MBB: Landmark Conference

cold_case · January 23, 2011, 11:26:02 AM

Of course Catholic has better talent, at least it seems that way when you check statistics of incoming recruits.
The reason why Scranton hoists up the three ball is because of what I wrote in my last post: They lack true No. 4 and 5 players.
As for last night, the video stream of the Goucher game didn't work.

ronk · January 23, 2011, 02:41:11 PM

The Royals continued to look quick against Goucher yesterday. When they get change of possession, they're upcourt in a hurry and Tommy and Travis, especially, take it to the hoop without regard of getting knocked on their butts. Many successful pick in rolls involving the post players also. Congrats to the coach for letting them run. The defense played well,also, looked like a combo man/zone and Goucher struggled against it.
Difficulty in the future for the Royals will come when they don't hit their 3s(although they went 0-9 in the 1st half against Goucher and still built an 11-point lead), or face a strong inside team in the NCAA (if they make it that far) that pounds the offensive board and gets them in foul trouble(Goucher post men had 10 offensive rebounds among them-saved only by one of them going 3-17 from 10 feet or closer).
Other musings:
Lobbied Dmac for a position on his top 25 ballot before the game; he said he was open to being impressed. We'll probably get his impression in this MB or on his Hoopsville show tonite.
Met Luke Hawk's dad. Told him I was in Desales' gym in November for Lady Royals' games and, seeing a banner with list of all-time scorers and his name was near the top. We discussed how his older son, Paul, suffered a concussion in that same Goucher gym 2 years ago at end of season and ultimately Paul was held out of the NCAA tourney game with Brandeis It was a winnable game for Scranton and Paul's presence would have made a difference, For those who don't remember, he was among the national leaders in shots blocked per game.

cold_case · January 23, 2011, 04:25:10 PM

Quote from: ronk on January 23, 2011, 02:41:11 PMFor those who don't remember, he was among the national leaders in shots blocked per game.

For those who don't remember, what's the updated conference finish changed to, record-wise?

saratoga · January 23, 2011, 09:12:16 PM

Matt: I think its been pretty well documented by many of us that watch the Royals that they do nothing remarkable except stick to their game plan. They live & die by the 3, don't rebound very well on the offensive end & generally get very few assists during the game. They do not create many turnovers & you'll rarely see them beat the opposition for a fast break. They have no point guard, no post presence & will get a little crazy with shot selection. What they do however is find a way to win. I've yet to see how well they'll do when they find themselves down by a fairly large amount as that just has not happened yet. I'm not really sure if the Royals are a pretty good team, a real nice team or a fairly one dimensional team in a sea of mediocrity. Personally, I see the lack of a point & no inside game as doing them in as the season moves from regular to post. In the meantime, they are doing exactly what they need to do to put themselves in position to host in the Landmark playoffs. What they can accomplish after that is anyones guess. What they have also done thus far is defeat teams with far more natural talent on the floor & that, is always a good sign at this stage of the season.

ronk · January 24, 2011, 12:35:19 AM

Quote from: cold_case on January 23, 2011, 04:25:10 PM
Quote from: ronk on January 23, 2011, 02:41:11 PMFor those who don't remember, he was among the national leaders in shots blocked per game.

For those who don't remember, what's the updated conference finish changed to, record-wise?

Current standings Projected final standings
Scr 7-0 Scr 10-4
Drew 4-3 C 9-5
Sus 4-3 MMA 8-6
C 3-4 D 7-7
MMA 3-4 J 7-7
J 3-4 Sus 6-8
M 3-4 G 5-9
G 1-6 M 4-10

Projected includes M losing to C in only 2nd half homecourt loss.
Separately, gametimes revert to past practice in 2nd half: women early, men late.

NEPAFAN · January 24, 2011, 10:08:41 AM

For what it is worth the Goucher broadcast worked just fine for me. I watched the first ten minutes or so, the picture was a bit fuzzy but production was very well done.

For those who aren't aware Scranton is 29th in the Massey ratings. All kind of information is at this site,including probability of win:

http://www.masseyratings.com/rate.php?lg=cb&yr=2011&sub=NCAA%20III&mid=1

I also don't know if 1-5 Catholic has more talent than Scranton, Banzhaf and Dixon are excellent but I think the rest is up to debate.

Awaiting the Top 25 poll....

Matt Letourneau · January 24, 2011, 10:14:28 AM

Quote from: NEPAFAN on January 24, 2011, 10:08:41 AM
For what it is worth the Goucher broadcast worked just fine for me. I watched the first ten minutes or so, the picture was a bit fuzzy but production was very well done.

For those who aren't aware Scranton is 29th in the Massey ratings. All king of information is at this site:http://www.masseyratings.com/rate.php?lg=cb&yr=2011&sub=NCAA%20III&mid=1

including probability of win.

I also don't know if 1-5 Catholic has more talent than Scranton, Banzhaf and Dixon are excellent but I think the rest is up to debate.

Awaiting the Top 25 poll....

Well, at least in terms of size and versatility. We're not seeing the "real" Kearney right now but he's a really effective front court player.

I'm hoping that the blowout vs. Moravian will prove to be cathartic and get everyone's confidence back up. Plus, they are home next weekend, and its going to be a special weekend for Catholic basketball. Saturday vs. Drew will be a celebration of 100 years of CUA basketball. There should be a good crowd, and lots of CUA "legends" in the house, including most of the 2001 Championship team.

BTW--I neglected to mention during my thoughts about the Scranton game, but it was the best home crowd in terms of numbers I've seen at CUA in a long while. Now, they put some effort into it and had some incentives to get students there, but I admire the effort. The crowd was a bit dead and wasn't as loud as it could have been, but at least it was a legitimate home court. Kudos to the athletic department and the students.

Pat Coleman · January 24, 2011, 10:20:58 AM

Ahh, the 100th anniversary celebration. Every time I see that referenced I smile because when I started as SID there, Catholic had no idea when basketball started. I did all that research.

gouchersid · January 24, 2011, 10:40:38 AM

anybody else catch (or attempt to catch) any of the broadcasts from Goucher Saturday? The comments we've received so far have been all over the place -- some extremely positive, some really negative and even a couple that like cold case weren't able to connect to it.

ronk · January 24, 2011, 11:43:08 AM

Quote from: Pat Coleman on January 24, 2011, 10:20:58 AM
Ahh, the 100th anniversary celebration. Every time I see that referenced I smile because when I started as SID there, Catholic had no idea when basketball started. I did all that research.

What? One sit-down with Franny Murray?

Pat Coleman · January 24, 2011, 12:30:12 PM

I bet the stuff from 1959-60 on forward came straight out of his archives. I did start with him but my future wife and I spent a lot of time going through microfilm and university archives.

Matt Letourneau · January 24, 2011, 12:31:17 PM

Too bad you can't be there Pat.

ronk · January 24, 2011, 01:04:49 PM

Quote from: Pat Coleman on January 24, 2011, 12:30:12 PM
I bet the stuff from 1959-60 on forward came straight out of his archives. I did start with him but my future wife and I spent a lot of time going through microfilm and university archives.

There's always been a question of how much of that activity was official business.

ronk · January 24, 2011, 01:17:09 PM

Quote from: Matt Letourneau on January 24, 2011, 10:14:28 AM

Well, at least in terms of size and versatility. We're not seeing the "real" Kearney right now but he's a really effective front court player.

BTW--I neglected to mention during my thoughts about the Scranton game, but it was the best home crowd in terms of numbers I've seen at CUA in a long while. Now, they put some effort into it and had some incentives to get students there, but I admire the effort. The crowd was a bit dead and wasn't as loud as it could have been, but at least it was a legitimate home court. Kudos to the athletic department and the students.
[/quote]

Kearney did show some nice moves in the paint in his brief appearances Friday.

Do you think the free pizza at halftime had something to do with it? 300 did stick around for the women's game and maybe the students that were incentivized found out they had a good time and will come back this weekend? I applaud the effort, also.

Matt Letourneau · January 24, 2011, 02:30:24 PM

Kearney showed a lot of promise last year and looked like he was really going to flourish this year until he got hurt. He's limited right now even when he's on the court but it was good to see him starting to get some minutes and hopefully he'll be healty for the stretch run.

Oh yeah, I'm sure the pizza had a lot to do with it. But at least they are trying and hopefully those students will come back. Also, I will say that I've seen the new President of the university, who came from Boston College, at both of the home games I've been to. Always good to have that kind of interest from the top.