MBB: Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Gray Fox]

So lets get serious.  What are the preseason predictions?  Order of finish?  So many questions, I am interested to hear everyone's thoughts.

Initially CLU was my preseason favorite.  But with no Miller, and no Meier, they dont have anyone over 6'4 on their roster.  So here are my picks.

1. CMS
2. Whittier
3. Oxy
4. PP
5. CLU
6. LaVerne
7. Redlands
8 Cal Tech

I'll bite.  Be aware that the only SCIAC team I have seen in many years was Oxy when they played Mississippi College last year in the playoffs.  So my predictions don't mean much.   Thanks to OxyBob on the CLU information.

1. CLU
2. Oxy
3. Redlands
4. PP
5. CMS
6. Whittier
7. La Verne
8 Cal Tech

[cawcdad]

FWIW, I was not overly impressed with CLU on Friday although they were a very athletic group. They beat a very beatable Whitman team. Had them down by 17 at one point in the first half and let them get back into the game and even take the lead briefly before the Kingsmen hit some treys and secured the win. Chapman and Whitworth were the best teams at the tourney, although they both had trouble hitting threes. Both teams played a zone and said go ahead and shoot from outside and neither hit well. Look at the score. Cal Tech was very bad. What bugged me was that UC Santa Cruz kept pressing when they were up by over 20.

What are the other gyms in the SCIAC like? Cal Tech's was like a cave, it was dark in there.

[monmcali]

Two good wins for Chapman over the weekend.  The young guys on the team played well and the defense was really solid.  Cal Lu looked pretty good and even as a chapman fan i still dont know how the knightsmen didnt win.  The officiating was terrible in the Chapman/Cal Lu game i hope it was better in the rest of the tourney.

[OXY Oswald]

Hey Bob, I was wondering if you could offer some insight into the hoops team this year?  After the football hangover (and Redlands getting shalacked by the Johnnies in the first round) I'm switching over to the hoops board and need to get caught up. 

[cawcdad]

There are pictures up of last Friday's games at the Cal Tech Tournament:
Cal Lutheran vs. Whitman
Chapman vs. Whitworth
Cal Tech vs. UC Santa Cruz
I apologize for the poor quality, but the gym was dark and I was fighting the light and my flash all afternoon.

[scandihoovian]

Thanks for posting the pictures, Cawcdad.  I hope you enjoyed your time down south.

You asked about SCIAC gyms, and it's true that Caltech's is pretty poorly lit. 

I love Redlands old gym - but wish they would have done a better job with the lighting in the remodel (flourescent tubes).

Oxy has a mid-1960's flourescent tube classic.

CMS gym is small (court wedged in between stands and walls) but the lighting's pretty good.

I think LaVerne's is probably better than it used to be after the recent remodel (at least I hope).

Pomona has a nice newer gym in the Rains Center - but I don't recall the lighting being anything spectacular.

Whittier's gym was state of the art for a small school when they built it in the late 1970's - it's lighting, however, now causes numerous scorekeeping difficulties (see OxyBob for details).

And then there's this place:

[cawcdad]

Scandihoovian, I did enjoy my time in the southland. Thank you for the information on the SCIAC gyms. That is nice looking facility at CLU. I hope to get there sometime.

[Browneagle64]

Cool pics Cawcdad. As you might have noticed when you stepped onto C.I.T anyone can quickly notice how nice and beautiful the entire campus looks. However, when you get close to the athletic department, well, you get the picture.
Hope you enjoyed Pasadena and So.Cal by the way.

[cawcdad]

. . .CLU has the newest, nicest facility in the SCIAC, and it might very well be the best place for cawcdad to take pictures, but as a basketball venue it's cold and antiseptic. Except for the two guys who paint their faces purple and use yellow "Peligro! Piso Mojado" cones as megaphones, the Cal Lutheran fans don't generate a lot of energy, probably due to the fact that the Kingsmen are boring to watch, unless you're into teams which slowly walk the ball up the floor and pass it 50 times around the perimeter. . .
OxyBob

+K Bob. Funny stuff.
CLU seemed to want to play a little more uptempo and physical, at least in the game I saw. A kid for Whitman came to the bench and said, "Dude, all they do is push and foul every time down."

And yes browneagle, the C.I.T campus was beautiful.

[scandihoovian]

Bob sums up the atmosphere around the conference well, but I am a little disappointed he didn't mention how much he enjoyed the Kettle Korn at CLU games last year...

Gilbert is the nicest venue and a great place to watch a game, but I agree with Bob that steps need to be taken to pump up the atmosphere.  If you got 500-600 people out in the old gym (which was a pit, but had its advantages) it was SRO with people ringing the court and very loud. I think attendance for all events in the new building has actually gone up quite a bit over the old gym, but if you draw 800-900 to the new building the place only seems half full.  Combine that with a newer bleacher design that emphasizes legroom and aisle access and the crowd feels even more spread out.

[DIIIghetto]

Good work by CMS against the non-Cali DIIIs.  Chapman looked to have a good DIII team this year but their loss to LV (which was absolutely destroyed by Puget Sound) won't help them.  Kats looks like he has his work cut out for him in the post-Knowles era.  The Hens losses against the non-Cali DIII teams didn't help our cause at all.   Those losses on top of Oxy's whipping against a tough MC team in the playoffs (yes I know that Oxy's best player was out and yes I know that it is tough to play on the road in that environment and yes I know Oxy got screwed by the Committee - adding further pain to the Oxy disaster was the fact that MC was subsequently blown out by Virg Wes) put us back down into the armpit of DIII. 

Do our coaches understand the significance of these non-conference DIII teams or are we just that bad across the conference?  Someone give me some hope here that we won't be the DIII ghetto forever.   Oxy's performance against USD gave me hope that their kids came back with a chip on their shoulder but then I see their whipping against AP and I don't know. 

On the bright side, it looks like there is so much parity down here in the armpit that we'll at least be able to enjoy lots of competitive games and another dog fight for the crown.   And finally we get the post-season tournament.   That can only better prepare us for our inevitable first round trip to a highly ranked opponent. 

[SnowLeopard]

If you haven't seen it yet, this weeks SI
(KU jayhawks football on the cover, along with the headline "Dream Season")
has a short little article about Quantum Hoops in it.

[Browneagle64]

D3, Oxy lost to a tough #8 ranked APU team. In fact, it was projected that this APU team will do well through out their season after having exhibition games against UCLA, UC Riverside and other good NAIA teams.
What caused Oxy to slip and eventually fall during this game were mental mistakes and screw-ups. The boys in Orange and Black were leading 38 min. into the game, but then had problems in the turn-over department.

However, coach Newhall and co. should have the guys ready to play good b-ball in the coming weeks.

Btw, Snowlep, i posted that same thing about C.I.T last week. However, glad to see that you brought it up again.

[LogShow]

Willamette plays LaVerne on the 30th...did Laverne try to schedule every NWC team???

[Gray Fox]

Player of the year : Dan Winterbottom - CMS

He's on his way.

SCIAC Honors Male Athlete of the Week:  CMS' Dan Winterbottom
November 28, 2007

CMS:  Dan Winterbottom, Senior, Basketball
The senior guard from Tempe, AZ led the Stags to two wins at the David Wells Classic.  He scored nearly half the team's points in a 64-59 win over Macalester College as he exploded for a career-high 31 points on 11-15 shooting.  He shared the scoring lead at 14 in the team's 52-48 home win over St. Olaf College.  In the second game, he hit a three-pointer as the shot clock expired to give the team a four-point lead (which they would not give up) with 90 seconds remaining.  In the two games, he scored 45 points, had six rebounds, three assists and two steals.  He shot 69.6% from the field (16-23), 60.0% from three (6-10) and 87.5% from the line (7-8).  On the season he is averaging 15.3 points/game and has 15 rebounds, eight assists and four steals.  CMS is 3-1 overall.