MBB: Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference

[AndOne]

In their 1st two games Franklin has commotted 32 turnovers. North Central has committed 35. Atrocious figures!

Franklin has played a little better competition than NC so far.

North Central's frontline gives them what would appear to be a decided overall advantage despite their lack of experience at the guard positions. However, if NCC's guards don't take care of the ball better than they have the 1st two games, their frontcourt advantage will be nuetralized as the ball will be turned over before its able to be entered down low.   

So far, NC has played several guards in an attempt to find the 2 that will work best with their big men. No one has really stepped up and shown either that they value the basketball or that they can consistently knock down the open shot to keep the defense from sagging back on the bigs. In addition to needing to improve in these areas, it sounds like their guards will have to play tight defense against the very capable Franklin guards. If someone can accomplish these challenges, NCC will have a clear advantage. However, due to their inexperience it may be a lot to ask the NCC backcourt to both play good pressure defense AND to value the ball more on offense at the same time. If they do, it will justify NCC's #19 ranking.

Overall, it should make for a very interesting game Sat in Naperville, and one that may well be decided by guard play. Can the NCC guards get the ball down low before turning it over? Can the Franklin guards, said to be the team's strength, hit their open shots and penetrate, forcing the NCC bigs to come out and help thus presenting an opportunity to dish down low to an open forward/center?   

[Gregory Sager]

In their 1st two games Franklin has commotted 32 turnovers. North Central has committed 35. Atrocious figures!

I'm not putting too much stock in turnover figures at this point in the season. The NCAA has specifically insisted that refs place closer scrutiny upon ballhandling this year, particularly in the areas of carrying the ball and footwork. The number of carrying and traveling calls seem to be up considerably. I've been to five games now, and I've already seen more carrying calls made than I've seen in entire seasons -- and the number of traveling calls I've seen are way up as well. All sorts of other people with whom I've spoken at games have noticed the same thing.

[haterinthehouse]

In Hanover's 90-85 win at Wabash, junior Clint Parker set school and conference records for 3 point field goals made with 11 and for attempts with 21, as he finished with 38 points.  Hanover also set marks as a team for 3 point field goals. 

[Rose Basketball]

Rose-Hulman improved to 2-1 on the young season with a 74-57 win over the Beavers of Blackburn College on Saturday.

Brian Bibb had 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Engineers. Jared Moore chipped in 15.

Zak Allan and Grant Lamsargis each had 13 points for Blackburn (2-2).

http://www.rose-hulman.edu/sports/mbasket/07msum03.htm

[RO_24]

Bluffton is 4-1 so far this season with their only loss coming to ranked North Central.  Good games all around this weekend at Bluffton.  They had their stretches of ugliness missing a lot of bunnies, but they held it together for a nice win over Goshen and then a hard fought, horribly officiated game against Heidelberg on Saturday. Hopefully they can beat Hiram tomorrow and start conference out on a bang this Saturday against Franklin.  Who does everyone else have this week in conference, and how do you think they will all fare? 

[AndOne]

AndOne -- thanks for the observations.  As we noted in earlier conversations after the pre-season poll came out, 4th and 9th place in the poll were separated by 5 points, so mostly, the poll just tells us that the coaches don't know what's going to happen.  (I also heard that after Franklin's coach Kerry Prather saw that his team had been picked #1 overall, he sent an e-mail to the other HCAC coaches suggesting that based on that result, he was tempted to push for drug-testing for coaches.)

This CCIW fan has seen Bluffton and Franklin play the last 2 Saturdays. These are supposedly the last and first place teams in the HCAC this year. As Darryl indicated (above) previously, many of the conference teams polled closely in the pre-season voting. After watching BU and FC the last 2 weeks, I can confirm firsthand that there really seems to be little difference in the HCAC teams this year. I would be very willing to bet the conference race will be exceptionally tight. On any given night I think any team could easily knock off any other team. Should make for some VERY close games in what ultimately, for HCAC fans, s/b a very entertaining and exciting season. 

[HCAC-TU]

[

TU -- Joey Searle and Joey Verax


What do others think?  Who do you expect to step up at your school?

Greetings-
Transy has a deep roster, filled with some talented Freshman, 3 of which, maybe 4, will make the Freshman All Conference team (if there is one, can't remember). 

And star Nick Feagan has returned for a Senior Season after taking 2 years away from basketball for personal issues from my understanding.  Look for him to make a run at MVP with Searle and Verax also having that chance.

Others to possibly win MVP- Anthony from Bluffton will be solid all year, and I like sophomores Marshall from Franklin and Parker from Hanover to make their names for next season.  But I would think the favorite has to be Wade from Manchester if he is as good as his potential was 2 years ago. 

It will more than likely be between Wade and Feagan, Transy will most likely have the better year, but Feagan has more competition from his own teammates.

[Darryl Nester]

HCAC-TU:

I had missed the significance of Feagan's return (and had no information about TU's freshmen).  I see that 4 freshmen have seen playing time so far, 3 of those are averaging at least 18 minutes and 6.7 ppg, and 1 is starting.  On the other hand, I see that Searle has not yet played -- is he injured?

By the way, there is no freshmen all-conference team; just a "Freshman of the Year."  Last year it was Dustin Marshall; two years ago, it was C.J. Johnson (DC).  Both those players were listed on the honorable mention all-HCAC team; only one other frosh (Redman) was listed in the last two years.

[AndOne]

AndOne -- thanks for the observations.  As we noted in earlier conversations after the pre-season poll came out, 4th and 9th place in the poll were separated by 5 points, so mostly, the poll just tells us that the coaches don't know what's going to happen.  (I also heard that after Franklin's coach Kerry Prather saw that his team had been picked #1 overall, he sent an e-mail to the other HCAC coaches suggesting that based on that result, he was tempted to push for drug-testing for coaches.)

This CCIW fan has seen Bluffton and Franklin play the last 2 Saturdays. These are supposedly the last and first place teams in the HCAC this year. As Darryl indicated (above) previously, many of the conference teams polled closely in the pre-season voting. After watching BU and FC the last 2 weeks, I can confirm firsthand that there really seems to be little difference in the HCAC teams this year. I would be very willing to bet the conference race will be exceptionally tight. On any given night I think any team could easily knock off any other team. Should make for some VERY close games in what ultimately, for HCAC fans, s/b a very entertaining and exciting season. 

And now I see the expected last place team has beaten the conference favorite. 
What happened?
And, whats next? 

[RO_24]

AndOne - Saturday's game was a great game the whole way.  BLuffton pulled away at the end on FT's.  Hard-fought for both teams, and a good win for BU in their conference opener.  Couple players stepped up in the 1st half and other in the 2nd half, BU was in foul trouble majority of the game, and got some great play from Stober, who finished with a double-double.  Now this week will be fun, with rival DC heading to Bluffton, should be fun.

How's the rest of the conference looking this week?

[Darryl Nester]

Scores from Saturday were very tight:
HC by 1 over RHIT
DC by 2 over AU
MC by 4 over MSJ
BU by 8 over FC

The Bluffton/Franklin game was tighter than the final score suggests; as RO_24 said, the Beavers pulled away on FTs at the end.  Franklin trailed by only 2 with 2 minutes left.

Franklin was missing starter Jace Redman (injured, I think), while the Beavers were without starter Justin Rufenacht and sub Nick Wilson (I think both had concussions).  Each team had five players in double figures, and one player for each team ended with a double-double.

This looks to be an interesting season; perhaps we'll have a race like the 2000-01 season, when the 7 teams in the conference finished 7-5, 7-5, 7-5, 6-6, 5-7, 5-7, 5-7.

[Rose Basketball]

The Rose-Hulman/Hanover contest had an exciting finish.

Rose's Jason Bednarko hit a jumper with :06 left, to give the Engineers a 71-70 lead. After a Hanover timeout, they inbounded the ball and passed it down low to Robby Brown. He put up a shot that was blocked, but a foul was called on RHIT's Brian Bibb, sending Brown to the line for two shots with :02 left.

Brown nailed both free throws giving Hanover the victory.

[RO_24]

I was looking at the conference website...Why are there only 4 teams eligible for the conference tounament?  I would think they could find a way to get the 9 teams in without punishing 5 teams at the end of the season.  I was just wondering if anyone had an answer.  That's always a part of the season to look forward too.  Especially in a conference where there is usually a log jam in the middle, it could be a mess. 

Predictions for tomorrow nights games?

[Darryl Nester]

Rod:

The conference decided to go to a 4-team tournament when RHIT joined.  I suppose it is less of a hassle from an administrative point of view, but I'm also sad that this happened.  Given how tight the race often is (and especially as tight as it may be this year), it would be nice to include more teams in the tournament.  Even a slight expansion would be nice -- like a Tuesday night game between the 4/5 and 3/6 teams.  Then the top two teams would be guaranteed a spot in the "final four," but there would be one more chance for the teams in the middle.

[sac]

I believe the NCAA says if you have a conference thet has a potential of 3 tournament games you have to count that game towards your maximum regular season games allowed.  (24 or 25 can't remember)

I know the MIAA teams have one less non-conference game this year becasue of this rule.