MBB: Centennial Conference

[Gabriel]

Swat Dad & d3hoopsfan,

Both of you, your comments are right on.  I forgot about Haverford although they will miss Permutt.  He was very good this year.

Regarding Ursinus, Janowski is capable of helping Ward and in some aspects is a better player.  He is 6'8" and needs to start playing like it.   He is a better defender than Ward and should be more productive offensively than he has been.  Seems to lack confidence.

Ursinus needs a longer wing who can slash to the basket and score.  Starting 3 guards in the 5"11" range hurt them at times this year.  Perhaps rising sophomore Ryan Adams (6'6") is the real deal.  He has shown flashes and is very athletic.  Also, Mike Walther, a 6'7" rising senior who sat out the season might return.  He would likely have been a starter this year had he been able to play.

Jesse Krasna will be a real force next year after a very nice freshman year.  He is a pass first point guard who should average 10-12 points a game.  Needs to improve his shooting accuracy.  Pat Vasturia is a pure shooter in the mold of Matt Hilton and will keep defenses honest.  Matt Donahue is a very good three point shooter too.

As I said before, recruiting is everything and we will see what Kevin Small comes up with this year.  Kevin Small, Mike McGarvey and Will Furey are tireless recruiters, however,  a losing year makes it more difficult.  I hope he is looking for someone who will give them more toughness--on the boards and defensively.  All coaches like to have a real good bench to
make  practices more competitive----and, the team better.

[centfan]

good luck next year swat dad...sorry all those boys had such a rough season.

[Swat Fan #1]

Hey thanks! After two years following the Centennial Conference I have learned two things: One - the level of play is really good and two - Every win Swarthmore gets is an upset.  They are well coached, play hard, and give good games to almost everyone. The simple fact is they just don't have the horses. I think the average weight of the front line is about 190lbs! =)

On another note, I had a great discussion last night about all the players in the league. Without fail, they are all great kids, very respectful and friendly after the game, and when a hard foul occurs, there is always an apology. It was fun listening about all the great players in the league and what an opponent thinks of them. "Liddick - really smart, nice kid, Permutt, really good, very under-rated, ect." "The league plays very hard nose defense, but never any cheap shots like high school. Guy who is playing me talks the whole game. They are always great kids."

I just thought it was great to hear all this over dinner. Not a negative things to be said about any team or player. Well done Centennial!

[centfan]

nice post swat dad.
it is a nice conference, competitive with very little "junk" going on, although i have heard of some comments on the court that would surprise you... not necessary or productive to repeat.  they are a great group of schools with terrific student athlete ethics. nescac is great but only play each other once a year, uaa great but lots of travel. i love centennial. take care.

[CCHoopster]

Good stuff Swat Dad, I was thinking along the same lines as you the other day. I was passing through some Men BB websites of CC teams and saw Dickinson won a sportsmanship award from the officials (not sure it is a C.C award or just capital area officials) and I thought to myself heck, I think any team in this league could have won it. It made me wonder if a coaches personality had anything to do with that award? As an example, Seretti from Dickinson from what I saw on their website had not T's, nor did the team, this year or last year..... Just one example why the C.C is one of the classy D3 hoops conferences.

Here are my top 5 for next year, Player and Coach of the year...... I have no "bias or favorite" C.C team, just big supporter of C.C hoops since the MAC had a makeover.....   

1- Dickinson (Freshman played huge minutes this year and last, what kind of recruiting class can he pull off this year and can they have another frosh impact group? Their best guard Gerney (frosh) missed the two or three last reg season games and C.C tourney)

2- Tie for second- Tie Breaker Dips
     2a) F&M (Dips are always there and aren't going anywhere)
3   2b) Mules (Liddick, Curry, quality coaching will help)

4-  Ursinus (Hunch, Krasna, Donahue and the bigs will be better)

5-  McDaniel- Tough, can defend, athletic and quality coaching.

Player of the Year- Liddick or Milligan
Coach of the Year- Seretti- Especially if he can replace a team asset value like Dolan.
Dickinson to Host

Quality coaches, great student athletes, High IQ fans... C.C hoops are great!

[docmarc]

F&M will be back next year.  The key for next year may be the emergence of 2nd semester walk on Matt Porter.  Let's not forget him!

[centfan]

cc hoopster...
i wouldn't sleep on haverford...
and yes, f&m will be back, but not dominant unless they have some special freshmen.

[Gabriel]

Good stuff in all the recent posts.  I have been following the CC closely for the past 11 years and am always impressed by the sportsmanship and quality of play.  The quality of play (top to bottom) keeps improving and the league is more and more competitive.  Next year should be no exception.  Let's hope that next year we can get two or more teams into the NCAA tourney and yes, Swat Dad, I even root for Swat when they are not playing Ursinus.  Lee Wimberly is a favorite of mine.

[CCHoopster]

I could see Haverford in the mix and replacing 4 or 5 on my list... Gonna stick with Dickinson as 1 and Dips and Mules to be a coin flip for 2 and 3.

[Reserved Seat]

Too early to predict.
I was impressed with the quality of freshmen who played this year.  Especially, Muhlenberg and Dickinson who had excellent performances from their freshmen when they played F&M.  F&M will have a good core of players for next year, but will need to have 1 or 2 good freshmen coming in next year.

[centfan]

i definitely do not see dickinson towards the top. they  play good basketball but i do think they overachieved this year. dolan is a big, big loss for them. i see them 4-6 place.

[r.w. mcnickels]

Congrats to Georgio Milligan on his Mid-Atlantic Region Player of the Year honor from the NABC:

http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/nabc/sports/m-baskbl/auto_pdf/D3All-District2011.pdf

In the D3hoops all-region voting (which I believe is done exclusively by SIDs, not coaches), Milligan was named to the Mid-Atlantic second team. I wonder if he is the first regional POY on one team to not even make the first team on the other.

[Pat Coleman]

This year it looks like he is, but I don't think it's unprecedented. There were a lot of good guards in the region this year and I just couldn't put four on the first team.

The NABC put six guards on its first team. Our goal since day one in 1997 is to always put out a team that you could put on the floor in a game, so that means five and at least one big man.

[r.w. mcnickels]

Yes, I know the positions don't matter to the NABC team, which I think makes no sense. I also thought Franz should be the NABC's regional POY (an honor D3hoops awarded him). I'm just shocked that one group (the coaches) thought Milligan was the best guard in the region, but another thought he was the fourth-best guard.

[ronk]

That's right. This vote is restricted to seniors who are not in the tournament, one from each region, so that's why some of the guys you mention are left off.

There will indeed be two other Mid-Atlantic seniors who get on the roster. But this vote is two guaranteed spots selected by fans. It's akin to the final vote for the MLB All-Star Game, except that because of the tournament, this vote happens first.

  Who is the 2nd besides Alex Franz?