MBB: Centennial Conference

Reserved Seat · January 16, 2016, 08:41:24 PM

My top three are Moune, Federici, and then Eggers followed closely by Tate, and then a drop off.
Federici is in the top 10 for scoring, assist, steals, and blocks in the Centennial.

givengo · January 17, 2016, 03:30:24 PM

Federici is in the top 10 in four categories - scoring, assists, steals, and blocks in the Centennial.

Moune is in the top 10 in 6 categories - scoring, steals, rebounds, blocks, fg% and ft%

Hinnenkamp is in the top 10 in 6 categories - scoring, assists, blocks, rebounds, fg% and ft%

I don't think anyone else in the league shows up that much across multiple categories, but correct me if I've missed someone.

Gabriel · January 18, 2016, 05:55:10 PM

Think you might have missed Ursinus' Matt Knowles who shows well in several categories.....but statistics don't tell all. In my view, Matt was (arguably) the best player in the CC....on both ends of the court. He had sprained his ankle and missed the first two games of the season. He came back, had some highlight games including 26 points against D-1Penn and was really hitting his stride two weeks ago against Eastern, McDaniel and WC. Then 4 minutes into the game at Dickinson last week he injured his knee. His loss is major for the Bears as they lost three last week----would have beaten both Dickinson and Getty with Matt but probably would have lost to JHU. But 2 of 3 would have been O.K.

Feel bad for Matt and the Bears as they were really playing well and, I believe, would have earned a playoff spot. That is unlikely now as the Bears were thin before injury and will be even more with less now. Go Bears and Go Patriots! Comments expected from the F&M crowd.

CC Fan · January 18, 2016, 07:23:01 PM

Not going to argue that Matt is a huge loss for the Bears. But I get annoyed when you comment that they would probably have beaten teams that it lost to. Such an easy thing to say. They didn't exactly have a great record with him playing, and I understand they will most likely struggle even more so without. I don't know everyone's scenarios, but I know Gburg was missing a 2 year starter and double digit scorer in Tanner Kirkpatrick for the first 6 games or so. And they managed to win some games. And I know Kevin Gladstone has missed the last 2 games, which is a loss of 13 ppg, and they managed to win both games, on the road. One of which was against the Bears. All teams go through injuries and illnesses, this is where your staff's ability to recruit and bring players along comes into play. I hate that injuries occur, but it is a part of the game. I have no idea what Matt's injury is, but I wish him the best during his recovery. All teams would rather beat other teams at their best, but unfortunately not always possible. Good luck to all the CC teams this week! Go Bullets!!

CCD3Basketball · January 19, 2016, 08:53:14 AM

Speaking of the Bullets, they've got a BIG one tomorrow night against the Diplomats. Looking forward to that one.

Reserved Seat · January 19, 2016, 09:54:48 AM

Should be an exciting game in Gettysburg. Gettysburg looks like an extreme competitive team. Their scoring seems to be balanced which could be a problem for F&M and will they be able to exploit F&M's major weakness.

CC Fan · January 19, 2016, 11:01:16 AM

It should be a good game in Gettysburg! Gburg is going to need Gladstone back, not sure of his status for tonight. With the style of play we use it involves everyone gets a lot of people in the scoring column. The guys will need to continue sharing the ball as well as they have been to stay in the game and compete. And knocking down 3's will be helpful also. The concern will be to not let Moune get offensive rebounds and put backs. His size could cause trouble for the Bullets. Thus, Gladstone needs to be able to play tomorrow night. We will need to put pressure on Moune by bringing him out to the 3 point line to defend Tanner and Gladstone. If they can hit a few 3's and bring him out and then attack him off the dribble maybe, just maybe, he would get into foul trouble. Federici will take his shots and get his points, the defense needs to make him take 20-23 shots to get his 20 points. Teams tend to shoot the 3 well against Gburg, and letting him get off on 3's would be devastating. Hunter is playing well, and actually would cause me more concern then Federici. He seems to step up in big games. AND, it is a battle between arguably the 2 best coaches in the conference, obviously the argument may be more towards Coach Petrie, but i feel he gets the most out of his players and is consistently competitive most years. And a win against the top teams is always helpful when it comes to tie-breakers at the end of the season..
Good luck to both teams for a competitive, injury free game! I will certainly be there to see it live!
Let's go Bullets!

givengo · January 19, 2016, 12:01:03 PM

Think you might have missed Ursinus' Matt Knowles who shows well in several categories.....but statistics don't tell all. In my view, Matt was (arguably) the best player in the CC...

Apples to apples....
My post responded to Reserved Seat's comments on Federici's top ten stats across four categories. Being curious, I checked against all leaders, then contributed my findings of Moune's and Hinnenkamp's top ten conference stats in 6 categories as a comparison. I agree that stats don't tell all, and to be fair have rechecked Knowle's stats in the six games he played. He was in the top ten in the conference in two categories... scoring (2nd), and free throw percentage (5th). There most definitely are intangibles that don't show up in game stats, I agree.-- I stuck to the stats. I wish him the best through his rehab,

Gabriel · January 19, 2016, 12:34:45 PM

Matt Knowles is just one of those special players who makes everyone around him better. Not a flashy player at all, just solid in everything he does-----great basketball IQ----and with the TEAM in mind at all times. I think they would have beaten both Dickinson (Lost 69-63) and Gettysburg (Lost 65-59) because I believe Matt makes up more than the 6 point deficits. It's a moot point because we'll never know, will we.

Matt is done for the season with a knee injury. He tore an ACL as a senior in high school. Now he tore ligaments in the other knee. Hope he recovers for his senior season.

HoopGuru · January 19, 2016, 02:01:51 PM

That is a shame to hear about Knowles. I follow UC and it looked like they were getting into a nice rhythm there with him taking on a more prominent scoring role and playing at a 1st team all conference level. They have not had the best of luck lately when it comes to injuries and now the younger guys are going to have to step into bigger roles earlier than what I am guessing the coaching staff envisioned, and making it unlikely that they get into one of those last playoff spots.

Also, I think it is pointless to argue whether a team would or would not win with or without a certain player. I have both been a part of and watched countless games where the best/most important player is out for a team and the team plays well without them. Each game is unique and you never know so all it would be is a guess. Just look at how unranked Michigan beat #3 Maryland last week w/o Caris Lavert, arguably their best player. You just never know. It would have been nice to see UC play both the entire Dickinson game and Gburg game, as well as the rest of the season with Knowles to see how everything would have played out. Unfortunately, we won't and and can just hope that his rehab goes well to be ready for next year pre-season.

On another note...this is a nice artficle on UC guard Brian Rafferty I wanted to pass along:

http://www.timesherald.com/article/JR/20160118/SPORTS/160119746

Gabriel · January 19, 2016, 03:42:01 PM

HoopGuru,

Agree with your post but just had to talk about the Ursinus team that no one has talked about on this board. I know it doesn't pay to speculate on history but that is what we as pundits do.....isn't it? Injuries are always a problem for everyone. The Bears now have lost two guards to knee injuries in Knowles and Zack Murreda. In addition, Knowles, Janicot and Mekongo have missed several games due to ankle injuries.

Nice article on Brian Rafferty. Thanks. The coaches and Ursinus fans love this young man. He is a "pass first" point guard who is getting better each game. Leads the CC in assists. He was a reluctant shooter last year as a freshman but seems to be more assertive this year and will have to be now with Knowles out.

Bears must rely more and more on freshmen Eric Willams, Matt Williams and Matt Margolis in particular. The hardest thing for freshmen to adjust to is on the defensive end----the rotations etc. Eric is an excellent shooter and the two Matts can knock them down too. Go Bears!

Reserved Seat · January 19, 2016, 06:43:09 PM

Gdbriel, I'm glad you're supporting your team. The Centennial has a lot of competitive teams and most games are a toss up.
F&M, also, has numerous injuries. So many that when Robinson was recently interview he said his biggest concern was injuries to key players. At McDaniel, 4 players didn't suit up and several others played with significant injuries. Fortunately, only one has been lost for the season.

Reserved Seat · January 20, 2016, 10:58:53 PM

Gettysburg dominated F&M in every facet of the game. Cedric Moune basically playing with one arm still had a double/double with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Until F&M can find another function post player, F&M will struggle to win. The shooting percentage of the 3 guards was only 33%. Gettysburg had well rounded scoring with 5 players in double figures. Kiefer tied Moune with 10 rebounds. Gettysburg hit key threes as they made 12 threes. After falling behind by double digits, F&M closed it to 3 points and had several opportunities to tie the score at 50-47.
From that point it was all downhill for F&M as Gettysburg finished out a 23-8 run. F&M needs to get more out a post player than 3 points per game.

centfan · January 21, 2016, 08:37:38 AM

gettysburg looks very good in that 5 players are basically averaging around the same amount of points (double figures from between about 11 and 12.5 points each), all contributing in the assist column (obviously sharing the ball), and with a strong team assist to turnover ratio. congrats to the bullets on playing strong team basketball.

Polly Math · January 21, 2016, 09:28:56 AM

Gettysburg and Swat have 3 guys each shooting 40% or better from 3. That's hard to stop. Balanced scoring wins.

Good win for Dickinson last night over Hopkins. 2 injury depleted teams. Hopkins has lost Vasilitis for the season, and Curran looked like he is still finding his way back. Dickinson missing 3 forwards (Romocki, Jurzynski, Melton) off a team that is young and undersized to start with. Dickinson has some pesky frosh guards in Hinkley and Wright and by the time Hopkins figured out how to hold on to the ball and use their size with Billups it was too late. Made a run -- helped by Dickinson's poor FT shooting -- but came up short. Hinnenkamp for Dickinson played great -- did everything but sell hot dogs at halftime. He should be in the discussion for POY, but he won't be if they don't make the playoffs. And they wont do that if their FT shooting doesnt improve. Hopkins should make playoffs, but they look a little rudderless without their PG.