MBB: State University of New York Athletic Conference

[magicman]

The powers that be at SUNYAC headquarters must have read my post from 3 days ago when I mentioned that Gordon Lyons was the Player of the Week for the third time this year and could have been the POTW for about the 8th time because once again Gordon was selected as the SUNYAC Player of the Week for the 4th time this season and the 2nd week in a row.

Here's the write up fom the YAC website for his most recent selection for the week that ended February 15th.

Gordon Lyons, Geneseo


Lyons keyed Geneseo's 3-0 week in SUNYAC play that included 33 points and 15 rebounds in a 78-72 victory at Buffalo State and 27 points, 14 rebounds, 9 assists and 4 steals in an 87-67 victory over visiting Oneonta on Saturday. The nation's leading rebounder moved into third place on Geneseo's all-time scoring list with 1,544 points to date.


Once again congratulations to Gordon on a job well done.

[magicman]

This is no way a knock on Gordon Lyons who was the SUNYAC POTW for the 4th time this year and 2nd week in a row. As I said earlier on this board Gordon has had such an outstanding season that he could probably have won the POTW award just about every week. However it's nice to spread the wealth, so to speak, and this week my Player of the Week Award would have to go to Plattsburgh State's Reggie Williams.

Reggie had 2 outstanding games on back to back days on the road at Cortland on Friday and at Oswego on Saturday.

On Friday, Plattsburgh defeated Cortland 84-63 and Reggie was the game's high scorer with 21 points shooting 9 of 14 from the field. He also had 4 rebounds, 2 assists and a block.

On Saturday, in the biggest game of the year in the conference to that point, against league leading Oswego, Reggie once again rose to the occasion, with a team high 19 points, shooting 8 for 11 from the field. He also had a game high 14 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 more blocked shots to add to his SUNYAC leading total. Plattsburgh won the game 66-59 to take over sole possession of first place in the conference.

For those two games Reggie shot 17x25, (68%) scored 40 points, had 18 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 blocked shots.

Putting up such good numbers in back to back games on the road when so much was at stake was enough for me to give him the edge this week for the POTW. That and the fact that I am slightly prejudiced in favor of the Cardinals.

Congratulations to Reggie for leading the Cardinals into the top spot of the SUNYAC.         

[magicman]

Final scores and wrap ups from Tuesday night's games.

Plattsburgh State 71  Potsdam State 67

I thought the Cardinals would make short work of the Bears in this game but the guys from Potsdam, with nothing to lose, wanted to make this their statement game and they came damn close to doing just that. I had Plattsburgh winning this game by a comfortable 19 point margin of 85-66. At halftime I knew the outcome would be a lot closer than that. Every time Plattsburgh looked like they were about to open up and finally gain control of the game in the first half, the Bears would respond with an answer and every 5 or 6 point lead that Plattsburgh would gain would soon be negated by the Bears on the other end of the court. Even when Plattsburgh's Jordan Moody sank a 3 pointer, with 26 seconds left in the half, to give the Cards a 38-32 lead, the Bears had a response for that as Zac Adams nailed a 3 pointer with 2 seconds left and was fouled on the shot. He finished off the rare 4 point play and the Bears were only down by 2 at the break.

The teams traded points early in the 2nd half until Plattsburgh gained a slight advantage and opened up their largest lead  to that point at 48-41 with 15 minutes to play. Here comes the run I was waiting for but it never materialized. Instead it was the Bears who outscored Plattsburgh 12-5 over the next 5 minutes and with 10 minutes left the score was 53-53. The Bears went in front 57-56 and extended it to 61-58 and held the lead until back to back layups by Reggie Williams and Xavier Thomas put Plattsburgh back on top 62-61 with 5:29 to play. Several more lead changes would take place over the next few minutes and with Plattsburgh up 65-63 the Bears' buried a three pointer with just 1:03 left on the clock. Plattsburgh came down and once again went to their big man, Williams and the Bears played the hack a shaq game because Williams was only 2 for 7 from the line at that point in the game. With the game on the line however, the big guy calmly made both free throws to put Plattsburgh back in front with 45 seconds left in the game. Potsdam came down and missed a 3 pointer but got the offensive rebound and called a timeout with 18 seconds left. They tried another 3 pointer after the inbounds pass that almost went in but the Cardinals got the rebound and Xavier Thomas was fouled with 8 seconds remaining. He made both of his free throws to put the Cards up by 3 at 69-66. Plattsburgh took a time out and there was no way they were going to let the Bears get off a game tying 3 pointer. Rishawd Hendricks was fouled before he could shoot and went to the line for a 1&1. He made the first and deliberately missed the 2nd hoping for some good luck, but Plattsburgh's Kyle Richardson got the rebound and was fouled with 1 second left to play. He made them both to make the final score 71-67 and the Cardinals were happy to escape with the win.

Jordan Moody captured scoring honors with 19 points, with some excellent shooting (6x9 fg, 2x5 3's, 5x6 ft). Reggie Williams had 16 points, a team high 7 rebounds and 2 blocks. Xavier Thomas and Kyle Richardson both scored 9 points off the bench. Richardson had 3 rebounds, 2 blocks, 2assists and a steal in 20 minutes of playing time. Thomas grabbed 6 rebounds, with an assist and a block. Ezra Hodgson added 8 points, 2 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 assists. Shamoy McIntosh had 6 rebounds and 5 points. Point guard Mike Mitchell failed to break into the scoring column but added to his SUNYAC leading assist total with 6 helpers, 3 rebounds and a pair of steals.

Potsdam got 15 points with 7 rebounds from Zac Adams, helped by 13 points and 6 rebounds from Rishawd Hendricks. Tom Graf and Marquis Lee both scored 9 points. Graf also had 3 steals and 3 boards. Tariq McIntyre had 6 ;points and a game high 8 rebounds that helped the Bears outrebound the Cardinals by a 43-34 margin. Joe Estramonte had 7 assists 4 points and 3 rebounds off the bench.

The Cardinals shot the ball a little better from the field 49% (25x51) to 40.6% (26x64) for the Bears. Potsdam was better from long distance hitting 7x21 while the Cards were only 4x14. Plattsburgh struggled from the free throw line hitting only 53.1% (17x32) and that came close to costing them the game. Fortunately they made 6 in a row at the end of the game when it counted. Potsdam only got to the line 10 times but made 8 of them. Both teams took fairly good care of the ball as Potsdam only had 11 turnovers and the Cardinals only had 7.

Plattsburgh solidified their hold on the top spot as they improved to 12-4 in conference play. With just 2 games remaining this weekend they can clinch the regular season crown, the top seed and the right to host the Final Four of the YAC Tournament with a win on Friday or Saturday. Their overall record is now 17-6 and they have moved into the 2nd spot in the Regional Rankings behind St. John Fisher. They will take on Brockport State on Friday at 5:30 PM.

Potsdam will hope to pull off the upset of the 3rd place Geneseo Knights as they travel to the North Country on Friday at 5:30 to take on the Bears.


Oswego State 76  at  Geneseo State 64

A huge thank you to the Lakers for helping out the Cardinals by taking down the Knights.


Brockport State  57 vs  Cortland State 48

This win by the Golden Knights gives them a big leg up on getting into the conference tournament. It may have dealt a death blow to the Red Dragons who will need to beat Oswego this weekend in all probability.

                   

[Bengalsrule]

Final scores and wrap ups from Tuesday night's games.                 

Tuesday wrap up on a Thursday night??  You must be REALLY busy there buddy. Take some time out for your favorite conference today!!!!!!!!

[Bengalsrule]

This is no way a knock on Gordon Lyons who was the SUNYAC POTW for the 4th time this year and 2nd week in a row. As I said earlier on this board Gordon has had such an outstanding season that he could probably have won the POTW award just about every week. However it's nice to spread the wealth, so to speak,

Magicman, trust me...you arent the only 1 who was thinking that. 12 POTW awards and 1 person gets a 3rd of them . Makes me think that no 1 else has a shot at Player of the year in SUNYAC until I discovered this.

                                                              Top 10 rankings, SUNYAC categories,  as of today.

Gordon Lyons  Geneseo                    Scoring - 1st, Rebounds - 1st, Fg % - 4th and Ft % - 10th.  4 categories where LYONS is ranked in the top 10  (add a 5th for minutes played 1st)

Chris Cartwright   Buffalo State          Scoring - 4th, Ft % - 2nd , 3 pt % - 6th, 3 ptrs made - 1st, Assists - 1st, assist to turnover ratio - 2nd and steals - 7th. 7 categories where CARTWRIGHT is ranked in the top 10 ( add a 8th for minutes played - 5th)


  Ranked in nearly twice as many statistical categories (SUNYAC games only) as Lyons (or probably anyone else for that matter, I didn't check). I gotta believe that Cartwright HAS TO BE THE FRONT RUNNER FOR PLAYER OF THE YEAR, and All - American consideration.

  The last player to have done what Cartwright is doing this year was Anthony Williams. In 2008 Anthony Williams (Plattsburgh) was ranked in the top 10 in at least 5 categories Scoring  - 1st, Assists - 5th, 3 ptrs made - 3rd, mins - 2nd and assist to turnover ratio - 9th and he not only made Player of the year but All American. Check the SUNYAC records for the past 10 years. NOT 1 PLAYER HAS BEEN RANKED IN THE TOP 10 IN 7 CATEGORIES....NOT A SINGLE 1 (this late in the season)!!!!!!  Williams in 07 and in 08 was ranked in the top 5 in scoring and assists. He was Player of the year both seasons. In 09 Scott Morton was ranked in the top 5 in scoring (1st), assists (5th)along with being ranked 4th in steals, 4th assist to turnover ratio and 9th in 3 pts made (5 categories). He was player of the year that season. In 2011 Cartwright was ranked was ranked in the top 5 in scoring (3rd) and 5th in assist (5th). But no P O Y! 1st team 'Yac

  I'm not sure how any of these awards are determined. is it 1 person at a desk? Do all the SID's getting together? Do all the coaches get together??? I know we have a damn good SID at Buffalo State so I know that he is doing all he can do to make sure Chris gets the kind of recognition, (that has gotten past SUNYAC players, with similar #'s, POY &  All -American status), that he deserves. All indicators over the past 10 years make it clear who should be where at season end (this Saturday)  I'm not 1 to blow up any of Buff State's kids over anyone else, but I'm seeing the same thing that Magicman and others are seeing.  I damn sure don't want to see a BENGAL, who is deserving of the top honors, get overlooked. If Cartwright isnt deserving, then who is? I sure hope that it's a level playing field for post-season honors.

  The kid deserve it!!! Time will tell.

go BENGALS

(I'll talk about Chris Thompson, Rod Epps, Jordan Glover, Derrick Fernandez and Lovell Smith later)

[magicman]

All ten teams in action today on the final weekend of the regular season. Still a lot on the line as it usually is in the YAC.

Brockport State  at  Plattsburgh State      5:30 PM

Both teams looking to clinch something tonight. Brockport looking to make sure they get into the playoffs......Plattsburgh trying to lock down the regular season crown. Oddsmakers have made the Cardinals an 8 point home favorite. Cards looking for payback for earlier defeat in Brockport and for last year. I think they get it. Defensive battle but Plattsburgh wins 72-66. 
   
Buffalo State  at  New Paltz State      5:30 PM

Bengals also trying to lock down their playoff spot. New Paltz fighting for their playoff lives. Point spread gives a slim 2 point edge to the Bengals. I think they win it 83-76 and clinch their spot in the tournament.
   
   
Geneseo State      Potsdam State      5:30 PM

Geneseo can't afford a slip up here after falling to the Lakers the other night. They still have hopes of winning the regular season but need help. Oddsmakers have made them a big 13 point road favorite. If the Bears play like they did on Tuesday they could pull off the upset. I don't think they will though and have to go with Gorgon Lyons and the knights to win this one by a 75-63 score.
   
   
Cortland State      Oswego State      5:30 PM

Lakers still hoping for a miracle to give them the top seed. They won't get it but still would like a first round bye. Red Dragon have to win to stay alive for a playoff spot. Oddsmakers favor Oswego by a 4 point margin. I think the Lakers win by a few more than that. Oswego 76 Cortland 67
   
   
Fredonia State  at Oneonta State      5:30 PM

These Red Dragons need this game and with help from Buff St and Oswego could clinch a playoff berth tonight. Te point spread favor Oneonta by a 14 point margin and I'll be surprised if it is that close. Oneonta wins this one 82-61.   
   

Edit: 7:45 PM  Posted these at 4:00 PM today them left to go to the ball game at Plattsburgh. Apparently they didn't make the board but they were my picks. Just got back to see they weren't posted.

[magicman]

Final Scores:

Plattsburgh State 60  Brockport State 45

Buffalo State 73  New Paltz State 72

Geneseo State 70  Potsdam State 59

Cortland State 56  Oswego 47

Oneonta State 84  Fredonia State 82

[Vandy74]

The score was a bit lower than you predicted magicman but a solid win for the Plattsburgh State nonetheless.  The camera never panned where you and I were sitting that night when Middlebury seemed to be picking up a quality win for SOS purposes.  And it was.  They just never managed another until the last day of the season.  What a difference 6 weeks can make.  The Reggie Williams show is always entertaining unless you're rooting for the other team.  Solid offensive effort from McIntosh so long as he wasn't trying to hit from 3-point land.  Brockport's Modzelewski a total non-factor.   I expect you're feeling a lot better than you were the last time I saw you.   Congratulations and Go Cardinals!

[magicman]

Plattsburgh State 60  Brockport State 45

I said this game would be a defensive battle and I had the Cardinals winning by a 72-66 final but I didn't think that points would be so hard to come by, especially in the first 20 minutes of play. Brockport opened the scoring and after the first 5 minutes of play had moved in front of the Cardinals by an 11-3 margin. Plattsburgh, after an early basket by Reggie Williams, proceeded to miss their next 5 field goal attempts and in between those misses managed to commit 5 turnovers. They finally scored again on another inside move by Williams with 13:17 showing on the clock. That triggered a comeback aided by Xavier Thomas and Kyle Richardson who both came off the bench to provide some instant offense sorely need by the home team. Thomas got a fast break dunk and Richardson converted a rebound into a putback  that made it 11-9. After Plattsburgh's Shamoy McIntosh made 1 of 2 from the foul line, Richardson got loose for another dunk and the Cardinals finally had the lead at 12-11. Brockport had went nearly 8 minutes without scoring a single point. The Golden Eagles finally broke their scoring drought when Mitch Cote drained a three pointer to put Brockport back in front 14-12 with 6:24 left in the half. On Plattsburgh's next possession Kyle Richardson got his hand on another offensive rebound and tipped it in to tie the score. After both teams misfired over the next several minutes, Plattsburgh's Williams was fouled and made 1 of 2 to put the Cards in front and they never trailed for the remainder of the game. They stretched their lead to 21-16 on a basket by Ezra Hodgson only to have Brockport's Matt Smith hit a 3 pointer to make it 21-19. The Cards got a pair of free throws from McIntosh to make it a 4 point lead and after Brockport missed on their possession the Cards looked to take the final shot of the half. Smith had other ideas though and stole the ball and scored with 1 second left to send the teams into the break with Plattsburgh in front by a 23-21 score.

The teams traded baskets for the first few minutes of the 2nd period until Plattsburgh, up 27-25, got a pair of free throws from Reggie Williams. Then after Williams blocked a shot on the other end, the Cards came down and went right back to their big man and Williams scored inside again. Once again Williams blocked a shot on the Brockport possession, and this time Shamoy McIntosh drove to the hoop and scored too make it 33-25 and give the Cardinals a little breathing room. Brockport got it back to within 4 points at the 12:19 mark but another drive and score by McIntosh, followed by an old fashioned three point play from Williams, had the Cardinals back in front by 9 points at 40-31 with 9:49 to go. Another drive and score by McIntosh a short time later would boost the lead to double figures for the first time all night. The closest the Golden Eagles would get after that was 7 points at 45-38 with 6:35 remaining. 7 unanswered points by Plattsburgh built the lead back up to 14 with 3:33 remaining and it was time to light the cigar.

The Cardinals were led once again by their big man Reggie Williams who was the games leading scorer with 21 points and finished with a double-double by grabbing a game high 16 rebounds. The Golden Eagles simply had no answer for the big guy tonight. He also added 3 blocks but I, and the fans around me believe that he had a total of 5 blocks. He was 7x8 from the field to boost his league leading field goal percentage even higher and hit 7 of 11 from the line.

Shamoy McIntosh also had an outstanding game as he constantly slashed to the basket for a number of nice drives and finished with 18 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds and a pair of steals.

Kyle Richardson had 6 points and 7 rebounds off the bench, while Xavier Thomas had 4 points and 9 rebounds.

Matt Smith was the leading scorer for Brockport with 14 points on 6x7 from the field, 1x1 from downtown, with 3 rebounds and a pair of steals. Clifton Lyerly had 11 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals.

Plattsburgh shot 22x47 from the field (46.8%) but couldn't buy a three pointer as they were 0x14 from long distance. I wonder how many teams have won a game by 15 points by going 0x14 from 3 point land? The Cards were 16x25 (64%) from the line.

Brockport had a miserable night shooting the rock as they were only 18x54 (33.3%) from the field, 4x21 from long range (19%) and 5x8 (62.5%) from the line.

Plattsburgh killed Brockport off the glass with 48 rebounds to 23 for the visitors but Brockport only had 13 turnovers to 21 for the Cardinals.

Plattsburgh with tonight's win, moves to 13-4 and has clinched the top seed in the SUNYAC. They will host the Final Four next weekend.  They improve to 18-6 overall and will be shooting for their 3rd straight 20 win season. They wrap up their regular season tomorrow against Geneseo who will still have a chance to come in 2nd place and get a bye into the semifinals.

Brockport falls to 10-7 and despite the loss, has also clinched a playoff spot. They own the tiebreaker over both Oneonta and Cortland if all 3 finish 10-8 so even if they lose to Potsdam tomorrow they are in. They can finish as high as 3rd place depending on tomorrows results. Brockport can only finish in 6th place if Buffalo State, Potsdam and Plattsburgh win their games tomorrow. That would leave Cortland and Brockport as the only 2 teams with 10-8 records and Cortland would win the tiebreaker over Brockport by virtue of wins against Plattsburgh and Oswego, while Brockport beat Plattsburgh but lost to Oswego twice. Cortland would then come in 5th place and Brockport would get the final playoff spot. 
               

[magicman]

The score was a bit lower than you predicted magicman but a solid win for the Plattsburgh State nonetheless.  The camera never panned where you and I were sitting that night when Middlebury seemed to be picking up a quality win for SOS purposes.  And it was.  They just never managed another until the last day of the season.  What a difference 6 weeks can make.  The Reggie Williams show is always entertaining unless you're rooting for the other team.  Solid offensive effort from McIntosh so long as he wasn't trying to hit from 3-point land.  Brockport's Modzelewski a total non-factor.   I expect you're feeling a lot better than you were the last time I saw you.   Congratulations and Go Cardinals!

Thanks Vandy and you're right about that low score but read my summary above.

I was amazed at how the season turned out for the Panthers. I was hoping that they could get into the CAC tournament and make some noise and was so disappointed when they didn't. I feel for you but I know that Jeff Brown won't be down for long. You can root for the Cardinals next weekend and hopefully for a few more weekends after that.

Plus K and I got your PM and one from Chris today thanks for 499 and 500. Who should I root for in the CAC tournament? I will await your suggestion.   

[Bengalsrule]

magicman...where can 1 go to find the rule/tiebreakers for SUNYAC seedings? Everything in SUNYAC seems to require special permission to "log in to". I tried calling you!!

[Vandy74]

The score was a bit lower than you predicted magicman but a solid win for the Plattsburgh State nonetheless.  The camera never panned where you and I were sitting that night when Middlebury seemed to be picking up a quality win for SOS purposes.  And it was.  They just never managed another until the last day of the season.  What a difference 6 weeks can make.  The Reggie Williams show is always entertaining unless you're rooting for the other team.  Solid offensive effort from McIntosh so long as he wasn't trying to hit from 3-point land.  Brockport's Modzelewski a total non-factor.   I expect you're feeling a lot better than you were the last time I saw you.   Congratulations and Go Cardinals!

Thanks Vandy and you're right about that low score but read my summary above.

I was amazed at how the season turned out for the Panthers. I was hoping that they could get into the CAC tournament and make some noise and was so disappointed when they didn't. I feel for you but I know that Jeff Brown won't be down for long. You can root for the Cardinals next weekend and hopefully for a few more weekends after that.

Plus K and I got your PM and one from Chris today thanks for 499 and 500. Who should I root for in the CAC tournament? I will await your suggestion.

Magicman.  Great game analysis, as always.  I hadn't really studied the game stats.  0-14 and a 15 point win.  How many times has that happened?  Good trivia question.  NESCAC team to root for.  Obviously not Bates.  I have a father and two brothers who went to Amherst.   My best friend's father did as well and they were our next door neighbors.  I take some flack for it on the NESCAC board but I root for Amherst when they are not playing Middlebury.  But if the LJs are not your team I think it has been such a crazy year in the conference that just watching the tournament play out should be very entertaining.  A fun pick would be Wesleyan.  How the team that played last weekend could be the same one that lost by 37 to Middlebury is incredible but almost all teams in the conference have a similar sample of wins and losses that don't compute.  It's been that kind of a season. 

I hope to watch some of the Middlebury v Plattsburgh women's ice hockey tomorrow as well.

[AllStar]

Magicman, congratulations to your Cardinals on their regular season title!...although I know you are not satisfied yet.   

[magicman]

Thank you AllStar, much appreciated. And of course the real satisfaction comes if we win 2 games next weekend. But first things first, we need to take care of business later today against Geneseo. If we don't win that automatic bid that comes with the SUNYAC championship we will need to embellish our record a bit more to try and get an at large bid, if needed. I'm thinking we're 18-6 and we need to win the Geneseo game, and the 1st game next Friday to get to our championship game. If we get beat in the championship game we'll be 20-7 and I think that will get us an at large bid. I hope we don't have to worry about that, but it's nice to have something to fall back on. 2 years ago we lost in the championship game and ended up 19-8. That was good enough to get us an at large bid and a home game in the NCAA's. The same thing happened last year but we had a better record...22-5 and that got us an at large bid and a 4 team pod at home. So I'd like to get that automatic bid this year and take the guesswork out of the equation.

Plus k for the well wishes.     

[amh63]

Magicman....saw your numbers thr other day while checking your team out.  See that Vandy and Middhoops got you covered to 500
It's chilly in Florida...but not as bad as in upper NY....wife talks to. Our daughter in the Ithaca area daily to get a running temperature check.
This post is to follow the boys from Vermont advice.   I maybe missing some of the games as we will be on the road back to Winterpark....saw some pubs, museums and migrant snowbirds from up North