Empire 8

[jdex]

Actually, Geneseo is finding itself again after losing five straight. Knights regained some key bodies from injured list. Took out streaking Plattsburgh rather handsomely. SUNYAC as expected has shown bit of spunk in stretch run. Bport top dog and currently flexing muscle aplenty. Port tonight visits SUNYIT (Utica Tech for unitiated) and that outfit can certainly play. Has outstanding players all over the place including two of league's best in Reaves and LaBoard. Oswego another dangerous crew although loss of odds-on POY guard N. Perioli before season major blow

[Razor]

I wouldn't want to have to meet up with a healthy Geneseo team come playoff time.  They have experience and depth and could be the dark horse of the Sunyac tourny.  Bport is Bport and Plattsburgh and Oswego also have some serious offensive firepower.  I would have to say that 4-7 in YAC are just as good, if not better than 3-4 in the E8.

[gobombers15]

I wouldn't want to have to meet up with a healthy Geneseo team come playoff time.  They have experience and depth and could be the dark horse of the Sunyac tourny.  Bport is Bport and Plattsburgh and Oswego also have some serious offensive firepower.  I would have to say that 4-7 in YAC are just as good, if not better than 3-4 in the E8.

Well, everyone thought the SUNYAC was better than the E8 last year, too, and it did not turn out that way. The E8's third best team beat a very good, experienced Oswego club for the ECAC crown.

[FisherDynasty]

be4the3some, actually your probably right now that i look at the LL a little deeper.  They have been a pretty solid league.  its tough to compare all 3 leagues, they are all  different.  I have not seen st lawrence play yet this year, and they are one of the better teams in the LL, so i should have judged the league.  It just seems that league has a lot of parity, hobart beating good teams, vassar being good this year, hamilton losing to skidmore, idk, its either they are all pretty good, or all not that good.  excluding st. lawrence, hamilton supposedly has the most talent, which they do have a lot of talent.  But, they seem a little young at the guard spot, and usually dont play much defense.  idk i guess hamilton and st. lawrence as of right now both have the same shot that utica and fisher have at getting in the tourny.  I just feel that utica having only 4 losses instead of 5 as of now, and fisher having better wins then both of them, the E8 tourny wise, has the edge.  The only team that can get an at large from the sunyacs is bport, all the other teams have too many losses or will have by selection time. 

[gobombers15]

As expected, Ithaca coasts by Elmira, 86-68. The visiting Bombers take a 53-33 lead into the locker room and put it on cruise control from there. Jeff Bostic leads the way with 23 points and 7 rebs. Sean Leahy continues his solid play with 14 and 7. Ithaca has five other players score between six and eleven. Elmira is led by KC Mendez and Joe Prunier who both scored 12.

[superman57]

so my 20 point prediction was pretty good

[gobombers15]

so my 20 point prediction was pretty good

As soon as I saw the score, I KNEW that was the first thing you were going to say. I'm pretty sure if IC really wanted to throttle them by about 30, they could have. No point in running up the score. Mullins tries to avoid that it at all possible.

[superman57]

I was being sarcastic gb15, we all know any team in the league could beat elmira by 50 if they left the starters in the game for the entire game and ran the score up

[b4the3isme]

FishDyn- now we're more on the same page, but Hobart did it again last night-beating Hamilton.  I saw both teams up North this weekend vs Clarkson and I would have bet the house that Hobart couldn't beat SLU and Hamilton on the road in back to back games.  Fortunately there were no takers.  Of course with the loss to Hamilton I believe that the Liberty League now has only a very outside chance at a second NCAA bid.  Perhaps those of you more versused in QOWI can tell me but I have to believe a loss at home to a weak opponent like Hobart in effect may mean that Hamilton must win the tournament.  And while you are at it where exactly are these rankings?  I googled QOWI and quality of wins index and all I could find were 2006 rankings from Feb?  Is there a direct site that lists team from top to bottom?  Any help to a computer iliterate would be gratefully appreciated!!

[GPT]

It looks like if Fisher wins out this weekend they will host the tournament. This is according to fishers web site

[gobombers15]

It looks like if Fisher wins out this weekend they will host the tournament. This is according to fishers web site

Looks like that is the case. I just looked up the tiebreaker and here it is:

The tie-breakers shall be as follows, in order:

1-Head-to-head record

2-Best record vs. subsequent finishers in descending order beginning with the 1st place team

3-Road record vs. conference opponents

4-NCAA strength of schedule index within region
__________________________________________________

Jumping to #2, given that Fisher is 2-0 vs currently third-placed Ithaca, while Utica is only 1-1 vs the Bombers, that would be the difference. Even if RIT displaces Ithaca for third place, it would still jump to Ithaca because both teams are 1-1 against RIT in conference play.

Also, under this tiebreaker, there is still an outside chance that IC may not make the tournament. For that to happen, Ithaca would have to lose both games this weekend while Alfred defeats Hartwick AND Utica. If both finish 8-6, Alfred would hold the tiebreaker under #2 by virtue of their 1-1 record against Fisher.

RIT and Ithaca both only need win one game this weekend and they're in.

[Caz Bombers]

GB15--

Ithaca is in already.  Even if they and Alfred both finish 8-6, IC swept the Saxons.  Alfred's win over Fisher would be irrelevant.  For it to be a 2-way tie for 4th, RIT need only beat Elmira at home to take the #3 seed outright at 9-5.

If it's a 3-way tie at 8-6 for 2 spots, Ithaca would be 2-2 against RIT/AU, RIT 3-1 against IC/AU and Alfred 1-3 against IC/RIT.  That puts RIT in as the #3 seed and Ithaca as the #4 seed  with either the 2-2/1-3 tiebreaker or the season sweep of Alfred tiebreaker.

[superman57]

so it's very possible that fisher hosts the tourny...Cool... Sucks to be utica this weekend

[bamm]

FishDyn- now we're more on the same page, but Hobart did it again last night-beating Hamilton.  I saw both teams up North this weekend vs Clarkson and I would have bet the house that Hobart couldn't beat SLU and Hamilton on the road in back to back games.  Fortunately there were no takers.  Of course with the loss to Hamilton I believe that the Liberty League now has only a very outside chance at a second NCAA bid.  Perhaps those of you more versused in QOWI can tell me but I have to believe a loss at home to a weak opponent like Hobart in effect may mean that Hamilton must win the tournament.  And while you are at it where exactly are these rankings?  I googled QOWI and quality of wins index and all I could find were 2006 rankings from Feb?  Is there a direct site that lists team from top to bottom?  Any help to a computer iliterate would be gratefully appreciated!!

Pat and others keep up a fairly lively discussion on QOWI on the Multi-Regional Topics board.  There is a thread called "QOWI".  You can find the QOWI rankings, updated regularly, there.

It looks like if Fisher wins out this weekend they will host the tournament. This is according to fishers web site

Part of me is happy the E8 fixed the ludicrous tiebreaking system to something more reasonable.  But another part of me is miffed they did it just in time to help Fisher.  Dammit.

I still think Utica is good enough, or more to the point, Fisher's dominance has waned enough, that homecourt advantage for them in the E8 tourney is not a nail in the coffin for the other teams like it has been in the past.  Obviously, they can be beaten there by any of Utica, RIT, or Ithaca.

[superman57]

Bamm, while I agree that the aura of the Varsity gym isn't what it has been in the past....it is still the toughest place in the E8 to play, and teams still have a hard time winning there