I’ve been doing NIT Bracketology now for three seasons. (Thanks Northwestern.) This is my first attempt for the 2011-12 season and unfortunately, after the Wildcats’ loss to Ohio State, they appear to be back on the wrong side of the bubble. There’s one New York area team in my projected NIT bracket as well.
Category: Wagner
Assist Tracker: Dec. 29
Keegan Bell (G, Chattanooga) — Bell got to play against Longwood last night and he took advantage of the situation going off for 16 assists, 10 points and nine rebounds in the 85-50 win. Eight of Bell’s assists were for threes and the Mocs only made nine. He also assisted on five layups and three dunks. The player distribution was pretty even five of Omar Wattad’s six baskets came off assists from Bell. Wattad was Chattanooga’s leading scorer with 18 points.
Matthew Dellavedova (G, St. Mary’s) — The west coast Gaels welcomed BYU into the WCC with a convincing 98-82 win in which Delledova played magnificently. He had 18 points, 12 assists and six rebounds in the win. Stephen Holt, who scored 21 points, was the greatest beneficiary on the night. He got four assists from Dellavedova. Half of Dellavedova’s assists went for layups as St. Mary’s just dissected the Cougars’ defense.
Neil Watson (G, Southern Miss) — Southern Miss is 12-2 after trouncing Alcorn State 80-49 last night. In that game Watson had 10 assists off the bench. None of those 10 assists were on a shot near the basket. He recorded assists on four threes and six jumpers. You don’t see that very often. Credit his teammates Jonathan Mills (19 points, 7-13), Darnell Dodson (16 points, 6-12) and LaShay Page (10 points, 3-11 — all makes off Watson assists) for knocking down the shots.
Scott Machado (G, Iona) — Yes, Machado ended up with 10 assists last night, but he also had five first half turnovers and really struggled with foul trouble. Half of those assists went to Mike Glover. Those five resulted in two dunks, two layups and a jumper. Momo Jones got three of the others. Three of Machado’s 10 assists were on jumpers as Hofstra’s defense forced him to pass out instead of in for most of the game.
Dwan McMillan (G, Hofstra) — Part of the reason for that was the pesky play of McMillan. He had nine assists in the game. Just one of the eight assists were for a basket around the rim (a layup by Mike Moore). There were five jumpers and three threes in the mix as well. Moore (24 points) and Nathaniel Lester (21 points) each knocked down three shots off passes from McMillan.
Kendall Marshall (G, North Carolina) — Marshall had eight points – on a perfect shooting night – and eight assists in 22 minutes as North Carolina rocked Elon 100-62. His eight assists included three dunks, two layups, two threes and a jumper. John Henson got two of the dunks. Harrison Barnes had the third.
Trey Burke (G, Michigan) — Freshman Burke had 13 points and seven assists – though the play-by-play says eight – and held Tim Frazier to four assist and five turnovers in Michigan’s 71-53 win over Penn State. (Note: Frazier did have 20 points.) Playing in John Beilein’s offense it’s not surprise that five of Burke’s assists in the play-by-play went for threes.
Kenneth Ortiz (G, Wagner) — The Seahawks have eight wins over non-conference opponents, the most in school history after a 72-61 victory over Air Force. It was Wagner’s most efficient offensive game of the season and Ortiz had 10 points and seven assists. Unfortunately there’s no play-by-play on ESPN for the game, so I can’t break them down. But I thought his performance should be noted here.
Thursday round up: Fordham first ACC win
Last night was full of surprises. Besides Hofstra upsetting Iona, Fordham also got its first ever win over an ACC opponent when Georgia Tech came to Rose Hill and left with a 72-66 defeat. That’s a great win for Tom Pecora’s bunch. They’ve got another tough one coming up though against Harvard. Here’s a full recap of the day’s action.
NEC Projection: Wagner and Robert Morris tango at the top
Most people think that the NEC is going to be a four-team race between Wagner, Robert Morris, Long Island and Central Connecticut State. I’m here to say that the numbers say they’re wrong. This is really a two-team race between the Seahawks and the Colonials and everyone else is battling for third place. Alright, maybe that’s a bit an overstatement, but not much.
Continue reading “NEC Projection: Wagner and Robert Morris tango at the top”
Assist Tracker: Dec. 23
Going into the Christmas break a couple guys blew up with double-digit assist efforts, including one forward. Here’s a look at the Assist Tracker for Dec. 23.
Zack Rosen (G, Penn) — Rosen had 12 assists and 13 points as Penn defeated Marist 84-71 on Friday. The majority of Rosen’s assists went to either to Rob Belcore (4) or Tyler Bernardini (5). Just one of his assists was on a jumper and the majority (7) of his assists went for threes. All five of Rosen’s assists to Bernardini were for threes as he shot 8-11 from beyond the arc and scored 30 points. Thus, even though Rosen only scored 13 points, well below his season average of 20.2, he contributed to 44 of Penn’s 84 points.
Oscar Bellfield (G, UNLV) — With 11 points and 11 assists Bellfield helped the Runnin’ Rebels stomp Cal 85-68. There were four threes, three dunks, three layups and a jumper. All three of Brice Massamba’s baskets came off assists from Bellfield. Anthony Marshall led the team with 22 points, but only two of those baskets came from Bellfield assists.
Brian Voelkel (F, Vermont) — Voelkel is probably the best passing big man in college basketball. It’s a pity he’s hidden in Vermont. The Catamounts defeated Towson 65-49 on Friday and Voelkel had 11 assists, eight rebounds and four points. A lot of Voelkel’s assists got for threes to the talented shooters that surround him. Against the Tigers five went for threes and five went for layups.
Matthew Dellavedova (G, Saint Mary’s) — Delladova had eight assists on Friday night as Saint Mary’s defeated Missouri State 77-61. He also had 17 points in 39 minutes for the Gaels. Five of his eight assists went for layups.
Jordan Theodore (G, Seton Hall) — The Pirates took a chance and went to Longwood on Friday for an 87-61 win. Theodore scored 26 points, including the 1,000th of his career, in the win. He also had six assists. Four of those assists went to teammate Fuquan Edwin who scored 20 points. Theodore’s assists were evenly split between threes and layups.
Kenneth Ortiz (G, Wagner) — Playing against Pittsburgh it’s no surprise that none of Ortiz’s assists went for a close range bucket. His seven assists came from four jumpers and three threes. Latif Rivers hit three of those baskets. One of the most critical assists came on a fast break at the end of the game when Ortiz passed out to Rivers on the wing for an easy basket.
Wagner defeats Pittsburgh 59-54
It’s really tough to win at Petersen Events Center, but now to mid-major teams have done it in 2011. The latest was quite the gift for Dan Hurley as Wagner pulled the 59-54 stunner over Pittsburgh. It was Wagner’s first win over a ranked team since defeating Alabama in 1978.
“That’s a better Christmas present than maybe even my wife got me,” Hurley said.
Interesting reading
Two things you should check out: Dan Hanner at Real GM taking a look at teams that play a lot of freshmen and ones that don’t. Fordham is a good example of the former and Iona one of the best examples of the latter. Iona has one freshman on the roster, Josh Gomez. He’s played in six games and 10 minutes total. The other post to check out is Cracked Sidewalks’ update of Value Add. The list of the Top 100 includes Scott Machado of Iona (#36) and Tyler Murray of Wagner (#65). I’d expect to see Iona’s Mike Glover in the Top 100 soon as well.
Thursday Round Up / Friday Previews
Fordham and Hofstra both got wins on Thursday and NJIT even threw a pre-Christmas scare into a young Rutgers team. For the Rams and Pride the wins were solid bounce backs from losses and provide jumping off points for some more challenging games on the horizon. Also, there’s three teams in action tonight as Manhattan takes on George Mason, Wagner is at #13 Pittsburgh and St. Francis (NY) hosts Norfolk State.
Early season grades for area teams
Since its exam break it seems like a good time to hand out some grades for each of the area teams. These grades are based on preseason expectations and there is absolutely no grade inflation here. Most teams are going to be in the C range and you’ll notice that I’ve liberally handed out a bunch of D’s as well. If you think your school deserved a better one feel free to argue in the comments. They’re listed from best to worst and I’ve also included a special one grade at the end.
Saturday Round Up: Manhattan streaking
You can see my recap of Columbia’s win over Long Island below, but there were six other games of note played last night as well. Some of them came right down to the wire and a few continued some interesting trends that we’ve witnessed during non-conference play.