MBB: Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

K.C. · February 04, 2006, 10:25:17 AM

My bad on last post. I keep wanting to call Marcus Gibson "Aaron" (looks like someone I know). Maybe first team a little much - he definitely looks like best freshman player I've seen in the SCIAC for a while, though.

Gregory Sager · February 04, 2006, 11:39:15 AM

Quote from: pomonaalum on February 02, 2006, 04:24:01 PMThere 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.

There are a lot more of them than you think in D3. New York City has dozens of D3 schools within an hour's drive of the city limits, and an entire league based within it. Boston, likewise, has D3 schools thick on the ground. Cleveland, Washington, Philly, Baltimore ... you name it, they all have small liberal arts colleges. St. Louis has an entire D3 league named after it, with about half the schools in the metro area proper and the other half out in the southern Illinois cornfields not too far away. The Twin Cities are home to over half of the MIAC schools. Chicago has about a dozen D3 schools either in the city proper or in the suburbs, and the only one of them that isn't a small liberal arts college is the University of Chicago.

Gregory Sager · February 04, 2006, 11:58:06 AM

Quote from: tigersports on February 02, 2006, 06:49:26 PM
To my mind, there are lots of reasons why SCIAC teams don't compete on a national level in football and basketball, and most of those have been expressed on these pages.

1. There is virtually no coverage in the mainstream media.

That excuse doesn't fly, because virtually no D3 schools get mainstream media support -- unless you're talking about the media in rural areas or in small cities. Some schools in the latter environment get nice, regular coverage in their local papers, often with a specific beat reporter dedicated to them (Wooster, Hope, and Illinois Wesleyan all come to mind, because their supporters on Posting Up often link to the stories in those papers, but I'm sure that there are others). But if you're under the impression that a major metropolitan daily or a big-market TV station outside of SoCal covers a D3 school or schools regularly, think again. Chicagoland-based schools are lucky just to get their line scores printed in the agate in the Chicago Tribune or Chicago Sun-Times, and I can count on one hand all of the sports features focusing on a D3 school that have appeared on an evening newscast here in the Windy City -- and I was around for three of North Park's five national championships.

Gregory Sager · February 04, 2006, 12:13:23 PM

Quote from: scandihoovian on February 03, 2006, 05:32:59 PMI wonder what they're cooking up at Calvin?

Calvin has no need to keep up with the Van Joneses as far as competing with Hope's new facility is concerned. The Knights play in a beautiful 4,500-seat fieldhouse right there on the Calvin campus. In fact, it was the site of the D3 men's basketball Final Four for a bunch of years back in the eighties and early nineties.

Quote from: OxyFan21 on February 03, 2006, 07:14:11 PMI was looking for some people of color in the picture

The lack of black players and/or students in some MIAA schools has been a chronic source of discussion in that conference's Posting Up room over the years. As far as fans go, however, there isn't exactly a substantial number of African-Americans in western Michigan outside of Benton Harbor from which Hope could draw fan support. Holland, MI, where Hope is located, is only 2.5% black, according to the last U.S. census. The local minority, as in a lot of small midwestern cities, consists of recent Hispanic immigrants who work in local factories or do unskilled labor. They make up between a fifth and a quarter of Holland's population -- and I doubt that a lot of them are much inclined to be big Hope men's basketball fans.

castle · February 04, 2006, 06:11:18 PM

Great stuff Sager; you really know your hoops!

The top three SCIAC teams should walk away with W tonight; PP has the toughest game @Whittier.

Nationall tonight: #1 vs. #2; #4 vs. #6. I'm sure that the Hope facility will be rocking tonight.

scandihoovian · February 04, 2006, 06:55:15 PM

Thanks Sager - maybe I didn't look hard enough but I had a hard time finding info on the Calvin facility on their website.

I'm looking forward to watching the ever improving Beavers tonight at Cal Lu - I'd love for them to break the streak, just not against the Kingsmen

tigersports · February 04, 2006, 07:41:53 PM

Good points, Sager, especially since I sacrificed explanation for brevity. If you're in a major (i.e., top4-6) metro area, you will get no coverage. However, if you are in a smaller, though still major market (i.e., one or more pro teams, like Portland), you will get at least some mention on page 5. Cal Lu and Redlands are outliers in this league and they get some coverage and it might not be a coincidence that they are league powers in football.

tigersports · February 04, 2006, 07:43:47 PM

Don't forget to listen tonight to oxybroadcast.com. Hopefully, my computer cooperates

pomonaalum · February 04, 2006, 10:10:29 PM

SCIAC schools are basically small, liberal arts schools. All D3 schools don't necessarily fit that bill....

Baltimore has Goucher, what else - maybe Villa Julie? Hopkins is not a small, liberal arts school.

As for St. Louis, Wash U is about as far from a small liberal school as there is. There's Webster, McKendree and a couple others, but nothing much of note. So, there's UChicago, but again, a bit research university. Same with Emory, Carnegie Mellon, Rochester, etc...in the UAA.

Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Williams are all in small towns. Tufts isn't a small, liberal arts school.

David Collinge · February 04, 2006, 10:29:54 PM

Small liberal arts schools in major metropolitan areas, just off the top of my head.

Cleveland: Oberlin, Baldwin-Wallace, John Carroll
Chicago: North Park, Elmhurst, North Central, Wheaton, Aurora
Atlanta: Oglethorpe
St. Louis: Webster, Fontbonne
Memphis: Rhodes
Columbus: Capital, Otterbein, Ohio Wesleyan

There's plenty more...

Stag4Life · February 05, 2006, 01:14:54 AM

CMS defeats Redlands 128-70. Redlands' lowest offensive output in at least 5 years(longest I could check back). Mani Maciera led the Stags with 30 points and dunked on a Redlands player so hard and high that he actually looked like Tracy McGrady out there, it was unbelievable. Miles Taylor also contributed with 15 points, 15 rebounds, and 13 assists, can u say MVP?

Occi was upset by La Verne at home tonight so the Stags and Occi are now tied in first place, should make for a very interesting final six games in the SCIAC.

GO Stags!

-- Stag4Life

OxyFan21 · February 05, 2006, 01:51:19 AM

An interesting score out of Eagle Rock. Just by listening, it appears the Laverne shot the ball extremely well.

This tightens things up considerably in the league. Now, does Oxy drop out of the Top 25?

Pat Coleman · February 05, 2006, 09:05:13 AM

Nah. It usually takes two bad losses in a week for a team to drop as many as 10 spots, let alone the 14 it would take for Oxy to drop all the way out.

K.C. · February 05, 2006, 10:24:41 AM

Wow, that La Verne-Oxy score is definitely a surprise. I went to Whittier thinking that would be the only competitive game on the schedule. It was a great game, played in front of a VERY small crowd. There were probably less than 75 people in the stands. Pomona could have put the game away in regulation, but poor free-throw shooting by Hollo and Lloyd kept the Poets in it. Whittier's guards also came up with some clutch 3's when they really needed them. Lloyd carried Pomona for most of the night - Wexler Baron wasn't a factor and didn't seem to get many touches in regulation.

scandihoovian · February 05, 2006, 12:17:29 PM

Quote from: Stag4Life on February 05, 2006, 01:14:54 AM
CMS defeats Redlands 128-70. Redlands' lowest offensive output in at least 5 years(longest I could check back). Mani Maciera led the Stags with 30 points and dunked on a Redlands player so hard and high that he actually looked like Tracy McGrady out there, it was unbelievable. Miles Taylor also contributed with 15 points, 15 rebounds, and 13 assists, can u say MVP?

Occi was upset by La Verne at home tonight so the Stags and Occi are now tied in first place, should make for a very interesting final six games in the SCIAC.

GO Stags!

-- Stag4Life

Welcome to the board! It's nice to have a CMS poster in the room...

I'm not surprised that CMS held the Bulldogs to such a low total, as I mentioned previously they looked very tough defensively against the Kingsmen.

I am very surprised that LaVerne beat Oxy in Eagle Rock. Maybe the Leos just had a real tough shooting night in Thousand Oaks, but they appeared to be having some serious offensive problems against the Kingsmen. It's not a done deal but Oxy's loss seems to put CMS in the driver's seat - they hold home court against the Tigers and even a loss to PP at the Rains center leaves them in a tie for the title.