Empire 8

[FisherDynasty]

its getting close to talking about Ithaca hosting the sweet 16 in the ncaa's.  If the tournment were today they'd be hosting.  Hosting the sweet 16 and elite 8 could be exactly what ithaca would need to get over the hump and make it to a final 4.  with Amherst being down this year, this is a perfect chance for an east team getting into a final 4. Excluding the NESCAC league, the northeast region is probably the weekest overall each year in the country.  Out of some of top teams in north east this year in my opinion , middleberry, brandies, they have already lost to teams from the east.  There is lots of opportunity this year.

[magicman]

Stevens up 26-22 over Fisher at the half. Gray with 12 and Passalacqua with 11 account for 23 of Stevens 26 pts, as those 2 hit 5 of 10 3's.

[magicman]

Fisher fights back from 7 pt deficit to tie Stevens at 57 with 3:06 left to play.

[magicman]

Fisher trails for nearly entire game, finally grabs lead at 58-57. Stevens ft ties it at 58. Fisher rebounds missed Stevens ft with 29 seconds left, Cornett misses jumper with :05  left and games goes to OT.

[sjfcards]

Nevermind all those things I said about Fisher getting that at large bid. I guess I was just an overly excited fan.

They did not look good in either game this weekend. I know they are two tough trips to make, but it was just a couple of really bad offensive games. Also, Fisher looked very tight, and made some very bad decisions at the end of both games. Not really the way you want to go into the game against Ithaca, but luckily for Fisher, IC was able to beat Utica yesterday, so they still have the two game lead over Utica for the 3 spot in the tourny.

[magicman]

Final Stevens 64 Fisher 61 in OT. Stevens opens OT with a jumper by Gray and Fisher comes back with a 3 by Henderson to lead 61-60, with 4:12 left to play. Fisher never scores again going 0 for 7  from the field. Stevens goes 4 x 5 from the line to seal the victory. Gray with 27 and Passalacqua with 14 for Stevens. Henderson with 17 Wopperer 12 and Witte 10 to pace the Cardinals.

[RITFAN]

I surprised to see talk of Ithaca hosting the NCAA sweet sixteen "if the season ended today" - when they would not even host the conference tournament if the season ended today.

There is a great race for first going on in the conference between RIT and Ithaca, with each team is exerting increasing pressure on the other to keep winning.

Any cornations are premature.  I'm looking forward to the RIT/Alfred and Ithaca/Fisher games Tuesday.  After losing two this weekend, Fisher should be certainly be focused.

[FisherDynasty]

I know that would come up and almost built that into my post.  However, its Irrelavant.  Who do you think would host if season ended today?

Ithaca has 1 loss to a pretty good RIT team.  the other team that would compete is Elms and they lost to a 7-11 regis mass team that lost to D'Youville.  The problem is I think ithaca will have 2 more losses by time the season plays out so that may not be enough. But as it stands in my opinion its ithaca.

Tough losses for fisher this week, both very close, and couldnt get the job done.  Thats signs of a young team.  There window for an atlarge bid is getting smaller, they can only afford 1-2 more losses and they have to be to ithaca both times.  If they dont beat RIT, RIT is going to move in front of fisher for the at large.

[e8bballfan]

SUNDAY

Nazareth (74) at Hartwick (82)
Fisher (70) at Stevens (73)

Hartwick owns Nazareth, not much needs to be said about that one. I think Stevens pulls the upset on Sunday afternoon against a young Fisher team. Stevens has been better of late and this will be the end of a long weekend for the Cardinals. I think Fisher is due for a slip and it happens in Hoboken on Sunday.

Good call on the Stevens upset. Ozell off from the field today (3-12, 0-4 from 3) & good play from C. Henderson (6-13, 3-8, 17 pts). Rough weekend for Fisher after their debut in the Top 25.

Sidenote: Congrats to Anthony Passlacqua for his 1,000th career point.

Meanwhile, Hartwick does not own Nazareth as Nazareth steals a win at Binder, 69-67. Naz has a good weekend with a win at Stevens, and win at Hartwick.

And I agree with RITFAN - what's with the talk about IC hosting the sweet 16 when they wouldn't even hot the conference tourney? Plenty of time left and a lot can happen the rest of this season.

[UCgrad45]

SUNDAY

Nazareth (74) at Hartwick (82)
Fisher (70) at Stevens (73)

Hartwick owns Nazareth, not much needs to be said about that one. I think Stevens pulls the upset on Sunday afternoon against a young Fisher team. Stevens has been better of late and this will be the end of a long weekend for the Cardinals. I think Fisher is due for a slip and it happens in Hoboken on Sunday.

Good call on the Stevens upset. Ozell off from the field today (3-12, 0-4 from 3) & good play from C. Henderson (6-13, 3-8, 17 pts). Rough weekend for Fisher after their debut in the Top 25.

Sidenote: Congrats to Anthony Passlacqua for his 1,000th career point.

Meanwhile, Hartwick does not own Nazareth as Nazareth steals a win at Binder, 69-67. Naz has a good weekend with a win at Stevens, and win at Hartwick.

And I agree with RITFAN - what's with the talk about IC hosting the sweet 16 when they wouldn't even hot the conference tourney? Plenty of time left and a lot can happen the rest of this season.

That doesn't matter about the hosting. The year UC went to the Sweet 16, they were asked to host the first two rounds of NCAA's but couldn't because the Heart Run and Walk was already on campus that weekend. Fisher had hosted the conference tournament.

[RITFAN]

I have no clue who would host the tourney if the season ended today.  That is too speculative for me.  Good luck against Ithaca Tuesday.

[Bombers798891]

I have no clue who would host the tourney if the season ended today.  That is too speculative for me.  Good luck against Ithaca Tuesday.

Amen. The season doesn't end today, so who cares what would happen? Ithaca needs to finish out the season strong and the rest of it will take care of itself. Just like the SJF at-large talk, trying to speculate what will happen is really impossible

[FisherDynasty]

agreed, way too early to talk about or speculate about the ncaa's.  Just wanted to point out as of today ithaca would host. Good seeing an e8 team in the 1) position through 3 quarters of the season.

[gobombers15]

Once I saw my karma go down two points without posting in two days, I knew UCgrad must be back. Alas, I was correct. Nothing like the usual dip in karma after an IC victory over Utica. My favorite part is that he waited the requisite 24 hours and then came back and smited me again. I'll just take that as a compliment from you and a concession that your Pios can't hang with the Bombers this year. Surprised the refs weren't at fault for this one, though I did enjoy the expected, albeit implicit, "Utica lost this one more than Ithaca won it" jab in the form of your "we lost because we couldn't hit FT's" statement. No hard feelings.

Anyways, to more important things. Big game tomorrow night between the Bombers and Cardinals in Pittsford. Probably a must-see for anyone in the Rochester area. It'll be interesting to see which Fisher team shows up: the vibrant club that won the Chase and was looking great before the weekend, or the inexperienced looking team that dropped two games on the road to teams they should beat. Fisher went from challenging for the #1 seed to a team that may, as unlikely as it may seem, fall to the #4 seed if they can't knock off Ithaca or RIT. I think we'll see a desperate Fisher team tomorrow night. Bostic will hopefully be returning tomorrow. 

And RIT has a knack for winning the close ones this year, a change from years past when it seemed the Tigers were snakebitten. No question that Ithaca is in a battle for the regular season title. It will be interesting to see how it shakes out if both tie at 15-1 with a season split. My gut tells me if that were the case, a one-loss (overall) Ithaca team would have to win on one of the obscure tiebreakers. Of course, that's a long ways away and a lot of things can, and probably will, happen between now and then.

E8 Player of the Week: Jeff Dehimer (Naz)
E8 Rookie of the Week: Mark Blazek (Hartwick)

Apparently, the conference is no longer impressed when Burton "only" averages 21 pts and 8.5 assts in a given week, giving the nod to a guy who averaged 17-5 for Naz. Cruz has an argument, too, after averaging 21.5 pts, 54% FG%, 54 3pt FG%. The E8 likes to redistribute the wealth, I suppose.

[Bombers798891]

Once I saw my karma go down two points without posting in two days, I knew UCgrad must be back. Alas, I was correct. Nothing like the usual dip in karma after an IC victory over Utica. My favorite part is that he waited the requisite 24 hours and then came back and smited me again. I'll just take that as a compliment from you and a concession that your Pios can't hang with the Bombers this year. Surprised the refs weren't at fault for this one, though I did enjoy the expected, albeit implicit, "Utica lost this one more than Ithaca won it" jab in the form of your "we lost because we couldn't hit FT's" statement. No hard feelings.

Anyways, to more important things. Big game tomorrow night between the Bombers and Cardinals in Pittsford. Probably a must-see for anyone in the Rochester area. It'll be interesting to see which Fisher team shows up: the vibrant club that won the Chase and was looking great before the weekend, or the inexperienced looking team that dropped two games on the road to teams they should beat. Fisher went from challenging for the #1 seed to a team that may, as unlikely as it may seem, fall to the #4 seed if they can't knock off Ithaca or RIT. I think we'll see a desperate Fisher team tomorrow night. Bostic will hopefully be returning tomorrow. 

And RIT has a knack for winning the close ones this year, a change from years past when it seemed the Tigers were snakebitten. No question that Ithaca is in a battle for the regular season title. It will be interesting to see how it shakes out if both tie at 15-1 with a season split. My gut tells me if that were the case, a one-loss (overall) Ithaca team would have to win on one of the obscure tiebreakers. Of course, that's a long ways away and a lot of things can, and probably will, happen between now and then.

E8 Player of the Week: Jeff Dehimer (Naz)
E8 Rookie of the Week: Mark Blazek (Hartwick)

Apparently, the conference is no longer impressed when Burton "only" averages 21 pts and 8.5 assts in a given week, giving the nod to a guy who averaged 17-5 for Naz. Cruz has an argument, too, after averaging 21.5 pts, 54% FG%, 54 3pt FG%. The E8 likes to redistribute the wealth, I suppose.

Does anyone know the tiebreaks for that?

The SJF-IC game will be huge. It's their last tough road assignment for the Bombers before they finally return home for a spate of games, before the last trip to Naz. It's amazing how that angle is so under-reported for Ithaca. The game Tuesday will make 14 neutral/road games for Ithaca against only five home games. Fisher will need this game because a loss gives Naz a door to go through. Seems like they've finally started to play some defense over there.