MBB: Landmark Conference

[Clutch]

Very refreshing to hear this.....thank you Catholic for a good representation for D3 and your conference.

[ronk]

 And Loyola only lost by 10 at #12 Connecticut a week ago.

[Clutch]

Sweet....just goes to show d3 can be credible basketball too not that it was ever in question to those who know already....the fact of D3 being a pure form of the sport without all the entertainment budgets and less dollars or incentives for academic scholarships is inspiring to all the student athletes who work hard at this level.  They are just as good or faster in some cases despite lack of size. Great to hear.
One may question whether or not the d1 opponents take a d3 opponent as serious and if they played on the level of play they usually play at in their conferences though.  Having said that it would not be fair to generalize this premise unless I was personally at the game.

[NEPAFAN]

Grove:

who do you have today Scranton or SU? do you have the little one in a susq onesie yet? Please send you address and I'll send all the Scranton baby gear you can ever want!

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Saw a pretty incredible game this weekend between Merchant Marine and Goucher. First and foremost, it was the second annual fundraiser for Damon Brooks who was in attendance for the game. They had a silent auction during the game and I suspect Merchant Marine even helped with a few of the items - I can't help but think maybe Danny Nee helped get a Dr. J/Abdul Jabar signed basketball for the event - though, I forgot to read the description of who may have donated the item.

Anyway, Goucher jumped out to a 12-1 lead thanks to three straight 3's from Jesse Mondry... then Merchant Marine took control, taking a 40-28 lead at the half! I pretty much thought this was over not because it was only a 12-point deficit, but because USMMA was completely in control and only allowed Goucher to score 16 points for the last 15 minutes of the half. However, the second half was nearly all Goucher... outscoring the Mariners 44-25 to win 72-65.

I think USMMA is a good, solid team... as they always are. They can run up-tempo, believe it or not... are stout on defense... and can hit from all spots on the floor. Goucher just finally started playing basketball and upped the defensive pressure forcing some ill-timed turnovers and despite missing plenty of layups, were able to capitalize on the other end.

I also witnessed the strangest occurrence surrounding a technical foul. Trevino got T'ed up (apparently rightly so according to my father who was closer to it than me and indicated Trevino had a case for his argument) and USMMA shot their free throws. They then inbounded the ball in front of the Goucher bench. I turned my head for a second to check a name and the next thing I know Goucher has stolen the inbounded ball (the guy guarding the inbound got the steal) and score a layup. That all sparked Goucher's comeback in the second half. Just not how you normally see those things happen.

Anyway... good basketball and tip of the hat to Merchant Marine for being so gracious to be part of the Damon Brooks event. Also tip of the hat to their fans who came in good numbers and assumingly all paid the attendance (everyone paid attendance for the game because of Brooks). I also always enjoy talking to Danny Nee and David Muchnick and it was great to see them again.

[ronk]

 Only conference games for rest of 2013 have MMA visiting Scranton Saturday and Moravian Sunday; this gives them half their road games in the 1st 2 weekends.

[NEPAFAN]

Congrats to Catholic with 20+ votes and Scranton with 11 votes in the Top 25 poll. Should be reversed in my opinion.

Here is hoping all players pass their exams! 

[Clutch]

Scranton always seems like a contender at crunch time.  Not sure why they don't go even deeper in the tourney, they certainly have the tools.  Almost as if they need a leader and a point guard to help them if their shooting goes South. Danzig is a great coach and his players work hard.  Catholic is strong as well but at crunch time not sure if they will be deep enough in the heated moments.

[Clutch]

Sorry, I may have to rephrase my last thought, Catholic has balanced scoring and personnel, if they play together as a team they can go all the way, in my opinion if their defense tightens up they could do a lot of damage. Not surprised they should be in the the top 25.

[TheGrove]

Grove:

who do you have today Scranton or SU? do you have the little one in a susq onesie yet? Please send you address and I'll send all the Scranton baby gear you can ever want!

The Grovelette has her own Susquehanna cheerleading uniform! It was a big hit at homecoming. 

You will not convert her to purple!

[NEPAFAN]

Grove:

who do you have today Scranton or SU? do you have the little one in a susq onesie yet? Please send you address and I'll send all the Scranton baby gear you can ever want!

The Grovelette has her own Susquehanna cheerleading uniform! It was a big hit at homecoming. 

You will not convert her to purple!

We Scranton folks don't know what homecoming is. At least those of us who weren't around in 1960, but I digress.

Susquehanna had a nice student section crowd at the game, sorry my Royals had to make that run to shut them down though!

[TheGrove]

Grove:

who do you have today Scranton or SU? do you have the little one in a susq onesie yet? Please send you address and I'll send all the Scranton baby gear you can ever want!

The Grovelette has her own Susquehanna cheerleading uniform! It was a big hit at homecoming. 

You will not convert her to purple!

We Scranton folks don't know what homecoming is. At least those of us who weren't around in 1960, but I digress.

Susquehanna had a nice student section crowd at the game, sorry my Royals had to make that run to shut them down though!

When you say nice... do you mean in behavior? Because that will surprise me. They were pretty rowdy when I was still around.

[NEPAFAN]

Grove:

who do you have today Scranton or SU? do you have the little one in a susq onesie yet? Please send you address and I'll send all the Scranton baby gear you can ever want!

The Grovelette has her own Susquehanna cheerleading uniform! It was a big hit at homecoming. 

You will not convert her to purple!

We Scranton folks don't know what homecoming is. At least those of us who weren't around in 1960, but I digress.

Susquehanna had a nice student section crowd at the game, sorry my Royals had to make that run to shut them down though!

When you say nice... do you mean in behavior? Because that will surprise me. They were pretty rowdy when I was still around.

Nice in size, until the game got out of hand. They were pretty rowdy.....but nothing too crazy with behavior.

[NEPAFAN]

While attempting to listen to the choppy audio on Scranton's USTREAM there was a discussion of next year's schedule. At least one week they will be playing Tues/Thurs/Sat and obviously each team will lose 2 non-conference games with Elizabeth town.

Didn't sound like the schedule went over too well with the coaches...

[ronk]

 And there will be a Saturday bye 4 every conference team; don't know if everyone will be able to come up with a foe to fill the bye. Years ago in the original MAC days, Scranton used to play a couple of M/W/Sat games in January, but the schools were closer together than the Landmark.