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Welcome back to the Trentonian's Full-Court Press blog. Yes, we're still alive, and with the 2015-16 season rapidly approaching, it's time to fire up the old blog for another season. Check back here throughout the year for updates on all things Rider and Princeton, including coverage of both the MAAC and Ivy League. Feel free to drop me a line on twitter @kj_franko (https://twitter.com/kj_franko) or email kfranko@trentonian.com.

Monday, March 2, 2009

And the nominees are ...


Men's first team all-MAAC (nominees for Player of the Year):
Kenny Hasbrouck
Edwin Ubilies
Bilal Benn
Tyrone Lewis
Ryan Thompson

Men's second team:
Jamal Barney
Benson Egemonye
Ronald Moore
Alex Franklin
Ryan Schneider

Men's third team:
Frank Turner
Greg Nero
Wesley Jenkins
Daryl Crawford
Gary Springer

Men's all-Rookie (nominees for Rookie of the Year):
Scott Machado
Anthony Winbush
RJ Hall
Novar Gadson
Kyle Downey

Women's first team:
Marie Warner
Beandu Lowenthal
Tazina Cook
Rachele Fitz
Juliane Viani

Women's second team:
Heather Stec
Tania Kennedy
Kelly Regan
Tammy Meyers
Brittany Ruseell

Women's third team:
Liz Flooks
Erica Allenspach
Stephanie Geehan
Anda Ivkovic
Amanda Cavo
....

Ed Cooley said he's shocked Ryan Rossiter was left off any of the teams. "I love the kid," Cooley said. "I think he's a tremendous player and a great asset for the MAAC." ... Cooley also said he should no by the end of the day whether the Stags will get Greg Nero (injured back) back for the MAAC tournament.

Barry Rohrssen said there's a chance Devon Austin could return, and that "that's a medical decision" that will have to be made by Austin and the Jaspers training staff. "We'll take it day by day," he said.

Tommy Dempsey said he was surprised neither Mike Ringgold nor Harris Mansell made all-MAAC teams, and that if they're not good enough to be recognized, that must mean Ryan Thompson is really great to have carried the Broncs to a 12-6 record.

22 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I wonder who cooly left off the first team to add Rossiter

March 2, 2009 at 12:52 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dempsey with more complaints. Shocking. Obviously Rider player's stats are inflated - playing the #305 ranked out of conference schedule in the country is a disgrace. Play someone outside of the conference and maybe some of the other coaches will reward your players. Here are the MAAC's national ranking of out of conference schedules:

3 - Siena
20 - Fairfield
82 - Loyola
121 - Canisius
180 - Niagara
202 - Marist
215 - Iona
268 - Manhattan
305 - Rider
333 - St Peters


Dempsey lies about his career win-loss record and Rider perpetually has one of the worst out of conference schedules in the MAAC year in and year out.

It's obvious Dempsey is putting together weak schedules to pad his record.

March 2, 2009 at 1:40 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Enough about the guys record.

March 2, 2009 at 2:22 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

No. His record is wrong. If Dempsey won't take the 8-20 season in his frist year - tell Harnum to take it on his record. That's the thing....this 8-20 record from 2005-2006 isn't on any Rider coach's record. It ain't on Harnum's and it ain't on Dempsey's.

Tommy - come clean, fix your record and start scheduling like a D-I team.

March 2, 2009 at 2:32 PM 
Blogger TrenUWest said...

You could probably make the argument that Harris Mansell belongs on the third-team, but his injury caused him to be too inconsistent. Even in yesterday's game, he was on in the latter part of the first half, but he was ghost for most of the second half.

But to my main gripe, whether you play a stacked or soft schedule, players have to go out on the court and play.

Rider has no control over two of their non-conference games due to Bracketbusters. CSUN was a return game from last year's BB matchup, and the Matadors are definitely down this year. (Of course, if Matador players would stop stealing from Best Buy stores, or not get into car accidents, they probably would have been a better team this year. What...too soon?) The only time you want UMBC on your schedule is for lacrosse...

I don't mean to offend, but Rider/MAAC fans should not be complaining about weak OOC schedules. At its best, the MAAC is a mid-major. They have very little national exposure, and they don’t travel well. Mid-major teams, like A-10, WCC, MVC, C-USA, etc. can have a few games against BCS conferences on their schedule, but to load them entirely is impossible. There is too much down-side for power teams to schedule too many mid-majors (Okay, Syracuse likes to load their schedule with cupcakes). Only Memphis, Xavier and Gonzaga can pull it off consistently.

Inflated stats? What good will overloading your schedule do if you get blown out consistently? If it is all about stats, your better players can’t have good statistical seasons, when they are sitting on the bench in blow-out losses.

OOC SOS will always be low if you have the likes of Monmouth, Lafayette and NJIT on your schedule. Believe me...I know a lot about weak OOC SOS. My alma mater--GW--is notorious for playing weak schedules. I mean Sacramento St? Longwood? Even in the magical 27-3 season in 2005-06, they played Kennesaw, Norfolk, St Francis-PA, Boston U, FIU, Morgan St, UMES, Marshall and Stony Brook.

Siena has some good OOC games (albeit losses to Pitt, Tenn, Okla St and Kansas), but Holy Cross, Albany, Marist and Wichita State are not games you write home about.

Rider is still in a decent position right now. Can they do a better job scheduling? Perhaps, but not by much. Can coach Dempsey get away with a little less complaining? Perhaps, but do you want somebody that is a "it is what it is" coach? Probably not. (And before someone suggests it...I don’t drink kool-aid)

Cut Dempsey a little slack. Otherwise people may want to get him involved in unsubstantiated rumors...like maybe replacing Karl Hobbs at GW. (Oops...am I starting a rumor? lol)

March 2, 2009 at 3:05 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Can they do a better job scheduling? Perhaps, but not by much."


Freddie, are you serious? They have a 305 OOC RPI. That's deplorable - and two games due to BracketBusters doesn't have that big of an effect on an 10 or 12 game OOC schedule.

Here is Siena's OOC schedule - which they went 7-5 against. Team and RPI rank

Boise St. 97 82-52 W
Cornell 120 74-56 W
Tennessee 21 64-78 L
Wichita St. 161 70-72 L
Oklahoma St. 31 68-77 L
Albany 179 71-64 W
Pittsburgh 1 66-79 L
Buffalo 101 71-60 W
St. Joseph's 98 75-74 W
Holy Cross 172 83-71 W
Kansas 7 84-91 L
Northern Iowa 72 81-75 W

I don't see any blowouts in that list. It's a good, competitive schedule. Games against the heavy duty majors and games against teams that are generally in the 100 RPI, or below, range. Exactly the way you schedule to challenege your team and build a tournament resume.

Now, here is Rider's out of conference schedule:

St. Joseph's 98 57-69 L
Lehigh 245 69-68 W
Lafayette 311 84-77 W
CSU Northridge 163 85-72 W
Rutgers 188 62-66 L
Monmouth 320 66-54 W
La Salle 108 75-92 L
N.J.I.T. 343 70-49 W
Binghamton 90 58-69 L
Drexel 116 70-76 L
UMBC 191 71-65 W

That's a putrid schedule - the BracketBuster games actually help Rider's 305 OOC RPI.

The worst team Siena played was 179 Albany - which is their next door neighbor which they draw 14,000 when they play. Albany has been to the NCAA Tournament in 2 of the last 4 years. Holy Cross is the next worse at 172....and Holy Cross is usually a Top 100 RPI team. The you look at Rider playing Lafayette, Lehigh, Monmouth, NJIT....all teams that have perenially awful RPIs. And Rider even lost to NJIT a couple of years ago.

Rider's best out of conference win is against #163 Cal State Northridge - and that was at home against a team that had to fly across the country.

Say what you want, but Dempsey obviously pads the schedule -- because Rider's OOC is this bad every year. It never changes. And scheduling like this only hurts the MAAC - the MAAC is ranked #13 as a conference....if Rider scheduled like Canisius did (#120 OOC RPI) the MAAC would probably be 11th, which would mean a better seed for the NCAA Tournament representative.

It's all a sham coming out of Lawrenceville. If Rider wants respect, stop acting like you deserve it and go and actually earn it.

March 2, 2009 at 3:42 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Once again, another classless Siena fan. Sore winners. That's all they are. Never an ounce of class in Albany. You are the stereotypical Siena Saints Men's basketball fan.

March 2, 2009 at 4:34 PM 
Blogger JCarp said...

How can a person who goes by Anonymous complain about a missing year on Rider's ledger?
Maybe that year was Anonymous.

March 2, 2009 at 5:00 PM 
Blogger JCarp said...

And looking at Rider's schedule I see a Big East team, and two A-10 teams.
Monmouth is a long-time inter-state rival and NJIT was bringing back a former assistant coach.
UMBC actually went to the NCAAs last year (and they are not that good in lacrosse, anymore. Princeton will smash them this Saturday.
When was the last time Siena sent anyone to the NBA?
At least Niagara can still live off that midget Calvin Murphy.

March 2, 2009 at 5:03 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Murray St, North Carolina St, Penn State, Kansas State, Rutgers, Drexel and CS-Northridge. What are you talking about? That doesn't seem like a padded schedule.

March 2, 2009 at 5:04 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Rider had a young team this year and did schedule lighter this year, something all other schools do. Rider will play a tougher schedule next year. Rider did win 12 games in the MAAC so I fail to see what the sos beef is? Rider was 6-5 in the non MAAC game it is not like they went 9-2 and are claiming they are better then Siena. Some Siena posters need to get a life.

March 2, 2009 at 5:12 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

NOBODY CARES ABOUT HIS FREAKIN' RECORD.

if he gets another job, it will be because of last year, this year and next year.....not the interim year.

their SOS is dragged down by NJIT and Monmouth.

March 2, 2009 at 5:15 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

siena played 2 'guarantee' games (THAT THEY HAD NO SHOT TO WIN) to:

1. pay for their trip to italy last summer

2. to add to fran's wife's spending account since he gets a cut off the top from the guarantee games.

March 2, 2009 at 5:17 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Question: Do you know how Rider would have done against Pitt, Kansas, Oklahoma St, Tennessee and Witch St?
Answer: No worse than Siena

March 2, 2009 at 5:19 PM 
Blogger tmd39 said...

I would have to disagree with you; I'm sure Rider would have beaten Wichita St. See, Rider played in the Old Spice last season and went 1-2, with close losses to NC St. and Kansas St. and a win over Penn St; unlike Siena, who got bageled in Orlando this season.

March 2, 2009 at 5:33 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Rider's non conference strength of schedule is ALWAYS at the bottom of the MAAC. I believe they've had the worst, or 2nd to worst, non-conference strength of schedule in 10 of the 12 years they've been in the MAAC.

And if you don't think that effects the MAAC - it hurts the conference's RPI and, in turn, hurts the seed the NCAA Tournament rep gets.

March 2, 2009 at 6:31 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just some more ammo to prove what is going on. Here are the non-conference strength of schedule ranks for Rider under Dempsey and Rider's record for that year:

2008-2009: #305, 18-11
2007-2008: #269, 23-11
2006-2007: #235, 16-15
2005-2006: # 93, 8-20*

* This is the year Dempsey refuses to include in his career record, though he was the head coach. As you can see, there is a clear pattern - Dempsey and Rider got their heads handed to them when they actually scheduled well in the out of conference. Since that time, Rider has scheduled the Little Sisters of the Poor in the non-conference portion of their schedule which is clearly an indication of Dempsey and Rider sandbagging the schedule. It's a pattern - a clear pattern. So has Rider been a "young team" in each of the last 3 seasons? Since that is the reasoning some of you gave.

Siena, on the other hand, under McCaffery has a non-conference schedule rank and record of the following:

2008-2009: # 3, 23-7
2007-2008: # 44, 23-11
2006-2007: #280, 20-12**
2005-2006: # 75, 15-13***

**McCaffery has admitted to scheduling a weak non-conference schedule as this was the Ubiles, Moore and Franklin class - Siena was starting 3 freshman and a sophomore. The schedule was weak. However, Siena lost the MAAC title game to NU by a bucket or two.

***This was McCaffery's first year when Siena was picked to finish dead last in the MAAC, but finished 4th.

I'd be up in arms if I was a Rider fan. The reason your team didn't make the NIT last year was because of your strength of schedule, same thing this year. The weak strength of schedule kills your RPI, or at least any chance of having an RPI below 80, which is pretty much the cutoff for getting an NIT bid. And the weak schedule hurst the MAAC as a whole.

With their limited media coverage in NJ, everyone sees Rider winning 18, 19 or 23 games.....but what they don't realize is that Rider schedules like crap on purpose to inflate the wins. A win against Lafayette or Lehigh is worse for the RPI than a loss to a major conference school.

March 2, 2009 at 8:32 PM 
Blogger WhipS4 said...

Interesting stuff. So Rider's record improves each year, but they keep scheduling weaker and weaker. A lot of teams probably do that.

March 2, 2009 at 9:13 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Again - Kansas St, Penn St, NC St, Rutgers, Murray St, CS-North. I'm not sure about the RPI and don't really care. I'm not a robot. I know that before a season starts and I see this non-conference schedule for a MAAC team and not for one second would I think...I can't believe they are playing the Little Sisters of the Poor. I can not argue for one second that Siena was the team to beat going in and held serve. I wouldn't have been surprised if they swept through the league. But maybe, just maybe they felt a bit too high about themselves, scheduling Pitt and Kansas, after a tough Old Spice tournament schedule. RPI, SchmarPI they threw up an O-fer.

March 2, 2009 at 9:19 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It will be great to Siena loose on Saturday. How funny would that be for a team that has 4 lall league players. From what I heard from my buddy at the MAAC Ryan Thompson will win player of the year and deservingly so with Tyrone Lewis as the runner Up.

March 3, 2009 at 11:28 AM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

the siena fans must be dumb. PAY ATTENTION AND YOU WILL LEARN SOMETHING.

Rider's SOS is dragged down by playing NJIT, Monmouth, FDU (last year), Lafayette, Canisuis Those teams are in the 300's in RPI.

The rest of the schedule is fine FOR A MAAC PROGRAM. They played 4 BCS teams last year. They played 1 BCS team and 2 A10 teams this year (when they were a young team after losing an NBA LOTTERY PICK).

March 3, 2009 at 3:59 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

My predictions are as follows:
POY - RT
ROY - NG
COY - Cooley

March 5, 2009 at 9:17 AM 

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