MBB: Centennial Conference

[Reserved Seat]

Federici doesn't look any heavier.  He spend most of the summer in Europe.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Thoughts should be with Washington College as they postponed tonight's men's game and tomorrow night's women's game after nearly two days of their campus being shut down and at least another day to go: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/eastern-shore/bs-md-washington-college-tuesday-20151117-story.html

[Reserved Seat]

scary

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

It has been from what those on campus have told me. Yes. I think the scariest part is the simple fact they don't know what is really going on.

I talked to someone at one of the opponent's schools because there was talk about switching the "site" of the games to the opponents... and while it seems unlikely, you have to think you don't want to create another location with "Washington College" involved. In other words, the opponents have to consider whether their campus becomes a target (bad word, nothing else in my head to use) because a Washington team is on their campus for a sporting event.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Washington College is now shut down through Thanksgiving break. No word on affect on teams and schedules as of yet.

[Reserved Seat]

Ugly game at Messiah,  Jersey City and F&M combined for 63 fouls.  79 foul shots were taken and 53 made.  Other than Moune who had 1 foul, the other post players combined for 18 fouls..  Jordan Phelps made his first contributions to a game, scoring 8 points, grabbing 4 rebounds, and dishing out 2 assists.  Jared Wright's speed help him get to the line where he scored numerous points 12/14.  Moune played the full 40 minutes which may be necessary throughout the season.  He contributed his third straight double double.  Federici scored 21 points while playing solid defense.  Harris scored 26 points for Jersey City and Wosu had a double double for Jersey City.
In the second game, LBC ran Messiah off the court and coasted to victory down the stretch.
F&M will have to control the tempo of the game tomorrow.  Two different styles of offense--disciplined and run and gun.

[Reserved Seat]

LBC dominated F&M in all facets of the game.
LBC cruised to a 28 point victory.

[Ralph Turner]

Washington College is now shut down through Thanksgiving break. No word on affect on teams and schedules as of yet.

http://college.usatoday.com/2015/11/22/md-student-who-prompted-closure-of-campus-found-dead/

Deepest sympathy to the Washington College family.  Really really tragic.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

I got a chance to sit down with Dickinson coach Alan Seretti at the Hoopsville National Invitational Classic this past weekend. Check out his interview and the rest of the Hoopsville Coach's Corner (which substituted for this Sunday's show) here: http://www.d3hoops.com/hoopsville/archives/2015-16/coachs-corner

[Reserved Seat]

Exciting game in Allentown.  F&M eked out a victory in overtime against Muhlenberg 81-78.  The most glaring statistic was the number of fouls called against F&M despite the fact that they were the ones bleeding.  In the first half the fouls 14-5, and slightly better in the second half 12-9 as the Mules acquired some fouls in the closing minutes.  In overtime the Mules actually got called for more fouls than the Dips(2-1).  Unfortunately, this is par for the course at Muhlenberg.  Federici scored 26 points despite fine defense by the Mules.  Moune had a double/double again 18-10 points to rebounds.  Eggers came through with 14 points as Robinson nursed him through the later stages of the game and overtime to protect him from acquiring his 5th foul.

The Mules were able to distance themselves in the first half by building a 10 point lead shortly before halftime as the score went from a 23-28 deficit to a 38-28 lead.  F&M hit the final basket as the Mules went into halftime with an 8 point lead.

The Mules starting five all scored in double figures.  Fortunately for F&M, Schreer fouled out late in the game keeping his 3-point shooting from being a factor in overtime.

Other than Stavetski for the Mules there was little scoring form the bench.

The Mules only played 9 players, as F&M was forced to use 14 due to foul trouble.

[Reserved Seat]

Centennial preseason picks F&M, Dickinson, and John Hopkins.  First conference games--2 lost and one won in overtime.

[Reserved Seat]

F&M/Ursinus--very ragged game by both teams.  No individual player stood out for either team.  F&M did get good bench play from Nicholas Stern and Lior Levy.  Ursinus butchered may layup/put backs by LoStracco and Mekongo.   Foul shooting was mediocre by both teams.  Most of the starters struggled getting their shots to drop, and F&M looked very lackadaisical with their passing.  F&M had trouble getting the ball in Moune.  Federici and Moune both came up big on blocks.  Looks like F&M will have a fight on their hands most nights.

[njf1003]

This season is going to be weird.
After 2 games:

Conf   All Swarthmore   2-0   5-0 Franklin & Marshall   2-0   5-1 Gettysburg   2-0   4-1 McDaniel   2-0   4-1 Muhlenberg   1-1   3-3 Washington College   0-1   1-3 Haverford   0-1   1-4 Ursinus   0-2   1-3 Dickinson   0-2   1-4 Johns Hopkins   0-2   1-4

Preseason Poll
1-Franklin & Marshall 156 points (14)
2-Dickinson 144 (4)
3-Johns Hopkins 132 (2)
4-Gettysburg 112
5-McDaniel 98
6-Muhlenberg 77
7-Swarthmore 74
8-Ursinus 55
9-Washington College 31
10-Haverford 21

Number 7 preseason is hanging out undefeated at #1... I realize Swat has been posted for a run, but I kinda doubt they hold on for too much longer, but I wouldn't be surprised to see them in the CC tourney (and they've only played Wash and Ursinus, but hey you've got to win the ones you're expected to).

F&M hasn't looked very good. You can't win many games shooting 30.6% from the field.

I'd say Gburg and McD are probably right as expected. McDaniel seems solid from the bit of the JHU game I saw. Can they avoid picking up those terrible losses that they always seem to get. Haven't seen Gburg or Haverford so can't really comment there.

Muhl is still gonna struggle to find an identity for a while. Same w/ Washington.

Ursinus is clearly better than last year, still not great. Gonna win a few close ones over good teams.

Dickinson just isn't recovering from losing Wixted, still expect them to bounce back, maybe make a run at the end of the season.

Hopkins, I don't entirely know, they were missing their leading scorer tonight, but I'm still not sure they would have got it done.

I think CC games are going to be competitive, but it's because no one is very good...

Way to early CC tourney predictions: F&M, Swat, McD, Dickinson, and either Gburg or Muhl

Thoughts? Places I'm completely wrong? Drawing too many conclusions after only 2 CC games?

[Gabriel]

Reserved,

Agree with your comments on the Ursinus/F&M game.  Sometimes ragged play can be brought about by good defense.  F&M is always tough defensively and Ursinus looked much better defensively than they have in the last several years.  Ursinus does not have a star player but they do have a team that will improve as the year goes on.  They need to take better care of the ball and shoot better.  Knowles and Janicot are both gimpy from ankle sprain and the Bears do not have much depth. 

Look forward to Feb 10 at Ursinus.  Looks to me like Gettysburg and McDaniel are the teams to beat in the CC right now---but that could change.

[CCD3Basketball]

Still way too early to make any bold predictions at this point. You would think teams like Dickinson, JHU and F&M are going to get better (F&M won't shoot in the 36% range all year, and the fact they're still winning games shooting that is scary). Dickinson lost a lot more than just Wixted off of that team. Lets not forget, this is a team that currently has just 2 seniors and one junior, so there's a lot of young pieces there still trying to learn how to play together. As for JHU, road games at Gettysburg are always tough, combined with the fact that the Bullets are firing on all cylinders so far this year (terrible pun, sorry about that) and McDaniel always gives the Blue Jays fits. Still a lot of time for them to figure things out, and keep in mind they lost quite a bit too.

Still too early to pick through things. Need to see each team get about 6-7 CC games under their belts before we can really start to predict a lot.