MBB: State University of New York Athletic Conference

[magicman]

SUNYAC semifinals at Oswego State Friday Feb. 25th

Semifinal #1 6 PM

#2 Buffalo State vs #3 Plattsburgh


Semifinal #2 8 PM

#1 Oswego State vs #4 Brockport State

Championship Game at Oswego State

Saturday Feb. 26th Time is 4 PM     Now giving the time of this game on the SUNYAC
                                                        website as 4 PM.

[magicman]

You know I just may mosey on over to Oswego and root for my "new old coach's" team.  Don't worry Magic I'll root for Plattsburgh to get to the finals too!!  Know you'll know this - I assume the final is held on Saturday at Oswego no matter who the contestants are?!  Am really glad to see some SUNYAC representation on the d-3 top five poll.  Didn't check the pollsters poll yet.  Be interested to see in "some love" is shown over there too from anyone other than the Magicman!

with age,
Yes the final is also held at Oswego, so now you need to get a hotel room and spend the night. I'm thinking of going myself but my wife is telling me there's going to be a snowstorm on Friday.  

I gave the Lakers just enough love on the Posters' Poll. I have them at #17 (I moved them up 1 spot from last week) and it was just enough to get them into the Top 25 there.  They are still not getting a whole lotta love though as 6 of the 12 voters have them unranked. I figured once I brought up their longest winning streak in the country stuff more guys would take notice and they did but some guys still need convincing.   

[magicman]

The following link is for an article that was posted on the SUNYAC website. It was a story that appeared in the Buffalo News on February 21st. It is a story about Jake Simmons who was last year's SUNYAC Rookie of the Year and current SUNYAC scoring leader. Take the time to read it.

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article347508.ece

[magicman]

A quick recap of the Oswego State-Potsdam game that was won by the Lakers 64-50.

The Lakers trailed 3-2 and 5-4, when tied at 7-7 at the 14:23 mark they erupted for a 17-3 run that gave them a 24-10 lead with 6:28 to play in the half. The Bears cut it to 27-22 but Ryan Sheridan hit a layup at the buzzer and the Lakers took a 7 point lead at the half. Potsdam hung around for the 1st 5 minutes of the 2nd period but the Lakers regained a double digit lead that once again reached 14 points with 12: 30 left to play. It reached as much as 18 and was never less than 12 from that point on.

The Bears had 2 players that reached double figures. Curtis Pierce was the games' high scorer with 18 points (8x17 fg, 2x3 ft) and 7 rebounds. Tony Efese had 11 points (5x10 fg, 1x5 3's) and 6 boards.

Lakers scoring leader was Conor Monaghan with 15 points (5x9 fg, 2x4 3's, 3x3 ft). Hayden Ward was the major contributor of the night as he had a double-double of 12 points (4x8 fg, 2x2 3's, 2x2 ft) and 13 rebounds, 5 of them on the offensive end. Chad Burridge added 13 points (4x10 fg, 0x2 3's, 5x7 ft) and 4 rebounds. The Bears won the rebounding battle 36-28 but also had 18 turnovers to only 12 for Oswego.

Bear's season comes to an end but the outlook with all those freshmen and sophomores seems promising.

Oswego improves to 23-3 and stretches their winning streak to 16 games which is the nation's longest as they pass Salem State's 15 game winning streak.

Oswego has beaten Friday's opponent, Brockport, twice this season but both games have been close as the Lakers took a 3 point decision in Brockport 74-71 before winning at home last weekend 69-61. I expect another closely contested game on Friday evening.      

[magicman]

Brockport got a solid effort from the entire starting five as they all ended up with double figures as they defeated Oneonta 84-75 Tuesday night. Gerald Williams led all scorers with 21 points as he hit on 7 of 12 shots from the field. Zack McTigue had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds while  Kyheem Green and freshman Jon Ivy both had 17 points. The other starter Derek Klein added 12 points.

The Golden Eagles opened up a sizeable lead 6 minutes into the game as they got 11 points from McTigue in tghe first half and his jumper gave then a 20-6 edge with 13:56 to play. The Red Dragons came back and cut the lead to 6 on 3 occasions in the half but went into the break down by 11 at  43-32.
Port came out to start the 2nd period and had two big dunks by Kyheem Green in the first  40 seconds of play but Derek Hahn responded with one of his own for Oneonta and rather than fall further behind after those dunks by Brockport Oneonta instead narrowed a 13 point deficit all the way down to 2 at 51-49 with 14:41 left to play. Butr that was their high water mark as the Eagles quickly built the lead back to 9 in less than a minute and the game never got closer than 2 possessions the rest of the way.

Ononta was led by Troy Talbot with 18 points and 5 assists. Derek Hahn added 14 points and got another double-double with 15 rebounds as well. Brian Hooks chipped in with 12 points as he hit a trio of 3 pointers.

Oneonta's season comes to an end, while Brockport has to figure out a way to get by the Lakers in their 3rd meeting on Friday night.   

[Bengalsrule]

The following link is for an article that was posted on the SUNYAC website. It was a story that appeared in the Buffalo News on February 21st. It is a story about Jake Simmons who was last year's SUNYAC Rookie of the Year and current SUNYAC scoring leader. Take the time to read it.

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article347508.ece

I second that suggestion!!! The story may bring a tear to your eye.

[Bengalsrule]

The East Looks Like this:

Rochester (UAA) - 25th in D-III
Ithaca (E8) 41 in D-III
Oswego (SUNYAC) 53 in D-III
Stevens (E8) 70 in D-III
Hobart (LL) 71 in D-III
RPI (LL) 74 in D-III
Buff State (SUNYAC) 112 in D-III
Skidmore (LL) 120 in D-III

My Take:

AQ - Rochester
Ithaca In
Oswego In
Stevens In (AD on Selection Committee)
Hobart LL Winner In, other team on Bubble
RPI LL Winner In, other team on Bubble

AMCC - Medaille is in 3rd, but PS-Behrend is just over the border, could easily be moved into the East.
NEAC - SUNYIT is the 2 seed, but much better at home than on the road

I think Buff State is a bubble team.  Will need to at least make the SUNYAC finals to get a pool C bid, and that may be a push with the strength of Western New England teams & Keystone & PS-Behrend (close PA teams) in the mix as well. 

Any upset in the conference tournament, some team getting the AQ other than Ithaca/Stevens, Hobart/RPI or Oswego/Buff State further hurts the Bengals chances.

The way the SOS calc works, road losses to sub 500 teams, really kill your SOS rating, and Buff State dropped games to sub .500 Oneonta & New Paltz back in January. 

SUNYAC tourney starts tonight.  GO BEARS

Bear,
When the new regional rankings come out on Wednesday afternoon I think they might look like this:

1. Oswego State
2. Rochester
3. Ithaca
4. Stevens
5. Hobart
6. Buffalo State

I don't know if Buffalo State can get a Pool C bid  or not. I think it would need to be an almost perfect combination of occurrences for that to happen. Rochester already has a Pool A bid as we know and if Buffalo State is hoping for a Pool C then we have to assume Oswego won the SUNYAC. The Bengals have to hope that Hobart wins the Liberty League bid and not RPI. They would also need Ithaca to win the E8 bid and hope Stevens loses in the semis and doesn't make the championship game. Buffalo State has to beat Plattsburgh on Friday night and a loss to Oswego on Saturday would give them a 17-7 regional record. A first round loss on Friday by Stevens would leave them with an 18-7 regional record, 1 game better than the Bengals but the 1st round loss by Stevens might give the edge to the Bengals. I doubt it will but you never know. Hamilton was looking good for a Pool C a couple of years ago, then lost in the semifinals of the LL tournament and got bypassed by the selection committee. If there are 2 teams selected from the East and all of the above teams get the Pool A bid then Stevens and Buffalo State might both get in. The bigger problem is that all the other Pool A bids need to go to a whole bunch of favorites because if teams like  Augustana, Becker, Ramapo, Concordia(Wis), St. Norbert, Franklin & Marshall, and Ferrum, just to mention a few, get upset in their tournaments they'll eat up a lot of those 18 Pool C bids and the East might only get 1 team with an at large selection. Most of those teams I just mentioned are from conferences that, like the SUNYAC, will most likely only get 1 bid. But if the favorites get upset then two teams will make it but those upset favorites will take a lot of Pool C bids away from teams that are looking to get one, like the Bengals. Personally I hope my Cardinals beat the Bengals on Friday and then none of what I said will matter.            

I agree with MAGICMAN! #6 in the EAST!

[Bengalsrule]

...and rising!!!!

[Pat Coleman]

The following link is for an article that was posted on the SUNYAC website. It was a story that appeared in the Buffalo News on February 21st. It is a story about Jake Simmons who was last year's SUNYAC Rookie of the Year and current SUNYAC scoring leader. Take the time to read it.

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article347508.ece

Agreed -- that's been in our What We're Reading section for a couple days. Currently fourth down on the list on the front page.

[thebear]

Magic - you basically confirmed what I said.  

East has 4 AQ's - UAA, E8, LL & SUNYAC.  Possibility of two more with AMCC (Medaille) & NEAC (SUNYIT).  If either of those two wins their league, the Pool C's in the East become very scarce.

Way too many good teams around the periphery of New York State, e.g. Middlebury, Amherst, Western Ct, Ramapo, Keystone, PS-Behrend are all less than an hour's drive from the border.

Although Steven's AD (on the D-III basketball tournament committee) has to leave the room when his team's on the table, the committee members are gentlemen mind you, and if push comes to shove, I believe Stevens will get the nod over anyone below them in the Regional ratings.  He will probably be storing up favors during the earlier discussions for just such an eventuality.

I think the only way the SUNYAC gets two bids is to beat Oswego in the finals.  Lakers are a lock for a C and probably to host a pod. (Laker Hall is a great facility).  Again with the conference's power rating so low, I doubt if we get the benefit of the doubt in the event of RPI beating Hobart or Stevens beating Ithaca.

[magicman]

The following link is for an article that was posted on the SUNYAC website. It was a story that appeared in the Buffalo News on February 21st. It is a story about Jake Simmons who was last year's SUNYAC Rookie of the Year and current SUNYAC scoring leader. Take the time to read it.

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article347508.ece

Agreed -- that's been in our What We're Reading section for a couple days. Currently fourth down on the list on the front page.

Wow! You're good Pat, I never saw it there.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Final Regional Rankings are out before Selection Sunday: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3hoops/category/ncaa-stuff/regional-rankings/

[magicman]

Here are the new East regional rankings.

East Region
1 Oswego State 22-3 22-3
2 Ithaca 19-5 20-5
3 Rochester 19-3 20-4
4 Stevens 19-6 19-6
5 Hobart 19-5 19-6
6 Buffalo State 15-6 18-6


Pretty much what I had them at except Ithaca jumped ahead of Rochester.

[Pat Coleman]

The following link is for an article that was posted on the SUNYAC website. It was a story that appeared in the Buffalo News on February 21st. It is a story about Jake Simmons who was last year's SUNYAC Rookie of the Year and current SUNYAC scoring leader. Take the time to read it.

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article347508.ece

Agreed -- that's been in our What We're Reading section for a couple days. Currently fourth down on the list on the front page.

Wow! You're good Pat, I never saw it there.

I picked it up after there was a little buzz on Twitter.

[Bengalsrule]

The following link is for an article that was posted on the SUNYAC website. It was a story that appeared in the Buffalo News on February 21st. It is a story about Jake Simmons who was last year's SUNYAC Rookie of the Year and current SUNYAC scoring leader. Take the time to read it.

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article347508.ece

Agreed -- that's been in our What We're Reading section for a couple days. Currently fourth down on the list on the front page.

Wow! You're good Pat, I never saw it there.

I picked it up after there was a little buzz on Twitter.

Good Pick up Pat!