I think the right decision was made last week when the power poll was narrowed down to 12 teams. To be honest, at this point it’s tough to find 12 teams in the area that are worth ranking. That’s evident in this week’s power poll as 15 teams received votes, but the Top 12 is a pretty set group of teams. There’s an equivalent of a second place vote separating team No. 12 from team No. 13.
Continue reading “NYC Power Poll: Is there really “power” here?”
If you want to see teams that went winless for a while or are winless, well then Long Island is the place to be tonight. Binghamton comes to Stony Brook and Hofstra hosts Towson. Even though Towson beat UNC-Wilmington last Saturday, most of what I said here about the two teams still applies. A couple good Towson Twitter follows, in case you need them are: @TowsonTigerZone and @TowsonTV_Damon. If I were you, I’d also follow the Press & Sun-Bulletin’s Lynn Worth (@psblynn) for all your news about the winless Bearcats. Here’s his preview of the game. Also, Unranked AE wrote way more about the SBU-Binghamton game than I did, so check that out!
Iona is going to be hosting Nevada at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 18 on ESPN or ESPN2. This is a tough game for the Gaels to stomach. It’s not a game that winning really helps. Nevada is currently 59th in RPI and 91st in KenPom rankings. While they’re cleaning up in the WAC right now it’s not particularly useful in terms of getting a bubble game. Wichita State was sitting there and Iona could’ve used it. Also, Iona has to return this game at some point. I’m sure Tim Cluess isn’t happy about this game.
Stony Brook will take on former America East conference member Northeastern at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 18. That’s a nice game for both teams involved. There’s some history, there’s a chance for SBU to get a win over a CAA team that actually might help their conference rating and it means that the Seawolves get to go to Massachusetts again. I’m not sure if they really want to, but if it’s okay for a conference road trip I think it’s fine for a BracketBusters game.
Per a whole bunch of sources Manhattan will be hosting UNC-Wilmington on Feb. 18. There’s a whole bunch of reasons why this is a terrible matchup. Let’s start with the fact that Wilmington has lost six of its last seven games, including to Towson on Saturday. Bonus though: Brian Mull, who writes for the Star News in North Carolina and does great tempo-free work, will be coming to the game.
Hofstra will host Siena at 4 p.m. on February 18. Here’s a nice regional matchup between to teams at pretty similar levels. There’s some reasons to be excited for this game. Also, if both these teams move upwards as expected over the next few seasons the return game could be valuable to both side as well.
Back on Friday afternoon I tried to project the BracketBusters as best I could. Well, now that we’re just a few hours away from the actual announcement and have some better data to work with according to RPI – and rumors – it’s time to make some final guesses about who will be on TV and who will be playing where.
A defensive struggle might not seem ideal for national television, but Stony Brook and Boston University showed how to turn a slow-paced (61-possession), defensive battle into must watch television on Friday night. With a crowd worked into a frenzy thanks to a red out and the Seawolves wearing their road jerseys at home, Stony Brook made the final run and got a sliver of revenge for last season’s America East title game with a 66-57 win.
Continue reading “Stars come out as Stony Brook takes lead in America East”
The BracketBuster selections are coming up soon, the games will be announced on Monday, Jan. 30 and while most teams are going to be able to get a Top 50 RPI win out of the deal, there are nine Top 100 RPI teams participating in the challenge. These are typically good games to win as an at-large candidate or for seeding purposes in the NCAA tournament. The format calls for six games on either ESPN or ESPN2, five on ESPNU and then two exclusively on ESPN3. Iona seemed primed for one of those ESPN cable slots just a few nights ago, but let’s see where they stack up plus which teams could be possible opponents for the Gaels, Manhattan and Stony Brook.
Continue reading “Trying to project BracketBuster TV and opponents”
Monday means another week is in the books and lots of players garnered weekly awards from their respective conferences this week. Also, three local teams are in the Mid-Major Top 25.
Columbia got its first Ivy League victory over the season over Cornell and Hofstra defeated James Madison on the road to score its first CAA victory as New York area teams had a solid day of games on a busy Saturday. Besides the two NEC games on the slate, five other teams were in action and four of them came away victorious.
Continue reading “Saturday Round Up: Columbia and Hofstra get first conference wins”
If you don’t subscribe to Ken Pomeroy’s site you should. Here’s a few interesting things I found while skipping through team profiles today.
Jim Ferry and the LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds should send Dan Hurley and Wagner a thank you card. Thanks to the Seahawks’ win over Central Connecticut on Saturday night the Blackbirds are now sitting all be themselves in first place in the NEC. In fact, the three NYC schools in the NEC are all sitting up at the top of the standings. That’s not all that happened though. It was a busy day in college hoops.
NYC Buckets Archive 