Landmark Conference

[San Juan]

Scranton men lose at home to a very well coached and very young team.As a Royal fan I see a weakness at the guard play will not say a name I will let you figure it out!Boken shows up every night that kid is a very good player,Vitkus really improved good moves for a big man,Thomas is Marcus plays hard every game,Doolan nice guard that can shot and plays defense Scranton has a really nice team but there is a weakness called (nepotism on this team so I start scratching my head and thinking maybe that is the reason Sean Cummings left just a thought.)Some nice freshman and a very good transfer in Mitch Cross so hopefully there will be a change at that guard spot but I doubt it!!!!!

[CardsFan]

Further proof tonight that preseason rankings aren't worth the paper they're printed on. CUA loses for the second game in a row, leaving them at 2-2, with challenging games ahead. They get the benefit of the doubt for losing 92-90 at Marietta on Saturday night. Marietta is a good team and the type of team CUA doesn't usually play. No benefit of the doubt tonight as CUA loses 74-72 at Washington and Lee. A lifeless performance from the opening tip in a game they should have won easily. Maybe they were drained from all the travel over the past few days, in which case that's a failure of the coaching staff and poor scheduling.

Not time to panic yet, but definitely some troubling signs.

[NEPAFAN]

San Juan very subtle. Very subtle.

Scranton is busy this holiday weekend with Kings and Wilkes, again I keep saying make this your tip off tournament and actually have some people in the building. Horrible scheduling...

[ronk]

 I remember in the pre-Landmark days that the Scranton @ Catholic game was held on Thanksgiving weekend with about 50 in attendance.

[Pat Coleman]

Those were awful. Looked like a lot of listless games last night, and honestly, that seems par for the course for the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

[NEPAFAN]

I remember in the pre-Landmark days that the Scranton @ Catholic game was held on Thanksgiving weekend with about 50 in attendance.

I remember those with Scranton typically on the short end. I would have to refresh d3hoops for scoring updates

[ronk]

I remember in the pre-Landmark days that the Scranton @ Catholic game was held on Thanksgiving weekend with about 50 in attendance.

I remember those with Scranton typically on the short end. I would have to refresh d3hoops for scoring updates

 
  There were 6 of those Scranton @ Catholic Thanksgiving weekend games; Scranton won the 1st('93), Catholic the final 5 wth 2 OT games.

[NEPAFAN]

any live video of the cross county challenge this weekend?

[ronk]

any live video of the cross county challenge this weekend?

 Marywood has had a quality videostream in the past; don't know if they'll be doing the non-Marywood games of the challenge; try asking the SID on the staff directory page of athletics.

[NEPAFAN]

Rankings as of 30 November

1) Susquehanna (ORV IN TOP 25)
2) Catholic (#21 IN TOP 25)
3) Goucher
4) Scranton (ORV IN TOP 25)
5) Juniata ( undefeated)

[CardsFan]

Another uneven performance from CUA yesterday saw them hold off Wesley 94-92. Bryson Fonville hit a jumper with 0.8 seconds left to win it.

The positives start with CUA finally getting some luck to go their way in their third straight two-point game. Jay Howard continued his impressive start to the season, scoring at least 23 in every game so far.

The negatives start with the Cardinal defense being atrocious yet again. Wesley shot 68% in the first half. This was a game where the second half felt more like a scrimmage, with both teams allowing the other to work through their offense with only token resistance. The other major negative is that CUA led 90-78 with 2:40 left in the game and managed to let Wesley tie the game at 92. In that 2 minute stretch CUA turned the ball over 5 times and seemed to completely shut off, thinking the game was over.

All in all, a win is a win. Wednesday night at Susquehanna should be very interesting.

[ronk]

Another uneven performance from CUA yesterday saw them hold off Wesley 94-92. Bryson Fonville hit a jumper with 0.8 seconds left to win it.

The positives start with CUA finally getting some luck to go their way in their third straight two-point game. Jay Howard continued his impressive start to the season, scoring at least 23 in every game so far.

The negatives start with the Cardinal defense being atrocious yet again. Wesley shot 68% in the first half. This was a game where the second half felt more like a scrimmage, with both teams allowing the other to work through their offense with only token resistance. The other major negative is that CUA led 90-78 with 2:40 left in the game and managed to let Wesley tie the game at 92. In that 2 minute stretch CUA turned the ball over 5 times and seemed to completely shut off, thinking the game was over.

All in all, a win is a win. Wednesday night at Susquehanna should be very interesting.

   
  With Scranton not playing Wednesday, it reminds me that there's somebody with a bye in the Landmark every Wed/Sat of conference play; I was thinking that play begins on Saturday.

[CardsFan]

All credit to Susquehanna tonight as they outclassed CUA in every category, winning 87-81 in a game that wasn't that close, leading by as many as 24 in the second half. Susquehanna was better tonight and truthfully they are the better team overall at this point.

Yet another game for CUA where defense was optional. This was a total system failure by everyone involved for CUA tonight. There was seemingly no offensive or defensive game plan. Jay Howard, coming into this game averaging 25 points a game, played 38 minutes and took 9 shots.

Six games in, there's enough of a sample size for their to be genuine concern as to what is going on with this team. A haphazard substitution pattern that doesn't allow any bench player to get into the flow of the game. One game a bench player with play 15 minutes, another night he'll play 2 or 3. Two of the bench players are now upperclassmen and they haven't been put in situations where they can succeed since they never know who much they will play.

The formula has been the same since the start of last season: the same starting five for the last 30 games or so. The formula is no longer working. It may now be time to start benching people who won't defend.

[ronk]

 Juniata plays good defense in first half holding Scranton to 21 points and Boken to 2 while causing 9 TOs(mostly well-defended entry passes). Marcus Lee looks like the All-American with 15 points. Royals miss 2 chances to tie in final seconds; I like the ball in Kevin Doolan's hands in crunch time; I'm betting he's going to make good decisions more often than not.
  Susquehanna comes from behind(-4) with 2:43 left as Merchant Marine lets one get away @ home by missing last 7 shots.
  That's it for conference games until Jan 2 except for MM schedule-accommodation games next weekend against E-town and Scranton.
  Susquehanna has a tester against NESCAC Trinity(CT) in the Kings tourney Friday.

[saratoga]

Both the men & women are home next Sunday vs. MMA.
Guarantee the women outdraw the men.
So far, Danzig's freshman class (2 players), have yet to play beyond a few garbage minutes.
Not boding well for the next several years of Royal mens basketball that's for sure.
He might just want to start recruiting one of these years instead of waiting for the Tom Bicknell's & Brenden Boken's of the world to arrive unannounced & unrecruited.