MBB: Landmark Conference

[ronk]

  I suggested the services of the Lady Royals'(4th in the nation) foul-shooting coach; would have made the comeback win a lot easier as they miss final 5 FTs, including the front end of 3 1-and-1s.

[ronk]

Current standings; look at that battle for the 4th playoff spot

CUA      8-1
Scr       6-3
Jun       5-4
Mor      4-5
Sus      4-5
Drew    3-6
Gou      3-6
MMA     3-6

My projected finish: revised after 2 weekend road wins

CUA      12-2
Scr       11-3
Jun         9-5
MMA       7-7
Mor        5-9
Sus        5-9
Drew      4-10
Gou        3-11

Your mileage may vary.

[NEPAFAN]

With their win against Juanita don't see anyway that Catholic losses the regular season conference title.

[TheGrove]

Final from the OW House - Susquehanna beats Scranton in OT. Here comes the second half surge!

[ronk]

  I mentioned this morning to the coaching staff that local player Brandon Hedley was shooting well; turns out that he did a good pick-and-roll with Sellinger, also,, and only missed 1 FT.


Current standings; look at that battle for the 4th playoff spot

CUA      9-1
Scr       6-4
Jun       6-4
Sus      5-5
Mor      4-6
MMA     4-6
Gou      3-7
Drew     3-7

My projected finish:

CUA      12-2
Scr       10-4
Jun         9-5
MMA       7-7
Sus        6-8
Mor        5-9
Drew      4-10
Gou        3-11

Your mileage may vary.

Big game Wed: CUA-Sus
Big final reular season game: MMA-Sus

[NEPAFAN]

I would like to see a little shakeup in the Royals lineup. At this point it is conference title or bust.

[saratoga]

Is seems to me that through the years in every big game Scranton plays, they go up against a team that has one player that absolutely goes off on them & the Royals seem to have no clue how to stop them from taking over the game.
Years ago whenever they played Susquehanna, Josh Robinson was virtually unstoppable. Granted he was a former DI kid playing against DIII players but, have a plan.
Then Susquehanna went into the Spencer-Spencer mode of attack & again, generally no answer.
They could really never stop Asmer Capers of Drew, the kid from MMA has gone off on them for 3 years now, no answer for Lemons last year as he consistently drove the lane for layups & short jumpers.
Recently, Kearney from CUA scored 16 of their first 20 points & now yesterday having a freshman carry the Crusaders past the Royals with no real answer defensively.
Somewhat surprised from watching the game against CUA that Danzig didn't put his rookie in front of Kearney & his other big (Pierce) behind him to make life a bit more miserable down low & force CUA to have someone else beat them from the outside.
The Royals have the reining Defensive POY in Travis Farrell yet the matchup he goes with puts the Royals smallest player on Hedley???
Heard from someone that saw the game (I didn't), that Susquehanna scored something like 9 straight points very late to totally swing   momentum & he never called a timeout to settle things down...probably waiting for a TV timeout.
This is a somewhat difficult team to figure out...when they want to play defense, they are tough. When they are hitting from the outside it obviously opens things up underneath & they seem to score at will.
However, it sure seems like when their shots don't fall it affects their hustle on the defensive end, they get burned & then they get out of a rhythm & start taking crazier & crazier shots hoping the 3's get them back in it & the cycle of not scoring & getting beat on D continues.
Absolutely correct...Scranton must pull the upset (or, play to their potential), and win the Landmark on the road to get in.
There will be no at large for this team...far too many "bad" losses.

[Matt Letourneau]

I had a chance to see Catholic play Drew and it was interesting to see how things have evolved since I saw them last over the holidays.  Drew came out super hot...seemed like for the first 10:00 or so they didn't miss a shot.  I think they finished over 50% from 3 for the game with a lot of attempts.

Catholic eventually settled in, got some big shots from Holmes early to keep them in the game, and then started pounding the ball inside.  I thought Drew made a mistake by trying to play up tempo--it worked for them early but this is by far the most athletic Catholic team I've seen and you aren't going to win a track meet with them unless you have similar personnel.  Sure enough, it seemed like with a couple of minutes left in the first, Drew hit a wall in terms of fatigue, Catholic took the lead and then opened it up in the 2nd half.  Drew made a late run at getting it down to single digits at the end but the game was never in doubt.

Very balanced scoring effort, this team plays together well and the chemistry is obvious.  There's still not much (really any) scoring depth but 4 out of the 5 starters can all put up big numbers so that compensates for it a bit.

It was a very, very tightly officiated game...I'll leave it at that.  In the old days I'd have a lot more to say but I've matured...

It was basketball alumni night at DuFour and it was great to see so many familiar faces.  I'm sure I'll leave some out, but among those making an appearance were Matt Hilleary, Pat Maloney, Will Morley (who is still one tough looking dude), Kevin Wise, Pat Satalin, Pat Dwyer, Jeff Baccash, Matt Spirenberg, Mike Wasilenko, Blair Mills, Scott Fumai and Shane Sowden.  (I know there were others there).  Oh, and looking sharp in his blue and gold, Mike Lonergan arrived midway through the first.  Nice that he's still supportive of the program and hasn't forgotten his roots.  Those names won't mean much to the Landmark board, but over in CAC some of those guys will remember...most of those players won 70% or better of their games and played deep into the NCAA tournament.  The theme this year for Catholic has been living up to that tradition.  We'll see how it plays out but thus far they are.

Also, there was a nice ceremony presenting Shawn Holmes and Chris Kearney with 1,000 point balls.  They are the 39th and 40th players in the history of the program to reach 1,000. 

[ronk]

Saratoga,
  I'm generally on the same page with you. Make someone other than their best player(somebody who isn't used to making crunch-time plays) beat you by changing the defense when straight-up isn't doing it. We'll be looking for such adjustments this week with the return engagements with Luke Glass(Drew) and Chris Kearney(CUA).

[TheGrove]

Hey Matt, I remember Spirenburg... then again, he's from my hometown. 

[NEPAFAN]

Banzhaf busy playing ball in Europe?

[saratoga]

The Royals sneak out of Madison with a win tonight.
It may have been ugly, it may have sent Scranton basketball back 60 years...but, still a much needed win on the road & in OT no less.
Meanwhile, CUA is crushing Susquehanna in the Grove...all but locking up the top seed.
The Royals last possible home game of the year this Sat. vs. CUA...can they send a message we'll see you next week...or, does CUA come in a make a statement, not this year?
The only remaining tickets are through TicketMaster & StubHub...the first 4,000 fans get a copy of Coach Danzig's new CD..."Push".

[TheGrove]

Yup, bad loss for SU. No shame in losing to the No. 8 team, but still.

BTW, 'toga, did you catch the Times' coverage of the Saturday games? The UofS hammering of the SU women got the top billing. The men's game got downplayed. Homerism much? 

[NEPAFAN]

The Royals sneak out of Madison with a win tonight.
It may have been ugly, it may have sent Scranton basketball back 60 years...but, still a much needed win on the road & in OT no less.
Meanwhile, CUA is crushing Susquehanna in the Grove...all but locking up the top seed.
The Royals last possible home game of the year this Sat. vs. CUA...can they send a message we'll see you next week...or, does CUA come in a make a statement, not this year?
The only remaining tickets are through TicketMaster & StubHub...the first 4,000 fans get a copy of Coach Danzig's new CD..."Push".

Don't they get a home playoff game as the two seed?

Grove how did SU make out on national signing day??!

[saratoga]

If they end up the two...not certain they will, they will be home.
Could be a loss vs. CUA & Moravian will not go quietly at home.
Their next two games will speak volumes as to how they enter the Landmark playoffs.

Grove: As for the Times coverage giving top billing to the UofS women...that's because Mr. Grove hasn't sent the memo to Scott Walsh to get off his butt & cover games beyond a 10 block radius of the Times Building.
The guy never covers games anymore unless the playoffs are a sure thing, then he acts, or should I say writes, like he's been covering them all year.
Phony Homerism to boot!