Empire 8

[sjfcards]

Congratulations to Mcadam from Naz. Announced as a fimalist for the jostens award. 

[FROMAFAR]

Bomber no one is being discounted at this time.....especially Fisher, but looks like IC and RIT return all the important pieces. Naz loses everything with McAdams leaving, Stevens losing Greco could cause huge problems... stability and someone to get the ball to Smith... Hartwick might step up a bit, if Blazak truly is an All Conference player. The final 4 could very well be RIT, IC, Fisher, and Hartwick........ Could be a battle for that 4 spot.... Way too early for this and of course the recruiting is very important. What

[bomber3]

Congratulations to Mcadam from Naz. Announced as a fimalist for the jostens award. 

Congrats -- top ten in the country is impressive.  And long long long ways away FROMAFAR...

[sjfcards]

Muhlenberg is a common opponent between Oneonta State and F&M. Dragons won only meeting in Allentown, Dips swept all 3 games home & away. I doubt much can be drawn from this though.

Does anyone have a report on Brooklyn? I don't know anything about the CUNY, and was wondering what Fisher was looking at. Looks like Fisher has a bit of a tough draw, even with playing at home. Brandeis and Brooklyn both look solid.

sjfcards,
The CUNYAC conference is one of the weaker ones in Division 3. Last year Brooklyn also won their automatic bid and played St. Lawrence in a first round game on the Saints home court. They got beat 81-69 in a game that was closer than the final score would indicate as Brooklyn was within 4 points at 66-62 with 5 minutes left to play. An SLU 12-4 run over the next 3 min. boosted the lead to 12 and the Saints closed them out at the line. Of the ten teams in the conference this year only 3 of them had winning records, Brooklyn, Baruch, and York. Baruch lost to Brooklyn both times they played with the last time being the finals of the conference tournament. Brooklyn claimed the automatic bid and Baruch with a 20-7 record is not in the NCAA's but will play Stevens in the metro ECAC's. Baruch opened the season with a 68-67 win at a pre-season #5 Ranked Richard Stockton's home court and also beat NCAA tournament team Rutgers-Newark. They lost to current #7 William Paterson 87-81 in double overtime and also played Stevens tough losing an 86-83 decision in OT. Obivously if Brooklyn beat Baruch twice they are a little better team. Both Brooklyn wins were by 5 points and 1 was in OT. York was the other decent team in the league and actually beat Brooklyn twice in the regular season but lost to them in the semifinals of the tournament and they are in the downstate ECAC's as well. Brooklyn's main man is Richard Jean-Baptiste, a 6'4" athletic forward who is avering 20 ppg and 7 rpg. They also have two small (5'10") guards who average in double figures. They return their top 7 players from last year, so they won't be chopped liver. Fisher should win this game but if they take them lightly because of their conference's weak reputation they could get surprised. These guys won't quit.                       

Thanks for the report MagicMan. I appreciate it. I am hopeful that Fisher can get through this weekend being at home, but it looks like htey have two tough games to get past. If Fisher plays well, I think they have enough to get to the sweet 16. They are going to need to hit some shots I am sure.

[magicman]

new top 25 poll is out   http://d3hoops.com/top25/

Thanks Ralph, I posted and ran and just now discovered it. It's been corrected. Plus K.

[magicman]

sjfcards,
Fisher has a chance to get to the sweet 16. Brandeis is going to be tough though. They return 4 players from a team that got to the round of eight 2 years ago. Three of those guys got significant minutes. 1 was a starter and 1 was the 1st guy off the bench. I saw them play their final 2 games that year and while this year's team isn't as strong as that version, they still have NCAA tournament experience as they won a 1st round game last year and lost to Franklin and Marshall,(who went to the Final Four last year), by 2 points in the 2nd round . Their current team returns 7 of the top 8 players from last year's squad. If I have to pick a winner of this game I'd probably go with Brandeis because of their experience. That doesn't mean Fisher can't win this game because they can. Brandeis has had some problems on the road this year losing to teams that they should have beaten. They are a good playmaking team with a well balanced offense as 5 guys average between 10 and 14 points per game. Fisher could also get lucky and Brandeis could get upset by SLU. The Saints are playing their best basketball of the season lately, as the young talent on this team has finally learned how to win the close ones, instead of throwing them away. An SLU victory wouldn't surprise me but again I think the Judges, an older, more experienced team will prevail. Good luck if you get to play them. 

[bomber3]

I think Fisher will do well this weekend because of their solid defense and rebounding.  Defense typically wins this time of year and I think Fisher can get just enough scoring to get by.  They are one of the top rated defenses in the country:

6th of 404 in scoring defense per game - 59.0 allowed
6th of 404 in field goal percentage defense - 37.4%
8th of 404 in rebounding margin - outrebounding opponents by 8.1 a game

They are a solid defensive squad that does not gamble.  They keep their man in front of them and don't gamble on steals:

368th in the country in steals only 5.7 a game

I have Fisher advancing to face Middlebury in the Sweet 16.

[magicman]

Live stats and videocast of the Naz/Medaille game and the Plattsburgh /SUNYIT game are available this Friday and Saturday from Plattsburgh. Here are the links.


Live Stats:   http://www.sidearmstats.com/plattsburgh/mbball/index.htm

videocast:   http://www.primelink1.com/


Friday's games
Naz/Medaille game starts at 6 PM
Plattsburgh/SUNYIT starts at 8 PM

Saturday's game will match Friday's winners at 7 PM

For any Nazareth, Medaille, or SUNYIT fans that plan on making the trip up North here's the ticket info.
Tickets go on sale at the door on gameday starting at 4:30 PM. Prices for each day of competition are $6.00 for general admission, $3.00 for senior citizens and students.

Hotels: All are in the same general area and approx 1-2 miles from the college straight down the road.

Days Inn and Suites  518-561-0403
Holiday Inn 518-561-5000
The Inn at Smithfield  518-561-7823
Hampton Inn and Suites 518-324-1100
LaQuinta Inns Inc   518-562-4000

[FROMAFAR]

Nice job Magic,  +k .........Makes it easy for those attending........

Good luck, Naz and Fisher............make us proud.......

[Pat Coleman]

Don't forget, final three-plus hours to enter the D3hoops.com bracket challenge.

You have extra time for the women's bracket, since the first game isn't until 4 p.m. ET on Friday.

http://www.d3hoops.com/pickem/

[FISHERMAN]

Pat Coleman has Fisher as the team "most likely to disappoint". This certainly reinforces my theory that from the beginning Fisher has been unnecessarily  disrespected. They have been the ultimate "but" team.  As in, Fisher is good and will probably win the league BUT I wouldn't be surprised to see them fail. I guess this is why they play the games.


VIVA LA CARDS!!!!!

[magicman]

Nice job Magic,  +k .........Makes it easy for those attending........

Good luck, Naz and Fisher............make us proud.......

Back at you.

[magicman]

Here's my guesses on tonight's action involving New York teams.

Plattsburgh St. 82    SUNYIT  70
Medaille 76   Nazareth  72
St. John Fisher 73  Brooklyn 65
Brandeis 77  St. Lawrence  68
Oneonta 68  Franklin and Marshall  66

Hope I'm wrong on the St. Lawrence score.

Naz/Medaille is tough game to pick because of Medaille's weak schedule, but they do have an impressive win over John Carroll.

Oneonta with a tough game against D3Hoops #20th ranked Franklin and Marshall  and are the dogs here but the Red Dragons own a win over #10th ranked William Paterson and I think they can get it done here if they play to their potential. 

Time to go get my tickets for the games in Plattsburgh tonight. I'll come on after the games with a synopsis of them.    GO CARDS!!! Both teams of them.

[AUSaxons33344]

Here's my guesses on tonight's action involving New York teams.

Plattsburgh St. 82    SUNYIT  70
Medaille 76   Nazareth  72
St. John Fisher 73  Brooklyn 65
Brandeis 77  St. Lawrence  68
Oneonta 68  Franklin and Marshall  66

Hope I'm wrong on the St. Lawrence score.

Naz/Medaille is tough game to pick because of Medaille's weak schedule, but they do have an impressive win over John Carroll.

Oneonta with a tough game against D3Hoops #20th ranked Franklin and Marshall  and are the dogs here but the Red Dragons own a win over #10th ranked William Paterson and I think they can get it done here if they play to their potential. 

Time to go get my tickets for the games in Plattsburgh tonight. I'll come on after the games with a synopsis of them.    GO CARDS!!! Both teams of them.

Close guess with the Naz - 78-72, I believe, in OT Medaille pulled it out.  Naz was up 10 with a couple minutes left...collapsed...  McAdam with an awesome career. One of the best players in Naz history!

[bomber3]

Here's my guesses on tonight's action involving New York teams.

Plattsburgh St. 82    SUNYIT  70
Medaille 76   Nazareth  72
St. John Fisher 73  Brooklyn 65
Brandeis 77  St. Lawrence  68
Oneonta 68  Franklin and Marshall  66

Hope I'm wrong on the St. Lawrence score.

Naz/Medaille is tough game to pick because of Medaille's weak schedule, but they do have an impressive win over John Carroll.

Oneonta with a tough game against D3Hoops #20th ranked Franklin and Marshall  and are the dogs here but the Red Dragons own a win over #10th ranked William Paterson and I think they can get it done here if they play to their potential. 

Time to go get my tickets for the games in Plattsburgh tonight. I'll come on after the games with a synopsis of them.    GO CARDS!!! Both teams of them.

Close guess with the Naz - 78-72, I believe, in OT Medaille pulled it out.  Naz was up 10 with a couple minutes left...collapsed...  McAdam with an awesome career. One of the best players in Naz history!

He had a couple tough plays down the stretch -- finished with 7 TOs and missed an open layup with about 13 seconds in overtime that would have cut the lead to two.  Naz had the game -- up 10 with 5 to go...