Empire 8

[Caz Bombers]

Umm, wow.  Elmira ran Hobart 74-63 on the road in Geneva.  David Nelson with 21.  So EC almost beats Stevens, then convincingly beats the same Hobart team that walloped Fisher.

[gobombers15]

Umm, wow.  Elmira ran Hobart 74-63 on the road in Geneva.  David Nelson with 21.  So EC almost beats Stevens, then convincingly beats the same Hobart team that walloped Fisher.

Looks like Alfred may soon be taking over Elmira's room in the basement.

[triplethreat]

Very interesting to see what Elmira has done in the last two games.  Makes you take a somewhat serious look at them.  I think that we are in for some suprises this year in conference play.  Anyone can win on Friday night and then come back and get beat Saturday to whoever it is they are playing.  I still see the E8 top four as Stevens, Naz, Ithaca and either Fisher or Utica.  Tough few games ahead for Fisher as well.  With U of R and WPI......

[Cyclone0205]

Any word on what happened to Burton?

[bombersquadron]

Ithaca lost a tough one at Stevens this afternoon. Back and fourth game which Ithaca lead most of the way, with each team having runs, but Stevens went on a run late in the second half and took control of the game. They made there FT's down the stretch which helped them out and got great play from Passalcqua who shot very well from behind the arc tonight.

From what i've heard about the Burton injury, he went up for a lay-up which was blocked off the backboard (possible goal-tending) and was hit hard after letting go of the ball, not a dirty play as the player attemped to block the ball but no foul was called and he hit the ground face first under the basket. Stevens rebounded the ball and went on the break but the refs called time right away for the injury. He landed face first (didn't even have his arms out to brace the fall) had a  cut on his nose, broke his nose and most likely has a concussion. They way he landed i heard looked very bad as he laid motionless under the basket. Not sure of his status for the only game left first semester but he is okay and in good health after the hard fall.

The Bombers played very hard without Burton. A number of people stepped up and played well . No one should be upset with the play of Brendan Rogers as he played very hard and was asked to do something he is only asked to do for about 5 minutes a night for an entire game without any real preparation. I doubt he gets a lot of runs at the PG spot in practice. Some other people needed to step up and pick up their play in his absence.

I still don't think people can crown Stevens as champs yet with a close win vs an improving Elmira team and had a great battle with Ithaca at their place early in the semester. I can't wait to see the game when they play in late feb. i heard tonight's game had that type of atmosphere to it. I hope Sean Burton is ok, from what i heard it was a hard fall.

[with age comes?]

This a very scary weekend...  Other than Alfred which I saw lose to very shall I say "average" Hilbert team early this season by about 15... it looks like anybody can beat anyboby on any given night. Who would have ever dreamed I'd be including Elmira in that statement.  I've seen only RIT, Ithaca (minus Bostic) and Alfred, but I think from early impressions the win, place, show is Stevens, Ithaca & Naz and I'm not sure of the order.  I hope Burton is OK.  It's probably a "silver lining "blessing that it comes towards the end of the semester of ball and there will be some down time for healing.  He's an impressive talent whose skills should be seen by all.  I truly hope he recovers quickly and fully.

[maxpower]

This a very scary weekend...  Other than Alfred which I saw lose to very shall I say "average" Hilbert team early this season by about 15... it looks like anybody can beat anyboby on any given night. Who would have ever dreamed I'd be including Elmira in that statement.  I've seen only RIT, Ithaca (minus Bostic) and Alfred, but I think from early impressions the win, place, show is Stevens, Ithaca & Naz and I'm not sure of the order.  I hope Burton is OK.  It's probably a "silver lining "blessing that it comes towards the end of the semester of ball and there will be some down time for healing.  He's an impressive talent whose skills should be seen by all.  I truly hope he recovers quickly and fully.

From what I can tell it doesn't sound like Ithaca plus Bostic is much different so far...

[FisherDynasty]

I wouldnt forget about fisher, when they have a full squad come late in the season they will be right there knocking on the door again. 

So burton got hurt against steven's, thats too bad, seems like Ithaca had the lead before he went down.  This first semester has been a crazy one, especially compared to prior years.  Im not sure how much we can take from it though, as it seems a lot of teams have been missing players, and some younger teams will grow at a faster rate to more experienced teams.  Should be an interesting one come E8 tourny time.

[JQV]

No one should be upset with the play of Brendan Rogers as he played very hard and was asked to do something he is only asked to do for about 5 minutes a night for an entire game without any real preparation. I doubt he gets a lot of runs at the PG spot in practice. Some other people needed to step up and pick up their play in his absence.

That actually makes a lot of sense.  In the 15 minutes that I saw, he looked very indecisive, which lead to a lot of the turnovers.  Makes sense he would be indecisive if he was filling in.  I just assumed he was Burton's backup.

[bamm]

Interesting note, maybe just to me --

On the local (Rochester) sports "rundown" on the radio this morning, Jon Ditullio actually gave the Ithaca/Stevens score.  Now, normally you can get a Fisher/UR/Naz score, and occasionally RIT, but it's pretty uncommon to get scores from that far out of town.

I don't know if there's any conclusion to be drawn from that or if it's even interesting at all, but I felt like posting it.

[bombersquadron]

That actually makes a lot of sense.  In the 15 minutes that I saw, he looked very indecisive, which lead to a lot of the turnovers.  Makes sense he would be indecisive if he was filling in.  I just assumed he was Burton's backup.

Not sure of the exact role of Rogers, when Burton has been out of the games for rest it has either been Ruffrage or Rogers playing at the PG spot. Ruffrage starts and Rogers plays more then the time Burton sits but i doubt either one gets enough practice time to be ready to run the offense Ithaca has put in this year. Still all reports from the players that i have heard praised Rogers for stepping up and shoulder the load for that game.

Interesting note, maybe just to me --

On the local (Rochester) sports "rundown" on the radio this morning, Jon Ditullio actually gave the Ithaca/Stevens score.  Now, normally you can get a Fisher/UR/Naz score, and occasionally RIT, but it's pretty uncommon to get scores from that far out of town.

I don't know if there's any conclusion to be drawn from that or if it's even interesting at all, but I felt like posting it.

Bamm, i find this very interesting news, not sure what to make of it either but it does make it seem like a lot of people in Rochester had their eyes or ears on yesterday's game.

[bamm]

Keeping with the ultimately inconsequential facts theme of my posts today -- UR will be the #1 team in the D3Hoops.com Top 25 when they visit RIT tomorrow night and when they host Fisher this weekend. 

[maxpower]

Interesting note, maybe just to me --

On the local (Rochester) sports "rundown" on the radio this morning, Jon Ditullio actually gave the Ithaca/Stevens score.  Now, normally you can get a Fisher/UR/Naz score, and occasionally RIT, but it's pretty uncommon to get scores from that far out of town.

I don't know if there's any conclusion to be drawn from that or if it's even interesting at all, but I felt like posting it.

Ithaca and Rochester: a match made in heaven. Two of three places Max has lived.

[WICB Sports]

WICB's coverage of Friday night's men's basketball game between St. Lawrence and Ithaca begins at 6:40 p.m. with Bombers Shootaround.  At 7 p.m., Pete Sachs and Dan Cassavaugh have the call of the game from the Ben Light Gymnasium.  Listen in at 91.7 FM in Ithaca or at www.wicb.org.

On Sunday, WICB presents its 2007 Bombers Year in Review from 6-8 p.m.as we highlight the top 10 moments from Ithaca College sports in 2007.  We'll have all the calls from 2007's greatest moments and the key athletes live in studio.  Our top 10:

10. Men's basketball 4 OT vs. St. John Fisher
9. Sue Kelly scores 1000 career points
8. Softball team win the Empire 8 and goes to the NCAA tournament
7. Women's basketball wins Empire 8 and goes to the NCAA tournament
6. Football team earns at-large berth for NCAA playoffs and scores 18 points against Mount Union.
5. Jamie Donovan breaks all-time rushing and scoring records.
4. Chelsea Feldman breaks a host of women's soccer records.
3. Baseball team advances to within one game of the World Series.
2. Women's soccer wins Empire 8, advances to NCAA Quarterfinals.
1. Football wins the Cortaca Jug.

[bamm]

Annoying:  Realizing as you walk into the gym that the game is already at halftime (I should have realized the girls weren't playing).

Really Annoying:  Walking in at halftime to your team being down 16.

The rest of the night played out a little better, though.  I'll start by saying this -- it would be difficult to convince me that UR is the best team in the country.  Onyiriuka is still there, but I really thought he'd be better than he is by now.  Carson out-positioned and out-hustled him in the 20 minutes I saw. 

In fact, I just looked at the box score and it confirmed what I thought I was seeing -- Carson did outscore and outrebound him (albeit by small margins) in the 2nd. 

Ndubizu is a nice player as well.  He and Onyiriuka are quick and play strong -- but I don't necessarily think they can't be neutralized. 

UR's guards play smart and they all shoot well.  Their ability to hit a timely three is what kept them from letting this one slip away -- RIT had the lead down to four with eight minutes left.


As to RIT -- Carson looks like he's lost a few pounds and is really light on his feet.  His foul shot looks a hell of a lot better too.  Each one of his attempts at least has a chance to go in -- which is more than I could say about his backboard cracking heaters of last season.

I'm also really impressed by a couple of the freshman -- Shane Foster and Nate Korinchuk.  They can score and they play hard on the defensive end.  Late in the game I was particularly impressed by them when consecutive UR inbound attempts went as follows:

1 -- Knocked away by Korinchuk, out of bounds.
2 -- Timeout UR to avoid 5 second violation.
3 -- Knocked away by Foser, out of bounds.
4 -- 5 second violation, RIT ball.

Down ten with a minute to go, I was impressed by their effort (it could be said of all 5 guys on the floor at that time).

I would be surprised if they finish below .500 in conference, even with the bad start.

Gethers finished with 16 and 13, another big game.