Empire 8

[magicman]

In a mild upset Ithaca loses to visiting Oswego State 95-83. I thought these 2 teams were evenly matched but that the Bombers would prevail on their home court. Oswego  spurt at the end of the 1st half put the Lakers up by 11 at 46-35. Bombers would get it to single digits on numerous occasions even cutting it to 3 a couple of times but Oswego would always build it back up to 10 or 11 pts. The Lakers grabbed their biggest lead with 6:17 remaining at 76-61, only to have Ithaca come fighting back to within 3 once again at 85-82 with 1:15 left. Bombers fouled, Oswego hit both free throws and subsequently went on to hit 10 ft's in a row for your final of 95-83.

Both teams placed 4 players in double figures in the high scoring affair. Oswego's Chad Burridge was the games high scorer with 28 pts and Chad Monaghan was next with 20. Chris Gilkes had 15 and Sean Michele added 11.

Laker outshot the Bombers 49% to 38%, won the battle of the boards 44 to 40, had 12 turnovers to 14 for Ithaca, and 9 steals to 5. Lakers hit 24 of 32 free throws (75%) while Ithaca made 22 of 28 (79%). Oswego shot 7x20 from behind the arc (35%) and the Bombers made 11 of 29 (38%).   

Jordan Marcus led the Bombers with 21 pts and Phil Barera had a double-double of 18 pts and 10 rebounds. Andrie Oztemel added 16 pts and Chris Cruz-Rivas chipped in with 15. Sean Rossi dished out 10 assists.

[sjfcards]

A tough draw for Fisher for next weeks Wendy's College Classic. Fisher will play at home against U of R in the first round, with the winner/loser taking on the winner/loser of the Hobart/SUNY Geneseo game. According to the text message from the Fisher website Fisher is the 2 seed, and U of R is the 5th, but I don't know how that could be, with U of R being a solid 4-1, and Fisher being a disappointing  1-2.

Should be a pretty fun tournament next week.

[Ethelred the Unready]

A tough draw for Fisher for next weeks Wendy's College Classic. Fisher will play at home against U of R in the first round, with the winner/loser taking on the winner/loser of the Hobart/SUNY Geneseo game. According to the text message from the Fisher website Fisher is the 2 seed, and U of R is the 5th, but I don't know how that could be, with U of R being a solid 4-1, and Fisher being a disappointing  1-2.

Should be a pretty fun tournament next week.

The U of R site says that the format changed this year to reduce the chance of teams from the same conference meeting in the early rounds.  The addition of Hobart allows the tournament to be grouped by Empire8, Liberty, SUNY and Independents.  Bottom line is I don't think the teams are really "seeded" as in the past.

[FROMAFAR]

Happy belated Thanksgiving to all on the site...........Been traveling a lot this last week........ First to "whatisee", I wouldn't say they rely on 3's that much but didn't distribute the ball much the last few years.  I really can't speak too much on them as I don't see them much though...  IC loses at home.... I see they are still throwing up a lot of 3's..... Again, I know the IC guys will get their backs up when I mention this but Rossi 10 assists...  Game was at IC I would guess....... Is he capable of that many assist in a game   sure I believe he is, however... I am going to look at his assist on the road as compared to home. I don't believe they are padding the number, I just think they are not sure of what an assist is...and tend to give the benefit of the doubt....  Why do I care?  I really don't but I saw Rossi play last year and while he is OK at the point he needs a lot of work...I believe Burton's assist were legit, from what I saw, they must have a new event staff at IC.   That being said, this is not important enough to debate..........I will bow to the IC fans who think otherwise, since they watch IC a whole lot more than me.   The E-8 has been pretty dissapointing overall, My Tigers included.  IC, Fisher ...Stevens has a tell tale game I believe this evening against Kean....Not a bad team, but Stevens should win..if they are going to be competitive in E-8. I am interested in seeing Hartwick has anyone seen what they are up to.. I haven't even looked at who they played thus far.      

[Bombers798891]

Happy belated Thanksgiving to all on the site...........Been traveling a lot this last week........ First to "whatisee", I wouldn't say they rely on 3's that much but didn't distribute the ball much the last few years.  I really can't speak too much on them as I don't see them much though...  IC loses at home.... I see they are still throwing up a lot of 3's..... Again, I know the IC guys will get their backs up when I mention this but Rossi 10 assists...  Game was at IC I would guess....... Is he capable of that many assist in a game   sure I believe he is, however... I am going to look at his assist on the road as compared to home. I don't believe they are padding the number, I just think they are not sure of what an assist is...and tend to give the benefit of the doubt....  Why do I care?  I really don't but I saw Rossi play last year and while he is OK at the point he needs a lot of work...I believe Burton's assist were legit, from what I saw, they must have a new event staff at IC.   That being said, this is not important enough to debate..........I will bow to the IC fans who think otherwise, since they watch IC a whole lot more than me.  

Let's finally end this Rossi nonsense once and for all so people will stop casually accusing Ithaca of padding his stats. But we can't look at just raw assist numbers. We need to look at assists in relation to FG's by other players, since it's possible that a team may score more at home. So the real question is, what percentage of FG's by other players is Rossi credited with an assist on?

Rossi career numbers

Road/Neutral site games: 148 assists on 474 FG's by other players (31.2%)
Home: 111 assists on 359 FG's (30.9%)

Hey, look at that. Not only were Rossi's numbers not padded at home, they're WORSE at home. He's LESS likely to get credited with an assist at home than he is on the road.

So take your "Is he capable of 10 assists" and shove it. This is the second time someone's brought up the idea of Ithaca padding Rossi's stats. And it's ****ing me off. Yes, assists, like tackles, are sometimes a judgment call. But there's absolutely no statistical evidence to back up your claim. There's no great Rossi conspiracy. I loved how you're like "I don't really care" after spending about six lines of text talking about it.

[FROMAFAR]

I knew someone would get insulted.....  Your right I did spend too much time on the issue, which really isn't an issue...... Your wrong about me caring... think about it what's in it for me. Just an observation...I trust your research, so that will shut me up because I wouldn't want to have you *&%*ed off.. too many more important things in life... Just meant for SPRITE CONVERSATION... evidently the conversation is SPRITE.    This assist thing and Rossi came up last year when somehow his # of assits in a game didn't really make sense. I've seen him play and I think he is an OK point guard, I think what he brings to the table for IC is he is one of the few guys who doesn't take a 3, (or too many) which allows the others to. Are you sure IC doesn't bring there own stat crew to away games? EASY JUST KIDDING..RELAX.   I am sure Rossi is a nice kid and will get even better as his career goes on.... As you state many more things to speak about other than Rossi... he's not high on the list.....   

[Bombers798891]

I knew someone would get insulted.....  Your right I did spend too much time on the issue, which really isn't an issue...... Your wrong about me caring... think about it what's in it for me. Just an observation...I trust your research, so that will shut me up because I wouldn't want to have you *&%*ed off.. too many more important things in life... Just meant for SPRITE CONVERSATION... evidently the conversation is SPRITE.    This assist thing and Rossi came up last year when somehow his # of assits in a game didn't really make sense. I've seen him play and I think he is an OK point guard, I think what he brings to the table for IC is he is one of the few guys who doesn't take a 3, (or too many) which allows the others to. Are you sure IC doesn't bring there own stat crew to away games? EASY JUST KIDDING..RELAX.   I am sure Rossi is a nice kid and will get even better as his career goes on.... As you state many more things to speak about other than Rossi... he's not high on the list.....  

Here's the thing: I could care less about people's opinion's of Rossi. Frankly, I could care less about Rossi and the basketball team in general. The issue with stat-padding (to me) is not about Sean Rossi's legacy and never was

What you--and others--have done is essentially accused Ithaca's Sports Info office of engaging in intentional deception. And that's flat out wrong. Yes, mistakes can get made--I've had my share of unintentional screw ups, and as I said, assists are a judgment call. But as a journalist, I have a major problem with people insinuating that Ithaca College is just making up statistics. If you're going to tacitly accuse an office of willfully encouraging professional dishonesty, don't hide behind "It's just meant to start a discussion" crap.

[maxpower]

Just meant for SPRITE CONVERSATION... evidently the conversation is SPRITE.

What. The. Hell.

[Bombers798891]

Now, as far as Rossi and the rest of the team goes, the Bombers have been moderately disappointing this season. The defense and rebounding has been poor (even by Ithaca standards) and the freshman haven't made a big impact. Grier, for all this athleticism, is shooting 20% from the floor and 50% from the line. Christian Jordan's hit some shots, but is still only at about 35% from the floor. Sweeney's not even getting on the court.

Ithaca's depth is even worse than last season's, as the top 7 players have seen 95.5% of the minutes.

The Bombers are shooting the lights out from three (41.5%), but the defense has killed them

[sjfcards]

A tough draw for Fisher for next weeks Wendy's College Classic. Fisher will play at home against U of R in the first round, with the winner/loser taking on the winner/loser of the Hobart/SUNY Geneseo game. According to the text message from the Fisher website Fisher is the 2 seed, and U of R is the 5th, but I don't know how that could be, with U of R being a solid 4-1, and Fisher being a disappointing  1-2.

Should be a pretty fun tournament next week.

The U of R site says that the format changed this year to reduce the chance of teams from the same conference meeting in the early rounds.  The addition of Hobart allows the tournament to be grouped by Empire8, Liberty, SUNY and Independents.  Bottom line is I don't think the teams are really "seeded" as in the past.

I did read that on the U of R site as well. I don't like it. There was a cool feel to the old Chase/Wendy's tournament in the past. You had a good idea of what teams had to offer, and the seedings and matchups made it more like an NCAA tournament than some ho-hum mid season tournament. I really liked the old format better. Did anyone have a real big problem with teams from the same conference meeting in the first few rounds?

I love the addition of Hobart ( I guess it is more of a rebirth of Hobart), but I really question why they have changed the seeding process.

[Ethelred the Unready]

Happy belated Thanksgiving to all on the site...........Been traveling a lot this last week........ First to "whatisee", I wouldn't say they rely on 3's that much but didn't distribute the ball much the last few years.  I really can't speak too much on them as I don't see them much though...  IC loses at home.... I see they are still throwing up a lot of 3's..... Again, I know the IC guys will get their backs up when I mention this but Rossi 10 assists...  Game was at IC I would guess....... Is he capable of that many assist in a game   sure I believe he is, however... I am going to look at his assist on the road as compared to home. I don't believe they are padding the number, I just think they are not sure of what an assist is...and tend to give the benefit of the doubt....  Why do I care?  I really don't but I saw Rossi play last year and while he is OK at the point he needs a lot of work...I believe Burton's assist were legit, from what I saw, they must have a new event staff at IC.   That being said, this is not important enough to debate..........I will bow to the IC fans who think otherwise, since they watch IC a whole lot more than me.   The E-8 has been pretty dissapointing overall, My Tigers included.  IC, Fisher ...Stevens has a tell tale game I believe this evening against Kean....Not a bad team, but Stevens should win..if they are going to be competitive in E-8. I am interested in seeing Hartwick has anyone seen what they are up to.. I haven't even looked at who they played thus far.      

2-2 so far with a loss (14 points I believe) to Geneseo.  Also, I think they have 9-10 freshman on the roster so I guess the coach is bringing in "his" guys. 

[Ethelred the Unready]

A tough draw for Fisher for next weeks Wendy's College Classic. Fisher will play at home against U of R in the first round, with the winner/loser taking on the winner/loser of the Hobart/SUNY Geneseo game. According to the text message from the Fisher website Fisher is the 2 seed, and U of R is the 5th, but I don't know how that could be, with U of R being a solid 4-1, and Fisher being a disappointing  1-2.

Should be a pretty fun tournament next week.

The U of R site says that the format changed this year to reduce the chance of teams from the same conference meeting in the early rounds.  The addition of Hobart allows the tournament to be grouped by Empire8, Liberty, SUNY and Independents.  Bottom line is I don't think the teams are really "seeded" as in the past.

I did read that on the U of R site as well. I don't like it. There was a cool feel to the old Chase/Wendy's tournament in the past. You had a good idea of what teams had to offer, and the seedings and matchups made it more like an NCAA tournament than some ho-hum mid season tournament. I really liked the old format better. Did anyone have a real big problem with teams from the same conference meeting in the first few rounds?

I love the addition of Hobart ( I guess it is more of a rebirth of Hobart), but I really question why they have changed the seeding process.

Yeah, who knows why they do what they do.  I like that Hobart is rejoining as well.  I also don't like the move to early December.  I liked the Chase in January when you had a little better idea of what your team had. 

[bomber3]

FROMAFAR - don't take it personal.  Although you were wrong, people on these boards will jump on you over the slightest misstep, which is one of the reasons I don't spend much time on here anymore.  Every comment gets trampled on and someone comes back with a snide remark.  Was it an intelligent or well thought out post? No, it wasn't.  But it didn't deserve that response.  Take your bad day out on somewhere else. 

I didn't know the Wendy's tournament was this early in the year.  Not sure what I think about that other than I don't think I like it.  Oh well, its better than no tournament at all.

[Bombers798891]

FROMAFAR - don't take it personal.  Although you were wrong, people on these boards will jump on you over the slightest misstep, which is one of the reasons I don't spend much time on here anymore.  Every comment gets trampled on and someone comes back with a snide remark.  Was it an intelligent or well thought out post? No, it wasn't.  But it didn't deserve that response.  Take your bad day out on somewhere else.  

I didn't know the Wendy's tournament was this early in the year.  Not sure what I think about that other than I don't think I like it.  Oh well, its better than no tournament at all.

No-one's having a bad day. This isn't a "slight" misstep. He's essentially accusing IC's Sports Information department of making up statistics for Sean Rossi. This isn't the first time it's been done, and it's uncalled for.

What were the 12 assists he had at Hobart? How about the school-record 17 he had at the Sudeck Tournament on Ohio? The 9 he had at Elmira? The 10 at Hartwick? The 9 he had against Brockport in the ECAC's? Are they all padding his stats too?

[Cyclone0205]

Ok, now that we've all finished our Andre Johnson-Cortland Finnegan impersonation, back to the basketball court.

Ducks picked up a nice 80-77 win tonight at Kean.  For young teams it is good to pick up road victories and this Kean team, while not a power, is well coached and talented.  The big kid Jones is an absolute house!  Dropped 28 and 11 boards on Stevens tonight, averaging 26 and 16 for the season (only 5 games but still damn impressive.)  Not sure who in the E8 has a big that can exploit Stevens like that again, as Jones is more an NJAC/CUNY type of athlete.

For Stevens the night belong to Cutri.  FROMAFAR and I have both been mentioning his absence, but he showed up tonight.  22 points and 4-5 from 3.  Sheldon Jones also contributed 20 points.  The Ducks are going to go as those two go.

Worth noting, Hurley has quickly shown how "deep" the Ducks are...Cutri plays 36 of 40, Jones 35, Thompson 32.  Not sure they can get away with that.  And, as has been discussed, Smith is slowly fading out of the picture.  Only 6 shots tonight, but I must say for the knocks on Hurley's offense, Smith needs to be a MUCH better job of sealing his man after his UCLA cut, and of demanding the basketball.  It is the weird cycle..you stop getting the ball, so you stop demanding it..and because you aren't demanding it, you don't get it.  There has to be an effort made from both the guards and the bigs to work the inside game more.

Solid contributions from Franklin and Sabbatino, who I still think is going to be a key player for this team.  11 points and 7 rebounds, including 3 critical offensive rebounds, in 14 minutes of action.  That's quality production from the freshman.


Overall game came down to Cutri shooting well and Kean going 5-26 from 3.  Better shooting night for KU, different result, but there is no such thing as ugly W's.