Empire 8

[Bombers798891]

Bombers with a mini-spurt to make it 51-42. How embarrassing was it that the Ithaca assistant coaches were IMPLORING the fans to get into the game? Wake up, IC fans. There are other big sporting events besides Cortaca.

Players and coaches should worry less about the crowd getting behind them and more about playing the game.

[Bigbomber]

That comment shows nothing more then how little you actually know about how a crowd can help a team over the hump. While in this case it didn't, more often then not it can be extremely valuable to the home team and the shift of momentum.

[magicman]

Ithaca has to win this game if it wants to host the Sweet 16. Right?

It sure won't help that they lost in the semifinal game. They might have gotten away with it if the loss was in the championship game but even then it probably will depend on what Middlebury does. If they win the Nescac tournament,  I think they will host a regional and if Ithaca is still alive, the Bombers will get sent there. Last year the NCAA sent Amherst, Brandeis, and Richard Stockton to Plattsburgh, as the Cardinals won both the regular season crown and the SUNYAC tournament, while the other major East and Northeast conference winners were getting upset in their respective tournaments. Middlebury has already won the regular season NESCAC title and now faces Amherst  for the Automatic Qualifier. With all the upsets across the country that happened today, Amhert's chances for a Pool C bid, which weren't too good to begin with, just got a whole lot worse. Plus Brandeis won their game today and remain in front of Amherst in the Northeast region.The only way that Amherst gets into the NCAA's now is if they topple Middlebury tomorrow. Bomber fans have to be rooting for the Lord Jeff's to do just that.   The Panthers are in no matter what happens but hosting a regional and revenge for a loss at  Amherst 2 weeks ago is pretty good motivation. And they're at home for this game.  

[Bombers798891]

That comment shows nothing more then how little you actually know about how a crowd can help a team over the hump. While in this case it didn't, more often then not it can be extremely valuable to the home team and the shift of momentum.

Yes, it can, but it's not the job of an assistant coach to get the fans riled up. That's for the cheerleaders. Crowds are important, but if you're relying on the crowd to carry you past a team, you have problems. The Bombers had beaten Nazareth by 32 and 27 points in the regular season, so I'm not pinning the loss on the crowd. Ithaca is the better team, and they have no-one to blame but themselves for the loss. It's not the crowd's fault the team shot 5-31 from three point range or couldn't stop Jeff Dehimer and the McAdam brothers--who went a combined 25-36 from the floor.

The Bombers went 14-1 away from home this season, so it's not like they don't know how to win without crowd support. Credit Nazareth for having a great game plan. Criticize the Bombers for not hitting their three's. But don't blame the crowd. That's simply a cop-out

[gobombers15]

Bombers, the crowd did suck for the first 30 minutes of that game. If I didn't know any better, that could have been a game against Elmira on a snowy Tuesday night in January. Even the ICTV guys made mention of how the crowd was a complete non-factor. I'm not saying Ithaca needed the crowd to win, as Big Bomber said, but a pulse would have been nice. You were probably there, but don't take it as a personal affront. You're only one man.

In other news, who the hell is this former Falcons LB that the Giants just paid $25 mil. I have never heard of him.

[magicman]

Good to see Naz wake up.  Hartwick gave the whole league the blueprint on how to beat them.  Hold the ball every possession and frustrate them.  Hartwick almost got them at Hartwick.  The difference here is that Nazareth has alot more talent than Hartwick.

This could mean huge implications for U of R, St L, Hamilton, and Utica's at-large hopes.

U of R, and Utica have no chance for an at large bid and didn't have even before Ithaca's loss. ECAC's or see you next year for those 2. St Lawrence will get a bid. Hamilton is now probably on the bubble after looking so good prior to Friday's game. All the other upsets today hurt the Continentals chances big time, but there still might be a chance for them.

[bamm]

Congrats to Coach McVean on win #400 at RIT, getting the Tigers to right the ship after a bad couple of weeks. 

Of course, if you believe UCGrad's completely unbiased play-by-play, the Tigers didn't even earn it  :-)

[Bombers798891]

Bombers, the crowd did suck for the first 30 minutes of that game. If I didn't know any better, that could have been a game against Elmira on a snowy Tuesday night in January. Even the ICTV guys made mention of how the crowd was a complete non-factor. I'm not saying Ithaca needed the crowd to win, as Big Bomber said, but a pulse would have been nice. You were probably there, but don't take it as a personal affront. You're only one man.

In other news, who the hell is this former Falcons LB that the Giants just paid $25 mil. I have never heard of him.

Yes the crowd sucked, and it is disappointing. Ithaca kids rarely support their teams, but to be fair to them, why should they? A lot of the big spectator sports (Men's BBall and Football) haven't played a lot of big games at home, so fans don't really know much.

1) The football team hadn't hosted an NCAA playoff game in 14 years prior to this season.

2) The Men's basketball team has hosted one in their entire history and that was 15 years ago. The Men's BBall team has never won a conference playoff game.

3) The Women's team last hosted an NCAA game in 2005.

So in other words, of the three major spectator sports at Ithaca, an undergrad has seen what, one NCAA playoff game, here? And it was a loss. So what reason do they have to really care? I confess I almost didn't go. Why? Because I assumed IC would walk through them like they had twice this season. 

Yes, this Men's basketball team has the potential to be special, and you wish people would support it more, but I've been coming to sporting events here for 20 years. Basketball has NEVER gotten support. Even football has seen it go down in recent years. It's just tough to get kids excited about it but it's kind of fighting a losing battle. It's Division III sports and if you didn't grow up around it, you're not going to care. I grew up in Ithaca, so I care. I tried to get people to go when I was a student, and they just didn't want to. Is it right? No. But I think it is what it is.

The Giants signed Michael Boley. He was considered a stud in Atlanta two years go, but lost his job this season. It's an interesting signing, but if he plays up to his potential, it's a good one

[magicman]

Posted this on several of the East Region boards.

It looks like the East Region will have 7 bids to the NCAA tournament and are as follows:

1   Brockport St.  Pool A  SUNYAC automatic bid
2   RPI   Pool A Liberty League  automatic bid
3   Medaille  Pool A   Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference  automatic bid
4   RIT/Nazareth winner Pool A  Empire 8 automatic bid
5   SUNYIT/Wells winner  Pool A  North Eastern Athletic Conference automatic bid
6   Ithaca  Pool C  at large bid
7   St Lawrence  Pool C  at large bid

I think Hamilton is going to lose out because of all the upsets today to teams that would have been Pool A bids but have now been relegated to Pool C.( Like Ithaca)
After all the teams that should have been Pool A bids take the Pool C bids instead
that doesn't leave enough Pool C bids left for the East Region to get 3 Pool C's. There are simply too many good teams on the bubble. With 8 regions and only 18 Pool C at large bids there is no way that the East will get 3 of them. St Lawrence could even possibly get knocked out of the picture. The 1 good thing the Saints have going for them is that they will remain #2 in the final Regional rankings that come out later today(Sunday) but will not be seen by the public. No way Hamilton can leap over the Saints as they lost in the LL semifinals and the Saints own 2 head to head wins over them.  So for sure 6 teams but I think the Saints get in to give us the 7 bids. At least it's better than the 4 we had last year.

[magicman]

It is now several hours after I posted my list of NCAA bids and D3Hoops has just come out with their NCAA projections. Here's the link:

http://www.d3hoops.com/salem/09/projected.htm

As I expected the 7 East Region teams I listed are in and Hamilton gets left on the table. D3Hoops projects a 4 team pod with host Ithaca as a #1 seed facing the winner of the SUNYIT/Wells game. The other game will pit Amherst against Brandeis.

St. Lawrence will host another 4 team pod and face Brockport St. UM-Dartmouth will take on the NAZ/RIT winner.(Which they show as RIT. Pat must have a crystal ball)

RPI is an 8 seed and will travel to #1 seed Richard Stockton.

Medaille is also a #8 seed and will travel to the Cleveland Ohio region and face the #1 seed John Carroll.

The coveted 1st round bye has went to Middlebury.

Remember these are only D3Hoops projections and not the actual selections but they will be very close to the NCAA's picks. However, the placement of the teams could differ considerably.

Middlebury losing to Amherst could have an impact on the bye, with it  possibly going to Ithaca.

[Pat Coleman]

We crystal-ball the projections every year.

[gobombers15]

Naz is 2-1 vs RIT this year:

12/6: RIT 94 at Nazareth 81 (OT)

1/14: RIT 73 at Nazareth 87 (Chase Quarterfinal)

2/17: Nazareth 86 at RIT 84

That's right, RIT has not defeated Naz in regulation this season. I'll go out on a limb and pick the Golden Flyers. The MacAdams looked great yesterday and DeHimer is a nice third option. Also, if Naz wins, I'd have to think a 14-13 team would be the 8-seed in the East. Is that correct? Could we see Naz/Ithaca IV in the same gym next weekend? Or would the committee work to avoid conference matchups in Round 1?

[FisherDynasty]

believe it or not i think the loss helps ithaca a lot.  Rit/naz are going into the ncaa both not very good. it also eliminates hamilton, uofr and other teams from getting at larges. the other upsets in those conf. help as well.  It does hurt that they probably wont host sweet 16 now but i never thought ithaca was that great at home anyways so not a huge loss there.  all in all after all of the upsets and just the performance of the teams in east and northeast this year i think ithaca has lots of possibilities to advance there are not nearly as many roadblocks vs prior years.

[magicman]

So RIT grabs the E8 Pool A bid downing Naz 76-71. Guess Pat did have a crystal ball after all.

[Bombers798891]

believe it or not i think the loss helps ithaca a lot.  Rit/naz are going into the ncaa both not very good. it also eliminates hamilton, uofr and other teams from getting at larges. the other upsets in those conf. help as well.  It does hurt that they probably wont host sweet 16 now but i never thought ithaca was that great at home anyways so not a huge loss there.  all in all after all of the upsets and just the performance of the teams in east and northeast this year i think ithaca has lots of possibilities to advance there are not nearly as many roadblocks vs prior years.

That's an interesting theory, and it might very well be true, but the loss also illuminates some weaknesses of Ithaca. As someone else said, Hartwick, Alfred and Naz have all shown how to beat Ithaca. You slow down the pace and it gets Ithaca out of their rhythm, especially when they try to shoot threes. There were times when Ithaca just seemed so unsettled they quickly jacked up a three, almost like they were trying to force the pace up.

Teams who've tried to run and gun with Ithaca have, for the most part, lost big. Teams who have slowed down the pace have kept it closer and taken Ithaca out of their game.

Another thing to remember is that, despite this being a senior-laden team, they've never had much postseason success. As sophomores, they won the ECAC's, but that's it. We don't know how the team will respond to the pressure of the NCAA's.

This is an exceedingly talented Ithaca squad, by clear, the best in school history and possibly one of the best in conference history. But to this point, their legacy is undefined. If they make a run to the Sweet 16 or Elite 8, which they are certainly capable of doing, they'd be the most successful class in school history. But if they fall in the opening round, they'll be a team that put together two amazing regular seasons (41-9), but an 0-3 in the postseason.

I think they could certainly take the regional they're in, but it's time to see what the team is made of.