MBB: Landmark Conference

[NEPAFAN]

Kate,


Is that article online?


What does everyone think of this?


Landmark To Hold First Institute
MADISON, N.J. - The Landmark Conference will host its first Academic Collaboration/Integration Institute Feb. 5-6 at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. The two-day event will bring together administrators and student-athletes from each of the eight institutions in the Division III athletics conference in an effort to try and foster collaborative efforts in areas of collegiate life outside of athletics.

Attending the Institute will be the Chief Executive Officers, Chief Academic Officers, Athletics Directors, Faculty Athletics Representatives and Student-Athlete Advisory Committee Advisors for all eight Landmark institutions, as well as two Student-Athlete Advisory Committee members from each institution.

The featured speakers for the Institute will be Daniel T. Dutcher, the NCAA Vice President for Division III and Dr. Christopher Thomforde, the President of Landmark Conference member Moravian College and a former Division I student-athlete at Princeton University.

"This Institute is a major step in achieving one of the principle missions of the Landmark Conference which is to produce collaborative efforts between our institutions outside the realm of athletics," said Landmark Commissioner Dr. John Reeves. "We are fortunate to have people with the expertise of Dan Dutcher and the experience and background of Chris Thomforde to insure that this is a positive, worthwhile event."

The Institute will begin on Tuesday Feb. 5 with a presentation from Dutcher regarding the membership issues currently facing Division III. Following that will be a reception and dinner with informal meetings among the constituency groups.

The event will resume Wednesday morning with roundtable discussions between and among the various constituency groups.Topics will include academic collaboration in areas such as study abroad, research and grant submissions, the role of athletics in the Division III community, integration of faculty into athletics, sportsmanship initiatives and membership issues facing Division III.  Each roundtable will be followed by a breakout session with each group reporting on its discussion. The goal of the discussions will be to provide the Landmark office with one action item for follow-up for the calendar year.

The Institute will conclude on Wednesday with a presentation by Thomforde about the challenges and benefits of properly balancing athletics and academics.

"We believe the Institute provides a wonderful opportunity for the leaders of our institutions to meet and discuss relevant issues face-to-face, and to be inspired by the energy surrounding the Landmark Conference," said Dr. Tom Kepple, President of Juniata College and chair of the Landmark Conference Executive Board. "To hear from all of these constituencies, particularly our outstanding student-athletes, will be beneficial for everyone and we look forward to making great progress over the course of the two days."

[kate]

Nepa Fan, the stats for the Landmark, mens & womens; the MAC, men & women are printed weekly in the Morning Call on Wednesdays.  That meeting next month sounds like what every conference should have at least twice a year.

[ronk]

    I remember seeing Chris Thomforde play for Princeton- a pretty decent 6' 9" center. Hopefully, he can also do the job educationally and leadershipwise in the Landmark.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

ANYONE chatting about the games on here?

I was at the Juniata/Goucher game... which the Gophers came from behind with some very tough and aggressive defense to win tonight. Goucher has shown all season long they are a second half team and tonight they really frustrated the Eagles guards with their defense. The surprising thing was how easily the Eagles broke the Gophers full-court press in the first half and part of the second. But Goucher made some adjustments and the Eagles struggled with it for the last ten minutes of the game.

Goucher's record shouldn't be taken lightly. While they are a young team that is still trying to find what works, when they are shooting well (which they did tonight) and playing tough defense, they are going to be very tough to beat - especially at home.

Now... I would like to say how impressed I have been so far with some of the teams that have visited Goucher this season for either the first time... or the first time in a long time. The fan support for the traveling teams have been very impressive. Goucher's gym has had some great crowds, in terms of support, a lot this season - more than it did in its late years with the CAC. You would think the fans in the CAC would travel more - since the distances are shorter. But so far the Landmark opponents' fans have certainly shown they support their teams on the road. Hats off!

[Matt Letourneau]

Some of it is probably the excitement of seeing new places vs. interest kind of waning in the CAC (and lets face it, Goucher wasn't exactly much a draw there at the end), but that's great to hear.  It will take time for the league to develop but road trips help!

I just haven't see as many games this year, its much tougher to travel with the little one, and I can't get back into DC twice on a weekend.   We're going to go today though.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Outside of whether Goucher was a good team, thus a draw... I just like the fact a team's fan base likes to travel with them. CUA is about the only team I knew that traveled well as a fan base in the CAC.

[Matt Letourneau]

True.  We used to get a decent contingent of MW people when they were good, but that petered out the last few years. 

I may not even make it up to SRC this year!

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Sheesh Matt! The CUA/GOU game is on my birthday! You should be there strickly to wish the PA a happy birthday, right?! Just kidding!

Believe it or not, while I am required to be at games, it has actually been a fight for me to get to the SRC this season as well - but I won't bore you with the boring "work" problems.

If you make it, I will look forward to your comments about the refs from behind me

[ronk]

    I'm looking forward to Matt's comments also since a friend will be reffing the Scranton-CUA men's game and I plan on attending both doubleheaders that weekend. BTW, he worked your Goucher men's game yesterday but I haven't had a chance to discuss with him how it went.
     On another topic-since the Landmark adopted the UAA's partners travel and games on weekends, why didn't they adopt their no conference playoff idea also, especially with no AQ for the winner the next 2 years, anyways? Seems like that would be consistent with minimizing class disruptions. 

[Pat Coleman]

Lots of conferences have travel partners and since this one doesn't span from Boston to St. Louis I think the major reasoning behind forgoing a conference tournament is eliminated.

[NEPAFAN]

Scranton puts in two lackluster performances at Kings Point and Drew and goes 1 and 1. I was not in attendance ( listened on the net, which was interesting in that you could hear Danzig yelling to cover the shooter and rebound) ..maybe someone in attendance ( Kings Point/Drew fans?) can shed some light into the games. The Landmark has not been too kind to Scranton thus far.


I am trying to figure out how some rivaliries will develop in this league, obviously Scranton-Catholic could be one of those rivaliries when both teams are playing well......Goucher/Catholic? Anyone and Susquehanna? 

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Goucher/Catholic is an already very well established rivalry. And it date backs YEARS (11 or 12).

[ronk]

  In a spreadout conference like this, the most likely rivalry will develop not by geographical proximity, but by whom you have to beat over the years  to win the NCAA AQ berth via the conference post season playoff. If the programs aren't consistently good enough to meet this way, I don't see a rivalry developing. It'll just be another game on the schedule.

[Matt Letourneau]

Well, I won't disappoint my fans tonight, since I'm going to b*tch about the officiating tonight since it was horrible.  I think both sides would agree on that.

Which is too bad, because it was a very good game today at DuFour.  Very competitive and well coached--both coaches made multiple switches on the defensive end which had a great impact on the game.

In the end, Juanita won in overtime, so congrats to them.  Cannon had a great game is a really nice player.  Catholic played as well as I've seen them play in a while and made a great push to send it to OT.

But honestly...there were 3 fouls called on Juanita with 3:00 left in the 2nd half.  3! And its not like Catholic was standing around shooting jumpshots, they kept sending the ball in, Quinn was getting grabbed and bumped all over the place and the only thing that got called was an offensive foul when the defender wasn't even close to being set.  How can that be?  Nobody commits 3 fouls in 17 minutes, its just not possible, at least in this kind of game when you have attempts in the paint.

But my biggest beef came on the last play of regulation...Catholic is down 3 and gets the ball with 7 seconds left.  Because Juanita has so few fouls, they can afford to foul a few times and do as the ball is being brought up court.  Fine.  Catholic inbounds, sends the ball over to the corner to Stolzenthaler who really isn't a three point shooter.  But he's behind the arc, so the Juanita defender moves to maul him.  Well he side steps him a little bit, and goes up for the shot, at which point he gets hit hard right on his elbow.  It was as clear as day.  Now his form wasn't exactly pretty but somehow the shot went in (frankly, if he had used a perfect form, he never would have made it since he got hit).  It was incredible...and I'm thinking Oh My God---game tied plus the foul.

Except no whistle.  Now, it was blatantly obvious what was going on.  Those refs--particular the older one, who all CAC fans will know ("old guy") who has been known to pack it in--had no desire to ref overtime.  So no matter what happened, they weren't going to call a foul on a 3 attempt.  But they didn't bank on Sean actually hitting it, since it was such a low percentage shot.

Bottom line...with no time on the clock, he should have been at the line shooting a free throw to win the game.  As it was "old guy" grab the ball and walked back to the scorers table literally shaking his head as if to say "damn, I can't believe I still have to work."  It was really a poor performance and that guy needs to retire.  Of course, the other ref was the same one that called the intentional on Sean at the end of the Goucher game on a ho hum swipe to stop the clock, so...don't look to him.  He needs to study the block/charge rule while he's at it.

Well, at least those lazy refs did have to officiate the overtime period, which was surprisingly well played by both sides. 

In OT, Juanita made their free throws, Catholic didn't (4-4 vs 1-3), and that's your ballgame.  Disappointing loss, but at least they're still fighting.  But...next 4 games on the road...tough.

[saratoga]

NEPAFAN: "Lackluster" just about sums it up. Just when you think the Royals have figured it out & are ready to play as they are capable of playing...they revert to their "apathy defense" & get kicked in the head yet again @ USMMA. Then today, as usual, Drew makes Scranton play their game & tempo & has about 3 chances to beat the Royals in the last minute only to fall by 3. Really good teams take care of business on the road...especially against teams they are simply better than talent wise. How easy it would have been for Duke to just roll-over tonight at Maryland...especially after the flurry of scoring the Terps put on right before the half. What does Duke do...start the second half with intense pressure on the ball, create turnovers and let their defense kick-start their offense. The crowd is taken out of the game & Duke refuses to let any Terp shot go uncontested. Result...another Duke win on the road against an always tough opponent. Until Scranton remembers how to play perimiter defense, box out & crash the boards & play the game hard from tip to final buzzer...3 wins followed by 2 losses may be the norm. Over the course of 25 games not very impressive...just like their season thus far.