MBB: Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Gregory Sager]

Wow, the SCIAC finally made this offical and i thought that i would bring it up:

CIT:  Travis Haussler, Basketball was named SCIAC player of the week

This 6'-7" junior from Santa Cruz, CA (Santa Cruz HS) averaged 26 points per game and 10 rebounds per game this past week in SCIAC contests vs. the University of Redlands and Occidental College.  In an overtime loss to Redlands, he scored 35 points including 5/5 from the 3-point line, 11/18 from the field, 8/9 from the free throw line with 13 rebounds in 40 minutes.  Against first-place Occidental, he was 7/14 from the floor added two 3 pointers with 7 rebounds for 17 points in the contest.  Travis is an Applied Mathematics and Business double major at Caltech, with a 3.7 grade point average.

Let's see ... he's an Applied Mathematics and Business double major at Caltech who sports a 3.7 gpa, and on top of that he's a 6'7 basketball stud. Why not skip the SCIAC Player of the Week award and instead give him the Soon You Will Either Be Working For Me Or Electing Me To High Office award?

[Pat Coleman]

Yep, that's what the NCAA provided. We'll see what they say about the regional record -- if I had to guess, like I did out on the blog, I'd say it's the La Sierra games they are not counting.

Interesting. I believe the games Oxy played against La Sierra counted in the regional rankings in 2007 and 2006. Strange that they wouldn't count this season despite La Sierra's provisional status. Anyway, if Oxy's games against La Sierra don't count, then that's good for the Tigers because, as you said on the Daily Dose:

Oxy's new OWP is .511 and OOWP is .548.

OxyBob

They wouldn't have counted last year.

Last year: 5. Occidental 17-5 12-3
This matches our regional game designations: http://www.d3hoops.com/school/OXY/mens/2007

[DIIIghetto]

Side commentary.

Someone has to relay the info about the OT game at Redlands.  Always a tough place to play and it helps our conference for Oxy to have found a way to pull that out, congrats.  Looks like under the new regime Redlands is continuing their tradition of playing like studs in that tiny facility. 

Kats with a sweep of CMS?  Did I read that right.  Scali can't be too happy today.  Didn't see that one coming with the way PP has been playing.  Goes to show you that in that rivalry, you just never know.   Bragging rights for the Hens for a year, nice work.

Lots of hoops left. 

[TeeDub]

Redlands has a tough road with 3 away games left.

The one home game may be the worst.

[sciac_is_fun]

Oxy 83, Redlands 80, OT
OC: Connor Whitman 20 (6-for-12 and 5-for-5 FTs), Huston Conti 22 (5-for-10 and 10-for-10 FTs),

Oxy will win conference (reg season) behind the power of free throws.  what a lesson to young players. 

prediction: Oxy will beat CLU in their second meeting, but then the Kingsmen will take the Tigers in the conference tourney (and the SCIAC will get two bids to the tourney)

prediction part II: the NCAA will match up Oxy and CLU in the first round of the tourney, nullifying the two bids.

[Gregory Sager]

Oxy 83, Redlands 80, OT
OC: Connor Whitman 20 (6-for-12 and 5-for-5 FTs), Huston Conti 22 (5-for-10 and 10-for-10 FTs),

Oxy will win conference (reg season) behind the power of free throws.  what a lesson to young players. 

prediction: Oxy will beat CLU in their second meeting, but then the Kingsmen will take the Tigers in the conference tourney (and the SCIAC will get two bids to the tourney)

prediction part II: the NCAA will match up Oxy and CLU in the first round of the tourney, nullifying the two bids.

You may as well scrap your "prediction part II", because it won't happen. The D3 championship handbook specifically states that teams from the same conference are to be kept from playing each other in the first round. That's the reason behind the imbroglio involving ASC rivals Mary Hardin-Baylor and Mississippi College last season, which also involved Oxy and Maryville (TN).

[hickory_cornhusker]

Oxy 83, Redlands 80, OT
OC: Connor Whitman 20 (6-for-12 and 5-for-5 FTs), Huston Conti 22 (5-for-10 and 10-for-10 FTs),

Oxy will win conference (reg season) behind the power of free throws.  what a lesson to young players. 

prediction: Oxy will beat CLU in their second meeting, but then the Kingsmen will take the Tigers in the conference tourney (and the SCIAC will get two bids to the tourney)

prediction part II: the NCAA will match up Oxy and CLU in the first round of the tourney, nullifying the two bids.

I wouldn't say the two playing each other nullifies the feat of getting two bids. You get to going into the tourney being the only ones that know that at worst your conference will have one tourney win. It's a terrible situation if it ended up that way but I tried to fin the bright side.

[sciac_is_fun]

Oxy 83, Redlands 80, OT
OC: Connor Whitman 20 (6-for-12 and 5-for-5 FTs), Huston Conti 22 (5-for-10 and 10-for-10 FTs),

Oxy will win conference (reg season) behind the power of free throws.  what a lesson to young players. 

prediction: Oxy will beat CLU in their second meeting, but then the Kingsmen will take the Tigers in the conference tourney (and the SCIAC will get two bids to the tourney)

prediction part II: the NCAA will match up Oxy and CLU in the first round of the tourney, nullifying the two bids.

You may as well scrap your "prediction part II", because it won't happen. The D3 championship handbook specifically states that teams from the same conference are to be kept from playing each other in the first round. That's the reason behind the imbroglio involving ASC rivals Mary Hardin-Baylor and Mississippi College last season, which also involved Oxy and Maryville (TN).

i had thought it happened a couple years ago...didn't oxy host a tournament game?  perhaps it was just a playoff game, when CMS and Oxy were tied for the conference title.  but i seem to remember ncaa tournament programs and things like that.

[sciacguru]

Oxy 83, Redlands 80, OT
OC: Connor Whitman 20 (6-for-12 and 5-for-5 FTs), Huston Conti 22 (5-for-10 and 10-for-10 FTs),

Oxy will win conference (reg season) behind the power of free throws.  what a lesson to young players. 

prediction: Oxy will beat CLU in their second meeting, but then the Kingsmen will take the Tigers in the conference tourney (and the SCIAC will get two bids to the tourney)

prediction part II: the NCAA will match up Oxy and CLU in the first round of the tourney, nullifying the two bids.

You may as well scrap your "prediction part II", because it won't happen. The D3 championship handbook specifically states that teams from the same conference are to be kept from playing each other in the first round. That's the reason behind the imbroglio involving ASC rivals Mary Hardin-Baylor and Mississippi College last season, which also involved Oxy and Maryville (TN).

i had thought it happened a couple years ago...didn't oxy host a tournament game?  perhaps it was just a playoff game, when CMS and Oxy were tied for the conference title.  but i seem to remember ncaa tournament programs and things like that.

Oxy did host the 1st round of the NCAA playoffs, but they were 2nd place in SCIAC with a 10-4 record.  CMS was 12-2.  Oxy got in having beaten Amherst and Whitworth that year.  They hosted because they had the bigger facility, I believe.  They then went on to Puget Sound and lost to that eventual Elite 8 team.  I could be wrong on the SCIAC records but I know there was not a tie for SCIAC that year.  The SCIAC website does not have those records online.

[Pat Coleman]

Greg -- they will match up two conference teams in the first round if it's a Thursday first-round game. If it's a four-team regional then they'll avoid it.

Their example is correct.

[Gregory Sager]

Greg -- they will match up two conference teams in the first round if it's a Thursday first-round game. If it's a four-team regional then they'll avoid it.

Their example is correct.

The 2008 handbook does not say that, Pat. It says on page 17 under Pairings and Site Selection, "Teams from the same conference do not have to play one another in the first round as long as geographic proximity is maintained." And that's all that it says about this particular subject.

The "geographic proximity" codicil obviously gives the committee an out, particularly in the case of a geographic orphan such as the SCIAC, but last year's mishap with the pairings did indicate that the committee is striving to keep even the teams from geographic-orphan conferences from playing each other in the first round. But, again, there is no indication whatsoever in the handbook that Thursday first-round games are treated any differently than Friday first-round games.

[pineconefan]

What are the chances that Chapman picks up a Pool B berth?

If Oxy and CLU each win out, other than a loss to each other in the the regular season and in the SCIAC final, then either would have a good shot at a C.

Then that would create almost a no-brainer four-team regional with those two, Chapman and the NWC champ.

[Gregory Sager]

According to the latest update in the Pool B room under "Multi-Regional Topics", Chapman is currently on the outside looking in as far as the four Pool B berths are concerned.

[pineconefan]

Thanks Greg,

Even if Chapman doesn't make it in, if both CLU and OXY are in would the committee likely have one or the other host and bring in the NWC Champ plus another for a four team first-second round?

[Gregory Sager]

Thanks Greg,

Even if Chapman doesn't make it in, if both CLU and OXY are in would the committee likely have one or the other host and bring in the NWC Champ plus another for a four team first-second round?

That's possible. It's also possible that they'd bring the NWC representative down to Cal Lutheran and have CLU host a Thursday night first-rounder, especially since parity in the NWC is so extreme this season that the NWC rep might end up being the lowest-seeded team in the West Region.