MBB: Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference

[David Collinge]

Teams in the NCAC have 25-game schedules, which is the NCAA maximum, and they play an 8-team (i.e. max 3 game) tournament.  For example, see Wooster's schedule.

I think a four-team HCAC tournament will result in a wild and woolly last week or so of conference play, since probably everyone will be flirting with missing the tournament.  It should be fun.

[sac]

Well it would appear my theory is wrong.......not the first time.

[Rose Basketball]

I am looking forward to tomorrow's contest between Rose-Hulman and Franklin.

It will be interesting to see how the Engineers (picked 8th) stacks up against the league favorite. It is long season, and we are just underway. But, I think Rose-Hulman is going to be much more competitive in the league than many were led to believe.

Rose has a chance, tomorrow night, to show they can play with the league powerhouses. I hope they come ready to play and protect their home court. With Road wins being so hard to obtain in the HCAC, teams must protect their own yard to stay in the coveted Top 4 spots in the league.

[RO_24]

I agree that the last week of the conference season could be crazy, but I also feel bad for the teams that will be left out of the cold.  Work so hard all year, and then don't even get a chance to win your conference tournament to receive a bid to the NCAA's...Just seems a little unfair to me.  We always played a 25 game schedule and had possibility of 3 games to get a bid.  I agree with Darryl, in that they could at least expand it to 6 teams. That would still allow the 3-6 seeds a shot at 3 games.  Be interesting to see if they will change their way of thinking next season.  This system could be as broke as the BCS, ha...

[David Collinge]

But they do have a chance to win the conference tournament and go to the NCAAs.  They have a 16-game season to earn one of those conference tournament spots.  There's a long-running argument about this, and it might be more pertinent to the HCAC than any other conference.  Is it right or wise to give your league title and what might be the league's only NCAA tournament berth to a team that couldn't finish any higher than 5th in the conference season?  In the HCAC, it's not far-fetched to think that the 7th or 8th place team could win three tournament games and the go to the NCAAs.  Is that what you really want? 

There are many who think that conference tournaments are bad ideas, no matter how many teams are invited.  I'm not among them, because I think there's a lot of good things associated with the tournament.  But I come from a conference (NCAC) where it's preposterous to suggest that a second-division team could win the tournament, so I don't have to worry about that aspect.  If I were primarily an HCAC fan, I might think differently.

[RO_24]

I see both sides of the argument, but I think that it's fair to have a conference tournament available.  The HCAC primarily only ever gets one team earn a berth to the NCAA's.  It's just been that way it seems for awhile.  So whether the 9th place would go on a run and win the conferent tourney and earn a bid or  the 1st place team would sweep everyone, it's what creates the excitement at the end of the season.  If your a few games out with a couple to play, what are you playing for now?  There's no chance for you to redeem yourself in the tournament now.   Now 5 of the 9 teams in the conference don't even get a shot at it.

The NCAC has basically 2 schools that win the conference and represent each year, and they represent well.  OWU has been rising in the standings and I hope to see them pull out a title this year.   

[Darryl Nester]

Final from Bluffton:  Beavers 103 Yellow Jackets 93 (OT).

Very exciting game -- DC raced out to a 9-0 lead at the beginning, but the Beavers fought back to lead by 2 at the break.  Bluffton pushed the lead to as much as 11 in the 2nd half, but DC hung in to tie the game at 84 with 6.8 seconds left (but missed the FT that would have given them the lead).  Beavers got the rebound on the missed FT, called time-out, but couldn't get off a good shot.

In OT, Eric Schwieterman picked up two early steals for Bluffton; he made the first layup, and missed the second, but teammate Josiah Stober had the putback.  Defiance was down by 5 or more points pretty quickly and couldn't get back.

DC freshman Mike Floyd had (I assume) a career high 27, including 7 3's.  Four other Jackets scored in double figures, but only two other players scored.

The Beavers had 23 from Colt Cunningham, 22 (career-high) from Nick Wilson off the bench, and 16 (career-high) from Schwieterman.  The Beaver bench outscored the DC bench 46 to 19.

Any reports from other games?

[Darryl Nester]

I'll answer my own question -- or at least report the scores.  Those who attended the games, please feel free to add details ...

TU over AU, 91-86 in OT
FC over RHIT, 58-50
HC over MSJ, 101-68

[RO_24]

Darryl,

That was a great game last night, couldn't say I expected much less though...those last few seconds of the game were a little testy though when we kept trying to block shots.  Good start by the Beavers, and hopefully someone continually steps up, as it seems it is someone different each game. 

Big game this weekend on the road though, Rose how'd they look last night?

[HCAC-TU]

For TU- Searle has been practicing with the team, but his first game will be in 2 weeks I believe.

Transy is still struggling to find chemistry with so many new players and unfamiliar faces.  Terrible loss to MSJ, same thing happened last season if I remember correct.  Close win vs AU in OT.. Coach Brian Lane will have them playing better by the 1st of the year I am sure..

I am happy with only 4 teams making tourney, would be a disgrace for a team that played poorly during the regular season to be able to get hot and run the table with luck and get the NCAA bid.  You shoul dbe rewarded for great play throughout the year. Consistancy builds programs, not luck.

[sac]

Without much fanfare it appears we have our first Transylvania poster.

Welcome!

[Darryl Nester]

sac --  HCAC-TU first posted on November 28.  His comment about Searle is in response to the question I posed to him.

HCAC-TU:  You said you thought Transy would be playing better by the first of the year.  I hope they hold off until the 4th or so, as they play Bluffton on the 3rd.

[mattgrubb]

you guys watch out, this matt parton kid at Transy got his first quality minutes last night and had some good numbers, this kid can play, he led his team to 3 straight state tournaments in TN in high school and lost 2 of those state title games to a kid named Brandan Wright (UNC), he can flat out GRD, and the more he grows as a player the better TU is going to be

Go Pioneers

[Rose Basketball]

Rose how'd they look last night?

Not good.

The Engineers did not play well. They surrendered TWENTY offensive rebounds to a relatively small Franklin team. And, committed 20 turnovers. Despite that, they still managed to only lose by 8, at 58-50.

Franklin jumped out to a 15 point cushion in the 1st half. But, in the 2nd, Rose was able to put together some mini-spurts and get within 51-49 late in the ballgame. Trailing by those two points, Rose puts Franklin at the line and TWICE, Franklin missed the free throw but got the offensive rebound.

The turnovers committed by the Engineers were brutal. Balls going off of players' hands on easy passes. Guys not seeing the floor. It was not indicative of the kind of basketball they had been playing. If they would have played like they did against Hanover (72-71 loss on some last second free throws) they probably would have won this game.

I did think Rose played a solid defensive game. As they will all season. They held a Grizzlies team averaging close to 80 points a game, to 58.

Have to give credit to Franklin as well. They are very quick, move the ball EXTREMELY well, and can shoot it from all over. They are also very deep. They took advantage of some costly Rose-Hulman turnovers, and that is what good teams do.

Hoping that RHIT can rebound against a very good Bluffton team tomorrow afternoon.

[Rose Basketball]

As we have been talking about in this thread. The fact that only 4 clubs make the postseason tournament, makes losses like the one Rose experienced on Wednesday that much more disappointing.