MBB: Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Olsen Road]

"

Log jam with the top four...going to be an interesting two games.

Oxy, always enjoyed the in game updates.  What happened to them?

I will tell you why! OXY isn't in the top four, so Bob isn't as animated or excited anymore. This usually happens when you have someone who is dedicated to his team as BoB is. I will say this though...there is no one in the SCIAC who appreciates what OXY BOB has done for our league. He brings excitement to this Blog. I just hope he continues to push the SCIAC in the following week with his expert analysis even though his team isn't playing for anything but for fun!
Big game Saturday night for my Stags! I heard they are trying to drum up excitement in Whittier to bring nastier fans to the gym. Good Luck with that! I know the stags will be ready Saturday Night.

"Karma for the welcome and some for the name"....thank you Jack (how much Karma do I receive?).  Always been on d3hoops, but never very active. 

Very interesting in what has happened this past night with the CLU and CMS wins.  Does someone know the tie-breaker system?  Regardless, Tuesday night is going to be enjoyable to find out the seeding.  I will be tracking CLU on KATY-TV.com.  Does anyone know how to keep tabs on CMS?

By the way OxyBob, always like reading the commentary. 

[sciac_is_fun]

CMS has effectively clinched at least a share of the conference title (vs. Caltech on Tuesday).  Now it's up to Cal Lu to beat Whittier to share it with them.

[cmsme]

My son is a freshman on the Claremont team, and i am wondering how the playoffs work.  The tournament semi-final games seem to be at same time.  Does the #1 team get a home game and the others play at Occidental? 
Does the winner of the tournament have a definite spot and the league champ maybe gets a spot? 
I saw that last year Pomona and Occidental played against each other in the first game after the tournament.  Is that always the case where the first game is against a team from the SCIA?  And what happens after that? 
thank you.

[OxyBob]

CMS has effectively clinched at least a share of the conference title (vs. Caltech on Tuesday).  Now it's up to Cal Lu to beat Whittier to share it with them.

Someone from the SCIAC office can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe CMS also clinched the No. 1 seed in the SCIAC tournament. CMS and CLU split their 2 games and they both also split with Pomona, but the Stags swept Whittier, which gives CMS the edge. And if someone from the SCIAC office actually said anything in public, I'd probably faint dead away.

Great job by Claremont and Cal Lutheran last night.

Claremont 77, Whittier 74

CMS: Chris Blees 23 pts and 8 rebs, Austin Soldner 14 pts and 6 rebs, Jason Toney 13, Connor Faught 11
WC: David Hayshi and Marcus Gibson 12 each, AJ Manolo 11
Halftime: CMS 34-24
Rebounds: WC 34-24

From the Whittier web site and the box score, it's a little confusing as to exactly what happened. According to the game write-up:

The Whittier College men's basketball team trailed by as many as 19 points with less than seven minutes to play in Saturday night's conference tilt against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and pulled within one-point on a David Hayashi three-pointer with two seconds left but that would be as close as the Poets would get.

The Stags closed the door on the Whittier comeback with a pair of free throws by Ben Bergsma who sealed the deal for Claremont in its 77-74 win over the Poets.
...

The Poets trailed 67-48 with 6:23 to play in the game and went on a 26-9 run capped by the Hayashi three to pull within one.

The box score, however, shows that Hayashi's 3-ball tied the game at 74, and then Bergsma made 2 FTs and Austin Soldner made one FT for the final margin of victory. Also, 67-48 + 26-9 = 76-74, which by my calculation is a two-point lead. Whittier's never been known for its math skills.

Cal Lutheran 61, Pomona 52

CLU: Kyle Knudsen 21 pts and 9 rebs, Aaron Van Klaveren 15 pts and 8 rebs, Aaron Fisher 16 pts and 7 rebs
PP: Justin Sexton 15 pts and 9 rebs, Gabe Porter 15 pts and 7 rebs, David Liss 11
Halftime: PP 29-24
Rebounds: 36-36

Pomona led 33-26 with 16 minutes left, but Cal Lutheran broke a 41-41 tie on Aaron Van Klaveren's jumper, and the Kingsmen led the rest of the way. CLU won its 6th straight while Pomona, which was sitting pretty in 1st place at 9-1, lost its third straight and dropped into 4th place.

Oxy 67, La Verne 54

Oxy: Jack Hanley 21, Sean Anderson 15 pts and 7 rebs, David Ostrow 11 pts, 5 rebs, 8 assists, 5 steals, Justin Goltz 7 pts and 9 rebs
ULV: Kyle Luhnow 11 pts and 7 rebs
Halftime: Oxy 37-27
Rebounds: Oxy 37-36

La Verne cut Oxy's 10-point halftime lead to 1 at 45-44, but Oxy went on a 15-2 run over a 6-minute span and cruised home with the win.

Eyewitness report from Pasadena:

Redlands 87, Caltech 72

UR: Andrew Maertens 20, Matt Dietrich 19, Patrick Coffey 18, Travis Miller and Andrew Mills 10 each
CIT: Ryan Elmquist 25 pts and 10 rebs, Matt Dellatorre 21, Han Bin Man 11
Halftime UR 55-35
Rebounds: CIT 36-34

Same old story for Caltech. The game was tied 13-13 at 12:05 when Redlands went on a 14-0 run and led 27-13. The Bulldogs put on a 3-point shooting exhibition in the first half, hitting on 8 including 5 in a row. Caltech was no slouch, hitting 7-of-9 3-balls in the first half.

That's 286 straight conference losses for CIT stretching back to 1985.

OxyBob

[Hoopsallthetime]

My son is a freshman on the Claremont team, and i am wondering how the playoffs work.  The tournament semi-final games seem to be at same time.  Does the #1 team get a home game and the others play at Occidental? 
Does the winner of the tournament have a definite spot and the league champ maybe gets a spot? 
I saw that last year Pomona and Occidental played against each other in the first game after the tournament.  Is that always the case where the first game is against a team from the SCIA?  And what happens after that? 
thank you.

Well CMCME it's a good thing your son picked a great school and basketball progam to go to. They are going to be SCIAC Champs on Tuesday night after they dismantle the beavers. Hopefully Whittier will be pissed off that they got there butts spanked last night and will go down to Cal Lutheran and beat them so we are out right champs. I will talk about the game in a minute.
First to help you out my fellow stag! The Stags should be the 1st seed for the tournament which means we will have a home game Friday night at Ducey Gym starting at 7:30 against either Cal Lu, Pomona, or Whittier.  MY guess is that it will be Whittier. The other two teams which will probably be Cal Lu and Pomona will probably play at Cal Lu (unless they lose Tuesday) on Firday at 7:30 as well. After CMS wins friday night, we will host Saturday night against the winner of the #2 vs. #3 game at 7:30 in Ducey Gym. i hope that helps you out, and I hope we see you at the game. The gym will be rocking and will be packed so get there early. Who knows we may even be blessed and have OXY BOB at the game.
Now as for the game last night against Whittier. CMS basically dominated Whittier on both ends of the court for the majority of the game. So her is the real eyewitness report from someone who was there. i was hoping to see the grey fox (oxy bob) but he was no where to be found. Stags led at halftime 34-24 and basically dominated the second part of the first half. The stags led by as many as 14 in the first half, but timely shooting at the end of the half kept the game closer than it appeared. The Stags came out in the second half and showed why defense wins championships. Whittier had trouble scoring against the stags tough man to man defense and were caught throwing up shots that most coaches would pull there hair out watching. Stags were up by at much as 17 in the second half when Whittier began to make a little comeback. With timely ridiculous callsl coming from our favorite SCIAC officials and some lucky 3 point shots, whittier began a little comeback. CMS missed the a couple of free throws and they made it closer than it really was. The game was never tied, and the stags had control throughout the game. Jason Toney had 13 pts, Blees had 23 pts and 8 rebs, Soldner 14 pts and 6 rebs, and faught had 11 off the bench. For whittier, Gibson had 12 pts, Manalo had 11 pts, and Hayashi had 12. Archuletta when he wasn't wining about how unfair things were that things weren't going his way had a quiet 8 pts. Stags played well and Coach Scalmanini did a great job preparing his players for a tough battle. Nice job Coach!

So here is how I see things panning out!

Friday Night-
CMS vs. Whittier
Cal Lutheran vs Pomona (@ Cal Lutheran)

Saturday Night-
CMS vs. Cal Lutheran (@ Claremont)

Good luck Whittier on Saturday Night. I think this is the only time I will actually say that!

[Gray Fox]

i was hoping to see the grey fox (oxy bob) but he was no where to be found.

I live in Dallas, so my visits to SCIAC games are rare.  I have, however, met OxyBob, and you should know that I am much better looking.

[Sabretooth Tiger]

Who isn't?

[hoopdville]

Nothing better than seeing the want to be Whittier Poets (is that a real mascot?) continue their 20+ years of not winning a SCIAC Title.....boy for the most athletic team on the West Coast...it is business as usual in the SCIAC over the past 18 years.  CMS, P-P, and CLU f(and OXY the last 5-6 years ) battling it out for the chance to go to the NCAA Tournament.

Hats off to CLU, as I surely didn't think they had the maturity or depth to win 5 games in a row without Meire....Tuesday's game will be interest at CLU with Whittier.  Can the young iron five continue to prove the critics wrong?

Congrats to CMS (and CLU?) for winning the regular season championship.

[OxyBob]

My son is a freshman on the Claremont team, and i am wondering how the playoffs work.  The tournament semi-final games seem to be at same time.  Does the #1 team get a home game and the others play at Occidental? 

No. 4 seed plays at No. 1 seed, and No. 3 seed plays at No. 2 seed. Winners play at the higher remaining seed.

Does the winner of the tournament have a definite spot and the league champ maybe gets a spot? 

Winner of the conference tournament is the SCIAC Pool A automatic qualifier for the NCAA tournament. Other SCIAC teams could qualify for an at-large Pool C bid, but this season the SCIAC is down, so it's very, very unlikely that the conference will get more than one team in the tournament. This years it's win the SCIAC tournament or go home.

I saw that last year Pomona and Occidental played against each other in the first game after the tournament.  Is that always the case where the first game is against a team from the SCIA?  And what happens after that? 

The NCAA D-III championship handbook provides:

Teams from the same conference do not have to play one another in the first round as long as geographic proximity is maintained.

This rule is known as the "SCIAC Exception." That's why Pomona and Oxy played each other in the first round. In a fairly seeded tournament they wouldn't have played each other, but in D-III the NCAA only pretends to be fair. It's a complete joke, but there's nothing that can be done about it. Best thing to do is to always assume that the SCIAC teams will get screwed in the pairings.

OxyBob

[sciac_is_fun]

Hats off to CLU, as I surely didn't think they had the maturity or depth to win 5 games in a row without Meire....Tuesday's game will be interest at CLU with Whittier.  Can the young iron five continue to prove the critics wrong? 

Depth in college basketball is overrated.  Partially depends on style of course, as  I'm sure Puget Sound depends on have some sort of depth.  But I think "flow" can be just important as depth at this level (and lower levels).  In some cases, supposed depth can interrupt the rhythm that good players get into. 

Looking forward to Tuesday night's game.

[OxyBob]

Hats off to CLU, as I surely didn't think they had the maturity or depth to win 5 games in a row without Meire....Tuesday's game will be interest at CLU with Whittier.  Can the young iron five continue to prove the critics wrong?

Tuesday's schedule, all games 7:30 p.m.:

Whittier (15-9, 9-4) @ Cal Lutheran (18-6, 10-3)
Oxy (11-13, 7-6) @ Redlands (9-15, 5-8)
Caltech (1-23, 0-13) @ Claremont (18-6, 10-3)
Pomona (12-12, 9-4) @ La Verne (6-18, 2-11)

CMS will have no problem with CIT, and the Stags will be the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament.

Huge game for Whittier at CLU. If the Poets win then they'll host a tournament game as No. 2 seed; WC has the tiebreaker with CLU because the Poets beat Pomona twice and CLU split with the Sagehens.

If Pomona wins and CLU loses then both teams will be 10-4. They split their 2 games, will each be 0-2 against Whittier, 1-1 against CMS, and 2-0 against Oxy, ULV, Redlands and Caltech. Not sure what the next tiebreaker is. If it's overall record then CLU would be the No. 3 seed.

OxyBob

[TeeDub]

Eyewitness report from Pasadena:

Redlands 87, Caltech 72

UR: Andrew Maertens 20, Matt Dietrich 19, Patrick Coffey 18, Travis Miller and Andrew Mills 10 each
CIT: Ryan Elmquist 25 pts and 10 rebs, Matt Dellatorre 21, Han Bin Man 11
Halftime UR 55-35
Rebounds: CIT 36-34

Same old story for Caltech. The game was tied 13-13 at 12:05 when Redlands went on a 14-0 run and led 27-13. The Bulldogs put on a 3-point shooting exhibition in the first half, hitting on 8 including 5 in a row. Caltech was no slouch, hitting 7-of-9 3-balls in the first half.

That's 286 straight conference losses for CIT stretching back to 1985.

OxyBob

The game was covered on the news by KCAL 9 (tv).  If I were Redlands, I'd be offended.

[OxyBob]

Redlands 87, Caltech 72

The game was covered on the news by KCAL 9 (tv).  If I were Redlands, I'd be offended.

In 24 games this season Caltech only won 4 halves of basketball, and 2 of them were against Redlands. If I were you, I'd be offended by the state of Bulldogs b-ball.

OxyBob

[TeeDub]

Absolutely, they should mix it up a little...maybe run "The System" 

[Olsen Road]

With the CLU defeat to Whittier, who will be the 3 and 4 seed in this tourney?  Anyone know the tiebreaker system in the SCIAC?

Whittier and CLU must have been a great game, I was not able to get the game on KADY-TV (too many fans on the website?), but was able to catch the updates via SCIAC scoreboard.  Did Whittier hit a last second 3?