Bumblin' B's

[Ralph Turner]

The 2007 Men's Basketball Handbook is out!

There are 37 Pool A bids, 3 Pool B bids and 19 Pool C bids to be allocated this year.

There are 37 Pool B teams and the Pool A access ratio for men's basketball is 1:9.32. 

The Pool B allocation was calculated this way:

37 teams  divided by 9.32 (Access allocation ratio)  = 3.97 which is truncated to 3 bids (not rounded up to 4 bids).

This should be the last year for the Pres AC and its 7 members.

Lincoln PA should be in its last year of D3 before it moves to D2.

Colorado College is moving to the SCAC in 2007-08.

Clarke has announced that it is going to the NAIA in 2007-08.

The early contenders include (1) the GSAC Members (Maryville TN earned the Pool B in 2006), (2) the Northern Athletics Conference, (dubbed the NAthCon, members from the old Lake Michigan Conference plus the remaining NIIC members), Independents such as Lincoln and Chapman, and the Pres AC.

Jack, here are the Pool B's.

Bethany in the Pres AC is off to a 5-2 (in-region) start.  If they can run the Pres AC table, then they can contend.

I think that the NAthCon will settle out as a regular conference would.  We can follow them more closely after the Holidays.

In the 4-member GSAC, Maryville and LaGrange are the early contenders.  I have a chance to see LaGrange this weekend, if work permits me.  Maryville is 4-2 (In-Region) and plays Transylvania on Dec 18th.  LaGrange is 3-2.

Chapman is 6-2 with 9 more in-region games remaining.

Three bids, four parts of the country and very little overlap!  (University of Dallas plays both LaGrange and Chapman.)

[Warren Thompson]

Just out of curiosity ...

What's going on with Lincoln? Three losses in their past four games. Problems?

[Ralph Turner]

Just out of curiosity ...

What's going on with Lincoln? Three losses in their past four games. Problems?

I don't know, but Bethany WV has a win over common opponent PSU-Altoona!

[patcummings]

Small school Lincoln shows how little it cares about sportsmanship

By Cory Giger, cgiger@altoonamirror.com

The team and coach responsible for one of the year's most disappointing displays of sportsmanship will be in town tonight.

...

From the Penn State Altoona perspective, tonight's game involves perhaps the most high-profile team ever to visit Adler Gym. The Lions might not be much of a match for Lincoln on the court, but at least their integrity isn't in question. 

I have to come out and say this.  As a middle aged Southerner, who lived thru the integration of 3 different public school systems as my father's job called for him to move,  that is about 3 shades this side of outright racism!

It is not "skin color" that he is questioning, but the "gangsta" implication is as vivid as every ugly "n-word" joke that I heard in the South in the mid 1960's.

Ralph,

Thanks for being the one to say it...cause I have certainly thought it over the past few weeks, even in comments made on this board.  There is frequent insinuation about the "way they play the game" and people aren't talking about fast paced, up and down, smothering-defense. 

I say - play however you want to play and the cream will always rise to the top. 

[njlincolnlion]

Warren:

Lincoln is playing without five key players due to team rule violations. Darryl White (the teams top shot blocker), Vincent Carter-Bey (the Lions defensive specialist) among others are out.  I believe, the original suspensions were for one game, but now I hear the AD plans on keeping the guys out for the rest of the year.  They will probably miss the Orlando, FL trip too. 

I guess the outrage from the OSU-Marion worked, as the AD and Administration is doing whatever they can to make this "thing" go away.  This is not whining, just fact.

[wilburt]

Ralph Turner:

Sorry, but you have strayed WAY off track by even bringing up race in this instance. I really hate it when the race card gets played when it has nothing to do with the issue at hand. What Lincoln did in running up 201 points on OSU-M has NOTHING to do with race.

I agree that what Lincoln did in scoring 201 points had nothing to do with race, but many of the responses to the game (on this board and elsewhere) had A LOT to do with race! 

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I haven't seen much in the way of race response.  I've certainly seen a disconnect between classic midwest basketball style and a more contemporary flow, and while there may be racial components to that, I can't imagine it was near the forefront of too many people's minds.

[wilburt]

Hoops Fan, thanks for that comment. 

I know Wilburt has taken some heat recently as Fisk was, for lack of a better term, "released" from the GSAC.

Ralph, Fisk officially resigned from the GSAC, due to "pressure" from Piedmont, Maryville and Huntingdon Colleges  

Taking Heat is putting is politely  

[Warren Thompson]

Warren:

Lincoln is playing without five key players due to team rule violations. Darryl White (the teams top shot blocker), Vincent Carter-Bey (the Lions defensive specialist) among others are out.  I believe, the original suspensions were for one game, but now I hear the AD plans on keeping the guys out for the rest of the year.  They will probably miss the Orlando, FL trip too. 

Thanks, 'lion. That would appear to explain the losses.

[Gregory Sager]

I agree that what Lincoln did in scoring 201 points had nothing to do with race, but many of the responses to the game (on this board and elsewhere) had A LOT to do with race! 

You've triggered quite a bit of that yourself with your links to articles discussing race and basketball the day after the Lincoln/OSUM game, Wilburt.

I actually agree with you, Wilburt, that there was some racial tinge to a stray comment made here or there against Lincoln. The unfortunate use of the word "gangster" to describe the play of the Lions against OSUM, f'rinstance. No matter whether it's spelled with an '-er' or an '-a', it's a code word in our society for irresponsible and insensitive behavior by young black males, and like all racial code words it's used as a weapon that comes with plausible deniability (unlike more blatant racial words, such as the 'n'-word). The use of "gangster" in this conversation was ill-advised.

However, what makes me angry about the use of the race card is its presumptuousness. People who impugn the motives of those who have spoken out against Lincoln's actions against OSUM are making assertions about what lies inside the heads and hearts of the people who are doing the speaking-out -- and unless you know that poster personally, or have observed the poster's mindset over a long period of time, you're simply not qualified to claim that sort of insight into his or her inner being.

Forgive me for tending to give people the benefit of the doubt, or for presuming them innocent until proven guilty, but I'm not going to go along with hanging the collar of "racist" on people who have clearly not earned that odious appellation -- nor am I going to go along with calling their comments racist when it takes a certain amount of reading between the lines, and a lot of presumptuousness, to do so. Even in the case of the use of the word "gangster" to describe Lincoln's actions, it's entirely believable that the poster was naive about the loaded sociological meaning of the word, or he simply used it unconsciously rather than deliberately, or he truly thought (albeit mistakenly) that the correct spelling did not come laden with the same unfortunate baggage as the '-a' spelling.

Thanks for being the one to say it...cause I have certainly thought it over the past few weeks, even in comments made on this board.  There is frequent insinuation about the "way they play the game" and people aren't talking about fast paced, up and down, smothering-defense. 

There's also frequent insinuation about the way Grinnell plays the game. Spend a few days in January and February in the MWC room, and you'll see endless griping about Grinnell's style, in particular the fact that the Pioneers foul so frequently that the refs can't keep up with it and simply let a lot of stuff slide. Grinnell's roster is overwhelmingly white, each and every season. And I can think of some other teams that draw nasty comments about their style of play, nasty comments that have absolutely nothing to do with the racial identity of the team in question.

[wilburt]

Gregory you bring up some good points (many of which I agree with, many I don't). 

As for me, Guilty as charged.  Yes I can and try to be provocative at times. Once the emotional response from my statement(s) wear off and one has time to reflect, I often find that many find merit to much of what I have to say!   

[Gregory Sager]

Gregory you bring up some good points (many of which I agree with, many I don't). 

As for me, Guilty as charged.  Yes I can and try to be provocative at times. Once the emotional response from my statement(s) wear off and one has time to reflect, I often find that many find merit to much of what I have to say! 

No problem, Wilburt. You're coming at this from an entirely different angle than most of us in terms of your background, and you thus bring an important point of view to this issue that we all need to consider.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Not to mention that I can imagine Wilburt has faced more than few racist basketball fans in his day.

[Ralph Turner]

Lefty, it is the "we are better than these guys" attitude without even seeing them.  ("Our feces has no odor", to borrow a Texas-ism!)

Maybe growing up in the south makes one a little more sensitive to what you can say and what you can't.

As surely as that article showed up in the Montgomery AL  Advertiser or the Marshall TX News, the national (NY, Philly, DC, Chicago, SF, LA ) media would have hit us Southerners for the "racist attitude".

Coming from Altoona, Pennsylvania, it is not looked at with the same bias/filter.

I was ready to let this thing drop, but I just saw a news feature on CNN about racism that exists just "Below the Surface".

Where did CNN choose to explore this topic?

In the deep east Texas town of Vidor, TX.

IMHO, the national media template uses a different filter for "other parts" of the country.

[Gregory Sager]

Geez, Louise, what a load of overly sensitive, politically correct claptrap.

Baloney. I'm as antagonistic towards the concept of political correctness as anyone. But I know full well what the word "gangster" means in our society. Whether you want to admit it or not, it has undeniable racial overtones. It doesn't make one bit of difference how it is spelled.

I've already said that I give AndOne the benefit of the doubt. I don't think that he was being racist by using that word, and I don't think his intent was to race-bait on this issue. Nevertheless, it is a racial code word, and Wilburt's reaction to the word was thus completely understandable.

IMHO, the national media template uses a different filter for "other parts" of the country.

I agree, Ralph. The media and the entertainment industry tend to hold condescending attitudes towards Southerners, and it's particularly true on the subject of race. Yet Ralph Abernathy and Martin Luther King left Chicago in 1966 convinced that white Northerners were more racist than their white counterparts in the South.