MBB: State University of New York Athletic Conference

[thebear]

S-L-O-W-L-Y pulling out of our funk in CState land. And, no, not at all a sore loser. Well, maybe a tad bruised. If thebear holds his head high, so can we. In similar boats ...... future looks good. As for this season, the best teams ruled, though Magic's Cardinals sure underachieved after such glorious play in 2009-10.

And now for Bengalsrule, we supplied some earlier critical heat re BS's failure to win the big one and get to that next rung. We've swallowed hard. Bengals terrific late. Kudos. And to those Lakers as well. A worthy pair. Carry on!!

Would be nice if both could carry through to the sweet 16.  Been a long dry spell for the conference since anyone has advanced that far.  Think my Bears in '04-05 were the last club to get that far and on the the final 8.  Perhaps two teams in final 16 would get the conference some long overdue respect.

Entire conference is young, even Oswego and Buff State have solid core returning next year, and young Bears are Dragons are competitive already, but with a couple of missing parts.

Agree that Cards were a disappointment, too much talent, but too many home losses.  Curle will reload I'm sure with a large group of talented athletes.  He knows where to find the bodies for sure.

[magicman]

Plattsburgh State made the Sweet 16 in the 07-08 season. Beat Kings College to get there. (Had a 1st round bye) Lost to Brandeis in a tight one and just missed making the Great 8.

Tonight we may see 2 teams get there. Sure would be a big boost for the YAC. Go Bengals, Go Lakers!!!

[magicman]

Jake Simmons with 10 points along with Glenroy Carr who has 8 points and 10 boards lead Buffalo State to a 40-27 halftime lead over Johnson and Wales. Lamont Thomas from Johnson and Wales the nation's leading scorer has 9 points and 4 fouls on him. 

[magicman]

Oswego State is trailing Rhode Island College 31-29 at the break. Hayden Ward with 8 points leads the Lakers. Carl Lee with 11 points and 3 long range jumpers is the high scorer for the Anchormen.

[thebear]

Bengals out to a comfortable 1st half lead 40-27 at Half.  Glenroy Carr again coming up huge for the Bengals in the paint.

J&W Scoring Phenom Lamonte Thomas had the ball stripped with :25 left, fouls A. Hamer, then loses his cool and gets T'd.  Bengals make 3 of 4 to pad their lead, and Thomas with 3 PF's has to be careful --and his game is based on a lot of defensive swipes and transition.  Plus my experience is refs that T you once have no patience for further prima donna antics following the T.  Thomas will be walking on eggshells in the second half.

Neutral Court, Bengals just have to stick to fundamentals.

Oswego & RIC locked in a tight one, RIC 31-Lakes 29 at Half.  RIC has kept Burridge under control, but H. Ward has stepped up his game.  Should be a barnburner.

[magicman]

Big win for Buffalo State as they cruise to a 96-72 win over Johnson and Wales to advance to the Sweet 16. Bengals will now face off against #13 St. Mary's (Md.) who in a mild upset was a winner over #6th ranked Randolph-Macon 68-53.  

[magicman]

Oswego State comes up a little short as they fall to the Rhode Island Anchormen 71-63. Great season for the Lakers comes to an end, but they'll be back next year I'm sure.

[magicman]

Buffalo State with a big win over Johnson and Wales as they gain control near the end of the 1st half and cruise to a 96-72 win. Bengals extended their 13 point halftime lead to as much as 28 in the 2nd half and were never  threatened the rest of the game. The Bengals opened the 2nd half with a 10-2 run and just like that had a 50-29 lead. Jake Williams was the games leading scorer and outscored J&W's Lamonte Thomas, the nations leading scorer, 28-26. Jake was 6 for 12 from long distance and 9 for 17 overall from the field. Most importantly he had 36 total points for my NCAA Fantasy League team. Way to go Jake. I hope I would get 3 games from him and I will. Wouldn't mind a few more though. Justin Mitchell had 14 points and 9 rebounds. Justin gave my wife's fantasy team 25 total points. Glenroy Carr had 13 points and 16 rebounds. Norman Simmons had 10 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists. Chris Cartwright added 10 points as all five Bengal starters managed to hit double figures. Bengals shot 37x72 from the field(51.4%) and 8x20 from behind the arc.(40%) Free throws were 14x26 (53.8%) Buffalo State won the rebounding battle with a huge margin 55-30. They did have more turnovers than Johnson and Wales 18-14.

Johnson and Wales was led by Thomas with 26 points and Louis Ferreras with 14. The Wildcats were 29x69 from the field (42%) but only 2x14 from long distance (14.3%). They were 12x17 from the line (70.6%)

Buffalo State will take on St. Mary's (Md.) next Friday while Rochester will face off against Middlebury. It will be interesting to see who the NCAA will award the Sectional round to. Rochester is the only one of the 4 schools that is within the 500 mile limit for everone. Middlebury has the inside track in terms of records and regional rankings but it is over 500 miles from St. Mary's to Middlebury Vermont. That would mean a plane flight for them and I don't think the NCAA wants to do that in the East. Decent possibility that Rochester gets the Sectional, which wouldn't make the Buffalo St. fans unhappy.

[Bucket]

Buffalo State will take on St. Mary's (Md.) next Friday while Rochester will face off against Middlebury. It will be interesting to see who the NCAA will award the Sectional round to. Rochester is the only one of the 4 schools that is within the 500 mile limit for everone. Middlebury has the inside track in terms of records and regional rankings but it is over 500 miles from St. Mary's to Middlebury Vermont. That would mean a plane flight for them and I don't think the NCAA wants to do that in the East. Decent possibility that Rochester gets the Sectional, which wouldn't make the Buffalo St. fans unhappy.

And I think it would make fans of the 26-1 Panthers, the number 1 ranked team in the Northeast, absolutely livid if Midd has to go on the road to play on its opponent's home floor.

I'd have to think that the committee knew what it was doing what it set up the brackets. Odds were great that either St. Mary's or RMC was advancing, and I have a hard time believing that they would be ok with sending the #1 team in the NE on the road for the sectionals, while allowing the #2 (Williams) to stay home. I'd have to think that they would have budgeted for a flight here.

[Bengalsrule]

. Middlebury has the inside track in terms of records and regional rankings but it is over 500 miles from St. Mary's to Middlebury Vermont. That would mean a plane flight for them and I don't think the NCAA wants to do that in the East. Decent possibility that Rochester gets the Sectional, which wouldn't make the Buffalo St. fans unhappy.

magicman..as I ride back to buffalo i could not agree with you more. The BENGALS fans would Loooooovvvveee a Rochester pod. After seeing our handful of fans travel 374 miles I can only imagine that the Middlebury fans would enjoy the opportunity to travel and support thier team as our fans did . NCAA paying 4/500 a piece for 23 (traveling party limit for teams in tourney) airfare ..$13,500. a bus for 2 days 1,500.00. The opportunity to see Niagara Falls on the cheap...Priceless.

Oh BTW Magicman u were right on when you told me that the Ramapo brackett was the best brackett we could have gone to. Good call!!

[magicman]

Tough loss for Oswego State tonight against Rhode Island. I was afraid of the Anchormen, as I said at the time of the draw, that I thought they were the best team in that pod. I picked them to advance out of the four teams but boy did I want to be wrong on that prediction. Oswego had trouble putting the ball in the basket tonight, especially from long range. If they just hit their season's average it might have been a different outcome. I was surprised that the Lakers couldn't take advantage of the fact that Rhode Island was without their leading scorer, big man, Mike Akinrola. If you told me before the game that he was out I have thought for sure that the Lakers would win.

The game was closely contested throughout the1st half and halfway through the 2nd period. However it seemed like Rhode Island would always get a lead stretch it to 5 or 7 points and the Lakers would come back to tie it up or take a 1 point lead. Then that cycle would repeat. Down 43-37 with 17:30 left to play the Lakers would claw back to a 43-43 tie at the 12:13 mark. That would be the final time the Lakers weren't behind. A 12-5 run by the Anchormen once again boosted the lead to 7 and Oswego could never catch up. Two Nick Manson free throws gave Rhode Island their largest lead of the game at 65-54 but a Chad Burridge dunk followed by a long range jumper from Burridge brought the Lakers to within 6 at 65-59 with 2 minutes lefy to play. A Laker foul sent RIC's Antone Gray to the line. He made the 1st, missed the 2nd but the Anchormen got the rebound and that put the brakes on any hope for a Laker comeback. Another Laker foul resulted in another RIC made free throw and with the lead at 8 and only 90 ticks left the Lakers were forced to shoot three pointers and they didn't fall.

Hayden Ward led Oswego with 21 points and 9 rebounds. Burridge added 14 points and Chris Gilkes followed with 13. Oswego won the rebounding battle 30-26 and had fewer turnovers than RIC 11-14 but the telling statistic was the field goal percentage. Oswego was 19x51 (37.3%) from the field and only 4x21 (19%) from long distance. The Anchormen were 21x38 (55.3%) from the field and 6x14 (42.9%) from behind the arc. That pretty much says it all.

Rhode Island placed 4 players in double figures as they had a balanced scoring attack. Mason Choice led the Anchormen with 17 points and 4 assists. Carl Lee who normally comes off the bench, stepped in for missing big  man Mike Akinrola and scored 15 points and 7 rebounds. That's better than the 14.3ppg and 5.3rpg that Akinrola averages. And Darius Debnam who normally averages 4.1ppg and 4.8rpg increased his output tonight to 13 points and 7 rebounds. Nick Manson also had 13 points as he hit a trio of 3 pointers. Antone Gray, the Anchormen's 2nd leading scorer who averages 13ppg was held to 9 points and 5 assists tonight. That tells you a lot about the depth of this Rhode Island team. Their top 2 scorers Akinrola and Gray, that together average 27 ppg, only accounted for 9 points tonight and they still won.
Rhode Island will now move on to face Amherst in the Sweet 16. Amherst was a 92-70 winner over WPI tonight.

Oswego ends it season with a 24-5 record that I'm pretty sure is the best in school history. The future looks good for the Lakers however as they return the top 6 players in their rotation including All Conference 1st Team and POY Burridge and All Conference 3rd Team Ward.

Once again congratulations to the Lakers and Coach Stockwell on a great year.  

[magicman]

Buffalo State will take on St. Mary's (Md.) next Friday while Rochester will face off against Middlebury. It will be interesting to see who the NCAA will award the Sectional round to. Rochester is the only one of the 4 schools that is within the 500 mile limit for everone. Middlebury has the inside track in terms of records and regional rankings but it is over 500 miles from St. Mary's to Middlebury Vermont. That would mean a plane flight for them and I don't think the NCAA wants to do that in the East. Decent possibility that Rochester gets the Sectional, which wouldn't make the Buffalo St. fans unhappy.

And I think it would make fans of the 26-1 Panthers, the number 1 ranked team in the Northeast, absolutely livid if Midd has to go on the road to play on its opponent's home floor.

I'd have to think that the committee knew what it was doing what it set up the brackets. Odds were great that either St. Mary's or RMC was advancing, and I have a hard time believing that they would be ok with sending the #1 team in the NE on the road for the sectionals, while allowing the #2 (Williams) to stay home. I'd have to think that they would have budgeted for a flight here.

Bucket,
I agree with you that Middlebury deserves to host the sectional. I certainly wouldn't mind if they did, because then I could go(if I could get tickets ) but it wouldn't be the first time and it won't be the last that the team with the better record isn't the host. Geography (and money) trump winning records. And I didn't say Rochester would host I just said there's a decent possibility.  

[with age came?]

Have to believe the bengals have a good shot at the top 25 ranking now. Great win!  Also congrats to the Lakers on a sensational season.  Sometimes the shots just do not fall when you need them.  I'd be ticked if I had to travel to Rochester if I were Middlebury but I'd be grateful if I were me (which if course am I) because I might be able to get over there to watch.   However I suspect magic will have to that for me because I think the Panthers will host.

[Bengalsrule]

Have to believe the bengals have a good shot at the top 25 ranking now. Great win!  Also congrats to the Lakers on a sensational season.  Sometimes the shots just do not fall when you need them.  I'd be ticked if I had to travel to Rochester if I were Middlebury but I'd be grateful if I were me (which if course am I) because I might be able to get over there to watch.   However I suspect magic will have to that for me because I think the Panthers will host.

Hey with age..if the game is at the Palestra I'll get your ticket (you have sit in the BENGALS section ) Ditto for u too magic! Hopefully we find out today (the NCAA handbook says Sectional locations announced online Sunday)

[Bengalsrule]

Rochester it is!!!!!!!