MBB: Landmark Conference

[saratoga]

NEPA:

For what it's worth.....

Personally, I'm kind of sick & tired of the Royals making the tournament & getting clocked in the first round.

They have the same team year in & year out...soft, slow & predictable.
What you see this year is the same as you saw last year which is the same as you saw 10 years ago.

The world is changing, but not the walk it up, play no D Royals.

I think these cameo appearances in the show only reinforce to the Royal brain-trust that they must be doing something right when in fact, they simply aren't built for any sort of national run & that very same brain-trust has never brought in one kid in all this time that could be considered "an athlete".

No Irv Johnson, no Bryant Thornwell, no Phil Johnson, no Todd Bailey, no Jack Maher, no Mickey Banas, no Brian O'Donnell...not one kid that could put an entire team on his back & make everyone else around them better.

Sadly, if the mens team was playing at home tomorrow & the UofS was giving away free trips to Aruba to those in attendance & the women's team was playing at Catholic, I'd be in DC already.

There is simply no excuse for beating Susquehanna on the road & then losing consecutive games to two teams that combined don't usually win 10 games.

If Scranton doesn't acknowledge they have some serious problems, they are doomed to prove, nice guys finish last.

Danzig's freakout the other day had less to do with bad officiating & more to do with utter frustration internally.

Tomorrow is a huge gut check for this program...are the kids ready to play or ready to pack it in?

Here's hoping for a Scranton comeback & no more T's on the coach.

[CardsFan]

Welp...Cards not ready for prime time. I wasn't confident in a CUA win anyways, but Jay Howard not playing obviously makes a huge difference, both on the floor and psychologically.

Hopefully the coaching staff will use the next few days in practice to really work on defense, because whether Howard plays or not today's effort was dreadful. Not a recipe for success to let the opponent make nearly 60% of their shots. I've felt for a while that this team is outperforming its defensive numbers so far this season and that sure seemed true today.

The young CUA big men were really outclassed by Vitkus.


No idea what the situation with Howard is, but the effect of anything long-term can't be overstated.

[ronk]

Preseason Poll
Team Points
1. Susquehanna 60 (4)
2. Catholic 52 (1)
2. Scranton 52 (1)
4. Juniata 41 (2)
5. Moravian 24
6. Drew 17
7. Goucher 15
8. Elizabethtown 11

Ronk's preseason projection

Susquehanna 10-4
Scranton        10-4
Catholic           9-5
Juniata            9-5
Moravian         9-5
E-town            5-9
Drew               2-12
Goucher          2-12

Essentially, the top 5 split with each other, 3 thru 5 lose 1 game each to the 6 thru 8 group, 7 & 8 split with each other and lose both to E-town.

So, after this week's  games, here are the current standings:
Susquehanna   5-1   0.833   450   407      15-2   0.882   1361   1185   9-1   Won 3
Catholic   5-1   0.833   470   441      13-4   0.765   1275   1194   8-2   Lost 1
Scranton   4-2   0.667   451   414      12-5   0.706   1252   1125   6-4   Won 1
Moravian   4-2   0.667   492   463      11-6   0.647   1448   1385   5-5   Won 2
Drew   3-3   0.500   445   448      9-8   0.529   1326   1236   6-4   Lost 1
Juniata   1-5   0.167   429   465      9-8   0.529   1229   1136   4-6   Lost 3
Elizabethtown   1-5   0.167   372   428      4-12   0.250   1038   1136   2-8   Won 1
Goucher   1-5   0.167   392   435      4-13   0.235   1073   1223   2-8   Lost 2




In this week's games, there were 3 outcomes that differed from my preseason projection(Mor W @ Scr, Sus W @ Jun and Drew W @ E-town; so my revised projection:

Catholic         10-4
Susque          10-4
Moravian        10-4
Scranton          9-5
Juniata             7-7
E-town             4-10
Goucher           3-11
Drew               3-11

This week's Game of the nite:

Wed - Susque @ Catholic

Sat - Susque @ Moravian

[Hooper42]

SU overcomes 17 pt first half deficit thanks to 46 points 16 boards and 5 assists from Callahan, Weiss, and Knecbt off the bench. Traub was on the bench with fouls for large part of SU run, but returned to help seal win down stretch.

Khouri played  well for CUA and Howard was effective coming off an injury only 2 rebs, and 1 assist away from a triple double. The media timeouts Howes opts to strategically use at the Dufour Center were ineffective in the second half and annoying as usual, IMO media timeouts don't belong in non-televised D3 hoops.

Congratulations to Coach Marcinek on 400th career W. Fairly certain all are at Susqu.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Khouri played  well for CUA and Howard was effective coming off an injury only 2 rebs, and 1 assist away from a triple double. The media timeouts Howes opts to strategically use at the Dufour Center were ineffective in the second half and annoying as usual, IMO media timeouts don't belong in non-televised D3 hoops.

They are now used at Goucher as well. They can be used however teams or conferences want. They are mandated in the NCAA tournament. And television isn't the only reason media timeouts exist in the first place - radio is a reason as well. Not that CUA or Goucher have radio or TV... but if they want to use them, they can. I believe Stevenson is another team in this immediate area that uses them.

[CardsFan]

Shoot 48.3%....at home
Make 12 3-pointers....at home
Lead by as many as 17....at home

Give up 57 points in one half....at home
Give up 44 points in the paint....at home
Give up 16 offensive rebounds....at home

Tonight's game was a shocking capitulation. Nothing that happened in the 2nd half of this game at the defensive end should be acceptable. There is seemingly no interest in or understanding of what defense is. The players don't seem to know what to do. The same mistakes are made over and over again by the same players. I don't blame them. It really appears that no one has taught them how to defend, either individually or as a team. The lack of any semblance of post defense is especially glaring. Traub, Weiss, and Knecht did whatever they wanted, like Vitkus on Saturday. The most disappointing part of tonight was that the best years of this program were built on strong defense and that now seems to have been lost.

I don't care about individual game results the rest of the way. I'm only going to look at defensive numbers from now on. Finding an acceptable level of defense should now be more important than the won-lost record at the end of this season.

[NEPAFAN]

Congrats to Coach Danzig on number 300.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Shoot 48.3%....at home
Make 12 3-pointers....at home
Lead by as many as 17....at home

Give up 57 points in one half....at home
Give up 44 points in the paint....at home
Give up 16 offensive rebounds....at home

Tonight's game was a shocking capitulation. Nothing that happened in the 2nd half of this game at the defensive end should be acceptable. There is seemingly no interest in or understanding of what defense is. The players don't seem to know what to do. The same mistakes are made over and over again by the same players. I don't blame them. It really appears that no one has taught them how to defend, either individually or as a team. The lack of any semblance of post defense is especially glaring. Traub, Weiss, and Knecht did whatever they wanted, like Vitkus on Saturday. The most disappointing part of tonight was that the best years of this program were built on strong defense and that now seems to have been lost.

I don't care about individual game results the rest of the way. I'm only going to look at defensive numbers from now on. Finding an acceptable level of defense should now be more important than the won-lost record at the end of this season.

What is amazing is how CUA used to have an incredible reputation for their defense. In the last five years, it has evaporated. I have no idea why as I haven't been paying that close attention... but I remember last year, or the season prior, noticing the change and seeing the significant change in the numbers.

[Charles]

Shoot 48.3%....at home
Make 12 3-pointers....at home
Lead by as many as 17....at home

Give up 57 points in one half....at home
Give up 44 points in the paint....at home
Give up 16 offensive rebounds....at home

Tonight's game was a shocking capitulation. Nothing that happened in the 2nd half of this game at the defensive end should be acceptable. There is seemingly no interest in or understanding of what defense is. The players don't seem to know what to do. The same mistakes are made over and over again by the same players. I don't blame them. It really appears that no one has taught them how to defend, either individually or as a team. The lack of any semblance of post defense is especially glaring. Traub, Weiss, and Knecht did whatever they wanted, like Vitkus on Saturday. The most disappointing part of tonight was that the best years of this program were built on strong defense and that now seems to have been lost.

I don't care about individual game results the rest of the way. I'm only going to look at defensive numbers from now on. Finding an acceptable level of defense should now be more important than the won-lost record at the end of this season.

Howes has lost the locker room.

[Pat Coleman]

That's too bad. Someone should post signs. Has it moved?

[ronk]

That's too bad. Someone should post signs. Has it moved?

Maybe the Dufour remodeling has started, already. 

[Pat Coleman]

That's too bad. Someone should post signs. Has it moved?

Maybe the Dufour remodeling has started, already. 

+1

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

That's too bad. Someone should post signs. Has it moved?

Maybe the Dufour remodeling has started, already. 

It actually has... well done. Well done, indeed.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

All of the sudden the month of January is coming to a close! It wasn't that long ago we were watching how teams would perform during holiday tournaments and after long breaks. Now, we are wondering how most teams will weather the second half of conference play.

Thursday night on Hoopsville, Dave tries to take the temperature of Division III basketball. Just how good are the teams nationally ranked and near the top of some conference? Are there teams lurking who are about to emerge and disrupt things?

Of course the focus on this show will primarily be the East, Mid-Atlantic, Great Lakes, and West Regions, but there is still plenty to talk about nationwide including the common theme: upsets and parity.

Guests will include a coach who won his 400th on Wednesday, three nationally ranked teams, and seven total losses.

Dave also discusses the recently launch Hoopsville Fundraising efforts and the upcoming annual marathon show. For more information on the fundraiser, click here: https://igg.me/at/hoopsville-fundraiser-2017

Tune in starting at 7:00 PM LIVE via this link: www.d3hoops.com/hoopsville/archives/2016-17/jan26 (or the Facebook Live simulcast). If you can't make it live, watch the show On Demand to listen (download) the podcast to the right (available after the show concludes).

Don't forget to contribute to the new "Hoopsville Mailbag" segment. Email questions you may have to hoopsville@d3hoops.com. Dave will answer them tonight or on a future show.

Guests scheduled to appear (in order of appearance):
- Frank Marcinek, No. 11 Susquehanna men's coach
- Luke Flockerzi, No. 7 Rochester men's coach
- Don Mulhern, UW-Superior women's coach
- Michele Durand, No. 8 Ohio Northern women's coach

You can also tune into the podcast(s) after the show has aired:
SoundCloud: www.soundcloud.com/hoopsville
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hoopsville/id1059517087

Don't forget you can always interact with us:
Website: www.d3hoopsville.com
Twitter: @d3hoopsville or #Hoopsville
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Hoopsville
Email: hoopsville@d3hoops.com
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/d3hoopsville
Fundraiser: https://igg.me/at/hoopsville-fundraiser-2017

[NEPAFAN]

anyone know what Mike Lonergan is up to nowadays?