PSAC EAST

[Scrub]

Corrected. Unintentional.

I do have sympathy for Ship. They have a nice following. Things are getting rough there.

I know it was an unintentional slip. I was just making a (hopefully well enough received & "winky") joke toward our Ship friends who are well aware that they're in the midst of a difficult rebuilt.

But as long as Fite sticks around (and I know that, too, has been talked about in light of Joe's twilight at IUP and all), the Ship faithful have to know they're in good hands and that the sun will rise again soon.

[TheMadLibs]

It's crazy to see both Ships men's and women's teams as they are this year... So mediocre. Similar to Bloom and Kutztown for both MBB and WBB. To me the circled crossover was when Gannon and Bloom matched up. It was always a fun, fierce doubleheader.

East in general is just so sad at this point. I dipped out of closely tracking much of MBB around 2015 until last year lol. Seeing the state of MBB in the East is a bummer, when Kutztown, Bloom, and Ship are what they are. I do love the resurgence of Millersville, though!

[WarriorVoice]

The top 3 Men's teams in the East all win. Milliersville visits ESU Saturday. That should shake things up a bit. The Warriors were sloppy at times last night, and need to protect the ball.

[TheMadLibs]

Damn, this is wild buzzer beater from Ship last night

https://twitter.com/PSACsports/statu...SzVvMj9Iw&s=19

[jrshooter]

Damn, this is wild buzzer beater from Ship last night

https://twitter.com/PSACsports/statu...SzVvMj9Iw&s=19

Now that Donovan Hill has mastered shooting from 80 feet, Chris will begin working with him closer to the bucket. He enters the weekend shooting 26 percent from the floor, 21 percent from outside the arc (19 percent if you discount the full-court shot).

[Ship76]

Now that Donovan Hill has mastered shooting from 80 feet, Chris will begin working with him closer to the bucket. He enters the weekend shooting 26 percent from the floor, 21 percent from outside the arc (19 percent if you discount the full-court shot).

An ex all star player was told Hill was going to save season and lead giant turnaround .
The existing squad has internal problem's with this mindset & it shows in foul line huddles , timeouts and general togetherness . Next win might be Cheney game and losing is difficult to turnaround at any level

[IUPbigINDIANS]

An ex all star player was told Hill was going to save season and lead giant turnaround .
The existing squad has internal problem's with this mindset & it shows in foul line huddles , timeouts and general togetherness . Next win might be Cheney game and losing is difficult to turnaround at any level

Oddly, (statistically) the team has got worse since the mid-year joined. I don't know a thing about the guy and I'm sure he's a good kid ... Just seems like the chemistry got out of whack a bit.

[jrshooter]

Well, Hill just limped off with a twisted ankle. But to that point, he had seven defensive rebounds and two blocks in 8 minutes. He CAN be a PSAC rarity -- a dominant big man. He just hasn't been able to get anything to drop.

[jrshooter]

Lock Haven 72, Shippensburg 71. Ship remains 0-for-2024. Down 11 with 2:45 left, it comes down to Donovan Hill being unable to hit two 80-footers in four days.

• It's really not as if they don't put D-II talent out there. Ship is just very streaky. They can hit 7-for-10 from the floor, then turn around and go 1-for-12. Hill and Kyle Whippen had 30 rebounds between them, and Timmy Conner has suddenly become offensively aggressive with good results.
• Markus Frank may have hit a wall for this season. Foul trouble or not, he should not be as absent as he was here. Ty Crespo, Trey Martin both producing less-than-expected results. They have the talent; it's just not showing. I have no idea if it's an internal problem, or if Ty Holsopple is handing out random hotfoots on the bench..
• Lock Haven's Justice Shoats (24 points) can play for anybody in this conference. Great penetrator. And Dyson Harward is one hell of a driveway shooter.

[WarriorVoice]

ESU had 5 double-digit scorers in a game that felt much closer than the 98-77 score would indicate. A second half run by Millersville never materialized, and the Warriors pulled away from the Marauders. ESU held Drew Stover without a point and the big man fouled out after playing only 20 minutes. Lakeem McAliley went 8-12 from the floor and 7-7 from the FT line to lead ESU with 25 points. Freshman F Carson Howard had his 2nd double-double in the last week, and Justin Paz had 9 dimes to put him in the top 10 career assist leaders list. Kutztown comes in Monday night off of a Bye. It's the toughest stretch of the season for the Warriors, who will play 5 games in 11 days. The East may be down in some folks' eyes, but there was a 3-way tie for 1st place with each team only yielding 2 losses coming into today. That's quality basketball. Can't wait for Monday!

[Ship69]

Lock Haven 72, Shippensburg 71. Ship remains 0-for-2024. Down 11 with 2:45 left, it comes down to Donovan Hill being unable to hit two 80-footers in four days.

• It's really not as if they don't put D-II talent out there. Ship is just very streaky. They can hit 7-for-10 from the floor, then turn around and go 1-for-12. Hill and Kyle Whippen had 30 rebounds between them, and Timmy Conner has suddenly become offensively aggressive with good results.
• Markus Frank may have hit a wall for this season. Foul trouble or not, he should not be as absent as he was here. Ty Crespo, Trey Martin both producing less-than-expected results. They have the talent; it's just not showing. I have no idea if it's an internal problem, or if Ty Holsopple is handing out random hotfoots on the bench..
• Lock Haven's Justice Shoats (24 points) can play for anybody in this conference. Great penetrator. And Dyson Harward is one hell of a driveway shooter.

You described the season in a nutshell. I don't think I've ever seen a team with as many guys who can score double digits one game and be competely absent the next. Frank, Whiippen, Conner, Dunn, Martin, Crespo, and Connor have all had good scoring nights at one time or another. They just never do it at the same time. They were not a good team before the break, but they were a fairly competitive one. The wheels seem to have come off, and they'll have to try to search for some solutions during the rest of this season, which for all intents and purposes is now a lost one. To me, the biggest problems have been on defense where at times they get caught in some real physical mismatches. The Millersville game to me was a classic case of bigger guards dominating smaller guards. Judging by the redshirts and recruiting to date, Ship should get taller next year.

[Ship69]

I know it was an unintentional slip. I was just making a (hopefully well enough received & "winky") joke toward our Ship friends who are well aware that they're in the midst of a difficult rebuilt.

But as long as Fite sticks around (and I know that, too, has been talked about in light of Joe's twilight at IUP and all), the Ship faithful have to know they're in good hands and that the sun will rise again soon.

With the recent run of success at Ship, it's easy to forget that Fite arrived at Shippensburg to a bare cupboard and had losing seasons his first two years at Ship (including 3-23 in his opening season). He got caught with an unbalanced roster this season that in some ways was probably a testament to the player culture he's developed at Ship. His star players tend to stay around, and losing the core four of last year's team at once has proven too hard to overcome. Everybody at Ship was expecting to take a hit this year, but it's safe to say that how far down it's gone has been something of a surprise to both fans and coaches.

[Ship69]

It's crazy to see both Ships men's and women's teams as they are this year... So mediocre. Similar to Bloom and Kutztown for both MBB and WBB. To me the circled crossover was when Gannon and Bloom matched up. It was always a fun, fierce doubleheader.

East in general is just so sad at this point. I dipped out of closely tracking much of MBB around 2015 until last year lol. Seeing the state of MBB in the East is a bummer, when Kutztown, Bloom, and Ship are what they are. I do love the resurgence of Millersville, though!

Millersville actually has "resurged" for several years now. They nearly won the East last year and had a good season the year before with Casey Stitzel named East Coach of the Year. I'm not a fan of Stitzel and his sideline antics, but he gets some good players in there and they've been a tough out for a while.

[WarriorVoice]

ESU stifled Kutztown in the 2nd half tonight, on the way to a 103-74 win. The Golden Bears had a 6 point lead early on, but trailed by 6 at the half. During the break, I had the chance to ask Coach Driscoll about his roster and their youth movement. He told me he was tired of playing in the transfer portal and wanted to commit to building the program over from scratch. Jalen Bryant is his best player, and with his 20 points a night, they can be very dangerous. Guys like JuJu Pagan and Jaiden McGhee are a great backcourt to build upon, and Bernie has some young bigs too. He'll have them playing much better if he can keep the transfer portal from picking players away from Kutztown...

[IUPbigINDIANS]

ESU stifled Kutztown in the 2nd half tonight, on the way to a 103-74 win. The Golden Bears had a 6 point lead early on, but trailed by 6 at the half. During the break, I had the chance to ask Coach Driscoll about his roster and their youth movement. He told me he was tired of playing in the transfer portal and wanted to commit to building the program over from scratch. Jalen Bryant is his best player, and with his 20 points a night, they can be very dangerous. Guys like JuJu Pagan and Jaiden McGhee are a great backcourt to build upon, and Bernie has some young bigs too. He'll have them playing much better if he can keep the transfer portal from picking players away from Kutztown...

That's interesting. The challenge will obviously be getting them to take the lumps and stay put.

UPJ has done it that way for years. They build up to a big team and then start the process over. They got burnt last year when Fred Mulbah left late and transferred. They still made the NCAAs but weren't nearly the same without him.

Bernie obviously has the job security to do it. We'll see if it works.

Looking beyond the wins and losses you can see they are getting better as the season goes.