SPC @ NC - Greensboro Tonight, Rock Out With Your Cock Out!!!

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Rock out with your (Pea)cock out...

I have to be honest as I haven't been posting a lot lately here or anywhere else and for no good reason...but it is time to get NCAA basketball season into full swing. The Peacocks and the Pirates are the only two teams that I root for every year. Good or bad. SPC is not a great team after losing Kee Kee (playing in Greece). But the coaches in the MAAC picked them to be the worst team in the conference. They are wrong. With four returning starters in Orta, Sowell, Spann, & Martin the cocks will hang in the MAAC. They won their first game against the Loyola Gayhounds (picked to finish in the middle of the pack) and played a close game with the Marist Red Foxes (who were picked to finish atop the MAAC, and should probably be in the top 25 in the country).

Now they take a break against the MAAC and play two very talented teams on the road. They take on NCG tonight. Last year against NCG they stomped all over them but that was with Kee Kee so I don't know...we'll see as they currently have the same record as SPC but against a much weaker schedule. Next up they take on Florida State. FSU (9-2) is a very very good team. They have already beaten Florida (remember them, they won it all last year and returned their starting five in 2006/2007). Their only two losses this year came against Pitt & Wisconsin, who are two teams ranked in the top ten in the country. FSU probably has one of the best players in NCAA B-ball with Al Thornton. This will be a tough matchup for SPC on their home floor but I like playing tough games against good teams early in the season. It means we'll be ready to play the teams in our own conference who consequently play inferior teams to pad their record.

I'll take a win in one of these games...hopefully. The MAAC is tons stronger than a lot of the experts think so the Peacocks don't have an easy road. But SPC has a young coach in John Dunne (former Louis Orr assistant at SHU) who so far has liked to run and gun (surprising since he was an assistant under Louis Orr). Not to mention the fact that he has brought in some good young players already (also surprising since he used to be an assistant under Louis Orr, a notoriously lazy recruiter). We got a three ball expert in Orta and rebound monsters in Todd Sowell & Tim Spitler who comes off the bench (in the loss to Marist, SPC still won the battle of the boards). In Kevin Spann we have a player who just does it all (see last year's trip to the MAAC tourney championships, where he played as well Keydren). Martin can 'bound and put 'em back in but mainly he is a defensive guy who clogs holes with his big frame. The only guy who gets major action yet I really don't like much is Kinzey Reeves. The guy is seven foot and he takes too many jumpers (and to make it worse a lot of them are for three points!). He's just a big clumsey white guy...if Coach Dunne can get him to move a little closer to the basket that could go a long way.

Saint Peter's College may fall last alphabetically in their conference but they certainly won't finish last this season. Mark my words...they will play deep into the MAAC tournament come March. And when you have a good program with good kids, you never know, maybe we'll dance.

Rock Out with Your Cock Out!

Indeed.

PS - Hey Craicer, how about an SHU preview as we open this NCAA season. It's getting cold but things are sure to be heating up, eh? Bring it!