Empire 8

[sjfcards]

Good to see you on Pep. It has been a little while. Congrats to the Saxons on another step in the right direction.

[FROMAFAR]

Hey Pep, great to hear you....... I think Alfred is better than their record... they have some nice pieces to the puzzle, as I have posted a few times... I could use their help as well, love to see you guys knock off IC and/ or NAZ, but not us........ I'm hoping against hope but ON SAXON WARRIORS!!! Hope I didn't put the kiss of death on them.......

[AUPepBand]

Hey Pep, great to hear you....... I think Alfred is better than their record... they have some nice pieces to the puzzle, as I have posted a few times... I could use their help as well, love to see you guys knock off IC and/ or NAZ, but not us........ I'm hoping against hope but ON SAXON WARRIORS!!! Hope I didn't put the kiss of death on them.......

Pep is just pleased to see progress. AU is 9-10 which is about where Pep expected the Saxons to be this year as Coach Wellman builds the program. Perhaps the Saxons can surprise a couple of E8 foes down the stretch. They have not played well at home under Wellman's watch but after winning two in a row in McLane (and avenging a 17 point road loss to Hartwick), perhaps AU's late homestand will bring some big wins.

On Saxon Warriors!

[sjfcards]

It blows my mind that Newman scored a CAREER HIGH 23 points last night against RIT, and went over 1000 points for his career. That is some consistent scoring I guess. Sort of like Willie Mays never hitting more than 50 home runs in his career maybe. I never thought of him as that much of a scorer, but that is an impressive feet for any college player.

When he was a Freshman, I thought he was going to be really good, but since then I have cooled a little on him, but he deserves the credit for being able to stay in the lineup.

[magicman]

The NCAA released the first set of Regional Rankings today. Here is the East Region:

East Region
1. St. John Fisher 15-4 16-4
2. Stevens 15-4 15-4
3. New York University 12-5 13-5
4. Medaille 18-1 19-1
5. Rochester 9-5 13-5
6. Nazareth 12-6 13-7

Complete rankings for all regions came be found here:

http://d3blogs.com/d3hoops/category/ncaa-stuff/regional-rankings/

[sjfcards]

Thanks for the update Magicman. I thought it would be a race between Stevens and Fisher for the top spot. To tell the truth, I thought Stevens would have the inside track for the top spot in the region since they just beat Fisher, but it was a close race.

[magicman]

Thanks for the update Magicman. I thought it would be a race between Stevens and Fisher for the top spot. To tell the truth, I thought Stevens would have the inside track for the top spot in the region since they just beat Fisher, but it was a close race.

sjfcards,
Yes, Fisher and Stevens are the frontrunners and Stevens would be the first team on the table for a Pool C from the East if the teams were picked tomorrow as Fisher would get a Pool A bid as the conference champ. However with a little more than two weeks to go and 2 more regional ranking updates to follow, things can get pretty muddled in a hurry with a bad loss here or there. Medaille has made a big move up the list in just a week's time. On January 28th, the Pool C board rankings that KnightSlappy does, had Medaille in 9th place. When he came out with his new rankings on Jan 31st they had moved up to 7th, and now the 1st set of NCAA rankings have them in 4th ahead of Uof R and Naz. Medaille won on the road tonight to move to 20-1 and they beat one of the better teams in their conference. Fisher and Stevens will have a harder time avoiding a loss or losses than Medaille will. Should Medaille win out and get upset in their conference tourney they could very well get the single Pool C that the East region will get. Fisher or Stevens will have at least 1 more loss in the E8 playoffs. It would also help if that loss is in the finals and not the semis. Just ask Hamilton about that. Last year they were ranked ahead of St Lawrence in the regional rankings going into the Liberty League tournament. RPI beat both of them to win the automatic bid. Hamilton lost in the semis to RPI while the Saints lost in the championship game to RPI. The NCAA committee jumped Hamilton and gave St. Lawrence the Pool C even though both schools got a loss on that last weekend. It's possible that Fisher will have a harder time running the regular season table than Stevens will. The Ducks' toughest remaining games are at home, while Fisher has to play their toughest pair on the road. I really hope Medaille wins the automatic bid from the AMCC and that might guarantee the East Region will get another team to the Dance.       

[bomber3]

Thanks for the update Magicman. I thought it would be a race between Stevens and Fisher for the top spot. To tell the truth, I thought Stevens would have the inside track for the top spot in the region since they just beat Fisher, but it was a close race.

sjfcards,
Yes, Fisher and Stevens are the frontrunners and Stevens would be the first team on the table for a Pool C from the East if the teams were picked tomorrow as Fisher would get a Pool A bid as the conference champ. However with a little more than two weeks to go and 2 more regional ranking updates to follow, things can get pretty muddled in a hurry with a bad loss here or there. Medaille has made a big move up the list in just a week's time. On January 28th, the Pool C board rankings that KnightSlappy does, had Medaille in 9th place. When he came out with his new rankings on Jan 31st they had moved up to 7th, and now the 1st set of NCAA rankings have them in 4th ahead of Uof R and Naz. Medaille won on the road tonight to move to 20-1 and they beat one of the better teams in their conference. Fisher and Stevens will have a harder time avoiding a loss or losses than Medaille will. Should Medaille win out and get upset in their conference tourney they could very well get the single Pool C that the East region will get. Fisher or Stevens will have at least 1 more loss in the E8 playoffs. It would also help if that loss is in the finals and not the semis. Just ask Hamilton about that. Last year they were ranked ahead of St Lawrence in the regional rankings going into the Liberty League tournament. RPI beat both of them to win the automatic bid. Hamilton lost in the semis to RPI while the Saints lost in the championship game to RPI. The NCAA committee jumped Hamilton and gave St. Lawrence the Pool C even though both schools got a loss on that last weekend. It's possible that Fisher will have a harder time running the regular season table than Stevens will. The Ducks' toughest remaining games are at home, while Fisher has to play their toughest pair on the road. I really hope Medaille wins the automatic bid from the AMCC and that might guarantee the East Region will get another team to the Dance.       

This is what it looks like for the East Region this year:

SUNYAC - 1 Bid from the AQ
Empire 8 - Automatic Qualifier + Stevens or Fisher if they don't lose more than once
NEAC - 1 bid from the AQ
UAA Schools - None unless NYU/Rochester get real hot
LL - 1 bid from AQ
AMCC - Medaille

About the same as last year except the Liberty League got two teams in. 

[magicman]

Updated Pool C rankings from the Pool C board through Wednesday Feb. 3rd.
Here's the Northeast and East Regions:

REG   #   WP      OWP     OOWP    SOS     RPI50   RPI     NAT   Pool        REG     OVR   CONF     Team
                                         
NE   01   1.000   0.455   0.540   0.483   0.742   0.613   001   A   C      17-0    19-1   NESCAC   Williams
NE   02   0.947   0.484   0.528   0.499   0.723   0.611   006   A   C      18-1    19-2   NEWMAC   MIT
NE   03   0.933   0.481   0.555   0.506   0.720   0.613   009   C   002    14-1    16-2   NESCAC   Colby
NE   04   0.867   0.534   0.508   0.525   0.696   0.611   017   C   004    13-2    17-2   NESCAC   Middlebury
NE   05   0.824   0.529   0.569   0.542   0.683   0.613   020   C   006    14-3    14-3   UAA      Brandeis
NE   06   0.813   0.510   0.534   0.518   0.665   0.591   031   A   C      13-3    14-5   MASCAC   Bridgewater St.
NE   07   0.833   0.490   0.508   0.496   0.665   0.581   032   A   C      15-3    15-4   GNAC     Albertus Magnus
NE   08   0.833   0.463   0.506   0.477   0.655   0.566   035   A   C      15-3    16-3   CCC      Gordon
NE   09   0.765   0.487   0.525   0.499   0.632   0.566   057   A   C-2    13-4    14-4   LEC      Western Ct.
NE   10   0.700   0.586   0.515   0.562   0.631   0.597   058   C   023    14-6    14-6   LEC      Mass-Dartmouth
NE   11   0.722   0.538   0.509   0.529   0.625   0.577   065   C   029    13-5    14-5   NEWMAC   WPI
NE   12   0.750   0.467   0.518   0.484   0.617   0.550   074   A          12-4    13-4   NAC      Thomas
NE   13   0.722   0.505   0.520   0.510   0.616   0.563   076   C   037    13-5    14-5   GNAC     St. Josephs
NE   14   0.706   0.536   0.493   0.522   0.614   0.568   079   C   040    12-5    13-6   GNAC     Emerson
                                         
E   001   0.950   0.455   0.503   0.471   0.711   0.591   011   A   C      19-1    20-1   AMCC     Medaille
E   002   0.789   0.552   0.537   0.547   0.668   0.608   028   A   C      15-4    16-4   E8       St. John Fisher
E   003   0.789   0.551   0.527   0.543   0.666   0.605   030   C   008    15-4    15-4   E8       Stevens
E   004   0.750   0.531   0.519   0.527   0.638   0.583   048   A   C      12-4    14-5   SUNYAC   Brockport State
E   005   0.706   0.552   0.551   0.551   0.629   0.590   061   C   026    12-5    13-5   UAA      NYU
E   006   0.722   0.530   0.515   0.525   0.624   0.575   068   C   032    13-5    14-5   SUNYAC   Oneonta State
E   007   0.643   0.603   0.541   0.582   0.612   0.597   081   C   042     9-5    13-5   UAA      Rochester
E   008   0.667   0.550   0.538   0.546   0.606   0.576   085   C   046    12-6    13-7   E8       Nazareth
E   009   0.667   0.548   0.526   0.541   0.604   0.572   089   C   050    10-5    13-6   E8       Ithaca

Using this latest ranking if the bids were handed out tomorrow and Medaille, Fisher and Stevens were not the winners of the automatic qualifier the only Pool C bid from the East Region would go to Medaille. 

The Northeast Region has 4 potential Pool C bids and possibly a 5th as Brandeis is ranked #20 nationally.

[FROMAFAR]

Magic, so if things remained the same....... and two of those 3 .. Medaille, Stevens, and Fisher got the AQ, the other should get the pool C. Not familiar as to why East gets 1 pool C and North East gets 4 maybe 5.  Is it because of Rankings?   

[bomber3]

Not too many good matchups this weekend other than IC/Naz and Hartwick/Naz.

IC travels to Alfred tonight and hopefully the Bombers don't get caught looking ahead to Naz since they destroyed Alfred the first time around.  It's a tough gym to play in with it being so open and sparse.  IC hasn't played well there in a few years.  I think they'll struggle a bit then pull away late.

If Hartwick plans on making a run at the #4 spot, a win tonight would go a long way.  A loss and an Ithaca win would most likely seal their fate.

IC can all but guarantee themselves a spot in the tourney with 2 wins this weekend.  IC played one of the better games of the year against Naz a few weeks ago so hopefully they can pull it off again.  Should be close. 

[sjfcards]

Brutal half of basketball between Fisher and Elmira. Elmira hits a running 3 at the buzzer and is up 22-20. Fisher had 3 points with 9 minutes left in the half. Elmira is using all of the shot clock, and Fisher looked very sluggish.

The 22-20 score matches my local high school teams score tonight after the 1st quarter. Difficult to watch tonight.

[Bombers798891]

Elmira over Fisher? Could replace Utica over IC as the upset of the year in the E8...

Bombers up 42-30 at the half.

Naz up 37-28

Stevens up 33-17

[Bombers798891]

Bombers pulling away now, up 51-34...

[sjfcards]

is anyone else having trouble with the video feed from Fisher/Elmira?