MBB: Great Northeast Athletic Conference

[D3HoopJunkie]

As am I Ferraro.....Believe me I am. I wont be celebrating anything till we punch our OWN ticket to the madness.

[lildave678]

Only caught the last 5 minutes of the 1st half and Vic was nowhere to be seen. Did he have foul trouble in the first half/whole game? I know Saint Paul always talks about Emmanuel's big going to work but did he do that much of a number on Vic?

And while we can keep pointing to us missing players and whatnot, to me this seems brutal on the defensive end and that's just lack of focus and hustle. If we only scored 60, 70 points I could absolutely see where missing James and Julian hurt us. But I don't care who we have on the floor...allowing Emmanuel to score 86 points before the OT period is unacceptable. Seems like they got the message in OT holding them to 3 points over the 5 minutes but come tourny time that'll be too little too late.

Davis and Sledge both played all 45. I was hoping these last couple of games they'd be able to take a load off! Guess not!

[Ferraro13]

At least one camera man got the shot


http://sportzedge.com/2015/02/17/tavon-sledge-hits-clutch-three-at-buzzer-albertus-magnus-completes-crazy-comeback-to-beat-emmanuel-in-ot/

[Ferraro13]

Jennings and sanders being missing is still a big worry on the offensive side. Don't care if we scored 99, it's a different Offemse without them. And when guys like Vic have an off night, last night, we struggle

[Ferraro13]

69 points with 4 mins left in regulation says a lot. Against Emmanuel. Hopefully they learn from it

[lildave678]

Crazy, exact same play except to the left side of the hoop instead of the right.

[Ferraro13]

Exactly Dave

[D3HoopJunkie]

Thanks for the link Ferraro!! As usual WTNH SportzEdge is one of the few news outlets who actually covers and seems to respect not just what Albertus is doing but all the small colleges and High Schools are doing in this part of the state. Hats off to them!

Guys I have to talk about this now after watching that video. Do the other Coaches in the GNAC even watch film of us play? How is this play not scouted by opposing coaches? I mean honestly not only this play but a number of our inbound plays under our own basket as well. Time after time play after play we continue to get open or easy looks at great opportunities. Albertus runs a couple really nice inbounds plays and we score virtually every single time. There not rocket science plays either, basic screen the screener, bubble screen plays and yet over and over again we convert. Believe me gentleman I am not complaining but how is it possible??? I know Coach Oliver is an absolute film junkie and studies and prepares for his opponents just about as much as any coach in D3 and that's not an understatement.

What are these guys doing in practice?? I don't know why but it just kills me because there have been many handshake lines over the last few season where the opposing coach is visibly upset with the score differential. I know in the past one coach even said we ran the score up and kept guys in the game that maybe we shouldn't have.  WE ARE AT THE COLLEGE LEVEL HERE!!! There is no such thing as running it up. Herm Edwards (and I hate the Jets and Herm) said it best, "You play to win the game" Period.

Prepare your team to play and this won't happen to you.

[D3HoopJunkie]

As stated before by the other posters it was the same exact play we ran against JWU!!! It was on Facebook and Twitter for God Sakes, Emmanuel must have seen it!!

[Saint-Paul]

In the past six seasons the Saints have suffered a lot of heart breaking losses, but none worse than last nights loss to Albertus.  The opportunity to upset a nationally ranked opponent doesn't come along very often and to cough up a 10 point lead with 3 minutes to go really hurts. Let's face it, the Saints only have 8 wins on the year and are not going any place, their only hope of salvaging this season is to play the role of spoiler, and they were not able to accomplish that.  There was a key play with 1:44 left in regulation that stands out.  The score was 79 - 73 and Albertus attempted a long out let pass up the right side line.  The Saints point guard stole the pass cleanly, and then for some unexplained reason, attacked the basket against not one, but TWO Albertus defenders.  I was waiting for him to pull the ball out, run the shot clock, and wait to get fouled, but that didn't happen, he tried to shoot the ball over the two defenders, fell down and traveled.  Albertus inbounded the ball, went down court and immediately hit a three.  I call that a negative 5 point play. That complete misunderstanding of how to play the game is why the Saints will never be a good team.  The coach should have been screaming " pull it out, pull it out " but that didn't happen.
    Some game notes that stood out were the fact that for the first time in six years the Saints did not try to full court press one of the most athletic teams in the country.  The finally played a tight 3 -2 zone with all defenders below the arc eliminating dribble penetration, making catches on the low post difficult, and most of all, putting them in good position for defensive rebounding.  I believe that defensive adjustment is what kept them in the game and avoided the early blow out that usually occurs.  Why it took six years to make that adjustment is a mystery.

   Early in the game the Saints threw in some outside shots that they don't normally make and caught Albertus by surprise.  I am not sure that was a good thing.  Yes, it kept the score close and gave them confidence, but it also reinforced that " shoot with out running any plays " mentality which I dislike so much.  Knocking down shots out of the flow of their offense would have kept the game at their pace and tempo.  The Saints shooting 42% kept them in the game but that doesn't happen very often.  I did not think the Albertus defenders showed the same intensity that they showed against JWU.  They were taking too many chances trying to steal passes instead of closing out shooters.  The Albertus defenders were not showing good defensive rotations.  When one defender stepped in to help on dribble penetration, no one rotated to pick up the helping defenders man.  That gave the Saints a lot of easy shots that helped keep their shooting percentage in the forties.

    One last question.  With 2.6 seconds remaining on the clock and the Saints holding a 3 point lead, why did they not commit a foul?  I believe it was still a 1 and 1 situation, not 2 shots.  On an inbounds play you are not even required to foul the player who catches the ball, all you have to do is hold any cutter, so you can almost choose who you want to shoot the free throws.  Little things that make a big difference.

   Now also to give credit to Albertus for not panicking in the last five minutes of regulation down 11 points.  Albertus continued to run their sets, get good looks, not take desperation threes, take advantage of the Emmanuel mistakes and play with the poise of a champion.  All that stuff will come into play again in the tournament, and showing that kind of clam, winning confidence will help.

[lildave678]

Also, another impressive win by Lasell as they beat St. Joe's by 17. However, GNAC leading scorer Steve Simonds did not play for St. Joes. That Arsenault kid hit 6 more 3's and the team had 14 total.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Dave McHugh will be happy to know Albertus trails Emmanuel by 10 with 7 to play. I know he enjoys watching Albertus struggle. This team isn't the same without Jennings, let alone Jennings and Sanders

You know what... this is BS. I don't enjoy watching AMC struggle. I don't enjoy watching anyone struggle. These are student-athletes playing a sport they love in a division I care deeply about and want to shine a light on as much as I possibly can. Struggling does nothing for me just as it does nothing for them. I went through an 0-17 soccer season in my collegiate career - it sucked, but I learned a lot from it. However, I don't want any student-athlete to struggle in a winless season or otherwise. In no way, shape, or form have I ever indicated I like watching Albertus struggle. I might comment that I don't think they are as good as others may think they are... but I have never had any glee in any team struggling including a rival. Do I take interest in seeing AMC have a nail-bitter of a game against Emmanual? Yes, because it tells me something about the team, the game, the opponent, the conference, etc. Would I have celebrated if AMC had lost... ABSOLUTELY NOT!

You can disagree with my point of view on AMC per how good they are and their out-of-conference scheduling... that is fine... but don't make any assumption I want to see them struggle. Student-athletes at AMC, Amherst, Coast Guard, Merchant Marine, Goucher, and even Caltech are all playing the sport because they love it... don't try and even pretend I think otherwise.

At least one camera man got the shot


http://sportzedge.com/2015/02/17/tavon-sledge-hits-clutch-three-at-buzzer-albertus-magnus-completes-crazy-comeback-to-beat-emmanuel-in-ot/

Great video, but someone should tell the sports guys that the longest home winning streak in all of college basketball belongs to the Amherst Lord Jeffs women's basketball team... well over 100 games now.

[lildave678]

Great video, but someone should tell the sports guys that the longest home winning streak in all of college basketball belongs to the Amherst Lord Jeffs women's basketball team... well over 100 games now.

No need to rain on our parade Is that streak current?

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

That streak is very current.

[Ferraro13]

Lol no one cares about women's sports