PSAC WEST

[Fightingscot82]

I know for the purists this isn't preferred, but I really enjoy this season's parity. It could be a lot worse and each time seems like its on its own rollercoaster, but you never know who is going to show up each game nor what the outcome will be.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

UPDATED MEN'S STANDINGS / WEST

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TEAM	PSAC	OVERALL	STREAK
Gannon	11-3	16-6	L3
Edinboro	8-6	12-9	W3
California	7-7	12-10	W2
Slippery Rock	7-7	11-11	L2
IUP	6-7	10-10	L1
Pitt-Johnstown	6-7	10-10	W1
Seton Hill	6-8	13-9	W1
Clarion	5-9	10-10	L1

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Notes & The Week Ahead

* Gannon is currently in mini-crisis mode having dropped 3 straight (and 4 of its past 5). This will not be an easy week for the Golden Knights. A red-hot Edinboro visits Wednesday, followed by IUP on Saturday. Gannon defeated both in the first loop -- knocking off the Scots, 100-84, and, IUP, 89-82. Things are much different a month later, however.

* Hand it to Danny Sancomb. His Vulcans were decimated by injuries in December. It took some time, but Cal is back to being a highly-competitive team. Cal was hammered by Gannon in early January, 108-71. A month later, the roles reversed. Cal avenged that blowout defeat by taking down the Knights by 22 points. Cal isn't deep and isn't big. But, they are very well-coached -- and, making it work. Like Danny or not, he's one of the best coaches in the whole league. His second half adjustments won them the game against IUP.

* In a normal year, playing the last-place team is a night off. Not this year. Clarion sits at 10-10 overall, but has (5) losses by 4 points or less. Most recently, the Golden Eagles upset Gannon, and then dropped a heart-breaker at Edinboro, 94-93.

* Things change from the first loop to the second. A sneaky team to watch is UPJ. The Mountain Cats have went over 100 points in 2 of their past 3 games -- including an impressive, 105-93, win against California. This was a real young team to start the season. They are growing up fast.

* Slippery Rock continues to be a confusing team. After defeating IUP in front of nearly 2,000 inside Morrow Field House, SRU dropped consecutive outings to Edinboro and Seton Hill (the latter in blowout fashion). The Rock can be real dangerous on the right night. A lack of consistency, however, is crushing them.

* IUP played well enough to win at California -- for, say, 34 of the 40 minutes. The Crimson Hawks continue to have short (devastating) lapses. Teams are given a lot of timeouts. Use them.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

To those watching Gannon closely ... what is going on up there?

It's fairly rare to win the first game by 40+ and get blown out in the rematch.

That's losses in 4 out of last 5. Bad stretch or more to it?

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Cal up 42-16 on Gannon in first half. WTF?

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Three straight doubleheader sweeps for Edinboro. Heating up at just the right time.

Those two combined to shoot 26 for 44 from outside. Crazy.

Ironically, on an incredible shooting night, Boro hits a banked-in shot for the 94-93, walk-off win.

I doubt he called BANK, but, it counts the same.

When the Scots are hitting from outside, that's a pretty good team.

How the whole league didn't pounce on Steve Kelly is amazing.

The West has a huge void in quality big men this year. Nobody can slow down the guy from Edinboro.

They rely on that trey a bit too much, which is the only weakness right now. Those shots don't fall every game.

But, the Boro is poised to make a run here (my opinion). There's some buzz on campus. Great crowd last night.

And, by the way, Clarion may have lost but the Golden Eagles put up one heck of a fight. They are inconsistent, which is their glaring weakness. The nights they are on that's a dangerous group.

[Fightingscot82]

That may have been the game of the year in the West.

Edinboro pulled out one crazy finish.

Three straight doubleheader sweeps for Edinboro. Heating up at just the right time.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

That may have been the game of the year in the West.

Edinboro pulled out one crazy finish.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Clarion at Boro is nuts.

The Lord of the Red Bull fired up on the play by play. Screaming as usual.

Clarion going insane from outside.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Kearney's back and in the warmup line at Edinboro.

Rare Friday night game.

This should be a good one.

[jrshooter]

Kearney's back and in the warmup line at Edinboro.

[boatcapt]

It's hard to say what will happen next. This is one whacky season. Half the West is idle tomorrow.

Saturday:

Slippery Rock at Seton Hill - The Griffins followed up big wins against Edinboro and Gannon -- by naturally losing to UPJ. Following the popular theme, Seton Hill won both at home and then lost in the Dirty J. Trying to figure out this Rock will make your head spin. They rotate back and forth between very good and bad. The Rock won Round 1, 73-61. This one won't be so easy. The Griffins are tough inside the claustrophobic and loud, yellow shoebox. Tough call, but I like Seton Hill in Greensburg. SH -3.5

Gannon at California - Anybody remember that famous lyric ... "There's something happening here. What is ain't exactly clear." That philosophy could certainly be applied to Gannon. The Knights have lost 3 of their past 4 outings (and could have lost all of them) The Knights were held in the 70s in all three defeats. This could simply be a funk. Most teams have a rough stretch over a 4-month season. Or, there could be more to it. The Vulcans' story is well-documented by now. Cal is fresh off an ugly (both teams) 4-point win against IUP. Gannon obliterated Cal in the first meeting, 108-71. The sequel, my opinion, will be much, much tighter. The Vulcans were still trying to re-group back in early January. They still have many issues, but Danny is a good coach and is making things work. It's also safe to say Gannon was a much better team a month ago than they are today. This will be a tight one. Gannon recovers - but has to really fight. Knights -7.5

With regard to Gannon, lyrics also on point...I can feel it coming in the air tonight, hold on. Well if you told me you were drowning, I would not lend a hand.

They are on the prescious of playing themselves out of the #1 seed and hosting the NCAA Regionals.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

It's hard to say what will happen next. This is one whacky season. Half the West is idle tomorrow.

Saturday:

Slippery Rock at Seton Hill - The Griffins followed up big wins against Edinboro and Gannon -- by naturally losing to UPJ. Following the popular theme, Seton Hill won both at home and then lost in the Dirty J. Trying to figure out this Rock will make your head spin. They rotate back and forth between very good and bad. The Rock won Round 1, 73-61. This one won't be so easy. The Griffins are tough inside the claustrophobic and loud, yellow shoebox. Tough call, but I like Seton Hill in Greensburg. SH -3.5

Gannon at California - Anybody remember that famous lyric ... "There's something happening here. What it is ain't exactly clear." That philosophy could certainly be applied to Gannon. The Knights have lost 3 of their past 4 outings (and could have lost all of them) The Knights were held in the 70s in all three defeats. This could simply be a funk. Most teams have a rough stretch over a 4-month season. Or, there could be more to it. The Vulcans' story is well-documented by now. Cal is fresh off an ugly (both teams) 4-point win against IUP. Gannon obliterated Cal in the first meeting, 108-71. The sequel, my opinion, will be much, much tighter. The Vulcans were still trying to re-group back in early January. They still have many issues, but Danny is a good coach and is making things work. It's also safe to say Gannon was a much better team a month ago than they are today. This will be a tight one. Gannon recovers - but has to really fight. Knights -7.5

[Ship69]

When Shepherd can control the tempo ... that can be a very challenging team to play this year.

If you get sucked in to a game in the 50s against them (their ideal target) you're in trouble. That's a massive frontcourt they have.

You have to get that team running (and tired). They'll beat any team in the league this year in one of those old-school PSAC brawls.

Problem is, you have to hit some three-pointers, grab some rebounds or create turnovers to get a running game going. Ship wasn't doing it. It's no surprise that Shepherd's two losses in the East are to two of the deeper teams, East Stroud and West Chester. Millersville likes to win bruise fests as well, but Shepherd can beat them at their own game this season.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Depth is a problem for several teams in the league this season. Ship's physical mismatch with Shepherd on Wednesday was ridiculous. With the Raiders' point guard and three of their tallest forwards (6-7, 6-6, and 6-6) in tracksuits due to injury or illness, the roster height fell from a single tall guy, Donovan Hill at 6-8, to nobody taller than 6-4. They faced a Shepherd front line that included Chase and Cole Paar at 6-10 and 6-9 respectively, plus the veteran Carson Poffenberger at 6-8. At times, the 6-3 Denzel Figueroa was guarding Chase Paar, who has good skills and is not the typical 6-10 stiff you sometimes see in the PSAC, plus he weighs more than 250 pounds to go with the height. Fortunately, for some reason Shepherd wanted to shoot three-pointers quite a bit, or the score might have been worse. Chase Paar had 20 and probably should have had 35, but nobody seems to coach an inside game these days. To add insult to injury the Rams, 13th in the league in three-point percentage, were even hitting those.

When Shepherd can control the tempo ... that can be a very challenging team to play this year.

If you get sucked in to a game in the 50s against them (their ideal target) you're in trouble. That's a massive frontcourt they have.

You have to get that team running (and tired). They'll beat any team in the league this year in one of those old-school PSAC brawls.

[Ship69]

Kearney is a rather polarizing player in the West. For starters, he sure doesn't look the part. We don't have many athletic, built, 6'8" guards in the league.

I'm not saying he's a P4 player, but he's certainly a lower-level D1 player. He did go in to the Portal after last season. He indicated he signed (if I recall correctly, with Niagara).

His flaw, however, is he gets very trigger happy.

He was smoking IUP in the first 5 minutes last week. Being honest, he had a dream matchup. Once Joe made a switch and got a bigger, faster player (Ian Herring) on him, he cooled off significantly.

My only 'up close' view of Clarion this year ... IUP hung a 30 burger on them. But, there is some talent on that team. Depth is their issue. After the first 5-6 guys, there isn't much on the bench.

At this point we can say Teams 1-8 in the West are all dangerous (especially at home). We have some teams (IUP being one of them) that can play really well at home -- then look below average in a hurry on the road. 'Home' IUP and 'Away' IUP literally looks like two different teams.

Depth is a problem for several teams in the league this season. Ship's physical mismatch with Shepherd on Wednesday was ridiculous. With the Raiders' point guard and three of their tallest forwards (6-7, 6-6, and 6-6) in tracksuits due to injury or illness, the roster height fell from a single tall guy, Donovan Hill at 6-8, to nobody taller than 6-4. They faced a Shepherd front line that included Chase and Cole Paar at 6-10 and 6-9 respectively, plus the veteran Carson Poffenberger at 6-8. At times, the 6-3 Denzel Figueroa was guarding Chase Paar, who has good skills and is not the typical 6-10 stiff you sometimes see in the PSAC, plus he weighs more than 250 pounds to go with the height. Fortunately, for some reason Shepherd wanted to shoot three-pointers quite a bit, or the score might have been worse. Chase Paar had 20 and probably should have had 35, but nobody seems to coach an inside game these days. To add insult to injury the Rams, 13th in the league in three-point percentage, were even hitting those.