Empire 8

[Ethelred the Unready]

Is the Ryan Kramer that played 7 meaningless minutes for Fisher against Hobart tonight the same Ryan Kramer that will be playing at UST Saturday?  If so, WTF?

[magicman]

Nazareth defeats RIT 72-66 and will have a rematch against U of R on Friday. RIT will move into the consolation bracket and will play Geneseo.

Hobart easily handles St. John Fisher 83-58.

Brockport downs Roberts Wesleyan 79-68. 

Hobart will play Brockport on Friday and Fisher will face off against Wesleyan
       

[sjfcards]

Nazareth defeats RIT 72-66 and will have a rematch against U of R on Friday. RIT will move into the consolation bracket and will play Geneseo.

Hobart easily handles St. John Fisher 83-58.

Brockport downs Roberts Wesleyan 79-68. 

Hobart will play Brockport on Friday and Fisher will face off against Wesleyan
     

Really a disappointing showing from Fisher. They were not even competitive. I can't seem to figure out what is wrong with Fisher, but those days at the top of the East Region, or at least close to it, seem like a 100 years ago.

[magicman]

Nazareth defeats RIT 72-66 and will have a rematch against U of R on Friday. RIT will move into the consolation bracket and will play Geneseo.

Hobart easily handles St. John Fisher 83-58.

Brockport downs Roberts Wesleyan 79-68. 

Hobart will play Brockport on Friday and Fisher will face off against Wesleyan
     

Really a disappointing showing from Fisher. They were not even competitive. I can't seem to figure out what is wrong with Fisher, but those days at the top of the East Region, or at least close to it, seem like a 100 years ago.

Have faith sjfcards, it's not every year you can reload, sometimes you have to rebuild. I'm sure Kornaker will be back on top within a few years. Just look at the other Cardinals in NYS, my Plattsburgh State team. Won the conference 3 years in a row, 05-06, 06-07, 07-08. Then after losing all 5 starters, in 08-09 went 8-16 and came in 9th out of 10 teams. But a year later won it again in 09-10. Last year's team underachieved a bit and we finished in 3rd place, when we expected to repeat. This year's edition is a very young team, will probably finish in the middle of the pack but still fun to watch and on any given night, as U of R almost found out 2 weeks ago they can play with the best. The next several seasons though I expect them to be right back near the top.

On the plus side for your Cardinals was a tough win against a good Brockport State team recently. And don't let Brockport's 1-3 start fool you, they'll be fighting for the SUNYAC title this year. Fisher, as I mentioned back in October, just doesn't have a lot of depth after losing those 3 solid freshmen from last year that didn't return. Not something a coach can plan for.  Norsen, Gettings and Wier are playing heavy minutes because of that. On the plus side, this year's frosh, Kinard and Lynch are getting plenty of court time and look like solid contirbutors down the road. There's only 1 senior on the team (Gettings), and next year, with a few more decent recruits, will probably find Fisher challenging for the conference championship once again. Who knows, as the current group gets to know each other better, (remember, 3 of the top 6 are newcomers) they may challenge this year. When Plattsburgh won the conference in 05-06, it was a young team that came in 6th during the regular season, but put it all together in the playoffs and won the tournament. That set them up for the threepeat.   

[sjfcards]

Nazareth defeats RIT 72-66 and will have a rematch against U of R on Friday. RIT will move into the consolation bracket and will play Geneseo.

Hobart easily handles St. John Fisher 83-58.

Brockport downs Roberts Wesleyan 79-68. 

Hobart will play Brockport on Friday and Fisher will face off against Wesleyan
     

Really a disappointing showing from Fisher. They were not even competitive. I can't seem to figure out what is wrong with Fisher, but those days at the top of the East Region, or at least close to it, seem like a 100 years ago.

Have faith sjfcards, it's not every year you can reload, sometimes you have to rebuild. I'm sure Kornaker will be back on top within a few years. Just look at the other Cardinals in NYS, my Plattsburgh State team. Won the conference 3 years in a row, 05-06, 06-07, 07-08. Then after losing all 5 starters, in 08-09 went 8-16 and came in 9th out of 10 teams. But a year later won it again in 09-10. Last year's team underachieved a bit and we finished in 3rd place, when we expected to repeat. This year's edition is a very young team, will probably finish in the middle of the pack but still fun to watch and on any given night, as U of R almost found out 2 weeks ago they can play with the best. The next several seasons though I expect them to be right back near the top.

On the plus side for your Cardinals was a tough win against a good Brockport State team recently. And don't let Brockport's 1-3 start fool you, they'll be fighting for the SUNYAC title this year. Fisher, as I mentioned back in October, just doesn't have a lot of depth after losing those 3 solid freshmen from last year that didn't return. Not something a coach can plan for.  Norsen, Gettings and Wier are playing heavy minutes because of that. On the plus side, this year's frosh, Kinard and Lynch are getting plenty of court time and look like solid contirbutors down the road. There's only 1 senior on the team (Gettings), and next year, with a few more decent recruits, will probably find Fisher challenging for the conference championship once again. Who knows, as the current group gets to know each other better, (remember, 3 of the top 6 are newcomers) they may challenge this year. When Plattsburgh won the conference in 05-06, it was a young team that came in 6th during the regular season, but put it all together in the playoffs and won the tournament. That set them up for the threepeat.   

The one thing I can point to for Fisher's issues is some key departures that were not expected. Connor Henderson, Ozell Franklin, Brent Harder, etc. Those players were supposed to play big minutes, and do a lot of the scoring, but were all lost for one reason or another.

Every year I think Fisher has brought in a lot of talent (Harder last year) but they haven't seemed to be able to put it all together for a few years. Hopefully this years group is just young, and young players will be up and down on any given night. I still think Kornaker is a great coach, and can get them back to the top of the East Region.

[magicman]

Scores so far from todays Wendy 's Classic.

Brockport loses a tough one at the buzzer to Hobart 71-70.

Geneseo quickly in front of RIT by double digits, up by 17 at the half and coast to an 81-67 win

[magicman]

Nazareth beats Rochester for the 3rd straight time (dating back to last year's Wendy's Classic) by a score of 66-64. Nazareth will move on to play Hobart for the Championship tomorrow evening at 8 PM at RIT's Clark Gym

Naz trailed for most of the 1st half but closed to within 2 at 31-29 with 1:27 left in the period. Yellowjackets had a layup, a trey, and a layup, to close out the half with a 38-29 lead. The Golden Flyers chipped away at that 9 pt deficit and finally regained the lead at 51-50 on 4 straight points by Tyshun Stephens with 11:19 to play. 6 more lead changes would occur until Naz forged ahead for good at the 4:13 mark again on 4 straight points by Stephens to make it 62-61. A jumper by Greg Lothridge, followed by another basket by Stephens made it 66-61. UR could only manage a free throw and a bucket with 13 ticks left to make it 66-64. They did foul immediately after the made basket and the Naz missed the front end of a 1&1. Rochester got the rebound came down and  Dibartolomeo missed a jumper, UR got the rebound and Nate Vernon missed at the buzzer.

Nazareth moves to 5-2 and Rochester drops to 5-2.

[sjfcards]

Nazareth beats Rochester for the 3rd straight time (dating back to last year's Wendy's Classic) by a score of 66-64. Nazareth will move on to play Hobart for the Championship tomorrow evening at 8 PM at RIT's Clark Gym

Naz trailed for most of the 1st half but closed to within 2 at 31-29 with 1:27 left in the period. Yellowjackets had a layup, a trey, and a layup, to close out the half with a 38-29 lead. The Golden Flyers chipped away at that 9 pt deficit and finally regained the lead at 51-50 on 4 straight points by Tyshun Stephens with 11:19 to play. 6 more lead changes would occur until Naz forged ahead for good at the 4:13 mark again on 4 straight points by Stephens to make it 62-61. A jumper by Greg Lothridge, followed by another basket by Stephens made it 66-61. UR could only manage a free throw and a bucket with 13 ticks left to make it 66-64. They did foul immediately after the made basket and the Naz missed the front end of a 1&1. Rochester got the rebound came down and  Dibartolomeo missed a jumper, UR got the rebound and Nate Vernon missed at the buzzer.

Nazareth moves to 5-2 and Rochester drops to 5-2.

What is it about Naz that gives U of R fits? This has dated back longer than the last few times they have played. Jimmy Evans led Naz over Rochester at least once in the Chase Championship a few years back, and it seems like Naz is always a tough out for U of R.
What about that match up causes that?

p.s. apparently Hobart is a lot better than I thought. That Mike Neer can flat out coach.

[sjfcards]

Glad to see Fisher was able to beat Geneseo to get 2 wins out of the Wendy's Tournament. I am hoping that this can set up the rest of their season. They have 3 winnable games coming up before conference play, and if they can get to 7-3 going into conference play, they typically play well within conference.

[magicman]

p.s. apparently Hobart is a lot better than I thought. That Mike Neer can flat out coach.

Hobart has probably been overlooked a bit this season, what with U of R, Buffalo State and Oswego State all being ranked in the D3 Top 25 poll. Even Hartwick has been ranked ahead of them getting 12 votes in the ORV category to a solitary nod for the Statesmen. But Hobart returned a lot of firepower from a 21-7 team that should have went dancing last year. They got upset in the Liberty League tournament and failed to get an at large bid. They did finish their season on a winning note however, as they won the downstate ECAC tournament and coupled with a 6-0 start this year have an 8 game winning streak. They may very well end up being the #1 team in the Regional rankings when it's all said and done. With wins over Ithaca, Fisher, Brockport and now Nazareth to claim the Wendy's title they can't be accused of padding their out of conference schedule with cupcakes. Another big regional contest is coming up this Saturday when they host Rochester at 4 PM.
They are led by 6'6" sr. forward Matt Pebole, a 1st team NABC All Region and Liberty League 1st team All Conference performer last year (15.8 ppg, 5.6 rpg), this year he is putting up 15.8 ppg and 9.2 rpg. He has a chance to finish as Hobart's all time leading scorer.  Close behind Pebole is 5'10" jr guard Stefan Thompson with 15.0  ppg, 4.5 apg,and 3.5 rpg. Completing their triple threat is 6'5" soph forward Rich Bonney with 11.2 ppg and 5.8 rpg.  Their starting lineup is rounded out by 6'4" soph guard Joe Gibbons and 6'2" sr guard Greg Stern both averaging around 8 ppg. They feature a solid 10 man rotation and now of course, have long time Rochester coach Mike Neer at the helm. Will be interesting Saturday as Neer goes up against his old club for the first time since his departure from U of R. I think Hobart will win a close one here.     

[sjfcards]

Kind of slow on here. How about this...Fisher will win the E8 this year?

[Ethelred the Unready]

Kind of slow on here. How about this...Fisher will win the E8 this year?

Hard to argue with that.  Which is kinda sad in a way.....

[magicman]

Kind of slow on here. How about this...Fisher will win the E8 this year?

They probably have as good a chance as anyone. Thought Naz might be the dominant team with 2 big wins over U of R, but after a loss to 1-6 Roberts Wesleyan, kinda makes you wonder. Hartwick will certainly be in the mix but no team seems to be a heavy favorite.

[sjfcards]

I would say at this point that Hartwick has to be the favorite. Is the rise of Hartwick due to the vast improvement of that program, or the lowering of the bar from the rest of the conference? Fisher and Ithaca have come back to the pack, and I think that has opened the door for Hartwick.

[jdex]

Hartwick moves to 7-0 though not exactly impressive in beating crosstown rival Oneonta 57-51 -- a 1-6 Oneonta squad that led 38-28 at half. Wick went ahead 52-51 with 2:42 to play. Oneonta scored its final basket at 9:08 for 49-42 lead. Hawks J. Suderley 17 pts, C. Ryder 13 pts. Wick 20x49fg, 5x14 3s, 12x20ft. OSt holds 38-34 reb edge