Empire 8

[buck1053]

BTW, the regional rankings are out:

East
1. Ithaca 17-1 15-1
2. St. Lawrence 13-4 11-4
3. Hamilton 12-5 10-1
4. Rochester 13-5 13-5
5. Rochester Tech 14-4 11-4

I was wondering why we hadn't heard from Fisher Dynasty about Fisher getting an at-large bid.

[FisherDynasty]

well 3 straight losses might be a reason? at large bid looks slim now.  Never said it couldnt happen, I didnt have high expectations for this years team anyways.  They are still exceeding mine.  If they win out and loose conf tournament championship they will have shot at making the tourny still.  do i think that will happen? no.  they will probably have to win the conf tourny.   IF they beat ithaca and rit during reg season and beat rit again in the e8 tourny they will ge tan automatic bid if the conf tourny champ is there only other loss of the season mark my words.  However, its probably not worth talking about bc they will probably get beat at utica or at naz, and maybe rit and probably ithaca again.


As far as the alfred team.  Talent is talent, but theres a difference between a talented team that does nothing and a talented team that proves how talented they really are on the court no matter what adversity they face.

[gobombers15]

sjfc, i agree fisher does get it done with team basketball.  But i disagree with POY players.  The problem is when fisher was at the top 2003-2007 era specifically 2005 and 2006 everyone on their starting 5 was as good as the top player on other e8 teams.  if those players were distributed to other e8 teams their individual stats would have been comparable to POY candidates.  Even with the lower stats 11-12 pts per game sean o'brien, jeff sidney both received POY awards and they had multiple first teamers.  There just isnt enough stats in a game to have stand out performances when a different player leads the team in scoring each game depending on match ups and the top scoring getting about 9 shots per game when your playing a team with 2 good players each getting 15 shots up.  Like said in the prior year those 2 fisher teams would have beaten the rest of the e8 allstar teams in my opinion.

Mike McGee was NOT as good as Justin Cichon, Ray Bryant, Sean Murphy, Jim Bellis, just to name a few.

[buck1053]

As far as the alfred team.  Talent is talent, but theres a difference between a talented team that does nothing and a talented team that proves how talented they really are on the court no matter what adversity they face.

I completely agree. They wasted a ton of talent, due in large part to the coach who was not a good decision maker and couldn't keep his players disciplined enough off the court to perform well on the court. There is no reason -- based on pure talent -- that those teams shouldn't have won the league, or at least made more noise.

[UCgrad45]

UC over Elmira 70-47. Herring goes off for 25 points, 13 rebounds and 4 assists. James Patterson scores 10. No surprise here. UC getting a win that it needs to and should.

[Bombers798891]

Bombers walk all over Hartwick 78-59 sans Jeff Bostic. Credit the Ithaca coaching staff with this one. Constant defensive pressure led to some turnovers in the backcourt, shot clock and 5 second violations. IC took the lead for good when Cruz hit three layups in 25 seconds after two Hawk turnovers in the back court

Sean Burton goes for 16 with 11 assists to become the school's all-time leader in helpers. Sean Leahy has a phenomenal game with 20 points, 6 boards and great defense. Leahy, Cruz and Burton shoot the lights out, going a combined 21-37 from the floor.

Gotta say, Hartwick disappointed me tonight. It's one thing to come in with a game strategy to slow things down. It's another to run 30 seconds a possession off when you're down 18 with eight minutes to go. In the first meeting, it was a smart thing to do because they kept the game close and had some chances to get a win. In this one, they trailed almost the entire game, most of it by double-digits. Really think they should have tried something else in the 2nd half.

Additionally, the strategy meant Hartwick rarely had time to go inside and try and take advantage of Bostic's absence to get some layups or draws fouls. Hartwick only got to the line three times.  In the second half, Hartwick looked like they were trying to limit the amount they lost by, which is disappointing to see. They really have no great option after Cocozziello.

[magicman]

RIT pounds visiting SUNY Cobleskill 80-52. Tigers up 26-24 with 7:39 left in the 1st half, proceed to go on a 26-2 run to double up Cobleskill 52-26 at the break. Carson leads the way with 19 pts and 13 boards. 

[Bombers798891]

RIT pounds visiting SUNY Cobleskill 80-52. Tigers up 26-24 with 7:39 left in the 1st half, proceed to go on a 26-2 run to double up Cobleskill 52-26 at the break. Carson leads the way with 19 pts and 13 boards. 

Carson and Burton show no signs of slowing down. February 22 will decide this once and for all

[magicman]

Stevens nips visiting Alfred 71-69. The Ducks, down 11, 57-46 with 9:18 to play go on a 13-0 run to grab the lead 59-57. Back and forth play until Stevens goes up for good 70-69 on a 3 by Anthony Passalacqua with 1:34 to play. It was his 7th 3 pointer of the night. He also scored his 1000th career point and set a Stevens record for career 3 pt. field goals. He now has 214 breaking the old mark of 211. Stevens next game is at Ithaca on Tuesday the 10th.

[bamm]

RIT pounds visiting SUNY Cobleskill 80-52. Tigers up 26-24 with 7:39 left in the 1st half, proceed to go on a 26-2 run to double up Cobleskill 52-26 at the break. Carson leads the way with 19 pts and 13 boards. 

Carson and Burton show no signs of slowing down. February 22 will decide this once and for all

Indeed.  These races (League MVP and conference championship) have been a fantastic surprise and a lot of fun (from my perspective, of course). 

Even if the Tigers drop one (and it would truly be incredible if they get to 15-0), that Feb 22nd game will decide home court for the league tourney.

[buck1053]

RIT pounds visiting SUNY Cobleskill 80-52. Tigers up 26-24 with 7:39 left in the 1st half, proceed to go on a 26-2 run to double up Cobleskill 52-26 at the break. Carson leads the way with 19 pts and 13 boards. 

Carson and Burton show no signs of slowing down. February 22 will decide this once and for all

Indeed.  These races (League MVP and conference championship) have been a fantastic surprise and a lot of fun (from my perspective, of course). 

Even if the Tigers drop one (and it would truly be incredible if they get to 15-0), that Feb 22nd game will decide home court for the league tourney.

This has probably been addressed, but what happens if Ithaca beats RIT that game and they wind up with identical records?

[Ethelred the Unready]

RIT pounds visiting SUNY Cobleskill 80-52. Tigers up 26-24 with 7:39 left in the 1st half, proceed to go on a 26-2 run to double up Cobleskill 52-26 at the break. Carson leads the way with 19 pts and 13 boards. 

Carson and Burton show no signs of slowing down. February 22 will decide this once and for all

Indeed.  These races (League MVP and conference championship) have been a fantastic surprise and a lot of fun (from my perspective, of course). 

Even if the Tigers drop one (and it would truly be incredible if they get to 15-0), that Feb 22nd game will decide home court for the league tourney.

This has probably been addressed, but what happens if Ithaca beats RIT that game and they wind up with identical records?

Well, then they go to the video tape and determine that RIT's win against IC really wasn't a win, coming as it did on a shot that was 45 seconds after the final buzzer.  Therefore, IC is crowned champion.  Of course, I could be wrong....

[gobombers15]

RIT pounds visiting SUNY Cobleskill 80-52. Tigers up 26-24 with 7:39 left in the 1st half, proceed to go on a 26-2 run to double up Cobleskill 52-26 at the break. Carson leads the way with 19 pts and 13 boards. 

Carson and Burton show no signs of slowing down. February 22 will decide this once and for all

Indeed.  These races (League MVP and conference championship) have been a fantastic surprise and a lot of fun (from my perspective, of course). 

Even if the Tigers drop one (and it would truly be incredible if they get to 15-0), that Feb 22nd game will decide home court for the league tourney.

This has probably been addressed, but what happens if Ithaca beats RIT that game and they wind up with identical records?

In-region SoS will end up being the deciding tiebreaker. I haven't seen the numbers yet, but I'm pretty sure that Ithaca holds a significant edge in that statistic. For all intents and purposes, barring something crazy, that game will be for the right to host the E8 Tournament.

[gobombers15]

As a sidenote, congratulations to Jeff Bostic who this week was named to the District I College Division All-Academic Team. He was one of only six players selected for the first team. This award makes him eligible to become and Academic All-American, an award which will be announced on February 25th.

District I encompasses all schools (D1, D2, D3, NAIA) in New York, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Even more impressive when you think of how many schools that is and how many eligible players. Once again, congrats to him, well-deserved.

[RITFAN]

From the RIT website - I believe this is the team Gobombers is referring to. Congratulations to both Mark and Jeff

ROCHESTER, NY - Senior center Mark Carson (Voorheesville, NY/Voorheesville) of the RIT men's basketball team was named to the 2008-09 CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-Region first team on Thursday.  Carson is now eligible to earn Academic All-American honors, which will be announced at a later date.

Carson, a packaging science major, has a 3.41 grade-point average.  He leads all of College Basketball (Divisions, I, II and III) with 14.3 rebounds per game.  Carson is averaging 19.4 points per game, while shooting 61.8 percent (131-for-212) from the field.  Carson leads the team with 1.6 blocks per game, while adding 1.5 steals per contest.  He has 16 double-doubles in 19 games, and has at least 10 rebounds in 18 contests.  He is currently 103 points shy of 1,000 for his career and is second all-time in field goal percentage (.598), third in rebounds (699) and seventh in blocks (84) at RIT.

Carson is a main reason the Tigers are off to their best ever start in Empire 8 play (11-0).  RIT is 15-4 overall and 11-0 in 2009.