MBB: State University of New York Athletic Conference

[with age comes?]

Magic & Cards- was at the game for Kings vs Clarkson- my take on it is over on the liberty league board. Kings can give Plattsburgh a game if they shoot like they did Thursday.  Still like Plattsburgh though.  Good luck Cards!!!  Reek revenge for rabid rollicking northern ny fans!!!

[magicman]

Magic & Cards- was at the game for Kings vs Clarkson- my take on it is over on the liberty league board. Kings can give Plattsburgh a game if they shoot like they did Thursday.  Still like Plattsburgh though.  Good luck Cards!!!  Reek revenge for rabid rollicking northern ny fans!!!

Cards can crush Kingsmen cause Curle can coach.  You are the king of alliteration,  but I can still turn a phrase once in a while. Brings me back to my sports reporting days.

Seriously though, it looked like Kings softened up Clarkson early with their big guy Soboleski and then brought in the shooters off the bench.

[magicman]

This is for Plattsburgh St. fans and Kings College fans who are traveling to the game on Sat. It's been snowing here since about 9 PM Fri. night.  It's now 2 AM Sat. morning and about 4 inches of snow has accumulated. Weather report says we're right on the edge of a warming trend and that the snow is supposed to change over to freezing rain, by morning, sleet and more rain in the afternoon. The old mixed bag. Total snowfall is 6-12 inches but depending on the temps we may get less than that in the immediate Champlain Valley. Hope to see Mrs Hunt and Mr. Ponesse at the game. And Mrs Hunt we've saved your seat. After all we have to protect that winning streak. 

[magicman]

Here's hoping that U of R and Plattsburgh St. can both make a run to the final 4 and give NYS hoops team something to be proud of. I can see Rochester doing just that as they have a good chance to host the sectionals.  Plattsburgh has a tough road ahead. If they get by Kings College, they'll face Brandeis or Bowdoin, and a win there and the prize is Amherst at Amherst in all probability.  Love to see a rematch of UR and Plattsburgh in the Semifinal

[Cards7580]

It's snowing up in Plattsburgh now.  In 7 hours it will be raining 3pointers. 

ECAC West Women's Ice Hockey semi-finals at the Field House, High School state basketball qualifiers at the Field house. NCAA basketball at Memorial Hall, (sold out).   And a college theatrical performance across the street from Memorial.  Parking will be an issue for sure.

[Cards7580]

I believe the Cards are ready.  Kings (PA) better be hitting their shots or it is going to be a long game.
Their Point guard and the center are the BEST players.  The other guys are all outside shooters.

[bsportsfan]

If Brockport gets by the private school, I think the Oswego/Brockport game will be in the 100's.

They would be the 4th SUNYAC team with 20 or more wins. And Geneseo has 19.

Sadly, no Brockport/Oswego final.  Cortland 90-Oswego 80 in snowy Brockport.

[Dyce]

83-77 Plattsburgh in OT over King's.  Great game, although I would expect both sides would take exception toward the officiating.  From a Plattsburgh perspective, for example, there's no denying King's big man John Soboleski played a fine game, but he was awarded some questionable fouls and allowed some fancy footwork in the paint all evening.  Clutch 3 by King's to send it into OT, made especially dramatic by the fact that it was one of those roll-around-the-rim 3s that don't seem possible.

Travis Gorham was a monster on the boards at both ends for Plattsburgh as usual, although foul trouble courtesy Soboleski kept him somewhat more tentative toward the end of the game.  Williams had a hot and cold night, hitting a few clutch 3s but making some mental errors by way of some ill-advised passes and a totally inexcusable 10-second call.  Wild game to watch, in any case, and Plattsburgh has to be happy just to have survived this one.

[bsportsfan]

Brockport 81 Fisher 80 in ECAC semifinal.  Final tomorrow at 2 - Brockport vs Cortland

[magicman]

Plattsburgh State 83 Kings College 77 in Overtime.

Great game at sold out Memorial Hall tonight in Plattsburgh. Back and forth 1st half with neither team playing that well in the opening period . Kings opens a little daylight near the end of the 1st and grabs a 33-26 lead at the break. Plattsburgh comes out running to start the 2nd and closes to within 1 about 3 mins in. Back and forth action from that point on. Kings led 63-60 with 1:44 left in regulation when Plattsburgh fueled by Anthony Williams grabbed a 3 pt lead at 69-66 with 20 secs left. Vince Scalzo hit his 3rd 3 pointer of the night with 7 ticks remaining and the Cardinals didn't get off a good shot before the buzzer. In overtime Freshman Chris Ruiz who was 0-6 from the field at that point made 3 straight buckets to give the Cards a 75-70 lead. Kings would fight back to close to within 2 at 79-77 with 1:24 left in OT but could get no closer. Williams once again led Plattsburgh with 22 pts. on 6x27 fg, 3x8 3's 7x8 FT's 6 rebs & 4 assists. Antwane Miller had a big game for the Cards with a double-double of 16 pts on 6x9 fg 1x13's 3x4 FT's 11 rebounds(at 6' 0" tall) & 4 assists. Travis Gorham had another huge game also recording a double-double with 16 pts on 7x13 fg's 2x4 FT's and grabbed a game high 17 rebounds.
Kings was led by big man John Soboleski with 30 pts on 7x10 fg's and 16x23 FT's. He also had 8 rebs. Jamie Cousart and Kofi Dwebeng added 12 pts each and Scalzo finished with 10.
Plattsburgh was outshot 52% to 33% in the 1st half but came back to shoot 48% to 37% for Kings in the 2nd. The Cardinals were 15x22 from the charity stripe godd for 78.6% while Kings shot 69.6% from the line hitting 19-29 with Sobeleski taking 23 of those 29 attempts.  
Officiating was strange as they called every slight bump against Kings big man Sobeleski, but allowed the King's defenders to grab and hold Anthony Williams all night long. I don't know if he's got a jersey left they had a handful of it so many times. Hacked across both arms on at least 4 occasions with no call. Somebody needs to teach this crew what traveling is. First time all year I've mentioned poor officials but this crew was bad. One in particular was far and away the worst we've seen all year. Don't  know if it was everybody's favorite Lenny Rausch or not but he was 1 of the 3.

#7 ranked Plattsburgh now moves on to face #5 ranked Brandeis in the sectionals next Friday night. Probably at Amherst, but we're hoping that it could be here.

[jdex]

      Cortland by 47-35 at half. Oswego within 7 under 5' before CSter M. Schaller hoop stops momentum. Another later OSt push with 5 halted by C. Niehoff and Schaller free throws. Corts with 54-28 reb edge. Soph P. Oliver 28 pts(13x21fg), 13 rebs, 3 assts in 36'; soph M. Lewis 16 pts(7x12fg), 12 rebs in 32'; Niehoff 12 pts; J. Miolen 12 pts(6x12fg) in 19'; D. Fish 7 assts; W. Coston 4 assts. Oswego's T. Downing 38 pts(12x25fg, 5 3s, 9x10ft) in 39'; M. Jabbbi 11 pts, 5 blks; D. White 11 pts; N. Perioli 9 pts(2x10fg) in 40'. CSt bench outscores OSt spares 29-5. Corts 21-7, OSt 21-8

[Cards7580]

Officials at the Plattsburgh game

Nichols
Jayne
Len Paush - absolutely the WORST and most biased official I have EVER seen.  This is the third game he had PLattsburgh and that I have seen personally.  He has got a vendetta against A.Williams or just against Plattsburgh in general.  WHOEVER schedules referees for games better start going to games to see how this numbnut selfishly inserts himself into a game  instead of letting the players play. Officials with a paranoid attitude and rabbit ears should not be doing SUNYAC finals or NCAA games.   Absolutely PATHETIC conduct on his part, peering into the crowd and making faces to a jeering fan.  Not only did he abuse his power against Plattsburgh he missed at least 4 calls against King's.  Two out of bounds plays he gave to Pburgh. Not too difficult to figure out which dark arm knocked a ball out of bounds.   The big kid on King's needed NO HELP but got plenty of it from many questionable calls going his way.

King's was a very well coached team, and did their best to spoil our season.  Somehow, despite being pushed, pulled, hugged, slapped, and even tackled, Anthony Williams found a way to score 22 points. 

The two freshman Ruiz and Errol D.  played great. Ricky Rider hit two pressure FT's to tie the score at one time in the 2nd half. Gutzman played some great defense with many deflected passes.  Even the Big Guy RJ Ponesse performed the best he could considering Mr. Paush's interpretation of the game.

What a fantastic crowd, of students, parents, old, young and a great representation of almost every Cardinal sports team.  The entire baseball team, the girls of the softball team, hockey players, track and field, lacrosse and others.  Rowdy but not out of control.

[bearnation]

If Plattsburgh doesn't get the chance to host the next round of the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball tournament they can only blame themselves. If they had  first rate facilities then you go there.  There gym is not first rate.  To be honest its not even rated because its so bad.  I agree that Amherst isn't much better then Memorial Hall but its also not a long trip through the Adirondack Mountains in winter.  If the end were a great  place(Maxcy Hall) its an easy choice.  But Memorial Hall isn't a great place so why go there? 
 
FYI The NCAA Division III Mens Hockey finals are going to be played at the Herb Brooks Olympic Center in Lake Placid.  This goes to show that the NCAA will choose the Adirondacks but they also have to see a reward at the end.  Remember always follow the $$$$$.  I believe this is being sponsored by the SUNYAC and some schools in Vermont. 

[Dyce]

I certainly won't argue that Memorial is a detriment to Plattsburgh hosting a sectional, although your description makes it sound like a dumpy arena, which certainly isn't the case - it isn't poorly maintained, it's just tiny.  And if there's blame to be placed, it's on the relatively recent era of sustained success for the program: Plattsburgh has a perfectly sound 5,000-seat field house, but it was renovated largely with high school playoff hoops in mind since the college program's longstanding mediocrity made Memorial a far more appropriate venue.  Blaming the college for failing to predict that the basketball program would experience such a profound resurgence a few years after said renovation is more than a little suspect.

By the way, the hockey tournament's placement in Lake Placid, while almost certainly lucrative, was not really a monetary decision on the NCAA's part.  For one thing, northern New York's remote location is moot, since New York and Vermont teams dominate the division: since 1995, there has been a grand total of one champion from outside of the two states.  Additionally, the DIII hockey final four has traditionally been held on-campus, and there would be more than enough arenas - Oswego, Plattsburgh, Middlebury, Norwich, and Elmira, to name a few - able to generate comparable revenue for the final four.  The problem is given that the disparity in numbers between Eastern and Western DIII hockey programs almost guarantees a perennial 3-1 East-West split, along with the far greater number of suitable on-campus rinks in the East, the West has very little ground to stand on by way of hosting without the division making the move to neutral sites.  Ironically, the West has yet to arrange a neutral host for next season, so it might be back to the drawing board there.

[thebear]

 
FYI The NCAA Division III Mens Hockey finals are going to be played at the Herb Brooks Olympic Center in Lake Placid.  This goes to show that the NCAA will choose the Adirondacks but they also have to see a reward at the end.  Remember always follow the $$$$$.  I believe this is being sponsored by the SUNYAC and some schools in Vermont. 

Actually your alma mater (Potsdam) is the sponsoring institution along with the ORDA.  We will provide sports medicine, assist with sports information and other roles as needed.  The finals are on Easter Sunday. 
I don't think the driver is money, but rather that the Eastern teams that typically make the tournament (If form follows rankings, Elmira, Plattsburgh, Manhattanville) all have distinct home ice advantages and that a neutral site is fairer for everyone. 

There's so much history in Lake Placid, and with our 2 feet of new snow in the last week, the place will be packed on this early Easter weekend.

Back & the day, Coach Welsh & I talked about putting a bid in to host D-III basketball at Lake Placid, last I knew, they have the old portable floor from Cobo Hall in Detroit (bought it from Glens Falls), and use it when the Globetrotters come to town.  Then he moved on to Iona.