Thanks Tim.
Let me guess...more than likely recruited by Matt throughout HS & AAU but decided to give D1 a shot.
Missed not getting serious playing time & decided to transfer where she was comfortable in D3.
A somewhat popular default.

Boy you are correct on the lateness of Royal fall team rosters being announced.
Not even an overview of the freshmen recruits...not very impressive for Top 20 programs to be dealing with.
And to think Kevin Southard ran that department all by himself & had freshman bio's & rosters up weeks before any season started.
The Royal administration might want to acknowledge a need here & get some help.

Yes, Keystone plays in an overall weak conference but they absolutely hold their own with anyone on the national scene.
Take a look at how they've done through the years in the tournament.
You are correct...different types of schools (K-stone vs. the UofS) but Jamie busts his asz finding the right kids for his program all over the US.
From what I've seen & heard, it's hard to get the Royal braintrust off the couch to recruit even a local kid.
If Scranton put 1/10 the effort into recruiting Jamie does, they'd win the Landmark every year.
When it takes a coach 22 years to finally figure things out & make their first NCAA appearance...things are not going well.
Perhaps a little better but certainly not well.

Speaking of not going well......

Will this be the final year of the Danzig experience?

Great Day:

I agree with Augie on this one.
Baseball has made exactly 2 trips to the NCAA tournament in the current coach's 20+ years at the helm.
Two.
And, those have both come in the past 4 seasons.
Additionally, in those 2 trips his record is 0-4.
Scranton has the best facility in the Landmark & beyond but if you don't recruit hard, good things don't happen.
Scranton has Keystone 12 miles away that is constantly having deep runs in the NCAA's & 2 years ago neighboring Misericordia won it all.
There is no reason the Royals should be struggling every year to even make the Landmark playoffs let alone the NCAA's.

As for softball.
Sorry...this program took 5 steps back under the new staff.
Mia had them challenging Moravian each year but once she left, Lady Royal softball has taken a nose-dive.
By the way...in her second season at Valley View HS outside of Scranton, Mia led their softball team to a Pa. large school State Championship.

Who said coaching doesn't matter?

Great for Ryan.
Too bad the Royals are still holding on to Danzig...yet another young coach that will out-recruit & out-coach him.

Let's turn that potential into reality. 

Per Gym Mom...
Marywood has picked up the top 2 players from Keystone as transfers.
No idea who they are & no interest in doing even a brief search.
With the kids they have returning & then picking up some veteran players plus a few freshmen, M-Wood may finally have a shot at their conference crown before departing for the MAC.

Based upon the press conference yesterday, it looks like Lackawanna is moving from junior college power to D II and the PSAC.
The move will take place next year & then the typical NCAA rules kick in regarding championship procedures etc.
It will be interesting to see how a little school of barely 1,500 full time students will stack up and be able to recruit against long established programs and campus environments at Bloomsburg (7,000) students, Kutztown (7,400), West Chester (17,000) and Millersville (7,000).
Clearly the move had to be to D2, as their coaches are far too used to handing out free tuition & they were not going to be encumbered by D3 rules regarding financial aid.
Duda's football connections throughout the Delaware Valley, Baltimore & Northeast may play out really well for an upstart program that is used to playing at a very high level.

Looks like Drew, coming off their best season in a long, long time will be looking for a new coach yet again.
McSloy is off to Ithaca.
Money must be better because the NYC/Philly/Jersey talent pool was heading to Drew under his watch.
Thought he'd be at the top of the pack for as long as he was there.

Ronk:
That period is exactly when recruiting(?) went stale.
Not sure if Mike thought he no longer had to make the effort & the best would still come but regardless, that period of time was most reflective of an overall lack of talent.
Thankfully, those years are just a blip on the overall history of success. 

Augie, I hope you're right about this incoming class.
However, as we all know, the ability to put up great high school numbers does not always translate to the college game.

Just took a look at Lady Royal rosters going back 40 + years to see which years brought in at least 2 players that made a significant impact.

Here we go...

1983/84'
Patty Fulton
Shelly Ritz
Grace Hickey
Sharon Barone
Una Espenkotter
This group got great experience as freshmen & then the following year, aided by transfers Shelly Parks & Deanna Kyle went on to win the National Championship.

1989/90'
Another great year adding future stars:
Jackie Dougherty
Katie Geiger
Anne Gooley
Lynn Kempski (Mom of current Lady Royal Liz Halligan)

1995/96'
Erin Hurleman
Kate Dougherty #1

1996/97'
Kelly Halpin
Shannon Milder

1997/98'
Lisa Harris
Jaime Eilbacher

2000/01'
Katie Dougherty #2
Kate Pierangeli

2001/02'
Eileen Webster
Tara Gemmel

2003/04'
Taryn Mellody
Allison Matt

2007/08'
Jenn King
Courtney Roselle
Megan Kopecki

2011/12'
Lindsey Fluehr
Meredith Mesaris

2012/13'
Noelle Alicea
Jackie Gantz

2013/14'
Sarah Payonk
Alexix Roman
Denise Rizzo

2014/15'
Katie Broderick
Katie Feehery

2016/17"
Sophia Recupero
Mackenzie Mason
Lily Warhaftig
Emily Sheehan...(by their junior year, the class was in the Final Four)

2018/19'
Danielle McCurdy
Emily Shurina

2019/20'
Hannah Angelini
Bridget Monaghan
Kyra Quigley

2020/21'
Maddie Hartnett
Maddy Ryan
Jenna Larrabee

2022/23'
Kacy Kranson
Jenna Sloan

2023/24'
Katie Gorski
Elizabeth Bennett
Megan LaManna
Natalie Stoupakis

The 2024/25' kids all played about as expected but thus far, no one has emerged as a dominate player from that class.

A number of years there were multiple incoming freshman but only 1 emerged from the group as an impact player.

Those would be, as an example, the following years:

1992/93'-Mary Strasser
1993/94'-Current All-Time leading scorer Jen Nish
1998/99'-Gillian McGovern
1999/2000-Ann Marie Russo
2002/03'-Kelly Lewendowski
2005/06'-Kathleen Daly
2010/11'-Allison Sweeney
2015/16'-Bridget Mann

I'm sure there are others I may have missed but I think this gives Royal fans a trip back in time to the kids that made this program one of the most consistent Top 20 teams in the nation year in and year out.

What this next group brings to the table is yet to be seen but chances are, at least one of them will will make some serious contributions and keep the deep runs coming.

Well, Moriah Murray has entered the transfer portal at Penn St.
Is she coming home to play for Ben once again this time at the UofS ( ) or heading to UConn to play alongside Azzi Fudd in the backcourt??
Another possibility is North Carolina.
She would be reunited with former HS team mate Ciera Toomey & the Tar Heels need serious help in perimeter scoring which Moriah can provide with ease.
Should be a fun month as kids find their new homes.
Meanwhile, Kreiger is killing the Penn St. program one player at a time.
Every day someone new is departing & it's not going to get better.
No idea why they are sticking with her.

They do have quite a bit of talent returning & incoming.
Should be another deep run.

Agree Tim...
This was NYU's tournament all the way...everyone else was playing for second place.
Hopefully, after doing the Elite 8 thing for 2 straight years, Ben has gotten a real good sense of what type of players it takes to hit the next level.
Congrats to Kaci as well.
Also, if Kaci is allowed to play more than 20 mpg, she has an outside shot at becoming the Lady Royals all time scoring leader. 

I'm going to apply the Pappa John's principle to NYU & Smith...
Better ingredients = better pizza.   

Quote from: Pat Coleman on March 19, 2025, 01:02:35 PMTo continue the group's general conversation about how disappointing they find the Scranton MBB team to be?

Truer words have never been spoken.