A look at early season tournaments

Since the 2010-11 season is over it’s time to start focusing on two of college basketball’s offseason past times, recruiting and scheduling. Both are harder at the mid-major level, but there are some loopholes. For instance, often multi-team events and early season exempt tournaments offer a chance to score a big victory. A few New York City teams already are scheduled to get that chance, but what about a few others that might still be looking.

Well thanks to Chris Dobbertean over at Blogging the Bracket you don’t have to wait. He’s compiled all the early season events into one handy little page.

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Ferry not going to Manhattan

It appears that Manhattan isn’t like it’s brethren at Fairfield and doesn’t want to join the arms race in the MAAC. Contrary to reports, Long Island’s Jim Ferry apparently asked for too much money and won’t become head coach of the Jaspers. Apparently Ferry asked for 7 years, $350k per season and Manhattan offered $240k. They couldn’t meet in the middle, so Manhattan is back to square one.

Two players honored with kPOY conference awards

Stats guru Ken Pomeroy started his own statistical award in an attempt to sort out all the noise surrounding the national Player of the Year debate. His new award is the kPOY and it was given to Jared Sullinger this morning. Two New York City players were honored as well. Iona’s Michael Glover won the conference kPOY award in the MAAC and Long Island’s Jamal Olasewere captured the NEC version.

I was a little surprised that Hofstra’s Charles Jenkins was unable to capture the award in the CAA. My guess is that the Pride’s lower standings in the team rankings hurt Jenkins enough that his advantage in Offensive Rating (123.5 vs. 114.0) and Usage Rate (28.4% vs. 23.7%) were offset by the fact that George Mason finished 28th and Hofstra finished 135th.

Manhattan’s hiring of Ferry continues upwardly mobile MAAC

The MAAC continued to show that it’s going to be an upwardly mobile league in terms of coaching candidates with the hiring of former Long Island head coach Jim Ferry. Ferry was 98-134 with the Blackbirds before this season, but a 27-6 record and his second Jim Phelan Coach of the Year award made him a hot commodity in coaching circles. Ferry’s LIU teams played an exciting version of basketball and finished third in adjusted tempo in the NCAA and made the NCAA Tournament. The draws for Manhattan are pretty obvious.

Unlike the situation we looked at yesterday, this isn’t a lateral move in terms of competition either. The Northeastern Conference finished 25th amongst the 31 conferences that receive automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament in Ken Pomeroy, whereas the MAAC was 16th. It will definitely be a challenge for Ferry. What’s really interesting about the move is that it doesn’t appear to come with any more financial resources, but, considering the effort Fairfield put into getting Sydney Johnson and Manhattan snatching up Ferry, maybe that’s about to change.

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Iona robbed in final Mid-Major Top 25 and the sad state of Fordham basketball

The final Mid-Major Top 25 poll from CollegeInsider.com is out and there appears to be one team missing. Despite reaching the finals of the CIT, Iona isn’t in the Top 25. (They’re actually 26th, four points behind Wofford.)

Santa Clara, the team that won the CIT on the Gaels’ home court, is ranked 22nd. Butler was an obvious choice for the #1 spot in the poll and VCU, after the Rams’ Final Four run, deserved to be #2, but beyond that it probably was pretty difficult for the selectors to rank the teams. Wichita State, which won the NIT, got boosted all the way up to #5, but St. Mary’s, which lost in the first round of the NIT to Kent State, only fell to #11.

This seems to be a case of poll momentum keeping teams from cracking the list. Congratulations to Long Island. The Blackbirds finished 17th in the poll. Also, Hofstra was in the others receiving votes category, but the CAA showed it’s strength with three teams in the Top 5. The three CAA teams in the poll also tied the West Coast Conference (which along with Santa Clara and St. Mary’s had #7 Gonzaga) for the most teams in the poll.

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