MBB: Landmark Conference

[CardsFan]

Endicott was the most impressive team in the pod.  Wooster buckled down when they needed to, but if EC hits one more FT it's over in regulation.  They return pretty much the whole team.

Glad I decided to go to the Endicott-Wooster game last night. I figured Wooster would cruise, but Endicott showed that their offense is tough to prepare for. Took their foot off the gas and left the door open for Wooster, which they gladly walked through. Endicott should've won. Really enjoyable game for the neutral.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Yeah - can't leave the door open to Coach Moore and Wooster... way too much experience to allow that door to stay open without walking through. I mean, it was Moore's 1,001 career game. LOL

[NEPAFAN]

This is pretty cool, check out PA.

http://herosports.com/news/best-college-basketball-team-in-every-state-regardless-of-division#1?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Photo&utm_campaign=Basketball

[mailsy]

Very cool NEPAFAN! Thanks for sharing. I see Cabrini and Alvernia were 4 & 5. +1

[Hooper42]

Kudos to Catholic and the staff there, though.  This is my fifth NCAA tournament and they were, by far, the best hosts I've seen.  Not that everyone else was bad (although some were), but just a first class event all the way through.  I really appreciated it.

Interesting to hear you mention Catholic as the best host you've seen. I would be curious to see if the teams feel the same way, many times Catholic will put visiting team in a classroom with no showers or bathroom. At the Landmark Championship game vs SUS I crossed paths with a few Catholics players in the restroom at half time, maybe their locker room facilities are lacking all around, not just for the visiting teams.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Kudos to Catholic and the staff there, though.  This is my fifth NCAA tournament and they were, by far, the best hosts I've seen.  Not that everyone else was bad (although some were), but just a first class event all the way through.  I really appreciated it.

Interesting to hear you mention Catholic as the best host you've seen. I would be curious to see if the teams feel the same way, many times Catholic will put visiting team in a classroom with no showers or bathroom. At the Landmark Championship game vs SUS I crossed paths with a few Catholics players in the restroom at half time, maybe their locker room facilities are lacking all around, not just for the visiting teams.

I do know at least one of the visiting teams got the dance practice room as their lockerroom.  Not sure if there's showers.  I wasn't in any of the locker rooms so I don't know, but it's possible those accommodations weren't as great.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Kudos to Catholic and the staff there, though.  This is my fifth NCAA tournament and they were, by far, the best hosts I've seen.  Not that everyone else was bad (although some were), but just a first class event all the way through.  I really appreciated it.

Interesting to hear you mention Catholic as the best host you've seen. I would be curious to see if the teams feel the same way, many times Catholic will put visiting team in a classroom with no showers or bathroom. At the Landmark Championship game vs SUS I crossed paths with a few Catholics players in the restroom at half time, maybe their locker room facilities are lacking all around, not just for the visiting teams.

Remember, media and others don't get to see much of those things for varying reasons. Ryan is telling his experience.

I would agree that CUA tends to be stretched thin in terms of teams... but they do a good enough job for the NCAA to keep rewarding them with hosting opportunities. And some of that is not atypical for Division III schools.

[saratoga]

NEPA:

Excellent!
What we've always known. 

[Hooper42]

Looking back on the Landmark Preseason coaches poll, no major surprises for the most part. One thing to note that had me confused in the preseason as well, Why would Steve Howes vote Goucher (a team who hasn't finished above .500 in either conference or regular season in the past decade) to finish #1?. Goucher obviously made a coaching change but IMO that is an off the wall pick to win the conference.

2015 Landmark Men's Basketball Preseason Poll
Rank Institution (First Place) Points
1. Catholic (8)
2. Susquehanna
3. Scranton
4. Drew
5. Juniata
6. Merchant Marine
7. Goucher (1)
8. Elizabethtown
9. Moravian 

Congrats to Coach Marcinek, Brendan Boken, Josh Miller, and Bryson Fonville on the All-Region honors.  '16-'17 Will be an interesting year in the Landmark with Boken, Fonville, and Miller all moving on. Time for some new stars to emerge Howard, Vitkus, and Weidlich all appear ready to step into larger roles.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Looking back on the Landmark Preseason coaches poll, no major surprises for the most part. One thing to note that had me confused in the preseason as well, Why would Steve Howes vote Goucher (a team who hasn't finished above .500 in either conference or regular season in the past decade) to finish #1?. Goucher obviously made a coaching change but IMO that is an off the wall pick to win the conference.

2015 Landmark Men's Basketball Preseason Poll
Rank Institution (First Place) Points
1. Catholic (8)
2. Susquehanna
3. Scranton
4. Drew
5. Juniata
6. Merchant Marine
7. Goucher (1)
8. Elizabethtown
9. Moravian 

Congrats to Coach Marcinek, Brendan Boken, Josh Miller, and Bryson Fonville on the All-Region honors.  '16-'17 Will be an interesting year in the Landmark with Boken, Fonville, and Miller all moving on. Time for some new stars to emerge Howard, Vitkus, and Weidlich all appear ready to step into larger roles.

Damn... I actually got the answer to why Howes made that pick, at least through the conference office, and I can't remember what the explanation was now. Darn it. I remember hanging up the phone and shrugging my shoulders. I had been planning to write an op-ed on it, but my research into that and a couple of other conferences resulted in it being understood. That or CUA's pick was the only one that was off the wal so it didn't indicate a larger problem.

[CardsFan]

Looking back on the Landmark Preseason coaches poll, no major surprises for the most part. One thing to note that had me confused in the preseason as well, Why would Steve Howes vote Goucher (a team who hasn't finished above .500 in either conference or regular season in the past decade) to finish #1?. Goucher obviously made a coaching change but IMO that is an off the wall pick to win the conference.

2015 Landmark Men's Basketball Preseason Poll
Rank Institution (First Place) Points
1. Catholic (8)
2. Susquehanna
3. Scranton
4. Drew
5. Juniata
6. Merchant Marine
7. Goucher (1)
8. Elizabethtown
9. Moravian 

Congrats to Coach Marcinek, Brendan Boken, Josh Miller, and Bryson Fonville on the All-Region honors.  '16-'17 Will be an interesting year in the Landmark with Boken, Fonville, and Miller all moving on. Time for some new stars to emerge Howard, Vitkus, and Weidlich all appear ready to step into larger roles.

Hopefully there was a real reason for Howes to give his 1st place vote to Goucher other than the fact that since he can't vote for his own team he just picked the first team his finger landed on.

For next season, it's still way too early, but it feels like everyone has serious question marks. Susquehanna and Juniata seem like the top contenders.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Looking back on the Landmark Preseason coaches poll, no major surprises for the most part. One thing to note that had me confused in the preseason as well, Why would Steve Howes vote Goucher (a team who hasn't finished above .500 in either conference or regular season in the past decade) to finish #1?. Goucher obviously made a coaching change but IMO that is an off the wall pick to win the conference.

2015 Landmark Men's Basketball Preseason Poll
Rank Institution (First Place) Points
1. Catholic (8)
2. Susquehanna
3. Scranton
4. Drew
5. Juniata
6. Merchant Marine
7. Goucher (1)
8. Elizabethtown
9. Moravian 

Congrats to Coach Marcinek, Brendan Boken, Josh Miller, and Bryson Fonville on the All-Region honors.  '16-'17 Will be an interesting year in the Landmark with Boken, Fonville, and Miller all moving on. Time for some new stars to emerge Howard, Vitkus, and Weidlich all appear ready to step into larger roles.

Hopefully there was a real reason for Howes to give his 1st place vote to Goucher other than the fact that since he can't vote for his own team he just picked the first team his finger landed on.

For next season, it's still way too early, but it feels like everyone has serious question marks. Susquehanna and Juniata seem like the top contenders.

I've seen coaches do that if they thought some other team might be challenging theirs for #1 - they give those points to someone they know won't be near the top to keep some voting points from a rival and maybe give their team a bump.  I can't see Howes as one of those guys - maybe he lost a bet?

[CardsFan]

With the end of the season I'm just catching up on the All-American and All-Region stuff. Nice to see the Landmark put three guys on Mid-Atlantic first team All-Region ( Boken, Miller, Fonville). Also, congrats to Boken for being named D3Hoops 1st Team All-American and Josh Miller for being named 4th Team All-American. Bryson Fonville managed an honorable mention for All-American.

Obscene homer moment: How Jay Howard was not named either 1st or 2nd team All-Region is mystifying.

[ronk]

 Just a guess at next season's outlook without regard to incoming recruits
                    2015-6 record        grad losses                                                          probable starters
Catholic           13-3               Fonville,Phanords(2),Calling                    Howard,Stanford,Mitchell,Khouri   
Susque            13-3              Hedley, Miller                                            Weidlich,Weiss,Traub,Reichard,Hoagland
Scranton          11-5             Boken Thomas                                         Doolan,Vitkus,Danzig,Schankweiler,McCullough
Juniata               9-7             Koehler,Ogle,Fleming,Brewer                   Lee, Martinazzi,Fisher,Rickens
Drew                  8-8             Klinger,Herring,McLaughlin,Miller              Feinberg,Aldrich,Taylor
Goucher            6-10           Miles,Canary,Allen,DeShields                     Outing,Stefanides
Moravian           5-11           ___________________________           McGuire,Holder,Murray,Jennings,Hanna
E-town              1-15           James.Lane                                               Eden,Lapkowicz,Krieger

  Anticipating Catholic, Susque, Scranton, Juniata, Moravian contending for the four playoff positions with a max of 9 wins and the other 3 teams grouped around 5 conference wins.   

[NEPAFAN]

Just a guess at next season's outlook without regard to incoming recruits
                    2015-6 record        grad losses                                                          probable starters
Catholic           13-3               Fonville,Phanords(2),Calling                    Howard,Stanford,Mitchell,Khouri   
Susque            13-3              Hedley, Miller                                            Weidlich,Weiss,Traub,Reichard,Hoagland
Scranton          11-5             Boken Thomas                                         Doolan,Vitkus,Danzig,Schankweiler,McCullough
Juniata               9-7             Koehler,Ogle,Fleming,Brewer                   Lee, Martinazzi,Fisher,Rickens
Drew                  8-8             Klinger,Herring,McLaughlin,Miller              Feinberg,Aldrich,Taylor
Goucher            6-10           Miles,Canary,Allen,DeShields                     Outing,Stefanides
Moravian           5-11           ___________________________           McGuire,Holder,Murray,Jennings,Hanna
E-town              1-15           James.Lane                                               Eden,Lapkowicz,Krieger

  Anticipating Catholic, Susque, Scranton, Juniata, Moravian contending for the four playoff positions with a max of 9 wins and the other 3 teams grouped around 5 conference wins.   

Happy Trails to MMA.....