MBB: Centennial Conference

[Leo]

Give the Mules their due for Sat's game. They were in a desperate state to win for a playoff berth, and Stewart was out. The rest of the team rallied together and won. The Bears were in command of the game until the last six minutes or so, and several opportunities to put them away prior to that.

Assuming that the Bears win the Conference title, I would agree with Pat Cummings that the loss may hurt the Bears in their rankings/seeding. Look at what happened last week to the Bears after two blowouts where one included Hopkins. The mid-atlantic rankings dropped the Bears 2 places. I hate to see what the rankings will look like on Wednesday. We may not even have a CC team in the rankings at all. Imagine that.

Bears Fan

[bearsfan1]

I was just wondering what some people predictions are for the conference tourney this weekend. 
Mine:
Washington over Muhlenberg by 6
Gettysburg over Hopkins by 4
Ursinus over Washington by 10
Ursinus over Gettysburg by 8

[cc_fan]

Any thoughts on the All-Centennial teams?

My picks:

First Team
G - McGarvey
G - Stem
F - Nawrocki
F - Smith
C - Stewart

Second Team
G - Elefterakis
G - Shattuck
F - Webb
F - McCormick
C - Griffin

[bearsfan1]

Any thoughts on the All-Centennial teams?

My picks:

First Team
G - McGarvey
G - Stem
F - Nawrocki
F - Smith
C - Stewart

Second Team
G - Elefterakis
G - Shattuck
F - Webb
F - McCormick
C - Griffin

Those picks sound about right to me.  Player of the year will go to Stewart, McGarvey, or Smith

[r.w. mcnickels]

If the coaches go with three guards instead of three post players, the first team could look like this (with Smith listed as a guard as he was last year):

G  McGarvey
G  Shattuck
G  Smith
F  Stewart
F  Nawrocki


It's hard to imagine McGarvey not getting POY honors.  He's the most important player on the best team in the conference.

[Leo]

Second team center position is a toss up between Griffin/Hopkins and Furey/Ursinus. The stats are so close with Griffin having a slight edge offensively, but Furey having the defensive edge. Grffin is the 2nd leading scorer for Hopkins whereas Furey is the 4th. Ursinus defense is superb holding teams field goal pct to 40 whereas Hopkins team is at 43. Overall, the performance of Furey as a team player fitting into Ursinus's scheme of play with the rest of the players would give him the nod for 2nd team conference over Griffin.

[commish]

Now is the time to make your voice heard.  The 2006 All-CC team will be announced on Wednesday.  Who do you think should be on the elite squad?

[Amish Allstar]

Most important player has to be Brandon Smith of F&M.  Not a very successful year by F&M standards but without him they would have been nothing!

Nohting against McGarvey but he has such a great supporting cast to help him along.  Smith did not have that this year and carried the team on his back

[bearsfan1]

Smith did carry F&M on his back all year by evidence of his numbers alone. However, as stated above by Leo, McGarvey is the most important player on the best team.  He is averaging 3+ assists more than Smith while only trailing him by 0.5 ppg.   McGarvey has a good supporting cast around him because he makes them better, a la Steve Nash on the Suns.  If the race is only between him and Smith, McGarvey should win hands down.   

[swish]

Does anyone take shooting percentage into consideration? Or is it that you just throw up as many shots as possible, get a high ppg. average and that gets you some sort of mention.

The rational of who gets picked is very unclear and quite baffling to me.

[r.w. mcnickels]

I think the coaches take everything into consideration.  There have been players picked for 1st team (for example, Ganot in 2003) who didn't have the numbers of other players but were more valuable because of defense and other factors.

[r.w. mcnickels]

All-CC team announced:


First Team
G  McGarvey, Ursinus
G  Smith, F&M
G  Shattuck, Ursinus
F  Stewart, Muhlenberg
F  Griffin, JHU

Second Team
G  Spadafora, Gettysburg
G  Elefterakis, Haverford
G  Valerio, JHU
F  Webb, Washington
F  Nawrocki, JHU

Honorable Mention
G  McEvily, Ursinus
G  Stem, Washington
F  Fromm, Gettysburg
F  Fabian, Ursinus
F  O'Brien, Muhlenberg
F  Furey, Ursinus


POY - McGarvey



All five starters for Ursinus mentioned.  That might be a first in this conference.

[bearsfan1]

Amazing that all five starters were recognized.  Obviously being a UC student and fan, I have no problems with that.  I was wondering what other peoples opinions were though.  I think a big shocker was Griffin being named first team and Nawrocki second and not the other way around.

[Leo]

Kudos to Michaels for identifying the coaches going to a 3 guard selection for All Team. Yes, it is surprising that Griffin was selected over Nawrocki.

Prediction for tournament:

Gettysburg over Hopkins
Ursinus over Washington

Final:  Ursinus over Gettysburg by 12.

[Leo]

oops, meant kudos to mcnickels