MBB: Great Northeast Athletic Conference

[gordonmann]

I think Emerson is in the NEWMAC this season. That should be a fun race with WPI, Springfield, etc.

[D3HoopJunkie]

They are in the NEWMAC this season. As a GNAC fan I wish they were still in the conference but unfortunately they made a move that they felt was necessary. Jim O'Brien is the head coach who as some will know is the former head coach at Ohio State where he guided his team to a Final Four.  He brought in quite a few recruits last year and I am certain that this team will be a NEWMAC contender year in and year out as long as he is the head coach there. Congrats to Emerson on a tremendous win.

[amh63]

Gordonmann...and et al......thanks for the correction.  I had posted my short comment on the NEWMAC board first....thought about it and read some OLD posts on this board and made the "correction" which now needs to be corrected again.

[pjunito]

Gordonmann...and et al......thanks for the correction.  I had posted my short comment on the NEWMAC board first....thought about it and read some OLD posts on this board and made the "correction" which now needs to be corrected again.

Hey Amh,

You are always welcomed in the GNAC thread. You bring a good perspective and insights from the other conferences in the region. Great win by Emerson, sad to see them leave last spring. But, I can understand the move. It would have been fun to play against the Jim O'Brien teams over the years. It would have also brought a little more credibility to the GNAC.

[lildave678]

Just noticed Eian Davis is 2nd in the country for Assists Per Game with 9 and Vic is 2nd for Blocks Per Game at just over 4! Good stuff! Can't wait until after the layoff...

[pjunito]

Albertus up to 31 in the rankings.. They don't play another D3 opponent until January 7. So I don't expect to see much movement in the polls for Albertus until mid January. Unless they lost a conference game before then. Or shock everyone with a victory in New Britain against CCSU (highly unlikely that happens).

They may be a big showdown with SUNY Purchase on January 27. If Albertus remains unbeaten at home prior to this game, they will be carrying a 32 home court win streak vs the currently ranked 23 team in the country.

[Saint-Paul]

I was really hoping that my Emmanuel Saints would turn things around this year and make a run for the third or fourth spot in the conference playoffs, but after the first eight games my hopes are starting to fade.  Things are going exactly in the same direction as last year.   The Saints stand at 1 – 7, the exact same record as this time last year. I went to the tip off tournament in November expecting to see a returning lineup of experienced, veteran players with a big front line and a GNAC tested back court. It took less than two minutes into the first game of the season to realize that I didn't recognize ONE player on the court. All five players were brand new. I had to go out to the lobby to get a program to find out the names of the players wearing a Saints uniform.  The big front line that I was expecting to see were all gone, not even on the roster.  The experienced senior backcourt were still on the roster but buried deep on the bench.  There are ten new faces on the roster this year.   This is the third straight year that the roster has had more than a 70% makeover, and I was really caught by surprise to see so many  new players again this year.  I spent the better part of last season learning the names of  the seven new players on last year's team, and now six of those seven players from last year are no longer on the team.   This year I was hoping to see some growth and development  from the players who were in the starting line up on last year's team, especially the big men who would have all been upperclassmen this year, but they are all gone. If you are not Kentucky or Kansas how do you lose all the returning players from your previous year's starting lineup?  I guess that player development, teamwork, and good court chemistry take time to happen and constant roster changes make that difficult.  Eleven different players have been in the starting lineup so far this year and they have only played eight games.  To have multiple rebuilding years really hurts program continuity.   

     I was hoping to see an improvement in the three key areas that hurt the team last year, transition defense, 3 point shooting percentage,  and turnovers. Well, graduation really did help the turnover numbers, turnovers are down by an average of five per game with the new lineup.  However,   transition defense that has trouble containing driving lanes, and 3 point shooting percentage are still problems .  A new problem this year is shot selection, quick shots off the first pass in the front court, and lots of three point attempts not by offensive design that lead to opponents run outs and easy baskets at the other end of the court.  Why is it so difficult to have two or three ball reversals before looking for an open shot ?  If you have players with slasher / driver skill sets on the court why are you jacking up 16 – 19 three point shots per game?   The faces have changed but the results are the same.   Hopefully, all the new players will learn to play together quickly and they will get some better ball movement into their offensive possessions.  The second semester has to be better than the first.

[pjunito]

Paul,

Good insights from the Saints.. Where did the guys from last year go? Did they all transfer out? I know that many of the players from the previous teams were from out of state. But, it should be alarming to have so many new faces over the course of 3 years; especially in a weak conference and not getting to the semi-finals of the conference in at least 4 years.

What are your thoughts?

[Saint-Paul]

pjunito,  thank you for your reply and also for your questions.

    As far as last year's Saints team is concerned, to the best of my knowledge six of the seven recruited freshman quit the team and at least four of them transferred out of the school.  One junior, a center in the starting line up, quit the team after the 18 th game of the season. He was averaging 28 min per game and getting 14 & 8 per night.  He is still in school as a senior this year but not on the team.  Another junior guard quit the team after the  first game of the season but later returned and is currently sitting the bench as a senior. The junior center who quit left a big hole in the middle of the paint. He was shooting 56% from the field and clogging driving lanes at the defensive end of the court.  He presented a real low post threat and could draw double teams from the perimeter creating shot opportunities for other players. If the Saints had an athletic post player on the team this year who could score, rebound, and shoot 56%, I am sure that their record would not be 1 - 7.  I can think of at least 3 or 4 games they played so far this year where a post presence would have made a difference in the outcome.  Unfortunately, in the last four years this large volume of roster defections is the norm, not the exception. As a fan and an avid spectator I feel cheated not getting to watch incoming freshman grow and develop their skill sets.  The best part about watching college basketball is following the development of players thoughout their careers.  It is very satisfying as a fan to see timid freshman, afraid to shoot the ball,  mature into team leaders who make clutch baskets, pressure free throws, big defensive stops, and are suddenly willing to step in and take charging fouls to save a game. The growth and development aspect of the Saints program has been missing for at least four years now.

    As far as this year's team is concerned,  I think that the best game the Saints played so far was the 2 point loss to Emerson.  They played better in the loss to Emerson than they did in their one win over Westfield State.  In the Emerson game they only attempted 5 three point shots in the whole game, and ended up with 14 assists on 22 field goals, a very good ratio which shows that they were really moving the ball.  By limiting their three point attempts and  moving the ball better they got higher percentage shots, which really helped since they don't really have a pure shooter or a good three point shooter on the team.  Moving the ball slowed the game down and kept Emerson from getting easy run outs. It helped keep them in the game and all they needed was one more defensive stop to beat Emerson.

     I did not think that they played that well in their win over  Westfield State.  Westfield showed an even worse shot selection ( 38 3's attempted ) than the Saints ( only 10  3's attempted ) and compounded it by giving the Saints 45 free throws.  The Saints won by 8 points and scored 35 points from the free throw line, a gift from Westfield.  All the 3 point attempts by Westfield gave the Saints easy run outs at the other end of the court and made their shot selection much better than if they had to run their set offense.  A gift , but the saying goes in basketball " any win is a good win." We will take it.

[D3HoopJunkie]

Welcome to the Board Saint Paul, its great getting some insight from another team in the conference.

Its the night before the big game for the Falcons as they travel to D1 Central CT tomorrow to take on the Devils in a 1PM contest.

I am sure that the team will be in high spirits as well they should be. This is a great opportunity for Albertus to come out play extremely loose and have a ton of fun. From a fans perspective I need to be realistic and know that deep down this is going to be a very tough matchup for the Falcons. (Notice how I didn't use the L word there, I just cant do it)

Central is going to be ready and wanting to lay a beat down on a lower Division team after a rough start to there own season. For Albertus, if they can come out and knock down some three pointers and limit the second chance points for Central I really feel like they can stay in the game for a while. Ultimately the strength and size of Central will be the key factor in this game.

I still honestly believe that there isn't a player on Central capable of checking Darius as there guards are actually a little to small and there bigs are almost to big and slow. At 6-5 Darius is one of those in between players for his position that makes for an extremely tough matchup because of his ability to knock down 3's and at the same time take you right to the hole.

I also think that guard Eian Davis is more than capable of holding his own but as I mentioned earlier the interior and second chance points will be tough to stop for the Falcons. I just hope they come out and play there game and give the Devils a little scare before the New Years. Ultimately I think anything under 25 points would be an outstanding showing for the Falcons and I think they are more than capable of doing so

[D3HoopJunkie]

I cant begin to put into words what an effort the Albertus Falcons gave today in a tough tough loss to Division 1 Central CT State University. Final Score Central 85 Albertus 82. That is no typo there folks, just an outstanding performance overall from everybody on the team. Darius Watson was outstanding and Victor L looked like a monster out there against these D1 players.

Ill be the first one to admit that my prediction was completely off and I couldn't be happier. I thought Albertus needed to make a lot of outside shots to stay in the game and in actuality we had one of our worst performances from three on the year and actually outscored a much bigger Central team in the paint. Not only that but we OUTREBOUNDED them too. I really couldn't believe it. Central Coach Howie Dickenman,(who is a tremendous coach and has been a great leader of the Central program for many years) looked almost shocked on the sidelines and at some points just didn't know what to do. Coach Oliver coached his ass off. I was sitting on the opposite side of the benches but I could just tell in the huddles that the team was listening to Oliver and really believed they could win the game.

I'm not going to go through individual stats because you can all do that on your own but James Jennings hit a clutch 3 pointer to put the Falcons ahead with under a minute to go but unfortunately on the other end they had a defensive let down and allowed Central to drive right to the hoop and retake the lead. In the end Albertus wasn't able to get off a clean look at the hoop and the game came to completion.

This might result in a Loss on the schedule but by no means was this a Loss for the Albertus Magnus Program. Just a great game and a game that at the end of the season we can look back at and say that it was a special moment. And maybe now the New Haven Register or CT Post will start giving the Falcons a little love as the season goes on because everybody knows they have earned it.

Also I've never been one to look into the top 25 rankings, I never really thought they meant much but if the Falcons aren't in the Top 25 this week after this game then I really will not pay attention to them at all anymore because its a total waste.

Hats off to the Falcons and Coach Oliver. This is going to be a special year. Lets keep it going!!!!!!

[pjunito]

Paul,

Sounds like there might be an issue at Emmanuel. You can't lose that many freshmen without their being an issue. Either the coach did some poor recruiting or the players didn't want to play for him anymore. I think the GNAC would get so much more respect if we have Emmanuel and Lasell playing the way they did 6 years ago. I hope things turn around up there, I remember how frustrating it was to see Albertus struggle.

Keep us informed on how things shape up.

[pjunito]

Junkie,

After the first game of the year, a guy I respect told me this is the most talented team under Oliver and probably most talented ever at Albertus. Talent doesn't always mean the team will win, however. I believe it takes most teams 8-10 games to gel and find themselves; especially when you have new pieces. Well, after 8 games, I am impressed. The stats don't tell the whole story. Albertus was down for most of the game and down between 8 and 12. But, they never stopped fighting. Victor L was very impressive, if he plays like that the rest of the year. He will be first team GNAC. The played tough the entire game and was the better team the final 5 minutes of the game. This team could be a special one, still a lot of season left. But, if they play together and hard on the boards (something they've lacked since Askew graduated) they will be a tough out. I am also impressed with Jennings, he isn't afraid to have the ball in his hands. I think that will serve Albertus well as they play strong competition.

The Top 25 is a wonderful accomplishment for the team and also the school. A good recruiting tool also. But, I agree with you in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter. Albertus, if they continue to win, will crack the top 25, but I prefer for them to make a good run in the tournament this year and get more respect at the National and Regional levels.

Let's enjoy the next week and come back and root for the falcons second semester.

[GnacBballFan]

Junkie, pjunito,

Excellent posts as usual. I didn't have a chance to see the game today, some personal matters came up and totally missed the game. I can't tell you how proud I was to read the final score. This is Howie Dickenmann, the guy who almost upset Marcus Fizer/Jamal Tinsley Iowa st team led by Larry eustachy in the 99 ncaa tourney. But little albertus marches in to new Britain and took some shots early in the game, but never went down. A total confidence booster for this team. Victor can clearly be a mid major d1 player, as well as Watson and Davis being scholarship players at some school as well. But they are at albertus and what a trio they make.  I can't wait to see this team in person again since I only have seen them at Mitchell. Pjunito, whoever that guy was that told you that clearly was on point. I don't see any team competing with albertus in the gnac. I actually wish that weren't the case but albertus has completely taken their game to another level no team in the gnac has gone. I'll stop there. In the words of bill Simmons, "yea I'm a big time homer, but you have to admit I just made some pretty freaking good points." Go falcons

[GnacBballFan]

I emailed the new haven register editor, it's a sham they had no mention of this game. Meanwhile i found a yahoo article on the game. How's that work? Lol

Found this too

http://www.ccsufans.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2755