WBB: Landmark Conference

[Rofrog]

But I also have to say Catholic played it smart they would double team the bigs but the bigs didnt get the ball back out or they didnt put it up into the basket- credit Catholic.Everytime Sofia had the ball triple team so someone was opened same with Mason it was poorly executed basketball.But that famous saying is get your team to get hot at the right time.Go LadyRoyals (Get back to fundamental basketball)

[NEPAFAN]

Good catch Nepafan on Desales being in the Atlantic I forget about that all the time!!

That was Saratoga not me!  I would have had them in the Atlantic too.

[Rofrog]

Sorry about that Neafan! thanks Saratoga for the correction.My thoughts on this up coming game against Moravian.This team is not playing together at all and you saw that against Catholic,No one was crashing the boards for rebounds ,they are getting out hustled to every loose ball.To many turnovers and they are stupid turnovers, there heads are not in the game! Im not sure if it is turmoil in the locker room or something you just dont get this bad over night with the same players in the game like I said coach needs to reel this team in quick and get it under control.Go Lady Royals

[Rofrog]

So if regionals came out today on the womens (Middle Atlantic) side this would be my take might be a little prejudice lol but (1 )Scranton 19-2 (2) Messiah 21-1 (3) Gettysburg 17-3 (4) John's Hopkins 18-3 (5) Southern Virginia 17-3 (6) CNU 16-5 That is my top 6 in MA region.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

First women's regional rankings are out: https://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2019/02/women-regional-rankings-first

[saratoga]

Great win for the Lady Royals.

Got much more aggressive on the boards in the second half, nice adjustments.

Freshman E. Shurina is looking great as she's been worked into the lineup.

One game at a time.

[Tim the Enchanter]

Looking at the Landmark tiebreakers, it appears the Lady Royals have clinched a conference playoff berth, although I didn't see it mentioned in the write-up. 

Scranton will finish with a better conference record than Catholic, Goucher and Susquehanna. 

If Moravian or Drew lose one, or Scranton wins one, there will be no tiebreaker for the last playoff spot.

If Scranton loses the last three and both Moravian and Drew win out, Scranton holds the head-to-head over Moravian, and would have a better record vs. the top finishers in the conference than Drew.

Interestingly, there could be a five-way tie at 9-5 if this happens and Juniata loses to E-Town and beats Susquehanna.  That scenario would squeeze E-Town out given two losses to Moravian.

[lefty2]

Man, winning 100 games in three years doesn't go as far as it used to.  Good thing Trevor came on here to learn how to fix his offense.

[ronk]

Looking at the Landmark tiebreakers, it appears the Lady Royals have clinched a conference playoff berth, although I didn't see it mentioned in the write-up. 

Scranton will finish with a better conference record than Catholic, Goucher and Susquehanna. 

If Moravian or Drew lose one, or Scranton wins one, there will be no tiebreaker for the last playoff spot.

If Scranton loses the last three and both Moravian and Drew win out, Scranton holds the head-to-head over Moravian, and would have a better record vs. the top finishers in the conference than Drew.

Interestingly, there could be a five-way tie at 9-5 if this happens and Juniata loses to E-Town and beats Susquehanna.  That scenario would squeeze E-Town out given two losses to Moravian.

That was the big negative with a 4-team conference tourney. A team tied for 1st would miss out on the conference championship and NCAA AQ for as little as a coin flip. And, I consider E-town to be the 2nd strongest team in the conference.
   I had mentioned to Gordon Mann a few years ago and he was dubious that it was mathematically possible til I mentioned that it nearly happened on the men's side in one of the last years Scranton was in the Freedom. Going into the final week, there was that possibility with all the 5 top teams splitting with each other and beating the bottom 3 such that a coin flip would have decided the 5th team out of the postseason tourney.

[saratoga]

Lefty:

Beyond the 100 + wins, what I think is even more remarkable is that in nearly 4 full seasons, the Senior class (all 1 of them) have only lost 9 games & 3 of those losses have come in Elite 8 or Sweet 16 games.

Most teams have 9 losses by the time January ends.

[Tim the Enchanter]

The other thing I was thinking of was that the Lady Royals will be losing Bridgette next year, so while I think while the Scranton fans would agree we'd rather have her on the court now, the team still has a darned good record without her and have gained good experience (especially for Taylor and Ava) for what next year will be like.

Yes, they have clearly struggled to find their identity in these few weeks sans Bridgette,  but I am optimistic that this will prove beneficial for an already strong program.

[Rofrog]

So you agree something was wrong with the offense - lefty!

[ronk]

The other thing I was thinking of was that the Lady Royals will be losing Bridgette next year, so while I think while the Scranton fans would agree we'd rather have her on the court now, the team still has a darned good record without her and have gained good experience (especially for Taylor and Ava) for what next year will be like.

Yes, they have clearly struggled to find their identity in these few weeks sans Bridgette,  but I am optimistic that this will prove beneficial for an already strong program.

   Bridgette is the only player on the team who can create her own shot which is necessary when the offense is well-defended late in the shot clock by the good teams they will face in the postseason. They'll need to replace her capability in the coming recruiting class.

[Rofrog]

Great point,  I think Hanna does well in that category also.

[saratoga]

By all means bring in another Bridget clone but in case that doesn't happen, I think the Royals already have a young lady with ice water in her veins in Emily Shurina.

She's finally healthy & she comes off the bench shooting & scoring in bunches.

This experience Trevor is giving her plus another year of growth, maturity & knowledge & she will be just fine.