MBB: Liberty League

[Bartman]

Fast paced see-saw game in Ithaca last night as the Bombers get the win over Hobart
88-85. Both teams were happy to play with reckless abandon as each had 18 turnovers in a game where Ithaca surged at the right time and Hobart fell short with a 3pointer followed by an inbound steal to get within one , but couldn't close it out. Ithaca is looking to get back in the mix and has the horses to cause upsets in the league race. At this point, it looks like Union, RPI and Vassar are the teams to beat. If Hobart won last night, I would have them in the top group, but this young team is still developing.   

[stlawus]

Very bizarre coaching from who was at one point the premier coach in the Liberty League.  Skidmore was down 15-20 points most of the game, with SLU taking out starters with 7 minutes left.  Burke leaves all of his starters in including his point guard who played all 40 minutes, as well as the team's leading scorer for 38 minutes (did not sub the 2nd half). You're playing on the road in the first game of a back to back.  Just incredibly bizarre.

[UfanBill]

16 players got at least 2 minutes of floor time and 14 scored as Union defeated Bard 89-60 Friday night. Jack Plesser led the Garnet with 18 points in only 24 minutes. Things promise to be a lot tougher Saturday as Union hosts 9-3, 5-0 LL Vassar.

[stlawus]

Vassar now into sole possession of 1st place. No buzzer beater for Union this time, even though it looked like they would get yet another opportunity. RPI still up there with the same record as Union though Union currently has the tiebreaker. Not sure what to think of the Engineers. They are getting 200th percentile offense so one has to think a shoe has to drop at some point, but it hasn't. Their defense has always carried them with very hit or miss offense, and this year the defense hasn't been as tight but the offense has been orders of magnitude better.

SLU gets a very good win over Hobart, overcoming an injury 3 minutes into the game to Downs Jr and some serious ref chicanery at the end with the clock. Very classic SLU-Hobart game.  SLU's managing of the minutes last night certainly helped today.  Hobart is yet again a very tough team on the boards, that's just that program's DNA.  Hobart forced SLU into a very cold shooting stretch in the 2nd half and then the teams kept exchanging and 1 opportunities to make it an exciting finish.  When SLU was up 2 with 7 seconds left Hobart got a decent look to tie it but couldn't get it to roll in. That's where home court advantage comes to play.  Only thing I noticed about Hobart is a lack of clear ball handler and floor general, but otherwise are basically a carbon copy of every team of the last 10 years. They have their formula and stick to it for good reason.

[UfanBill]

Vassar 76 - Union 74...Just another Liberty League battle last night in Schenectady. Vassar jumped out to a quick double digit lead over the Garnet who looked like they were not ready to play. They held that lead  throughout the first half behind the play of big Parker Neuenhaus and Shea Fitzgerald. Leading 38-27 at the half the Brewers upped that to 49-32 before the Garnet Chargers dug in. Jack Plesser and Tanner Tedesco went to work and eventually Union took it's first lead with 5:47 left 64-63 on a Tedesco 3...Two clutch free throws by Union's Christian Dufort tied the game at 74-74 with 15 seconds left. Fitzgerald hit a pull-up jumper to put Vassar back ahead. It looked like everything was in place for another Union miracle...BUT...With 3.2 seconds left Union's attempted inbounds pass to an open Matt Garside sailed high off his extended arm to Vassar's Sebastion Medina. Medina was immediately fouled but here's were it got weird. With 1.2 seconds on the clock Medina missed both shots and on the rebound a whistle seemed to indicate that Union's Jack Plesser had been fouled?...After a long table discussion (and me watching repeated replays) the refs called both coaches together and eventually waived the game over. What???   Union coach Chris Murphy seemed to be OK with the decision (me not so much) and Union had it's first LL loss...you can watch it here... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1ul0GBr-h8     

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I was watching live and Pat went back to review the video.  What we think happened was that the refs decided the clock stopped too quickly on that last rebound and that time should've expired before any whistles and thus the game was over.  It was very confusing.

[mrhoopfan]

Very bizarre coaching from who was at one point the premier coach in the Liberty League.  Skidmore was down 15-20 points most of the game, with SLU taking out starters with 7 minutes left.  Burke leaves all of his starters in including his point guard who played all 40 minutes, as well as the team's leading scorer for 38 minutes (did not sub the 2nd half). You're playing on the road in the first game of a back to back.  Just incredibly bizarre.

What made him the "premier coach in the league"?.Recruiter? Sure...Coach, I disagree....Skidmore has always had several guys that were scholarship level players

[stlawus]

Very bizarre coaching from who was at one point the premier coach in the Liberty League.  Skidmore was down 15-20 points most of the game, with SLU taking out starters with 7 minutes left.  Burke leaves all of his starters in including his point guard who played all 40 minutes, as well as the team's leading scorer for 38 minutes (did not sub the 2nd half). You're playing on the road in the first game of a back to back.  Just incredibly bizarre.

What made him the "premier coach in the league"?.Recruiter? Sure...Coach, I disagree....Skidmore has always had several guys that were scholarship level players

Between 2010-2020 Skidmore won 4 regular season titles and 5 tournament championships. Can say it was just because of recruiting but recruiting is part of coaching. And you still have to win the games. I don't think many would have disagreed with that moniker in 2019.  Now it's no longer the case.