MBB: Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[scandihoovian]

My predictions:

Oxy 11-3
UofR 11-3
CLU 10-4
PP 10-4
CMS 7-7
ULV 4-10
WC 3-11
CT 0-14

We went through the whole tiebreaker thing last year and I still don't know if one exists or whether the tied teams play off.   If there was a tiebreaker based on head to head, UofR wins the league.  If not, well, who knows if UofR could take 3 from Oxy.  This tells me that this Sat's game is probably for the title.

There are a number of scenarios that could play out over the next two weeks.  I think one of the most intriguing is a three way tie between Oxy, CLU, and Redlands (all 11-3), in which each team has been swept by one and swept the other (e.g. CLU swept by Oxy, CLU swept Redlands)

[diehardfan]

My predictions:

Oxy 11-3
UofR 11-3
CLU 10-4
PP 10-4
CMS 7-7
ULV 4-10
WC 3-11
CT 0-14

We went through the whole tiebreaker thing last year and I still don't know if one exists or whether the tied teams play off.   If there was a tiebreaker based on head to head, UofR wins the league.  If not, well, who knows if UofR could take 3 from Oxy.  This tells me that this Sat's game is probably for the title.

If it was the CCIW tiebreaker (and obviously it's not, but the conference tiebreakers are usually vaguely similar), that would mean it would go to record against the next best team... if I'm not mistaken, Oxy is the only one to sweep Pomona thus far?

Is there really no way to find out what the tiebreakers are? 

There are a number of scenarios that could play out over the next two weeks.  I think one of the most intriguing is a three way tie between Oxy, CLU, and Redlands (all 11-3), in which each team has been swept by one and swept the other (e.g. CLU swept by Oxy, CLU swept Redlands)

[Gray Fox]

Re determining the conference champ, from the SCIAC web site:

http://www.thesciac.org/championships.htm

If teams are tied then they are co-champs. To my knowledge there is no playoff to determine the champ. Not sure how it'd be decided who'd get the auto bid.

OxyBob

I think diehardfan gets to dial it in on her cellphone.

[scandihoovian]

Thanks for checking, Bob.

I have vague memories of a CLU-PP playoff at Oxy in the early 90s - could this be so?

[Gray Fox]

Gray Fox:

I am doing some further checking. If there's a tie then there may indeed be a playoff to determine the conference champ. Back with details shortly.

OxyBob

What about a three way tie?  I'm actually interested because my early football analysis shows that as a real possibility.

Aren't the number of games limited by the NCAA?

[tigersports]

Re determining the conference champ, from the SCIAC web site:

http://www.thesciac.org/championships.htm

If teams are tied then they are co-champs. To my knowledge there is no playoff to determine the champ. Not sure how it'd be decided who'd get the auto bid.

Typical SCIAC.  Why don't they just say "the winner is the winner."

[DIIIghetto]

Nice to see other conferences get it right.

http://www.cciw.org/pdf/MBB_06Notes.pdf

Compare that with what Oxy puts out and you see the difference between schools that value the dollars they put into their athletics and those that don't. 

http://www.oxy.edu/x4075.xml

Need to shake the coconut trees and see what falls.  Any SCIAC AD making over $50k should be investigated.  At best they have been negligent in the performance of their duties.  Unless SID functions fall outside of the responsibilities of the AD, I think our folks have just done terrible jobs in marketing, communication and information dissemination.         

Congrats to Redlands for mustering a heck of a season in GS's final hurrah.  I think that GS represents what is right with so much in DIII basketball.  Unfortunately for SCIAC fans, that has less to do with winning than it does with complementing the academic missions of the schools.   If Oxy plays below where it should and Redlands wins this out, everyone will find out what I mean when the NW Champ beats them by 30, doing nothing to improve our national reputation.  I doubt that the NW champ will care so much about GS's send-off.  But I'm also not sure how well Oxy will fare against the NW champ either, unless their guards play better than they have (I put them somewhere in the middle to bottom half of SCIAC backcourts performance-wise, not talent-wise) and SB finds a way to start to put 30 minute games together (15-20 minute stellar performances won't help Oxy advance). 

CLU had a heck of a season for a team with that much youth and PP started to come around.   Both of those teams will probably add a stallion or two next year and will look to restore their position in the Big 3.  And CMS, well, having gone through the tragedy that they recently have, they deserve some slack.  Next year I will look for them to schedule more DIII opponents and to concentrate on some teams other than Oxy. 

[Pat Coleman]

Re determining the conference champ, from the SCIAC web site:

http://www.thesciac.org/championships.htm

If teams are tied then they are co-champs. To my knowledge there is no playoff to determine the champ. Not sure how it'd be decided who'd get the auto bid.

Typical SCIAC.  Why don't they just say "the winner is the winner."

If two teams tie and split head to head, there is a tiebreaker game to determine the automatic bid.

[Pat Coleman]

Aren't the number of games limited by the NCAA?

A tiebreaker game would be considered a conference tournament, and exempt, like every other.

[tigersports]

If the tiebreaker goes to the team with the sweep, UofR wins the conference with a tie with Oxy at 11-3.  Of course, we could end up with a 3-way tie with Oxy, CalLu and UofR if Cal Lu manages a split at the Claremont colleges.  Let's play 3 20-minute halves at the Supertent!

[diehardfan]

Let's play 3 20-minute halves at the Supertent!

Uh, I don't even think the Oxy fans would fit in the supertents, much less everyone else....

Speaking of the CCIW, here are our tiebreakers on our website: http://www.cciw.org/news/tiebreaker_procedures.php

we also get a 60 page media guide for the conference for men's and women's basketball: http://www.cciw.org/winter_bball_w/BB_06guide.pdf in addition to the ones the individual teams SIDs put out

and that's why I feel like I'm in an information vaccuum out here

[diehardfan]

Here are the final ones.... I didn’t bother to check if Sunday’s games actually changed anything for us out here.

1   11.550   1   UW-Stevens Point   0.950 (19-1)   20-2
20   10.333   2   St. Thomas   0.875 (21-3)   21-3
22   10.300   3   St. John's   0.900 (18-2)   18-5
28   10.150   4   Whitworth   0.850 (17-3)   20-3
30   10.100   5   UW-Oshkosh   0.800 (16-4)   19-4
39   9.947   6   Loras   0.789 (15-4)   17-6
42   9.923   7   Occidental   0.769 (10-3)   15-5
54   9.684   8   UW-La Crosse   0.684 (13-6)   15-7
55   9.667   9   Coe   0.714 (15-6)   17-6
57   9.615   10   Redlands   0.769 (10-3)   14-6
67   9.400   11   Lewis and Clark   0.750 (12-4)   16-6
69   9.389   12   Puget Sound   0.778 (14-4)   17-5
73   9.235   13   Cal Lutheran   0.688 (11-5)   16-5

Not tooo much has changed, but I think Oxy drops a spot and Redlands may have a shot of sneaking in over Coe or La Crosse now that Puget Sound has dropped all the way to 9.389 in region. Redlands significantly better In-Region Win % might be enough to make up for their slightly lower QOWI.

I think St. John’s gets ahead of St Thomas because they’ve beaten them and have a higher In-Region Win % despite a slightly lower QOWI.

The only hmmm... is that La Crosse's QOWI is pretty high, and they have 2 wins against ever increasing Oshkosh.

Here are my projections... lets see if I have a shot at being any where near as good this week as I was last week!

1) Point
2) St Johns
3) St Thomas
4) Whitworth
5) Oshkosh
6) Loras
7) Occidental
8 ) Redlands

[scandihoovian]

Nice article on the CLU freshmen in today's VC Star.

[Gray Fox]

Slightly off-topic, but here's an article from today's New York Times about a possible split of some Division III schools into a new Division IV:

Division III Seeks Harmony Between Field and Classroom

There's also a discussion of this in the "Future of Division III" sub-board of General Division III Issues.

OxyBob

Party poo-per!

I can see chaos in the SCIAC over this.

[David Collinge]

Slightly off-topic, but here's an article from today's New York Times about a possible split of some Division III schools into a new Division IV:

Division III Seeks Harmony Between Field and Classroom

There's also a discussion of this in the "Future of Division III" sub-board of General Division III Issues.

OxyBob

Party poo-per!

I can see chaos in the SCIAC over this.

Yeah, if there is a D3/D4 split, what happens in Southern Cal. will be among the most interesting questions.  There doesn't seem to be enough schools on either side of a potential D3/D4 divide to field a conference without bringing in some D2 or NAIA teams--and of course the D4's, or "traditionalists," wouldn't want an NAIA or D2 in their midst anyway.  So maybe the SCIAC stays together out of necessity, but if so, as a D3 or a D4?