MBB: Centennial Conference

[CentCraze88]

Honestly, just liked what I saw from F&M in the past week especially given some injuries, and I think there is too much talent on that team for them not to be a conference finalist.  You guys all bring up valid points - but I'll take the talent and Coach Robinson's experience, which is a major advantage over some of the half-wits that are head coaches in this conference.  However, I digress.

HoopDog14 - Such a shame to see a program in such a state.  They never can quite figure out how to put it all together - this year their rotation consists largely of experienced upperclassmen who have been playing over the past two years, yet the struggles are mighty evident.  Guess I shouldn't be surprised, the way that loaded Class of 2014 (Hargrove & Curry) wilted down the stretch.  I've heard they've had good success in other programs, wish the basketball team could bounce back. 


Thoughts on the toughest places to play in the Cent? I've always heard that McDaniel draws a very vocal crowd, never been though...

[CentCraze88]

As for my mid season awards:

Most Improved Player: Joe Scibelli Haverford College.

Most Valuable Player: Robbie Walsh Swarthmore College.

Tremendous rim protector, sets effective screens and understands role. Best player on best team, stats do not tell the story here.

Most Disappointing Player: Jule Brown Dickinson College.

Never really improved much after a UPenn commitment, hopefully Seretti can turn this around.

Coach on the Hot Seat: Scott McClary Muhlenberg College

Mules are again about to hit the depths. A talented lineup that consistently fails to put it all together. Look no further than Jean Lee Baez who is a force from Kutztown, shooting 76% from the field and cannot get on the floor.

Defensive Player of the Year: Brandon Fedrici Franklin and Marshall.

Most steals in the league, simple as that.

Sleeper going Forward: Danny Duffey Gettysburg College

Engineers a fluid offense. Showed a promising stroke in high school and will only continue to improve as his team wittles away in the rugged centennial conference.

[nothingbutnet]

Defensive Player of the Year: Brandon Fedrici Franklin and Marshall.

Most steals in the league, simple as that.

I don't think having the most steals equates to DPOY. I would put Walsh there because of his rim protection, which you mentioned.

[Team First]

Steals is a very incomplete metric for defense. How about who is assigned to defend the opposition's best scorer night after night? Or how about defensive rebounding or blocks? Then there is the whole concept of ball pressure and off the ball positioning and activity; help defense. Depending on the overall defensive strategy, steals could be a meaningless metric.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Federici isn't even the best defensive player on his own team - and I think even HE'D agree with that assessment.

[MACsouthwest]

Old school hoop fact of the Day...   

The top 2 Coaches in all-time Wins in D3, both started in the same Conference.   The "old" MAC Southwest conference, which eventually turned into the Centennial Conference with the combination of the MAC Southwest schools (F&M, Dickinson, Gettysburg, Muhlenberg and McDaniel) and MAC South (Ursinus, Swarthmore, Haverford, JHU and Washington).  The tournament back then was top 2 schools from each Division (4 total of 14?) with only 1 NCAA bid.   Coach Moore was 9-4 against Coach Robinson in 6 years.  After Moore left for Wooster in '87,  both the Wooster program and F&M have exploded and become synonymous with Winning.   F&M did have some earlier success in the late 70's, early 80's, but the consistency really started in late 80's.  Reserved Seat is in a better position to know those facts..   Between Robinson and Moore there are over 1700 Wins..   That is crazy!

All-Time Division III MBB Coaching Victories

  1. Glenn Robinson, Franklin & Marshall - 920 *
   2. Steve Moore, Wooster - 787 *
   3. Jim Smith, St. John's - 786
   4. Dave Hixon, Amherst - 777 *
   5. Dennis Bridges, Illinois Wesleyan - 666

  * Coach is active


   













 




 

[ronk]

Old school hoop fact of the Day...   

The top 2 Coaches in all-time Wins in D3, both started in the same Conference.   The "old" MAC Southwest conference, which eventually turned into the Centennial Conference with the combination of the MAC Southwest schools (F&M, Dickinson, Gettysburg, Muhlenberg and McDaniel) and MAC South (Ursinus, Swarthmore, Haverford, JHU and Washington).  The tournament back then was top 2 schools from each Division (4 total of 14?) with only 1 NCAA bid.   Coach Moore was 9-4 against Coach Robinson in 6 years.  After Moore left for Wooster in '87,  both the Wooster program and F&M have exploded and become synonymous with Winning.   F&M did have some earlier success in the late 70's, early 80's, but the consistency really started in late 80's.  Reserved Seat is in a better position to know those facts..   Between Robinson and Moore there are over 1700 Wins..   That is crazy!

All-Time Division III MBB Coaching Victories

  1. Glenn Robinson, Franklin & Marshall - 920 *
   2. Steve Moore, Wooster - 787 *
   3. Jim Smith, St. John's - 786
   4. Dave Hixon, Amherst - 777 *
   5. Dennis Bridges, Illinois Wesleyan - 666

  * Coach is active


   













 

Also coaching in the MAC(albeit the Northern half) was Scranton's Bob Bessoir with a national title in this period('81-'86) and 554 overall.
  The northern half of the MAC also had a 4-team post-season playoff(2 from each division) for another NCAA AQ. So the MAC had 2 NCAA AQ spots.

[CCHoopster]

Honestly, just liked what I saw from F&M in the past week especially given some injuries, and I think there is too much talent on that team for them not to be a conference finalist.  You guys all bring up valid points - but I'll take the talent and Coach Robinson's experience, which is a major advantage over some of the half-wits that are head coaches in this conference.  However, I digress.

HoopDog14 - Such a shame to see a program in such a state.  They never can quite figure out how to put it all together - this year their rotation consists largely of experienced upperclassmen who have been playing over the past two years, yet the struggles are mighty evident.  Guess I shouldn't be surprised, the way that loaded Class of 2014 (Hargrove & Curry) wilted down the stretch.  I've heard they've had good success in other programs, wish the basketball team could bounce back. 


Thoughts on the toughest places to play in the Cent? I've always heard that McDaniel draws a very vocal crowd, never been though...

Yes G Rob's experience is of value, no doubt. Dickinson can be crazy come playoff time, Washington, when good is small and the students are on top of you; Ursinus in their hay day (Stanton, Hilton, McGarvey) was rocking....

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Old school hoop fact of the Day...   

The top 2 Coaches in all-time Wins in D3, both started in the same Conference.   The "old" MAC Southwest conference, which eventually turned into the Centennial Conference with the combination of the MAC Southwest schools (F&M, Dickinson, Gettysburg, Muhlenberg and McDaniel) and MAC South (Ursinus, Swarthmore, Haverford, JHU and Washington).  The tournament back then was top 2 schools from each Division (4 total of 14?) with only 1 NCAA bid.   Coach Moore was 9-4 against Coach Robinson in 6 years.  After Moore left for Wooster in '87,  both the Wooster program and F&M have exploded and become synonymous with Winning.   F&M did have some earlier success in the late 70's, early 80's, but the consistency really started in late 80's.  Reserved Seat is in a better position to know those facts..   Between Robinson and Moore there are over 1700 Wins..   That is crazy!

All-Time Division III MBB Coaching Victories

  1. Glenn Robinson, Franklin & Marshall - 920 *
   2. Steve Moore, Wooster - 787 *
   3. Jim Smith, St. John's - 786
   4. Dave Hixon, Amherst - 777 *
   5. Dennis Bridges, Illinois Wesleyan - 666

  * Coach is active

The best part about this as well... both coaches racked up a lot of their wins, and NCAA playoff berths, by staying at home. Both have multiple home tournaments and both have been accused of not leaving their gyms especially when playing tougher competition. The "new" SOS, especially when the weighted measure was added, has forced these two to change a little bit, but they haven't changed that much. Both squads tend to have surprisingly low SOS numbers and you can't blame the conference each year for that.

I am not taking anything away from the accomplishments of both men. Those are a LOT of games to win. It doesn't happen easily. Heck, two of the top four coaches have the two best winning percentages of this decade (Moore [Wooster] and Hixon [Amherst])... but they also did a nice job to make sure home court was their advantage.

[MACsouthwest]

Dave-

Very true.   I think those Mule teams under Moore were like 24-2 at home over a two year span in mid 80's.  Long time ago...   Wooster gets great crowds and local support.  Same for Meyser when school is in session.  That definitely helps...

[sunny]

Steals is a very incomplete metric for defense. How about who is assigned to defend the opposition's best scorer night after night? Or how about defensive rebounding or blocks? Then there is the whole concept of ball pressure and off the ball positioning and activity; help defense. Depending on the overall defensive strategy, steals could be a meaningless metric.

The only objective measures that actually show individual defensive impact (and none of those are even close to perfect) aren't available en masse for college teams. DPOY is very much subjective ... and it's not a real conference award in the Centennial anyway, so I guess it's just a fun topic to chat about, nothing more.

[Hoopdog14]

CentCraze88  I agree it is a shame the Mules program is in decline.  McClary has gone from 18-9 in 2011-12 to 11-14 in 2015-16, a trend that shows more losses than the previous year.  Gone are Liddick, Hargrove,  Killing and Stavetski all conference players for the Mules as well as Curry and O'Hara.  All misused along the way.  Current players experienced but none drawing the respect of the past Mules.  They are finding it difficult without a defense focusing on someone else.  Baez has the skills but he is often hurt and no where in playing shape in the time he has been with Mules.

Toughest gym?? Washington followed by McDaniel.  WaCo is small dark dingy and loud.  McDaniel is loud but not the "charm" of WaCo

[Polly Math]

I've seen guys who had lots of steals and were terrible defenders.  They fly out into the passing lane and occasionally get a steal.  the rest of the time they fly out, get nothing, and now its 5 against 4 for the next 6 seconds.  Not saying that applies to Federici, who generally plays within himself, but I don't think of him as a great defender.  The top offensive weapon on a team rarely is, since they are usually instructed to avoid foul trouble, and have to defend with some caution, at least until later in the game.

[Reserved Seat]

MACsouthwest--Mayser's attention is very poor when it comes to student support.  The crowd is mostly community until play-offs begin.  Ursinus use to have great student support(I assume it's up this year), and Dickinson fluctuates from year to year.  Last year when I was at Dickinson I was surprised the student support wasn't as loud as the previous years.

[HoopGuru]

I'm biased but I would put Knowles up there for POY. He was playing at a 1st team all league level last year prior to the ACL tear. If he can lead this team to a playoff spot, possibly hosting the playoffs, I think he could get the award.

And I agree with what is being talked about regarding DPOY. I do not believe steals are a good indication of being a good defensive player. Actually, steals could very well be a product of other people playing good defense. Such as great on ball pressure by a defender who deflects a pass to the player stealing the ball. That player will get credit for steal but wasn't main reason for it.