WBB: Landmark Conference

[ronk]

 Congrats to Lady Royals' Abby and Bridget making 1st team All-Region. Additionally, I would have picked Abby as POY in the region over Messiah's Leah Springer. Admittedly, this would have been differentiated by intangibles to the d3hoops panel such as bringing one's team to a better record, both in the regular season and postseason and the example shown to team members of competing on every play. For the record, I've been almost as big a booster of Leah for even 1 year longer than Abby(6 years vs 5).
Looking at the selections for regions(1-5) wrt my prospect lists, this year there were 4 1st teamers, 3 2nd teams, 2 3rd teams, and 2 POYs(Antonakakis, Springer).   

[RJ Preston]

The difference I see between Leah and Abby is that Leah carried Messiah to a much greater extent. Abby had Bridget to share the load. Leah alone led Messiah in points (17.5), rebounds (11.1), assists (3.5), free throw %, blocks, and even steals. I see very few other players in D3 being able to objectively measure up across the board. These stats reveal her as a textbook example of a player who really is able to play any position on the floor.

As to "competing on every play," from Feb 12 on, Leah was playing with a severely sprained ankle. Unfortunately for her, she injured it even more in the second quarter against Springfield (after scoring 10 points and grabbing 7 rebounds in the first quarter alone). Her presence was sorely missed as Messiah fell 73-68, despite a valiant effort. Had Leah been healthy and able to play the whole game, I suspect the end result would have been different.

[ronk]

 Congrats to Abby Anderson named 5th team All-American; I would have her 3rd team, at least, ahead of Jenna Taylor, Aleah Grundahl, Veronica Christ, Leah Porath, Jayla Johnson, Averi Jordan, Olivia Voskuil, Tara Bieniewicz.

[saratoga]

Absolutely.
Are the votes based upon what the person actually did for her team or is it more she's a D-1 transfer playing for 1 year so let's not treat her the same?
Clearly, anyone that watched Scranton basketball knows how valuable she was to the team.
She took tons of pressure off Bridgett allowing her to roam around to get good looks, she was a double/double machine, rebounded & did whatever she could to help the team win.
And, she lead her team to an undefeated conference regular season.
Looking at some of the other regional players ahead of her is kind of sad yet comical.
How many times did Abby's team defeat Christ's E-town squad?
Did Jordan lead Desales to a Sweet 16?
It's a nice honor for Abby but she is clearly a far better all-around player than many named before her.

[ronk]

 From watching the Final 4 semis and championship, these teams did it primarily with defense - overplaying passes and handoffs, denying passes into the paint, weakside help. They didn't allow uncontested shots and took away from the offenses what they had done against lesser competition. One could use the 2 Hope game videos as a defensive training school. One hopes the Lady Royals will be watching and employing these techniques in the future if they want to advance beyond the Sweet 16..

[saratoga]

Ronk:
Couldn't agree more.
Also for kicks & giggles, watch the Hope/Trine regular season games to see the intensity virtually each & every possession is contested.
Unfortunately, with the current coaching philosophy on taking 3's an inordinate amount of times, defense has taken a back seat.
The Lady Royals play decent D but certainly not to the level of the nations top teams.
Case in point, in Trevor's last season (2019) when they went to the Final Four, they held Tufts scoreless over the last 7:45 of the game, while outscoring Tufts 15-0.
The Lady Royal teams of the past few years would never be able to do that.
Until this mindset changes, the Lady Royals will continue to win games during the regular season but will find advancing beyond the first weekend a very serious challenge.
As the old basketball adage states...
Offense will win games, Defense will win championships.
Truer words were never spoken.

[saratoga]

Congrats to Scranton's Abby Anderson on making the WBCA All-American team.
Nice to see the voting coaches understand her importance & overall contribution.
Making Honorable Mention are the Lady Royals Bridget Monaghan, V. Christ from E-town, L. Springer from Messiah & Jordan from Desales.

[Augie2020]

Congrats to Abby and Bridget on a stellar year.Agree DEFENSE needs to improve against NYU it was 14-2 e consecutive times Miller was wide open 3 times  in a row and I mean not a player on her within 7 ft and it didn't change.Scranton i think was ranked 24th on Defense and 85th on offense that is great but like Saratoga said! It will be hard getting by the sweet 16 without an upgrade to the defensive side of the ball.I will say this Trevor was great for Defense and he learned from  one of the best Canio -use his knowledge he is at the U alot

[Augie2020]

Congrats to Coach Berube also.(Former Tufts coach) almost had her team to the sweet 16(Princeton) Her and Trevor had some good battles in D3.So Congrats To Trevor and Berube on great years also!

[Augie2020]

Speaking of Abby Anderson will she have another year left because of covid?It said she played 3 years at St Francis of Brooklyn and one time at Scranton and what the ncaa rule for covid would she be eligible to be a super senior this year?

[Augie2020]

I remember before covid Moraivian had a player like 6 years and I think Leah Springer had 5 years(Not all played years but on roster).That would be great if Abby could come back.

[ronk]

 Abby didn't play during the covid year @ St Francis; the 3 years she did play plus the 1 year @ Scranton is the max that one can play, so she's done as a player. She'd be valuable if she comes back as a graduate assistant coach, though.

[Tim the Enchanter]

Abby didn't play during the covid year @ St Francis; the 3 years she did play plus the 1 year @ Scranton is the max that one can play, so she's done as a player. She'd be valuable if she comes back as a graduate assistant coach, though.

Yes.  And YES!

[Augie2020]

Thanks guys

[NEPAFAN]

I thought everyone got an extra year due to COVID?