Empire 8

[gobombers15]

Who is uglier, Adam Morrison of Gonzaga or Josh Boone of UConn?

[lileyes]

Sheldon Williams of Duke!!

[gobombers15]

My bad, he would be a finalist as well.

[Jukebox Hero]

As lame as this sounds, I miss Ivan Drago err....Craig Forth from Syracuse already.


To paraphrase......If they lose, they lose.

[the bird man]

Anyone have predictions for the Empire 8 rankings.
Here is mine:

1)Fisher
2)Utica
3)RIT
4)Naz
5)Ithaca
6)Alfred
7)Hartwick
8)Elmira

So far I have only seen Fisher and Elmira play...could be a long season for Elmira.

POY: Sean O'brien
COY: Kornaker because I think he will win the league goin away...

any thoughts

[gobombers15]

Anyone have predictions for the Empire 8 rankings.
Here is mine:

1)Fisher
2)Utica
3)RIT
4)Naz
5)Ithaca
6)Alfred
7)Hartwick
8)Elmira

So far I have only seen Fisher and Elmira play...could be a long season for Elmira.

POY: Sean O'brien
COY: Kornaker because I think he will win the league goin away...

any thoughts

Most of that looks pretty correct, though I think you may be underrating Ithaca a little. Don't get me wrong, Ithaca is by no means a "great" team. In fact, I don't think they'll be much more than 8-6 or 9-5 in the league. I think that will be good enough for 3rd or 4th place in the league. I know Ithaca is 0-2 but they always play tough competition early on in order to prepare for the conference season and, more specifically, the conference tourney where they will inevitably have to knock off Fisher if they want to make the tourney. I can deal with losses to H-Syd and Roanoke down in Virginia. In the end, they'll be better for playing those types of teams.

I also think you're overrating RIT a bit. That's a team that lost four starters, including two of the best players in the conference in Goff and Murphy. Add to that the fact Fran Snyder is basically playing on 1/2 of a leg, I think this team could be in for a long year. They won't be as bad as they should be because McVean's coaching is worth one or two wins in games they otherwise should/would lose.

Should be a fun year in the E8.

[dewcrew88]

Utica plays against Union tonight.

[gobombers15]

The LL dominance apparently carries over to basketball as Union knocks off previously undefeated Utica, 82-71. Justin Cichon scores 13 points for the Pioneers. Willie Lucas also played well coming off the bench.

Budcrew, what happened with Lucas last season. In 03-04 he was one of the better players in the conference and get off to a good start last year but then was gone, all of a sudden. If I had known he'd be back this year, I certainly would have ranked the Pioneers higher. I'll say they will come in 4th this year instead of 5th.

[radiomike]

There will be a LL-E8 matchups with Hobart and WS vs Ithaca this weekend in Geneva. WEOS will broadcast the Women's Game game beginning at 2PM Saturday December 3, and will have updates and in game PBP of  Hobart-Ithaca during Hobart Hockey beginning at 4PM. www.weos.org on the web or 89.7 FM in the Finger Lakes or 88.1 FM in Ithaca

[tigerfan2]

Not sure how much dominance that really is as RIT beat Hobart 64-44 @ Hobart Tuesday Night.

[the bird man]

Speaking of LL dominance, I could have sworn that Hobart lost to Fisher a week ago by a mere 25 points...hmmm

[gobombers15]

Fellas, I'm an E8 guy. I mean, look at my name. Come on Bump, you're better than that. But are we counting victories over Hobart(aka pumpkinshirts)? Let's only talk junk about the prominent teams in the LL that we beat. Hobart is very down this year. They got blown out by RIT at home. They lost to Keuka, for god sakes. The best evidence of how bad they suck may have come in their only win when they had to go to OT to beat Hilbert. Does anyone even know what state Hilbert is in?? In their three losses they've lost by 15, 25 and 20. All I'm saying is beating Hobart does not imply E8 dominance. However, when a top LL team beats a top E8 team, as was the case last night when Union beat Utica, that's a little bit more significant('Wick beating Skidmore doesn't mean anything).

More or less, I was referring to what happened at the end of the football season as there are many football posters on this board, as well. Everyone, relax. It's a long season. And can we not get into the SUNYAC vs E8 argument this year. I don't think we have the right to say anything after the E8 champ(who was undefeated) got rolled up on by a SUNYAC team.

I say all this and now Ithaca will probably lose to Hobart this weekend...

[tigerfan2]

I really don't know much about the LL, nor do I care. There aren't many games between the two leagues during the regular season, most matchup's come in the ECAC's or NCAA. At this point of the season, who knows who will be good anyway, Utica could go in the tank and end up at the bottom of the E8. I'm not saying that will happen, but if it did, what did the game early in the season prove?

[gobombers15]

Not saying it proved much at all. However, it does prove more than Fisher and RIT whipping up on Hobart--a team that is in a rebuilding year. Union is the consensus 2nd best team in the LL(maybe the best) and Utica seems to be what everyone(besides me, seemingly) predicts to be the 2nd best E8 team. We won't know much about the two leagues until Hamilton and Fisher play in the NCAA's, which is destined to happen.

[gobombers15]

In other news, Ithaca gets ripped by Mansfield(D2) last night, 92-62. Jimmy Bellis scored a career-high 25 points. Sophomore transfer Dominic Scanlon was the only other Bomber in double-figures with 10 points. Mansfield went on a 20-4 run in the first half and took a 13-point lead into the locker room. Ithaca used a 9-0 run in the 2nd half to pull within six but it wasn't close to enough. The Bombers played without starting PG Jon Whetstone which surely contributed to the margin of defeat but likely wasn't the sole cause. With the graduation of Nate Thomas last May, the Bombers need Whetstone in there because they don't have many experienced ball-handlers.

Looking ahead to the weekend:

RIT will play in the Williams tournament. Should be a tough test for the Tigers but we should know more about RIT after this weekend. That isn't saying much because I don't think anyone really knows what to expect from this team.

Ithaca visits Hobart this weekend. Ithaca should win this IF Whetstone plays. If not, all bets are off. I'm not sure if Mullins cares much about this game, knowing his only chances for the NCAA's rest on making and then winning the E8 tournament.

Elmira hosts Clarkson in an E8/LL matchup that surely nobody will care about.

Alfred plays host to Cortland(sucks) on Saturday. This would be a great game if Alfred had Quentin Bryant back, but they don't so it won't. Cortland is 3-1 and is coming off a big win at Brockport, 73-72. Dillon Stein returns to the starting lineup for the Saxons but I think Cortland pulls away in the end and wins by 8-12 points.