Empire 8

[Bombers798891]

Ithaca wins their 1st Empire 8 Tournament Championship with a 71-55 victory over Nazareth. Ithaca will enter the NCAA Tournament with a 14-13 record. Probably will be the worst record of the 62 teams at the Dance.

Yes!  Of the past 5 or 6 years this was probably the least likely Bomber squad to win the tournament but good for them.  Jay Bilas said it best on Gameday this morning, "the NCAA tournament does not crown the best team, it crowns the team with the best matchups that got hot at the right time".  The same principal applies the conference tournaments across all divisions of college basketball.  Some of the time, the best team in the conference wins the tournament, and some of the time it doesn't.  Ithaca had the best team in the conference several times of the past decade and didn't win the conference tournament, this year it did.  That is the nature of the sport and what makes it exciting for 5 months of the season.  In football, a lot of teams' playoffs hope are finished 3 or 4 games into the season and that isn't the case in basketball.

With the Bombers at 14-13, they are most likely up against one of the brackets top seeds (Amherst or Middlebury possibly), which should provide a great challenge.

Congrats to Coach Mullins and Tanous as well as the current Bomber squad on a great weekend and a long deserved and overdue E8 title.

Seriously, I don't think words can describe how amazing this win is. The Bombers are 12-13, and their leading scorer and rebounder plays 15 minutes all weekend. And they take it down. Unreal.
Congrats to the Bombers for gutting it out. They're certainly peaking at the right time. Could be a dangerous team next season, as the only singnificant loss is Jordan Marcus.

[AUPepBand]

Pep watched IC's win over Hartwick. IC hit some key treys (a couple of them finding the net after bounding off the iron) to frustrate 'wick's comeback attempts. But seriously, if ever there was a year for a #4 seed to win the tourney, this was it. Seemed to be a season of parity...with St. John Fisher an uncharacteristic non-player.

Even Hartwick's gaudy season record of 23-3 included numerous razor thin wins. Fifth place AU, after all, split its games with both Ithaca and Hartwick. The Saxons just missed beating the Hawks at Lambros, 64-63....and barely beat last place Elmira in both of its meetings.

Congrats to the Bombers! Good luck, IC, and, assuming 'wick gets in, the Hawks, in the NCAAs.

On Saxon Warriors!

[magicman]

Posted this on all New York boards.

The East region comes out smelling roses as Hartwick, Hobart and NYU all recieve a Pool C bid to the dance. The following eight teams from the East Region are all dancing:

Oswego State--Ithaca--Skidmore--Medaille--Morrisville State--Hobart--Hartwick--NYU

Oswego State as I thought gets to host a first round pod with their opponent being the Endicott Gulls who won the Commonwealth Coast Conference Championship in the Northeast Region and got a Pool A bid.

Medaille, winners of the AMCC conference will take on Eastern Connecticut who won the Little East Conference from the Northeast Region, in the other  game at the Oswego site. So all four teams in the Oswego pod were Pool A winners

Hartwick in a bit of a surprise also gets to host a first round pod as they will take on Farmingdale State from the Atlantic Region. The Rams were the winners of the Skyline conference championship.

The other game at Hartwick will feature the #3 ranked team in the country the MIT Engineers. MIT was the champion of the NEWMAC conference and they will take on the winners of the Liberty League, the Skidmore Thoroughbreds.

Ithaca who won the Empire 8 championship will travel to Staten Island to take on the Saten Island Dolphins,from the Atlantic region and winners of the CUNYAC championship. The other game in that pod will have two Northeast Region schools squaring off as Rhode Island College takes on Salem State. Rhode Island College from the Little East Conference received a Pool C bid, while Salem State won the MASCAC championship. 

Hobart will travel to Radnor Pa. home of the #6 ranked Cabrini Cavaliers. The Statesmen will face off against Ohio Wesleyan University who received an at large bid from the Great Lakes Region. The Battling Bishops finished in third place in the North Coast Athletic Conference and bring a 20-7 record into the dance. Host Cabrini will play Castleton State who won the North Atlantic Coference Championship, in the Northeast Region.

NYU a Pool C winner will host the Misericordia Cougars in a first round game. The Cougars, winners of the Middle Atlantic Conference-Freedom are making their first trip ever to the NCAA tournament. The winner of this game will travel to Amherst for a 2nd round matchup. The Lord Jeffs were one of the two teams that received a first round bye. (The other team was Virginia Wesleyan)

The Morrisville State Mustangs, winners of the NEAC championship are making their first appearance in the NCAA tournamnet and will travel to the Middlebury Panthers and face the 4th ranked team in the country.

I don't see a lot of wins here for the East Region. Oswego is a double digit favorite in their matchup against Endicott. NYU will be favored by about 8 points against Misericordia and Hartwick is a slight favorite (5 points) against Farmingdale State.  Morrisville State is a 25 point underdog, while Medaille, and Skidmore are both about 10 point underdogs. Ithaca (+7) and Hobart (+3) won't be favored either but upset possibilities are there.  Good luck to all the East Region teams.

[with age came?]

 3 up 5 down (1 in ot) not all bad?  Could have been worse as Oswego should have probably been beat. 19 w and 11 L on the first round of my bracket.  Magic are you about 27 and 3?   At least 14 of my sweet 16 are still alive. Don't think too many people saw Becker pounding on William Patterson (my other loss was Transylvania).

[magicman]

3 up 5 down (1 in ot) not all bad?  Could have been worse as Oswego should have probably been beat. 19 w and 11 L on the first round of my bracket.  Magic are you about 27 and 3?   At least 14 of my sweet 16 are still alive. Don't think too many people saw Becker pounding on William Patterson (my other loss was Transylvania).

Lots of upsets tonight. I went 22-8 in the first round.

[with age came?]

In real trouble now on my bracket as I only have 10 of the 16 teams for the sweet 16.  But I would guess there are not lot of people who had Ill Wes over Hope or Staten Island over RIC.  And Scranton coming out of their pod was a surprise too.  Most disheartening is only 4 left out my elite 8 teams.  Magic you have to be sitting pretty in the fantasy bracket with the Amherst duo putting up so many points!

[magicman]

In real trouble now on my bracket as I only have 10 of the 16 teams for the sweet 16.  But I would guess there are not lot of people who had Ill Wes over Hope or Staten Island over RIC.  And Scranton coming out of their pod was a surprise too.  Most disheartening is only 4 left out my elite 8 teams.  Magic you have to be sitting pretty in the fantasy bracket with the Amherst duo putting up so many points!

I've got the 2 top scorers from Amherst (Toomey and Workman, who is also the leading rebounder) and the 2nd leading scorer from Middlebury (Kizell). I started out slow because Amherst had a 1st round bye and I got no points from those guys on Friday night but had a big night on Saturday to climb into 4th place. I'm hoping both Middlebury and Amherst reach the Final Four. If they do I could be in pretty good shape. I need the guys in front of me to have their player's teams lose while my guys play on. Hoping MIT, Wooster, Cabrini, and Whitewater all lose this weekend.

I'm in 25th place with my bracket. And you having 10 of the Sweet 16 isn't bad. As you said most everybody had Hope and not too many if any had Staten Island. Scranton and North Central were in the minority as well.

Did you see my post on the YAC board or Liberty League board about SLU's Ralph Temgoua getting voted into the All Star game. I voted for him on Monday and he was only getting 1% of the vote. He had a big finish though and made the All Star team as the D3hoops fans made him one of the 2 fan favorites to play in the game. Happy for him. He was always worth the price of admission.  

[magicman]

The NABC has released their All American Teams and  Empire 8 POY Jared Suderley has been named to the 2nd team. SUNYAC POY Oswego State's Chad Burridge was named to the 1st team and Liberty League POY Ralph Temgoua was named to the 3rd team. Here's the complete list.

2012 NABC COACHES' DIVISION III ALL-AMERICA FIRST TEAM

DaQuan Brooks, Western Connecticut, 5-10, Senior, Guard, Atlanta, Ga.
Chad Burridge, Oswego State, 6-7, Senior, Center, Hannibal, N.Y.
Chris Davis, UW-Whitewater, 6-6, Senior, Forward, Madison, Wis.
David Krombeen, Hope, 6-2, Senior, Guard, Grandville, Mich.
AJ Matthews, Farmingdale State, 7-0, Junior, Forward, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Tim McCrary, Wheaton (Ill.), 6-6. Senior, Forward, Wilmette, Ill.
Georgio Milligan, Franklin and Marshall, 6-2, Senior, Guard, Spring Valley, N.Y.
DJ Woodmore, Virginia Wesleyan, 6-3, Sophomore, Guard, Virginia Beach, Va.

2012 NABC COACHES' DIVISION III ALL-AMERICA SECOND TEAM

Seth Anderson, Gustavus Adolphus, 6-1, Senior, Guard, Minnesota Lake, Minn.
Tim Brady, Ohio Wesleyan, 6-4, Senior, Forward, Dublin, Ohio
Lance Brown, William Paterson, 6-4, Junior, Guard/Forward, Teaneck, N.J.
Travis Clark, Lake Forest, 6-5, Senior, Post, Evanston, Ill.
Cory Lemons, Cabrini, 5-10, Senior, Guard, Wilmington, Del.
Ryan Sharry, Middlebury, 6-8, Senior, Forward, Braintree, Mass.
Jared Suderley, Hartwick, 6-6, Sophomore, Forward, Newport, N.Y.
Conley Taylor, Christopher Newport, 6-1, Senior, Guard, Newport News, Va.

2012 NABC COACHES' DIVISION III ALL-AMERICA THIRD TEAM

Ray Askew, Albertus Magnus, 6-6, Senior, Forward, Hamden, Conn.
Chris Blees, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, 6-5, Graduate, Forward, Carmichael, Calif.
Winston Douglas, Medgar Evers, 6-4, Junior, Guard, Hempstead, N.Y.
Greg Ross, Centre, 6-4, Senior, Forward, Cincinnati, Ohio
Corey Shontz, John Carroll, 6-1, Senior, Guard, Andover, Ohio
Ethan Spurlin, Transylvania, 6-4, Junior, Forward, Stanford, Ky.
Ralph Temgoua, St. Lawrence, 6-4, Senior, Guard, Paris, France
Perry Wright, Widener, 6-3, Senior, Forward, Severn, Md.

[magicman]

D3hoops has released their All American Teams. Jared Suderley from Hartwick makes the 2nd team. Chad Burridge receives honorable mention. These are the only 2 East Region players that were named. 25 players from 25 different schools. Cabrini got 2 mentions as they had a 1st  teamer and the Rookie of the Year. No Player of the Year or Coach of the Year was released yet as they will be announced this evening during the National Championship game.

Here's the link to all the teams:

http://www.d3hoops.com/awards/all-americans/men/2012

[Old Duck]

How does Smith from Stevens Tech not get a first team position on one of the East region polls, D3Hoops or NABC? He averaged more points per game than any of the these big men except for Jared Suderley. He also averaged more rebounds per game than any of them, the closest being Suderley averaging 3.4 less. He also is nationally ranked in 3 categories; 5th in rebounding with 12.0/game, 8th in field goal percentage at 62.6 and 2nd in double/doubles with 21.

      FG  FGA   FG%   3FG 3FGA   3PT%  FT  FTA FT%   OFF REB DEF REB TOT REB AVG REB  PF   
Smith, Simon   191 305   0.626  0   1   0       120 191 0.628  97       238       335       12.0   69   
Stein, Andy     177 314 0.564 17  45   0.378  60  84 0.714  35       138       173        6.4    64
Suderley,Jared   205 374   0.548 17  52   0.327  98 118 0.831  80       152       232        8.6    60
Pebole, Matt   143 274   0.522 23  54   0.426  87 118 0.737  57       155       212        7.3    52
                        AST AST/GAME TO STL BLK PTS AVG   WON LOST
Smith, Simon    58  2.1             74 38  13  502 17.9    20   8
Stein, Andy       68  2.5             48  8   28  431 16.0    21   6
Suderley,Jared 49  1.8      46 18  10  525 19.4    23   4
Pebole, Matt    46  1.6      50 23  20  396 13.7    23   6

   

   

[madzillagd]

NYU has created a blog for their global activities.  Lots of pics & video...

http://teamnyuglobal.tumblr.com/

[Ethelred the Unready]

NYU has created a blog for their global activities.  Lots of pics & video...

http://teamnyuglobal.tumblr.com/

Unless I'm missing something, this would be better posted on the UAA board under "Mutli-Regional Topics".

I can see how you got the Egg-Head 8 (NYU, UofR, Chicago, WashU, Brandies, Carnegie-Mellon, Emory and Case Western) confused with the E-8   

[madzillagd]

Out of curiousity, what's the logic of having a D3Hoops branded East school in the Multi-Region Discussion topic instead of the East topic?    This was the only thread that I saw any NYU mention so I dropped it here.  I couldn't find the UAA thread in the East where I expected it to be. 

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

That is because the UAA encompasses five regions: Northeast, East, Great Lakes, South, and Midwest. So to keep the conference somewhere that encompasses all of the teams, we chose the Multi-Regional topics. It wouldn't make any sense to have five UAA conversations going in five different regions. Only NYU and Rochester represent the East Region from the UAA.

[sjfcards]

The Fisher football team has a transfer student playing this year, who seems to be a transfer from the Medaille basketball team. Not sure if he is planning on playing basketball at Fisher or not. Anyone know anything about a David Shuey from Medaille?