MBB: University Athletic Association

[WUPHF]

BTW, Old Guy complains too much about the (lack of) endline space behind the baskets of the Palestra at Rochester, NY.   Old gyms have their quirks, and besides, the end walls of the Louis Alexander Palestra are padded.

I would think walls with padding are safer on average than bleachers, but what do I know.

I am still not as impressed with the Rochester gym as everyone else is (it looks to be identical to my high school gym with the end line windows and steps which is why I have an opinion), but I'll make it one of these days to see for myself.

NYU men can use the "toughening up" in their non-conference schedule.

SOS 372 according to Massey.

[Gregory Sager]

BTW, Old Guy complains too much about the (lack of) endline space behind the baskets of the Palestra at Rochester, NY.   Old gyms have their quirks, and besides, the end walls of the Louis Alexander Palestra are padded.

I would think walls with padding are safer on average than bleachers, but what do I know.

I am still not as impressed with the Rochester gym as everyone else is (it looks to be identical to my high school gym with the end line windows and steps which is why I have an opinion), but I'll make it one of these days to see for myself.

I think that half of the mystique lies in the name of the venue. Instead of the quotidian "Gym", the overstated "Arena", or the boringly non-specific "Center" in which other D3 basketball teams play, Rochester has a "Palestra". Nobody seems to know what the heck a "palestra" is -- it's actually a Greek word that means "a place for wrestling" -- but it sounds cool, probably because it looks like a portmanteau of "palace" and "extra".

NYU men can use the "toughening up" in their non-conference schedule.

SOS 372 according to Massey.

Another year, another dubious award for the Fighting Violets as the Cupcake Eating Contest champions of D3.

[deiscanton]

BTW, Old Guy complains too much about the (lack of) endline space behind the baskets of the Palestra at Rochester, NY.   Old gyms have their quirks, and besides, the end walls of the Louis Alexander Palestra are padded.

I would think walls with padding are safer on average than bleachers, but what do I know.

I am still not as impressed with the Rochester gym as everyone else is (it looks to be identical to my high school gym with the end line windows and steps which is why I have an opinion), but I'll make it one of these days to see for myself.

I think that half of the mystique lies in the name of the venue. Instead of the quotidian "Gym", the overstated "Arena", or the boringly non-specific "Center" in which other D3 basketball teams play, Rochester has a "Palestra". Nobody seems to know what the heck a "palestra" is -- it's actually a Greek word that means "a place for wrestling" -- but it sounds cool, probably because it looks like a portmanteau of "palace" and "extra".

NYU men can use the "toughening up" in their non-conference schedule.

SOS 372 according to Massey.

Another year, another dubious award for the Fighting Violets as the Cupcake Eating Contest champions of D3.

And yet, incredibly enough, in the Pool C Fantasy Draft on the D3DataCast this morning, ziggy and KnightSlappy are buying that NYU can get a Pool C bid this year.    In their Pool C Fantasy Draft, KnightSlappy made 10 picks and Ziggy made 10 picks for a total of 20 overall picks.  Their scoring of the draft has a correct Pool C draft pick getting 3 points for the person who picked the team.  If a team picked in the D3DataCast Pool C Fantasy draft wins their conference AQ instead, 1 point will go to the person who picked that team.

KnightSlappy picked first, and ziggy followed second.  When it got to pick 10, ziggy, in snake-like fashion, got to pick teams 10 and 11, and KnightSlappy picked the 12th overall pick.   The picks then alternated until all 20 teams were chosen.

For what it is worth, here were the D3DataCast Pool C Fantasy Draft picks:

KnightSlappy picked-- Emory, Mary Washington, Wheaton (IL), Swarthmore, Kean, Middlebury, Scranton, Stockton, Widener, and Rowan.

Ziggy picked-- Williams, Rochester, Guilford, NYU, UW-Oshkosh, UW-La Crosse, (the WIAC picks were picked to hopefully guarantee at least 4 points to Ziggy), Tufts, John Carroll, Trinity (CT),  and Johns Hopkins.

It is amazing what a new coach and the anticipated return of NYU basketball on January 20, 2023 to 181 Mercer Street in Manhattan (the site of the old Coles Sports Center and the location of NYU's new campus center) can do.

For what it is worth, NYU men's basketball last made the NCAA DIII tournament in the 2015-16 season, the final year that Coles Sports Center was open.  When 181 Mercer Street opens in January, it will be almost 7 years since NYU basketball was last played at that location.

[nescac1]

Before ya'll get TOO excited, the projected 10th and 11th best teams in NESCAC were two of our four participants this year ... and they predictably went 0-4 between them. 

[deiscanton]

Before ya'll get TOO excited, the projected 10th and 11th best teams in NESCAC were two of our four participants this year ... and they predictably went 0-4 between them.

I know-- that is why if NESCAC drew with the UAA at 4-4 over the weekend, I would have treated it as a loss for the UAA.  Getting sweeps over Bowdoin and Bates was to be expected.  This would have been possible if both Middlebury and Colby went 2-0 over the weekend.

Besides, it seems that the main story today, as far as I am concerned, is NYU potentially getting overbet for a Pool C pick.  It is not like NYU is 14-0, 3-0 in the UAA right now going into the new opening of the 181 Mercer Street, Manhattan gym.  NYU is 7-0 with expected victories over York (NY) and Hunter to follow this week.  Then, we will see how NYU does at the Cregger Invitational.  Violets need to beat Hanover to get a match with Roanoke-- an anticipated win in the consolation game over Methodist does no favors.

[WUPHF]

I think that half of the mystique lies in the name of the venue. Instead of the quotidian "Gym", the overstated "Arena", or the boringly non-specific "Center" in which other D3 basketball teams play, Rochester has a "Palestra". Nobody seems to know what the heck a "palestra" is -- it's actually a Greek word that means "a place for wrestling" -- but it sounds cool, probably because it looks like a portmanteau of "palace" and "extra".

I think it is that along with the fact that UPenn borrowed the name for what ultimately became a much more famous gym that people know as something special, but rarely get to see as who else watches Penn basketball?

As for NYU, they are intriguing for sure, but they were 9-1 in non-conference play last season, so awarding them a postseason bid may be a bit premature.

[CNU85]

... as who else watches Penn basketball?

I think the CNU HC might watch one or two. 

[WUPHF]

I'll give credit to UPenn for bringing other games to the Palestra as well as visitors.  I toured the Palestra while at a conference that had nothing to do with basketball.

[CNU85]

I've heard that it is a place every basketball fan should see. I have not been - yet. The CNU radio announcer used to be the radio guy at St. Bonaventure and called a few games from the Palestra. He loves historical places like that.

[WUPHF]

I really think that Penn and the Hinkle Fieldhouse are worth their reputation and worth visiting even if there is no game to be seen.

[ronk]

 The Penn Palestra has been a special place for this Pennsylvania guy, playing there as part of a triple-header in college. I was in the first game against the Temple frosh(when frosh couldn't play for the varsity); those Temple frosh played in the NIT as seniors when the NIT was a big deal. Our varsity played Temple in the 2nd game and the nitecap was a Big 5 game between St Joseph(Jimmy Lynam, future NBA coach) and Penn(John Wideman, Pulitzer Prize winner).
The Palestra was considered "the Mecca of college basketball", especially when college ball was banned for a time from rival Madison Square Garden after point-shaving scandals in the '50s. Double-headers frequently had a Big 5 game and 1 of the other 3 Philly schools playing an out-of-town top 20 type school in the other. The seats were close to the court and there wasn't a bad one for viewing among the 8000.
  In mid-January, the Palestra will host all the Landmark Conference schools in a day of basketball(2 men's and 2 women's games). 

[WUPHF]

The Penn Palestra has been a special place for this Pennsylvania guy, playing there as part of a triple-header in college. I was in the first game against the Temple frosh(when frosh couldn't play for the varsity); those Temple frosh played in the NIT as seniors when the NIT was a big deal. Our varsity played Temple in the 2nd game and the nitecap was a Big 5 game between St Joseph(Jimmy Lynam, future NBA coach) and Penn(John Wideman, Pulitzer Prize winner).
The Palestra was considered "the Mecca of college basketball", especially when college ball was banned for a time from rival Madison Square Garden after point-shaving scandals in the '50s. Double-headers frequently had a Big 5 game and 1 of the other 3 Philly schools playing an out-of-town top 20 type school in the other. The seats were close to the court and there wasn't a bad one for viewing among the 8000.
  In mid-January, the Palestra will host all the Landmark Conference schools in a day of basketball(2 men's and 2 women's games).

Thanks for sharing.  I hope the Landmark games get the attention they deserve...

[Greek Tragedy]

I'll be sure to send my goons over to the D3Data cast headquarters to get my Fantasy League royalties paid in full.

[deiscanton]

I'll be sure to send my goons over to the D3Data cast headquarters to get my Fantasy League royalties paid in full.

I recommend binge watching Akiba Maid War on HIDIVE over the holiday break.  Very funny show where the yakuza are portrayed as late 1990s Akihabara maid cafes in Tokyo, Japan.  (Note the pun-- "maid"/"made") "Where is my sweets money?"  LOL

[deiscanton]

I watched the current edition of the Q-Cast last night on Youtube where TitanQ did an excellent interview with NYU men's basketball coach Dave Klatsky.   In my lifetime, I have neither attended a Colgate at Boston Univ men's basketball game at the Roof in Boston in person, nor attended a Colgate at Holy Cross men's basketball game in person in Worcester either.  This interview was a nice introduction of what I can expect from Coach Klatsky and NYU men's basketball this season.  Thanks, TitanQ, for the deep dive on NYU men's hoops, and I will try to catch some of the StatChat podcasts that Coach Klatsky put up-- I found a StatChat-- dishing it with DKlats podcast from October 2021 where Dave Klatsky talks with a Lycoming athlete (known as @mattyice5 on TikTok) about how this person was using Name/Image/Likeness rights and social media to the athlete's advantage.

Watching the interview last night, I felt confident that NYU would have won handily against Bowdoin and/or Bates if the Violets men's team participated in this year's UAA/NESCAC Challenge.

If NYU doesn't score between 100 to 130 points against Hunter coming up in a few days, given that Hunter likes to rev it up to the high 80s or low 90s on FG attempts, I will question what went wrong with the NYU game plan.

Looking forward to UAA play in January after the non-conference slate gets taken care of.