MBB: State University of New York Athletic Conference

[7express]

So 2 questions Magic:

1) Why is the New Paltz/Cortland game at 2 PM on Tuesday??
2) Why all the tips at 5:30??  Are SUNY teams playing men's game first before the women's game this year??

[Bengalsrule]

I'll answer 2 first.  Some great thinkers thought it would be a brilliant idea to have the m n play before the women in conference games in his season.  Voted on last summer.

1 (and this is what was told today), Cortland coach Spanbauer, asked new pants to come to cortland earlier so they could play the game at 2.  And New Paltz agreed!

[AllStar]

I'll answer 2 first.  Some great thinkers thought it would be a brilliant idea to have the m n play before the women in conference games in his season.  Voted on last summer.

1 (and this is what was told today), Cortland coach Spanbauer, asked new pants to come to cortland earlier so they could play the game at 2.  And New Paltz agreed!

Wow.  If there are doubleheaders, I'm a fan of having the women's game first and the men's game second. 

...and Cortland may want to rethink that idea since they lost to New Paltz.  Probably won't do that again.  The coach is probably kicking himself. 

[magicman]

Well here are the picks I made before I left to go take in the Middlebury-Plattsburgh game. I posted them at 4:50 and left to go to the game. Apparently they didn't go through to the SUNYAC board as I just walked into my office to see them staring me in the face. I haven't checked yet to see how I did. I just know I lost the Plattsburgh  game and the Cortland game that I posted the scores for earlier.   

Getting ready for the big game so I've only got time for some quick picks of the 3 other SUNYAC games on tap for tonight.

Geneseo State  at  Fredonia State        5:30 PM

The Knights should have way too much firepower for Fredonia. Geneseo is playing their first SUNYAC game of the season and will make sure they get off on the right foot here. The point spread has the Knights favored by 11 points but I think they win by more than that. I see a final score of Geneseo 78 Fredonia 61 

Brockport State  at  Buffalo State        5:30 PM

Can the Bengals get a win tonight and put an end to a 7 game losing streak against the Golden Eagles? Can Brockport repeat the success they've had since newcomer Patrick Modzelewski joined the team. Back to back wins over Hobart and Nazareth in the Wendy's tournament brought renewed life to Coach Dunnes's team after starting with a 1-4 record. The long layoff may hurt though as they haven't played in 31 days. The Bengals  shook off their rust last week by winning the Montclair State tournament. The return of all conference performer Chris Cartwright to Buffalo State bodes well for the Bengal faithful. He looks like he hasn't missed a beat in his several years away from the team.

The oddsmakers have made the Bengals a slight 1 point favorite but I don't think they have factored Cartwright's return into the equation. Still I'm a doubting Thomas and until the Bengals prove to me that they can beat Brockport I'm sticking with the Golden Eagles. This will be a rough and tumble affair but I see a Brockport win by an 84-80 final score.   
   
Oneonta State  at  Oswego State        5:30 PM

This is another good matchup that will be a hard fought affair. Both teams have been inconsistent so far this season. Oneonta has quality wins at Williams and at Plattsburgh, yet faltered against Hartwick and more recently against Bridgewater Virginia, a team they should have beat. The Lakers have been full of surprises as well. They own a 60-50 win over that Hartwick team that beat Oneonta but have losses against Elmira, Clarkson and Loras, all games  they should have won.

The point  spread favors the Lakers by a single point. I think they win a close one at home by a 74-71 final   

[7express]

I'll answer 2 first.  Some great thinkers thought it would be a brilliant idea to have the m n play before the women in conference games in his season.  Voted on last summer.

1 (and this is what was told today), Cortland coach Spanbauer, asked new pants to come to cortland earlier so they could play the game at 2.  And New Paltz agreed!

I still think the UAA does it on Sundays and some other conferences (CCIW & WIAC) do it occasionally but I can't think of ANY reason why playing the women's game after the men's game makes any sense at all.   

[with age came?]

Well Magic -here is my first visit to the YAC board and it comes on the heels of the only team to represent the East going down to defeat.  Season is early though....have hopes for a couple of top YAC and LL teams to go on a late season run!!

[Bengalsrule]

Well Magic -here is my first visit to the YAC board and it comes on the heels of the only team to represent the East going down to defeat.  Season is early though....have hopes for a couple of top YAC and LL teams to go on a late season run!!

Keep
HOPE
alive!

Welcome back!!!!!

[magicman]

I'll answer 2 first.  Some great thinkers thought it would be a brilliant idea to have the m n play before the women in conference games in his season.  Voted on last summer.

1 (and this is what was told today), Cortland coach Spanbauer, asked new pants to come to cortland earlier so they could play the game at 2.  And New Paltz agreed!

I still think the UAA does it on Sundays and some other conferences (CCIW & WIAC) do it occasionally but I can't think of ANY reason why playing the women's game after the men's game makes any sense at all.

Well 7 express, I'll give you the definitive reason/reasons why playing the men's game first make sense. I'm not saying I agree with them but these are the main reasons that the switch was done.

1. The women have played second fiddle to the men for a long time and depending on what time you, as a men's coach, want to play your game, this is simply equal rights. If you're a men's coach and youwant to play the early game, now you have the opportunity. If you are a men's coach and you hate playing in the early game, well probably a lot of women's coaches don't like it either. The logical assumption is this year the men play early and the women late. Next year it is reversed and so on for subsequent years, thus equal treatment.

2. A number of men's coaches wantto play in the early game and are glad the switch was made. This way their players can be dressed, fed, and resting much earlier (about 3 hours) than if they had the late game. Some schools that travel with the men on one bus and the women on another bus will now be able to get on the road 3 hours quicker that they could if they played after the women. In a number of cases they are now home in bed instead of just walking off the court.

If it was up to me I'd schedule the women first and change the starting time back to 6:00 PM. The 5:30 start is just too early. I think the women benefit from having more fans watching their game if they play early, than late. After the men's game was over tonight most of the fans left. I stayed and watched the first half as did others but then we left during the break. Very few people watching the end of the game.                   

[magicman]

Final score from Tuesday's games:

New Paltz 78  Cortland 73
I had Cortland winning this 72-64 and the point spread had New Paltz losing by an even greater margin of 17 points. So what do the inconsistent Hawks do.....they go on a 28 to 5 run and turn an 11-6 deficit into a 33-16 advantage, while holding the Red Dragons scoreless for a 5 minutes stretch. They went into the locker room up 33-20 at the break. They continued their inspired play into the 2nd half and increased their lead to a game high 20 points at 48-28 with 13:14 to go on back to back R.J. Rosa 3 pointers. After Cortland narrowed the lead down to 12, Rosa struck again with a long bomb to make it 55-40 and Cortland was running out of time. The Red Dragons made a push and cut it to 60-53 with 5:43 left but the Hawks went back up by 12 on another 3 point play by Kevin Roach and Cortland had too little, too late, to make up the difference. It was still 76-65 with 35 seconds left and a couple of Cortland 3 pointers near the end made it look respectable, but make no mistake the Hawks dominated this game from midway in the 1st half right on through the final buzzer. This ranks as the upset of the year so far in conference play. You have to hand it to the Hawks for getting it done in Cortland. Never an easy place to get a W. Just ask Buffalo State.

R.J. Rosa may have had a career high tonight as he pumped in 31 points for the visiting Hawks to lead all scorers. He was 10x16 from the field and 7x9 from downtown. He was perfect from the line, 4x4, and added 4 rebounds, 3 steals and 1 assist.

Taylor Sowah had another double-double with 13 points and a game high 15 rebounds. He did most of damage from the free throw line hitiing 9 of 15 attempts.

Kevin Roach added 11 points 7 rebounds and 3 steals. Andrew Seniuk had 9 points 5 rebounds and 2 steals.

Hawks had 43 rebounds to 37 for Cortland. Turnovers were high for both teams with New Paltz committing 23 and Cortland 21.

T. J. Hefele was high man for Cortland with 20 points (7x11 fg, 5x9 3's, 1x2 ft) and also had 5 rebounds. Blair Estafa added 13 points and Lamard Herron tossed in 10.

New Paltz improves to 4-6 overall and 2-1 in conference play. They will host Brockport State this Friday at 5:30.

Cortland drops their first game of the season and falls out of undisputed possession of 1st place in the YAC. The Red Dragons are now 8-1 overall and 2-1 in conference. They will travel to Oswego this Friday to try and gain a measure of revenge against the Lakers who beat them in back to back games last year in late February to bring the Red Dragons season to a close.

Cortland's loss on Tuesday will undoubtedly get them dropped out of the Top 25 poll just when they were on the verge of moving from the Others Receiving Votes category into the Top 25 if they had won tonight and Friday. Losing to a team you were favored to defeat by 17 points won't get you much love from the voters. With Plattsburgh's loss to Middlebury Tuesday night, any hope they had of getting a few points also went by the boards. I'm pretty sure there will be no team from the East Region getting a mention in next week's poll. It will now take a lengthy run by someone to jump back into national consideration of any kind. I hope that can happen.         

[magicman]

Final from Tuesday's game:

Middlebury 63 Plattsburgh State 53

This game was supposed to feature two excellent offensive teams going at each other to see which one could come out on top. Some one forgot to tell the players that. I had predicted a 78-74 final score with the Cardinals winning and when I fired up my crystal ball to determine that outcome I was left wondering if I wasn't being a little too conservative in my forecast.

Sitting courtside with my friend from Middlebury, who was rooting his Panthers on, I said to him with 4 minutes gone by and the score 3-2, this final score of 78-74 that I predicted has no chance of happening now. And the next 16 minutes of action did nothing to change that statement. The 2 teams missed the first 10 shots in the game until Middlebury finally got on the board with 16:51 left in the half on a hoop and harm by Jake Brown. Plattsburgh countered with a pair of free throws by Reggie Williams on their next possession. The Panthers would grab the upper hand however and slowly built a lead that reached double figures at 19-9 with 8 minutes left in the half.

Both teams continued to have shooting issues... missing layups, throwing up air balls, taking ill advised shots. Plattsburgh seemed to have problems with Middlebury's length which made them rush their outside shots and had them forcing layups on their drives to the basket. Layups that were more often than not way off their mark. Middlebury seemed to victimize themselves with poor shot selections especially from long range and in the first half were only 2 of 10 with many of their attempts way off the mark. The Cardinals weren't much better hitting 3 of 13 from long range.

The Panthers' big man Matt Daley, missing in action for most of the year and slowly getting back into game shape entered the game for the first time with 7:45 left in the period. He immediately paid dividends as he made back to back buckets in 48 seconds to give Middlebury their largest lead of the half at 23-12. The Cardinals would fight back with 5 points from Ezra Hodgson and a 3 pointer by Eddie Correa with 19 seconds left to make the score 28-22 at the break.

The 2nd half started out on a good note by the Cardinals as they went inside to their big man Reggie Williams and then got a 3 pointer from Shamoy McIntosh to narrow the gap to 28-27. Through the first 5 minutes of the half it was back and forth action as McIntosh(9) and Williams(4) combined for all 13 of the Cardinals' 2nd half points. With 15:23 remaining the Panthers were in front 36-35. The next 6 minutes would determine the outcome of this game as the Panthers went on an 18 to 5 run fueled by a pair of trifectas from highly regarded freshman Nick Tarantino, 2 baskets from Dylan Sinnickson and another 2 buckets from Hunter Merryman. Suddenly there was under 10 minutes to play and the lead had ballooned to 14 points at 54-40. It would be the largest lead of the game.

The Cards had one last charge as Jordan Moody reeled off 6 straight points and a McIntosh drive to the hoop cut the lead back to a 2 possession game at 54-48 with 7:42 left to go. Plenty of time for things to happen. The things that happened though were Panther related as Dean Brierley scored inside and Merryman went to the line and made a pair to build the lead back to 10 points. 2 and a half minutes of no scoring by either side followed until Hodgson made a 3 pointer for Plattsburgh to cut the lead to 7. Jake brown was fouled, made 1 of 2, and when the Cards failed to score on their next possession, Sinnickson made them pay with a layup that boosted the lead back to 10. Plattsburgh countered with another basket by Hodgson and took a timeout with the 2 minute warning showing on the scoreboard. I believe the Cardinals' Coach Curle  told his team at that time to play defense and see if they could hit a couple of 3's to get it back to a 2 possession game. Unfortunately they didn't get the bounces as the Panthers missed, got the rebound, missed again, got the rebound and as Curle elected not to start the foul parade, they worked the clock and came away with the 10 point win as Sinnickson hit the last points of the game with 53 seconds left. Plattsburgh turned it over on their next possession and Middlebury ran the clock out.

As my friend from Middlebury stated and I agreed, this game was won by the defensive efforts of the Panthers. Last year Ed Correa was the main reason Plattsburgh  won in Pepin Gymnasium as he went 6x10 from 3 point range. This year he got a total of 2 shots in 31 minutes. He was 1x2 for a total of 3 points. last year he was the game's leading scorer with 22.  The Panthers simply weren't going to let him, beat them, again. The Cardinals have been held to under 71 points only one other time this year and that was a 60-57 win over Skidmore. To only score 53 points, well you have to tip your hat to the Panthers and in particular to Coach Brown. Always nice to visit with Coach Brown when he comes to Plattsburgh. Many fine memories of his playing days over here in the annual PBA Tournament every spring starting with the year he graduated from UVM.

The Panthers placed 4 players in double figures led by 13 points from Dylan Sinnickson (6x13 fg, 1x4 3's,). He also had 13 rebounds to notch his 7th double-double of the season. Freshman Nick Tarantino continues to impress as he scored 13 points (4x10 fg, 3x4 3's) and grabbed 6 rebounds. Jake Brown filled up the stat sheet with 10 points (4x8 fg, 0x1 3's, 2x3 ft) 7 rebounds, 7 assists and 4 steals. Hunter Merryman added 10 points (4x13 fg, 0x5 3's, 2x2 ft) and 7 rebounds.

The Panthers shot the ball better than the Cardinals did from the field, while the Cardinals managed 1 more 3 pointer. The rebounding battle was won by the Panthers with a slight 44-39 edge and the turnovers were fairly even with 16 for Plattsburgh to 15 for Middlebury.  Here are the shooting stats

Middlebury's:  FG: 26-64 40.6%   3 Point FG: 5-21 23.8%   FT: 6-7 85.7%

Plattsburgh's:  FG: 20-63 31.7%   3 Point FG: 6-19 31.6%   FT: 7-10 70.0%

Plattsburgh was led by Shamoy McIntosh who captured scoring honors for the game with 15 points (6x12 fg, 2x3 3's, 1x3 ft) and tied for the team lead in rebounds with 7. Ezra Hodgson had 10 points (4x13 fg, 1x3 3's, 1x1 ft). Reggie Williams had 8 points, 7 rebounds, 2 steals and a block.

Middlebury improves to 9-0 and will be back in action on Friday night to open conference play as they travel to Bates for a 7:00 PM tipoff.

Plattsburgh falls to 6-3 (1-1 SUNYAC) and  will return to conference play this weekend as they travel to western NY to take on Fredonia State on Friday night at 5:30 PM and Buffalo State the next day at 2:00 PM. The Cardinals have now completed their non-conference play with a 5-2 record.
                           

[magicman]

Final scores from Tuesdays games:

Brockport State 77 Buffalo State 70

Oswego State 96 Oneonta State 92

Geneseo 68 Fredonia 55

[thebear]

Final scores from Tuesdays games:

Brockport State 77 Buffalo State 70

Oswego State 96 Oneonta State 92

Geneseo 68 Fredonia 55

Sounds like a typical SUNYAC year, teams will eat each other up all year with the weekend back to backs and the travel.  The NP win over Cortland was mild shock. 

[Bengalsrule]

Final scores from Tuesdays games:

Brockport State 77 Buffalo State 70

Oswego State 96 Oneonta State 92

Geneseo 68 Fredonia 55

Sounds like a typical SUNYAC year, teams will eat each other up all year with the weekend back to backs and the travel.  The NP win over Cortland was mild shock.

"Mild shock".  When I arrived at the Sportsarena yesterday that was the first thing people talked about. Coupled with the reason why the New Paltz v Cortland game started at 2! I guess if you have been coaching in the Yac as long as Spanbauer then you can play whenever you want to play!

[Bengalsrule]

So 2 questions Magic:

1) Why is the New Paltz/Cortland game at 2 PM on Tuesday??
2) Why all the tips at 5:30??  Are SUNY teams playing men's game first before the women's game this year??

Another reason why the switch is a bad thing and some are just starting to realize it now, is because the women don't finish till 9:30/10 p.m. at night. Some are left to get public transportation home (bus stations, wlak etc) and waiting at a bus stop (at least in Buffalo NY) at 10 p.m. is not something that many enjoy (would you want your daughter away at college and living off campus)That's directly from the mouths of 2 of the women ballers. Ditto for 7 pm on Saturdays.

The official attendance was 500 for the men's game vs Brockport this past Tuesday.. By the start of the women's game there were less than 100 people in the Sports arena at Buffalo State. The old format had a decent crowd for at least 25% of the game. The new format.....

[magicman]

So 2 questions Magic:

1) Why is the New Paltz/Cortland game at 2 PM on Tuesday??
2) Why all the tips at 5:30??  Are SUNY teams playing men's game first before the women's game this year??

Another reason why the switch is a bad thing and some are just starting to realize it now, is because the women don't finish till 9:30/10 p.m. at night. Some are left to get public transportation home (bus stations, wlak etc) and waiting at a bus stop (at least in Buffalo NY) at 10 p.m. is not something that many enjoy (would you want your daughter away at college and living off campus)That's directly from the mouths of 2 of the women ballers. Ditto for 7 pm on Saturdays.

The official attendance was 500 for the men's game vs Brockport this past Tuesday.. By the start of the women's game there were less than 100 people in the Sports arena at Buffalo State. The old format had a decent crowd for at least 25% of the game. The new format.....

Good point, Bengalsrule. The wise men that made the decision to have the women play the second game probably never even gave the late hour that they finish much thought. I know I didn't. In Plattsburgh, the women usually hung around and watched the men play, so they weren't getting home much earlier anyway. Going home late in Plattsburgh though is a far different situation than Buffalo. Even if the women did hang around, they had the advantage of getting home earlier than if they played the 2nd game, since they didn't have to change or eat. And they always had the option of leaving at halftime of the men's game if they desired or not watching any of it.

Attendance at the women's games will continue to suffer. Plus as a player, it probably feels worse to see the place empty out as you're about to take the floor. At least when the women played first, the crowd got bigger as the game progressed, not smaller and in the case of a close game, there were more fans on hand to cheer the home team, than there are now at the end of a tight game, which just might lead to a win or two because of the extra support. I mean, teams do feed off the crowd!!