PSAC WEST

[Fightingscot82]

Seton Hill hammered UPJ (by 15).

Edinboro blew a halftime lead and lost at home to SRU, 83-81.


Edinboro plays at Cal on Saturday. Winner gets the second Round 1 bye and No. 2 seed. Loser plays Monday.

IUP has clinched a spot with tonight's win against Cal, but the seed is still up in the air. The Crimson Hawks play at Clarion on Friday night. Seton Hill plays at Gannon on Saturday. If both were to lose, IUP holds the tie-breaker due to its season sweep of SH.

I'm starting to wonder if the PSAC officials have an issue with Justin Jennings because nearly every game I watch there is a really bad call or non-call. Last week it was a phantom push call against Cenkar that replay showed was him untangling his arm from the opposing player. Last night it was an obvious goaltending that wasn't called. You can't smack the backboard when a shot is at the rim. Clear as day. I hope Steve Murray catches this. The only reason I bring it up was that when the game got close, those 2 points made a difference. Shouldn't have mattered, but in that moment it did.

[bballfan03]

I'm starting to wonder if the PSAC officials have an issue with Justin Jennings because nearly every game I watch there is a really bad call or non-call. Last week it was a phantom push call against Cenkar that replay showed was him untangling his arm from the opposing player. Last night it was an obvious goaltending that wasn't called. You can't smack the backboard when a shot is at the rim. Clear as day. I hope Steve Murray catches this. The only reason I bring it up was that when the game got close, those 2 points made a difference. Shouldn't have mattered, but in that moment it did.

it's not personal.. the refs have just overall been terrible this year... especially when it matters

[IUPbigINDIANS]

it's not personal.. the refs have just overall been terrible this year... especially when it matters

Oh I think sometimes it is personal. In fact, a lot of times. We don't have enough officials. The same officials get assigned to the same teams far too often. There are coaches who hate certain officials and there are officials who hate certain coaches. That's life.

Don't think for a second an official doesn't remember Joe Lombardi or Danny Sancomb (or, whomever) screaming at him like he's a 5-year-old for a couple hours in front of a crowd. They can stick it right back to them in the form of questionable calls.


I'll give you an example:

On the women's side, Cal's Strom and Edinboro's Wheeler are two of the best I've ever seen at working officials. They can butter them up by being charming. Then they can turn psycho on them. Then they turn back. I think officials are terrified of both. IUP's Carey is one of the worst. We'd be kidding ourselves if we didn't think that came in to play on close calls. It's human nature. Carey gets completely ignored and blown off. They listen to Wheeler and Strom like trained dogs.

At the men's game like last night ... you had Sancomb looking like he's one step away from going to an insane asylum on one end of the court. Lombardi was in vintage form last night. Those refs couldn't wait to get the hell out of there.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Edinboro ladies up 11 on Cal at the half inside Angelo's Dome

[bballfan03]

Oh I think sometimes it is personal. In fact, a lot of times. We don't have enough officials. The same officials get assigned to the same teams far too often. There are coaches who hate certain officials and there are officials who hate certain coaches. That's life.

Don't think for a second an official doesn't remember Joe Lombardi or Danny Sancomb (or, whomever) screaming at him like he's a 5-year-old for a couple hours in front of a crowd. They can stick it right back to them in the form of questionable calls.


I'll give you an example:

On the women's side, Cal's Strom and Edinboro's Wheeler are two of the best I've ever seen at working officials. They can butter them up by being charming. Then they can turn psycho on them. Then they turn back. I think officials are terrified of both. IUP's Carey is one of the worst. We'd be kidding ourselves if we didn't think that came in to play on close calls. It's human nature. Carey gets completely ignored and blown off. They listen to Wheeler and Strom like trained dogs.

At the men's game like last night ... you had Sancomb looking like he's one step away from going to an insane asylum on one end of the court. Lombardi was in vintage form last night. Those refs couldn't wait to get the hell out of there.

Some could be, but overall these refs have been consistently horrific.

[Fightingscot82]

Some could be, but overall these refs have been consistently horrific.

Cal wasn't called for a single defensive foul on an Edinboro shot in the first half. Zero free throws by Edinboro.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Cal wasn't called for a single defensive foul on an Edinboro shot in the first half. Zero free throws by Edinboro.

Just saw the score. WTF happened to Boro today?

[Fightingscot82]

Just saw the score. WTF happened to Boro today?

Evran went down in the first half and I don't think he returned. Cal got really hot. Any other game it would have been more enjoyable to watch.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Evran went down in the first half and I don't think he returned. Cal got really hot. Any other game it would have been more enjoyable to watch.

Hope he's OK. He went down pretty hard. I couldn't really see what it was on the playback but he was grasping his left knee.

Goes without saying they'd be way, way different without him. Hopefully he just landed bad and it's nothing serious.

[Ship69]

Cal wasn't called for a single defensive foul on an Edinboro shot in the first half. Zero free throws by Edinboro.

Ship had four FTs the entire game today. I think Mansfield was called for a total of seven fouls. You sure can't accuse the Raider of getting much home cooking this season.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

This tournament is a total crapshoot on both sides.

The West has a gauntlet on the women's side, and probably has (4) NCAA teams. The West side of the women's bracket is like a half Regional (prior to the Regional).

On the men's side, Gannon is probably the best team. However, winning at West Chester is difficult.

ESU lost again yesterday. Edinboro is going to be way, way different if their star post player is out. Slippery Rock is red hot the past couple weeks.

Gamblers beware. If you pick these brackets correctly, fly out to Sin City.

[bballfan03]

This tournament is a total crapshoot on both sides.

The West has a gauntlet on the women's side, and probably has (4) NCAA teams. The West side of the women's bracket is like a half Regional (prior to the Regional).

On the men's side, Gannon is probably the best team. However, winning at West Chester is difficult.

ESU lost again yesterday. Edinboro is going to be way, way different if their star post player is out. Slippery Rock is red hot the past couple weeks.

Gamblers beware. If you pick these brackets correctly, fly out to Sin City.

At this point in time, I'd have to go with Cal or West Chester.

[WarriorVoice]

This tournament is a total crapshoot on both sides.

The West has a gauntlet on the women's side, and probably has (4) NCAA teams. The West side of the women's bracket is like a half Regional (prior to the Regional).

On the men's side, Gannon is probably the best team. However, winning at West Chester is difficult.

ESU lost again yesterday. Edinboro is going to be way, way different if their star post player is out. Slippery Rock is red hot the past couple weeks.

Gamblers beware. If you pick these brackets correctly, fly out to Sin City.

Not surprised at ESU losing yesterday. Lock Haven has now won 4 in a row over ESU. Lock Haven defends very well, and that's given ESU problems in the past. Lock Haven's problem is they don't match up greatly with the other teams in the league for some reason. Lock Haven's the only team I wouldn't want to play in the postseason. I think ESU can handle any other team in the east.

[Ship69]

This tournament is a total crapshoot on both sides.

The West has a gauntlet on the women's side, and probably has (4) NCAA teams. The West side of the women's bracket is like a half Regional (prior to the Regional).

On the men's side, Gannon is probably the best team. However, winning at West Chester is difficult.

ESU lost again yesterday. Edinboro is going to be way, way different if their star post player is out. Slippery Rock is red hot the past couple weeks.

Gamblers beware. If you pick these brackets correctly, fly out to Sin City.

Matchups are more key than ever this season. Ship probably got the worst it could have gotten with Shepherd in the first game because with our current roster configuration, they are ridiculously bigger than the Raiders.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Round 1 / Men's

Shippensburg at Shepherd - The Rams swept the season series, winning by double digits both times. Most recently, Shepherd held the Raiders to just 46 points. Shippensburg has lost multiple players to injury. The Rams have a gigantic lineup and a massive size advantage in this pairing. Strange things happen in these tournaments, but a Raider upset tonight would be really strange. Shepherd -10.5

Seton Hill at Edinboro - Interesting match-up. The Griffins' zone has been problematic for the Scots, who rely heavily on the outside shot. Seton Hill won the first meeting by (16). Edinboro won the rematch by a point. The story entering Round 3, however, is if Edinboro star power forward Cenker Evran will play. Evran, who averaged 14.9 points and 12.6 rebounds per game this season, left Saturday's Cal game very early and never returned. Without knowing Evran's status, don't touch this game. NO LINE

IUP at Slippery Rock - On paper, The Rock's two wins against IUP this year were fairly modest - 75-64 and 78-71. However, final scores can be deceiving. Neither game was remotely close. The Crimson Hawks got some garbage points at the end of both to make things appear a little closer. SRU enters the tournament red hot - winners of 4 straight. However, they lost 4 straight prior to that. Slippery Rock can be very good in stretches (weeks at a time) ... and very bad in stretches (weeks at a time). IUP is out-manned in this game. SRU also seemingly has them figured out. Something has to change, schematically, for IUP to have a shot. This season, IUP has been horrendous away from home. Morrow will be a very lively venue tonight (to put it lightly). However, if you follow IUP's season-long pattern of good game, bad game, good game, etc., ... they just may play well tonight. SRU -9.5

Lock Haven at Millersville - The Bald Eagles won the first meeting in a nail-biter. The Marauders then got revenge, hammering Lock Haven by 20 points. LHU is fresh off a big win against East Stroudsburg, so it should be a confident bunch. Expect a fairly low-scoring street fight - with a slight edge going to the home team. The 'Ville -2.5