MBB: Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference

pbrooks3 · November 22, 2008, 10:08:12 PM

Transylvania 65 Centre 63 - good opener for Transy.

pbrooks3 · November 23, 2008, 09:39:07 PM

A good synopsis of the Transylvania win over Centre from Saturday night on the SCAC site under Old Student / Athlete. Looks like Transy may be the cream of the crop in the Heartland this season.

wc4252 · November 28, 2008, 11:33:30 PM

Big game tomorrow at Anderson against #1 Washington. Anderson played #7 UW Platteville to a 2 point game on Tuesday so they get another chance against a top ten team. How is everybody else in the HCAC looking so far?

Darryl Nester · November 29, 2008, 08:25:47 PM

Anderson loses to #1 Wash U by 2 -- had a chance to tie or win in the closing seconds. On the heels of their 2-point loss to #7 UW-Platteville, AU can make a convincing claim to being the best 2-2 team in the country.

Bluffton won their 4th straight today -- though not against the same caliber of competition as AU. All four victories were by 20 or more points. Still, Trine had beaten Franklin, and Heidelberg beat Defiance, so by the transitive property ....

Bluffton's got good depth this year -- had 30 bench points today (to Heidelberg's 6).

How about some comments from other teams? Defiance fans - how much do you miss C.J. Johnson? Franklin fans - how'd you guys lose to Trine? Hanover fans - how's that new coach?

wc4252 · December 01, 2008, 08:21:04 PM

I was able to see Anderson on Saturday and they had every chance they could ask for to knock off Washington. They just couldn't knock down shots when they needed to. They still have to feel pretty good after 2 close losses to very good teams. It's easy to get up for top ten teams, the question will be can they carry that intensity through a long touch conference season.

Darryl Nester · December 02, 2008, 09:33:44 AM

Congrats to Transy for breaking into the Top 25 at #22 -- from a preseason total of 10 poll points to 120 points. Appropriately enough, the Pioneers are sitting just ahead of Centre, who fell to #23 from #13 after Transy dealt them their only loss of the young season.

Anderson also got some attention from the voters, pulling in 11 points.

Bluffton's lone loss to Capital (70-63) looks better now that Cap has vaulted to #12. Likewise, Manchester's two losses have been at the hands of #13 Illinois Wesleyan (78-73) and D-I Eastern Illinois (82-53).

Conference games begin on Wednesday. Any predictions?
Mt. St. Joseph (2-3) @ Anderson (2-2)
Rose-Hulman (2-2) @ Franklin (2-4)
Transylvania (3-0) @ Hanover (1-4)
Manchester (4-2) @ Bluffton (4-1)

Defiance (2-3) is idle; they open conference play at Hanover on Saturday.

wc4252 · December 03, 2008, 02:15:58 PM

Mt. St. Joseph (2-3) @ Anderson (2-2)

Rose-Hulman (2-2) @ Franklin (2-4)

Transylvania (3-0) @ Hanover (1-4)

Manchester (4-2) @ Bluffton (4-1

Darryl Nester · December 03, 2008, 02:52:31 PM

I'm inclined to agree with your picks, wc4252. You have to give the edge to both AU and TU at this point. MSJ's most recent loss was to #8 Elmhurst, but that pales in comparison to AU's performance so far. As for Hanover ... well, a 3-point win over Denison (1-3) is somewhat less than impressive.

I'm going with Franklin mostly because they're at home; it's hard to know at this point what the Grizzlies will be capable of this season. They have a freshman starting at center, and he's doing fine (9.7p, 5.5r), but I think they still need to adjust to life after Marty Young (as well as Jon Neill).

I expect that Bluffton/Manchester could be the best game of the night. How fortunate that that's the one I get to see.

Pioneer Hoops Fan · December 03, 2008, 05:30:49 PM

Quote from: Darryl Nester on December 02, 2008, 09:33:44 AM

Anderson also got some attention from the voters, pulling in 11 points.

Will say that leading into the UW-Platteville @ Anderson game, Pioneer Head Coach Paul Combs, felt that they we for sure a top 25 team before they even left town. He spoke very highly of them as a team, and program then, and I can only imagine he feels even more so now.

I know I'm going to be keeping an eye on them from here on out. Hopefully after two tough losses like that, they realize their potential and realize those games are only going to help them later in the season.

Good Luck to all

Darryl Nester · December 03, 2008, 09:53:48 PM

Bluffton 59, Manchester 45 -- Beavers jumped out to a 30-12

lead; the Spartans put some surges together in the second half, but never got closer than 8.

Elsewhere:
Anderson 79, MSJ 69
Franklin 67, RHIT 57

Transy 28, Hanover 29 at halftime (started late at 9:00 -- referee scheduling screw-up)

Darryl Nester · December 03, 2008, 10:19:38 PM

9:46 remaining, Hanover leading 38-32. I guess they've got something to prove ...

Live radio feed available here

[update]Hanover 53-49, under 2:00

Darryl Nester · December 03, 2008, 10:54:58 PM

Hanover/Transy tied at 53 with 3 seconds ... Verax just fouled out, and Kies shooting 2 FTs for Hanover ...

Kies makes the first ...
makes the second ...

Transy calls timeout ...

Then Hanover calls timeout ...

Transy inbounds and calls another timeout ... (2.4 seconds left)

and Transy calls another timeout ...

Hanover wins 55-53!!!!

Whoosh ... not only did I pick the winner incorrectly, I also missed badly on my call for the best game of the night.

wc4252 · December 04, 2008, 05:06:12 PM

Hanover over Transy... definitely surprised me. I would have thought based on Hanover's struggles in the early part of the season this wouldn't even have been close. Hanover has been a very successful and prideful program, it just goes to show how tough every conference game can be.

Pioneer Fan -- I'll be watching to see how UW P does as well just to see how "good" of a loss that was.

Darryl Nester · December 05, 2008, 12:02:09 PM

This weekend:
Bluffton (5-1, 1-0) @ Rose-Hulman (2-3, 0-1)
Defiance (2-3, 0-0) @ Hanover (2-4, 1-0)
Transylvania (3-1, 0-1) @ Manchester (4-3, 0-1)
Anderson (3-2, 1-0) @ Franklin (3-4, 1-0)

MSJ idle until December 13.

There will at least one 2-0 team, and at least one 0-2 team. Will there be more?

GRIZ_BACKER · December 08, 2008, 07:55:06 PM

Franklin College made a little noise this weekend with a solid win over Anderson. The freshmen really stepped it up a notch (three freshman in double figures). Starting center FR Will Conley led the Griz with 20 points.

Franklin can be really good at times but with freshman the consistency is not always there. Anderson has really active guards that can dribble penetrate but leave a little to be desired in size.

I will be an active Grizzly poster from here on out as football is over and now time to focus on basketball.