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Messages - onetinsoldier

#1
Quote from: commish on February 14, 2013, 01:42:34 PM
Franklin & Marshall has not played a road Conference tournament game since the 2003 Centennial final at Ursinus.

ten years?!?! wow. i will always remember the pageantry of that amazing event, even if my team fell short
#2
A true regular season championship game this week at Mayser, should be a lot of fun.  The One Tin Soldier will ride into the town for the first time this season for what will hopefully be the first of two straight saturday home games against the Devils.  Looking back, the first game in Carlisle was a strange one.  It isn't often you see the Diplomats take 20 3's in a hotly contested game.  Dickinson also matched the Dips in rebounding (a clear F&M strength), and they will need to approach that, and their 90% ft shooting if they are to get the road win.  I see a game probably played in the 50's, with the winner being based on how the game is called early. 
#3
Saw the new regional rankings, with Dickinson slipping in at F&M's old number 9 spot.  I'd have to believe that F&M's recent loss guarantees this will be a one-bid league
#4
Vegas has set the lines for tonight's important round of CC action:  F&M is 7 point favorites at home and Dickinson is a 2 point road favorite!
#5
I re-ran my efficiency table using the NCAA's latest stats (thru games of last Thursday).  Just some food for thought, F&M is the top team in the conference at #69 in the nation (up from 95 when i did this a few weeks ago).  As a comparison, they have been in the top 20 three of the past four years.  Dickinson is next at 119, Muhl at 133, Hopkins at 138, GBurg at 140. mcdaniel at 178, Ursinus at 289, and the rest at sub-300. 

In what can only be a complete coincidence, the top team in the nation per the efficiency matrix is St. Thomas, and its not even really close.  Calvin, Hamp-syd, Williams and Catholic round out the top 5
#6
Quote from: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 11, 2013, 02:08:23 PM
I would agree with this... I don't think the top of the conference is all that good, though Dickinson is certainly playing well and F&M has their moments. I admit as a Top 25 voter I probably put too much stock in the team early on despite plenty of second guessing in my head about what they lost and what they had back.

Unfortunately, the conference isn't as good as it has been in the past. I think the success of F&M over the last few years has hidden the fact the rest of the conference is floundering. This year F&M has come back to the rest of the conference and we now see what we have been missing for many years... this conference is in a bit of a rut right now. I think the Landmark, MAC-Commonwealth, and CAC may be better top to bottom, though the CAC certainly doesn't have any world beaters at the bottom. I would say the CC is better than the CSAC and maybe the MAC-Freedom, but it is close on that last one.

I hope things can improve...

Agreed, and this is a bit of what i was saying the other day.  The Centennial hasnt had a ranked Regional team, other than F&M, in four years.  So you get other Mid Atl conferences where an at large is possible because Teams A,B and even C get to have wins over each other. 
#7
Quote from: Gabriel on February 11, 2013, 11:32:35 AM
Let's face it, there is no outstanding team in the CC this year just as there is no outstanding player in the mold of a Georgio Milligan or Nick Shattuck.   F&M is good but very inconsistent.  They do not have Milligan.  He could carry the team and he refused to lose.  That being said, I think there is more parity in the league this year than any time in recent years----less of a gap between #1 and #10.  Whoever wins the CC is not likely to go very far in the post season.
i think you are being generous in calling F&M good.  I'm not sure the conference has a "good" team this year.  From an efficiency standpoint, they're above average defensively and rebound well but do not have anything about which to be excited. 

And i'm not sure parity is the right word.  Parity would imply that the bottom of the conference rose.  From what i'm seeing the bottom is the same as it has ever been, it is just F&M has fallen back to the middle for the first time in a few seasons. 
#8
Quote from: Dave 'd-mac' McHugh on February 11, 2013, 10:40:19 AM
Being on the road has always been interesting for F&M, especially over the last four or five seasons. For whatever reason, they are prone to play bad games when away from Mayser. This year it appears that this flaw is far more exposed in a conference that isn't exactly the best top to bottom in the Mid-Atlantic Region. Everyone wonders why Glenn Robinson schedules so many games at home if he can... and this may be the biggest example of why... though, why his teams are so much more beatable on the road than at home is up for others to figure out.
I think the anomaly isnt as much F&M as a good home team vs bad road team (I mean they have won two big road games in the NCAA tourney in recent years), its their propensity to lose to, no offense, bad teams.  They won this year at Muhlenberg, JHU and Gettysburg, which makes the three bad losses so hard to figure. 

And as for scheduling, with the true 18 game double round robin, F&M just isnt going to schedule a lot of non conference road games.  The Tip-off and the New years tournaments are decades old traditions which i cannot imagine ending anytime soon.
#9
Quote from: Reserved Seat on February 09, 2013, 07:23:54 PM
F&M pulls off the rare basketball trifecta--the first place team losing to the bottom three teams of the league.
I really dont understand how you lose those games.  From a competitive standpoint, those three teams just are not on the same level in an efficiency standpoint.  One, maybe two, sure those games happen to average-to-good teams on every level.  And especially when you look at the haverford box score, those games happen.  But three times in one season?  Even though the Diplomats are undefeated at home, i just cannot see them pulling off four straight wins against more legitimate competition
#10
Region 5 men's basketball / Re: Landmark Conference
February 08, 2013, 11:40:58 AM
Quote from: gordonmann on February 08, 2013, 11:16:28 AM
I just heard from Scranton that tomorrow's game with Catholic is still on. The Cardinals are apparently traveling north today so they'll hopefully beat the storm.

the storm is supposed to be over by the time time us Northeast folk wake up tomorrow.  However the last time there was plowable snow (about 3 inches over chirstmas), the city of Scranton only had a few of the city's major roads plowed or even salted 2+ days after the storm.  So in reality, who knows!
#11
Interesting regional rankings.  Not too much to digest for Centennial fans as the Diplomats sneak in with a regional ranking.  Maybe Centennial fans can answer this, but when was the last time anyone other than F&M got a regional ranking from the conference?  Was it pre 2009?  Either way, depending on the size of the bubble, one would have to believe that the Centennial is a 1-bid league no matter what happens with F&M in the CC tourney. 
#12
Really fun conference race shaping up, and it starts tonight!
#13
I do not want to add fuel to this fire, but i have trouble believing there arent at least a handful of players in the Centennial that could play at the D1 level.  Recruiting and college selection isnt an exact science based on a player's ability, athletics is just part of the equation.  Once on campus, a lot of it comes down to coaching, training staffs, etc.  Hayk most certainly could crack a 7/8 man rotation in the MAAC, MAC and maybe even colonial.  I havent seen enough of Ward to make that assessment, but i wouldnt be surprised to hear he received D1 attention (there are 330+ schools in D1, and a ton in the Northeast). 

And i have watched enough of Seton Hall this year to know that even the big conferences have players at the low end that have no right playing major conference basketball.  Its all relative.
#14
Coaching might have a lot to do with the Ursinus situation.  Whenever you have a situation where top players come in, yet the team struggles for victories, it usually falls on the staff
#15
Quote from: ronk on February 04, 2013, 12:44:52 PM
2nd tiebreaker is usually better head-to-head with team starting at top and going to bottom until tie is broken.
thanks Ronk, thats what i thought!  That said it still looks good for F&M as long as they split these two road games.  At that point they would need to just hold their undefeated home record to get the title games in Mayser