MBB: Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[pomonaalum]

It would be interesting to see the academic profile of hoops players in the SCIAC, NESCAC, UAA and some of the other conferences.  Like has been mentioned here before, I think some of the Midwestern schools with good academics may have some inherent advantages over the SCIAC schools in keeping good players/good students close to home.  Then you have the likes of Emory, Wash U, etc - with a lot of $$$ and a large enrollment...

[Skander]

11

[OXY Oswald]

Final from Pasadena:

Oxy 80
Cal Tech 66

An unfortunately close game against the Beavers, but Oxy's lead was never in danger.  I might have a biased view, but I thought the officiating was terrible.  Either way, a win is a win.

Home game vs. La Verne for the Tigers on Saturday.

Go Tigers!

[castle]

It seems like Cal Tech is actually getting better.  They have played the top 4 conf. teams somewhat tough at home this year; losing by avergae of 13pts.  What happened to the 30-40 blowouts each night?  Maybe it is just that the players have a hard time to get up for a game against the beavers.  Whatever it is teams better beware becuse the techies will win a game sometime, I am just not sure when.  Maybe when LV and Whit go to CT on the last week of the season?  Doubtful.

CMS beat CLU by 10.

Also, #6 and #11 go down in close games tonight.

[K.C.]

I also went to the game out at Thousand Oaks.  Tough choice between that game and PP/Redlands, but I decided to make the long haul in hopes that it would be a more competitive game than it actually was.  I also wanted to see a game in that gym one more time, since apparantly it's being replaced after this season.  Taylor was money as usual - CalLu had no answer for him.  For whatever reason the student section was all over Miles from the opening tip, which did not do the Kingsmen any favors.  The game actually was not as close as the score indicated, IMO.  Had Borengasser been able to make his lay-ups, it would have been closer to twenty.  He seems to psyche himself out occasionally.

[pomonaalum]

Pomona over Redlands 118-87.  Doesn't look like Wexler-Baron played.  Pomona didn't attempt a 3 all game.

[castle]

PP hits over 74% from the field; needless to say I don't think the Redlands system is working.

[mr_rayburn]

I'll start it here...Jordan Carlson (Cal Tech) for 1st Team!

15 pts. against P-P
24 pts. against CMS
21 pts. against La Verne
29 pts. against Oxy

The last person I remember getting on any level of All League from Cal Tech was Jonathan Bird who I believe was 2nd Team a few years ago.

[scandihoovian]

I only caught the last 10 minutes of the CLU-CMS game (it was tied when I got there but CMS quickly started to pull away), and the one thing I would add to Bob and KC's astute observations is that CMS' size and quickness on the perimeter made things very tough for the Cal Lu guards down the stretch.  I was very impressed with the Stags defensive intensity.  The kinds of offensive opportunities the Kingsmen took advantage of in wins over LaVerne and Whittier were non-existent down the stretch.

The refs really let them play on both ends, so the style of play was fairly physical.  I'm curious, was this also the case in either of Oxy's games w/ CMS or PP?

[Gray Fox]

I think one of the Oxy women a few years ago was named MVP, even though her team was in last place.  This kind of thing would never happen in D1.

[WestCoastWhiner]

Amen Ypsi & Collinge.  The SCIAC Admins all fake the funk, trying to hide behind a commitment to academics as an excuse for athletic apathy and nominal/token support for athletics.  That position is offensive to every other NCAA DIII institution.  Furthermore, it is just plain wrong.  To compete nationally the SCIAC doesn't need to throw away admissions standards or screw up their budgets.  Balancing budgets is always difficult, and with limited resources difficult decisions have to be made.  I think every SCIAC Administration is being short-sighted and missing the value proposition of athletics. 

Look at the great ink the Oxy football team got this year in LA.  For an institution clinging to being a 1st tier U.S. News & WR school, having the LA Times run a feature on it, while referencing its 'elite' academics & special atmosphere, is worth more than any $250k marketing campaign their Admin could spend.   It was great for potential students, alums, had to make faculty & existing students feel pride, and undoubtedly boosted the school's profile.  In 2003 the Oxy men's team brought similar high profile positive press for Occidental. 

From hearsay I've calculated that outside of PP, every SCIAC school spends between $50-$100k less than Amhert, Williams & Wooster, not to mention Wash U and their conference counterparts.  I'm not talking about public schools, just private liberal arts institutions.  I don't think that comparison would be fair. 

Finding that money isn't impossible at any SCIAC institution.  If you are too afraid of the internal political implications of simply re-directing funds to athletics then direct some heavyweight fundraising efforts to athletics.  Other schools find the money and not everyone who does has an endowment like Amherst or Williams. 

My view is that those SCIAC schools that want to continue to pay for a head coach and give peanuts outside of that to their programs should seriously consider moving to the club sport level.  Otherwise the SCIAC will always present to the nation second-rate athletic programs.   And second-rate anything at institutions striving for excellence should be unaccepted.   Oxy, CMS, PP, CLU, Whittier, they all seem to treat athletics like something that allows them to check a box in the balance of power game.  "Well, we compete in the NCAA."  If they take that approach to athletics it is easy to understand why SCIAC institutions are slipping in national rankings.  Such strategic short-sightedness & indifference to third tier perceptions can't be isolated to only athletics.     

And let me preempt anyone who would throw out Oxy's football & basketball success as a response.  Sources tell me that each of those teams has great coaches who have found creative ways to do more with less.   I'd be willing to bet good money that out of the top 25 teams right now, all of them but maybe 1 have bigger basketball budgets than Oxy.   Same goes for Oxy's football program.  I have to believe that Oxy's football budget fell somewhere in the bottom half of the schools in the final top 25 pool. 

[WestCoastWhiner]

OxyB, your comment suggests that you buy the line that a liberal arts school has to lower its standards to compete nationally.  That excuse is nothing more than a subterfuge for deeper institutional issues.  Nobody else in DIII accepts it and you shouldn't either.  Williams, Wooster & Amherst are all higher ranked than Oxy and have a commitment to elite athletic programs.   Pomona should be embarrassed that it hasn't had a trip to Salem.  CMS should be committed to rising up the basketball chain as fast as their school did up the national rankings in the past 20 years.  Redlands & Whittier should realize what a great differentiator having national-level athletic teams would give them.  CLU should use the momentum of the new facilities to create THE west coast athletic powerhouse.  La Verne should stack the deck and then try to run the table like Stewart tried.  And CT, they should host the best intramural tournament in the country. 

 

[pomonaalum]

I'll put forth a few things on the academics "vs" sports issue at hand.

1)  The NESCAC schools are obviously located in New England, an area that is sports-mad.  Quite a few of those schools have built strong sports traditions.  My guess is that the average student at a Williams or Amherst is more of a "sports fan" than the average student at a Pomona or Oxy.  Having visited both Williams or Amherst, they were more traditional almost prep-school like...and indeed, New England and the Mid-Atlantic has a large share of prep schools that probably send a lot of their kids to the "Little Ivies."  These prep schools, like Groton, Exeter, Andover, Lawrenceville, Peddie etc are great academically - but, they also stake a lot of their repuation on their sports prowess.  If nothing else, their alumni demand it.  So, in a sense, the NESCAC schools athletic programs may be an extension of this prep school mentality.

2)  The SCIAC schools suffer from being in a terrible area for sports - both collegiately and professionally.  There is too much else going on.  My experience at Pomona was that a large number of local students would head home for the weekends, while others would head to San Diego, Vegas, Joshua Tree, etc.  There are very few other small, liberal arts colleges in major metropolitan areas.  Swarthmore and Haverford come to mind as exceptions, and their sports programs are nothing to write home about.

This is not to say that it's the way it should be, just my perspective.  It always amazed and dissapointed me that the library could be more crowded than the gym on the night of a big game, but it's the truth.  It's not something that can be changed overnight, and it's a bit of a chicken-egg kind of thing in terms of attracting high caliber student athletes.

[RFB]

Redlands basketball has had many good athletes in the program over the years, the problem is the coach. Gary Smith is a good guy and very knowledgable in the game of basketball. But he should have handed off the program fifteen years ago. I am confident that bringing in a new coach and a traditional basketball system would do wonders for Redlands basketball. 

[Sabretooth Tiger]

WestCoastWhiner:

The east coast schools you reference have vastly bigger endowments.  Oxy's annual giving is only now reaching the same level as Claremont and Pomona for the same reasons that athletics faltered in the 90s . . . no financial support . . . if you don't invest in your alumni, the alumni won't invest in you.

At any rate, perhaps you've forgotten, or never knew, that Oxy put a million dollars last year into a new football field and and press box.  Oxy just broke ground on a new dorm.  The next big athletic expenditure will be a new pool and hopefully a student fitness center.  There are lots of areas at Oxy that require investment, not just athletics.

Athletics gets its due at Oxy, and has since Slaughter left.  But its "due" is in proportion to the resources available in an in light of all of the competing interests and constituencies of a small, liberal arts college.

If you want to have a gym named "WestCoastWhiner" and have a few million bucks laying around, I can put in in touch with the right people.

And to a different query from a different poster, no, I didn't play basketball . . . football and rugby were my college sports.