MBB: Landmark Conference

[TheGrove]

What's up in the Landmark today, everyone? Susquehanna fell to USMMA, 81-66. On a bright note, nice performance from freshman Brandon Hedley who lead SU with 21 points.

(As a side note, anyone "in the know" about swimming? How is Marywood a swimming-only conference member?)

[NEPAFAN]

What is going on with SU lately?


Scranton destroyed Goucher today as the whole team got minutes.


Grove have you tried the von lugar steakhouse on courthouse square? Not a bad place.....

[TheGrove]

I don't know. It's frustrating not seeing them on a regular basis anymore. Coach Marcinek must have forgotten to keep sending me the super-secret updates. 

I actually got to sample some chicken from von Lugar's last night (I went to the Winter in the City shindig at the Trolley Museum). Mr. Grove and I are hoping to go there for a special occasion sometime.

[saratoga]

Since it looks like a slow day here on the board, I'll throw this out.
Yesterday, while standing in the checkout line at the market, I noticed a familiar face in the magazine section.
Gracing the cover of the current issue of US Weekly is our very own... former Royal great Jason Hoppy.
Looks like his separation from the somewhat obnoxious Ms. Frankel is about to get very public.

By the way, Von Lugar's is an excellent choice.

[onetinsoldier]

By the way, Von Lugar's is an excellent choice.

I've been meaning to try it.  Any recommendations when there? I know his place in NY has great bacon.  Also, is this a good date place or more of a guy's hangout/businessmans place?

[saratoga]

Onetin:

Von Luger's is certainly business clubby during the day however, in the evening it's an excellent choice to take a date...even if your date is your wife!
Been there twice, outstanding both times.

Another great new place is POSH.
Located in the former Scranton Club on the corner of N. Washington & Mulberry.
Been there a few times before & after the Holidays...excellent.
Very NYC.
Enjoy.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

As I PA announce the Juniata-Goucher game, I wanted to convey a point of view I heard tonight about the new conference schedule. According to the person I talked to, they calculated the students are now missing far less, considerably less class time with the new schedule of weekday games with no double-headers on those days. Instead of having to leave for games at 9 AM on Friday mornings and having their students exhausted on Sundays (making studying a challenge) when they returned to campus from a travel weekend.

Certainly, I can not disagree with this point of view. When it comes to missing class times especially for many of those students who may be pre-med and other more restrictive and complicated majors, the less missed the better.

Of course, I still hear from coaches that the back-to-back games on the weekend were taking a toll on the team especially with injuries or more importantly the recovery from those injuries. While I understand this point, I am not easily swayed when that is just the game. Heck, in ice hockey, teams are pretty much forced to play two games against the same opponent per weekend due to the travel and other factors and you don't see the NCAA changing the tournament schedule for this factor (or others).

While I agree with the class schedule point of view, I can't help but think that there are other conferences with equal or even higher academic standards who are still implementing this weekend schedule. If the NESCAC felt missing that time on the weekends because of travel was too important they would have abandoned their weekend structure as well. The MIAC in the West Region also has some tough academic institutions (i.e. Carleton, St. Thomas, etc.) and they still play the weekend schedule (Friday/Sunday) as well. And the Empire 8 and Liberty League certainly are full of challenging schools as well and they go with a weekend schedule.

Granted, there are travel challenges for many of those previously mentioned conferences, but it isn't like the Landmark is challenged with its own version of travel problems.

There is a new commissioner in charge and we will have to get used to this augmented schedule - I don't see it going any where any time soon. However, I hope future changes are less drastic as we have seen overtime in this conference... which certainly needs some stability in many ways to help grow in the future.

I will step off my soap box again... thanks for reading, if you did .

[TheGrove]

+k for the insight.

Selfishly, if I were back in the 'grove I would appreciate this schedule a lot more. The back-to-back doubleheaders were hard on the ... ahem... behind.

I feel sure that if this scheduling didn't work for some reason, the conference would make a change. I wouldn't want to see changes every year, or even every couple of years, but I see no reason to fear some tweaks til we hit on the schedule that works best.

[ronk]

Dave,
  If you talk with the Commish, you might ask him why Catholic and Goucher are in one region for men(Mid-Atlantic) and a different one for women(Atlantic). Also, when are the regional rankings going to be out?

[ronk]

  Next up for the Royals is a battle for 1st place @ Catholic; the hotels have few rooms left; many are expected to fly in 4 the contests; suspense is building and the women have a battle 4 2nd in the conference, also. The federal gov is sponsoring a presidential inauguration as part of the activities. Looking like a good weekend.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Dave,
  If you talk with the Commish, you might ask him why Catholic and Goucher are in one region for men(Mid-Atlantic) and a different one for women(Atlantic). Also, when are the regional rankings going to be out?

I have an answers to those already... that is the regions they have been in for as long as I can remember. Back when they were in the CAC... all of the CAC men's teams were in the Mid-Atlantic and all of the women's teams where in the Atlantic. This was done, I believe, to even off the regions (if you notice, the women's Atlantic region is far more equal than the men's).

Now, when the Landmark was formed, the NCAA (that being those who make the decisions in Division III, not those in the front office in Indianapolis) decided that they would not move the teams into different regions. The Landmark's formation actually caused a snag, per the men's side, as you had a number of teams in the Mid-Atlantic and just a few in the Atlantic. Furthermore, moving those Atlantic teams into the Mid-Atlantic made no sense due to geography.

I certainly understood this decision though I think it was the first time a conference had multiple regions represented, though the AMCC actually has been in two if not three regions as well (not counting the UAA which is clearly a major exception). It wasn't perfect, but it kept some strange regional shifts and regional games wouldn't be affected anyway. My mind was then changed recently when Hamilton joined the NESCAC. They are in the middle of New York state and thus the middle of the East region, but when they moved to the NESCAC the NCAA moved the school into an already over-crowded Northeast Region. This made NO sense to me per the precident.

Now, I know there is a serious push to realigned the regions in all sports for Division III as soon as next academic year. I support this as we all know the regions are clearly out of wack in terms of size and alignment. However, I have heard one of the strong recommendations from school presidents is to keep all conference schools in the SAME regions. This I think is a horrible idea for several reseasons: they won't be able to solve conferences like the Landmark, AMCC, NESCAC, etc. without major "whats?" in the equation; it won't solve major problems of size like in the Northeast Region; with the new regional games rules coming next year, the regions aren't as important. From what I have learned, the presidents want to make sure all of the teams in a conference are ranked accordingly in the same region and I am sure there are concerns of many conference teams being ranked more easily when they are in different regions.

I will certainly ask the commissioner when I get the chance to find out what he thinks of regional realignment and how it may or may not affect the Landmark.

Also... first regional rankings will be released February 6th... there will be three public rankings and once again the final ranking done at the end of the regular season that will help determine who is in and where they are playing... will NOT be released.

[ronk]

 Thanks, Dave, I understand a conference being in different regions like the UAA, but I don't understand why a specific school would be in a different region for its men's team vs. its women's team.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Remember there are more women's schools than men's... so when the CAC was split into different regions it had more to do with keeping the regions aligned evenly. Granted, the men could have been in the Atlantic as well, but that was where the decision was made.

It isn't that uncommon... the HCAC is in the Midwest on the men's side; in the Great Lakes on the women's side. The WIAC is in the West in the men's side; in the Central on the women's side.

Also keep in mind that the 8 regions for basketball are not the only regional make-up of Division III athletics, so other factors could have been involved in trying to keep the regions similiar in more than just basketball. That being said, one of the biggest reasons for regional realignment is the fact that it is getting confusing from sport to sport (especially when the "Central" and the "Midwest" are the same/similar region but with different names). In fact, a sport like lacrosse has just two regions which isn't enough. They need to be in four, but that decision could impact other sports as well. So... time for an overhaul .

[pacerhorse]

(As a side note, anyone "in the know" about swimming? How is Marywood a swimming-only conference member?)

Marywood puts the Landmark Conference with eight swimming programs. Moravian doesn't have a team. As far as I know, none of the Landmark schools have facilities capable of hosting a conference championship. Marywood just built an exceptionally nice facility two years ago, and hosts the Landmark meet every year.

Washington & Jefferson is similarly a men's lacrosse-only conference member.

[Pat Coleman]

Once upon a time the men's CAC teams were in the Atlantic as well. When Catholic played in the 1993 tournament (field of 40), it played Stockton. (Salisbury State also played in the Atlantic regional in 1992, but that was prior to their joining the CAC.)

When they tweaked regions in 1995 and the CAC got an automatic bid, it moved to the Mid-Atlantic.