MBB: Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Hemingway13]

Stag44,
Those are good calls, I reckon. Tyler's been headed for this honor since garnering First Team All-SCIAC as as a Soph.


Cal-Lu is looking solid for next season with those two guys and Corey Quintana.

[WoostAr]

Any thoughts on the SCIAC David Wells player of the year and Newcomer of year?


Used to be a lot easier task when Chris Blees was at CMS!   

No question POY is Tyler Gaffaney

Newcomer should be Arik Smith or Coltrane Powdrill from CLU

Good luck to Chapman in the tourney! UT Dallas is tough but playing neutral should help some. Was hoping CMS could squeak in an at large, but think they need to schedule more D3 games against quality talent instead of GSACs for that at-large possibility.

Gaffney will win POY...Arik Smith should win newcomer of the year, I actually think he's the best player in the conference...he definitely outplayed gaffney in the semi-final (doesn't count for poy consideration).

CMS (and the majority of the SCIAC) schedule very poorly.  Caltech and La Verne consistently schedule pretty well in terms of playing NCAA games...between the two of them they played one non-NCAA game this season.  Only teams in the SCIAC with a SOS over .500 this year were Occidental and PP with .501 and .508...part of the problem for the SCIAC is playing each other, since a good portion of the conference doesn't play other ncaa teams, much less regional teams.  Compare that to the wiac who have 9 teams (entire conference) with a SOS over .540...the SCIAC needs to get out of its own way at some point right??

[(509)Rat]

CMS played a few NWC teams. But you can't get clobbered by Pacific and expect a pool C bid.

[Hoops_lover]

I don't think you are giving 18-22 year old athletes enough credit...who "expended more energy" in the previous game will be the last thing that decides this game.

(509)Rat, gotta challenge you on your quote.
"Expending energy" did have a part to do with the outcome of the game along with Chapman playing their BEST overall game of the season.  Previous posters have said that CMS sets a lot of screens is physical on defense and the offense they run is very tough to defend.  Well this takes a lot of energy to build a lead and hold onto it on both ends of the court.  Following the game, CLU left CMS around 10pm, drive back to Thousand Oaks, eat, and do whatever so most of the guys shut down around 1:00am.  Wake up around 9:00am, possibly have breakfast, did they have a shoot around, did they have to study some and on top of that had at least a two hour bus ride in the pouring rain and don't forget they had a long bus ride in the rain on Friday. 

Chapman probably had a shoot around and then went back home ate and rested....no packing and no bus ride.

(509)Rat, I give all these athletes a lot of credit for keeping up with their studies and playing their sport.  The circumstances that CLU had to face were daunting and if they had beaten Chapman, I would have been the first to congratulate them.  NBA players have difficulty with back to back games.

Chapman is on a roll and as mentioned previously, played their best basketball of the season in front of a LOT of student support.  It was pretty electric in the gym.  Good luck to them in Dallas.

We're all discussing SCIAC awards.  Here's my two cents:  I think Gaffaney is POY but I'm giving some love for McAndrew.  What a good ballplayer he is.  Next year is going to be great for this conference because of some great returning players and perhaps five very solid teams vying for the title and we'll get TWO TEAMS into the NCAA's.
Newcomer of the year I'd have to agree with the latest posts its Arik Smith with Powell a close second.  Give some love for Lango of Cal Tech and a late charge from Joyce of Chapman.
1st team: McAndrew (PP), Hamasaki and Zavrsnick (Chap), Pinson (CMS), See (LV), Powdrill (CLU).
2nd team: Demusis (Whit), Dragovich (Chap), Klewer (PP), Montoya (Oxy), Grodahl (CMS).

[(509)Rat]

You just described every weekend in the NWC. I just don't see what is so "difficult" about that.  I did forget about the rain and it's effect on the fragile Southern Californian's psyche...

I blame the rain

[OxyBob]

You just described every weekend in the NWC. I just don't see what is so "difficult" about that.  I did forget about the rain and it's effect on the fragile Southern Californian's psyche...

I blame the rain

We had to ride on a bus! In the rain! Good God Almighty, what a lame excuse. Even lamer than the lame CCIW excuse, "We had to fly on a plane across two time zones!" which they haul out every time they lose a game on the West Coast.

Give some love for Lango of Cal Tech and a late charge from Joyce of Chapman.

Oxy's Andrew Johnson had a better season than both of those guys.

Too bad a lucky bank shot kept the SCIAC's best team out of the tournament.

OxyBob

[All the Kingsmen]

CLU just didn't play well. Sadly it has been a hallmark of the program as of late. I tend to think we have been one of the most talented teams in the SCIAC over the last 5 - 8 years and we have very little to show for it.
If a bus ride to Orange County is a major hurdle with a NCAA tournament berth on the line then there are serious issues. I just think Chapman was better prepared and we shot our wad the night before.

Switching gears:
Lango at Cal Tech is tough but doesn't get much done. Runs around, looks like he is playing really hard but doesn't make plays. That is based of a game and a half I saw of him so I am willing to be wrong there. Oxy seems like they could be dangerous. I guess I could look it up but one of the CLU coaches told me that they started 2 or 3 freshmen and played 2 or 3 more or something like that.
What will Redlands be like next year?
Is PP the favorite?

[(509)Rat]

...we shot our wad the night before.

[OxyBob]

Runs around, looks like he is playing really hard but doesn't make plays.

Pretty much describes wildcat11's career.

OxyBob

[Hoops_lover]

Oxy Bob, I apologize stand corrected, I should have mentioned Andrew Johnson and yes over the long haul he performed better than Joyce and Lango both of whom I saw play more.  Lame excuse for the bus ride?  I'm saying that was a PART of it. 

(509)Rat, absolutely agree with your point about NWC.  Some So Cal kids who go away to college cannot deal with inclement weather....too spoiled by the sunshine we get most of the time.  This is why many (I'm not talking about athletes only) of them come back "home" especially from the Midwest because of weather.  You'd think they would have figured it out when they took a visit.....oh but I forgot that some kids these days have no clue where a state is on a map.  Personally I like it when it rains.

All The Kingsmen, agree with dahlby, welcome aboard.  Everyone seems to be focusing on the bus ride, but I think it was only a part of it.  As you said and I agree, they shot their wad vs. CMS.  I'm sure Chapman was better prepared but I don't think anyone outside the team could've predicted that performance.  They play like that this weekend, Chapman has a great chance to be playing in the Sweet 16.

[wildcat11]

Runs around, looks like he is playing really hard but doesn't make plays.

Pretty much describes wildcat11's career.

OxyBob

[OxyBob]

Lame excuse for the bus ride?  I'm saying that was a PART of it.

Yes, it is a lame excuse. The interminable hour-and-a-half bus ride didn't hurt CLU when the Kingsmen won at Chapman on December 7. CLU's performance this past Saturday is the date which will live in infamy.

OxyBob

[Bigcat]

As far as next year goes, barring injuries or a stud transfer, Chapman should roll through the SCIAC. They return 4 starters off a conference championship team. The only losses are Dragovich and Rider, who only averages a couple minutes a game anyways. Losing Dragovich will hurt, as he provided toughness and an inside scoring punch. However, I believe Justin Young is more than capable of stepping up and replacing him next year. Cal Lu and PP lose some solid role players but return their big guns (minus Klewer) and should be second and third. Those are the only three teams that I believe have a shot to win the conference next year.

[WoostAr]

Lango at Cal Tech is tough but doesn't get much done. Runs around, looks like he is playing really hard but doesn't make plays. That is based of a game and a half I saw of him so I am willing to be wrong there.

This definitely happened at times throughout the year.  I tend to think the over-dribbling was not entirely his fault as the team (at times) couldn't execute their sets which left him not much to do with the ball, resulting in jacking shots just to beat the shot clock.  Towards the end of the year, his shot selection improved and he over-dribbled less as the team's execution got better in general.  Lango does deserve praise for keeping Caltech's turn-overs down...for a freshman team, they did not turn the ball over as much as I was expecting. 

Caltech has a few games coming up in Europe (Spain) in two weeks...so they get a bit more time to gel before entering the off-season.  Caltech was close the second half of the conference slate...hopefully they put the work in over the course of the off-season to get them over the hump.

[WoostAr]

Those are the only three teams that I believe have a shot to win the conference next year.

Is Gaffney back next year?  I've heard rumors he's playing as a grad student next year.

Either way CMS will be in the hunt.