PSAC EAST

[Chuck Norris]

It's all archived. You can literally look it up...

Question was answered a couple days ago, thanks.

[Ship69]

That's an argument I won't leap into. It just leads to bitter feelnigs. All I know is that Roman played one of the most flawless games I've ever seen from a high school team on Tuesday night.

On another note, Ship signed a second Smith from Carlisle today -- Parker, who averaged 24.6 a game in the rough-and-tumble Mid-Penn Commonwealth. I thought he might go this route. Between Ben Rill and Parker Smith, Chris Fite has already landed a recruiting bonanza for 2025-26.

Well, bitter feelings or no, it's an argument that needs to be had. Smith should be a nice pickup for Ship as he obviously brings in some experience with Jaydon Smith, the other Smith kid from Carlisle. With Michael Dickson returning next season, along with Jaydon and Timmy Connor, the guard rotation at Ship should be in good hands.

[Ship69]

Too early to know what kind of a team Ship will have next season, but they should be able to get up and down the court at a pretty good pace. Markus Frank is among the best open court players ever at Ship, and Jaydon Smith and Michael Dickson can cover some ground. Incoming guard Parker Smith ran in the 4-by-100 and 4-by-400 relay teams at Carlisle and recently took an individual seventh-place medal in 400 at the Pa. state championships. The main objective for the Raiders after the past two seasons will likely be tightening up the defense.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Too early to know what kind of a team Ship will have next season, but they should be able to get up and down the court at a pretty good pace. Markus Frank is among the best open court players ever at Ship, and Jaydon Smith and Michael Dickson can cover some ground. Incoming guard Parker Smith ran in the 4-by-100 and 4-by-400 relay teams at Carlisle and recently took an individual seventh-place medal in 400 at the Pa. state championships. The main objective for the Raiders after the past two seasons will likely be tightening up the defense.

Must admit it's pretty shocking Frank is still there. He'd have got snagged pretty quickly had he wanted to go low-D1.

[Ship69]

Must admit it's pretty shocking Frank is still there. He'd have got snagged pretty quickly had he wanted to go low-D1.

Chris Fite has established a good culture at Ship over the years and has usually managed to retain his best players. I think the only departure that really surprised him in recent years was Whippen, and obviously that kid apparently doesn't stay anywhere for long. Ben Rill, who is coming in this year along with Parker Smith, will be an interesting test. He's 6-8 and has some real athletic potential, having been one of the key players on a state championship team as a junior.

[jrshooter]

Must admit it's pretty shocking Frank is still there. He'd have got snagged pretty quickly had he wanted to go low-D1.

Mannnn, I will say that for somebody with his smooth handle going to the bucket, he sure disappears for lengths of time.

[Ship69]

Mannnn, I will say that for somebody with his smooth handle going to the bucket, he sure disappears for lengths of time.

Ship lacked depth last year with the injury situation. Several of the divisional teams jammed up the middle to negate Frank, and the Raiders' erratic three-point shooting last season usually wan't enough to loosen up those defenses. In the first Kutztown game, I noticed they were picking him up almost at soon as he got over halfcourt, often following that up with a double-team or even a triple-team. It was almost as if they were running a press against a single player. With Dickson out, Timmy Connor got a lot of time at point, which didn't do a lot for his offense. Frank at times seemed to be frustrated and at times attempted to drive through stacked defenses, resulting in multiple turnovers. No matter how good you are at going to the basket, attempting to dribble past three defenders to the hoop is questionable. Markus managed to make a few three-pointers at times, but obviously teams are going to respect his floor game more than his outside shot.

I'm hoping that the return of the injured guys plus the addition of a couple of promising newcomers will give Ship's opponents more to worry about this season. Jaydon Smith showed a lot of offensive potential as a freshman, and the addition of his former teammate Parker Smith should be a plus on offense. Ben Rill will provide some needed height and has the potential to be an effective college scorer. David Dorsey seemed to be getting it together a bit before his injury.

Markus Frank is a very good D2 player, but I believe he needs an effective supporting cast to open up the floor to his advantage. With the Smiths, Dickson, and Frank, Ship should have the potential to be a very effective open-court team. I certainly don't think they'll be afraid to run.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Ship lacked depth last year with the injury situation. Several of the divisional teams jammed up the middle to negate Frank, and the Raiders' erratic three-point shooting last season usually wan't enough to loosen up those defenses. In the first Kutztown game, I noticed they were picking him up almost at soon as he got over halfcourt, often following that up with a double-team or even a triple-team. It was almost as if they were running a press against a single player. With Dickson out, Timmy Connor got a lot of time at point, which didn't do a lot for his offense. Frank at times seemed to be frustrated and at times attempted to drive through stacked defenses, resulting in multiple turnovers. No matter how good you are at going to the basket, attempting to dribble past three defenders to the hoop is questionable. Markus managed to make a few three-pointers at times, but obviously teams are going to respect his floor game more than his outside shot.

I'm hoping that the return of the injured guys plus the addition of a couple of promising newcomers will give Ship's opponents more to worry about this season. Jaydon Smith showed a lot of offensive potential as a freshman, and the addition of his former teammate Parker Smith should be a plus on offense. Ben Rill will provide some needed height and has the potential to be an effective college scorer. David Dorsey seemed to be getting it together a bit before his injury.

Markus Frank is a very good D2 player, but I believe he needs an effective supporting cast to open up the floor to his advantage. With the Smiths, Dickson, and Frank, Ship should have the potential to be a very effective open-court team. I certainly don't think they'll be afraid to run.

Joe did that exact thing to Frank last year (after Frank lit them up the year before).

Two years ago, IUP let Frank get his 40 but suffocated everybody else. Last year, they clogged the lane and doinked the big guy into launching from outside (and he went like 0-11 in the game from deep).

I couldn't imagine if Frank had been at Ship a few years earlier. If he had been there in the Biss era with all those other strong guards ... good luck.

These past two years, though, he hasn't had much of a supporting cast so it's much easier to (try) and key on him / suffocate the lanes.

I don't know if you remember this far back but in the late 90s IUP had a D1 import named Rodney Horton. He and Frank are like clones. Horton had a better outside shot, but their ability to drive the rim is just elite.

[Ship69]

Joe did that exact thing to Frank last year (after Frank lit them up the year before).

Two years ago, IUP let Frank get his 40 but suffocated everybody else. Last year, they clogged the lane and doinked the big guy into launching from outside (and he went like 0-11 in the game from deep).

I couldn't imagine if Frank had been at Ship a few years earlier. If he had been there in the Biss era with all those other strong guards ... good luck.

These past two years, though, he hasn't had much of a supporting cast so it's much easier to (try) and key on him / suffocate the lanes.

I don't know if you remember this far back but in the late 90s IUP had a D1 import named Rodney Horton. He and Frank are like clones. Horton had a better outside shot, but their ability to drive the rim is just elite.

I've never seen anyone at Ship do some of the things Frank does in the open court but his shooting still needs work if he's to reach his full potential. When you get to the basket as much as he does, you need to shoot better than 62 percent at the FT line. It was a bad free-throw shooting year in general for Ship at 66 percent. Decent shooters such as Jaydon Smith, Trey Martin and Timmy Conner didn't even get to 70 percent. For Ship fans spoiled a few years back by a Dustin Sleva team that hit 80 percent as a team, it seems like a lot of misses. And the percentage was actually inflated a bit by the little-used pair of Jackson Boone and Drew Sleva, who combined to make 19 of 21 free throws. Our opponents shot 76 percent from the line. Turnovers and FT shooting lost a few games for the Raiders.

Markus's impatience at times also showed in his turnover ration, which was almost two TOs for each assist. He was one of only two players on the team to have more turnovers than assists. That needs to improve.

Provided they can avoid the injury bug, I think there's potential for a lot of improvement this year. It might take a while to gel. I think they'll score well. Tightening up the leaky defense of the past couple of seasons should be a priority.

[Ship69]

Ship has announced its basketball recruiting class and on paper it might be one of the strongest they've had in recent years. We already knew about Ben Rill and Parker Smith, but there also are a couple of intriguing additions in guards Sebastian Edwards and Emonte Hill Jr.

Edwards was a starting guard on a powerful Roman Catholic team that ripped Rill's defending state champion Central York team in the Class 6A playoffs this season. He's known as a strong defender and scored more than 500 points his senior season. The Cahillites eventually finished as state runner-up to another Philly Catholic League power, Father Judge. Edwards played against some of the strongest big-school basketball competition Pa. has to offer.

Hill is on the smallish side, but it the son of Frederick (Md.) coach Emonte Hill. He played with current Raider David Dorsey on Frederick's state championship squad of two years ago.

So three of this year's four recruits will have played on either a state champion or state runner-up team, and the fourth, Parker Smith, averaged 24.6 points per game in the top division of the Mid-Penn Conference.

At this point it's all just potential, but this looks like a good group.

[Ship69]

Interesting scrimmage coming up Sunday for Shippensburg — Penn State.

[Ship69]

Ship apparently got a case of big-stage nerves early in a scrimmage against Penn State and missed their first 11 shots on the way to getting blitzed 48-19 in the first half. But the Raiders turned the tables somewhat in the second half, making 5 of their first 6 shots and tossing in 8 three-pointers while putting up 48 second-half points on the Nittany Lions. Jaydon Smith had 17, and Markus Frank added 15 for the Raiders while point guard Michael Dickson, returning from an injury-plagued season last year, put in 14. Freshman Parker Smith tallied seven points and had an assist and a steal in just 7:20 of playing time.