MBB: Great Northeast Athletic Conference

[Ferraro13]

Albertus runs away with it. They were up 30 and emptied the bench with 10 mins left. Sledge had a 360 dunk that the news channel 8 team most definitely got on camera. I'll post a link when it becomes avl

[falcons2010]

Emmanuel with a big win on the road... Can't wait to read Saint's thoughts.

[Saint-Paul]

Final Score Emmanuel  76 /  Anna Maria  73

     I had a feeling the Saints were going to win this game because Anna Maria has been struggling with the lower half teams in the GNAC the last few weeks, but I never expected the wild, wild, finish of this game.  With 26 seconds remaining and the the Saints holding a 2 point lead, 73 - 71, and the ball,  the Emmanuel coach called time out to set up a press break.  Emmanuel inbounded the ball and Anna Maria immediately stole the ball and attacked the basket for a lay up, but the Saints big man fouled the Amcat player and sent him to the free throw line.  With 15 seconds left Bradanese made both free throws to tie the game at 73.  Emmanuel again inbounded the ball and the Amcats AGAIN immediately stole the ball.  This time as the Amcat player started his dribble he lost control of the ball,  the ball bounced off a Saint player , the Amcat player, trying to recover the loose ball ran over the Saint player, fouling and sending him to the line with a tie score, and 10 seconds remaining.  The Saint player made one free throw, 74 - 73, but missed the second.  The Amcats rebounded the miss, pushed the ball up court to Bradanese, who drove the lane, drawing 3 Saint defenders.  Bradanese passed the ball across the lane to an open Amcat who fumbled the pass.  The loose ball fell right into the hands of a Saint guard who was immediately fouled with 2.5 seconds remaining.  This time the Saint player made both free throws,  76 - 73.  The Amcats long pass down court was successful but the 3 point shot at the buzzer fell short.  Wild game with an unpredictable finish, but this time of year it doesn't matter,  all the ball has to do is bounce in your direction and you live to play another day.   The Saints big man was a factor in two different ways.  In the first 8 minutes of the game he dominated the paint by scoring and rebounding.  For the rest of the game he was a factor because he was drawing 2 sometimes 3 Amcat defenders leaving perimeter players open all over the place.  With no hand in their face the Saint guards were able to make enough shots to keep the Amcats from putting together any kind of run.  The Saints shot 54% from the field, which is 20 % above their season average and that is because of the big man.  For the second game in a row the Saints played a tight 3 -2 zone and did not press or try to run with the Amcats.  Not sure why it took 6 years to figure that out.  Maybe he got tired of losing.  Next up is JWU, and I will not be predicting any upsets there but if the Saints follow their new found game plan at least they might keep within striking distance.

[Ferraro13]

Here's sledges 360 dunk tonight


http://sportzedge.com/2015/02/24/awesome-dunk-helps-albertus-magnus-roll-past-suffolk/


St. paul great post. Can enmaumel pull off the upset thurs in your opinion?

[lildave678]

Saint, along with your talk about the Emmanuel big drawing defenders...It's clear to see how Lasell got it going with the 3 ball late in the season. Once Marchand was back in the lineup for Lasell its obvious. Not many teams have a guy who can guard him one on one. He's certainly a load, and while I only watched the last 5 minutes of the 2nd half and OT it was clear that whenever he got the ball he was doubled and he'd do a nice job finding the open man almost 100% of the time for a 3.

[Saint-Paul]

Thursday's Games  -  No Upsets

Albertus  over  St Joe  -  should be a good game but I don't see St Joe pulling off any upsets.  The Albertus size and speed and pressure defense should be too much for St Joe to handle.  I see a 12 point win for Albertus  85  -  73.

JWU  over  Emmanuel  -  don't see the Saints pulling off another upset.  The JWU foot speed and pressure defense is going to cause a lot of problems for the Saints guards.  The JWU forward who covers the Saints big man is quick and very athletic and will neutralize the big man's points by running the floor for easy baskets.  The first two times these teams played this year were blow outs for JWU.  I think this game will be a little closer but I see a 15 point win for JWU  87 - 72.

Different Subject :  Yes I like the way Marchand plays for Lasell.  He has a soft touch around the basket, passes out of the double team very well, and doesn't force any shots.  He does two other things very well.  He sets great screens on the weak side of the court to get the Lasell guards open for skip passes.  And, he does very nice dribble hand offs with the Lasell guards at the top of the key.  Notice the nice foot work he uses after the dribble hand off, using the inside drop step to role to the basket.  All fundamentally sound plays.  He had good numbers last night, 18 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists.

Different Subject  :  With 2.5 seconds remaining in last nights game against the Amcats and the Saints holding a 3 point lead I could not believe the Emmanuel coach again did not take the foul.  He allowed the Amcats to complete a long pass up the right sideline and get a good look at an open 3 at the buzzer.  Fortunately it was not Bardanese or Delorey shooting the ball or he might have seen another overtime nightmare unfold.  Why is that such a hard decision to make?

[lildave678]

Has he not seen Albertus do it twice?! (albeit once was with the game tied so that doesn't count)

[D3HoopJunkie]

St. Joes is always a prepared team. I've said it before; Coach Sanicola is hands down the second best Coach in this league right behind Coach Oliver IMO. I am a little nervous about this matchup only because whenever you're facing a 3 Point shooting team anything can happen. However St. Joes relies heavily on Simonds and even if he drops 30 (which I doubt he will be able to do on our home court with Sledge matched up on him) it takes a complete team to beat this Falcons squad when all 5 starters consistently score in double figures and 2 of the 5 normally surpassing 20 PPG. I just don't see St. Joes having the horses to accomplish that feat.

St. Paul said it best in his preview of the game. Size, Speed and Pressure D will be the biggest factors in this game. Not to mention having to come into the "Nest" from Standish Maine on a Thursday night.

As for the other Semi-Final, the Saints have had a really nice run at the end of the seaso but JWU is just too strong. I hope the Saints can keep it competitive and have something to build on for the offseason but JWU has the ability to really blow this game open if the Saints arent prepared.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Final public men's basketball regional rankings are out: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3hoops/2015/02/25/final-public-ncaa-regional-rankings-released/

[lildave678]

Up 2 spots wahooooo, and a picture of Eian on the page!

[booyakasha]

If Albertus loses to St. Joes, do they get in the dance?

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

I would hope they do... but I am nervous they won't. That .473 SOS is killing them.

I have been suggesting people work from this benchmark: any team below .667 WL% or .500 SOS won't make the tournament as at-large selections. If they do, great. But set the expectation that they won't and go from there.

[lildave678]

Any speculation as to why we jumped Springfield and Bowdoin? Bowdoin I could see maybe the loss, but Springfield went 2-0 while we went 3-0 for the week.

And take that a step further, is there much of a difference in chances of getting in if we get to the finals and lose?

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

First off, the committees start from scratch each week... so they look at all the data again and start over ranking. They don't start from the previous week and move teams around.

That being said, I think the WL% is starting to be taken into account. Remember a few weeks ago I warned AMC would be low but could work themselves up into maybe the top five. That was based on the fact if they kept winning, despite a poor SOS, they would probably start moving up because other teams are losing and their WL% keeps improving. I think that is what we are seeing here. Eventually, you can't ignore the WL% despite a poor SOS. However on the flip side, you can't reward them overly because of that poor SOS. Also remember, while another team might go undefeated, their SOS number may go up or down. I can't remember off the top of my head or can I find it quickly, but there is a chance Springfield's SOS numbers fell because of who they played in conference. I think they are done with the big WL% opponents in their conference and have been playing more teams on the bottom. As a result, the difference in SOS becomes possibly smaller when compared to AMC.

As for making the championship and losing... I still don't think AMC wants to be in that situation. Playing in the conference tournament will slightly improve their SOS, but I doubt it gets above .500 at this point (if it does - great). Just don't chance it and win the AQ. I really don't want to see AMC on a Pool C bubble especially if there are a lot of upsets this season.

[lildave678]

Thanks for the info as always! +1