MBB: State University of New York Athletic Conference

[jbl2006]

Oswego 76- Postdam-60
Ithaca 77-Brockport-75

Oswego vs Ithaca at 2:00 pm.

Oswego wins by 8 points or more.

[cstate19]

thank you the bear.........who cares who was practicing in the AUD..its a bad venue regardless......as for cortland..........gotta hit some FT's to beat Tufts.......from what i saw??? sunyac has no athletes....UMass Boston was a bad team but athletic..gave cortland problems........but the better team won out........i would like to see the get Rodney some more touches.........good crowd tonight bear........shoulda been there

[thebear]

Cstate & jdex - congrats to Dragons for getting through to round 2.

If I had gone anywhere last night, it would have been to Oswego, but wifey prevailed and I stayed here and spared my self driving 7 hours in high winds and patches of whiteouts.

Tufts coach is Bob Sheldon Jr.  North Country native and former SLU player, son of SLU's retired AD.  Veteran of upstate NY basketball wars before becoming the head man at Tufts.

I disagree about SUNYAC not being athletic.  There are pockets of athleticism, SUNYIT has several great athletes, Buff State has several, Plattsburgh has at least four very athletic players.  Others that come to mind are Mims, Barton, Amparo, Kitson; Potsdam has at least three very athletic NYC frosh;  but the physical nature of SUNYAC play, inconsistency by zebras (travels and ticky-tack rebounding fouls) and excellent coaching in the league tend to mitigate the ability of athletes to dominate games during the regular season.   

Cortland, I would say has at least 6 excellent basketball players, but they could struggle against a team with a lot of quickness and great ups.  Span is a terrific coach, and played himself against great athletes when the SUNYAC was a player on the national D-III scene, so he knows how to work around his team's limitations. 

Bears finished their season last night.  Per their pattern in recent years struggled at Laker Hall with their shooting, got open looks and couldn't knock them down.  Also struggled from the FT line, which was 10 points of the final margin.  Perioli has come out of a slump in the last two games, and Lakers are a much better team when he's scoring. 

Lakers are probably kicking themselves over their SUNYAC loss to Plattsburgh, as they probably had a clear shot to an NCAA bid if they hadn't melted down.


Bears will have big holes to fill with departure of Barton - nearly 1200 pts, over 700 rebounds, 200 assists in just three years, and Ducena, who is the all time school leader in 3 pt FG% at ~44%.  Two freshman started and a third was the 6th man, Dobb's needs to recruit some size and depth at a couple of spots to stay in the SUNYAC first division.

Signing off until next November.  Good Luck to Corts, Hamilton, Utica, and Fisher in the NCAA's

The BEAR

[gobombers15]

As an Ithaca fan, would someone go tell the Oswego players that tonight is a huge game and their tourney hopes hinge on it. I figure that's the best way to make them play terrible.

[cstate19]

Your right there are pockets of athleticism but not much.  Case in point, tonight Frank goes up for a layup misses it, gets his own board goes up again and has it blocked.  In a SUNYAC game thats an easy putback for him.  Span did a good job coaching tonight, especially when we looked lost against the press early.  Like I said tonight will be tough, gotta hit their FT's.  A win is a win though.

[bearseh]

Yo bear...

My wifey prevailed and we did go to Oswego for the SoWhatWhoCares semis rather than Cort for the tournament. Yours made a wise decision. Mine didn't. Next time we coin toss for a basketball decision we're using my coin.

Major snooze in the barren north. Think a 2 pointer is entertaining? Ithaca and B'Port proved otherwise. Poorly played throughout. Only redeeming value was Ithaca's Bellis scoring from just inside the foul line with seconds on the clock for the win. He's a class act and played well all night. Two Bomber frosh, Burton and Bostic, also played solid minutes.

Brockport notable - with about 11 min to go, the Eagles, for the perhaps the first time this year, played aggressive man-to-man for 34 consecutive seconds. Yet, just before the shot clock expired, Sean Burton threw up a line drive jumper from the line and scored. He didn't call the bank, but was still counted With those results, perhaps it's understandable why the Eagles just didn't bother playing D this season.

The most entertaining aspect of Potsdam/Oswego was the lead article in the campus newpaper, The Oswegonian, re: Board of Regents member Candace deBussey. Seems she has her undies in a bundle about a sex toy workshop The Womens Center is sponsoring on campus. Candace has once again forgotton that the campus is, for the most part, populated by adults who, from time to time, exercise free speech, and that the student association $$$ for the lecture actually is wholly contributed by the students. Had she seen the game, she might be more inclined to prohibit ball (of the basket variety) on campus.

As you know, Potsdam didn't show up - and coupled with the Lakers uncanny ability to win completely meaningless games...had a blowout by the half. 2nd half was played even, i.e. both played mediocre. Oswego's Roberson (6-3) was awarded the Trash Talker Least Able to Back It Up Award for jawing at Potsdam's Mitchell (5-7) after he actually scored over him. The mouth was one and done during that scoring spree when Broderick put him back on the pines after "I am the Greatest" hoisted a brick from 3 on the Lakers next possession. The Lakers Downing (23) did his best to wrest the Most Visible Underwear Award from Plattsburg's G-S, but I still give it to the North Country favorite based on the Cards NCAA appearance - while Downing only flashes in the minors. Props to Mat Burridge - plays extremely hard every night.

Given the importance of Saturday's final, Oswego by 20.

Always a pleasure viewing your posts. Very scary when opinions are fact-based. Clearly, mine aren't!

Hoping for the best from the Dragons tonight!

Anyone needing a ride to the Final Four in Salem, drop an email.

[KING]

Cstate19.. what do you know about bad venues or athletes   You have never played a min. of competitive basketball in your life!  The sunyac has players that can play with some of the top players in the country at this level.  I was at the Cortland game as well last night and totally disagree about getting the ball to headly more.  He is at his best when he makes something out of nothing, O glass rebs. and put backs, steals and starting the transition game.  Over his carrier at Cortland, when he has high pt total games, Cortland losses!  That is bc the real money players were not on, in return costing them the game.  Cortland did come out flat and nervous though, hopefully this will not continue tonight, if it does it might end the season.  FTs will be very important along with turnovers, just like any sport when the postseason comes.... Whoever has less turnovers needs to play very bad to not win.  One thing they might be able to do against Tuffs is get out and run with the bigs, no substitute for easy buckets and free points for running the floor.  Another key point to look for in the game is the outside shooting of Cortland.  They have yet to have ANY player hit the 3 ball with any kind of consistency when the game is tight.  Even last night it was brick central until it was a double-digit lead and the pressure was off of the snipers.  Jdex I agree... maybe not one of the best Cstate teams of all time, but they do know how to win! Hope it continues tonight.

[bamm]

Cortland down 14-3 in the early going.  Ouch.

You can actually watch the game here:

http://www.jumbocast.net/index.php

[bamm]

Tufts - 20
Cortland - 18

4:30 left

[cstate19]

your right about not hitting any 3's ..........we prolly need you out there Kirch........maybe you meant career? carrier is the dome i will be at rooting on the cuse today........LET'S GO ORANGE!

[gobombers15]

Maybe the word "Championship" next to "ECAC" really scared Oswego into choking last night. Congrats on a great career to the Oswego seniors and kudos to the Bombers for surprising everyone and taking home the ECAC championship.

[KING]

cortland played a great game last night and just came up short.  best game i've ever seen them play in recent years.  Simon played like an all-american, and taggart played one of his best ever as well.  came up just short but to a very solid Tuffs team who had to earn everything they got last night.  best team in my eyes won the game, but great year Cortland!

[bearnation]

I have to give a call out to an old rival.  I know that SUNY Albany is now Division I but once upon a time they were Potsdam's greatest rival.  Doc Sauers vs Jerry Welsh.  There was never an empty seat when these two schools played.  Albany is one win away from a trip to the big dance and I wish them Great Luck.  The one big question that remains after all these years,  Would the win streak have been 60 games if the Albany/Potsdam game hadn't been cancelled because of the measles at Albany?  This is the first time I will be cheering for the Danes because I always love when David is giving a chance.

[owen]

Oh yeah. I remember those Albany v Potsdam games of the '70s and '80s. Those were like wars. It'll be sort of cool to see a SUNY school in the Div I NCAA tournament.

[assassin]

Now that all of the SUNYAC teams have officially concluded their seasons, let's start looking ahead towards next season prognistications.  Who are the early season favorites to win the YAC, and who are the early favorites for some of the individual honors.  As far as teams are concerned, I think that you have to look at these teams, in no particular order, as the early favorites with what they have coming back:


           OSWEGO:  Basically everyone is back except for Mims.

           GENESEO:  Everyone returns with no seniors on the roster this season.
                             That includes ROY Morton, and hopefully a healthy McDonnell.

           BROCKPORT:  I know Belluci and Cheves are gone, but they do have       
                                 Rother and a nice cast of Vanilla Ice's and Eminem's to go
                                 along with them.  Also, they may have a few guys coming
                                 off of suspensions (Harris and Williams).

           SUNYIT:  Good cast of athletic, explosive returning guards coming back
                          and you know Murphy will bring in some more talent.

Potsdam has to be right there as well with Brown and a nice group of returning young guys.  Plattsburgh too, with Williams, Dietz, Gorham, and co.

As far as Preseason Picks for AC go, here goes:

1st team:  Perioli-Oswego
                 Reaves-SUNYIT
                 Morton-Geneseo
                 Burridge-Oswego
                 Hedley-Cortland

2nd team:  Brown-Potsdam
                  Williams-Plattsburgh
                  Rother-Bport
                  Mozelle-B State
                  Gorham-Plattsburgh

HM:  Bien Amine-IT
        McDonnell-Geneseo
        Spears-Geneseo
        Laboard-IT
        Maggiacomo-Cortland
        Alassari-Fredonia
        Murphy-Oneonta