MBB: State University of New York Athletic Conference

[magicman]

Oswego defeats Geneseo by a 75-59 final score.

[magicman]

Brockport edges Buffalo State by an 82-78 final score.

[magicman]

SUNYAC semifinals are set for Friday night in Plattsburgh :

#3 Brockport State   vs  #2 Cortland State    5:30 PM

#4 Oswego State  at   #1 Plattsburgh            7:30 PM

[Bengalsrule]

Toughest ride home is always the last one of the season.  Today is no different. Good luck to Brockport, Owsego, Cortland and Plattsburgh!!

Go SUNYAC!!

[with age came?]

Finally we get a scenario where the games go according to seeding.  If its any consolation Bengals my hometown high school took it on the chin in your arena tonight so I can feel your chagrin..    Guess I'll temporarily have to become a Cardinal fan     Must admit when our Magicman consistently shows how we have a "beast from the East" when it comes to fantasy d3 leagues it does rather endear you!

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Final public regional rankings are out: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3hoops/2016/02/24/third-ncaa-regional-ranking/

[magicman]

The latest regional rankings for the East Region.

#1 Plattsburgh State
#2 Rochester
#3 NYU
#4 St. John Fisher
#5 Oswego State
#6 Geneseo State

Putting NYU in 3rd place is a laughing matter. They probably wouldn't even make our playoffs if they were in the SUNYAC. The NCAA wants to reward a team that schedules losing team after losing team in their non-conference schedule. That sends a wrong message. 

So how does NYU leapfrog over Oswego? Last week NYU was in 6th place Oswego was 5th, and Fisher wasn't ranked. So Oswego goes 1-1 in the past week, beating Geneseo who was ranked #3 in last week's East Regional Rankings and losing to Cortland who is unranked and in 2nd place in the SUNYAC. NYU goes 1-1 beating Chicago who was ranked #6 in the Central Regional Rankings and loses to Washington University who is unranked and in 5th place in the UAA conference. Oswego has a better SOS .532 to .514 for NYU. They also have a better regional record 4-3 to NYU's 3-3. So again I ask...How does NYU jump over Oswego? Something is rotten in Denmark.

Oswego, Geneseo, Brockport, Cortland and Buffalo State  could all be 19-5 if they only had to play 14 conference games and scheduled the cupcakes in the non-conference portion of their schedule that NYU did. Now, because of this week's Regional Rankings, if NYU loses their final game and Oswego loses in the YAC semis or championship game, then NYU will still be ranked ahead of them. Then if Plattsburgh State, Rochester, and St. John Fisher all get automatic bids, NYU will be first in line from the East Region to get an at large bid. NYU has an easier game this weekend because they aren't playing in a conference tournament (how convenient the UAA doesn't have a conference tournament...this prevents the teams behind the conference champ from all picking up another loss) or facing one of the tougher teams in the UAA. They are playing a regular season game against the last place team in their conference. Oswego has to play the #1 team in the SUNYAC and the East Region, Plattsburgh State, on the road. Should they win that game, they will then have to play the #2 or #3 seed in the SUNYAC to win the automatic bid. A close loss by Oswego, to any of the teams they face, is, in my opinion, better than a win by NYU over a 3-10 team in their conference. The SUNYAC got the short end of the stick last year...good chance the same thing will happen again this year.              

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Well just as an FYI... NYU is 19-5 with a .514 SOS and 3-3 vRRO.
Oswego is 18-7 with a .532 SOS and a 4-3 vRRO.

First off, not a big enough spread in the SOS (.018) to wash out the two game difference between the two (losses)... so Oswego's WL is hurting them in the comparison more than NYU's SOS (which being above .500 is notable).

The 3-3 vRRO versus the 4-3 is more than just a record thing. They will look at who teams beat and where they are ranked. There is also a common opponent: NYU has beaten Rochester (and lost to them) and so has Oswego.

I bet dollars to donuts the committee went even further into secondary criteria and started driving as far into the data as they could to break down some of these things. I also know that when they basically are tied - they will go with WL.

I am not arguing that NYU SHOULD be that high... I am just showing some comparisons.

Also worth noting... the committee doesn't tend to look at only two teams and rank according to those two teams. They usually are comparing multiple teams at the same time. All of them have data in favor of themselves and they start to slot teams the best they can at that point.

And by the way, I think the last week showed you that NYU losing to Brandeis this week might not necessarily keep them ahead of Oswego in that regard. The vRRO will adjust to these rankings... AND it will readjust one more time when the final rankings are done - the committee will get the final rankings, redo the vRRO one last time, and make adjustments with that new data as they see fit.

There are a lot of moving parts here. I wouldn't assume an NYU loss will keep them ahead of Oswego if the Lakers lose as well.

[magicman]

Tuesday Night Recap

Oswego State 75 Geneseo State 59

Trying to pick a winner of this game was a difficult choice but I had to go with the Lakers because of their late season success and the emergence of Mykelle Krecko in the paint. I had the Lakers winning a close game by a 76-71 final score. I didn't know that the Knights would be without the services of John Decker. Justin Ringen and Decker have been Geneseo's 1-2 punch all season long. If you take the D out of the R&D department, there's no way that the Knights were going to win this game. I would have predicted a 76-60 score if I knew Decker was MIA. I had Oswego's total within a point though and on the winning end.

The Lakers were behind for most of the first half, trailing by as many as 8 points and often by 2 possessions. Oswego never let them get too far in front however, despite poor shooting from Brian Sortino (1x8), Alex Rawa (1x6) and Keith Tyson (1x4). Justin Ringen was the big gun for the Knights as he nailed 4 threes, grabbed 9 rebounds and wound up with 14 points in the period. Kyle Covely kept the Lakers close by scoring 10 points and Dustin Pond added 7. 

Down 30-22, Oswego got back to back 3's from Covely and Rawa to make it 30-28 with 2:25 left in the half, but Conner Keenan got a layup and 1 to make it 33-28 with 2:08 left. Neither team could put another point on the board for the rest of the period.

The Lakers must have got a good halftime speech from Coach Leone, because after Geneseo's Kevin Crockett opened the 2nd half with a 3 pointer to make it an 8 point lead, Oswego ripped off a 24-1 run. That's not a typo...the Lakers scored 24 points, with 21 of them unanswered after a Geneseo free throw. I think that's the largest run I've witnessed this year and I've watched a heck of a lot of basketball games. Alex Rawa started things off with two more three pointers to answer Crockett's threeball. Then Mykelle Krecko and Keith Tyson got in the act as they traded baskets. Krecko made a layup and Tyson drained a 3 pointer. Then he made a layup followed by another Krecko inside move and score. Brian Sortino followed with a jumper and Rawa buried another triple. Tyson and Sortino then got back to back layups on drives to the hoop. There was 11:14 left in the game, the score was 52-37 and the Lakers had turned an 8 point deficit into a 15 point lead. The Knights were reeling.

Kevin Crockett finally ended the Oswego downpour with a pair of free throws and the Knights' Jon Cohen swished a three pointer. Geneseo would narrow the gap a bit further when Crockett scored inside, Cohen hit once again from downtown and Kevin Zabransky scored on a layup. The Knights had cut the lead to 54-49 with 8 minutes to play, but that was as close as they could get. Brian Sortino finally found his shot and buried a 3 pointer. Krecko hit 1 of 2 from the line, Sortino made a layup and then drained another trifecta. 2 more Krecko free throws were followed by another Sortino bomb and then a layup. Sortino had scored 13 points in a 5 minute stretch and this game was over. The score was 70-58 with 2:44 left on the clock. Sortino made another 3 point shot with 1:07 left and after both teams missed their final shots the Knights surrendered and dribbled the clock out.

Sortino ended up as the game's leading scorer with 23 points and 20 of those came in the 2nd half. He also had a team high 5 assists. Keith Tyson had 13 points and 5 rebounds. Alex Rawa had 12 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists. Kyle Covely had 10 points and 7 rebounds, getting all those points in the first half, as he waited for the other shooters to heat up. Mykelle Krecko was a force in the paint as he scored 7 points, had 6 rebounds, 5 blocks and 3 assists. Dustin Pond had 7 points and 4 rebounds in 10 minutes of court time.

Justin Ringen led the Knights with a double-double of 19 points and 10 rebounds. Kevin Crockett had 11 points, 5 rebounds, with 3 assists, while Jon Cohen added 9 points off the bench, hitting 3 of 4 shots from long range.

Geneseo's season will end with a 17-9 overall record. The NCAA won't come calling with 9 losses.

Oswego improves to 19-7 and will meet Plattsburgh State in the semifinals Friday night in Plattsburgh at 7:30. The Lakers have to like their chances, after winning in Memorial Hall in their last 2 visits there. This will be the rubber match between the 2 teams.     

[magicman]

Tuesday Night Recap

Brockport State 82  Buffalo State 78

With 1:48 to go in this game the score was 75-71 in favor of Brockport and I thought the chances of the Golden Eagles winning by a 79-75 final score was actually possible. That was the score I predicted, but the foul parade started early, and each team scored 7 more points in the short time left. Still I was only off 3 points on each team's total and had the margin of victory exactly right.

The teams traded baskets early on and after a few ties and lead changes the Golden Eagles began to assert themselves and gradually gained the upper hand going in front by a 17-9 score with 11:19 left in the period. Brockport maintained a lead over the next 5 minutes until the Bengals caught them and tied the score at 23 apiece with 6:56 left, on a Jordan Chateau layup. Port scored 8 unanswered points to go back in front but Buffalo State would only trail by 4, 38-34 at the break.

The 2nd half was  two teams slugging it out from start to finish. It didn't take long for the Bengals to turn things around and grab the lead. They outscored Brockport 7-2 at the start of the period to gain a lead for the first time since the score was 5-4 in the first half. Over the next 13 minutes the scored would be tied 5 times and the lead would change 6 times. Still tied at 67 each with 5 minutes left in the game, Brockport went ahead on a Clifton Lyerly layup. Each team went to the line making 1 of 2 and then Hamed Shamsldine hit a pair from the stripe to put Brockport up by 4 at 72-68 with 3:22 to play. The Bengals got nothing on their next 2 possessions and that would be costly as the Golden Eagles got another free throw from Lyerly plus a dunk from Olusola Adeniran. That made the score 75-68 with under 2 minutes left. A 3 point play by Nico McLean cut it to 4 points, but the Bengals had to foul the only guy that got the inbounds passes, Shamseldin, and he made the pay, by making 7 of 8 free throws down the stretch. The Bengals missed a big opportunity when Mike Henry's 2 free throws cut the lead to 77-75 with 1:09 remaining. Brockport failed to score on their next possession and The Bengals went to the line with a chance to tie the game but only made 1 of 2 with 53 seconds to go. The Bengals needed a stop and after playing good D for 22 seconds Shamseldin was fouled and made 2 more. Down 3 after that trip to the line, Buff State missed a game tying 3 pointer and fouled Shamseldin again. He made 1 of 2 to make it a 2 possession game and after a quick Bengal basket, Shamseldin went to the line 1 final time with 3 seconds left. He hit another pair to make the final score 82-78.

Shamseldin came off the bench to lead the Golden Eagles with 24 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals.             
Olusola Adeniran had 13 points 8 rebounds and 2 blocks. Clifton Lyerly had 11 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 steals. Devonn Gavin had 10 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists. Marcus Blythers had 6 points, 6 rebounds, 3 blocks and 1 assist in 20 minutes off the bench.

Lovell Smith led the Bengals with 26 points to capture scoring honors. He also had 7 rebounds and 1 assist. Mike Henry had 18 points and 8 rebounds. Nico McLean filled up the stat sheet with 17 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks and a steal.

The bad news is the Bengals season comes to an end with a respectable 15-11 record. The good news is most of this team will be back including all 5 starters (Jordan Glover who missed the last few games with an injury is normally a starter) and 9 of their top 10 rotation players. Next year could be their year.

Brockport will move on to face #2 Cortland in the first semifinal game taking place at 5:30 on Friday evening in Plattsburgh's Memorial Hall. The Golden Eagles improve their overall record to 17-9. 

[with age came?]

Barnburner time in the North Country!!  Go Cards!!

[All-Time]

Memorial Hall will be Rocking tonight.

Brockport over Cortland

Magicman's Cardinals over Oswego

Enjoy the games

[pg04]

Come on Plattsburgh, do good for the conference and let someone else win the A  .

I know I know. 

[magicman]

SUNYAC Final Four   The Best Weekend of the Year  at Plattsburgh State

February 26th

Semifinal #1     #3 Brockport  vs  #2 Cortland        5:30 PM  at Plattsburgh

The Golden Eagles split their 2 games with Cortland this year with each team winning on their home court. With a little luck Brockport could have been the #2 seed instead of the #3 seed but at this point it doesn't really matter since both teams are in the semis and it's a neutral court. These teams have played 12 times in the past 6 years and the record in the series is 6-6.

Both teams with records that place them just outside the chance of a possible at large bid to the NCAA tournament. Brockport with 9 losses already, can't afford to lose another game. Their only shot at the NCAA tournament is to win the automatic bid. Cortand is in slightly better shape but another loss will give them a 19-8 record or 20-8 if they win today and lose tomrrow. Their SOS is not very good and they will be a bubble team but I think their chances are slim of getting a bid. Like Brockport I think they have to win the YAC tournament to keep playing.

The teams are both coming into the game with some nice wins and Cortland just handed Brockport a narrow loss a week ago. The oddsmakers however favor Brockport in this game by a 4 point spread. I like the Golden Eagles to win this game as well as they seem to have their full lineup back and getting 25 minutes from Hamed Shamseldin will be better than the limited minutes he played in the last matchup. Brockport wins this one by a 79-76 final score.     


Semifinal #2      #Oswego State  at  Plattsburgh State        7:30 PM

Once again like last year these teams meet for a 3rd time. Last year the Cardinals won the first 2 but dropped the most important one that led to an Oswego dance party, while Plattsburgh stayed home. The Cardinals have had a year to stew about that one. This year the teams split their regular season meetings, each winning on the other's home court. Over the past 12 games these teams have went 6-6.

Plattsburgh with a 21-4 record and a national ranking of #21 in the D3hoops Top 25 poll is a lock to get an NCAA bid this year even if they lose the SUNYAC tournament. They are the #1 ranked team in the East Region. Oswego is #5 in the East Region and with a 19-7 record is squarely on the bubble for a Pool C bid. A loss today would give them a 19-8 record which is exactly what Plattsburgh State had last year after they lost to the Lakers in the SUNYAC Championship game. That 19-8 mark wasn't good enough to get them in last year. This year might be a different story because there are so many teams with 7, 8, or 9 losses.

The oddsmakers have made the Cardinals a 4 point favorite favorite in this one. After losing to the Lakers in Memorial Hall the last two times they have met, I think the Cardinals will put a halt to that winning streak, today. Plattsburgh isn't satisfied with a regular season crown, they want that SUNYAC Championship that the Lakers denied them last year. Plattsburgh wins this one by an 85-80 final score.           

[magicman]

Come on Plattsburgh, do good for the conference and let someone else win the A  .

I know I know. 

That would certainly mean a double entry from the YAC into the Big Dance.  Sometimes I almost think that would be best, but then I think of the guys I've followed and gotten to know over the past 4 years and how much a SUNYAC title would mean to them. I have to hope they can get it done this year. Last year we went that route (winning the regular season and losing the Championship) and got burned and had to watch the NCAA tournament instead of playing in it. That left a bad taste for a long time. Hoping to get rid of it this weekend.