Empire 8

[UCgrad45]

Well, today should be a fun day in the Empire 8. Let's go Pioneers!

[gobombers15]

Naz up 32-22 with 9 mins left in the first half. No defense being played by IC, whatsoever. The shots Naz has missed have been bunnies. They could have about 40 right now.

[gobombers15]

Looks like the E8 Tourney is going to be in Hoboken. Naz whipping Ithaca at the half, 51-34. Still, no defense being played by Ithaca. Too many open shots for Naz. When Naz misses, they get the offensive rebound and put in a layup. Seems like Ithaca thought that Naz would come in and roll over for them. Burton playing the worst I've ever seen him play, with 7 TO's in the first half and a missed front-end of a 1-and-1 that Ithaca really need towards the end of the first half. Gebhardt, Naz's backup PG, seems to be giving him fits. Bostic seems tentative to go down low right now and he has to do that b/c his 17 footer isn't falling today. IC has really dug themselves a hole.

[gobombers15]

Naz's lead trimmed to six, 69-63, with just over ten minutes left. The tide switched once Bostic was but on Corey McAdam. Also, love that the sideline reporter, who listens in on the IC huddle during timeouts, just reported that Louis Kail told the team that "Naz can't win close games." Hey, it's pretty accurate. I think he must read our boards.

[gobombers15]

Naz up 78-77 with a touch under 3 mins left. Bombers just missed a chance to take the lead. Tom Brown's defender flopped hoping to get a charge, there was no call but Brown missed the wide open bunny. Two FT's by Naz give them an 80-77 lead with 2:40 left, timeout on the floor.

[gobombers15]

Leahy does it again!!! Down 82-81 with under a minute to go, Leahy knocks down a contested 3-ptr from the top of the key. Naz misses the ensuing shot, out-of-bounds off Naz, IC ball with 24 secs left.

[gobombers15]

Ithaca wins the E8 regular season title and will host the E8 Tourney after their 88-84 win over Naz. I have to collect my thoughts on this one, but I'll post later what I thought about this one. However, the general theme will be "Jim Mullins badly outcoached Mike Daley," and I'm not a huge Mullins guy, but that's a fact.

[UCgrad45]

UC blows out Alfred, but hartwick lost. UC score is 90-54.

Munch goes out with 15 points, 6 assists and 8 boards.

Things that suck: UC goes on a tear, has a better record than fisher and spanked them last night but no tournament.

Munch won't be back next year.


Things that rule: Everyone else is back next year.

UC brought it together and finished strong.


On a side note, I doubt UC will accept an ECAC bid if offered. It is usually NCAA or bust. However, this team playing like this and the circumstances of age and injuries, maybe they would reconsider.

[jasper]

Thank god Fisher and Ithaca won for two reasons....1. I'll be honest i was looking forward to stone colding that six pack but the run through the ROC f that. B. I don't have to drive my happy a$s to frickin NJ next weekend. Should be some great matchups....Rubber match for SJF and Ithaca and Naz gets one more crack at Stevens.

[gobombers15]

Fisher over Hartwick, 70-61. The matchups for next weekend's E8 Tourney in Ithaca (that won't get old all week):

#4 St. John Fisher @ #1 Ithaca
#3 Nazareth vs #2 Stevens

This will save a lot of folks a very long drive to Hoboken. UCgrad, Utica would be smart to take an ECAC bid. You gave the exact reason why: they're a young team and every additional game that they can play together will make them better. I think the ECAC's the last two years have really helped Ithaca. I think Utica would be wise to accept the bid.

[FROMAFAR]

I don't want to dis anyone, but Corey McAdams for POY  NOOOOOOO!, how many turnovers in the second half, and Mullins did not outcoach Daly, Daly simply did it all himself. How many times is he going to allow these guys to take 3's with a lead  under 3 minutes to go? No time management and this happens time after time. The tourney should be a good one..... Naz Stevens... Ithaca SJF....amazing.   Hey I hv gotten so much wrong this year but check out an earlier POST...  4 losses wins this league...  

[magicman]

Congratulations to the Ithaca Bombers on winning the Empire 8 regular season. And they did it the hard way, beating the other 2 top teams on back to back days.

gobombers you didn't sound like a man who had faith at halftime! I'm kinda surprised since you're their number 1 drum beater. You were probably using the old "reverse logic"  theory. Good job, it worked.

[gobombers15]

Congratulations to the Ithaca Bombers on winning the Empire 8 regular season. And they did it the hard way, beating the other 2 top teams on back to back days.

gobombers you didn't sound like a man who had faith at halftime! I'm kinda surprised since you're their number 1 drum beater. You were probably using the old "reverse logic"  theory. Good job, it worked.

Yes, I like to think of myself as the King of Reverse Psychology. As a NY Giants fan, I kept saying to myself "S___, we gave Brady 35 seconds to work with, we're gonna lose" at the end of the Super Bowl. However, I was very worried at halftime. How can any Bomber fan who watched that first half not be? They looked gawd awful. Completely flat, playing no defense, etc. My only hope was that Ithaca could get it down to six or seven before the 5-minute mark and get Naz doubting themselves b/c they don't win close games. Once that happened, though some work still had to be done, I had a pretty good feeling about the game.

Anyways, I don't think I'm the #1 drum-beater. That title would and should go to bombersquadron, easily. I have picked Ithaca to lose on several occasions, actually. Overall, I think I'm pretty level-headed when it comes to Ithaca. I'm a fan, obviously, but I don't think I'm blind about it.

FROMAFAR, here's the biggest difference in the game and why I said that Mullins outcoached Daley: Ithaca put Bostic on Corey McAdam in the 2nd half and Daley, for some unknown reason, did not even play Gebhardt in the 2nd half after Gebhardt had great success against Burton in the 1st half and Burton was running the Naz defense ragged in the 2nd. Naz just looked lost once Bostic started guarding Corey McAdam. A lot of standing around on offense. It was almost like "oh no, Corey can't get to the basket whenever he wants, now what do we do??" That's coaching. C'mon Daley, you have to have something else in the bag when a team finally figures out a way to stop your first option. In Daley's defense, though, he doesn't shoot the ball and Canori was terrible today (3/18, no FT attempts).

Here are some other quick-hit thoughts:

-As much as it pains me to say this about a fellow Webster HS alum, Joe Canori is Naz's 3rd best player and does not warrant being on the E8 First Team All-Conference. It hurts even worse b/c the two guys ahead of him are both grads of Webster's biggest rival, Fairport, but the McAdam brothers are excellent. Ryan McAdam was Naz's best player today. Really good performance.

-Burton may win E8 POY now, but Bostic is the reason they won these last three games against Fisher, Stevens and Naz. He had an off shooting day today but still finished with 11 pts and 20 rebs. Just a beast on the glass. They'll need that next weekend, too.

[gobombers15]

Start times announced for next weekend:

#3 Nazareth vs #2 Stevens, Friday, 6pm

#4 St. John Fisher @ #1 Ithaca, Friday, 8pm

Championship Game, Saturday, 3pm

[UCgrad45]

Fisher over Hartwick, 70-61. The matchups for next weekend's E8 Tourney in Ithaca (that won't get old all week):

#4 St. John Fisher @ #1 Ithaca
#3 Nazareth vs #2 Stevens

This will save a lot of folks a very long drive to Hoboken. UCgrad, Utica would be smart to take an ECAC bid. You gave the exact reason why: they're a young team and every additional game that they can play together will make them better. I think the ECAC's the last two years have really helped Ithaca. I think Utica would be wise to accept the bid.

I feel the same way. Guess time will tell.