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Post by iona05 on Aug 22, 2014 14:57:48 GMT -5
Now that rosters and schedules seem to be pretty much set anybody care to weigh in w/predictions?
1. Iona (15-5): was leaning toward Manhattan in top spot, but tough to bet against team that has arguably the 3 best players in the conference, regardless of whatever size or depth deficiencies there might be.
2. Manhattan (14-6): should be very dangerous again this year, and if their bigs can gel together, they could be a matchup nightmare for anyone.
3. Quinnipiac (13-7): loss of Azotam will hurt, but recruiting class is strong and they have a solid core returning.
4. Saint Peter's (12-8): have all the pieces in place to make a power move in the conference this year.
5. Fairfield (11-9): expect them to be the surprise of the conference this year.
6. Siena (11-9): expect them to fail to live up to expectations but will of course be dangerous come March especially with tourney on home floor.
7. Monmouth (9-11): have made upgrades since last year and had a few decent young guys to begin with.
8. Rider (8-12): average team, average year.
9. Canisius (6-14): bottom 3 teams will be really bad, Griffs best of the worst.
10. Marist (5-15): hard to see Foxes finishing any higher than PIG.
11. Niagara (3-17): cupboard was bare to begin with. Now it's empty.
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Post by unowho on Aug 22, 2014 22:32:05 GMT -5
I like your analysis, however I fear Manhattan because any team with Bigs that can walk and chew bubble gum at the same time will cause us issues in any game. We have overcome some obstacles as of recent but if is far too frequently that we have to deal with this issue. We have no chance at anything beyond the MAAC with this makeup. We win several games because of our 3 ball proficiency but this will be a year without two players who shot over 40 percent from beyond the arc.
Go Gaels.
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Post by ic59 on Aug 23, 2014 6:49:42 GMT -5
unowho, your concerns are justified. However, I must say that I was impressed with the play of Ryden Hines. And while I never saw Daniel Robinson on the floor, he "seemed" to be close to being cleared to play. Granted I'm not a doctor but I did watch a Holiday Inn Express commercial, last night.
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Post by sharkey on Aug 23, 2014 10:42:46 GMT -5
Big fan of Hines. IMO, the starting lineup that I would want would be DL,IW and Hines up front with Amayo and English in the backcourt. Hines would add length and more important another perimeter shooter. Rather see Dublin come off the bench as an energy type player and Casimir as the backup PG. Question for those that saw workouts over the summer. Any word on how Ellis played?. TC mentioned him in a preview article as contributing but nobody that saw the team practice this summer has mentioned how he was playing.
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Post by Super on Aug 23, 2014 14:00:58 GMT -5
Big fan of Hines. IMO, the starting lineup that I would want would be DL,IW and Hines up front with Amayo and English in the backcourt. Hines would add length and more important another perimeter shooter. Rather see Dublin come off the bench as an energy type player and Casimir as the backup PG. Question for those that saw workouts over the summer. Any word on how Ellis played?. TC mentioned him in a preview article as contributing but nobody that saw the team practice this summer has mentioned how he was playing. Saw him once--nothing new. |
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Post by oldtimer on Aug 23, 2014 15:36:22 GMT -5
Back in my youth there were but two 8 teams each in Major League Baseball...We had fitting adjectives for each team....The Yankees were known as simply ''The best'' and the bottom teams were known as ''Cellar Dwellers'' I will certainly be rooting, but think perhaps we will be classifying Iona in a group we called ''Tough Outs'' There were better places to be, but when a team in that category rolled into town, you better be at your best...   |
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Post by oldtimer on Aug 23, 2014 16:04:40 GMT -5
05......Outside of very little tweeking I see your post as very insightful and right on target...The first two are tough picking...
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Post by ic59 on Aug 23, 2014 16:48:05 GMT -5
Super, who are you talking about?
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Post by sharkey on Aug 23, 2014 17:05:51 GMT -5
Super, who are you talking about? Super was answering my question if anybody saw Grant Ellis practice this summer, and how he looked. Ellis I would hope will contribute this year to help make up for the losses of Armand and Bowman's three point shooting. looking at all of the posts about possible player rotations he seems to be the forgotten player. This is his 3rd year in the program and I think this a pivotal year for him to see if he finally takes a jump, and gets some significant PT |
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Post by ic59 on Aug 23, 2014 22:40:35 GMT -5
OT, thanks. I wasn't sure if he meant Ellis or Hines. Ellis has that great deep shot, and the coaches were yelling at him a lot at the practices I attended. That told me that they see something in GE and are trying to get the best out of him. He has a way to go since he has had VERY LIMITED PT, but, imo, there is potential.
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Post by unowho on Aug 24, 2014 9:41:25 GMT -5
OT, thanks. I wasn't sure if he meant Ellis or Hines. Ellis has that great deep shot, and the coaches were yelling at him a lot at the practices I attended. That told me that they see something in GE and are trying to get the best out of him. He has a way to go since he has had VERY LIMITED PT, but, imo, there is potential. TC's practices are full of yelling and swearing no matter who you are.(BTW,this is fine by me) GE, imo should have transferred because this program has continued to recruit over him. Now saying that I will say this, it is a guard oriented program so if you are not going to put out you are not going to get in as we have all seen with the like of Ellis and Sledge. There's something there that TC doesn't like or trust in those two that thwarts their PT. The writing has been on the wall long enough, you may see GE sparingly, as usual and you won't see TS at all.  |
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Post by husker76 on Sept 30, 2014 10:04:53 GMT -5
Big Apple Buckets posted their ranking of the MAAC based upon RPM (returning possession minutes), refer to www.nycbuckets.com/2014/09/maac-rpm-thoughts/ which has the following: Siena 0.6682 (~90th) Iona 0.5595 (~135th) Saint Peter’s 0.5366 (~145th) Manhattan 0.5318 (~145th) Monmouth 0.5118 (~150th) Fairfield 0.4585 (~180th) Quinnipiac 0.4537 (~180th) Marist 0.4451 (~180th) Rider 0.3970 (~200th) Canisius 0.3612 (~225th) Niagara 0.2697 (~275th) John Templeton's thought is that the metric is somewhat reliable for predicting future performance with Iona being an exception. He notes that Iona under Coach Cluess has historically outperformed. Will be interesting to see his final predictions on the MAAC. Expecting most everyone to pick Iona as favorite. Not sure I buy into Siena making a run at the top spot in the MAAC. Feel they are getting way too much credit for CBI Championship as predictor of future success. Last year Siena's OOC strength of schedule was 203 and Iona's was 39. Pretty sure their OOC strength of schedule has not improved significantly. UMass and St. Bonaventure appear to be the only tough games. They will certainly benefit from MAAC Tournament being in Albany. Not sure Patsos is thrilled with high expectations. In my opinion St. Peter's and Quinnipiac will be tough. Manhattan will be as good as their point guard play, need to feed the bigs. Almost there, the season is just around the corner. |
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Post by hawaii bill on Sept 30, 2014 10:17:59 GMT -5
Seems to me the Siena love is based on 1) they did ok last year with a young team; 2) everyone is coming back; 3) competitors lost significant players. Its logical, not sure it tells the whole story and of course its premised on certain basic assumptions, e.g. all of the returning players improve and no one regresses or simply has a bad year, chemistry remains strong, no significant injuries (obvious for every team), no other team's additions are impact players, etc. Logical to pick them though, I don't have a problem with it.
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Post by ic59 on Sept 30, 2014 11:13:31 GMT -5
It seems to me that in order for RPM to be a predictor of how a team will do, that you would have to give a 'weight' for returning players. For instance there is no way to say that (for arguments sake) Iona has DL, AJ and IW coming back and Siena has Wright, Poole and Long coming back, so that means each team has three starters coming back, so they are even. They are even unless you count talent. And that is why Iona, and now Manhattan can't be examined this way. As I've said Siena, using a level playing field, is no better than the 3rd,4th or 5th place finisher in the MAAC regular season. But come the tournament the League does away with the level playing field, with the hope that Siena will at least make it to the finals, assuring good attendance figures.
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Post by sharkey on Sept 30, 2014 11:35:39 GMT -5
Siena is the easy/lazy pick for all of the preseason mags, since they return the entire team including what some just take for granted an impact transfer. In reality they return 2 solid players in Poole and Bisping and 2 freshmen Long and Wright who had solid season's last year. Wright averaged 4 turnovers a game against the top teams on their schedule while Long led the country in fouls and neither one are good shooters. the both will have to make significant sophomore jumps for Siena to challenge for first place. The impact transfer, Pat Cole, had brutal stats at Coppin St, does not solve their perimeter shooting weakness and may cause chemistry problems if he doesn't guy in. All of the other returning players have done nothing, but of course since they go to Siena will all make dramatic jumps this season. I pick Siena 3rd/4th. Too be honest Iona could also be viewed as an easy/lazy pick with the returning players. But the difference is Iona returns 3 of the top players in the MAAC, which no other MAAC team can claim. IMO, QPAC is the team to watch. Drame and Hearst are ALL-MAAC players and Chandler might be the quickest guard in the league and played well last year before getting injured. Add 2 legit recruits in Dingba and Mclean, with a couple good role players returning and they are going to be very good.
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