Saturday, February 21, 2009

Perfect Saturday Night

If you're a Mount fan, it doesn't get much better than it was on Saturday night. Not only did the Mount dominate St. Francis (PA) in a 93-63 win at the Knott, but the Mount celebrated 100 years of basketball before a near capacity house and announced its All-Century team.

In all there were 17 named to the team and it brought back tremendous memories from the time that I've been making the trip to Emmitsburg to watch the Mounties. I don't have the list, so I'm trying to go clearly on memory but let's see how many I can remember.

Three members of the team were unable to attend, Riley Inge, Steve Rossignoli and Bob Sutor were not at the Arena and were the first three introduced to the crowd.

Landy Thompson the long-range shooter was the first present player to be introduced and was followed by Gregory Harris, Kevin Booth, Sal Angelo, Durelle Lewis, Paul Edwards, Chris McGuthrie, Jim Rowe, Ed Pfeiffer, John O'Reilly, Lou Grillo, Mike Cataline, Fred Carter, Jack Sullivan and Coach Jim Phelan were all part of the team. I may have missed one player and if I did I apologize. Congratulations to all of those guys for all they did while at the Mount and for being recognized by the Mount fans as the All-Century team.

To the credit of the program there were some great players who didn't make the team and some tough choices if you took the time to vote.

As great as that team was they'd have had trouble with the current group of Mountaineers and the effort that they put forth on Saturday night. Right from the opening the Mount was crisp and sharp. They shot the ball very well (maybe the best they have all season) and looked extremely good and relaxed on the floor.

I don't know what happened in Staten Island on Thursday night. But this team tonight looked as good as I've seen it in a month and loooked as good as it has in a month in my estimation. Of course, making a few outside jump shots never hurt anyone. And playing a team that was 5-21 entering might have had something to do with it all. But tonight really seemed more about the Mount being good. And maybe Thursday night had more to do with Wagner playing improved basketball (they beat Robert Morris tonight) than I was willing to give it credit for on the surface.

Jeremy Goode was great tonight. He was over 20 points and had 8 or 9 assists.

Jean Cajou knocked down an early three and got fouled while making it and hit four threes in the first half and might have joined Goode over 20 points.

Kelly Beidler was strong once again and might have actually gotten close to 20 with a flurry of points in the second half. It seemed like he never missed tonight.

So a great effort by the big three for this team, and the inside trio of Sam and Shawn Atupem and Markus Mitchell also played well.

So what would have been a great night with just the introduction of the All-Century Team turned into something more with the phenomenal performance from this year's team.

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:56 PM

    My mind is a driftin' - that was one of those great nights, wasn't it? So now, if I calculate correctly, we get two home playoff games and I am going to bet the championship game will be at home; just a hunch because RMU I think has a better chance of losing than we do in the first 2 games.

    So on to next year. Backcourt is solid with Jean, Jeremy and Goloday. Trice is quick and will also develop. The swingmen (Holland, Brown) are there.

    Now comes the challenge. You see Shawn and a little of what Tayvon can do. I see Thompson and Wells, add Barber and Cribbs? Still at least one more spot available. Also, don't know if Schwarz will ever qualify. Glad I am not the coach.

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  2. Anonymous3:37 PM

    I just noticed I inadvertently did not mention Kelly.

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  3. Anonymous11:57 PM

    As a fan for close to 30 years, the All Century Team brought back some great memories. I've gotta wonder where Mike Tate was though. One of the smoothest players I ever saw.

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  4. Jack - the one disappointmet for me was the non-inclusion of Mike Tate. I voted for him and I expected him to be a part. He was a very good player. Could go both inside and out, and as you said was very, very smooth.

    But again, for me there wasn't anybody who was on the team that you looked at said, "How did he get here?" And there were a few others who probably deserved some recognition. Tate included.

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