Top 25 discussion

[Darryl Nester]

How They Fared (Complete)

Unless someone lets me know that they want to see more reports, this will be my final submission for this season.  (There are considerably fewer games to keep track of this week, anyway.)

Top 25

Rank	Pts	Team	W-L	Results
#1	625	Illinois Wesleyan	24-0	def. Olivet Nazarene, 87-66; def. North Central (Ill.), 78-40
#2	585	Hope	22-1	def. Olivet, 102-52; def. Calvin, 68-65
#3	572	George Fox	25-0	def. Willamette, 67-55; def. Pacific Lutheran, 73-51
#4	534	Oglethorpe	22-3	LOST at #18 DePauw, 86-92; def. Centre, 79-75
#5	498	Rochester	21-3	def. #36 Chicago, 56-52; LOST at #12 Washington U., 52-65
#6	476	Amherst	24-1	def. Colby, 77-36
#7	458	UW-Whitewater	22-3	def. UW-Oshkosh, 83-59; def. UW-River Falls, 68-56
#8	441	UW-Stevens Point	22-3	def. UW-La Crosse, 63-61; def. UW-Platteville, 84-63
#9	429	York (Pa.)	24-1	def. Gallaudet, 81-53; def. #27 Marymount, 70-57
#10	420	Thomas More	23-2	def. Chatham, 77-45; def. St. Vincent, 75-59
#11	356	UW-Eau Claire	21-4	def. UW-Platteville, 60-35; def. UW-Stout, 59-41
#12	346	Washington U.	20-4	def. Carnegie Mellon, 78-58; def. #5 Rochester, 65-52
#13	306	Messiah	22-3	def. Lycoming, 69-36; def. Widener, 71-47
#14	293	Eastern Connecticut	23-2	def. Keene State, 69-45; def. Rhode Island College, 68-48
#15	270	Tufts	21-3	def. Worcester State, 58-47; def. Wesleyan, 71-57
#16	240	Simpson	22-3	def. Loras, 77-65; def. Coe, 72-55
#17	177	Texas-Dallas	21-4	LOST at East Texas Baptist, 50-56; def. LeTourneau, 57-44
#18	156	DePauw	21-4	def. #4 Oglethorpe, 92-86; def. Sewanee, 75-55
#19	144	Greensboro	24-1	def. Meredith, 91-64; def. Shenandoah, 76-46; def. Christopher Newport, 75-73
#20	129	Muhlenberg	22-3	def. Dickinson, 67-65; def. Ursinus, 68-65
#21	124	Washington and Jefferson	22-3	def. Waynesburg, 51-37; def. Bethany, 93-77
#22	112	New York University	20-4	def. Case Western Reserve, 74-56; def. Emory, 71-60
#23	87	Mississippi College	22-3	def. Louisiana College, 77-55; def. Texas-Tyler, 77-66
#24	75	DeSales	21-4	def. Delaware Valley, 86-70; def. Alvernia, 68-65
#25	54	Scranton	21-4	def. #31 Moravian, 70-55

Others receiving votes

Rank	Pts	Team	W-L	Results
#26	39	Brandeis	17-6	def. Emory, 67-57; def. Case Western Reserve, 76-56
#27	38	Marymount	20-5	def. Salisbury, 65-49; LOST at #9 York (Pa.), 57-70
#28	31	St. Norbert	19-4	def. Carroll, 77-73
T#29	25	Roanoke	22-3	LOST to Washington and Lee, 54-65; def. Eastern Mennonite, 87-62
T#29	25	Bowdoin	21-4	def. Williams, 85-52
#31	17	Moravian	20-5	LOST at #25 Scranton, 55-70
#32	10	New Jersey	21-4	def. T#34 Kean, 73-61
#33	9	Western Connecticut	20-4	def. Rhode Island College, 60-56; def. Southern Maine, 62-59
T#34	6	Baldwin-Wallace	19-6	def. John Carroll, 74-51; def. Marietta, 75-43
T#34	6	Kean	20-6	LOST at #32 New Jersey, 61-73; def. Rutgers-Newark, 68-33
#36	5	Chicago	17-7	LOST to #5 Rochester, 52-56; def. Carnegie Mellon, 76-48
#37	3	St. Benedict	22-3	def. St. Thomas, 47-46; def. Gustavus Adolphus, 60-50
T#38	2	Cortland State	22-3	def. Potsdam State, 67-61; def. Brockport State, 65-59; def. Fredonia State, 55-45
T#38	2	Mary Washington	20-5	def. Wesley, 57-52; def. Stevenson, 60-26

[BJ - DSU SID]

Darryl

I wouldn't mind seeing it this week thru the conference playoff tournaments.

BJ

[jumphigh]

Atlantic Region
1. York (Pa.) 24-1 24-1
2. Mt. St. Mary (N.Y.) 21-3 21-4
3. TCNJ 20-4 21-4
4. Kean 18-5 20-6
5. Marymount (Va.) 19-4 20-5
6. Mary Washington 18-5 20-5

Every No. 1 & 2 in each region has at least one point in the top 25 voting except Mt.St. Mary. even teams below them in their own region garnered votes. This is a very good team, especially on the defensive end. MSMC is also deep basically having 7 starters, the teams gets only tougher when the coach goes to the bench 5 minutes into the game. Two early losses came without leading scorer Meridth Paggi, she did not make the trip down to the marymount tourny. Just looking for a little love,

[ronk]

   MSMC defeated Scranton the previous 2 years and I saw them in the NCAA against Hamilton, so they've done well. And, Meredith may have been the point guard Scranton has been looking for last year and this year if she had stayed there past her freshman season. Glad to hear that she continues to do well.

[Darryl Nester]

How They Fared (So Far)

Top 25

Rank	Pts	Team	W-L	Results
#1	625	Illinois Wesleyan	25-0	def. Elmhurst, 81-75; 02/27 vs. North Central (Ill.)
#2	584	Hope	23-1	def. Olivet, 74-57; 02/26 vs. Albion
#3	580	George Fox	25-0	02/26 vs. Whitman
#4	522	UW-Whitewater	22-3	02/26 vs. #12 UW-Eau Claire
#5	491	UW-Stevens Point	22-3	02/26 vs. UW-Stout
#6	488	Rochester	21-3	02/28 vs. Carnegie Mellon
#7	481	Amherst	24-1	02/28 vs. #15 Tufts (n)
#8	431	York (Pa.)	24-1	02/26 vs. Wesley
#9	412	Washington U.	20-4	02/28 vs. Chicago
#10	391	Oglethorpe	22-3	02/27 vs. Millsaps (n)
#11	388	Thomas More	24-2	def. Chatham, 60-44; 02/27 vs. Thiel
#12	340	UW-Eau Claire	22-4	def. UW-River Falls, 62-47; 02/26 at #4 UW-Whitewater
#13	314	Messiah	22-4	LOST to Widener, 57-60
#14	294	Eastern Connecticut	24-2	def. Mass-Dartmouth, 60-40; 02/27 vs. Keene State
#15	264	Tufts	21-3	02/28 vs. #7 Amherst (n)
#16	250	Simpson	22-3	02/26 vs. Buena Vista
#17	218	DePauw	21-4	02/27 at Hendrix
#18	175	Greensboro	25-1	def. North Carolina Wesleyan, 85-48; 02/27 vs. Shenandoah (n)
T#19	148	Muhlenberg	22-3	02/28 vs. McDaniel
T#19	148	New York University	20-4	02/28 vs. #25 Brandeis
#21	137	Washington and Jefferson	23-3	def. Westminster (Pa.), 70-57; 02/27 vs. Bethany (n)
#22	100	Mississippi College	22-3	02/27 vs. Howard Payne (n)
#23	75	DeSales	22-4	def. King's, 71-45; 02/28 vs. Manhattanville
#24	61	Scranton	22-4	def. Susquehanna, 60-51; 02/28 vs. T#36 Moravian
#25	45	Brandeis	17-6	02/28 at T#19 New York University

Others receiving votes

Rank	Pts	Team	W-L	Results
#26	36	Texas-Dallas	21-4	02/27 vs. Mary Hardin-Baylor (n)
#27	32	St. Norbert	19-4	02/27 vs. Illinois College
#28	24	Bowdoin	21-4	02/28 vs. Trinity (Conn.)
#29	17	Marymount	20-5	02/26 vs. Mary Washington
#30	15	St. Benedict	22-3	02/26 vs. Bethel
#31	12	New Jersey	22-4	def. William Paterson, 67-47; 02/28 vs. Kean
#32	9	Baldwin-Wallace	20-6	def. Otterbein, 70-68; 02/27 vs. Muskingum (n)
#33	8	Western Connecticut	21-4	def. Mass-Boston, 71-51; 02/27 vs. Southern Maine (n)
T#34	4	Cortland State	23-3	def. Geneseo State, 72-41; 02/27 vs. Potsdam State
T#34	4	Randolph-Macon	20-5	02/26 vs. Eastern Mennonite (n)
T#36	1	Moravian	21-5	def. Juniata, 66-57; 02/28 at #24 Scranton
T#36	1	Pitt-Greensburg	22-2	02/27 vs. Medaille

Other teams to watch (as suggested by posters on this board)

Rank	Pts	Team	W-L	Results
---	---	Roanoke	22-3	02/26 vs. Lynchburg (n)

[jumphigh]

  This is a very good team, especially on the defensive end. MSMC

Times Herald-Record
February 26, 2009
NEWBURGH — When your basketball team has won 96.7 percent of its league contests all-time and has never lost a league playoff game, you have to find new ways to challenge your players.

Mount Saint Mary women's basketball coach Randy Ognibene believes he has found one.

The Blue Knights are the stingiest defensive team in the nation, and Ognibene has changed some of his own principles to keep it that way.

Mount Saint Mary is holding opponents to a paltry shooting percentage of .288, 22 points ahead of second-ranked Elms, and 56 points better than its nearest competitor in the Skyline Conference, Polytechnic. The Blue Knights are holding teams to 48.4 points per game, trailing only national leader Saint Elizabeth by fractions of a point, and 12 points better than Polytechnic. The NCAA rewards the top statistical teams in the nation with a plaque.

"This is by far our best defensive team ever,'' Ognibene said.

Ognibene said his team is not great offensively — the Blue Knights rank 80th out of 435 Division III teams at 69.8 points per game — so he has placed a higher emphasis on defense. The Mount has always played a pressure-defense game, but this season Ognibene has drastically altered his approach.

Mindful of a conversation he had with Marist coach Brian Giorgis, the Red Foxes and Blue Knights have both gotten away from jumping out into the passing lanes and denying passes, and are instead working to take away layups and contest more shots with the use of more "help" defenders.

The results started to kick in a month ago. Since then, the Mount has held eight opponents to fewer than 41 points, limiting Bard to 31 and 21 in two meetings, and Yeshiva to 28 and 27 in two games.

Those are two struggling programs, but the concept works against the top foes, too. Mount Saint Vincent and Farmingdale State are the second- and third-ranked offensive teams in the conference, and played a 102-98 game last week. But Mount held Farmingdale to 40 points and Mount Saint Vincent to 55. Mount Saint Mary held the Skyline's top offensive team, SUNY Old Westbury, to 62 points on Saturday, 17 points below its average.

"They started to take pride in not just beating teams but shutting teams down, going after the national field-goal percentage title,'' Ognibene said. "The kids are starting to enjoy that success.''

The Mount hosts Old Westbury in a Skyline tournament semifinal at 7 p.m. Thursday. With a victory, the Mount will host the Skyline final on Saturday. The Blue Knights have won every championship since the inception of the Skyline in 1999-00.

"These kids have changed me as a coach,'' said Ognibene, a veteran of 29 seasons. "They started to produce results. I started emphasizing defense even more. This group has embraced it more, and they have changed me as a coach, maybe permanently.''

Now 45 minutes a day are spent exclusively on defense, to emphasize three principles: push the play to the outside, contest all shots and box out and rebound.

"Going into the tournament right now, I feel confident and comfortable,'' Ognibene said. "We are trying to guard against overconfidence and approaching the game in any other way.''

kmcmillan@th-record.com



By the numbers
Division III leaders

Field-goal defense

Team Avg.

Mount Saint Mary .288

Elms .310

Colby-Sawyer .312

SUNYIT .318

Chicago .319

Scoring defense

Team Avg.

St. Elizabeth 48.384

Mount Saint Mary 48.440

Amherst 48.7

George Fox 48.8

Messiah 49.5

Eastern Connecticut 49.5

[Pat Coleman]

  This is a very good team, especially on the defensive end. MSMC

Times Herald-Record
February 26, 2009
NEWBURGH — When your basketball team has won 96.7 percent of its league contests all-time and has never lost a league playoff game, you have to find new ways to challenge your players.

Mount Saint Mary women's basketball coach Randy Ognibene believes he has found one.

The Blue Knights are the stingiest defensive team in the nation, and Ognibene has changed some of his own principles to keep it that way.

Mount Saint Mary is holding opponents to a paltry shooting percentage of .288, 22 points ahead of second-ranked Elms, and 56 points better than its nearest competitor in the Skyline Conference, Polytechnic. The Blue Knights are holding teams to 48.4 points per game, trailing only national leader Saint Elizabeth by fractions of a point, and 12 points better than Polytechnic. The NCAA rewards the top statistical teams in the nation with a plaque.

"This is by far our best defensive team ever,'' Ognibene said.

Ognibene said his team is not great offensively — the Blue Knights rank 80th out of 435 Division III teams at 69.8 points per game — so he has placed a higher emphasis on defense. The Mount has always played a pressure-defense game, but this season Ognibene has drastically altered his approach.

Mindful of a conversation he had with Marist coach Brian Giorgis, the Red Foxes and Blue Knights have both gotten away from jumping out into the passing lanes and denying passes, and are instead working to take away layups and contest more shots with the use of more "help" defenders.

The results started to kick in a month ago. Since then, the Mount has held eight opponents to fewer than 41 points, limiting Bard to 31 and 21 in two meetings, and Yeshiva to 28 and 27 in two games.

Those are two struggling programs, but the concept works against the top foes, too. Mount Saint Vincent and Farmingdale State are the second- and third-ranked offensive teams in the conference, and played a 102-98 game last week. But Mount held Farmingdale to 40 points and Mount Saint Vincent to 55. Mount Saint Mary held the Skyline's top offensive team, SUNY Old Westbury, to 62 points on Saturday, 17 points below its average.

"They started to take pride in not just beating teams but shutting teams down, going after the national field-goal percentage title,'' Ognibene said. "The kids are starting to enjoy that success.''

The Mount hosts Old Westbury in a Skyline tournament semifinal at 7 p.m. Thursday. With a victory, the Mount will host the Skyline final on Saturday. The Blue Knights have won every championship since the inception of the Skyline in 1999-00.

"These kids have changed me as a coach,'' said Ognibene, a veteran of 29 seasons. "They started to produce results. I started emphasizing defense even more. This group has embraced it more, and they have changed me as a coach, maybe permanently.''

Now 45 minutes a day are spent exclusively on defense, to emphasize three principles: push the play to the outside, contest all shots and box out and rebound.

"Going into the tournament right now, I feel confident and comfortable,'' Ognibene said. "We are trying to guard against overconfidence and approaching the game in any other way.''

kmcmillan@th-record.com



By the numbers
Division III leaders

Field-goal defense

Team Avg.

Mount Saint Mary .288

Elms .310

Colby-Sawyer .312

SUNYIT .318

Chicago .319

Scoring defense

Team Avg.

St. Elizabeth 48.384

Mount Saint Mary 48.440

Amherst 48.7

George Fox 48.8

Messiah 49.5

Eastern Connecticut 49.5

Do you have a link to the story? We would like to put it in What We're Reading. Also, you're probably violating their copyright by copying and pasting it here in its entirety.

[jumphigh]

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090226/SPORTS36/902260327/-1/SPORTS3607

OOPS, so just post links for now on?

[Pat Coleman]

I would say a couple paragraphs excerpt and a link would be fair to all parties.

[Ralph Turner]

Parity in the ASC tourney.

#4 West seed UMHB (13-12)  in leading #1 ASC-East UTD 35-22 at the half.

Final UMHB beat UT-Dallas 57-48.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Parity in the ASC tourney.

#4 West seed UMHB (13-12)  in leading #1 ASC-East UTD 35-22 at the half.

Final UMHB beat UT-Dallas 57-48.

Ralph, based on your post on the Pool C thread, that is closer to parody than parity!

If the West always beats the East, is that really a single conference?  (Seems kinda unfair to the #2, #3, and #4 in the West.)

[Ralph Turner]

Parity in the ASC tourney.

#4 West seed UMHB (13-12)  in leading #1 ASC-East UTD 35-22 at the half.

Final UMHB beat UT-Dallas 57-48.

Ralph, based on your post on the Pool C thread, that is closer to parody than parity!

If the West always beats the East, is that really a single conference?  (Seems kinda unfair to the #2, #3, and #4 in the West.)

Our West women's teams have the numbers of the East Women's teams.  I think that we play a better and tougher brand of ball in the Women's ASC-West. 

[SabineBBall]

Parity in the ASC tourney.

#4 West seed UMHB (13-12)  in leading #1 ASC-East UTD 35-22 at the half.

Final UMHB beat UT-Dallas 57-48.

Ralph, based on your post on the Pool C thread, that is closer to parody than parity!

If the West always beats the East, is that really a single conference?  (Seems kinda unfair to the #2, #3, and #4 in the West.)

Our West women's teams have the numbers of the East Women's teams.  I think that we play a better and tougher brand of ball in the Women's ASC-West. 

Your full of it.  That might have been true in the past but get real.  I know you are a West homer but facts are UTD beat McMurry and HSU on the road and HPU bad at home.  For the season your big bad west won one game against UTD.  Unfortunately the one win came at the wrong time for UTD but if 2 teams from the west get in the tourney and MC or UTD stay home that will be a crock!!!

[Ralph Turner]

Good afternoon, SabineBBall.   

Let me give some background for the national audience that is reading this board.

New HPU coach Joshua Prock is a 2001 grad of Okie State and is getting his first head coaching job.

The team he inherits was undefeated National Champion.  That team lost the National POTY Meia Daniels (29.5 min/g and 19.6 ppg) and veterans Stacey Blalock (26.2 min/g and 15.3 ppg) and Elaine Hoffman (25.5 min/g and 12.6 ppg).  The combined 47.5 ppg from those three veterans was what the HPU defense allowed per opponent last season.

The game that UTD beat HPU was on the first crossover road trip (from the ASC-West to the ASC-East) for the Lady Jackets.  HPU to Ozarks is 503 miles which was the Thursday game, which HPU won.  The team traveled back to UTD for the Saturday 321 miles.  In Coach Prock's 7th game, on Dec 7th, HPU lost at UTD, 77-55.

It is apparent that Coach Prock and the young Lady Jackets have not worked out the kinks.

A month later HPU lost to UT-Tyler 61-58 on the road (265 miles one-way) after 4 more wins including home wins over Sul Ross, MissColl and LaCollege.  After the stretch where HPU lost at home to UMHB (ASC-W #4) and road losses at HSU (ASC-W #2) and  McMurry (ASC-W #1), HPU went undefeated.

In my opinion, the March Lady Jackets after the ASC West schedule has toughened what is a re-built team.

For outside fans, the ASC had has an 8-team tourney since 2005. In the last five years, the tourney record (4 v 1, 3 v 2, 2 v 3, and 1 v 4) ins West 20 wins, East 3 wins.

I think that this HPU team is as tough as last year's team.  The rivalry game against Hardin-Simmons will occur on the "neutral floor" at McMurry.

(I am gonna have some fun with this pick.) If HPU, good ol' Horrid Pain    , beats HSU today, I think that HPU goes at least to the Elite 8 without having seen the bracket.

And I wanna see 'em do it!

[Darryl Nester]

How They Fared--The Final Report

Top 25

Rank	Pts	Team	W-L	Results
#1	625	Illinois Wesleyan	27-0	def. Elmhurst, 81-75; def. North Central (Ill.), 76-58; def. Carthage, 75-55
#2	584	Hope	25-1	def. Olivet, 74-57; def. Albion, 79-52; def. St. Mary's (Ind.), 77-47
#3	580	George Fox	27-0	def. Whitman, 85-47; def. Puget Sound, 67-58
#4	522	UW-Whitewater	22-4	LOST to #12 UW-Eau Claire, 34-61
#5	491	UW-Stevens Point	24-3	def. UW-Stout, 76-64; def. #12 UW-Eau Claire, 46-42
#6	488	Rochester	22-3	def. Carnegie Mellon, 103-52
#7	481	Amherst	25-2	def. #15 Tufts, 49-46; LOST at #28 Bowdoin, 46-49
#8	431	York (Pa.)	25-2	def. Wesley, 72-53; LOST to Mary Washington, 56-67
#9	412	Washington U.	21-4	def. Chicago, 70-55
#10	391	Oglethorpe	25-3	def. Millsaps, 70-56; def. Centre, 71-51; def. Trinity (Texas), 82-66
#11	388	Thomas More	26-2	def. Chatham, 60-44; def. Thiel, 81-43; def. #21 Washington and Jefferson, 59-49
#12	340	UW-Eau Claire	23-5	def. UW-River Falls, 62-47; def. #4 UW-Whitewater, 61-34; LOST at #5 UW-Stevens Point, 42-46
#13	314	Messiah	22-4	LOST to Widener, 57-60
#14	294	Eastern Connecticut	25-3	def. Mass-Dartmouth, 60-40; def. Keene State, 61-56; LOST to Southern Maine, 59-64
#15	264	Tufts	21-4	LOST to (n) #7 Amherst, 46-49
#16	250	Simpson	24-3	def. Buena Vista, 76-65; def. Wartburg, 75-45
#17	218	DePauw	22-5	def. Hendrix, 70-52; LOST to (n) Trinity (Texas), 80-98
#18	175	Greensboro	26-2	def. North Carolina Wesleyan, 85-48; def. Shenandoah, 64-50; LOST to (n) Christopher Newport, 58-66
T#19	148	Muhlenberg	24-3	def. McDaniel, 67-51; def. Johns Hopkins, 76-55
T#19	148	New York University	21-4	def. #25 Brandeis, 62-49
#21	137	Washington and Jefferson	24-4	def. Westminster (Pa.), 70-57; def. Bethany, 78-62; LOST at #11 Thomas More, 49-59
#22	100	Mississippi College	22-4	LOST to (n) Howard Payne, 62-63
#23	75	DeSales	23-4	def. King's, 71-45; def. Manhattanville, 70-60
#24	61	Scranton	23-4	def. Susquehanna, 60-51; def. T#36 Moravian, 71-57
#25	45	Brandeis	17-7	LOST at T#19 New York University, 49-62

Others receiving votes

Rank	Pts	Team	W-L	Results
#26	36	Texas-Dallas	21-5	LOST to (n) Mary Hardin-Baylor, 48-57
#27	32	St. Norbert	20-5	def. Illinois College, 59-47; LOST to Ripon, 49-56
#28	24	Bowdoin	23-4	def. Trinity (Conn.), 74-56; def. #7 Amherst, 49-46
#29	17	Marymount	20-6	LOST to Mary Washington, 70-77
#30	15	St. Benedict	24-3	def. Bethel, 66-61; def. Concordia-Moorhead, 67-58
#31	12	New Jersey	23-4	def. William Paterson, 67-47; def. Kean, 69-57
#32	9	Baldwin-Wallace	21-7	def. Otterbein, 70-68; def. Muskingum, 70-58; LOST at Capital, 41-53
#33	8	Western Connecticut	21-5	def. Mass-Boston, 71-51; LOST to (n) Southern Maine, 51-56
T#34	4	Cortland State	23-4	def. Geneseo State, 72-41; LOST to Potsdam State, 59-64
T#34	4	Randolph-Macon	23-5	def. Eastern Mennonite, 86-68; def. Virginia Wesleyan, 75-55; def. Bridgewater (Va.), 69-65
T#36	1	Moravian	21-6	def. Juniata, 66-57; LOST at #24 Scranton, 57-71
T#36	1	Pitt-Greensburg	24-2	def. Medaille, 61-49; def. La Roche, 67-46

Other teams to watch (as suggested by posters on this board)

Rank	Pts	Team	W-L	Results
---	---	Roanoke	23-4	def. Lynchburg, 75-48; LOST to (n) Bridgewater (Va.), 58-69