PSAC WEST

Re: PSAC WEST

Pretty good analysis. Preseason I had IUP, the rock, cal then Gannon for the top four. Edinboro is definitely the surprise this year. I agreed IUP still needs an additional scorer to compliment the team. A good scorer of the bench with some versatility. Not likely though at this point.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: PSAC WEST

A year ago, my West 'pre-conference play' rankings came in almost perfect. I'll see if I can do it again this year. And, this is not an easy year to predict.


1. IUP - Despite a sometimes-rocky 8-4 start, the quality of the losses has to be taken in to account. Two of them were winnable in the final 30 seconds. Joe's teams always seem to click around the Christmas break and I think that finally happened in the Fairmont win. It also appears several of the injury issues are improving. IUP likely won't go 16-0 in the West again this season, but until they are knocked off, they'll remain the favorite. Roster-wise, players 1-8 are the most talented in the West overall. Battle-tested, good (athletic) size, multiple shooters, strong coaching and an experienced roster combine to make the Crimson Hawks the favorite. A possible roster addition could make this team all the more dangerous (and deeper).

2. Edinboro - Guards win games in D2. Boro has three studs (and No. 4 - Mike Beck - is also very good). The lack of a post game will hurt them -- especially the nights when the guards are off. IUP will be a very difficult match-up for them with having to deal with the Crimson Hawks' size under the basket. Slippery Rock's muscle will cause some issues.

3. Gannon - Not the attractive pick. The Knights are boring to watch. But, while Cal and Slippery Rock may be more talented, GU is better coached and exceptionally well-disciplined. Gannon is very annoying for teams to play against and will lull many West teams to sleep. It takes a very disciplined team to beat Gannon.

4. California - Cal is scoring in bunches (88.3 ppg). Cal is also letting opponents score in bunches (90.1 ppg). It's an MEC coach in the PSAC West playing an MEC style. Cal is much better but very thin on the bench. In the call-every-foul PSAC West, that's going to be its biggest issue. The Vulcans have played a tough schedule but are entering West play having lost 3 of the last 4 outings. Defense wins the West. That's the glaring weakness in the Mon Valley right now.

5. Slippery Rock - This is the tough team to grade at this point. Sure, The Rock is 9-2. But, the schedule has been anything but impressive (awful, actually). The best win so far is against Bloomsburg (5-4). There are many statistical improvements for SRU. The Rock is shooting 48 percent from the field, 38 percent from deep and, as usual, is crushing opponents on the glass (+12.6 margin). One traditional stat also looms: 64 percent from the free throw line. SRU is scoring 85.0 ppg -- although that figure is highly 'run up' by games against D3 opponents Carlow (96 points) and Ohio University-Eastern (143 points). Kevin Reynolds' teams are always very difficult the second time through the West schedule. This could be a team in the thick of things in February. Tough call. The schedule is about to get a whole lot more difficult.

6. Pitt-Johnstown - UPJ has certainly had some upper-echelon West teams' numbers the past few years. They make few mistakes, shoot well and play strong defensively. They always tend to be just a player or two short of making some serious noise. That's likely the case again this season. They will win some big games in January and February -- but will lose some head-scratchers. The lack of size will be a problem. The West has some gigantic teams this year.

7. Mercyhurst - Coming off last year's 14-14 finish ... most thought it was just an anomaly. Maybe. Maybe not. The signature defense is still there (giving up a PSAC-low 62 ppg). But the strong offense of years past hasn't shown up yet (just 68 ppg) -- in three of its losses, Mercyhurst scored 62, 55 and 50 points. The Lakers have lost 3 of 4 entering West play. Unfortunately, while the others open with division opponents, Mercyhurst gets a visit from Dustin Sleva and Shippensburg. A grueling three-game stretch opens the second-half -- Ship, and then trips to Slippery Rock and IUP.

8. Seton Hill - Something's off in Greensburg. There's some talent on this roster. Not enough. But enough to not be 4-6 at this point. The starting five is pretty solid. The bench, however, is pretty thin. The Griffins showed some glimpes -- playing West Chester in to the final minutes. My hunch is they slowly keep improving and will get a big win or two -- but not much else.

9. Clarion - The good news: Clarion is 2-0 versus Penn State branch campuses. The bad news: The Golden Eagles are 1-8 against everybody else. This is a total rebuild year for Clarion. The upside is it brought in a pretty solid freshmen class. The question will be if they can keep them around for a couple years.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: PSAC WEST

Here are the updated (men's) West standings heading in to the holiday break:


Edinboro (4-1, 7-2)

IUP (4-1, 8-4)

SRU (3-2, 9-2)

UPJ (3-2, 5-4)

Mercyhurst (2-3, 5-4)

California (2-3, 6-5)

Gannon (2-3, 6-5)

Seton Hill (1-4, 4-6)

Clarion (0-5, 3-8)

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: PSAC WEST

Gannon 88
Notre Dame 63


Reilly putting 88 up? Wow.


Slippery Rock put up 145 on Ohio U-Eastern. Maybe play Indiana High School next week?

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: PSAC WEST

Liggins is a total monster. If you catch Boro on a night when all three of those guards are on .... lights out. That's what happened to Shippensburg.

The West is going to be a war this year. There's not a clear-cut favorite. My guess is they beat the heck out of each other.

Re: PSAC WEST

Looks like liggins from edinboro is one hell of a player. 38 points and third 30 point game of the year. Edinboro is definitely the biggest surprise so far in the psac.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: PSAC WEST

Thought I'd catch a few minutes of the Edinboro vs. Charleston game on the computer ... Edinboro is the clear winner of worst live feed in D2 basketball history.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: PSAC WEST

I'm real interested to see how Cal plays at Fairmont State today. I can guarantee IUP will be watching this one very closely this afternoon.

Re: PSAC WEST

The psac west is not as strong as last year. Mercyhurst lost almost everyone and cal lost miki glen and Sierra Barrett is still out with an injury. Gannon lost their only post player and are struggling to hit the 50 point mark. Gannon stats are basically the same as last year with the exception of small improvements in turnovers and a little weaker in rebounding. Last year east went 13-41 against the west and are 13-32 so far with 9 to play. PSAC west and Gannon are not statistically better this year.

[Golden89]

Re: PSAC WEST

What are you talking about? Gannon is 5-5 just like clarion. Do you even watch them? Two wins against the bottom east teams ( Cheney and shippensburg) one against a bottom CIAA team and a win against a 2-7 daemen team. One win out of six against quality opponents. That program has been a train wreck for years. Most likely 0-6 against the top three and splitting the rest would have them ended at 11-17. Not really the train wreck of 9-19 a year ago.

Yes ... I've missed only one home game. The GU women won't be competing for the conference championship and isn't even a shoo-in for the top six to get into the playoffs (and it's a huge decline from the early 2010's). It's not saying much, but Gannon is better, like most teams in the PSAC West.

My only point is that if a team like Gannon is the 7th or 8th best team in its division, then that's a pretty loaded division. The PSAC West is strong this year, even by its lofty standards. Any of the top 4-5 teams in the PSAC west would be favored in the PSAC east.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: PSAC WEST

Records prior to conference play can be very deceiving. The difference in non-conference scheduling philosophy is drastic among different programs.

It will all sort itself out soon enough.

Take the Slippery Rock men, for example. That 8-2 record looks great until you look a little closer at it. With yet another D3 game this weekend, it will soon be 9-2.

Of that, the teams SRU has defeated have a combined record of 17-57. SRU's two loses came against the only good teams they've played (Shippensburg and Kutztown).

Conversely, IUP has a lesser '7-4' record but its opponents have a 63-43 overall record. IUP's four losses have come against teams with a combined 38-3 record.

This Tuesday night, in this example, IUP is playing power Fairmont State. Slippery Rock is playing lowly Ohio University-Eastern.

Point of the story: Don't buy too much in to the records heading in to conference play. Some of them are very fake.

Re: PSAC WEST

This is crazy. A 3-2 record gets you in a three-way tie for SIXTH!! Boro, IUP, and Cal are back to their usual selves. SRU is no longer a pushover, Mercy is improving and Gannon isn't the train wreck they were last year. Not sure about SH or UPJ. There will be some great games coming up.

And poor Clarion might be in for a long season.

What are you talking about? Gannon is 5-5 just like clarion. Do you even watch them? Two wins against the bottom east teams ( Cheney and shippensburg) one against a bottom CIAA team and a win against a 2-7 daemen team. One win out of six against quality opponents. That program has been a train wreck for years. Most likely 0-6 against the top three and splitting the rest would have them ended at 11-17. Not really the train wreck of 9-19 a year ago.

[Golden89]

Re: PSAC WEST

Women's standings - 12/14/2017


boro 5-0, 8-0
iup 5-0, 9-0
cal 5-0, 8-1
upj 4-1, 7-3
sru 4-1, 5-4
sh 3-2, 5-3
gu 3-2, 5-5
mercy 3-2, 5-5
clar 1-4, 5-5


The West ladies had a really strong start. The worst team is at a .500 mark overall.

This is crazy. A 3-2 record gets you in a three-way tie for SIXTH!! Boro, IUP, and Cal are back to their usual selves. SRU is no longer a pushover, Mercy is improving and Gannon isn't the train wreck they were last year. Not sure about SH or UPJ. There will be some great games coming up.

And poor Clarion might be in for a long season.

[Golden89]

Re: PSAC WEST

I'm not saying that the Stroud win makes Gannon a great team. Certainly Stroud didn't play their best game of the season, and Gannon played one of its best games to date to beat them. I'm not a Gannon pom-pom waver by any stretch; I've been critical here and on the GU blog when the circumstances warrant. But I am going to point out facts ... Holding a team to 40 points below its scoring average isn't just a fluke bad game by Stroud; the GU defense deserves considerable credit as well. One question ... If Gannon played at Stroud 10 times, how many times would Stroudsburg break 100? I say none. Stroud plays at home against St. Rose and vs Mansfield later this month. Will ESU score in the 60's in either game?

I'm just relieved that GU got the win. An 0-4 road stretch is devastating. A 1-3 stretch isn't the best, but it's not a killer. Not much margin for error the rest of the way.

Edit: Just looked at the national stats. Gannon is ranked THIRD out of 301 Division II teams in opponents three-point percentage. Every opponent must have their top three-point shooter injured or in foul trouble -- what luck! Or they must be just might pretty decent at defending the shot behind the arc.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: PSAC WEST

Women's standings - 12/14/2017


boro 5-0, 8-0
iup 5-0, 9-0
cal 5-0, 8-1
upj 4-1, 7-3
sru 4-1, 5-4
sh 3-2, 5-3
gu 3-2, 5-5
mercy 3-2, 5-5
clar 1-4, 5-5


The West ladies had a really strong start. The worst team is at a .500 mark overall.