MBB: Landmark Conference

[NEPAFAN]

Hallelujah!!!!! 

[saratoga]

Mitch Cross may have just single handedly saved whatever may be left of Scranton's season.

Well done young man.

[ronk]

 Royals finish strong in last 4 1/2 mins to win at Gettysburg. With a 1 point lead, Mitch Cross makes a steal and Kyle Deverna converts it into 2 made foul shots. Later, Mitch hits a 3 and 4-4 FTs. Kevin Doolan made a nice 1-on 1 drive/layup with a min to go. Players are taking it to the hoop and drawing fouls or passing for layups. Gettysburg helped by missing consecutive 1-and-1s and nearly all their shots in last 4 mins. Don't think they'll be making the Centennial playoffs this season.
  Royals did have some sloppy passing reminiscent of their play in 1st 10 games but there was good effort and communication on defense.
They also had trouble with the 6-4 245-lb Bullets post player in the paint.
  Matt Mancuso makes it fun to watch; they missed him in the 1st 10 games.
  Watched the game with my classmate, former teammate, and Les Dickman award winner, Tom Yucka. Afterwards, met Coach Danzig's dad, Hal, a former All-East player at Bucknell; thought I had seen him play in the Eastern League(when there were only 8 NBA teams and those Eastern League players were better than all but the top 100 of today's NBA) but he said that he never played there after college.

[NEPAFAN]

Royals finish strong in last 4 1/2 mins to win at Gettysburg. With a 1 point lead, Mitch Cross makes a steal and Kyle Deverna converts it into 2 made foul shots. Later, Mitch hits a 3 and 4-4 FTs. Kevin Doolan made a nice 1-on 1 drive/layup with a min to go. Players are taking it to the hoop and drawing fouls or passing for layups. Gettysburg helped by missing consecutive 1-and-1s and nearly all their shots in last 4 mins. Don't think they'll be making the Centennial playoffs this season.
Royals did have some sloppy passing reminiscent of their play in 1st 10 games but there was good effort and communication on defense.
They also had trouble with the 6-4 245-lb Bullets post player in the paint.
  Matt Mancuso makes it fun to watch; they missed him in the 1st 10 games.
  Watched the game with my classmate, former teammate, and Les Dickman award winner, Tom Yucka. Afterwards, met Coach Danzig's dad, Hal, a former All-East player at Bucknell; thought I had seen him play in the Eastern League(when there were only 8 NBA teams and those Eastern League players were better than all but the top 100 of today's NBA) but he said that he never played there after college.

Yeah saw one play where they were unaware Shoot Clock had expired and a few other turnovers. Going for three in a row Saturday against Etown...

[ronk]

As conference play resumes after the break and 11 nonconference games, here's my forecast after the coaches' preseason poll:

2017-18 Landmark Men's Basketball Preseason Poll
Rank   Institution (First Place)   Points
1.   Scranton (7)                    70
2.    Moravian                            45
3.    Susquehanna                    44
4.    Catholic (1)                    42
5.   Juniata                            29
6.   Drew                                 21
7.   Goucher                            12
8.   Elizabethtown                      9

Scranton         9-5
Juniata           9-5
Moravian         9-5
Catholic           8-6
Drew               8-6
Susquehanna   6-8
Elizabethtown   4-10
Goucher           3-11

Juniata should be the only team to get a Pool C bid should they not win the AQ. The AQ winner probably gets no higher than a #3 seed in their 1st round NCAA pod.
  Landmark continues their downward spiral with the 3-year dearth of high-quality players; Jay Howard(current senior) would be the most recent such player. On the positive side, this could be the most competitive season in Landmark history. 

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

ronk - that's a really early prediction for Juniata being in the Pool C conversation. Even at this point, I am not sure if their resume would be worthy. I am not voting for them as of yet because their opponent's WL% is mid to low 30s... surprised me.

We shall see. If they keep rolling through the conference, that number (and thus their SOS) will come up significantly.

As for the downward spiral of the conference.... I agree... been a bit disappointing, honestly.

[saratoga]

Regarding the Royals....

Several things jump off the stat sheet that have been repeated far too many times this season.

*Schank needs to be an option more than 5 times in any game.

*Two players played 34 minutes & 32 minutes respectively and had all of 2 points to offer.
I think it's fair to expect more from senior 4 year starters.

*Zero second chance points.

*Minimal to non-existent production from the freshman class.

Still a lot of areas to improve upon if they have any hopes of being as good on the court as their pre-season press clippings.

[ronk]

Regarding the Royals....

Several things jump off the stat sheet that have been repeated far too many times this season.

*Schank needs to be an option more than 5 times in any game.

*Two players played 34 minutes & 32 minutes respectively and had all of 2 points to offer.
I think it's fair to expect more from senior 4 year starters.

*Zero second chance points.

*Minimal to non-existent production from the freshman class.

Still a lot of areas to improve upon if they have any hopes of being as good on the court as their pre-season press clippings.

They did have 7 offensive rebounds so I guess zero 2nd chance points means they didn't score after regaining possession with the offensive rebound - at least, indicates they did have some effort on the offensive boards.

[NEPAFAN]

Ryan Traub only played 7 minutes. I wonder if he is hurt...I also wonder how the Grove is fairing.....

[ronk]

With 5 contending for 4 playoff spots, there will be at least 1 head-to-head  every game day. Wed it will be Moravian-Drew; Saturday: Catholic-Moravian and Juniata-Drew.

[NEPAFAN]

Congrats to Ethan Danzig on being the 43rd member of the 1,000 point club at Scranton.

[ronk]

Congrats to Ethan Danzig on being the 43rd member of the 1,000 point club at Scranton.

And the 4th member of the Danzig family to do it in college(brother Ross, dad Carl, and grandfather Hal) according to the Royals' broadcaster.

[sp0rtsfan]

Heading to the "holy land" aka Electric City tomorrow to see who shows up for the alumni game...Hopefully, a few guys from '76 will be there.

[saratoga]

Safe travels spOrtsfan.

I'm more concerned with the current edition of the Royals showing up tomorrow.

Didn't exactly look energized against Susquehanna.

[ronk]

Heading to the "holy land" aka Electric City tomorrow to see who shows up for the alumni game...Hopefully, a few guys from '76 will be there.

Met Phil Johnson '76 at the Scranton@Catholic Landmark women's championship game last season; he seemed to enjoy it so much that I'm guessing he'll return for the doubleheader next Saturday.