Yes please.

PurpleOut said:

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On top of it being in Belfast...this is a really good Mid-Major tournament.

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Oh, WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My excitement radar just exploded!

OK, guys. Do some research and let us know if any of these teams, on paper, can beat us. At first glance, and without any research, I say NO!

Towson won last year in a decent four team event. They say they're going to announce an 8 team field (but it's unclear whether there's going to be a women's side this year). MAAC teams will be involved. Should be solid competition over Thanksgiving break.

LIU Brooklyn (7) and San Francisco (1) are receiving votes in the CollegeInsider.com poll.

UW-Milwaukee has a lovely write up on MidMajorMadness.com over losing their entire starting five to graduation or transfer. In total Milwaukee is losing their top three scorers who accounted for 55% of their scoring, 47% of their rebounding and made two-thirds of their three-point attempts.

Not a lot of info on the other teams that just pops out quickly like those three...

Not sure how I missed it but Buffalo finished the season #3 in the CollegeInsider.com poll. Buffalo beat Arizona 89-68 in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament before losing to Kentuck 95-75 in the Second Round. Lose just two seniors...

Records and Postseason Results for Tournament Field:

UAlbany: 22-10 (10-6 America East) Postseason: Lost to Stony Brook in 1st Round of America East Tournament
Buffalo: 27-9 (15-3 MAC) Postseason: Won MAC Tourney, Defeated Arizona in NCAA 1st Round, Lost to Kentucky in NCAA 2nd Round
Dartmouth: 7-20 (3-11 Ivy League) Postseason: None
LIU-Brooklyn: 18-17 (10-8 NEC) Postseason: Won NEC Tourney, Lost to Radford in NCAA First Four
Marist: 6-25 (4-14 MAAC) Postseason: Lost to Fairfield in 1st Round of MAAC Tourney
UW-Milwaukee: 16-17 (8-10 Horizon) Postseason: Lost to Wright State in Horizon Tourney Semifinals
San Francisco: 22-17 (9-9 WCC) Postseason: Lost to Gonzaga in WCC Semifinals; Lost to North Texas in CBI Finals (Best of 3)
SFA: 28-7 (14-4 SLC) Postseason: Won SLC Tourney, Lost to Texas Tech in 1st Round

cboothe09 said:

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Records and Postseason Results for Tournament Field:


Buffalo: 27-9 (15-3 MAC) Postseason: Won MAC Tourney, Defeated Arizona in NCAA 1st Round, Lost to Kentucky in NCAA 2nd Round

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Looks like Buffalo will be our toughest. They are #3 in the Insider Mid-Major Top 25 poll. It will be good to be challenged early on. Should portend what's to come.

PurpleOut said:

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Buffalo is very good.

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Only losing two seniors. They are scary good (Receiving eight votes in USA Today Coaches Poll)...I really hope we get the chance to face them.

Averaged 84.6 ppg and gave up 76.2 ppg.

I think SFA and Buffalo are head and shoulders the best two in the field. LIU and USF weren't stellar most of the year, but got hot late. USF did get a nice win over St. Mary's and saw their CBI best of three go three games against UNT. Albany is an intriguing team that I want to learn a little more about.

Top tier:
SFA & Buffalo

Good, but not great:
LIU, USF, Albany

Woof...:
Dartmouth, Marist, Milwaukee

Yeah , buffalo and usf are good team. USF went 9-9 in WCC. WCC was the #13 conference last season. They only finished behind Gonzaga, St.Mary's, and BYU. They also had a win over Nevada on a neutral court

Interesting format. Intrigued to see the schedule.

"The 2018 event will feature an expanded field to eight schools. The schools will compete in two four-team brackets, with University campus round games in America leading into two tournament brackets in Belfast aptly named 'Samson' and 'Goliath' after the iconic Harland and Wolfe cranes in the Titanic quarter ship yard of Belfast. "

I've been working on my post play all morning.

TallTexan said:

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I've been working on my post play all morning.

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Not THIS kind of post, Texan....

SFAJack_76 said:

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If we only knew a good travel agent.

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I can get you a good rate on a Cunard trans-Atlantic cruise. They haven't had one sink since their predecessor White Star Line's Titanic. They're always looking for strong people to shovel coal in their boiler room.

SFAJack_76 said:

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Might a trip to Ireland entice a top recruit that is on the fence to fill that last open scholarship?

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Is there a top recruit left for the coming year?

No-look said:

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SFAJack_76 said:

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Might a trip to Ireland entice a top recruit that is on the fence to fill that last open scholarship?

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Is there a top recruit left for the coming year?

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We have no public 2018 offers out. I have no idea if we are continuing to recruit or not. There are still about 70 D1 transfers that are eligible to play right away without a new home. Most of those are juniors or seniors. I would rather we not get another upper class dude. No doubt there are still a number of Juco transfers available.

(Counting Hart, who decommitted from SFA but still is considering us, we have ten 2019 offers out.)

SFAJack_76 said:

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Interesting format. Intrigued to see the schedule.

"The 2018 event will feature an expanded field to eight schools. The schools will compete in two four-team brackets, with University campus round games in America leading into two tournament brackets in Belfast aptly named 'Samson' and 'Goliath' after the iconic Harland and Wolfe cranes in the Titanic quarter ship yard of Belfast. "

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So, the two winners of the tournament brackets would not play each other, and therefore, two teams could come out of this thing with no losses, correct? If that's the case, we might not play Buffalo at all. Am I interpreting this thing correctly?

My guess is that the winners of the round robin go into one bracket and the losers in another. So the top teams square off in one side, losers in another. The biblical anachronism in their titles is really messing with me, but I guess I can overlook the 100 years difference between Samson and Goliath.

They've been reborn:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_and_Goliath_(cranes)

Now those are cranes.

TallTexan said:

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They've been reborn:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_and_Goliath_(cranes)

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So, New York City has the Statue of Liberty, London has Big Ben, Paris has the Eiffel Tower, and Belfast has its.... cranes??? Must be a blue collar kind of city.

Don't know if it's happening to everyone, but "First Class to Ireland" ads for airfare have started popping up on the right side of some of the Forums pages for me. Big Brother (Google, Microsoft, or someone) is watching.