MBB: Centennial Conference

[r.w. mcnickels]

1/28 picks:

McDaniel
F&M
Johns Hopkins
Ursinus
Haverford

Will be interesting to see if Ursinus can stay in the hunt - the Bears need a big game from Howell.  Gettysburg-McDaniel should be an excellent game, and so should DC-F&M.

[Reserved Seat]

Interesting picks
The only game everyone agreed on is the the Washington/John Hopkins game.
Surprising how many abandoned Gettysburg.

[Reserved Seat]

No nail-biter in Lancaster tonight.
F&M took an early lead; and except for a Dickinson run right after half, F&M was comfortable in control of the game.  F&M distributed the scoring well.  Brooks make some athletic moves in the first half to put up 12 points.  McNally and Baker both played well under the basket.
Milligan continues to improve and directs the offense well.  Tolliver would have put up some decent figures, if one of the refs didn't call him for walking every time he drove to the basket.
In only his second start for Dickinson, Hill struggled to be in position on defense and picked up 5 fouls.  Hill does hustle but he wasn't an offensive threat.
F&M worked hard to keep the ball out of Dickinson's big man.
Dickinson point guard did he good job of trying to run Dickinson's offense.

Waiting to hear the other scores.

[D.B. Cooper]

Terrors won by 3
JHU lost by about 6
SWAT fumbled a golden chance to trip the Fords
Mules stomped on the Bears by 10+ in a back & forth wild one
Dips are starting to impress me, but I remember the young ?89-90 team that had a great regular season, got a 1st round ncaa bye & then lost & was gone. I'm worried this team might have problems in the CC playoff 1st round against McDaniel or G-burg.

[terror 30]

Great game in Westminster last night! The Terror seemed to have the game sealed with about 10:30 left but Gettysburg game back to make it a great finish. Chad Arrington really mixed it up for the Terror especially the first half. Foul trouble really hurt the bullets, with both Powers and Spierenberg picking up 2 fouls each in the first half.

Arrington who is not at all known for his offensive game seemed to be hitting the big shots and making big plays, he had a huge play that really got the crowd stirred up with a tremendous put back dunk right on top of 2 bullet defenders. This dunk was something that I have NEVER seen in a D3 game, and trust me I have been around a lot!

Granted for the first 10 mins of the second half McDaniel got all the calls and got away with a lot. During the final 10 mins of the game the refs started calling the game more evenly and thats when the bullets made a very valient comback that directly mirrored the game between these two teams last year in Westminster. McDaniel's Finch put in 2 free throws to go ahead 3 with about 7 seconds left, at that point everyone in the gym knew where the ball was going for the bullets. Petrie (sorry for mispelling) drew up the same play that sent the game into a second overtime last year in Westminster, a handoff to Capkin
who came off a ball screen and then a second ball screen for a 3-pointer at the top of the key. This year the shot was in and out and the terror won the game in regulation. I really would like to credit Gettysburg though because their comback was unbelievable, Powers and Spierenberg really came alive in the last 10 mins of the game.

Let me end with 2 comments... (1) Why has McDaniel Not gotten any love in the rankings? If they win on Saturday I see no reason why they atleast shouldnt get some votes. Yes their record is 13-5 right now and I understand at this point of the season that 5 losses really sticks out but look who they are from- St. Mary's (pre-season ranked I think 20th?), F & M (ranked as high as 21st), Guilford (tough ODAC team), Then the 2 upsets - Haverford (who beat Gettysburg), and Dickinson (who is a team that had high hopes entering the season and has not lived up to that except for when they played the terror). Any Comments?

(2) Everyone has their rough/bad nights every once in a while, Corey Dorsey Had a bad night last night. With him all he has is his offense, going up against one of the best defense squads in the nation it is expected to not have the open looks or jumpshots that he usually gets with playing other teams but his reaction was the thing that really disappointed me last night. After he got pulled (probably not for hustling) he completely took himself out of the game - sitting on the end of the bench, not paying attention in the huddles... 1 specific instance where the team called a 30 sec timeout and everyone besides him was standing up in the huddle, he was a lone ranger sitting on the bench by himself throwing a hissy fit because as a senior his defensive ability is still absolutely horrible and his shots werent falling. I frankly cannot believe that he was nominated for an all conference player last year, offensively he has the ppg average, but on defense he just flat out doesnt look like he wants to be out there. It was very apparent that last night he didnt want to be on the floor against McDaniel's swarming defense and there was a little beef between him and Coach Pietrie. Comments???

[fritzdis]

(1) Why has McDaniel Not gotten any love in the rankings? If they win on Saturday I see no reason why they atleast shouldnt get some votes. Yes their record is 13-5 right now and I understand at this point of the season that 5 losses really sticks out but look who they are from- St. Mary's (pre-season ranked I think 20th?), F & M (ranked as high as 21st), Guilford (tough ODAC team), Then the 2 upsets - Haverford (who beat Gettysburg), and Dickinson (who is a team that had high hopes entering the season and has not lived up to that except for when they played the terror). Any Comments?

The Mid-Atlantic region as a whole is not getting a lot of love in the rankings (I'm not saying the region should get more love, I'm just stating the current situation).  I believe Gettysburg was the highest-ranked Mid-Atlantic team at #25 in the week 8 poll, and F&M and DeSales (with 1 vote) were the only other teams getting votes from the region.

[Pat Coleman]

There wasn't any way McDaniel was going to get votes this week coming off of two losses. Despite your spin on Dickinson, that's still a .500 team, 3-8 in the league. There are a couple nice wins against good teams but 13-5 is 13-5.

[oldbballer]

No nail-biter in Lancaster tonight.
F&M took an early lead; and except for a Dickinson run right after half, F&M was comfortable in control of the game.  F&M distributed the scoring well.  Brooks make some athletic moves in the first half to put up 12 points.  McNally and Baker both played well under the basket.
Milligan continues to improve and directs the offense well.  Tolliver would have put up some decent figures, if one of the refs didn't call him for walking every time he drove to the basket.
In only his second start for Dickinson, Hill struggled to be in position on defense and picked up 5 fouls.  Hill does hustle but he wasn't an offensive threat.
F&M worked hard to keep the ball out of Dickinson's big man.
Dickinson point guard did he good job of trying to run Dickinson's offense.

Waiting to hear the other scores.

Agree with you on this one.  Half the crowd left before game was over.  Just a little confused as to why Dickinson's big man only played 23 minutes.  He was 5 for 9 on shooting - scoring 12 points, had 2 steals, 1 blocked shot and 0 fouls.  He played a huge part in their victory against Franklin Marshall last year to get into the playoffs - so why pull him out of the game after only about 5 minutes of play when you are only down by 3 and not let him return to the game until you are down by about as much as 10.  This coach is too quick to play with his starting 5.  As I have stated before, he should go back to the 5 starters that got him to the playoffs last year.  Although, unless they win every game from this point on, they don't stand a chance at getting into a playoff spot.  Still routing for them though.
Regardless, kudos to F&M on another great game.

[fritzdis]

Just a little confused as to why Dickinson's big man only played 23 minutes.  He was 5 for 9 on shooting - scoring 12 points, had 2 steals, 1 blocked shot and 0 fouls.  He played a huge part in their victory against Franklin Marshall last year to get into the playoffs - so why pull him out of the game after only about 5 minutes of play when you are only down by 3 and not let him return to the game until you are down by about as much as 10.  This coach is too quick to play with his starting 5.

I think you may be misremembering the sequence of events.  According to the play-by-play, Leszczynski went to the bench after 4:29 with F&M leading 11-4.  He sat for 3:22, during which time Dickinson closed the gap to 13-8.  With Leszczynski back in the game for the next 2:32, F&M quickly pushed the lead to 21-11.

In any case, Leszczynski didn't have much impact when he was in during the first half (2-5, 4 points, 2 rebounds, 1 turnover, 0 blocks, 0 steals, and F&M outscored Dickinson 30-19 during the 11:45 he played).  He then played 11:15 of the first 13:51 of the second half but didn't return once the game was out of reach (it was 19 when he went to the bench with 6:09 remaining and went up to 24 very soon thereafter).

[oldbballer]

Just a little confused as to why Dickinson's big man only played 23 minutes.  He was 5 for 9 on shooting - scoring 12 points, had 2 steals, 1 blocked shot and 0 fouls.  He played a huge part in their victory against Franklin Marshall last year to get into the playoffs - so why pull him out of the game after only about 5 minutes of play when you are only down by 3 and not let him return to the game until you are down by about as much as 10.  This coach is too quick to play with his starting 5.

I think you may be misremembering the sequence of events.  According to the play-by-play, Leszczynski went to the bench after 4:29 with F&M leading 11-4.  He sat for 3:22, during which time Dickinson closed the gap to 13-8.  With Leszczynski back in the game for the next 2:32, F&M quickly pushed the lead to 21-11.

In any case, Leszczynski didn't have much impact when he was in during the first half (2-5, 4 points, 2 rebounds, 1 turnover, 0 blocks, 0 steals, and F&M outscored Dickinson 30-19 during the 11:45 he played).  He then played 11:15 of the first 13:51 of the second half but didn't return once the game was out of reach (it was 19 when he went to the bench with 6:09 remaining and went up to 24 very soon thereafter).

After futher reviewing the stats, you are right about the time that he came out, but when he did come out, he was responsible for 2 of the 4 points Dickinson had at that time and was playing pretty good defense (McNally had one turnover and 0 points) .   Therein lies my question - why take him out in the first place.   I still feel that this coach doesn't give his starters enough time to settle in at the beginning and get a rythm going.  We may have a difference of opinion on this one. 

Anyway here are my picks for 1/31
Gettysburg
F&M
Muhlengerg
Dickinson
Hopkins

Good luck to all

[Reserved Seat]

oldbballer,
I, too, was surprised that Leszczynski came out so early.  He has been a thorn in F&M's side in the past. Dickinson still continues to be an enigma.  I thought the game was going to be much closer.


terror 30,
It's hard for McDaniel to get any votes, because they haven't been there before. Gettysburg got some respect with their showing last year, and F&M has a history of strong teams.  With their 2 losses to Haverford and Dickinson, voters aren't ready to give them some recognition.
McDaniel is probably playing well enough to earn some respect, but you, also, have to look at the teams above them and, also, who those teams have played.   

[Gabriel]

Picks for 1/31/2009

Gettysburg (Home court but Washington will give them a game)
F&M (No discussion)
Muhlenberg (No team has more of a home court advantage)
Haverford (Dickinson should win but the Fords are tough at home)
Ursinus (a must win for the Bears or they can start playing for next year)

I don't know if anyone noticed that Matt Howell did not play for Ursinus against Muhlenberg.  He has a chronic knee problem and it apparently flared up after the F&M game.  The Bears had no answer for the  Mules inside game.  Noonan (30 points) and Burnett (20 points) scored 50 of the Bear's 68 points.  Ursinus was down by 14 at the half after playing a horrible first half and then proceeded to close within 4 points with about 5 minutes to play-----and then, the wheels fell off.  Remy Cousart (1 point) and Keith Page (2 points) obviously did not show up ready to play.  Consistency has been a big problem all year.  This is not your usual Ursinus team for whatever reason.

[terror 30]

Reserved Seat

I agree. They havent EVER been there and it is all new to them. But even when Ursinus and Gettysburg were dominating the league last year and went through the NCAA tournament to meet for a 4th time they still didnt gain any respect. It took Ursinus to go undefeated in the CC and win like 25 games straight to gain any national recognition. I really think the CC is underrated... I mean Ursinus made it all the way to the Final Four last year with over 20 wins in a row and ended up in the final rankings 7th??? How does that work??? THEY MADE IT TO THE FINAL FOUR! lol. Ursinus, Gettysburg, and F & M have been ranked and have earned respect within the past 10 years. McDaniel, before last year, hasnt had a winning season in 25 years so I understand and I know that I am biased towards my team so I wanted to get some feed back from everyone to see if my bias is logical.

[terror 30]

Im gonna go ahead and try this pick-em out,

1/31
Gettysburg - Bounce Back strong
Franklin & Marshall - guards to athletic for swat
McDaniel - Always a gamble at Muhlenberg but I gotta go with my team
Dickinson - I banking on Grell showing up
Ursinus - toss up havent seen either team play yet this year

[old ends]

Results 1/28/09

Brce4              4  -  1
Diplomaniac1     4  -  1
Tucker1129       4  -  1
D.B.Cooper        3  -  2
Gabriel              3  -  2
Old Ends           3  -  2
UniqueNewYork  3  -  2
r.w.mcnickels     3  -  2
Reserved Seat   2  -  3
oldbballer          1  -  4

Overall
Tucker1129        12  -  3  (.800)
Old ends            42 - 13 (.764)
Diplomaniac1      40 - 15 (.727)
Reserved Seat    39 - 16 (.709)
UniqueNewYork   39 - 16 (.709)
D.B.Cooper         38 - 17 (.691)
Brce4                35 - 20 (.636)
oldbballer             6  -  4 ( .600)
Gabriel               32 - 23 (.582)
r.w.mcnickel        32 - 23 (.582)


John Hopkins bit all of us.