Season At A Glance — Wagner

This is the fifth of what will eventually be capsules for each of the NYC teams when I’m sure their season has concluded.

Team: Wagner

Record: 25-6 (15-3 in the NEC)

Season High: Winning at then #15 Pittsburgh

Season Low: Losing final regular season game to Central Connecticut

Really Good At: Defense — Wagner had the best defense by far in NEC play this season. The Seahawks led the conference in effective field goal percentage defense, three-point percentage defense and block percentage.

Struggled With: Fouling too much — The aggressive, pressing style that Wagner plays leads a lot to the interpretation of the officials. It might’ve been Wagner’s downfall in the conference semifinals against Robert Morris. The Seahawks finished 11th in the NEC in defensive free throw rate.

Key Losses:

Tyler Murray (All-NEC Second Team guard, 12.0 PPG, efficient scorer)
Chris Martin (spark off the bench, 7.1 PPG, 82.3% FT%)

Key Returnees:

Latif Rivers, So., G (All-NEC Second Team, 14.6 PPG)
Jonathon Williams, Jr., F (13.4 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 53.4% FG%)
Kenneth Ortiz, So., G (NEC Defensive Player of the Year, 4.5 RPG, 4.3 APG, 1.8 SPG)
Naofall Folahan, So., F/C (1.7 BPG, strong offensive rebounder)

Outlook: Great. The season came to an abrupt end for the Seahawks, but that doesn’t mean the future isn’t bright. Dan Hurley is going to keep bringing talent to Grymes Hill and it’ll just supplement the young core that’s already here. The addition of transfer Ortiz gives Wagner an amazing sophomore class that should just continue to develop. Also, another year of development and a healthy off season could mean Mario Moody is the NEC’s most improved player next season. After finishing second in the NEC to LIU this season, Wagner still has unfinished business left. It has the talent coming back to unseat the Blackbirds if everything goes right and return to the postseason, maybe even in the NCAA tournament.

NIT Bracketology: March 10

When doing NIT Bracketology we’ve reached a point where there are too many good teams to squeeze into too few slots. Considering there are deserving mid-majors that want to play in the NIT (like Wagner, Princeton, Illinois State, Northern Iowa, etc.) and a number of major conference teams (like Mississippi State, Illinois, Pittsburgh) that really struggled down the stretch it’s tough to project exactly what will happen.
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NIT Bracketology: March 8, 2012

As the major conference tournaments kick into high gear this week there’s a special type of bid stealer on the loose. High-major teams that have so-so records against their peers are hoping for one last shot to prove that they should play in the NIT this season. You see a lot of them at the bottom of the bracket already. UCLA, Pittsburgh, Colorado and LSU all sit somewhere around the cut-line. The Panthers in particular are an interesting case. They’re 17-16 overall after losing to Georgetown in the Big East Tournament, but the Panthers also have 14 losses to Top 100 competitors. I also watched them live on Tuesday and was sort of impressed. Is that enough to play in the NIT? I’m not really sure.

The Pac-12 tournament is just starting up and it should prove, along with the Atlantic 10 tournament, to be one of the tournaments that impacts this NIT bracket the most. UCLA, Colorado, Stanford, Arizona and Oregon have opportunities to play themselves out of the bracket (in both directions) during the next few days. Also, Arkansas, Maryland and New Mexico State all still have an opportunity to improve their resumes. Those three teams are sitting outside of the NIT looking in right now. Of course, more bid thieves could make this a moot point. Three are already hanging out at the bottom of the bracket.

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NIT Bracketology: The paper tiger

By mid-January the college basketball analyst comes out to hunt for Bubble Teams. It’s an exercise dependent on looking through RPI table, the “eye test” and other glorious means of trying to determine which teams will make the NCAA tournament. In particular, the analysts – some of who are very well respected – are trying to separate out the paper tigers.

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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.

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Atlantic 10 Tournament Moving to Brooklyn

The Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament is leaving Atlantic City and heading to the brand new Barclays Center in Brooklyn starting in 2013. There were rumors that the ACC Tournament might also be moving to the Barclays, so the A-10 had to move fast if they wanted the venue. It’s a good thing they did, because moving to New York City at the same time the Big East Tournament is going on should increase media coverage at the event. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. That’s the reason Brooklyn was selected.

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