LeMoyne

[BONA82.5]

For sure - Melvin & Chance do not have the smooth delivery of Jonah, Lajae, or Duane. I felt Chance did force a couple as well. There is hope for Melvin to come around - his shot reminds me of Lofton's. Not quite sure of Chance - but he contributes in so many other ways (OUR X FACTOR).

[ohs73]

Chuck, you mentioned you watched the Bucknell-Spidey contest. What are your impressions of the Bison. They seem to have some serious game, Williamson in particular.

[Chuck]

I caught about the last 5 minutes of regulation and then watched 2 overtimes. I thought Bucknell was the better team. Richmond was lucky to send game into 1st OT and made an incredible 3 with less than a second left to send game into 2nd OT. I thought Richmond was more terrible than being impressed with Bucknell. Richmond has 1 good player in Beagle and Bucknell has a stud in 7 footer Willamson. How did Bucknell ever get him.

[coach]

Nov 17, 2024 10:14:39 GMT -5 jjjacks17 said:

Nov 16, 2024 22:23:51 GMT -5 Hermit said:

The post game interview with coach and a few players is on YouTube after every game. Listen to what coach has to say about where he thinks his team is, and where they need to go.

In this era of college basketball you need to run the score up against bad teams to boost your NET.

It's really not that Big of a deal for conferences like the A-10. You pretty much have to finish first in conference or Win the Conference tourney. If you don't either of those then most likely no matter what the NET and other ranks are, you will not advance to the NCAA tourney. The Key is to finish 1st in conference or win the Atlantic 10 tournament.

[ceharv]

Coach - I don’t disagree that those two things are critically important, but in recent years other A10 teams in most years have still received at large bids, which has usually been a multi bid conference.

[bigcat]

If SBU or any A10 team finish in the top 3 of the league — or maybe even top 4 — with a net in the 50s or better, and reach the conference semis or finals there’s always a good chance for three or more A10 bids. That’s the formula that has helped the MWC get 4 or more bids.

Last year Dayton finished net 23 and got the league’s only at-large bid. VCU was next at 71. Duquesne, Richmond Loyola and Bona were in the 70s and 80s. Problem is that they cannibalized each other and don’t win enough Q1 games.

Yeah it’s Coulda/Shoulda … For the Bonnies, a few losses (Canisius, Fordham, Duquesne, UMass etc) was the difference. Yeah beating FAU (final net 39) would have been a big Q1 win. The selection committee says they do not look at conference affiliation … if you believe them. It’s all about the individual numbers and comparative resumes for bubble teams.

We all have it in our heads that the A10 and mid-majors get screwed by the committee. Most of the A10 teams hurt themselves with bad losses and inconsistent play. That applies to the OOC and in league play. SBU was the perfect example last season.

[kccgold]

Nov 17, 2024 12:10:57 GMT -5 Chuck said:

Agree with almost everything 82.5 stated. Do not believe following is a situation for the Bonnies offensive struggles in the 2nd half "But too often, teams settle for threes against zones because they can’t consistently pressure the paint." Like the 1st half, Bonnies had solid execution against the zone in the 2nd half. Actually had comparable FG% from the field in the 2nd half (52% to 44%) which is incredible when considering their struggles from 3s (poor 20% from 3s) in the 2nd half. Reminder Bonnies attempted just 1 more 3 in the 2nd half. The big difference was the shooting percentages from 3s (45.45% to 25.0%). The open looks were there, but unlike the 1st half they were poor from shooting 3s. It wasn't execution and all of a sudden Bonnies shooting too many 3s (just 1 more than 1st half). It was Bonnies moving back to the norm with their 2nd half with shooting from 3s, especially Chance and Melvin. Chance and Melvin are shooting too many 3s. Need to see more 3s from Lajae, Jonah and Duane. Hopefully Noah can find his proven stroke from his past experience.

gobonnies.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2024-25/le-moyne/boxscore/7079

Good points. Yes I don't think they were taking poor shots so much in the 2nd half, it's just the way they shot in the 1st half was not sustainable, they were hitting everything! The first 15 or so minutes everything was going in

[kccgold]

Nov 18, 2024 9:37:08 GMT -5 bigcat said:

If SBU or any A10 team finish in the top 3 of the league — or maybe even top 4 — with a net in the 50s or better, and reach the conference semis or finals there’s always a good chance for three or more A10 bids. That’s the formula that has helped the MWC get 4 or more bids.

Last year Dayton finished net 23 and got the league’s only at-large bid. VCU was next at 71. Duquesne, Richmond Loyola and Bona were in the 70s and 80s. Problem is that they cannibalized each other and don’t win enough Q1 games.

Yeah it’s Coulda/Shoulda … For the Bonnies, a few losses (Canisius, Fordham, Duquesne, UMass etc) was the difference. Yeah beating FAU (final net 39) would have been a big Q1 win. The selection committee says they do not look at conference affiliation … if you believe them. It’s all about the individual numbers and comparative resumes for bubble teams.

We all have it in our heads that the A10 and mid-majors get screwed by the committee. Most of the A10 teams hurt themselves with bad losses and inconsistent play. That applies to the OOC and in league play. SBU was the perfect example last season.

well...its hard to rack up Q1 wins when you only have like 1 or 2 on the entire schedule.


That's how the mid-majors are getting screwed. The NCAA is emphasizing Q1 wins while doing everything they can to limit those opportunities for mid-major/upper mid major teams. Like for example this year's Orlando Tournament we are in, they broke it up into 2 blocks to separate out the mid-majors for the first time ever. Total BS that bucks tradition.

We should be getting a shot at Florida and Wake Forest. Q1 opportunities we agreed to when joining the tournament, now flushed down the toilet. And if we are on the bubble they will say we don't have enough Q1 wins

 

[Dunga]

[cb3pttee]

Good points, Bigcat. A common refrain is that there is some unspoken formula for the A10, i.e., need finish top 2 and reach the finals, etc. Yet Dayton last year finished 3rd, behind 2 teams who weren't in the at-large discussion, bowed out in the quarters and still heard their name called as a 7. It's about your total body of work.

Using the MWC as an example- to be sure, a couple of those teams racked up impressive wins to boost their net and help carry the league, but several MWC teams who earned at larges played very modest OOC schedules, and simply racked up wins and avoided bad losses. The result was 6 teams in the top 60 or so when conference play began, which in turn meant 10 opportunities for the other 5 to rack up Q1/2 wins within conference play. Those teams with modest OOC's then earned their way to bids through their conference performance.

While the MWC does have an advantage of less teams- not only does it allow them to play all opponents twice, thus giving more chances at Q1/2 wins- but it also allows for less bottom feeders to drag down the median. Even so, the formula was simple - beat who you're supposed to. Winning, no matter who against, adds strength to your metrics, and like we all know from the P5s, strength begets strength when it exists in your conference walls.

The A10, simply put, needs to be better. There are far too many sub 200 losses by multiple teams every year, creating a schedule filled with half land mines.  There's always going to be bottom feeders, but it's the teams in the ~5-10 range who simply need to be better OOC than they have been over the last several years.   Losses to the likes of Canisius, or Central Connecticut, and so on, can't happen from teams who possess the talent to rack up 9-10  or more A10 wins.

Utah State over the last 2 years are a beautiful case study in how simply beating who's on your OOC schedule can still allow you to punch your ticket, even if its absent of many frills.

[bigcat]

CB3 - good overview of the MWC. Agree that the A10 has too many bad teams and bad losses each season.

Utah State, who we play on Thanksgiving day, had a mediocre OOC schedule last season (0-1 in Q1). They did win the MWC regular-season title and earned an at-large bid. They lost in the semis of the MWC tourney.

The Aggies had a Q1 record of 4-5 leading up to NCAA selection day … 8 of those games were vs MWC teams. They finished with a net ranking of 38. The played two Q1 games in the NCAA tourney.

Most A10 teams have less than five Q1 games each season, with only 2 or 3 of them league games. SBU was 1-4 in Q1 games last season. Three of those games were vs A10 teams. We had three Q4 losses.

Loyola and Richmond tied for the A10 regular season title last season. Their net rankings were 85 and 73. Both teams were 1-4 in Q1.

Dayton was 4-4 in Q1 games during the regular season. Only two of those games were against A10 teams.

If A10 teams avoid bad losses in the OOC — and win the “easy games” convincingly — then it should provide more Q1 games during league play and boost the conference net ranking.