Congrats to the Lady Royals. Finish it off.

Quote from: OUVan59 on March 01, 2026, 12:39:02 PM

Quote from: CardsFan on February 26, 2026, 10:06:43 PMA quick word of praise for Wilkes. They really do it with only five guys but those 5 know exactly what they are supposed to do. They just keep running their stuff. They were worthy winners tonight. Should be an interesting game Saturday.

I think the lack of depth caught up to Wilkes last night. The starters played all but 20 minutes while Susquehanna had 63 bench minutes. They had no legs the last 5 minutes. One more bench player they trusted and it probably is a different story.

Hard to believe that Susquehanna's season was saved by a 30 foot buzzer beater against Catholic. That shot doesn't drop and Moravian gets the 6th seed. A couple of factors played into the season record for the River Hawks. Mario Castro-Sanchez getting hurt in Puerto Rico caused a ripple effect in the rotation. He missed most of January and Coach Marcinek struggled to find the right rotation with some really bad losses the result. He figured it out with about 5 games to go. Another big factor is the emergence of freshmen KJ Carson and Mikey Cumbo (D2 transfer). But once he figured out the rotation Susquehanna beat the #1, #2, #3 and #4 seeds in the Landmark, with three of those coming on the road.

I went back and watched the last 5 minutes of last night's game. After Wilkes went up 64-53, they couldn't get any stops. I think Susquehanna got points on at least their next seven possessions. Maybe the third game in a week caught up to Wilkes. The River Hawks scored 23 points in the final 5 minutes.

It's been an incredible month for Susquehanna: JVW's buzzer-beater three to send the game against Catholic to overtime. Total chaos in the final 10 seconds of overtime that leads to KJ Carson's buzzer-beater layup. Moravian losing to Juniata on the final day of the season.

Good luck to Susquehanna in the NCAA Tournament. It's always nice to get multiple teams in.

Defensive disasterclass in the second half dooms the Cards. Missed switches and blown assignments galore. Defensive inconsistency has been a theme all season. They can defend great for 40 minutes (at Drew) but they can also be a mess (2nd half at Scranton, 2nd half vs. Susquehanna).

Ronk's statement about the closeness of the league this season is true. No team has a sizeable talent advantage so consistency and execution have mattered more this season than recent ones. Who knows where Susquehanna would have ended up in the standings if the Sanchez kid doesn't miss a bunch of games in January?

A quick word of praise for Wilkes. They really do it with only five guys but those 5 know exactly what they are supposed to do. They just keep running their stuff. They were worthy winners tonight. Should be an interesting game Saturday.

Quote from: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on February 25, 2026, 03:45:32 PMScranton has been pretty consistent all year.  Yes, I suspect you all got excited about the home win over Catholic, as it was certainly Scranton's best performance all year, but the non-conference schedule wasn't great and they performed pretty much as expected in conference, based on the early season results.

Perfectly valid to be disappointed, of course, but I don't think there was any dip in play or quality.

I would argue that Scranton's defense was noticeably worse in the second half of conference play. Through nine league games the Royals gave up about 68 points per game. Over the final nine league games, they gave up about 78 points per game. The comeback wins against Goucher, Moravian, and Lycoming may have masked the true extent of those defensive deficiencies.

Just a quick mention for Moravian's Marquis Ratcliff, whose collegiate career ended today. He scored over 1900 career points. I enjoyed watching him.

Ronk, you are correct about Neylon missing because of illness. The announcer mentioned he was ill several times during Friday's broadcast.

A special season for the Cardinals comes to an end in the Elite 8. Congrats to all the coaches and players, especially the seniors, who finish with the most wins for a CUA senior class (89) in nearly 20 years. Just a really enjoyable season from a fan's perspective.

Quote from: SpringSt7 on February 27, 2024, 02:22:11 PMIn D1 basketball, all but 1 of the national champions since 2002 have had a combined KenPom adjusted offensive and adjusted defensive efficiency that adds up to less than 50, i.e, the 1st ranked offense and the 48th ranked defense, or the 24th ranked offense and the 25th ranked defense.

As I did last year (when 3 of the qualified teams made the Final Four, including Christopher Newport), I took Matt Snyder's rankings and applied the same thing to this year's field---offense is listed first, followed by defense, and then sorted by the total:

1. Hampden-Sydney 2-3-5
2. Randolph-Macon 3-5-8
3. Trinity (CT) 12-2-14
4. Keene St. 10-8-18
5. Guilford 16-6-22
6. Widener 13-19-32
7. John Carroll 25-10-35


Just missing out:
-Oswego St. 11-41-52
-Catholic 8-50-58

Last year 11 teams made the cut and a few more narrowly missed out. This year, the top 7 teams in overall adjusted efficiency are the only 7 that make the cut. I'd feel pretty confident that the national champion will be one of them.

This is a great KenPom stat. Another one is that no D1 national champion in the KenPom era (since 1999) has had an adjusted defensive efficiency worse than 22nd (Baylor in 2021). However, I am pretty sure that the same cannot be said for D3 champs. It applies to CNU last year, but I don't have the data to see where R-MC ranked in 2022 and where Oshkosh ranked in 2019 (but something makes me think they were worse than 22nd).

Also, it's wild that 3 of the 7 teams on your list are all in the Widener bracket, along with Oswego. IMO that's the deepest bracket of the 4.

Quote from: ronk on February 27, 2024, 12:20:13 AM

Quote from: CardsFan on February 26, 2024, 10:58:27 PMI only just discovered that the board was back up and running. I am so happy for this group of seniors at CUA on their Landmark title. It has been really enjoyable to watch them play and improve together. I'm so glad they were able to get over the hurdle of the Landmark semifinals. The atmospheres in the DuFour Center on Thursday and Saturday were the best in many a year. There has been a real effort to get students out to the games during the season and the students have responded. That has not always been the case.

I also have to congratulate the Lady Royals on their Landmark title this past Saturday. That was the first of the three games this season that I saw in person. They were dominant from start to finish. Tremendous defense. I hope they make some noise in the NCAAs.

 The free pizza slices and t-shirts have helped in that regard.  Cards played well against Susque on Saturday but will have trouble against a team with a physical front line. Might not run into one until the 2nd weekend, though. Tommy Kelly, Timby, and Ntimoah could hold their own in a physical match, but not many of the others.
  Catholic women have been doing it with a short bench. Have always been a fan of Matt Donohue's defense. I foresee him to come up with a plan to stop W&L's all-american. You'll have problems with Rhode Island College in the expected 3rd round. They thumped us(Scranton) last year in the 2nd round on our home court.
   Best wishes in the postseason!

Thanks ronk! I agree with your analysis regarding the type of team the CUA men would struggle against. I always worry about physicality because the Landmark may be many things, but a physical league is not one of them. The type of team I worry about the most is a team with physical/long guards that can really pressure the ball and deny passing lanes. I think the men could really struggle if they win their first game and have to play Rowan in the second round.

But the second round seems to be the ceiling for Landmark teams in the NCAAs. Scranton went to the Elite 8 in 2012 and Susquehanna went to the Sweet 16 in 2017, but aside from those two years its been a lot of first and second-round losses.

Given how much the women's team struggled with rebounding against Scranton this year, I think a second-round game against W&L would be very difficult.

I only just discovered that the board was back up and running. I am so happy for this group of seniors at CUA on their Landmark title. It has been really enjoyable to watch them play and improve together. I'm so glad they were able to get over the hurdle of the Landmark semifinals. The atmospheres in the DuFour Center on Thursday and Saturday were the best in many a year. There has been a real effort to get students out to the games during the season and the students have responded. That has not always been the case.

I also have to congratulate the Lady Royals on their Landmark title this past Saturday. That was the first of the three games this season that I saw in person. They were dominant from start to finish. Tremendous defense. I hope they make some noise in the NCAAs.

Guess I was right to not be confident about tonight's game.....now 6 losses in a row to Susquehanna. Lost the last three games in Selinsgrove by a total of 9 points. Didn't watch the game, so I'm only going off the box score. Missing 6 FTs in a game you lose by 2 always stings. Oh well, gotta recover and get ready for the trip to Moravian Saturday.

Cards finally got some of those open threes they've been missing to go down tonight, going 12-28 (8 coming in the 2nd half) en route to beating Elizabethtown 98-54. Third straight game taking pretty good care of the ball. Unlikely leading scorer for the Cards tonight with sophomore CJ Ruoff coming off the bench to score 17. Second good game for Ruoff this season. He scored 9 vital points in the win against Stevens.

Elizabethtown was without Rance Russo tonight. Possibly injured?

I see there were a lot of nailbiters across the Landmark tonight.......

Good bounce-back win for Catholic at home tonight 66-59 over Marymount. The Cards were down as many as 11 early in the second half, but from that point they played clean basketball (very few turnovers) and started passing more than dribbling.

Senior Jesse Hafemeister was good tonight, scoring 20. Over the weekend he really struggled shooting from the perimeter, including missing two good looks from three at the end of the Hood game that would have won it, but tonight he played mostly inside the arc and was much more efficient. Good performance from fellow senior Tommy Kelly as well, who scored almost all of his 13 points during the comeback.

Cards start Landmark play at home to Elizabethtown next Wednesday.

Quote from: saratoga on November 20, 2023, 07:50:30 PM

CardsFan:

Absolutely agree on the dilution of talent in the Landmark over the past 5/7 years.
If you can recruit good kids & know the x/o's, you could live at the top of this league forever.
Personally, I'm hoping Justin gets his on the job training at Goucher this year & then makes it back home to Scranton to lead the Royals.
Early Christmas wish.

Saratoga I agree that that coach would live at the top of this league. The only thing I would add is I think mental toughness plays a huge part in being successful in Landmark play. Because the talent gap among the teams is so small, the coach that can consistently motivate his players will have a lot of success. My feeling is that is a big part of why Susquehanna has been so successful the past few years. Yes, they have had very talented players, but I am always impressed by the way Coach Marcinek has his team ready to play. I felt they were very mentally and emotionally prepared for both games against Catholic last season, and the Cards did not match that energy.

Similarly, in last season's Landmark semifinal, I thought Scranton's competitiveness in that game affected the Cards. Specifically, EJ Matthews-Spratley played a great game off the bench, he talked the right amount of trash throughout (I am not complaining about this), and he really fed off the CUA crowd. I think mental toughness goes a long way in this conference.

Quote from: ronk on November 19, 2023, 09:07:10 PM
I'm sensing a dropoff in physical talent this season throughout the Landmark such that coaching, execution and lack of injuries would be bigger factors than normal in determining the champion. Looks like a competitive battle just to be 1 of the 6 in the postseason tourney.

The league does seem to be a long ways away from the talent present in 2015-16: Boken, Weidlich, Josh Miller, Fonville, Jay Howard.

I like the point about coaching. I think CUA will miss Justin Klingman on the bench during the season. I hope he is able to have some success at Goucher.