MBB: New Jersey Athletic Conference

Rhodes Scholar · February 27, 2007, 02:01:18 PM

At this point in the season, you have to take it one game at a time. There's no tomorrow; one loss and it's over. Ramapo should not be looking ahead. It's true that the Roadrunners are at home against a team they already beat by 19, but they must beat them again in order to move on.

Ramapo has the talent to advance fairly deep in the tournament, but they must come prepared and maintain their composure. If not, I can see them getting knocked off fairly early in the tournament by a team with less talent.

If you look at Ramapo's out-of-conference schedule, they were 5-0 vs. CUNY, 2-0 vs. Skyline and 2-3 vs. quality opposition. The Roadrunners beat Roanoke (17-11), split with Lincoln (18-8) and lost to Simpson (18-9) and Baldwin-Wallace (18-9).

Knightstalker · February 27, 2007, 06:12:47 PM

If the Ramapo team that showed up in Jersey City last friday shows up in the tournament they are as good as any team out there in my opinion. If the team that I saw play NJCU twice during the regular season shows up they will struggle.

njachoopsfan · March 01, 2007, 01:03:32 PM

Quote from: Knightstalker on February 27, 2007, 06:12:47 PM
If the Ramapo team that showed up in Jersey City last friday shows up in the tournament they are as good as any team out there in my opinion. If the team that I saw play NJCU twice during the regular season shows up they will struggle.

I strongly suspect that we will not see the team that stuggled down the stretch. Chuck is a good motivator and will have the team ready. We need the seniors that were there 2 years ago (Woj and Pryor) to step up and lead by example. You guys don't want to go end your careers losing at home in the 1st round of the NCAA's

Now looking down the road, if we can get past Saturday and if Kings or Widener can knock off Amherst we could be home for the sweet 16.. If we start hitting on all cylinders there is no reason we can't make it to the Final Four in Salem..

We need a big turnout on Friday night, I was very dissappointed in the turnout for the season finale against NJCU and the NJAC opener against TCNJ. There were way too many empty seats. We need all the Rowdies there, we need every seat filled and we need you LOUD !!!

phil · March 01, 2007, 11:18:34 PM

Interesting note as we await Ramapo's turn in the NCAA tourney.

From the TCNJ ahletic dept:
"The College of New Jersey's women's basketball player, sophomore Hillary Klimowicz (Scotch Plains, NJ/Scotch Plains-Fanwood) is featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated in the latest issue, dated March 5, 2007. SI women's college basketball reporter Kelli Anderson has written a story about the Lion women's basketball player in her story, Pressure Cooker Sports, which is part of the feature "Big Changes in College Sports".

With her selection to the cover of SI, Klimowicz is believed to become TCNJ�s first person featured on the cover of the magazine in the history of the institution!"

As you might recall, Hillary Klimowicz transfered to TCNJ after being recognized as the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year for D1 St. Joe's last season.

And good luck to the Ramapo men from all the way down here in Texas.

Truck · March 03, 2007, 09:13:23 AM

Ramapo had a 20 pt lead at halftime, shooting 53% from the field..

The second half saw York outscore RC 40-29 and RC shot 32%.

Ramapo was still able to hold on and win 77-68 to face Steven's tonight...

Knightstalker · March 03, 2007, 10:16:32 AM

What was the crowd like last night at the Bill? I am going to try to make it to the game tonight. No more NJCU games now. I never saw a Knight team that flat in the postseason before. They just didn't have it last night.

BigMike. · March 03, 2007, 12:31:43 PM

The enviorment for the WPI-Stevens game was very good; WPI even had a pep band.

The crowd for the Ramapo-York game was fairly large, but for the most part not in the game. Most likely due to the large lead, and then a very poor second half performance from Ramapo.

Truck · March 04, 2007, 01:14:07 AM

Well, what a surprise in Mahwah last night...

Stevens jumped out to a 31-24 lead by the half. Obviously, this is highly out of character for Ramapo to put up 24 points in 20 minutes. The team shot a mere 8 for 26 from the field at the half. Free throw shooting was 44% for the entire game.

Ramapo played better in the second half, but Stevens improved as well, winning the second half 38-37, and thereby the game and advancing to the Sweet 16. The final was 69-61.

Omar led the way with 19 and 11, and Beanie was the second leading scorer with 10 points. Everybody else scored in single digits.

Ramapo was able to get the game close at various points in time (mainly the second half), but they would never be able to overrtake Stevens. Every time they would get close, Stevens would make a key basket to extend the lead, finally getting it to 10 with about 4 min left.

All in all, Ramapo had a great season, advancing to the championship game for the third straight year, and winning the second NJAC Championship in three years. The success of previous years cannot be forgotten, as even though Ramapo hadn't won the NJAC before 2004-05, they would always either come away with the ECAC Championship or advance deep into the NCAAs, like in 02-03 after their Double OT loss to Montclair State in the NJAC Championship game. This is clearly a top notch basketball team every single year with an exceptional coach and a great group of talent.

Congratulations to Chuck on this year. RCNJ wasn't picked to finish first - and they did. The leadership starts at the top with the head coach and Chuck has proven himself to be a winner and a great coach. We'll be back next year....

njachoopsfan · March 04, 2007, 01:42:37 PM

Quote from: Truck on March 04, 2007, 01:14:07 AM
Well, what a surprise in Mahwah last night...

Stevens jumped out to a 31-24 lead by the half. Obviously, this is highly out of character for Ramapo to put up 24 points in 20 minutes. The team shot a mere 8 for 26 from the field at the half. Free throw shooting was 44% for the entire game.

All in all, Ramapo had a great season, advancing to the championship game for the third straight year, and winning the second NJAC Championship in three years. The success of previous years cannot be forgotten, as even though Ramapo hadn't won the NJAC before 2004-05, they would always either come away with the ECAC Championship or advance deep into the NCAAs, like in 02-03 after their Double OT loss to Montclair State in the NJAC Championship game. This is clearly a top notch basketball team every single year with an exceptional coach and a great group of talent.

Congratulations to Chuck on this year. RCNJ wasn't picked to finish first - and they did. The leadership starts at the top with the head coach and Chuck has proven himself to be a winner and a great coach. We'll be back next year....

The only surprise was how we shot so poorly form the line, which was the difference in the game. If we make our free throws we win by 15 and we are most likely the host site for the Sweet 16. After recovering from the our 2 game skid at the end of the season and winning the NJAC, this game was a very dissappointing finish. There are players who struggled down the stretch and never totally found their game and that hurt us. Couldn't have happened as a worse time.

As far as the program is concerned, I agree with you Truck "Leadership starts at the top" in 9 years we have gone from 'The Doormat' of he NJAC to one of the "The Elite" of the conference. We have the NJAC and ECAC titles to prove it. Chuck is a great coach and he wil get Ramapo back to the Final Four.

For those of you who are taking this loss that hard here is some advice. Set your alarm clock for November 2007 and go to bed. When you wake up it will be a brand new season and the fun starts all over again.

njachoopsfan · March 04, 2007, 01:52:01 PM

The Sweet 16 sites have been announced http://www.ncaasports.com/basketball/mens/brackets/viewable/2007/DIII

walzy31 · March 04, 2007, 07:11:14 PM

Stevens Tech @ Amherst

Going to be a close game. I look forward to it. Congratulations to Stevens for getting this far and beating WPI and Ramapo.

Rhodes Scholar · March 05, 2007, 01:29:43 PM

Congrats certainly are in order for Stevens. The Ducks are making the most of their first-ever tournament appearance. I saw them earlier in the year against Hunter and I thought they were a pretty good team. I was particularly impressed with Farid, Gray and Passalacqua. I'm a bit surprised they beat both Worcester Polytech and Ramapo, but certainly not shocked.

I saw Ramapo play three times and felt they were erratic. They have a lot of talent, but appeared to be a little short on leadership and composure. Sometimes the team with the most talent doesn't win the game, for one reason or another.

irapthor · March 13, 2007, 05:13:19 PM

To view the feature that WWOR/My 9 New York Television aired on NJCU's Dana John on March 12, please visit the following link:

http://www.njcugothicknights.com/Sports/general/2006/GOTHICVISION.asp

Truck · March 14, 2007, 02:49:28 PM

Congrats to Omar Alston and Dana John, representing the NJAC in the First All-Atlantic Region Team.

njlincolnlion · March 14, 2007, 03:44:11 PM

Quote from: irapthor on March 13, 2007, 05:13:19 PM
To view the feature that WWOR/My 9 New York Television aired on NJCU’s Dana John on March 12, please visit the following link:

http://www.njcugothicknights.com/Sports/general/2006/GOTHICVISION.asp

Irapthor:

That was a great "clip" on Dana John. John truly represents a true "non-raditional student, and it's a shame the ESPN's of the world don't show the type of person/athlete Dana John is. Nice blurp on Coach Brown also.

Good luck to Dana and the NJCU Gothic Knights in the future. With Lincoln moving to dII, I've got to root for NJCU in dIII basketball. If the Gothic Knights ever play Salisbury, I'll have a litte issue, since my daughter graduated from Salisbury last December.

so'll Ill root for both and not have to feel disappointed.