MAAC Tourney

[loyal]

Five weeks or so to go in the regular season, so lots can happen. It does look like our Peacocks will likely be seeded sixth or seventh (more likely) if current form holds. The schedule eases up a bit for SPU, but even so, getting out of the PIG looks like a tall order at this point.

So....it will be tough to avoid four games in five nights.

Here's why I feel SPU has the ability to make noise in Albany:

1. Assuming Iona finishes first, there is not another club that would be favored by more than a one or two points over SPU until the Final. Every one of them is eminently beatable, if we play to our potential. As a contrast, the 2011 Peacocks were prohibitive underdogs in both the Semi and Final......to everyone except OT, of course :-)
2. SPU starts three seniors. Two of them have the potential to play at an all-MAAC level. While they have underachieved so far, talented senior play is a good formula for success in any Tourney.
3. SPU has a reasonably dependable point guard, at the MAAC level.
4. We have a reasonably deep squad (I would argue the second best, players one through eight) in the MAAC. Depth should help as the Tourney progresses, assuming SPU is successful.
5. We play a "style", as painful as it is to watch, that is well suited for Tourney Play.

We have underachieved offensively all season. What I look for in the next five weeks is a sign we can leverage Marvin more effectively offensively. If that happens, I believe SPU has a punchers chance up in Albany.

[oldtimer1]

Loyal...nice post on a Winter day. Like, but disagree,you analysis and reasonable approach. Everyone of your points is well taken. However, in the spirit of back and fourth, here is my reply.

1) Thank you for your compliment regarding the 2011 MAAC Championship but I would point out that there were several of us that did not share your pessimism in facing Fairfield and Iona. I've explained why but I guess you put your faith in bookmakers lines. Big mistake! Ask Joe Naimath.

2) You keep saying that we have woefully underperformed this year. You did so in several previous posts. My response is that we have greatly underperformed relative to YOUR expectations. That said, I am also disappointed in our performance to date but took a much more realistic approach in my postings preseason. Unfortunately, I was right again. Pretty good record dating back to Nick Leon (others touted Lampley), the 2011 team, Chris Burke ( remember how I had to argue on his behalf? ), Elias and finally, Tyler Gaskins. Like Burke, you weren't very high on Gaskins also...preseason


3) Guess you have overlooked or not given an adequate response to my commentary on our "style" or offense. We have averaged MORE points than the MACC oponents we have played to date so how bad can our offense be compared to theirs? We do try to run off offensive rebounds or when we break the press ( see Cindy's posts ). So the only thing that I find painful is our tendency to go through big droughts. Remember that these are college players on the lower D1 level. They are not perfect and no matter who the coach ( see the big time critioism of the other MAAC coaches on line today) teams will have trouble executing on this level. Check out any other MAAC team save Iona. The coach should take the ultimate responsibility but players do have to execute.The naysayers never understand that. Was the Rutgers or Siena games difficult to watch? Same coach, same offensive sets, same players!


4) Yes the Season has been disappointing but certainly not devestating. Losing 6 of our first games, without Desi, by a total of 8 points!!! Losing the 2nd Manhattan game when we missed 4 consecutive foul shots in the final few minutes. Disapointing yes but not as you have previously described.

5) Now to your constant discussion of our "talent" vs that of several of our opponents. We have good talent, as good as most but arguing 2nd best is pushing it. I agree we go deeper and that could help us in the MAAC Tournament ( good call) but I could easly agrue that aside from Iona, Manhattan, Quinny, Rider and even Monmouth have talent at least equal to ours. The Coach's picked us to finish 4th/5th, not first or even second. Did they underestimate our talent or overestimate to talent of others? But what do they know. Us fans are the experts. IMO we are indeed underperforming but one or two games could have made a big difference.

6) I will not over analize our players but most of all we do need Desi to be consistent and show up every game. Look what happened when he played well at Siena. To me he is our key because of his inconsisentcy. Marvin is very consisent and great. No player can perform at his best every single day but even when Marvin has his off offensive days he brings so much to the team. Not disappointed in him at all.

5) Remember at the beginning of the year how a lot of posters posted that this team could beat any team in the league or lose to any on a given night. You might have posted the same. Well it's turned out to be true, unfortunately more disappointing, but not surprising, than not. Similar with the MAAC. We could lose our opening round game or run the table. I'm rooting for the latter.


6) We have a nice team and good coach ( read the Siena board and see what they think. Sure they are only fan observers with no particular expertize but so are ours!. Our sets are fine. We just need to execute as we did at Rutgers and Siena and everyone will look like a genius. I'm rooting for that.


Enjoy your posts and our sometimes disagreements but that's what a balanced approach is all about. Now, on a snowy day back to organizing my Golf Spring schedule.

[cindycrawford]

Good back and forth between thoughtful Peacock fans with differing opinions who seem to be able to avoid the board's propensity for personal attack.

Re the next two games and the tourney. Rider beat us soundly and we know the capabilities of Iona,yet we can win against either team on a given night,just which one and when? Losing to both,a reasonable possibility ,would again bring out the naysayers here and again fuel the barrage of personal attacks. I don't look forward to that and I would like to win each game. BUT what would serve the greater good ?

Since we are now not likely to get an at-large bid to the Dance,we must win the tourney. How is this achieved ?
Can anyone remember '91? Not because you weren't born then,but at most of our ages we have a hard time remembering last week . Manhattan destroyed us twice in the regular season only to have us take them down for the championship.


How about '11 ? To get what Loyal calls a 'puncher's chance,I say the stars must align just right.
The last game of the season,on a bogus call on Bacon,the Broncs beat us and sent us to the four seed.
That allowed us to play FF in the semis who were already looking ahead to their championship game,having defeated us twice previously, for the bid. We played a great game and beat them . I doubt we could have beaten the best team at home in the finals on national TV.


Next we played Iona who was so relieved at not having to play the #1 seed at home. Also having beaten us twice,both they and their fans believed already that they had punched their ticket to the Sunday night selection show. They were shell shocked to find us competitive. That and some inferior coaching by Cluess and some great free throw shooting sent us dancing.
I doubt either of those games would have been won were they rubber matches with SPC.
That brings us to the now.
Might the greater good be served by losses to both these teams now. We have already set up Manhattan.
Perhaps I'm crazy or am already suffering from early onset cabin fever.

Also though my nightmare scenario in winning what figure to be four close games involve making free throws at the end of each game. How difficult will it be to get the ball into Desi's hands each night ?

[Peacock]

Cindy, not a personal attack, but getting memories mixed up is common for most fans. You actually meant the 95 tourney against Manhattan as we did not play MC in the tournament in 91. Both of the SPC teams were very good teams and performed within expectations.
As far as expectations for this season goes it is disingenuous to suggest that expectations were not high. While I don't believe you implied that, the memories do dissolve and reconstitute among some. Expectations were high for 11 but up until the tournament, most were disappointed. The tourney win mellowed that, but a rather very poor offensive game plan against Purdue never gets mentioned.

In conclusion, you say "How difficult will it be to get the ball into Desi's hands each night ?" Give us that answer when they play decent defensive teams.

[oldtimer1]

My observation, which I think Cindy will agree with, is not only getting the ball in Desi's hands at games end with a lead but to have Desi bring his best game each and every night. Without going into negatives (all lower level D1 players have them) those of us which have watched Desi over the years have seen a tale of two cities and even two halves.

Those of us who have been to or watched our games have observed the above for over two Seasons. The "good" Desi is an ALL-MAAC player bar none. The other Desi is just an average player. For that I have no explanation. Newfan has posted some observations on that but I am definitely quite agnostic.

As far as Team performance, we have seen how we have performed without Desi...tough, close losses, and we have seen what we can do (Siena/Monmouth) if Desi performs as an ALL-MAAC player. To me, he is the absolute key.

As for our other starters, both Marvin and Trevis give us consistency game in and game out. Some nights are better than others and some are average but I'm not worried about either. Sort of the same for Tyler. No matter how many points he scores Tyler brings those same intangibles that Chris Burke gave us. Q seems to be getting better each game and I hope that continues. Jamel, Elias and Hawkins are quality subs with Hawkins giving us that explosive scoring potential. We look pretty good on paper.


But again, I tend to keep my eye on Desi every game to see what he is bringing to the table. What I do like and am hopeful about is that Desi is a tough kid who has a will to win. Would love to see him take it more to the hoop and create and not just look for that open jumper. If he does that and performs we can beat anyone.

Re: Purdue, was it the game plan or were they just bigger and better?

[cindycrawford]

Jan 26, 2015 18:18:27 GMT -5 Peacock said:

Cindy, not a personal attack, but getting memories mixed up is common for most fans. You actually meant the 95 tourney against Manhattan as we did not play MC in the tournament in 91.

Absolutely correct. I did mean to say '95 not '91 when we beat Iona in the final, with my personal favorite,Marvin Andrews leading the way.No doubt brain freeze.

[spcfan]

Marvin was my personal favorite as well. I was up there for the entire tournament and loved every minute of it. We were a slight favorite in the final in 91 as we came out of the 2-3 seed game beating LaSalle with 2 future NBA players in a fantastic game coming from behind in the last 10 minutes.La Salle had Randy,Woods and Doug Overton in the backcourt.Marvin was the best defensive player i've ever seen bar none who developed an offensive game as well during his career.One of my favorite all time Peacocks.

[spcfan]

Forgot to mention in the second game of those semifinals that same night we beat La Salle , Iona with Sean Green another future NBA player beat Siena before a packed house on their home floor. Game went 3 overtimes with Green hitting for 46 points.Siena went in as the top seed. Iona many thought underperformed all season finishing fourth though many considered them to have the best talent.The MAAC was very strong that year at the top.

[newfan]

OT don't forget the win at Rutgers without him. I agree with your post, you have to see which shows up. after watching last game, whether Siena was strong, weak, whatever, our guys got out in transition, took good shots, took the shots, attacked, and good things did happen. That was a game of a team working as one unit and it looked good. Now if they can keep bringing it like that, we may suprised a few. No more shot shy, attack shy, just sold basketball. They showed they are capable, hope game was a confidence booster. Glimpse of a turnaround?, I hope so

[oldtimer1]

newfan...absolutely agree with you. The jury is still out. The talent of the top 5 teams is pretty evenly divided. We've been a little unlucky given the tight losses, without Desi and the 2nd Manhattan loss was especially brutal given those four in a row missed foul shots at crunch time. We also had some stinkers this Season, no doubt about it.

Your description of the Siena game was right on. As Cindy pointed out, our next two games will be very tough. I was at the first Rider game and they looked very tough offensively ... scored at will. I'm just hoping that ,that was one of their better games and/or JD can figure out a way to stop both their inside and outside game which dominated us.

I know we have the potential especially if Desi plays like he did at Siena. However, I'd be a lot more confident if we could grab at least a split in these next two games.

[eclecticed]

I remember the '95 final very well. I happened to be in California and I watched the game in a sports bar. No one else was watching the game, of course, so when the Manhattan player made that awkward 3 pointer to tie the game, I was the only one who groaned ( to this day I believe that he walked ). When St Pete's came back to win in OT, I had nobody to celebrate with.

[spcfan]

I was there for that tournament as well and you're right he did walk. The player was Keaton Hyman their point guard. The next day when showing the highlights even Dan Patrick on sports center commented on how blatant a walk it was.Refs weren't gonna call it on Manhattan as they were going to let them get the last shot off no matter what. I remember thinking at that point when he made it they were gonna rob us. Mike Frensley in overtime along with Randy Holmes were the difference. Great win after Manhattan beat us pretty good twice during the season including the season finale at Yanitelli.Frensley's shot to win it in overtime was run on ESPN all day the next day. If any here remember they caught him winking at his dad who was sitting near us in the stands after the shot. Great moment.

We won a nice semifinal game against Canisius that year when Moe Segar a superior defender actually had his best offensive game of his career beating team coached by future West Virginia and Michigan head man John Belein an outstanding coach.

[cindycrawford]

Time to look at where we might end up. With nine games left the three most difficult are two vs Iona and Canisius up there. The PIG looms.
Most believe after Iona there is a lot of parity. That is not to say they are invincible . So how would I like to see things shake out. A sixth or seventh seed would be best. I would prefer Niagara as Marist is getting healthy and on the uptick with Hart.
Then to the quarterfinals after an off day. I don't care much who against a 2 or 3 and then on the semis vs the other 2 or three.
Only then on to the finals to face Iona if they have not been upset. Talented but not deep they might be tired.
This is my dream scenario for sure . But it is my path to what Loyal calls a punchers chance , a long shot for sure .