PSAC WEST

[Inkblot]

[deleted message]

[IUPbigINDIANS]

It's going to be a wild finish for most. With three games to go just three Men's West teams have clinched a PSAC Tournament birth.

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TEAM	PSAC	OVERALL	STREAK
Gannon *	16-1	23-2	W10
California *	15-2	18-6	W3
IUP *	14-3	19-4	W6
Slippery Rock	8-9	15-10	L2
Edinboro	8-9	12-12	L1
Seton Hill	7-10	13-12	L7
Clarion	7-10	12-13	W1
Pitt-Johnstown	5-12	11-14	L5

Remaining schedules for those battling for the final spots:

SRU - Seton Hill, Edinboro, at California

Edinboro - California, at SRU, at Seton Hill

Seton Hill - at SRU, UPJ, Edinboro

Clarion - at IUP, Gannon, at UPJ

UPJ - at Gannon, at Seton Hill, Clarion



You can argue Seton Hill (finally mostly healthy) has the easiest path. Clarion has the most difficult. UPJ cannot lose again.

[Fightingscot82]

Edinboro's shooting was ice cold last night. The only thing that kept them in the game was Clarion being so bad.

[Ship69]

After the Top 3, the West is a complete mess of a race.

Fittingly, after blowing out Clarion on the road two weeks ago, Edinboro got blown out at home tonight by the Golden Eagles.

UPJ almost threw a big wrench into things but Cal escaped Johnstown, 84-80.

Gannon may still be scoring on SRU at 11:08 p.m.

IUP got a good fight from Seton Hill but controlled most of the game, eventually winning by 10.


The IUP ladies won by 16 against SH in the big women's game of the night. The game had a whopping 52 fouls called. Conveniently, by the way, 26 each. The game is 40 minutes.

I recently attended a high school girls junior varsity game because one of my great-granddaughters was playing in it. It was an unbelievable foul fest and at times painful to watch. One of the most unreal statistics emerging from the game is that my granddaughter's team made only 11 of 41 free throws — and won! The other team didn't shoot free throws much better. The jv games are only 28 minutes, and there must have been at least three dozen fouls or more.

At that level I think part of it is that the girls game tends to played lower to the ground than the boys. When one of the girls grabs rebound, they are closer to the ground and often bring the ball down as well, resulting in other girls swarming them and constant jump ball tie-ups and fouls. At many points it's something like a rugby scrum under the basket. Naturally that gets better as the firls get older and skill levels rise, but there does seem to be a lot of fouling in women's ball. Also, the quality of officiating seems to be lower than for men's games.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

After the Top 3, the West is a complete mess of a race.

Fittingly, after blowing out Clarion on the road two weeks ago, Edinboro got blown out at home tonight by the Golden Eagles.

UPJ almost threw a big wrench into things but Cal escaped Johnstown, 84-80.

Gannon may still be scoring on SRU at 11:08 p.m.

IUP got a good fight from Seton Hill but controlled most of the game, eventually winning by 10.


The IUP ladies won by 16 against SH in the big women's game of the night. The game had a whopping 52 fouls called. Conveniently, by the way, 26 each. The game is 40 minutes.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

That's a big one. Ian Grady can recruit as well as anyone in the West.

Naturally

Perfect landing spot

[IUPalum]

That's a big one. Ian Grady can recruit as well as anyone in the West.

He loves troubled mercenaries!

[Fightingscot82]

Verbal Commits has UPJ exodus Jay Rose committing to Slippery Rock. Interesting choice.

That's a big one. Ian Grady can recruit as well as anyone in the West.

[Scrub]

Verbal Commits has UPJ exodus Jay Rose committing to Slippery Rock. Interesting choice.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

It will be a challenging night for the gambling degenerates among us. Tough lineup. Tough spreads. The game of the night, however, falls on the women's side. Good luck.



Seton Hill at IUP - It would be easy to see the Griffins' current 6-game losing streak and assume this will be a cakewalk for Joe and his Redshirts. That's far, far from the case. Seton Hill is currently 13-11, and prior to losing its two stars for an extended period, the Griffins were rolling. They are back now, and Seton Hill just gave Gannon a pretty good fight. Also, keep in mind IUP struggled defensively against Seton Hill's JV team a couple weeks ago. IUP is sporadic (as in sporadic from one media timeout to the next). This is going to be a battle. IUP -3.5

California at Pitt-Johnstown - We've seen some big upsets happen in the Dirty J. Many teams have gone up there over confident -- and then watched the home team smash them with a barrage of three-pointers. Not likely to happen tonight, mind you, but, the Mountain Cats gave the Vulcans a run down inside Angelo's Dome a few weeks back. UPJ star Baden Forup smoked Cal in the Mon Valley. He's nearly untouchable in Johnstown. Not quite an UPSET ALERT, but this may be closer than most think. Vulcans -8.5

Clarion at Edinboro - In the first meeting, the Scots played arguably their best game of the season and smoked the Golden Eagles. Talent-wise, these teams are awfully close. Neither is deep. Both are up and down. The home team gets a gambling edge. But, we saw how that worked out the last time. Edinboro -2.5

Slippery Rock at Gannon - Round 1 was ugly. The encore will be, too. What remains of SRU's rotation is actually playing pretty well of late. However, it's too small of a rotation to keep up in this one. Expect a Thirty Burger tonight on Peach Street. Knights -23.5



BONUS

Seton Hill at IUP (Women's) - The Crimson Hawks won by 10 points in Greensburg -- and pulled away very late in the game. The Griffins are one of the few teams around who can somewhat match IUP's depth and size. Seton Hill also plays pretty well against Craig Carey's system. This will be another very tight one. IUP -2.5

[Ship69]

The women's side has an enormous talent gap this season between the West and East.

Lock Haven is the top team in the East -- all three of its conference losses came to the West (and they didn't have to play IUP). They are the only team from the East capable of making any noise in the tournament (they'd probably be in 5th place if they were in the West).

I'd say while the West has the clear top Men's team (Gannon), there are East teams certainly capable.

I really see the PSAC -- as a whole -- as Gannon and then everybody else. After Gannon, the next level down is all fairly even and could probably all beat each other on a given night.

There are a oouple of capable men's teams in the East, but I don't think any of them measure up to the top three in the West this season, and the overall won-loss record in the crossovers was a huge disparity in favor of the West this season. The East drops off a cliff after the first four teams this season. Ship was a poor road team this year, but very competitive at home (beating ESU and West Chester and losing by two to Millersville), but if Markus Frank doesn't return from his injury they likely are toast the rest of the season. With all the shuffling around, most teams aren't as deep as they used to be, and a key injury or two can really send things south in a hurry.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

It would appear to speak well for recruiting in the West (and perhaps booster backing) that such a disparity exists at the moment. There is certainly no other reason the top teams in the East shouldn't be up there with the West in both men's and women's ball. West Chester and East Stroud in particular are located in fertile recruiting areas. I expect it is a cycle that could shift someday, especially as changing demographics and prioities influence PSAC schools. Ship, which has had plenty of good women's teams in the past, has one of the least successful teams in its history this season. It's a combination of departures, with the resulting influx of first-year players, plus the fact that a couple of the team's best players, including the probably point guard, have sat out the entire season with injuries. Word is that some good players will be coming in next year. They are badly needed. Catholic schools, at least in my experience, have usually benefitted from strong CYO programs and often field first-division teams.

The women's side has an enormous talent gap this season between the West and East.

Lock Haven is the top team in the East -- all three of its conference losses came to the West (and they didn't have to play IUP). They are the only team from the East capable of making any noise in the tournament (they'd probably be in 5th place if they were in the West).

I'd say while the West has the clear top Men's team (Gannon), there are East teams certainly capable.

I really see the PSAC -- as a whole -- as Gannon and then everybody else. After Gannon, the next level down is all fairly even and could probably all beat each other on a given night.

[Ship69]

I assume the same thing is happening on the women's side?

If so, that's huge for the West teams. There's a massive power divide between the East and West this year on the women's side.

It would appear to speak well for recruiting in the West (and perhaps booster backing) that such a disparity exists at the moment. There is certainly no other reason the top teams in the East shouldn't be up there with the West in both men's and women's ball. West Chester and East Stroud in particular are located in fertile recruiting areas. I expect it is a cycle that could shift someday, especially as changing demographics and prioities influence PSAC schools. Ship, which has had plenty of good women's teams in the past, has one of the least successful teams in its history this season. It's a combination of departures, with the resulting influx of first-year players, plus the fact that a couple of the team's best players, including the probably point guard, have sat out the entire season with injuries. Word is that some good players will be coming in next year. They are badly needed. Catholic schools, at least in my experience, have usually benefitted from strong CYO programs and often field first-division teams.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

It's great for the West right now, but of course the balance could go the other way in the future. Right now, the East is saddled with a couple of programs that haven't been competitive. Mansfield and Bloom haven't been there for a while (and whether Mansfield can get there is questionable), Kutztown is down recently, and a Ship team that has competed well on a sporadic basis this season has now gone two games without its star player. And next year a Lock Haven team that has been decent at times will be replaced with an unknown quantity in Lackawanna. But this isn't like football where you need to bring in a boatload of studs to dominate. An addition of 2-3 quality players, especially with the portal as it is now, could turn things around in a hurry. Right now, the big question for PSAC teams seems to be whether any of them can slow the Gannon express.

I assume the same thing is happening on the women's side?

If so, that's huge for the West teams. There's a massive power divide between the East and West this year on the women's side.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Updated Men's Standings

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TEAM	PSAC	OVERALL	STREAK
Gannon	15-1	22-2	W9
California	14-2	17-6	W2
IUP	13-3	18-4	W5
Slippery Rock	8-8	15-9	L1
Edinboro	8-8	12-11	W1
Seton Hill	7-9	13-11	L6
Clarion	6-10	11-13	L2
Pitt-Johnstown	5-11	11-13	L4