MBB: Landmark Conference

[ronk]

I want to talk about conference performance. These are the overall records of each team in Landmark play since 2007-08 (results through 2/13/16):

Scranton: 100-29 (.775); won at least 10 league games in every season
Catholic: 83-44 (.654); finished at least .500 in conference 8 times
Susquehanna: 80-47 (.630); finished at least .500 in conference 8 times
USMMA: 69-58 (.543); finished at least .500 in conference 6 times
Juniata: 61-67 (.477); finished at least .500 in conference 3 times
Moravian: 46-82 (.359); finished at least .500 in conference 2 times
Drew: 46-83 (.357); finished at least .500 in conference 1 time
Goucher: 35-93 (.273); no seasons of at least .500 in conference
E-Town: 7-22 (.241); no seasons of at least .500 in conference

Only 4 teams have a winning conference record and 1 of them is leaving after this season. Moravian, Drew, Goucher, and E-Town are consistently at the bottom of the league. Juniata is solidly in the middle. Catholic and Susquehanna can't separate from each other to decide which team is 2nd best, much less make up ground on Scranton, who is well ahead of everyone.   

In terms of out-of-conference scheduling leaving a lot to be desired, I think that should be evaluated case-by-case. What incentive is there for some of these schools to go out and schedule tough? Not to be indelicate, but it seems plainly obvious that a decent percentage of teams in the conference aren't capable (lack of resources or other factors) of contending for NCAA Tournament berths year-to-year. Could the top teams do a better job in the non-conference? Most likely.

In terms of the NCAA Tournament results, Scranton fans can speak to which seasons they should've gone further and which seasons they went as far as they could. From a CUA point of view, the team went as far as it could in both 2012-13 and 2014-15. This is no longer a program that can realistically be looking to deep tournament runs as the measuring stick for success year-to-year. Just making the tournament is pretty good these days. MMA and Moravian each had an outlier season that got them to the tournament.

My overall point is that I think the league has been pretty consistent in how it performs year-to-year. From an outside perspective, it seems no school has any real issues with results in NCAA Tournament play.

This team had an unfortunate break in the NCAA with 1 star being held of the 2nd? round and the other injured during the game and unable to continue; they were a good possibility to go farther, otherwise.

[CardsFan]

Ah yes, if only Chris Kearney doesn't get hurt in the 2nd half against Williams. If only Shawn Holmes keeps it together for one more week. No CUA team of the last 20 years relied on the starters as much as that 2012-13 team did, and of course in the final game of the season they have to play without two of them.

My feeling on that game has always been that if Holmes played, Williams would've won much more easily than they did. Steve Limberiou doesn't have his best ever game in a CUA uniform if Holmes plays. Fonville doesn't play with the freedom he did if Holmes plays. I saw a bit of Williams' practice the day before the game and they were very much focusing on stopping Holmes.

With both teams fully fit, Williams was still better.

[CardsFan]

Looks like Juniata pretty much locked up the final playoff spot with MMA losing at Moravian 87-77. Watched the 2nd half of this one. Moravian didn't have too much trouble.

Also watched a few minutes of Scranton-Cabrini. Looks like Ethan Danzig is starting to come along.

[ronk]

 Royals and Ethan shoot very well in defeating Cabrini; still too many bad passes but Cabrini's pressure and defensive quickness had a lot to do with it. Cabrini had numerous traveling and boundary line violations to prevent them from regaining the lead.
  All remaining games for Drew, Juniata, and MMA are on the road. Possibility for a 3-way tie, but most likely is Juniata.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Susquehanna's opponent record is 111-93, not 111-204; there were 204 total games, not losses; your major point still stands, though.

Yep - typo that didn't affect the math. I was doing that pretty late after a LONG Hoopsville show. The 204 is me adding 111 and 93 for some reason - so you got the total not the losses. LOL Sorry about that. But luckily it didn't screw up the entire thing. SMH

[NEPAFAN]

Ethan with a school record 9 3 pointers. Three top landmark teams all have top 25 votes..

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Looks like Juniata pretty much locked up the final playoff spot with MMA losing at Moravian 87-77. Watched the 2nd half of this one. Moravian didn't have too much trouble.

Also watched a few minutes of Scranton-Cabrini. Looks like Ethan Danzig is starting to come along.

Juniata needs to beat Catholic.  Drew has been on a losing streak, but if they win their last game and Juniata loses at Catholic, then Drew's going to get in - they've got the tiebreaker.

[ronk]

Looks like Juniata pretty much locked up the final playoff spot with MMA losing at Moravian 87-77. Watched the 2nd half of this one. Moravian didn't have too much trouble.

Also watched a few minutes of Scranton-Cabrini. Looks like Ethan Danzig is starting to come along.

Juniata needs to beat Catholic.  Drew has been on a losing streak, but if they win their last game and Juniata loses at Catholic, then Drew's going to get in - they've got the tiebreaker.

No, Juniata will get it if they win @ Moravian, whether or not they beat Catholic.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Looks like Juniata pretty much locked up the final playoff spot with MMA losing at Moravian 87-77. Watched the 2nd half of this one. Moravian didn't have too much trouble.

Also watched a few minutes of Scranton-Cabrini. Looks like Ethan Danzig is starting to come along.

Juniata needs to beat Catholic.  Drew has been on a losing streak, but if they win their last game and Juniata loses at Catholic, then Drew's going to get in - they've got the tiebreaker.

No, Juniata will get it if they win @ Moravian, whether or not they beat Catholic.

True enough.

[San Juan]

It would be really nice if Goucher beats Susquehanna tomorrow night.I will be checking that score while watching Lady Royals at Merchant Marine.Go Goucher.

[NEPAFAN]

No help for us San Juan. At least you got a Lady Royals victory.

[CardsFan]

Catholic never trails tonight against Juniata, jumping out to a 29-4 lead, en route to an 83-60 win. For the first 10 minutes or so that was the best Catholic had played in weeks. The effort level really dropped after that and Catholic just kinda ran the clock out. It's too bad Catholic can't seem to play like those first 10 minutes in anything more than spurts.

Special mention for junior guard Louis Khouri. He started tonight for the 2nd time this season and scored 24 points, going 7-8 from deep.

[ronk]

 After tonight's action, Catholic and Susquehanna join Scranton in the 1st 3 seeds, MMA is eliminated by Drew victory(tiebreaker), Juniata is 4th seed with a victory over Moravian Saturday; otherwise, Drew is 4th(head-to-head, 2-way or 3-way tie)

[CardsFan]

After tonight's action, Catholic and Susquehanna join Scranton in the 1st 3 seeds, MMA is eliminated by Drew victory(tiebreaker), Juniata is 4th seed with a victory over Moravian Saturday; otherwise, Drew is 4th(head-to-head, 2-way or 3-way tie)

The gap between 3rd and 4th won't be as wide as last season, but the top 3 have pulled away again.

[CardsFan]

With the season almost over, any thoughts on Player of the Year? I feel that Boken and Fonville have really separated themselves from everyone else. Fonville is having a better season this year than he did last year when he won, but I think Boken is the obvious choice.