MBB: State University of New York Athletic Conference

[Ethelred the Unready]

.I think buff st is a very young team that will be in the top 5 by the end of the season if everyone stays eligible.

  I can't speak for any BENGALS team that preceeded the 04-05 season, but since Fajri Ansari became coach (in 2005) there has NEVER been a player removed from the team because of eligibility problems. Coach Ansari has kicked players off the team (who's attitude/demeanor did not meet B.S.C. BENGAL standards)  but please don't confuse that with ineligibility. So I'm not sure where the "if everyone stays eligible" comment is coming from . Hopefully you don't have Buff State confused with New Paltz (both do have orange in their team colors).

  I too agree that the BENGALS should finish in the top 5! Too bad their, BENGALS, game vs. D-2 Point Park was cancelled tonite (Bad Weather in Buffalo...surprised?). However this Saturday's contest versus D-1 University of Buffalo (08-09 MAC Championship game participant and MAC Eastern Conference Champ) should give the BENGAL faithful an opportunity to see the entire team together for the first time this season!

Just a point of clarification, Point Park is an NAIA DII program

[FreddyState]

Fredonia State beats Worchester State 75-73 in the first round of the RIT tournament.  Brad Cooper had 28 and 7 rebounds for Fredonia.  Julius Bryant also contributed 24 points while James Kane had 10 boards and 8 points.  Fredonia moves to 3-3 and has won 3 straight.

[magicman]

Potsdam State hangs with visiting Ithaca for the 1st 20 minutes only down 40-38 at the half, but the Bombers inside game proves to be too much for the Bears to overcome and they fall 92-77. Bears placed 4 in double figures led by Ben Walker with 22 pts(9x15 fg,1x3 3's, 3x6 ft) and Orlando Minott with 15(7x11 fg). Ed Cross added 12 pts hitting 4 of 6 from behind the arc and Skip Schwartz chipped in with 11 pts(4x8fg, 3x6 3's).

Bomber's Phil Barera goes 16x18 from the field and leads all scorers with 33 pts. He also was the game's top rebounder with 9.  Sean Rossi had 18 pts with 7 assists and Eli Maravich has 12 pts on 5x7 fg. Both Chris Cruz-Rivas and Andrei Oztemel added 10 pts.

Bears shot 31x64 from the field (48.4%), while the Bombers hit 39x65 (60%).
Bombers grabbed 41 rebounds to 27 for Potsdam.

Potsdam now off until they visit Fredonia and Buffalo St. on Jan 8th and 9th.    

[magicman]

Oneonta St. tops visiting Utica College 66-52 Saturday night to up their record to 6-1. Utica scored the game's first basket and led early on 7-4 but that was the last time they would have the lead. The Red Dragons powered by Michael Grimes, who scored 13 straight points for his team, took control and never looked back. Up 25-15 with 7:37 left to play in the half, the Pioneers narrowed the gap to 4 at 25-21, but Oneonta closed out the period with a 12-2 run to go into the break up 37-23. Red Dragons continued to build on their lead until it reached 21 on several different ocassions and the best Utica could do was narrow it to 12 late in the game. Grimes posted a double-double as he led all scorers with 21 pts,(8x18 fg, 3x6 3's, 2x3 ft) 10 rebounds, and 3 assists. Brian Beckford also had a double-double with 10 pts, 11 boards, 3 assists, 4 steals and 2 blocks.

The Pioneers were led by James Paterson with 18 pts,(5x10 fg, 3x5 3's, 5x6) and Patrick Goodman with 12 pts.

Oneonta tries for a Utica sweep as they travel to Florida and take on SUNYIT in the opening round of the ECAC Holiday Festival at Disney World in Orlando on Dec. 21st . The next day they take on Wheaton (Mass).           

[magicman]

Fredonia State loses a close one to Fisher College(Mass) 72-71 in the Championship game of the Brodie Tournament at RIT. After Fredonia claims the lead 71-70 with 16 seconds left Fisher gets a layup at the buzzer to claim the tournament title.

[jdex]

Cortland guns down SUNYIT 78-61 at home, galloping to 44-32 halftime lead on 8x12 3pters. Fr J. Winter with 16 first half pts, finishes with 21(7x13fg, 4x8 3s), 6 assts, 6 rebs; fr J. LaMont 16 pts(5x11fg, 4x9 3s; P. Oliver 12 pts(6x9fg), 5 rebs; fr J. Smith 10 pts(2x4 3s); B. Nagle 9 rebs. CSt 28fg, 13x29 3s. Dragons 6-2 and meet Clarkson on 1/6. SUNIT also 6-2. D. Brown 21 pts(8x18fg); R. Charles 16 pts(7x14fg), 8 rebs; D. Goliembowski 15 pts(6x16fg) after 4 pt first half, 19 rebs. IT 23x72fg, 4x26 3s

[jdex]

Oswego destroys Cazenovia 109-59. Lakers build on 53-23 lead at half. Shoot 46x75fg paced by C. Burridge 20 pts(9x12fg) in 24'; J. Uribe 17 pts(5x7fg), 6 reb in 17'; S. Francois 16 pts(6x8fg); C. Gilkes 13 pts(6x10fg), 10 rebs in 17'; B. Nollet 12 pts(6x9fg), 7 rebs in 22'; C. Monaghan 10 pts, 6 rebs, 4 asts; R. Sheridan 5 assts. OSt 4-3, Caz 0-9

[magicman]

Oneonta defeats SUNYIT 78-67 at the ECAC Holiday Festival at Disney World in Florida. SUNYIT hits a 3 pointer to open the game and the Red Dragons counter with a 9-0 run and are never headed. Oneonta stretches lead to 15 with 7:39 to play in the 1st half and settle for a 37-25 lead at the break. Wildcats narrow the gap to 6 early in the 2nd half but Red Dragons go on a 16-2 spurt to open up a 20 pt advantage and coast to the win. Four Red dragon players scored in double figures led by Brian Hooks with 18, who hit 6 of 10 from 3 pt. land. Brian Beckford had a double-double with 17 pts and 10 rebounds along with 5 assists. Derek Hahn had 15 pts on 4x7 fg, and 7x9 ft. Mike Grimes added 10 pts and 6 boards.
Oneonta shot 27x55 from the field, 8x18 from behind the arc, and 16x25 from the line.
SUNYIT also placed 4 guys in double digits led by Floyd Thorne who was the game's high scorer with 19 pts. Aaron Swancott had 14, David Golembiowski and Kevin Cappiello chipped in with 11 each.

Oneonta moves to 7-1 on the season and tomorrow will take on Wheaton(Mass) also at Disney World in a 10 AM start.

SUNYIT drops to 6-3 and will face the same Wheaton (Mass) team on Wed. Dec 23rd at 10 AM. 

[magicman]

Oneonta St. moves to 8-1 with a 78-68 win over Wheaton College(Mass). Red Dragons led by Michael Grimes and Brian Beckford with 18 points each. Grimes grabbed 8 boards and Beckford had 7. Troy Talbot added 17 pts and 6 assists.
Dragons up by 3 at the break and after back & forth action early in the 2nd period grabbed the lead for good with 15:57 to play. Lead was extended to 14 but Wheaton came back to close within 5 with about a minute left. Red Dragons hit 7 of 10 free throws to close out the game.
Oneonta is off until Jan 8th when they resume conference play with a big game at Brockport St.

[Balencesto]

 :)Where did Nick Baez end up?  I thought he was going to Potsdam, Fisher or somewhere in Ohio.  He seemed like he'd be a good college player if he settled on playing 3 or 4. 

[magicman]

Geneseo travels to the state of Washington and drops a 77-65 decision to Division II St.  Martin's. Blue Knights fall to 1-4 on the season.

[jdex]

Geneseo beaten 75-63 by ranked (16th) D-2 Western Washington (WA). Latter's Vikes 13-1 with 12 straight Ws. Have Gens down 42-26 at half and finish 10x24 3s. Up 19 midway into final period. Knight B. Simpson 19 pts(9x21fg), 13 rebs in 35'; K. Stevens 10 pts(4x8fg). Gens 26x58 3s, 2x6 3s. Interesting winter's journey for game pair!

Cortland 2-0 (6-2), Plattsburgh 2-0 (7-1), Fredonia 1-0 (3-4), Brockport 1-1 (4-2), Geneseo 1-1 (1-5), New Paltz 1-1 (5-3), Oneonta 1-1 (8-1), Buffalo St. 0-1 (1-4), Oswego 0-2 (4-3), Potsdam 0-2 (1-6)

Some interesting Tuesday matchups though we don't see lone YAC test -- Gens at Port, as one. Three others worth eyeing -- Buffs at Bart, Pburgh at Middlebury, Oswegos at Larries

Corts resume Wednesday at Clarkson. Like pair of Friday goes -- Oneontas at Port, Pburgh at Buffs. And Corts have a Saturday date at Oswego, whose Lakers on paper appear to have the goods but stumbled at  home to maybe mediocre Freds (though Cooper & Co. certainly could prove me wrong!)

This early from one view........ Burgh's Cards and Dragons of OSt front and center by a shade over Dragons of CSt

[magicman]

Plattsburgh State becomes the 1st SUNYAC team to get a mention in the D3hoops top 25 poll this year. The Cardinals got 2 points in the ORV category. Tough road game for Plattsburgh later on today as they travel to Middlebury to take on the undefeated and #7 ranked Panthers, who are off to their best start in school history at 9-0. Plattsburgh lost a close one at home last year to Middlebury 68-64 and the game hinged on a disputed offensive goaltending call against the Cardinals with about a minute left to play. Wish I could predict a Cardinal win but Panthers start a  6'10', 6'8", 6"4" frontcourt and a 6'4", 6'3" backcourt. They average 74 ppg and are only allowing 54 ppg. Plattsburgh is coming off a month- long layoff and might show some signs of rust. The Panthers meanwhile beat both RPI and Hamilton College by double digits in the past week and seem to be firing on all cylinders. Have to give the edge to Middlebury at home but hope I'm wrong. Going to make the trip over and see the game unless the light snow they predicted turns into something more. Have to cross Lake Champlain by ferry and travel through Burlington Vermont as NY State blew up the Crown Point bridge last week. Burlington only got 33 inches of snow on Monday. Largest snowfall in history for them.     

[with age came?]

Root'em on home to a victory Magic!!! Go Cards - Upstate NY needs a ranked team!!!

[magicman]

Root'em on home to a victory Magic!!! Go Cards - Upstate NY needs a ranked team!!!

with age
Thanks for the support. Wish we could have pulled it off. 2 good teams going at it tonight . At least the game was worth the trip.
This is a copy of a post I did on the Top 25 Talk board after I got home.

Here's an update on my previous post as I just returned from the Middlebury-Plattsburgh State game. I didn't get the outcome I wanted as the Panthers won the game 81-75. I did get the margin of victory correct but the score was higher than I guessed due in part to the large number of fouls that were called in the 2nd half. Both of these teams are solid clubs and I'll go out on a limb and predict that Middlebury will win the NESCAC regular season crown and Plattsburgh will win the SUNYAC regular season title. They may get upset in their respective conference tournaments but both should be in the running for Pool C bids in their regions if that happens.

Not many teams in D3, if any, are going to field a bigger lineup than the one that the Panthers put on the floor. (See above post) These guys aren't just big, they're mobile, they play solid D, run the floor well, and help each other out on defense. Offensively they have a ton of weapons and rotate the ball to find the open shooter or find the mismatches inside. All of their bigs have decent post moves and a smooth shooting touch around the basket. The 3 guard rotation of Edwards, Thompson, and Wolfin scored 10, 15, and 7 pts in that order. They teamed up for 11 assists, 8 rebounds, 4 steals, and only turned the ball over 5 times in 86 minutes of play. This team reminds me of the Amherst team of 2 years ago that went to the Final Four. I saw that Lord Jeff team play twice when they defeated Richard Stockton in the round of 16 and Brandeis in the quarterfinals and there is a lot of similarity. Ryan Sharry had a great game tonight leading the Panthers with 18 points and 12 rebounds. This kid has potential All American written all over him. Should be fun to watch for the next 2 1/2 years. Small forward Ryan Wholey also had a solid game with 13 points and 6 boards. The really  big guy, Locke, scored 7 points, 6 rebounds, 5 blocks and 2 steals. The one negative about Locke is his poor free throw shooting. He's only averaging 36% from the line and tonight he continued that trend hitting just 3 of 8 attempts. The Panthers bench was a little shorter tonight due to the closeness of the game as they couldn't really put the Cardinals away. Normally Middlebury has had 10 guys get double minutes in playing time but tonight other than the above 6 only Jamal Davis had meaningful minutes, scoring 8 points and grabbing 4 boards before fouling out in 17 minutes of action.

Plattsburgh State starting lineup was Jr. F 6'6" Errol Daniyan, Sr. F 6'4" Danny Tangney, Jr. G 6'4" Chris Ruiz, Jr. G 6'2" Steve Thomas and So. G 5'10" Ketema Brooks. Despite the size differential the Cardinals were only outrebounded 42-39. The 1st half of this game started slowly as both teams missed a number of chances but the Panthers were up by 5, 11-6 after 6 1/2 minutes of play. The Cardinals came back with a 13-3 run to grab a 19-14 advantage with 6:57 to play in the half and maintained the lead until the 3:53 mark when the Panthers retook the lead and with the score 35-34 the Panthers hit a big 3 right before the buzzer to go into the break up 38-34.
Cardinals scored the 1st 4 pts of the 2nd period to tie it up at 38 but then went cold and couldn't buy a bucket. They went scoreless over the next 6:30 while the Panthers reeled off 16 unanswered points. Middlebury extended their advantage to the games largest lead of 17 points at 57-40 with 11:11 left to play. Plattsburgh went to its' trapping full court press and gradually climbed back into the game and twice cut it to 7 pts only to have the Panthers build it back to 11 with 4:07 remaining. One last surge got the Cardinals within 5 at 74-69 with 1:44 to go but a turnover on their next possession and a Middlebury bucket made it 76-69 and the Panthers hit 5 of 8 free throws down the stretch to close out the game.
Plattsburgh's Daniyan led all scorers with 23 pts and 12 rebounds(Last year against the Panthers he scored 29). Chris Ruiz was the only other Cardinal to hit double figures with 19 pts and 6 boards. Steve Thomas added 9 pts and 7 rebounds. Plattsburgh showed a lot of heart to get back into this game. They expended an enormous amount of energy with their trap press in the last quarter of play and came up a little short on a highly ranked team's home court. If there is such a thing as a good loss, this was one. In speaking with Plattsburgh's Coach Curle earlier he stated, "I know the ramifications of the Middlebury game can have an impact on the national scene, but also want the team to know the real season starts next weekend when we travel to Buffalo for the first of 16 remaining conference games."

Regarding earlier discussion about Middlebury's lofty ranking. I can't say it's too high or too low because I haven't seen any of the other ranked teams, but this is a good basketball team and based on the quality of highly ranked teams I've seen in past years I have to believe they deserve their place in the top 10. And Plattsburgh despite the loss tonight has shown they can play with a team at this level and perhaps should merit some consideration in the national poll.