MBB: Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Gray Fox]

It is interesting that Pepperdine only played eight players in this exhibition game.

[stag44]

FINALLY let the games begin:

Season tips off tomorrow with 3 SCIAC teams in action:

Pacifica @ CMS
Very excited to see how this Stag teams comes out of the games. They looked focused on Saturday in practice and really ready to show everyone that they are the clear favorites and have a 4-peat on their mind. Scali has the guys playing hard and most importantly they look extremely balanced. I truly believe that on any given night they have 7 guys who could go for 20 (Blees, Maciera, Gaffney, Pinson, Sullivan, Anderson, Mivshek) with ease. This will make them extremely difficult to defend both in transition and in sets. I expect alot of teams to zone the Stags and force them to win by making 3's and long 2s.

This is also a memorable game for the Stags as they welcome back an old assistant Coach Bruce Victor. He has been a part of the Stags on and off over the last 10 years and imparted alot of defensive wisdom while he was around. Pacifica is an unknown entity to me, but I think the Stags roll 75-54

ULV @ Chapman
This is a matchup I am very excited to see. ULV is returning all their contributors from last years and should be primed to challenge CMS at the top. Chapman is always a tough game especially on the road. Given the experience and talent on the roster, Coach Reed should make them competitive. I am always curious to see how they play in a tough physical environment. The Leos are notorious for losing their cool when play gets chippy and physical, and often are caught complaining or not playing through contact. If they can amend this and gain further mental toughness, they will be very difficult to beat.

Chapman is an unknown as well, as they lose Riley, Ramme among others. They always are tough and I think they squeak out a home win 61-57


Redlands @ Cal Baptist
Coming off a magical SCIAC championship and NCAA bid, Redlands is in rebuilding mode this year. I think they lose this game going away 72-55 Cal Baptist

[WoostAr]

Additional games:

Occidental hosts St Thomas on Friday and Pomona Pitzer hosts them on Saturday....d3 champs last season, would love to see them play...still a little sore about them beating wooster....might be the only time in my life I'll be routing for oxy/pp...they have a new coach this year, hope to make it to Oxy.

Caltech Plays at Vanguard...I understand Vanguard is very up-tempo...should be interesting since Caltech plays several of their starters 35+ minutes.  Caltech will need to slow the game down.

Cal Lu at La Sierra.

Whittier hosts Lewis and Clark on Sunday.

[Hemingway13]

The earlier poster, Stag44, was spot on when characterizing last years' Championship  as "magical", after a long dry spell as the clock wound down for Bulldog legend Gary Smith's career.

Although I'll keep my fingers crossed that Redlands are strongly competitive this year, it's going to be tough losing two of our three All-SCIAC players to graduation. A lot will depend on Tristan Kirk's leadership.

[Hemingway13]

Must admit that I'll be cheering for Chris Blees to have a stellar season following his terrible bad luck last year. He is one of the most talented basketballers ever to play in the SCIAC, right up there with the likes of Oxy's Sam Betty in middle of last decade.

[stag44]

Must admit that I'll be cheering for Chris Blees to have a stellar season following his terrible bad luck last year. He is one of the most talented basketballers ever to play in the SCIAC, right up there with the likes of Oxy's Sam Betty in middle of last decade.

Blees looks as good as ever. If anything this injury has allowed him to develop other parts of his game. I've caught some of them in action and I'm not sure I've seen a SCIAC player this dominant end to end - the only other name that even comes close would be Miles Taylor, but even Miles didn't have the edge that Chris plays with. I'm very excited to see them tonight and then watch them live in Austin!!

[CMSfan]

CMS 71, Pacifica 62

Box Score: http://www.cmsathletics.org/sports/mbkb/2011-12/files/PC-CMS.HTM

Kind of an ugly game.  Pacifica managed to stay in it with good 3 point shooting combined with some sloppy play from the Stags.  Blees and Maceira each went for 16, with Blees adding 14 rebounds.  Blees was tentative at times, but looks primed for a great year.  Maceira looked great.  With the two of them and Joey Anderson, I imagine we'll see the Stags out-rebounding most opponents (though maybe not quite like tonight's 38-18 advantage, which included an impressive 21 offensive boards).  Kevin Sullivan provided some nice spark off the bench with four 3's.  Only one freshman, Jack Grodahl, saw minutes for CMS.

[stag44]

CMS 71, Pacifica 62

Box Score: http://www.cmsathletics.org/sports/mbkb/2011-12/files/PC-CMS.HTM

Kind of an ugly game.  Pacifica managed to stay in it with good 3 point shooting combined with some sloppy play from the Stags.  Blees and Maceira each went for 16, with Blees adding 14 rebounds.  Blees was tentative at times, but looks primed for a great year.  Maceira looked great.  With the two of them and Joey Anderson, I imagine we'll see the Stags out-rebounding most opponents (though maybe not quite like tonight's 38-18 advantage, which included an impressive 21 offensive boards).  Kevin Sullivan provided some nice spark off the bench with four 3's.  Only one freshman, Jack Grodahl, saw minutes for CMS.

Caught the 2nd half of the game online and was shocked to see the Stags down 9 vs Pacifica. I spoke with some fans watching and they simply said the Stags were not playing very good defense and Pacifica was knocking down 3s and difficult shots. Regardless, the Stags started to wear down the Gladiators and imposed their will through the middle of the second half and held on at the end of the game.

Notes from the 2nd half -

Blees looked good again. More than ever this year he has morphed into a point-forward and really kickstarting to team in transition. His 16 and 14 box score was vintage Blees, and once he starts getting back to speed those 5 TOs should drop as well. It looks like he still has that first step and can find his way into the key at will.

Maciera looked solid as well. Still looks like he's rubbing off some of the rust, but still was silky smooth from midrange and found himself open around the basket often. Was also excited to see him attack the boards and defend.

Sullivan did his best Vinnie Johnson/Eddie House impression coming off the bench as the "Microwave" and kickstarting the offense in the 2nd half with 11 quick points. He looked good offensively and gladly embraced his role as scorer of the bench.

I was impressed with how well Gaffney defended. He was very gritty and reminded me alot of Dan Winterbottom in the way he stalked the ball full court. I would like to see him be a little more aggressive on the offensive end though, and I think that will come as teams focus on Blees and Maciera more.

Overall the Stags were incredibly effective on the offensive glass, recovering 21 of the 33 misses (an astonishing 64% oboard rate), and I'll be curious to see how this stat moves as they play teams that have more size (La Verne). Also one of my biggest concerns was seeing the ball stall with all the individual offensive talent on the court, but the Stags were zipping the ball around and most possessions included 4-7 passes which is key for the motion to work.


Excited to see them play in 2 days. CMS usually doesn't travel well so I'll be curious to see how the guys respond this trip. Everyone who is playing has made a trip at some point and last year they were all in St. Louis, so they should be a little more versed in how to handle road trips.

[OxyBob]

might be the only time in my life I'll be routing for oxy/pp...they have a new coach this year, hope to make it to Oxy.

Uh, who has a new coach this year? Did I miss something?

OxyBob

[etule]

St Thomas has a new coach!

[cmsme]

CMS people FYI. I was looking at the schedule for Southwestern Texas game. Claremont's website and Southwestern's website both list the game time as 7:00. But there is a two hour time difference, so I think the time may be incorrect. The D3 website lists the game at 8:00, which may be due to a different time zone. The same is true for the Saturday game. CMS website says the game starts at 2:00, but Trinity Texas website says 2:00 also.

[stag44]

CMS people FYI. I was looking at the schedule for Southwestern Texas game. Claremont's website and Southwestern's website both list the game time as 7:00. But there is a two hour time difference, so I think the time may be incorrect. The D3 website lists the game at 8:00, which may be due to a different time zone. The same is true for the Saturday game. CMS website says the game starts at 2:00, but Trinity Texas website says 2:00 also.

I believe the D3 webside puts all times in EST, so the 8pm on D3hoops makes senese, 8pm EST is 7pm in Austin.

My understanding is that the games are at 7pm on friday and 2pm on saturday in LOCAL time. So for the viewers online in CA, games would start at 5pm and noon, respectively. If I find out anything otherwise today, I'll be sure to update this post.

[WoostAr]

might be the only time in my life I'll be routing for oxy/pp...they have a new coach this year, hope to make it to Oxy.

Uh, who has a new coach this year? Did I miss something?

OxyBob

My mistake, I'll get my pronouns in order next time.  Thanks for help etule.  I gather Oxy does have a new offense however...what say you OxyBob?...no more triangle?...more uptempo?

[OxyBob]

Eyewitness report from Eagle Rock...

St. Thomas 82 Oxy 61

Nice crowd on a Friday night. UST led from start to finish. Peter Leslie hit 4 straight 3-balls to open the game for the Tommies. Oxy hung in there and trailed 36-27 at the half. UST opened the second half on a 12-3 run and it was 48-30 and game over.

St. Thomas is deep, and is like a machine with interchangeable parts. They didn't do anything spectacular. The Tommies ran a disciplined high-low offense, they moved the ball well, got open shots, and wore Oxy down. For the game UST shot 48% and was 9-for-19 on 3s. Leslie scored 17, Zach Riedeman was off the bench for 12, 3 guys scored 8, 2 guys had 7. You get the picture.

For Oxy, Jack Hanley had 22 on 6-for-18 and 10-for-10 FTs, and Sam Stapleton scored 16. The Tigers missed a lot of open 3s and were only 2-for-14 for the game. They're going to have to do a better job on the offensive boards; UST outrebounded them in the front court 13-7, and hard-working Jake Copithorne had 4 of the 7.

The game was called close. Quite a few fouls that weren't fouls called on both sides. Deshun McCoy got the worst of it. He had a couple of clean blocks that were called fouls, and fouled out in only 17 minutes of play.

St. Thomas is at Pomona tonight. Oxy's at Pacifica in beautiful Moreno Valley on the 23rd.

OxyBob

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

Eyewitness report from Eagle Rock...

St. Thomas 82 Oxy 61

Nice crowd on a Friday night. UST led from start to finish. Peter Leslie hit 4 straight 3-balls to open the game for the Tommies. Oxy hung in there and trailed 36-27 at the half. UST opened the second half on a 12-3 run and it was 48-30 and game over.

St. Thomas is deep, and is like a machine with interchangeable parts. They didn't do anything spectacular. The Tommies ran a disciplined high-low offense, they moved the ball well, got open shots, and wore Oxy down. For the game UST shot 48% and was 9-for-19 on 3s. Leslie scored 17, Zach Riedeman was off the bench for 12, 3 guys scored 8, 2 guys had 7. You get the picture.

For Oxy, Jack Hanley had 22 on 6-for-18 and 10-for-10 FTs, and Sam Stapleton scored 16. The Tigers missed a lot of open 3s and were only 2-for-14 for the game. They're going to have to do a better job on the offensive boards; UST outrebounded them in the front court 13-7, and hard-working Jake Copithorne had 4 of the 7.

The game was called close. Quite a few fouls that weren't fouls called on both sides. DeShun McCoy got the worst of it. He had a couple of clean blocks that were called fouls, and fouled out in only 17 minutes of play.

St. Thomas is at Pomona tonight. Oxy's at Pacifica in beautiful Moreno Valley on the 23rd.

OxyBob

Thansk OxyBob....sonds like my Tommies looked good for the opener.  And while it was Tauer's debut as head coach, he's been running the offense at UST for some time now.