MBB: Centennial Conference

[D.B. Cooper]

Picks for 12/5

F&M (road will make it a tough challenge)
Haverford (tough call most will probably take G-burg)
Muhlenberg (Mules need to wake up to preseason expectations)
Ursinus (a gimme, no contest, Bears will have to wait to get a challenge)
JHU (should handle struggling Devils)

[BRCE4]

Conference website lists Mules at Shoremen on Saturday, I'm pretty sure Mules are the home team
Picks for 12-5
F&M Dips are loaded
Gburg Powers the difference over an always tough Fords squad
Mules Teams struggle at Memorial Hall
Ursinus Swat improved overall but not ready for Bears
Hopkins a little more experienced than Dickinson

[diplomaniac1]

Fellow Prognosticators -

Sorry for the delay. Too much to do in the office today. Accordingly, here are the "Pick-Em" standings after last evening's games. They show last night's results, the cummulative totals, and the win-loss percentage:


   12/2   TO DATE   PERCENTAGE
GABRIEL   4 - 1   16 - 4   .800
GODIPS04   5 - 0   16 - 4   .800
OLD ENDS   4 - 1   8 - 2   .800
BTEXPRESS   3 - 2   15 - 5   .750
BRCE4   4 - 1   14 - 6   .700
D. B. COOPER   4 - 1   14 - 6   .700
R. W. MCNICKLES   4 - 1   14 - 6   .700
RESERVED SEAT   4 - 1   13 - 7   .650
DIPLOMANIAC1   3 - 2   12 - 8   .600
DIVISION3   4 - 1   7 - 5   .583
OLD MAN TERROR   0 - 0   2 - 2   .500
         
Kudos go to GODIPS04 for the prfect night! Mostly, everyone else was 4 - 1. That is, except for yours truly who has his crystal ball on life support and BTEXPRESS!

As long as the weather is good, I plan to make the trek to Westminster on Saturday to see the Dips battle the Terror. Hope everyone has a great weekend. These first two weeks of the season have sure gone by too fast! Soon, we will be in a holding pattern until the new year.

Good luck. Enjoy the games! Regards to all.

Eric

[D.B. Cooper]

Eric, no big deal but I also was 5-0.

Also I'm going to amend my post picking Saturdays games as I misunderstood home court status, Thanks.

[Reserved Seat]

The technical on Small was for a perceived foul on a lay-up.  After voicing his outrage, he didn't settle down.  He had been out of his seat and on the edge of the court numerous times.

The DipZone was fairly quiet.  I guess the students are too busy studying.  I talked to several regulars who were not in attendance.  They said they had papers due.

[division3]

have to go with the following on saturday:

F & M
Haverford
Muhlenberg
Ursinus
Hopkins

[godips04]

12-5 Picks:

F&M
Gettysburg
Muhlenberg
Ursinus
Johns Hopkins

[godips04]

         
Kudos go to GODIPS04 for the prfect night! Mostly, everyone else was 4 - 1.

Thanks, pure luck!

[diplomaniac1]

D. B. COOPER -

Right you are! Sorry about that. Sometimes, I can't even ready my own scribble. Standings have been corrected and will be posted shortly. Thanks for double-checking my "score-keeping".

Eric

[diplomaniac1]

Folks -

In follow-up to D. B. Cooper's post, I checked my "score-keeping" and determined that he was indeed correct about his pefect 5 - 0 record on Wednesday night. Accordingly, the following are the updated and corrected standings:

   12/2   TO DATE   PERCENTAGE
GABRIEL   4 - 1   16 - 4   .800
GODIPS04   5 - 0   16 - 4   .800
OLD ENDS   4 - 1   8 - 2   .800
BTEXPRESS   3 - 2   15 - 5   .750
D. B. COOPER   5 - 0   15 5    .750
BRCE4   4 - 1   14 - 6   .700
R. W. MCNICKLES   4 - 1   14 - 6   .700
RESERVED SEAT   4 - 1   13 - 7   .650
DIPLOMANIAC1   3 - 2   12 - 8   .600
DIVISION3   4 - 1   7 - 5   .583
OLD MAN TERROR   0 - 0   2 - 2   .500
         
Enjoy your weekend and the games. Regards to all.

Eric

[Gabriel]

The technical on Small was for a perceived foul on a lay-up.  After voicing his outrage, he didn't settle down.  He had been out of his seat and on the edge of the court numerous times.

The DipZone was fairly quiet.  I guess the students are too busy studying.  I talked to several regulars who were not in attendance.  They said they had papers due.

Reserved Seat,

You need to do a better job of balanced reporting.  Your earlier posting was a nice synopsis of the game except you mentioned the bad calls went both ways.  Apparently, I was watching a different game as I saw only one  call  F&M did not get that they should have---on a Janowski push  on a rebound.  Think about the fourth foul on Ward when Gyokchyan was driving the lane and dipped his shoulder to move Ward out of the way.  When the offensive player dips his shoulder and makes contact with the defender that way,  it is an offensive foul every time---except Wednesday night.  Page was called for an offensive foul on an similar play a few minutes later---except that he did not dip his shoulder.  The correct call should have been a blocking foul on the defender.

Coach Small's blow up was the result of terrible. one sided officiating throughout the game which culminated with the lack of a call on a layup attempt by Cousart with 23 seconds to go and the Bears down by one.  That was followed by a "scrum" for the ball where Donahue and Milligan were on the floor fighting for the ball.  Donahue gained control but was called for a 'phantom' foul with 21 seconds to go.  The proper call was a jump ball.  Ursinus had the possession arrow.  Instead Milligan made the two free throws and F&M led by three.

Regarding Coach Small------he never sits during a game. He is incapable of sitting for over 5 seconds at a time.   He is always back and forth in the bench area.  Most of the time he is yelling instructions to his players not at the refs.  You failed to report that Coach GRob  ran to center court in the first half yelling at the refs claiming that he did not call a time out.  No technical there.  Balanced officiating----I don't think so.  Coach Small is not a whiner.  He works the officials as they all do. including GRob---the master.  Coach Small gets one technical every two years or so.  I believe the last one he had was at JHU in 2008 under similar circumstances.

Ursinus lost the game---so the record says.  The primary reason was an inability to control Milligan on a night when he was terrific.  Unfortunately one official decided to help determine the outcome of the game.  Did Coach Small deserve the "T"?  Yes he did under normal in game circumstances----but who ever heard of an official calling a technical in a tight game with 9 seconds to go.

As a side note, after the game, several F&M fans came by the Ursinus fans and apologized for the officiating.  Nice group of people in Lancaster.  The Dips have a wonderful team that is capable of winning without help.

[Reserved Seat]

Not much sense disagreeing about the fouls, every fan sees the game from a different point of view. Even before the game started, the fans sitting around me were concerned about one of the officials who seems to always call a lot of fouls on F&M.  The foul count at the end was 20 apiece.  I know Baker was frustrated with several of the fouls called on him.  Robinson probably deserved a technical, but I think the official knew he was wrong.  I was sitting near Robinson when he told Giorgio to call a foul when he got the ball inside the arc so F&M could run an inbound play from under the basketball.  The official called a timeout which hadn't been called for and then a called a full time out on his own.  Officiating will never be completely fair since the game is played at a high tempo and the officials can't always be in the right spot to call the foul.
As I said earlier, Ursinus will be a team to reckon with as they gain more experience.  They have capable and quality players at all positions. The game at Ursinus will be another battle.

[r.w. mcnickels]

Unfortunately one official decided to help determine the outcome of the game.

It was a tough game for anyone to lose. But are you saying that Ursinus lost because of the officiating? It seemed to me that two consecutive offensive rebounds by F&M with about one minute left was the real difference. The ensuing jumper by Beckford was the biggest shot of the night. I didn't think the technical on Small determined the outcome.

[division3]

all the events determined the outcome of the ursinus f&m game.

[Old Man Terror]

Hopefully not too late for Saturday picks.  Not tip=off time yet.

F&M (ouch, that hurts)
Haverford
Washington (a surprise upset)
Ursinus
Hopkins