MBB: Centennial Conference

[gordonmann]

Yep, totally agree.

[hoop master]

Totally agree with the comments...shame on ESPN...but bet they will get the ratings which is all they care in reality about.

[Gabriel]

Ursinus Bears are in Europe.  Visited Iceland and the Netherlands.  Believe they are in Belgium now and then on to Paris.  Scheduled to play about four games, I think.  Return home next weekend. Sounds like a great trip.

[D.B. Cooper]

F&M's schedule was posted recently.

Dips have E-town and possibly Oneonta State in a tip off event. Also, New Jersey City and maybe Messiah on the road in Messiah event. Other non conference games are at Albright and at Carnegie Mellon of the UAA. Plus perennially strong team Misericordia team at home. Dips could once again have a notable challenge against Dickinson and JHU because of both their depth and size advantages unless some additional height and physical defenders appear to supplement what the Dips have coming back. Plus Muhlenberg, Gettysburg and others are talented and tough especially on the road in the CC. Dips seem not to have the confining 2 home tournaments this year. If schedule stays as is they will they will have more road games than home ones.

[Gabriel]

The Ursinus schedule is posted.  Bears open at the Scranton tip off playing Stevens Tech and then either Scranton or Bryn Athyn.  After three conference games in December they play D1 University of Pennsylvania at the Palestra in Philly.  Other non conference games are against Rosemont, Williams and TBD at the Catholic Holiday tournament followed by an early January game at Eastern.

Steve Donahue, Penn's coach, is an Ursinus alum.  Hope the Bears give them a game so it's fun for the kids.

[P'bearfan]

Swat Fan #1

I miss your thoughtful posts.  Hope Will is doing well----and you too.  Come back and join us next year as I think Swat and Ursinus will be factors next year.

I typically post on the NESCAC board but wanted to post a brief comment here.  Swarthmore has a FY PG from the Marist School in Atlanta, Cameron Wiley.  I've seen him play extensively and will be interested to see what type of impact he makes.  Suspect he will be one of the best athletes and shooters in the conference.  I'm also curious to see if all of Swarthmore's pieces will fit together and gel.

Good luck to the Garnet and HBC Kosmalski....a class act who is moving the program forward.

[Reserved Seat]

F&M couldn't line up enough teams for their Sponaugle Tournament, so they elected to play in Messiah's tournament.  F&M opens the season with back-to-back weekend tournaments.

[CCD3Basketball]

Getting excited for the season to start guys??? I know I am! Look forward to chatting about hoops with you all again in 2015/2016.

Here's a question to get the convo going....preseason Top 25 is out, F&M is 19th, Dickinson 21st, JHU is the third highest team receiving votes. Thoughts? The Red Devils graduated a lot, so I think that ranking will be tested. F&M on the other hand only loses Morgan Lee from a team that was very solid last year, and they've got the preseason All-American in Brandon Federici too. Are they too low? Too high? Just right? Obviously preseason polls don't mean a whole heck of a lot, but.....

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Dickinson will have to figure out rebounding and post defense, but I think they'll be ok putting points on the board.

F&M brings most everybody back, which is good, not sure how good they really were last year, which gives pause.  Is this the team that started to well or the one that struggled to the finish?  Also curious to see who named Federici a preseason AA?

[Reserved Seat]

http://www.godiplomats.com/sports/m-baskbl/2015-16/releases/20151022ghyrl7
http://www.godiplomats.com/sports/m-baskbl/2015-16/releases/20151021lig918

Two sites picked Federici--puts a lot of pressure on the young man--will have to figure out how to overcome being the focal point for many teams--tired down the stretch but he now knows how a season plays out.
Two sites have F&M 7th or 9th--seems high--hear the 2 recruited freshmen have potential--need more help inside from Owana or Levy

F&M will definitely be wearing a target.

JHU and Dickinson both lost several key players, but still have lots of talent.  No word on their freshmen.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Federici is a really impressive kid.  I'd want to see how he's improved his game over the summer before I made the AA call, but he should certainly be considered by anyone.

[givengo]

Really surprised at not seeing Johns Hopkins in the conversation.  They have a lot in their arsenal and gave Dickinson a much better game in the CC championship tournament than did F & M in the semi's.  Federici faded in the post season, or at the least was countered most effectively. 

[Gabriel]

I too am surprised not to see Hopkins mentioned as they return most key players other than Hammer and could well be the best team in the conference.  Dickinson reloaded and did get a top recruit in Jule Brown, 6'6" G/F from Lower Merion who was recruited by and  verbally committed to Penn at one point.  Apparently that fell through. 

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Well... let's be honest about Hopkins... they lost Jimmy Hammer who provided 15.5 ppg, 2.5 apg, 3.3 rpg, and shot .406 from outside. They also lost George Bugarinovic (Jostens Trophy winner) who totlaed 13.6 ppg, 7.4 rpg, while shooting .545 from the field. Ryan Curran is the only double-digit scoring threat returning. Nothing against Hopkins, who I do think will still be a very good team, but when you lose the guy who not only could score, but could distribute and kept defenses from sagging because they had to respect his shooting ability (Hammer) along with a massive inside threat that would burn you if you over committed to outside defense especially rebounding (Bugarinovic) and both of those guys were the main catalyst to last year's incredible run... talk is going to be a bit down.

Again, I think Hopkins is going to be a very good team, but I am also going to wait to see how they replace Hammer and Bugarinovic first.

[Polly Math]

One question is whether the pecking order in the league will change.  Despite all the usual preseason talk about parity, in the past 5 years the conference has pretty consistently been 3 tiers: Tier 1 (Dickinson, F&M, Hopkins) compete for the championship and NCAAs; Tier 2 (Gettysburg, McDaniel, Muhlenberg) compete for the 4 & 5 spot in the playoffs; Tier 3 (remainder) looking pull an occasional upset, especially at home, but thats about it.  Curious to hear if anyone thinks the deck gets reshuffled at all this year.  From the comments it doesn't look like any one thinks one of the big 3 is going to fall back.  I know Swat and Ursinus are rebuilding and have been a tougher out than previous -- but it is a big step from playing teams tough to actually  beating them.