All that is good with Metro-Atlantic Athletic Conference men’s basketball.
Glover and Heath nab weekly honors
Player of the Week
Mike Glover, Iona, Sr., F, 6-7, 215, Bronx, N.Y./Coll. of Eastern Utah/American Christian Acad. (Pa.)
Glover averaged 20.0 points and 7.5 rebounds in two Iona wins on the road at Richmond and Vermont. He shot an impressive 81.8% from the field (18-for-22) in the two contests. Glover tallied 24 points and eight boards in 29 minutes while shooting 11-for-13 vs. the Spiders on Wednesday before scoring 12 of his team best 16 points vs. the Catamounts on Saturday. He ranks second in the nation with 87 field goals made this season and fifth with his 68.0% field goal percentage.
Heath named to Jesuit Honor Roll
Canisius College freshman Josiah Heath was named to the Jesuit Basketball Spotlight Honor Roll for the week of Dec. 19, after he averaged a double-double last week in two road games, the Jesuit Basketball Spotlight program announced today. Heath is the second Golden Griffin to receive Jesuit Basketball Spotlight Honor Roll accolades this season, as teammate Harold Washington has already been honored two times this year.
Heath averaged 11 points, 16.5 rebounds and three blocks per game last week as the Griffs went 1-1 in non-conference action at UMKC and South Dakota. In the team’s loss to UMKC Dec. 16, the 6-foot-9, 230-pound forward recorded his first career double-double with 14 points while setting the program’s modern-era freshman rebounding record with 18 boards to go with three blocked shots. He followed that outing by posting eight points, a game-high 15 rebounds and three blocks as the Blue and Gold defeated South Dakota 90-80 in overtime Dec. 18. For the week, he shot 50 percent (6-for-12) from the floor and he also went a perfect 10-for-10 from the free-throw line. Heath was also recognized as the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference’s Rookie of the Week for his efforts against UMKC and South Dakota.
Glover named USBWA National Player of the Week
ST. LOUIS (USBWA) – The U.S. Basketball Writers Association has selected Iona forward Mike Glover as its Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week for games ending the week of Sunday, Dec. 18. The USBWA’s weekly honor is presented by Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook and will be handed out each Tuesday through Feb. 21 this season.
Machado named to Bob Cousy list
Springfield, Mass. – The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts announced today the candidates for the 2012 Bob Cousy Collegiate Point Guard of the Year Award. The annual honor, named for Hall of Famer and former Boston Celtic Bob Cousy, recognizes the top point guards in college basketball. Almost 60 candidates have been nominated for the 2012 Bob Cousy Award.
Iona’s non-conference opponents are helping the Gaels
There are two blemishes on Iona’s record right now. The first was in the Gaels’ opening game of the season on a last-second shot by the brilliant Robbie Hummel, which gave Purdue a 91-90 win. The second though was a little more worrisome. Iona fell 82-63 to Marshall in Huntington, W.V. after getting pounded on the boards. At the time that loss looked like it might seriously hinder any chance the Gaels had at an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, but as the season gone on it has begun to look better and better.
Juan’ya Green filling it up for Niagara
Two years ago, if someone had said Juan’ya Green would be averaging nearly 20 points per game for Niagara as a freshman, it would have sounded pretty surprising.
Not that he was averaging 20 a night, but the university.
During Green’s junior year of high school at Archbishop Carroll (Pa.), he had offers from Temple, Maryland, Villanova and others, with interest coming from plenty more ACC, Big East and Big Ten programs.
Then Green got injured and schools slowly began backing off.
“It was kind of frustrating,” Green said by phone. “After I got hurt, I tried to work my way back up.”
Niagara continued to go after the prolific Philadelphia guard, and it paid off in a major way. Green chose the Purple Eagles over Temple and VCU.
Green and fellow Philadelphia product Ameen Tanksley wanted to play together, which was perfect for Niagara.
“I just went with what my gut was telling me,” he said.
2 key components of Loyola (MD)’s offense
Loyola (MD) has a near perfect allocation of possessions, as their most efficient player (who plays at least 60% of minutes), Cormier, uses the most possessions. Cormier takes 25.7% of shots and has the highest offensive rating on the team at 118.5, which is first in the conference for players using at least 24% of possessions.
Cormier averages 17.9 points per game, while posting a 57.7% effective field goal percentage, sixth in the conference. He gets a majority of his points by penetrating to the rim and finishing in traffic. The defense is surrounding him in the following frames as Cormier drives to the rim, yet he is able to finish the close range shot with several opponents surrounding him.
Add Patsos to the growing list of Nicholson admirers
Wide-eyed, Patsos turned to his staff seated on the bench, shook his head and muttered into his hand.
“We all know he’s going to get drafted,” Patsos said of Nicholson. “He’s going to be a solid N.B.A. guy that plays for like ten years.”
Nicholson picked up his second foul less than six minutes later, but the setback didn’t stop the National Player-of-the-Year candidate from putting his imprint on the contest. The senior forward finished with 18 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field. Nicholson connected eight times in nine attempts from the free throw line including three in the game’s final minute as St. Bonaventure sealed a 76-66 victory.
MAAC Council of Presidents approve 5-year plan
Edison, NJ – The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference’s (MAAC) Council of Presidents met in New York City for their biannual meeting last week and approved the league’s new 5-Year Strategic Plan effective from 2012 through 2017.
“It has been a productive two-year process in which we examined a wide array of issues, including membership, basketball scheduling, and the future of lacrosse in the MAAC,” said Mark Reed, Vice President for Administration & Chief of Staff at Fairfield University and chair of the conference’s Strategic Planning Committee. “It is rewarding to see the new strategic plan passed by the MAAC Council of Presidents.”
The new plan institutes a scheduling policy for men’s and women’s basketball effective for the 2012-13 academic year. The policy states that MAAC schools cannot schedule non-conference opponents who are ranked in the bottom 50 on the 2-year RPI report. Exceptions may be made when scheduling a traditional opponent. This policy will be evaluated on a yearly basis and reflects an effort to increase the member schools’ strength of scheduling which is a key factor in post-season selection and seeding by the NCAA and NIT/WNIT committees.
In building success, Loyola’s Jimmy Patsos stays close to home
Jimmy Patsos was in his first season at Loyola when Pat Kennedy, then entering his second year at Towson and coming off a 5-24 season, proclaimed the Tigers to be Baltimore’s college basketball team. Other local coaches might have chuckled at Kennedy’s remark, but Patsos, raised near the chips on the shoulders of Gary Williams, took it as a personal challenge.
“The last I looked,” Patsos said at the time, “we’re in Baltimore.”
But deep down, Patsos knew that Loyola could have been on Mars when it came to Baltimore players. The administration at the Jesuit school wasn’t recruiting many students — let alone athletes who weren’t carrying lacrosse sticks — from Baltimore. The basketball players coming out of Baltimore had never made it that far north on Charles Street.
Loyola visits Kentucky for a “Dog Day Afternoon
Thursday brings Loyola University Maryland’s final game before the Christmas holiday. The Greyhounds travel to Lexington, Ky., to face the No. 3/3 University of Kentucky. Tip-off is slated for 1 p.m. in Rupp Arena. Kentucky’s No. 3 ranking matches the highest-ranked team the Greyhounds have ever faced. They took on then-No. 3 Kansas in Phog Allen Fieldhouse on January 8, 2008, a 90-60 Jayhawks’ victory.
Manhattan seizes fifth straight victory at Towson
TOWSON, Md. – Four Jaspers scored in double figures as the Manhattan men’s basketball team won its fifth straight game in an 81-62 triumph at Towson (0-11) on Tuesday. Junior guard George Beamon led Manhattan (8-4) with 21 points and senior guard Kidani Brutus added a season-high 18 points as the Jaspers ride the program’s longest win streak in nearly five years. With the win, Manhattan remains undefeated in the last three weeks and has averaged a 20.8 point margin of victory during the hot stretch.
Siena needs Poole to connect from deep
LOUDONVILLE – Siena freshman shooting guard Rob Poole said he’s tired from his first season of college basketball and from his first semester of college studies.
“I’m beat, you know what I mean?” Poole said before Tuesday’s practice.
With the fall semester behind him – Poole finished it with a final exam in economics on Monday – he’s looking forward to contributing more for the Saints, who could use greater production from him entering Thursday’s home game against Princeton.
Golden State waives Siena’s Ubiles, Mitchell
Former Siena players Edwin Ubiles and Tommy Mitchell were both waived by the NBA’s Golden State Warriors this morning.
The Warriors trimmed their roster to 14 players.
Neither Ubiles nor Mitchell played in Golden State’s final preseason game against the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday night.
Ubiles is headed back to the D-League with the Dakota Wizards.
Siena roster gets even thinner
LOUDONVILLE — Siena men’s basketball coach Mitch Buonaguro said he first had an inkling about a week ago that freshman guard DaVonte Beard was feeling homesick.
That, in itself, didn’t seem unusual since Beard was living about 500 miles from his hometown of Akron, Ohio for the first time in his life.
BALTIMORE, MD- It will go down in Rider annals as the fastest to 100. For Bronc head coach Tommy Dempsey, it must have seemed like an eternity.
Rider’s overtime victory over UMBC Saturday night was victory number 100 for Dempsey as the Rider head coach. The 100 wins in 176 games is the fastest any head coach has ever gotten to 100 victories at Rider.
The victory snaps Rider’s six-game losing streak. “I was starting to wonder if my career was going to end at 99,” Dempsey joked after the game.
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