MBB: Landmark Conference

[saratoga]

Sad news to report...
Former Scranton star Jason Hoppy & his wife Bethenny Frankel of the Real Housewives of NYC fame have decided to seperate.
Perhaps a new reality show with Jason hanging out with former Royal players living in the Big Apple while Bethenny markets a new line of cocktails is in the works.
Some way, some how they've got to work Bess into one of their adventures.

[NEPAFAN]

Not before donating to the Royal Fund for athletics.


Bethenny was too NY for Jason and his Hazelton background.

[ronk]

  Maybe Jason will go play in the alumni game Saturday; I was considering it but the oldest guy in last year's game was in his early 30s. Possibly, I'll talk some of my contemporaries into playing in the future while were still mobile.

[ronk]

 Just noticed the Wednesday Landmark scheduling new this year that has no doubleheaders but instead has the men and women playing at the same time, but in different locations. For those of us(me and Saratoga) who watch both teams, now we'll have to choose between them or get both videocasts on the same screen.
  While it may allow the players to attend 1/2 or 3/4 day classes on game day(depending on distance, Juniata-CUA will be straining allowable time) because they're playing at 7 instead of 5, this may be a questionable strategy. thoughts?

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Dumb... plain and simple. They also instituted 2 and 4 PM for the double-headers on Saturdays... BUT if a school wants a different time they can work that out EXCEPT it can't be more than 5 hours later (thus, Goucher can't play later than 5 and 7 - not 5:30 and 7:30 as Goucher has done for years).

A lot of this seems to be trying to appease everyone in the conference. I know of coaches that hated the back-to-back games on the weekends (despite the fact this isn't that uncommon in Division III athletics, especially basketball), so they moved games to Wednesdays. I know people that thought the women weren't getting a fair shake, so they played with the game times the last few seasons (not this year). I know schools that were worried about the long travel, so I guess this Wednesday split idea was their solution - though it certainly doesn't save on costs for schools especially if any of them use just one bus normally for both teams going to a double-header.

It is just more of an example that this conference needs to have commissioner that just makes the best decisions possible and doesn't try to appease to everyone. Not every school can or should get their way. Not every school should have to make sacrifices for everyone. There are certainly things people would like to change or adjust as the conference grows and gets older, but that doesn't mean every single idea from every single entity needs to be implement especially in some crazy ways of doing it.

Finally... with all of these changes and the fact that games are now played on Wednesdays... is there any darn reason we are not having all 8 teams in the conference playoffs? Travel is no longer an excuse... and if there is a major worry about it... play the first round on Tuesdays... and then have the final four, like the old style, on Friday/Saturday or even Saturday/Sunday at the highest ranked school. The fact we don't have all 8 schools is ridiculous.

Sorry... I will try and get off of my soap box now.

[saratoga]

Dave/Ronk:
My feelings exactly.
This commissioner needs to stop trying to be Mr. Wonderful to every school that whines, get a pair & establish an actual identity of this conference that doesn't change in some stupid fashion each season.
What the hell was wrong with the women & men playing doubleheaders?
How does Scranton fighting through NYC traffic to play MMA or Catholic traveling to Juniata on a Wednesday make any sense?
Why not expand the playoffs to all eight teams? Was it even discussed?
The changes that keep rolling out of Madison are not fan or student friendly, are not progressive & are certainly not well thought out.
They have remained reactionary to a vocal minority that should perhaps, re-examine their priorities & commitment to this conference.
If you can't afford the hotels for back to backs & need to squeeze every nickel, then perhaps you should bow out gracefully, no questions asked.
Just stop messing up what was a good thing.

[ronk]

Dumb... plain and simple. They also instituted 2 and 4 PM for the double-headers on Saturdays... BUT if a school wants a different time they can work that out EXCEPT it can't be more than 5 hours later (thus, Goucher can't play later than 5 and 7 - not 5:30 and 7:30 as Goucher has done for years).

A lot of this seems to be trying to appease everyone in the conference. I know of coaches that hated the back-to-back games on the weekends (despite the fact this isn't that uncommon in Division III athletics, especially basketball), so they moved games to Wednesdays. I know people that thought the women weren't getting a fair shake, so they played with the game times the last few seasons (not this year). I know schools that were worried about the long travel, so I guess this Wednesday split idea was their solution - though it certainly doesn't save on costs for schools especially if any of them use just one bus normally for both teams going to a double-header.

It is just more of an example that this conference needs to have commissioner that just makes the best decisions possible and doesn't try to appease to everyone. Not every school can or should get their way. Not every school should have to make sacrifices for everyone. There are certainly things people would like to change or adjust as the conference grows and gets older, but that doesn't mean every single idea from every single entity needs to be implement especially in some crazy ways of doing it.

Finally... with all of these changes and the fact that games are now played on Wednesdays... is there any darn reason we are not having all 8 teams in the conference playoffs? Travel is no longer an excuse... and if there is a major worry about it... play the first round on Tuesdays... and then have the final four, like the old style, on Friday/Saturday or even Saturday/Sunday at the highest ranked school. The fact we don't have all 8 schools is ridiculous.Sorry... I will try and get off of my soap box now.

I've mentioned this previously but will repeat-there was a season maybe 10 years ago when Scranton was in the MAC Freedom and going into the final game of the season, there was a good chance that 5 teams would tie for 1st place with 9-5 records and that one was going to be eliminated from the NCAA berth by a coin flip. It didn't turn out that way but to be eliminated off the court that way would have been senseless. Plus, teams 5-8 ought to have a chance at the postseason even if that chance is reduced by seeding and home-court preference. The plusses of additional conference-wide interest would seem to trump any other considerations. 

[NEPAFAN]

Waitasekond I have to pay 7.95 to watch the royals at mma? Come on...



Ronk do all the Bess players go to Kings alumni game ?

[ronk]

 Didn't realize it til the player intros that MMA g Frank Wiseley is probably the older brother of a player Scranton was recruiting last year, Steve Wiseley, who ended up choosing D2 West Chester, instead.

[NEPAFAN]

Royals announcers are broadcasting via Skype. I love DIII!

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Catholic losses to Juniata 75-65 (?) and Goucher beats Susquehanna 63-56 in OT... GOPHERS LEAD THE CONFERENCE AT 3-0... WHAT?!

Granted... Goucher has to play Scranton on Saturday... this could be short lived 

[TheGrove]

Kudos on the in-game Twitter updates, D-Mac.

[saratoga]

I think the Catholic bandwagon blew a tire somewhere on the way to Juniata.
Probably a pitchfork left on the only road into town by a mischievous Amish kid.
So much for all that hoopla.
Perhaps the crowning of the cardinal is not a foregone conclusion just yet.
Saturday's game between Goucher & the Royals may be the most important game the Gophers have played since the inception of the Landmark.
Good for them, good for the league.

[Matt Letourneau]

I don't think anyone thought the "crowning of the Cardinal" was ever a foregone conclusion.  Certainly not me.

As for the bandwagon...it must have been a small enough wagon for me to completely miss.  There have been more posts on the scheduling of the league in the last day than there have been about Catholic all season. 

[onetinsoldier]

Under no circumstances should conference playoffs be expanded at the Division 3 level, unless you change the rules that regular season champions, instead of tournament champs, get the automatic berth.  There are just too few at large Ncaa tournament berths for something like that to make sense