MBB: Landmark Conference

[NEPAFAN]

With the opening round win tonight, the Royals will play Walsh Univ. for the championship tomorrow. This will be a serious test early on for Scranton as they will be playing an  NAIA team. These schools are generally noted for their love of all things athletic & diminished emphasis on anything academic. With two NAIA schools in this tourney...Alvernia must be reliving their former life as a member. Landmark 1/ MAC Freedom/PAC/NAIA-0.

First weekend in the books and Scranton wins Alvernia's Tip-Off Tourny by beating Alvernia and Walsh by the indentical scores of 80-73. Very impressed with Saturday's victory of NAIA powerhouse Walsh. As Saratoga said, this was a serious early test for the Royals. Walsh won the NAIA tourny in 2005 and features a 7'0 and 6'10 frontcourt. Great efforts from the whole team , especially Bicknell (MVP) and Arnold (all-tourny team).

Tuesday the Royals host future MAC-Freedom team, Miseri at the Long Center.

[cold_case]

Tuesday the Royals host future MAC-Freedom team, Miseri at the Long Center.

Freedom-bound Miseri? This is the Landmark Board.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Hey... busy weekend of basketball and I am at the Provident Pride of Maryland Tournament where Goucher is playing.

If anyone is curious about what is happening and can't make the game, I am blogging court-side on the Daily Dose.
http://www.d3hoops.com/dailydose/2007/11/24/court-side-at-the-provident-pride-tournament/

Enjoy!

[Matt Letourneau]

Catholic defeated Haverford 66-62 on Tuesday, and Mount Union 80-74 yesterday.  They'll be play Case Western today at 4.

I saw the Cards play on Tuesday.  They're missing some key guys due to injuries at the moment, and Nick Oliverio, who will be their go to guard, is just now getting in the swing of things since he also plays football (he had 19 yesterday), so its a little tough to tell exactly what Catholic will look like once conference play starts.

However, I'll give them credit for hanging in there--in both wins they were down by 8-10 points deep in the second half and pulled it out.  In the Haverford game, Stolzenthaler showed why he's a captain and made some big plays.

I was also impressed with how far Jones has come--he moves very well for a big guy and plays hard.  DJ Johnston stood out amongst all the freshman.

Tough game for Catholic today, but this is has been a good learning experience for a young team.  They've really got a ton of talent.

[cuabigdog]

Any score yet on the CUA - Case Western game ??

[Matt Letourneau]

Yeah, Catholic lost 74-70.

They were led by Johnston's 16.  Looks like they had a tough day from the field, but obviously held it pretty close anyway.

Frankly, that's a pretty good showing considering where they are at. 

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Goucher did not play well this week. They are certainly young and have lots of inexperience on the team, but they blew late game leads in three straight games in the Provident Pride tourney. Not sure how to solve some of their problems, but there are a few players I wouldn't mind sitting down and asking if they understand the game of basketball from a thinking-mans point of view - one of which has been on the program for a few years.

Interestingly enough, Goucher tied an NCAA record for playing in three consecutive overtime games... and while the NCAA record book for Division III Basketball shows that Goucher is the first to lose all three of those OT games, it turns out they share that "honor" with Mass. College who also played in and lost three straight OT games at this point last year!

[NEPAFAN]

Scranton improves their record to 4-0 with a 70-67 victory over Ramapo (NJAC Pre-Season #1).


It appears Danzig has settled into an 8 man rotation....

[TheGrove]

Susquehanna's Josh Robinson made the All-Tournament Team at the Radisson/Carnegie Mellon Tournament and is this week's Landmark Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Week: http://www.susqu.edu/Sports/releases/Winter07-08/landmark1126.htm

D-mac, that's amazing about Goucher. I hope they have a nice break before the next game so they can catch their breaths!

[NEPAFAN]

Saratoga, Ronk, or anyone else willing to respond:


Time to start talking about expectations. The Royals are 4-1 after giving back an 11 point lead with 7 minutes to play to Elizabethtown. However, they have already beaten quality opponents like Ramapo (on the road) and Walsh.


I think that this team is just as good as the Sweet Sixteen team from a few years ago. ( In fact this team may be a bit deeper.) I would expect from those around the program that anything short of winning the Landmark and playing a competitive NCAA tourny game ( ie not getting blown out by William Patterson) would be a dissapointment. Thoughts? Is this too lofty a goal?


On a side note....Hawk only played 7 minutes...Is he hurt?

[ronk]

 NEPAFAN,
     I've been attending the women's NCAA games in recent years and have  seen the men only on video(Alvernia this year, Kings last year), although I listen to all their games over the internet.  plan to see them Wed. @ Messiah, so I'll have a better idea then.
    That said, the sweet16 group(ODonnell,Elphick,Rogan,Loftus,etc.) was pretty tough mentally, which you need to advance in tourney competition. They beat a more talented team in Ursinus. with the help of the home court
   Any of the 5 games(3-road,1-neutral,1-home) this year could have been lost/won so it's to their credit that they've won 4. Losing the defensive stopper(Powell) will hurt.

[saratoga]

NEPAFAN: I think the jury will be deliberating on the future fate of the Royals for a bit longer. Regardless of the closeness of last nights game with E-town, each & every loss in the Region could be the dagger that does them in. With no automatic berth for the Landmark...even the playoff winner has to rest their fate with the NCAA Selection Committee...and we all know those decisions regarding Pool B bids can leave even the bravest of the brave scratching their heads in disbelief. That's why blowing a double-didget lead with about 6 minutes to play is not the best signal to send. Scranton has had a tendency of not putting teams away when they are all but gift wrapped...and unfortunately for Royal fans, last night is just another example. The other rather bizarre tendency they've exhibited through recent years is simply not being ready to play from the tip. They fall behind by large amounts...scratch & claw their way back in the game & then go about 7 straight trips down the court without getting a shot off...turning it over via bad passes, walks, offensive fouls, you name it & end up losing by 3 or 4. This is a veteran team & they need to do a far better job protecting leads & being ready to play...for 40 minutes or however long it takes. Until they consistantly play like they are truly on a mission...the jury is out.

[Matt Letourneau]

Catholic loses to Piedmont 92-88 at NC Weslyan tonight.

I wasn't there, but I'm a little suspicious on this one...Catholic outshot Piedmont--a blazing 56% for the night--and outrebounded Piedmont 40-24.

The difference was free throws...Piedmont had THIRTY attempts, Catholic NINE. 

Now, its obviously possible that Piedmont took the ball to the hoop a lot more, BUT...based on what I've seen so far, I'm dubious.

The vast majority of Catholic's points came from the bigs inside.  Its hard for me to believe they virtually never got fouled.  Some of these guys don't even have a jump shot, yet...nothing.

Odd.  I could understand that kind of discrepancy if Catholic was airmailing stuff all night, but that's obviously not what they were doing...they were playing and scoring in the paint.  And magically, apparently not getting fouled.  Like, ever.

Catholic plays Maine-Presque Island tomorrow.

Catholic's lost twice by 4 points...they're starting three freshman and 2 other freshman got double digit minutes tonight.  These guys will improve.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Matt... for starters... it is Maine-Presque Isle... not Island. I assure you... they are NOT located on or near an island up there, though it may feel like it. Presque Isle is located nearly as far north in Maine as you can get. I should know, I've been there on several occasions.

Secondly... update from Goucher. They set an NCAA Division III and tied the all-time NCAA record with their fourth-consecutive overtime game. Yes... they played Greensboro - who just beat #3 Guilford on Wednesday - to overtime. Actually... it was double-overtime.

However, that isn't the real story. It was the fact the Gophers came from 23 points down to force that overtime. I have seen a lot of things, but in the past week I have witnessed five overtime games in nine contests... including three of Goucher's four OT games. But this game was on a different level.

At half time, I didn't think Goucher had a chance. Greensboro is a very good team. They are very quick - actually running Goucher's team rampid... something many people who know Goucher is not something you can do. Whether Goucher is good or bad... they tend to be the team who runs and is quick. Greensboro was simply faster, more athletic, bigger, and shot a heck of a lot better.

But in the second half, something changed and Goucher went on a tear! They also hit some timely and unreal three-pointers and other big shots time after time late in the game to force OT... even answering Greensboro's big shots as if Goucher was actually the team that should have been the favorite from the beginning.

In the end... free throws were the reason Greensboro won... and Goucher lost. Oh, and I can't remember how many fouls were called... but at one point Greensboro only had three in the 2nd half as it was coming to an end. And neither team shot the double-bonus until Greensboro got that chance... in the 2nd OT!

So Goucher sets a record... unfortunetly (sp?) they have lost all four of those OT games. This is going to be a very good squad down the road!

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Oh... thought you might like reading the game story from Goucher.