MBB: State University of New York Athletic Conference

[middhoops]

Why is Plattsburgh rated so low when we Middlebury fans absolutely know they'll come into our gym and burn the place down in a game that inevitably has dramatic runs by both teams and is decided in the last minute?
We would  prefer to play WPI, Wooster, Wash U., Augustana or maybe IWU than the Cardinals.
For some reason, Coach Curle brings his team to Vermont ready to knock the NESCAC school down a few notches.  The gym will be full, which only happens for Amherst, Williams and NCAA tourney games.
Fellow blogger Vandy74 and I are looking forward to a pregame chat with Magicman and his entourage.

[Bengalsrule]

Why is Plattsburgh rated so low when we Middlebury fans absolutely know they'll come into our gym and burn the place down in a game that inevitably has dramatic runs by both teams and is decided in the last minute?
We would  prefer to play WPI, Wooster, Wash U., Augustana or maybe IWU than the Cardinals.
For some reason, Coach Curle brings his team to Vermont ready to knock the NESCAC school down a few notches.  The gym will be full, which only happens for Amherst, Williams and NCAA tourney games.
Fellow blogger Vandy74 and I are looking forward to a pregame chat with Magicman and his entourage.

"pregame chat with Magicman"   I hope you don't think that it ends when the game begins!!!!!

I had a pregame chat with the Magic 1 either 3 or 4 years ago.    We are still "Chatting"!

[magicman]

Why is Plattsburgh rated so low when we Middlebury fans absolutely know they'll come into our gym and burn the place down in a game that inevitably has dramatic runs by both teams and is decided in the last minute?
We would  prefer to play WPI, Wooster, Wash U., Augustana or maybe IWU than the Cardinals.
For some reason, Coach Curle brings his team to Vermont ready to knock the NESCAC school down a few notches.  The gym will be full, which only happens for Amherst, Williams and NCAA tourney games.
Fellow blogger Vandy74 and I are looking forward to a pregame chat with Magicman and his entourage.

middhoops,

I could say the same thing about Middlebury...Massey as of today has the Panthers ranked #41. I believe the #19 ranking that Middlebury currently occupies on the D3hoops Top 25 poll is more in tune with where they belong. But then I've seen Middlebury play several times this season and I doubt Mr. Massey or his computers have seen 5 minutes of the Panthers in action. There is at least 25 teams ranked ahead of Middlebury that would probably lose to them at home or on the road.

Plattsburgh State, who has been idle since December 7th, tumbled from the 44th spot down to the 55th position in the past 24 hours. Hard to fathom, you fall 11 places  without even taking the court, but that's the way Massey's system works. Cortland State, one of Plattsburgh's 4 wins, suffered a rather upsetting loss several days ago to a team that was ranked 347th. That loss affected all the teams in the SUNYAC conference, as they all slipped in the rankings.

It's nice to know that Plattsburgh State and Coach Curle are so well thought of by the Middlebury faithful that they pack the house for our visit. The feeling is certainly mutual on our side of the lake regarding Coach Brown and his Panthers. It's always a game we circle on the calendar the minute that the schedule comes out.

This year our visit to Middlebury will be even more enjoyable as we get to meet two of our fellow posters, Vandy74 and yourself. I tried to meet old guy 2 years ago but didn't make the connection. I may even try to meet Bucket between games rather than just hear him do his announcing chores.

And that Bengalsrule guy that commented right after your post. We did meet 4 years ago and we are in fact still chatting. That's because he always tries to get the last word in but I won't let him. So it's been back and forth ever since.        

[magicman]

New D3hoops Top 25 poll is out and Brockport State is the only East Region team getting a mention. The Golden Eagles moved up slightly from 36th place to the 32nd spot as their point total increased from 15 to 21. The bad news is they don't play again for almost 2 weeks when they travel to Hamilton on Dec. 30th, so there is not much chance of moving up in the polls. The good news is they can't lose any games and won't move out of, the "others receiving votes" category. If they can string together a few wins (however road games in early January against Geneseo and Plattsburgh could prevent any lengthy winning streak) they could move into the Top 25 as teams above them falter.

Of note is that Southern Vermont, who was still getting some love from their opening day win over Williams, lost to a 2-5 Union team and dropped out of the polls completely. I didn't think they belonged in the polls to begin with.

Richard Stockton who defeated visiting Plattsburgh State 78-74 the first weekend of the season has reappeared in the polls after a one  week absence. They are in 36th place with a total of 17 points. The Ospreys are currently 7-1 with their only blemish being a 2 point setback on the road to Willie Paterson. If they were undefeated they would be around #15 to #20 in the Top 25. Mr. Massey has them ranked as the 9th best team in the country.

One of the 4 teams in the tournament that Buffalo State is hosting in Orlando Florida this weekend is Eastern Connecticut. They finally  cracked the Top 25 after sitting in the ORV category for the past 3 weeks. The Warriors check in at #22 with 90 points, moving up from #26. The Bengals won't meet Eastern in the tourney as both schools will play North Central and Carthage on alternate days. North Central, ranked as high as #5 earlier this year, is still receiving votes, but the Cardinals opened with 2 losses in their first 3 games and that had them tumbling out of the Top 25 and into the ORV category. They are coming off a weekend sweep of 2 decent teams, in the always strong, Old Dominion Athletic Conference. Carthage is coming off a double OT win against UW-Plattville and the Redmen just got back, after a year and a half absence, probably their best player. Malcom Kelly, who led the CCIW conference in scoring in 2011-12 with a 19.1 ppg average just returned to the team and scored 11 points in 12 minutes of action in his first game back. The Redmen could be the best team in this tournament... but I hope it's Buffalo State.       

[dcahill44]

SUNYAC is just loaded this year... Oneonta taking down maybe the Best team in the E8. heres what im thinking for the conference after 7-8 games.
Brockport
Buffalo State
Plattsburgh
Oswego
Geneseo
Oneonta
Cortland
New Paltz
Potsdam
Fredonia
What does everyone think?

[NYHOOPS8]

I predict the conference tournament will look like this:
1-Buffalo St
2-Oswego
3-Brockport
4-Plattsburgh
5-Geneseo
6-Oneonta

[magicman]

I think both of you guys are wrong and any list that doesn't have Plattsburgh State on top must be a misprint.   In addition to the Cardinals, the other playoff teams in no particular order will be Brockport, Buffalo State, Oswego, Cortland and Geneseo. Six solid teams all capable of beating each other. Road wins will be hard to come by against these teams so it's important that you win the ones you're supposed to against the bottom four clubs. Protecting your home court is a must as well. It won't surprise me to see the regular season champion and top seed end up with a 14-4 record. The race might even resemble the 2009-10 season when 2 teams were tied at the top with a 13-5 record. The Cardinals ended up the #1 seed that year, winning a tiebreaker over Oneonta and hosting the conference tournament. They beat those Red Dragons for the third time to claim the SUNYAC Championship. I'd be happy to see some kind of similar scenario.      

[Bengalsrule]

dcahill and NYSHOOPs...you 2 are alright in my book! I don't care what Magicman says about you 2! I knew when I was reading the your 2 posts that when the Magic 1 saw these he was gonna blow up!

[magicman]

One game scheduled for today.

Potsdam State at Merchant Marine  7:00 PM

The Bears haven't tasted victory since opening day and almost went hungry on that occasion as they barely beat an 0-7 SUNY-Canton 71-69. And they had to come from behind to do so. The Bears have to come out of hibernation and fatten up a bit if they hope to survive this season. Not sure tonight will give them that opportunity. Merchant Marine 4-4, has been fairly inconsistent this year as they lost to a weak RIT team by 21 points, yet own a  road victory over a decent 7-2 Scranton team. The point spread has the Mariners favored by 7 points and I'm afraid the Bears without their big man will be easy sailing for Merchant Marine.  I think the final will be 71-65 Merchant Marine. Sure hope I'm wrong. Go Bears.

[magicman]

Merchant Marine 98 Potsdam State 91

The Bears did a reversal of their usual modus operandi in this game. They normally hang with the opponents through the first half and fade in the 2nd period to come out on the short end. Tonight they fell behind by 20 points in the first period and went into the break down 53-35. They were still down by 18 points at 90-72, with 3:35 left in the game, when they went on a 19-5 run and got it down to a 4 point deficit at 95-91 with 19 seconds left, on a 3 pointer by Darien Croft. They had to foul and the Mariners hit 3 of 4 to close out the scoring. Another tough loss for a team that is in for another tough year.

The Bears did have 5 players in double figures led by Rishawd Hendricks with 18 points 6 assists and 5 rebounds. Joe Estramonte had 16 points, and Tom Graf added 14. Zac Adams had 13 points and led the team with 7 rebounds. Darien Croft came off the bench and scored 10 points in 9 minutes. Conor Engle tied Adams with 7 rebounds and scored 7 points.

Bears fall to 1-7 and are off until they host Manhattanville on January 7th.   

[magicman]

One game today:

Carthage vs Buffalo State  at Orlando Florida  6:00 PM

Tough matchup tonight for the Bengals as they face the Redmen of Carthage College. A member of the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, Carthage comes into the game with a 6-3 record. The Redmen were picked to finish in the 2nd division of the CCIW this year because the 4 teams ranked above them were all nationally ranked by D3hoops in their preseason poll. Carthage has proven to be a bit of a surprise however as they already own a pair of wins over nationally ranked opponents. On Nov.27th they defeated then #4 Washington University 82-80. (Wash U is currently ranked #9) and on Dec. 8th they knocked off then #9 Calvin 74-68 (currently #16).
They did this without their best player on the team who wasn't eligible to play until December 14th. That player, Malcom Kelly, is a 6'0" guard who was the leading scorer in the conference (19.1 ppg) when he last suited up in the 2011-12 season. He played his first game this past weekend and scored 11 points in 12 minutes of action. That game was a double overtime win against UW-Plattville  The Massey ratings currently rank the CCIW conference as the 4th toughest conference in the country. The CCIW possesses the nation's 2nd best out of conference winning percentage of 46-21 (.687)

The Bengals enter this game on a 2 game winning streak but haven't played in nearly 2 weeks. The oddsmakers have made Carthage a 3 point favorite. I'd love to pick the Bengals in this contest but that would be my heart overruling my head. I've seen Carthage play and I think they might have too much firepower for Buffalo State to contain. And that was without Malcom Kelly in the lineup. And lets face facts....any team that can win against 2 of the top teams in the country will probably prevail against an unranked Bengals team. I think the Redmen will take this one 89-82. But I'm going to root, root, root, for the home team and pray that the Bengals pull off the upset here.

This game will not have a video link but Carthage College Radio will feature an audio broadcast. Here's the link for anyone wishing to catch the action:     http://player.streamtheworld.com/_players/nextmedia/?callsign=WLIPAM         

[Bengalsrule]

Lucked up and got a cheap flight to Orlando.    Staying with "friends".  82 degrees today and the BENGALS playing Carthage in the gym where Shaq and the Magic used to practice in!.  My head ...and heart say BENGALS by 7!

Hope I right.

[magicman]

Lucked up and got a cheap flight to Orlando.    Staying with "friends".  82 degrees today and the BENGALS playing Carthage in the gym where Shaq and the Magic used to practice in!.  My head ...and heart say BENGALS by 7!

Hope I right.

You are one lucky CAT!!   It's snowing here...5 inches expected and I can't get my plow truck to start.

It sounds to me like your heart is working overtime and your head isn't into the game with that prediction though.   But I sure hope you're right. I'd love nothing better than to have you come back on the boards and say I told you so.   Good Luck.

[magicman]

Buffalo State leads Carthage 31-28 at the break.

The Redmen are struggling against the Bengals' press as they already have 15 turnovers. Bengals have 10 steals led by 3 from Chris Thompson.

Reese Herth comes off the bench and leads the Redmen with 7 points. Malcom Kelly starting in place of Herth has 6 points.

Bengals are led by Chris Thompson with 10 points and 7 rebounds. Justin Mitchell and Rod Epps with 8 each. Bengals only have 6 turnovers.

Need the Bengals to continue to bring the heat. Hopefully they don't run out of energy. Go Bengals!!!

[magicman]

Bengals playing poorly in the 2nd half, have let a 7 point lead turn into a 9 point deficit as the Redmen go on a 16-0 run and lead 47-38 with 12:58 left in the game.

Carthage extends their lead to a game high of 11 points at 56-45. Still down by 10 at 61-51 with 5 minutes to go, the Bengals close to within a single possession at 63-60 on a jumper by Brad Doyley with 1:54 to go.

Carthage time out with 1:34 left and the Bengals with the ball but the Bengals turn it over on the inbounds with a 5 second count. That could be the costliest play of the game.

Bengals foul on the Carthage possession and the Redmen player misses both free throws. Buffalo State misses a layup and Carthage gets the rebound but a travel call results in another turnover and the Bengals Jordan Glover buries a 3 pointer to tie it up at 63 with 1:11 to play.

After a Carthage turnover, a Bengal miss, a Carthage rebound and miss, the Bengals get a layup by Rod Epps to take the lead with 37 seconds to play, 65-63

Redmen's Kevin Sykes is fouled with 22 seconds left and makes both free throws to tie the game once again.

Bengals take their last time out with 13 seconds to go and they get a tip in by Chris Thompson to go down, with 4 seconds left. Carthage heaves one from half court with 2 seconds to go that goes out of bounds with 1 second on the clock. The Bengals in bound the ball to end the game.


The Wrap Up     Final Score Buffallo State 67 Carthage 65    This wasn't close to my prediction of an 89-82 Redman victory but when two teams combine for 47 turnovers low scores result. Just glad the right team was on top. 

The Bengals got a pair of double doubles tonight from Justin Mitchell and Chris Thompson.

Mitchell coming off a D3hoops Team of the Week award, SUNYAC POW, and ECAC POW, might be looking at a chance for another threepeat as he captured scoring and rebounding honors in tonights game. He had 24 points (11x19 fg, 0x1 3's, 2x2 ft) and grabbed 12 rebounds 5 of them on the offensive end. He also added 4 steals.

Thompson scored 14 points (6x11 fg, 2x2 ft), including the game winner, and had 10 rebounds (4 offensive), 4 blocks and 4 steals. Rod Epps also had double figures for the Bengals with 12 points, 3 assists 3 rebounds and 2 steals. Brad Doyley had a solid game with 7 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds, and a steal.


The Redmen were led by Marlon Senior with 14 points (5x9 fg, 1x1 3's, 3x6 ft) and 8 rebounds. Malcom Kelly, starting in his first game in over a year and a half had 12 points (5x8 fg, 2x5 3's). Kevin Sykes also had 12 points (2x10 fg, 2x10 3's, 6x8ft) with 5 rebounds. Reese Herth playing in a bench role for the first time this season contributed 10 points (3x7 fg, 1x3 3's, 3x6 ft). Donte Logan had 5 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and 6 steals.

Carthage was bothered by the Bengals press throughout the game and ended up with 28 turnovers. 17 of those TO's were steals. The Redmen had 15 TO's in the 1st half and 13 in the 2nd. The Bengals weren't particularly careful with the ball either as they committed 19 turnovers. Many of them came during that dreadful stretch when Carthage ran off 16 unanswered points to turn that 7 point deficit into the 9 point lead. The Redmen were in a position to put the game away with a double digit lead with 5 minutes to go but a 14-2 run by Buffalo State in the next 4:23 turned things around.

Carthage outrebounded the Bengals by a slim 41-39 margin. The Redmen shot 41.2% from the field (21x51), 33.3% from downtown (7x21) and 61.5% from the line (16x26).

Buffalo State was 41.1% from the field (30x73), only 13.3% from long range (2x15) and only made it to the line 10 times hitting 5 of their free throw attempts. (50%)


Tomorrow Carthage will take on Eastern Connecticut at 2:00 PM  and Buffalo State will match up with North Central in the championship game at 4:00 PM.     

I'm impressed with how the Bengals didn't quit when things were going the Redmen's way. Closing that 10 point gap in the final 5 minutes of the game by creating 5 turnovers and limiting Carthage to only 2 field goal attempts in that stretch (which they missed) says it all. In fact the Bengals were down 52-41 with 10:25 left in the game and the Redmen never scored another field goal. Their final 13 points came at the free throw line in which they were 13 for 20. Great job Buffalo State. Hope you can grab the bling tomorrow but even if you don't, beating a team that has already taken down 2 Top Ten schools is a pretty good accomplishment.