MBB: Centennial Conference

[UCHooligan98]

Ucholligan where are your picks?  swat dad i was upset that there was not any free food at the garnet fieldhouse .  last year there was a nice spread and hot dogs for sale.

i will continue to use my preseason formula for all conf game picks and track on my own so as to not put you guys through trying to figure it out

Ursinus beats everyone
f&m beats everyone but ursinus
everyone beats swat
everyone beats JHU  except swat
everyone beats wash except jhu and swat
all other games won by home team. 

[Gabriel]

Picks for the week

Monday 1/9/2012
Swarthmore over Gettysburg---home court win for Swat in an "upset" for Swat Dad

Tuesday 1/10/2012
Muhlenberg over JHU---home court and to much size and strength for JHU

Thursday 1/12/2012
JHU over Swarthmore --- home court
F&M over Muhlenberg --- should be the game of the day
Dickinson over Washington College---should be another tight game but home court rules
Ursinus over Gettysburg---the Bears are getting better and win a battle on the road
McDaniel over Haverford---Green Terror tough at home

Saturday 1/14/2012
Haverford over JHU---evenly matched but home court prevails
Ursinus over McDaniel---home court and the Bears are better than last time
Dickinson over Swarthmore---home court win for the better team
Muhlenberg over Gettysburg---home court and far more experience
F&M over Washington College---no team is tougher at home

Thought for the day-----the Centennial Conference---except for F&M---is well balanced but not very good this year.

[centfan]

my picks
mon
gettysburg

tues
mulhlenberg

thurs
hopkins
f&m
dickinson
gettysburg
haverford

sat
haverford
ursinus
dickinson
muhlenberg
f&m

[mulefreak02]

ursinus fans, why is freshman starter phil walker no longer on the uc roster? heard he was supposed to be quite a player.

[diplomaniac1]

Folks -

Here is my pick for the game on Tuesday night, Jaunary 10:

Muhlenberg over Johns Hopkins

Updated standing will be posted shortly. Regards to all.

Eric

[diplomaniac1]

Fellow "Pickers" -

The following are the "Pick-Ems" standings updated through and including Sunday, january 8:


NAME             LAST NIGHT      TO-DATE   PERCENTAGE
         
centfan                5 – 1        12 – 1   .923
D. B. Cooper   5 – 1         5 – 1   .833
Reserved Seat   4 – 2        13 – 5   .722
Diplomaniac1   4 – 2        12 – 6   .667
Gabriel                4 – 2         8 – 5   .615
Gusthegoose   0 – 0         0 – 0   .000
oldends                0 – 0         0 – 0   .000
UCHooligan98   0 – 0         0 – 0   .000
Wild10                0 – 0         0 – 0   .000

Standings through games of Sunday, January 8, 2012. (Includes games of January 7 and January 8).

Kudos to centfan and D. B. Cooper for their 5 - 1 records over the weekend and to centfan for his "shot out of the starting gate" overall! Let me know if I have made any errors or omissions and I will correct.

Otherwise, have a great week! Reagards,

Eric

[diplomaniac1]

mulefreak02 -

Will you be visiting Mayser Center on Thursday to see your Mules play against the Diplomats?

Eric

[diplomaniac1]

Swat Dad -

I also was at the Swarthmore game on Saturday. However, I didn't get a chance to seek you out like Reserved Seat did! You folks have one of the best venues in the Conference for basketball - excellent lighting, more comfortable bleacher seats, good climate control, and a nice court!

Thanks for your kind words about Matt Porter. I couldn't agree more. He didn't play more last year because he was a second semester transfer and took awhile to the learn the F&M system. He also had a pretty good group of Seniors ahead of him last year - McNally, Baker, and Tolliver, in addition to the upperclassmen that are there this year. He is very athletic and has a quick first step. With every game he plays, he gains more confidence with his offense and becomes a bigger contributor at that end of the court. I think he really enjoys the challenge of playing defense on the oppenent's top scorer. It is almost like it is second nature to him!

Matt is typical of why I like D III basketball: the players are usually good students and always very competitive on the court. However, they can also shut it down and be polite and respectful gentlemen off of the court as soon as the game is over! It seems to be a common trait that is really good and sorely needed in the world today. It is a shame that more athletes don't act in a similar manner!

Thanks also for your nice words about GRob. You had better be careful though as there are many folks on here who hate him. Saying nice things about Grob might just get you "hooted off of the board"! Nonetheless, we Diplomat fans appreciate your sentiments. His record over 41 years speaks for itself!

Look me up when Swat visits Mayser Center in February. Regards,

Eric

[Gusthegoose]

Mon 1/9
Gettysburg over Swarthmore
Tues 1/10
Muhlenberg over Johns Hopkins
Thurs 1/12
Johns Hopkins over Swarthmore
Franklin and Marshall over Muhlenberg
Washington College over Dickinson
Gettysburg over Ursinus
McDaniel over Haverford

[Gabriel]

Swat Dad,

Seems like Swat took a major step backwards with the retirement of Coach Wimberly.  Just an observation.  Hope to be back in Centennial Conference land this week to see my Bears.

[UCHooligan98]

can someone from d3hoops explain why F&M is ranked so high? this has been a down year for the conference and F&M only has one win against anyone else in your poll.  dont fall into the same trap that the AP/USA today do with unbeaten teams, theyre barely a top 25 squad. 

hopefully when the Bears pull the "upset" F&M can head back to low 20's obscurity where it likely belongs.  thanks.

[centfan]

diplomaniac,
don't jinx me!!! i was in the cellar not too long ago!
go CC...seems like yet another unpredictable year

[r.w. mcnickels]

can someone from d3hoops explain why F&M is ranked so high? this has been a down year for the conference and F&M only has one win against anyone else in your poll.  dont fall into the same trap that the AP/USA today do with unbeaten teams, theyre barely a top 25 squad. 

hopefully when the Bears pull the "upset" F&M can head back to low 20's obscurity where it likely belongs.  thanks.

UC, I think the Dips floated up in the rankings when other teams lost. They should probably in the mid-teens, but it's so hard to tell in D-III. I see F&M losing at least 3 or 4 conference games. The defense looks very good but they need more reliable scoring from people other than Hayk and Milligan.

[oftdip]

Although I find UC Hooligan's rants and comments typically amusing, is anyone else getting tired of the constant whining, complainning and obvious jealousy that he possesses towards F&M in every possible facet of life... whether it be the schedule (too weak), the rankings (too high), the European clothing deal (too poor), the coach (too many wins), the team (too complete)... did I miss any F&M topic that UCHooligan hasn't subjected his negative and sarcastic 'pearls of wisdom' upon us all?

Two suggestions...

Apply to F&M and let the chips fall where they may...
http://www.fandm.edu/apply - our Government department is always looking for good debaters!!! As a barrister, you would fit right it...

AND

Read your own college's history... Humility is in your heritage!!! Are you a true Ursinus Bear?
Right from your own website...

The History of Ursinus College
Beginnings
Ursinus College was founded in 1869, as a result of religious debate within the German Reformed Church (one of the Protestant denominations that eventually became the current-day United Church of Christ.) John Henry Augustus Bomberger (1817-1890), a primary founder of Ursinus College and its first president, was a German Reformed pastor in Philadelphia, and later in Trappe, Pa., who supported the denomination's traditional "low church" style of a plain and simple worship. Another Reformed Church faction wanted to make worship more formal.  The high church faction established Franklin & Marshall College.  The low church group, led by Bomberger, founded Ursinus College in the village of Freeland, which later became Collegeville, Pa.

The new institution was named for Zacharias Ursinus, a 16th Century academic and theologian from Heidelberg, Germany, whose Heidelberg Catechism defined the spirit of the low-church philosophy for Bomberger and his friends.  That spirit was egalitarian, unpretentious, humble and frugal and survives to this day on the Ursinus campus.

Can't wait until February 1 in Collegeville...

Keep us all chuckling, UC...

[fritzdis]

can someone from d3hoops explain why F&M is ranked so high? this has been a down year for the conference and F&M only has one win against anyone else in your poll.  dont fall into the same trap that the AP/USA today do with unbeaten teams, theyre barely a top 25 squad. 

hopefully when the Bears pull the "upset" F&M can head back to low 20's obscurity where it likely belongs.  thanks.

As far as I can tell, there are only 2 teams in the top 8 that have played more than 1 game against anyone receiving votes in the poll.  Augustana is 1-1, with an additional loss to a team not receiving votes; and Va. Wesleyan is 2-0 against teams with a total of 3 votes, along with an early loss to a team not receiving votes.  I'm not saying that F&M's schedule is by any means strong, simply pointing out that F&M is not alone among highly-ranked teams in their lack of top-quality opponents.

With polls that start so early in the season, it's pretty much inevitable that undefeated teams who were expected to be good will rise quite high, as it's hard to ever penalize a team who never loses.