I don’t know what types of rumors are more fun, conference expansion, the coaching carousel, NBA Draft, or transfers, but we’ve got them all this offseason. The latest and greatest actually manages to combine two. After Gary Parrish posted an email from the Duquesne president outlining why the school fired Ron Everhart it has come to some people’s attention that there is an interesting line near the end.
Category: Fordham
New York Mid-Major 2011-12 Teams
What a year it was for college hoops in New York City. Both Iona and LIU Brooklyn qualified for the NCAA tournament and Stony Brook also won the regular season title. A number of players were named to their All-Conference teams and garnered postseason awards. In fact, those awards are still coming in. Here I’d like to name my New York Mid-Major teams for the 2011-12 season.
Using Roland Ratings to Determine Team MVPs
I don’t believe in +/- too much at the collegiate level, but sometimes derivative statistics can provide some interesting jumping off points. One of those is +/- for lineups. Another is Roland Rating. Basically, Roland Rating is the difference between a team’s +/- when a player is on the court and off of it. It’s a way of judging how valuable player is if you’ve got a large enough sample size. Let’s see what it says about each of the NYC teams and who the most valuable players are.
Continue reading “Using Roland Ratings to Determine Team MVPs”
Season At A Glance — Fordham
This is the fourth of what will eventually be capsules for each of the NYC teams when I’m sure their season has concluded.
Team: Fordham
Record: 10-19 (3-13 in the Atlantic 10)
Season High: Back-to-back wins at home over Georgia Tech and Harvard
Season Low: Losing by 20 at Rhode Island with the possibility of still making the A-10 Tournament alive.
Really Good At: Blocking Shots — Fordham finished first in the Atlantic 10 in block percentage thanks to the play of Chris Gaston and Kervin Bristol (19th in the country in Blk%) down low.
Struggled With: Offense — Fordham was the worst shooting team in the Atlantic 10 and the fifth worst shooting team in the entire nation according to effective field goal percentage. It’s hard to have an effective offense when that’s the case.
Key Losses:
- Kervin Bristol (defensive presence and solid shot blocker)
- Alberto Estwick (three-point specialist who struggled a bit with his shot in 2011-12)
Key Returnees:
- Chris Gaston, Jr., F (All-Atlantic 10 performer, 17.1 PPG, 9.9 RPG)
- Devon McMillan, Fr., G (7.4 PPG)
- Branden Frazier, So., G (11.7 PPG, 4.0 APG)
Outlook: Improving. I’m sure Tom Pecora wanted to make the Atlantic 10 Tournament this season, but small steps had to be made first at Fordham. Rose Hill came to life as the Rams beat Georgia Tech and Harvard at home and also surprised La Salle in A-10 play. The foundation has been built. Another year in the weight room along with the experience that McMillan and Frazier gained this season should make them better at running the offense next season. McMillan seems like the type of player that could have a huge jump in efficiency from his freshman to sophomore seasons because he’ll be able to score more at the rim and limit turnovers as he gets stronger. Ryan Canty and Marvin Dominique are going to have to help Chris Gaston in the paint next season. Gaston can’t be the sole player responsible for going to the glass. The offense seems like it could make a big improvement in Year 3 under Pecora, but will the defense improve enough to make the Rams a dangerous team in the A-10 next season?
Probabilities for conference seeding
It’s the final weekend for most college hoops leagues and there’s still a lot to be determined. I’m going to run down the percentages of some important things happening for the teams from the area still competing for conference positions. I’m include the % chance, determined via the Ken Pomeroy odds of a certain scenario coming true.
Revisiting the Atlantic 10 Projections
The Atlantic 10 has turned into one fun league this season. The topsy-turvy standings are starting to come back to what observers expected when the season began, but one thing has certainly changed, St. Louis is no longer a decisive favorite. The Billikens are tied with Temple, La Salle, Xavier and Massachusetts with six wins in conference apiece. (Note: The Owls have played one fewer game.) How has this changed the race for the conference title? Are the Explorers or the Minutemen actual title contenders?
Pecora forced to coach effort in February
There’s just a month left in the regular season and it should be the time for coaches to be implementing specific game plans for must wins games, but on Saturday at Rose Hill in a must-win game against Charlotte, Fordham head coach Tom Pecora found himself coaching effort.
Continue reading “Pecora forced to coach effort in February”
Temple Q&A with Philahoops
After beating George Washington on Saturday Fordham now has two victories in the Atlantic 10, but the Rams will face probably their toughest challenge of the season tonight when they take on Temple in Philadelphia. The Owls are a decisive favorite and have already beaten Duke, Wichita State and St. Louis this season. Josh Verlin of Philahoops and I exchanged Q&A’s. Get to know Temple a bit better.
Saturday Basketball Bonanza
The boys over at Ballin’ Is a Habit went over 2,500 miles to watch college basketball. I commend them on this incredible journey. Thankfully though I live in New York City, most definitely one of if not the greatest city in the world. It’s also so incredibly densely populated that there are always college basketball games happening during the season. Saturday I’m going to attempt to take advantage of what the city has to offer and attend three games in one day.
Behind the lens (George Washington at Fordham)
Game #8-471: George Washington Colonials at Fordham Rams
January 28, 2012 1:00 pm
Rose Hill Gym
BBState Stats/Recap
Nowadays when I attend a college basketball game it’s usually with a seat on press row. At arenas like Rose Hill, Draddy, Levien and Hynes the seats are typically great, even for writers like myself. But it’s interesting, because my blogging career actually started out as a photographer.
Yup, my first press pass in Chicago, when I started blogging independently was a photo credential at Northwestern University. I posted 20-plus galleries of game photos that first season of Chicago College Basketball – from NU, Loyola (IL), UIC and Chicago State.
What I learned that season is that the experience from behind the camera is very different from the one on press row.
As a writer watching the game you’re looking at the flow of a game. Who is playing well What is a team doing to control the game How is this going to turn out What’s the story If you’re a good reporter, that’s what you ask yourself the entire time. The answers probably change every five minutes or so, but that’s the joy of college basketball.
As a photographer your entire perspective changes. You’re looking for moments. Emotion, high impact plays or displays of athleticism. The camera is actually the most neutral observer of a college basketball game, because all it sees is exactly what happens on the court.
So as I sat down at Rose Hill Gym on Saturday afternoon, the sun was shining brightly through the windows behind the Fordham student section. I knew what I was in for. I pulled out my Canon Rebel XTi, threw on a straight 50 and started shooting.
And things started happening. Fordham, which had lost its last two Atlantic 10 games by more than 40 points, started out playing tenacious defense. The Rams shut down George Washington’s Tony Taylor for the first 20 minutes and hit the glass hard. By halftime I had a couple photos I liked and Fordham had a seven-point lead and just one fewer rebound than the Colonials had points.
At halftime I had a decision to make. Should I stay at the end I was on – which was into the light streaming in through those big windows – and try and shoot some defense, or should I stay on the offensive side in hopes of getting something juicy I decided upon the latter and like many of the photographers in attendance (there were a surprisingly large number) I moved down to opposite baseline.
Once I got there I figured out I had definitely made the right decision. The extra light from those beautiful windows allowed me to pull out the 70-200 lens in my bag and really get up close and personal. That’s how you get the good photos. I didn’t have to wait for the action to come to me, I could go to it.
But as the half went on I started wishing I had one more lens. Something in the mid-range. That’s the thing with shooting photos, unless you’re a professional you can never have enough tools in the toolbox. What I really could’ve used on Saturday was a 24-70 f2.8. For as Chris Gaston dunked on the fast break to open up an even bigger lead for the Rams, I didn’t have time to get the shot.
I kept working. So did the young Rams team for Tom Pecora in front of an excited, packed house. I took over 300 photos in an exciting 63-58 win for the Rams, which pushed them to 2-5 in Atlantic 10 play. Rose Hill continues to become a dangerous place for opponents to play. Fordham now has wins over Harvard, Georgia Tech and two A-10 teams there.
As a photographer when the game is over your work is just beginning. It was time to digest everything I’d worked on. Under a critical eye those 300 photos became 25 that I liked enough to take a longer look at. That 25 became 11 which actually ended up online.
I don’t know if I’ll go back behind the camera more often after this game. Like I predicted, it was hard to feel the rhythm of the game behind the lens. But it was good to get back to those roots once again.
at FORDHAM 63, GEORGE WASHINGTON 58
01/28/2012
GEORGE WASHINGTON 8-13 (3-4)– T. Taylor 5-14 5-7 17; N. Mikic 4-10 0-0 12; D. Smith 3-9 3-3 9; L. Kromah 4-8 2-2 13; B. Bynes 1-9 0-0 2; J. Edwards 1-1 0-0 2; A. Ware 1-4 1-2 3; J. Kopriva 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 19-57 11-14 58.
FORDHAM 9-11 (2-5)– B. Frazier 5-13 6-6 20; D. McMillan 4-7 0-3 9; M. Dominique 2-3 2-5 6; K. Bristol 5-6 0-0 10; B. Smith 1-9 0-0 2; C. Gaston 5-7 6-6 16; A. Estwick 0-1 0-0 0; L. Samuell 0-0 0-0 0; R. Canty 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 22-47 14-20 63.
Three-point goals: GW 9-20 (T. Taylor 2-6; B. Bynes 0-2; L. Kromah 3-4; N. Mikic 4-8), FORD 5-14 (A. Estwick 0-1; B. Frazier 4-7; D. McMillan 1-2; B. Smith 0-4); Rebounds: GW 22 (N. Mikic 7), FORD 37 (K. Bristol 8); Assists: GW 13 (T. Taylor 7), FORD 14 (D. McMillan 6); Total Fouls — GW 18, FORD 14; Fouled Out: GW-None; FORD-K. Bristol.
NYC Buckets Archive 