WBB: Landmark Conference

[Title IX]

Moravian won another game last night and faces Susquehanna today at home at  ::)2:00 p.m.
They have marched through a tough early season schedule so far defeating DeSales, Muhlenberg, Scranton, TCNJ, and DII East Stroudsburg.  Their only loss was to #1 Rochester--at Rochester--in November.   The team is playing well.

[ronk]

  Here are the standings both standard and a new format(Ronk Standings) which stresses the effect of home court losses and road wins in a conference which has an uneven number of home vs road games for each team after each weekend(until the final travel-pair game), since the 1st weekend starts play with only 1 game per team. I think it gives a truer picture.

Standard                                                   RS

MMA           3 - 0                                        Catholic     2 - 0
Scranton    2 - 1                                        MMA           1 - 0
Catholic      2 - 1                                        Susque      1 - 0
Susque       2 - 1                                        Juniata      1 - 0
Juniata       1 - 2                                        Scranton    0 - 0
Drew          1 - 2                                        Goucher     0 - 1
Moravian    1 - 2                                        Moravian    0 - 2
Goucher     0 - 3                                        Drew          0 - 2

[ronk]

Error: these are the men's standings; I forgot which board I was doing.

[ronk]

Standard                                                   RS

Moravian       3 - 0                                     Catholic     2 - 0
Catholic         2 - 1                                     Moravian   0 - 0
Scranton        2 - 1                                    Scranton    0 - 0
MMA               2 - 1                                    MMA           0 - 0
Susque          1 - 2                                    Susque       0 - 0
Goucher         1 - 2                                    Juniata       0 - 0
Drew              1 - 2                                    Goucher     1 - 1
Juniata           0 - 3                                    Drew          0 - 2 

[ronk]

    Lady Royals victors over Goucher despite 16 1st-half turnovers; Jen high scorer with several strong drives to the bucket leading to baskets and/or foul shots. "blue" team more effective than starters and were rewarded with extensive playing time in second half.
   Big challenge tomorrow with Lady Cardinals who knocked off Landmark leader Moravian tonite.

[saratoga]

Ronk: the Lady Royals assist to turnover ratio is beyond horrible. It's not far from 2:1, except in the wrong direction. I believe there is only 1 positive A/T on the team right now & that's not even very good. Couple that with barely 50% shooting from the free throw line and those two areas will haunt you once conference games heat up & you have any hopes of going anywhere in the playoffs.
  Certainly hope Mike is on the recruiting trail looking for a true point that can step in and play right away...which will then allow some of the other kids to revert back to their more natural positions.
  I'm kind of thinking on the lines of a Kelly Halpin or Allison Matt & while he's at it...why not get another Taryn Mellody and Shelly Parks. AHH, if it were only that easy!!!

[ronk]

Saratoga,
   You're right about those 2 aspects of their game and 26 turnovers today will not improve things. On the positive side, Ryan was +3 today in A/TO, Colleen had the best game of her short career(10 points,3 assists, 3 steals, 1 block(missing from stats)), and Megan had the finest half(18 points,5 rebounds,3 steals,1 assist) in a while after an unlucky foul-restricted first half of 6 minutes.
  In defense of Megan's A/TO ratio, most of her TOs are teammates not ready for her passes off her penetration moves. Hopefully, as they get the playing time from the 5 last-year grads, they'll get in position to receive the pass and do something with it.
  As far as a point guard, as they say in the financial world, you've got to invest in the world we have rather than the world we want. Deanna DiAmico(Cabrini) is the best I've seen this year but she's there rather than here, so it looks like Megan this year unless Colleen keeps improving.

Standings                                           RS

Scranton       4 - 1                              Scranton       2 - 0
Moravian       4 - 1                              Moravian       1 - 0
Catholic         3 - 2                              Susque         1 - 0
MMA              3 - 2                               Juniata         1 - 0
Susque         2 - 3                               Catholic        2 - 1
Drew             2 - 3                               MMA             0 - 1
Juniata          1 - 4                               Goucher       1 - 3
Goucher        1 - 4                               Drew            0 - 3

  Scheduling oddity: Drew starts conference play with 5 home games; Juniata 5 road games.

[saratoga]

Ronk: You make a great point on some of Megan's turnovers...often times they'll be attributed to her in the box score but, in all fairness, when you hit a teammate
with a catchable pass cutting to the basket & they don't handle it or seem surprised it came to them there's not much you can do except continiue to develop that familiarity in practice & hope it starts to click.
  I remember seeing Bobby Knight at a clinic at the Long Center years ago & he stated one of his top peeves of many was kids cutting to the basket & then not handling a perfect pass to them either directly to them or on a bounce. He went on to say why bother heading into traffic to get a good look and pass & then act like you never expected it. His feeling was the 4 other people without the ball at the time better be working to get a good look & they better be expecting the ball at any time. Perhaps a little tougher when you make the change at mid season but to be successful, it really does need to develop & sooner rather than later.
  All in all a great weekend for the ladies. I thought Catholic would present a very serious challenge especially after knocking Moravian off on Friday. To go down there & win on the last leg of the trip would have been great...to win by over 30 at their place was well beyond my expectations. The next challenge is not get caught up thinking everyone else will roll-over & the road to the championship will be easy...there are still a few land mines out there. If the ladies continue to stay hungry & develop those things will take care of themself. In the meantime, work on the foul shooting, ball handling & passing & pretty soon people will realize this very young team has grown up and they are ready.

[Rhino]

I hope that a large crowd shows up at the Long Center on Sunday afternoon. If all goes well, and if fingers remain appropriately crossed, Mike Strong COULD record his 700th win. It would be terrific if there was a mountain of spectators on hand to witness this big moment in  DIII basketball history. Three factors should help bolster attendance: (1) there is no snow in the forecast, (2) the Lady Royals are really starting to get into gear, and (3) because it is Sportsmanship Day, all kids under the age of 18 will be admitted FREE!

I know that there are some posters who are distraught by the so-called "off" year that an 11-win Lady Royal team is suppossedly having; this just goes to show that all is relative. The Lady Royals have spoiled us with their phenomenal success. This sophomore-driven team, with developing freshman, and with Molly Klusek and Ryan Mooney coming on, is going to get better and better (if they keep their heads on straight). In fact, I will go out on a limb right now and predict that they will reach 20 wins this season--and there are only about a million teams that would love to have a "down" year like that.

[Rhino]

699 and counting!!! Mike Strong is now just one win away from 700, after the Lady Royals put the Merchant Marine academy into "dry dock" with an impressive 73-43 victory. I have to say that Megan Kopecki is a talented young player, VERY talented. When she is on her game, she is a genuine joy to watch. And while Molly, Ryan, and the sophomores get a lot of attention, I think one can safely say that everyone should also watch out for two freshman who are on the rise: I predict that Sarah Gage and Emily Rainey are going to make some noise for this program; they do not get a tremendous amount of playing time right now, but they have been making the most out of the minutes they have been getting--they are nice looking young players.

Hope the Long Center is packed tomorrow as Strong goes for 700! Come and bring the kids (especially since your kids, if they are under 18, will get into the games for free tomorrow).

[saratoga]

Coach Strong now at 699 wins & counting after tonights walk through against MMA. The kids are playing loose & with a growing confidence each game. Win number 700 is extremly possible tomorrow afternoon vs. Drew. There is no question this Lady Royal team right now is easily as good as & better than a number of teams  currently in the Top 25. Perhaps a few voting members with some common sense will realize that this week & throw us a bone or two in the "others receiving votes" category.

[Rhino]

I agree with Saratoga that the Lady Royals are now playing like a Top-25 team again. They rarely have to rebuild their team! But perhaps during the occasional season like this, when there was in fact some legitimate re-construction work to be done, the Lady Royals need only a "rebuilding half-season" instead of  the traditional rebuilding year. They are going to be very strong the rest of the way.

[kate]

From one of your former MAC cohorts, congratulations to Coach Mike Strong & the Lady Royals on Coach Strong's 700 career win.  We look forward to possibly seeing our old MAC buddies at play-off time.

[TheGrove]

Susquehanna gets a two-fer at home this weekend, over Catholic and Goucher. Goucher has a pretty good freshman in Kiara Doughty - really gobbles up the rebounds and is fast and tenacious. Look forward to seeing how she develops over the years.

[Rhino]

Kate,
Thanks for coming on here to congratulate Coach Strong. Very nice of you. You are the No. 1 Dvision III Womens' Basketball Fan.  And now that the Lady Royals have left the Freedom Conference, I would be very pleased to see Delaware Valley step up and win a championship in that league.

Kudos to a plucky Drew University team that made the Lady Royals work very hard for the 700th win. Drew played effectively until the Lady Royals finally pulled away in the second half. Every time Scranton would start to make a little run and try to extend the lead, Drew would hang tough and hit a big "three" or grab a key offensive rebound--especially in the first half. In fairness, however, it should be noted that Drew committed a tremendous number of fouls trying to keep pace with more talented Lady Royals.  Nevertheless, Drew played hard.

Congratulations to Coach Strong--the winningest active coach in Division III women's basketball. He achieved 700 in fewer years time than did the only other 700-win coach in the DIII women's game.  In fact, what is staggering is the fact that over the last 28 years Mike Strong has AVERAGED 24.5 wins per season!