Nice professional debut last week by CMS alum Tyler Gaffaney for Spain LEB Silver league team El Olivar Zaragoza.  17 p 7 boards in 36 min at PG.

The league has a talented senior class and all of them want to win badly.

With their senior leaders Cohen and McAndrew healed the Sagehens are back from the dead and the league is much more interesting.  I predict P-P will go 6-2 in second half and sneak past Whittier into the tournament.  The end of regulation and the two overtimes last night v. Chapman were really fun to watch.

Speaking of entertainment, I loved the two big slams by Whittier's Demussis last night against CMS.  Very athletic.  Whittier's big man Maynard showed great range and his three's enabled the Poets to threaten late.  Not often that you see a center with zero 2FG opportunities but 4-7 from 3FG.

In the second half, Cal Lu and Chapman (Tues.) need to play at CMS.  Will their temporary home across 6th Street carry the enough home court benefit? 

D3bballrecruits.com. has a fair amount of SCIAC class info.  Added bonus...some cool d3 logos.

Quote from: Hoya86 on March 04, 2014, 10:36:00 PM

Lastly, I thought the SCIAC did well against teams in the NCAA tourney.  LaVerne beat OWU, CMS beat Calvin, and but lost to Hopkins by 2.  PP beat St. Thomas and Trinity. 

I forgot that PP also beat Hopkins.  3 wins for Sagehens v. non conference teams in the bracket.

First, congrats to all of the teams on an excellent season.  Lots to be proud of and much to look forward to next year with the very strong group of returning players.

CMS, the Conference Champion (the team with the highest percentage of wins following the regular season) returns 4 starters but loses Pinson and their home court Ducey.  Nonetheless with Gaffaney returning for a fourth year and an experienced supporting crew, and more size on the way, I think they will be in the mix again next year.

Regarding CMS's shot at an at-large bid, in my opinion strength of schedule was a deciding factor at just under .500 (for D3 games).  Among the last 10 regionally ranked teams looking for Pool C slots CMS had the highest win ratio but the lowest SOS.  Lots of different ways to look at the at-large process: I liked this analysis from Sac on the Pool C board.

"Presumed last available teams in their respective regions

Middlebury (NESCAC) - .640/.562/3-6   Northeast #11---not at the final table
NYU (UAA) - .640/.546/0-6   East #6
William Paterson (NJAC) - .778/.528/4-3   Atlantic #4
Stevenson (MACC) - .704/.531/4-3   Mid-Atlantic #5
Birmingham-Southern (SAA) - .630/.553/4-3   South #6
DePauw (NCAC) - .692/.545/4-5   Great Lakes #5
Carthage (CCIW) - .625/.599/4-7   Midwest #6
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (SCIAC) - .818/.496/1-1  West #7

Last 3 in?

Ohio Wesleyan (NCAC) - .741/.541/3-5   Great Lakes #7
Springfield (NEWMAC) - .731/.567/2-4   Northeast #6   
Dickinson (CC) - .778/.529/2-1   Mid-Atlantic #4

I think Springfield might have been the last team in.  It looks to me like the last few selections came down to SOS for those with a winning % over .700"

By this logic, there were 2 teams (Stevenson, Wm Paterson) in front of CMS with winning % over .700 but CMS' SOS was far behind. Calvin, Hopkins, Pacific helped CMS's SOS but CIT (2x), UCSC, and Willamette killed it (7 D3 wins between them.) CMS real SOS is better; they played some very good GSAC teams – Concordia was the best defensive team I saw this year.

Massey Ratings has CMS ranked 45; ahead of Bowdoin (6-4 in NESCAC) and Springfield.  Bennett Rankings have them 49 (fell 27 places, ouch) but still ahead of Bowdoin and Dickinson. 

Lastly, I thought the SCIAC did well against teams in the NCAA tourney.  LaVerne beat OWU, CMS beat Calvin, and but lost to Hopkins by 2.  PP beat St. Thomas and Trinity.  Whitworth did not play any SCIAC teams this year.

Speaking of Strength of Schedule, Texas-Dallas' SOS is not strong (#318).  I look forward to watching Chapman (Conference Tournament Champion) take them on.

At 57.4 ppg CMS is #3 in scoring defense in D3 (as of 1/5/14).  They held LaVerne to 30 points below their scoring average last night.

http://www.ncaa.com/stats/basketball-men/d3

Really enjoyed the end of the Chapman-PP game last night.  Very entertaining!

Speaking of newcomers, Chapman's John Joyce looks intriguing.  6-8 250. 16 pts last night at UCI.

CMS roster posted.  http://cmsathletics.com/sports/mbkb/2013-14/roster

I guess Chris Rama is studying abroad.  Will miss his presence inside.

  Any word on whether Tyler Gaffaney has recovered? If the Stags have him back alongside fellow senior Remy Pinson, they will be very strong in the backcourt.
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Word is Gaffaney is back and better than ever.  Strong POY candidate. 

CMS also added new talented frosh PG to spell Pinson.

What is the outlook for Redlands?

Calvin's visit to Redlands and CMS in late December will be a good test on where these two teams stand at that point.  Calvin ended 7th in top 25 last year at 26-4.   

Great audio coverage from Whitworth for Emory game but I struggled mightily with video.  Tried all kinds of things.  Did anyone else solve this?  Would like to see next game v. MHB.  Both Williams/CUA and Cortland/Middlebury games had issues transmitting this weekend.  Like the way NESCAC teams are playing.  Attacking but efficient on offense. ODAC hanging tough but I think VWU and RMC will fall this week.  I am going to say Whitworth, St Thomas, Williams, St Marys, Amherst, Wooster, North Central, Middlebury will make the trek to Salem.

My bad...it was 3 from GSAC for CMS..forgot Masters game at Pomona.

CMS went to Boston not Maine.  Went to Texas next year.  Planning NW next year.  Only played 2 GSAC games this year; play level was comparable.

Question.  Wondering why CMS had 24 regular season games.  Did adding 9th conference team and the late season bye nights cause any other gaps in teams schedules....they need to figure that out.

Quote from: OxyBob on February 17, 2013, 11:29:20 AM

Also Tuesday night, Cal Lutheran (10-14) finishes its season with a meaningless nonconference game at Chapman.

OxyBob

OxyBob -- Thanks for the interesting game summary postings.  You refer to all Chapman games as non-conference games and I don't understand why.   Chapman is now a member of the SCIAC I believe.  All of the Chapman games this year have counted as conference games - indeed Redlands' only conference loss was to Chapman.  If it were a non conference loss, last night's game at CMS would not have meant less, as the title would have been settled.