by the frosh pg Korinchak. He doesn't have the offensive firepower of Burton, but he might be as quick and defensively he is tremendous. Carson has slimmed down and stepped up his game dramatically. All in all RIT looked very good. Tuesday's game against Potsdam should be a good indicator. Potsdam has athletic guards who rebound well off the offensive glass. And their bigs should be about even with RIT. Potsdam does have one 6'8" with a name like Siskavich that can fire from long range when given time. I'll be interested to see the outcome. My prediction is RIT by 5. Colin Roy also played his first minutes after a calf injury and held up very well. Gethers was his athletic self, Barrett shot well from outside and convinced the refs he was fouled several times. Other freshman contributed too Shane Foster is a pesky defender and at 6'11" Nate Rizzo has something that you can't teach. He'll be a factor as he matures. Thought this frosh class was really good.

thebear · November 26, 2007, 12:24:49 AM

Potsdam/RIT should be a good early season test for both teams. I agree with your assessment. By the way, Potsdam also has a 6-11 freshman in Greg Lothridge, so the Rizzo/Lothridge matchup should be a preview of two potential D-III difference makers in the coming years.

The key for RIT will be how much/well the veterans, Whitwood and Roy will play coming off injuries. Not surprised by Carson's emergence as a force, he spent two years in practice getting beat up by Bacon, that tends to get you better over time.

Would be interested if the three first half fouls against Pickering were legit or "welcome to Rochester" type fouls.
Game was out of hand, but he did show the force he can be inside in the second half.

FisherDynasty · November 26, 2007, 09:44:28 AM

predictions through tuesday of this week:

Skidmore vs hartwick +1
New Paltz vs Vassar +10
Alfred vs Hobart +12
Hamilton Vs Utica +2
Fisher Vs. Geneseo +4
St. Lawrence vs Plattsburgh +5
Potsdam vs. RIT +4

Theres alot of good matchups this week and some good measuring indicaters. I think the home team will will come out on top in these matchups.

LL 2-3
SUNYAC 2-2
E8 3-2

JQV · November 26, 2007, 01:33:17 PM

How does this board always turn into an episode of Crossfire?

Everyone relax. It's November. These teams are going to change so much in the next two months that we won't know anything concrete about them until January.

bombersquadron · November 26, 2007, 07:40:54 PM

One major change has already taken place and that is Jeff Bostic returning to the Bombers basketball team. Bostic has been practicing with the bombers since the return from thanksgiving and looks like he has gotten stronger and looks like he has 2% body fat. Not sure whether he will be ready to get tons of playing time but has the next few days to get his basketball legs back and get the plays down. When i spoke with him on campus today he said the only thing holding him back was the new shoes.

Even though i was not in Potsdam last weekend, i was at the Garden watching UCONN take on Memphis, Bostic would have made a difference for the bombers on the offense and defensive glass where they were hurt by Potsdam's athleticism. Big weekend for the bombers, it might be a hard adjustment for Coach Mullins to have conference games this early in the season as he is known for getting tough non conference match-ups in Nov. and Dec. to prepare the team for league play in Jan.

gobombers15 · November 26, 2007, 10:12:05 PM

Quote from: bombersquadron on November 26, 2007, 07:40:54 PM
One major change has already taken place and that is Jeff Bostic returning to the Bombers basketball team. Bostic has been practicing with the bombers since the return from thanksgiving and looks like he has gotten stronger and looks like he has 2% body fat. Not sure whether he will be ready to get tons of playing time but has the next few days to get his basketball legs back and get the plays down. When i spoke with him on campus today he said the only thing holding him back was the new shoes.

Even though i was not in Potsdam last weekend, i was at the Garden watching UCONN take on Memphis, Bostic would have made a difference for the bombers on the offense and defensive glass where they were hurt by Potsdam's athleticism. Big weekend for the bombers, it might be a hard adjustment for Coach Mullins to have conference games this early in the season as he is known for getting tough non conference match-ups in Nov. and Dec. to prepare the team for league play in Jan.

I definitely think it hurts Ithaca to play those conference games so early in the season. Bostic takes a few games to get back in the swing of things. It would have been nice to play Hartwick first so that Mullins could have played Bostic a ton and not had to worry about him making mistakes. Instead, they open with Utica. That will be a good game. It's odd that their season series w/the Pioneers is going to be done on Jan 5th.

FisherDynasty · November 26, 2007, 11:03:56 PM

Hartwick beat skidmore 67 - 56 tonight. Looks like after beating elmira in their next game they are going to be 5'0 going into the hartwick match up. Not too shabby of a start even though they havnt beat anyone above average. Coco crisp is having an mvp type season so far though must say, 36 pts 11 boards in one of the games this year.

gobombers15 · November 27, 2007, 02:11:28 AM

If my memory serves me, Hartwick has spent the last couple years beating up on the poor sisters of D3 and comes crashing back to reality during the conference season. It's nice to see their steady improvement from perennial doormat to team that can potentially put a scare into you given the right circumstances. With that said, I still think they're firmly entrenched in the #7 spot in the conference. Too much talent at the top of the league.

By the way, how many days away are we from seeing MadHawk reappear under a new alias?

WICB Sports · November 27, 2007, 01:00:25 PM

Radio coverage of this weekend's men's basketball games at Ithaca College begins Friday night at 7:40 p.m. with Bombers Shootaround on VIC Radio (www.vicradio.org). At 8 p.m., Dan Cassavaugh and Mike Hibbard have the call of the game from Ben Light Gymnasium.

On Saturday, VIC Radio's coverage continues with Bombers Shootaround at 3:40 p.m., followed by tip-off from the Hill Center at 4 p.m. Pete Sachs and Zach Tomanelli have the call.

On Sunday evening, tune in to Sports Talk on 92 WICB (www.wicb.org) for a full recap of the men's and women's basketball games from the weekend with the key weekend's key players live in studio.

On Tuesday, Dec. 4, Ithaca hosts rival Cortland State. VIC Radio's coverage begins at 7:40 p.m. with Bombers Shootaround before Dan Cassavaugh and Pete Sachs have the call at 8 p.m.