MBB: Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference

[Jackets Backer]

A little disappointed that DC was picked sixth in the poll.  I guess that's what happens when you lose two of you top players. 
DC still brings back a lot of good players and did a great job in recruiting IMO.  They will finish in the top of the HCAC this year.

Bit surprised as well that DC was picked that far down. Obviously the HCAC doesn't believe the Jackets have much talent coming back. We shall see.

[dc_has_been]

Seeing Anderson and Manchester in the top 25 and Franklin receiving votes is nice to see for the conference.  Last year may have given the HCAC some national attention.
I'm still looking forward to seeing how DC fairs this season, especially with low expectations from the preseason poll.  They'll still surprise a lot of people this season.

[Buzz]

Count me in the crowd that can't understand why Manchester is getting so much preseason love? #2 in the HCAC and #25 in the nation? What about Hanover? How does Franklin get votes and Hanover gets nothing? Will also be interesting to see how AU does without Riddle. Do they have another outside threat to keep teams from cheating with a soft zone against their 3 bigs? Gonna be a crazy year once again, and DC likely finishes higher than 6th...but 2011-2012 could be DC's year to shine with so many teams around the league losing big senior classes and the Jackets losing nothing after this year.

[Titan Q]

Count me in the crowd that can't understand why Manchester is getting so much preseason love? #2 in the HCAC and #25 in the nation? What about Hanover? How does Franklin get votes and Hanover gets nothing? Will also be interesting to see how AU does without Riddle. Do they have another outside threat to keep teams from cheating with a soft zone against their 3 bigs? Gonna be a crazy year once again, and DC likely finishes higher than 6th...but 2011-2012 could be DC's year to shine with so many teams around the league losing big senior classes and the Jackets losing nothing after this year.

Some Top 25 discussion...

http://www.d3boards.com/index.php?topic=4097.5760


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#20 Manchester (17-10 overall, 10-6 HCAC/Midwest) – not in 2009-10 tournament
Starters Returning: (5) G Mitch Schaefer, 6-4 SR (11.3 ppg, 3.4 rpg), G/F Tyler Henn, 6-5 SR (9.9 ppg, 5.0 rpg), G Jordan Moss, 6-4 JR (9.1 ppg, 4.1 rpg), G Nathan Ferch, 6-3 SR (8.1 ppg, 4.3 rpg), C Jason Spindler, 6-10 JR (7.4 ppg, 4.1 rpg)

Starters Lost: none

Top Returning Reserve: G Tyler Delauder, 6-1 SR (8.0 ppg, 2.4 rpg)
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Manchester returns all 5 starters and a good reserve from a 17-win team.  And when you dig into their 10 losses, several were to good teams...

- Grace College (NAIA)-- lost in final seconds
- Illinois Wesleyan (Elite 8)-- on last second 30-footer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj4Sd-TFhvM
- Ball State (D1)— 9 point game with 5 minutes to go...ended up losing by 14.
- Anderson (Round of 32) 3 times -- twice in final seconds
- Defiance (1st round loser to Whitewater) - twice
- Hanover (12-4 in HCAC)
- Mount St. Joe - only "bad" loss?


When I was constructing my preseason ballot, Manchester stood out as a team that could be very good this season.

[BUBeaverFan]

Unless I'm looking in the wrong place (totally possible) it looks like Bluffton and Rose-Hulman haven't listed their 2010-11 rosters to this point.  Are they hiding secret weapons? The rest of the league seems to be up-to-date.

[zander]

Has anyone heard who will be replacing Jake Inman at point for Hanover this year? Whoever it is they will have a tough initiation tomorrow night facing the Butler defense-

[Jackets Backer]

Seeing Anderson and Manchester in the top 25 and Franklin receiving votes is nice to see for the conference.  Last year may have given the HCAC some national attention.

Some good recognition for the HCAC in the Top 25 but I don't give a hoot about any poll, especially preseason polls. Don't even get me started! They're mainly based off of a season that ended 7 months ago, and more than anything don't matter. The only sport they matter in is D-I college football and we all know how dumb that system is. Nice thing about college basketball is there's a big dance at the end of the season and that's all that matters. So good for Anderson and Manchester, but they're going to have to prove what kind of team they are on the court just like everyone else in the nation.

Schedule is anything but kind for DC to start the season after K-Zoo visits a week from Monday. Whitewater, possibly Wheaton at the Wheaton Tourney, ONU along with Anderson and Hanover before Christmas. Love it that the Jackets are playing some traditional powers out of conference. Think it shows how far the program has come in the last five or six seasons.

[OC_SID]

If you get the Big 10 network, you can watch the Franklin at Indiana exhibition contest. Not sure if it's live.

[Hugenerd]

If you get the Big 10 network, you can watch the Franklin at Indiana exhibition contest. Not sure if it's live.

The game was played yesterday, the replay is on the B10 network now. Indiana won 89-37.

[formerd3db]

Well, at least Franklin hung tough with Indiana for the first part of the first half!  Still, a great experience for them.  Remember that about 3-4 years ago, Wheaton played Northwestern and took them to the buzzer in front of a full packed house at Northwestern.  Neat to see this type of games being played early in the season, even if it is an exhibition game.

[Hugenerd]

Well, at least Franklin hung tough with Indiana for the first part of the first half!  Still, a great experience for them.  Remember that about 3-4 years ago, Wheaton played Northwestern and took them to the buzzer in front of a full packed house at Northwestern.  Neat to see this type of games being played early in the season, even if it is an exhibition game.

In 04-05 Carnegie Mellon was beating UPitt (ranked nationally in the preseason that year) at halftime of their exhibition, and led by as many as 7 points in the first 5 minutes of the 2nd half, but ended up losing most of their starting 5 to foul outs after that and lost by double digits.  That was the season before they beat Princeton in a regular season game.

[formerd3db]

Well, at least Franklin hung tough with Indiana for the first part of the first half!  Still, a great experience for them.  Remember that about 3-4 years ago, Wheaton played Northwestern and took them to the buzzer in front of a full packed house at Northwestern.  Neat to see this type of games being played early in the season, even if it is an exhibition game.

In 04-05 Carnegie Mellon was beating UPitt (ranked nationally in the preseason that year) at halftime of their exhibition, and led by as many as 7 points in the first 5 minutes of the 2nd half, but ended up losing most of their starting 5 to foul outs after that and lost by double digits.  That was the season before they beat Princeton in a regular season game.

I didn't know that, but it is neat to hear about.  In our MIAA, a couple of years ago, Albion played Eastern Michigan in a regular game.  While Eastern is not the team it once was, still it is a MAC team in DI - Albion hasn't had as talented of teams as they've had in some years either so they lost quite handily.  Still, a great experience for those DIII players.

This goes "way back", however, I remember in 1977 when Adrian College of our MIAA played Dick Vitale's great University of Detroit team at U of D's Callahan Hall in front of a capacity >10,000 crowd. I didn't get the chance to go to the game, but listened to it on the radio - the announcers were going crazy with excitement and surprise (no, they weren't Adrian announcers ) and the crowd was loud and crazy as well - like at the Final Four. That was the year that U of D went to the NCAA's quite far (with future NBA players like John Long).  Adrian was tied with them 50-50 at halftime; but like the CM-Pitt game you mention, they fell behind by 30 in the second half, yet only lost by 10 points at the end.  

Also, not sure if you know this, but Hope College and Calvin College (which was rated the 4th best basketball rivalry in the nation at all NCAA levels by Sports Illustrated fan poll - Duke/North Carolina was the #1 rivalry), played in front of 12,000 people in a regular season game back about 11 years ago.  That is the NCAA record for attendance at a DIII game, which I doubt will be broken.  And that is as many people as attend games at U of Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana, etc., etc.  

Pretty neat "stuff" IMO.  Obviously, basketball and baseball are sports where DIII schools can play (and sometimes compete) with the DI schools on occasion, unlike football (although I would love to see a great DIII team play a DI team sometimes - yes, I know 99% of you fellow DIII supporters will say I am crazy for that thought/wish ).  Anyway, thanks for sharing the CM-Pitt story.

[Titan Q]

Manchester @ New Mexico Saturday night...

http://www.golobos.com/sports/m-baskbl/nm-m-baskbl-body-main.html


Steve Alford giving a little love to the D3 he used to coach at it looks like.

[Gregory Sager]

Well, at least Franklin hung tough with Indiana for the first part of the first half!  Still, a great experience for them.  Remember that about 3-4 years ago, Wheaton played Northwestern and took them to the buzzer in front of a full packed house at Northwestern.  Neat to see this type of games being played early in the season, even if it is an exhibition game.

In 04-05 Carnegie Mellon was beating UPitt (ranked nationally in the preseason that year) at halftime of their exhibition, and led by as many as 7 points in the first 5 minutes of the 2nd half, but ended up losing most of their starting 5 to foul outs after that and lost by double digits.  That was the season before they beat Princeton in a regular season game.

I didn't know that, but it is neat to hear about.  In our MIAA, a couple of years ago, Albion played Eastern Michigan in a regular game.  While Eastern is not the team it once was, still it is a MAC team in DI - Albion hasn't had as talented of teams as they've had in some years either so they lost quite handily.  Still, a great experience for those DIII players.

This goes "way back", however, I remember in 1977 when Adrian College of our MIAA played Dick Vitale's great University of Detroit team at U of D's Callahan Hall in front of a capacity >10,000 crowd. I didn't get the chance to go to the game, but listened to it on the radio - the announcers were going crazy with excitement and surprise (no, they weren't Adrian announcers ) and the crowd was loud and crazy as well - like at the Final Four. That was the year that U of D went to the NCAA's quite far (with future NBA players like John Long).  Adrian was tied with them 50-50 at halftime; but like the CM-Pitt game you mention, they fell behind by 30 in the second half, yet only lost by 10 points at the end.  

During its national-championship threepeat run from 1978 thru 1980, North Park defeated three D1 schools: San Diego, Cal-Irvine, and Jacksonville, all on the home floors of those D1 schools. In fact, after Jacksonville succumbed to North Park in December, 79-69, the Dolphins managed to win the Sun Belt Conference and earn a ticket to the big dance. As far as I know, that's the only time that a D1 team has ever lost to a D3 school in the same year that that D1 team went to the NCAA tournament.

[Darryl Nester]

The Bluffton men's roster appeared today.  RHIT still is unknown, apart from what one can glean from the press release about the Engineer's exhibition loss to Indiana State, which mentions the names of 7 returning players and 1 freshman.

Here is a brief summary of roster size (we won't know roster quality until we've played a few games):

School	FY+SO+JR+SR	= Total
AU	8 + 2 + 1 + 4	= 15
BU	12 + 5 + 6 + 2	= 25
DC	7 + 4 + 5 + 0	= 16
EC	6 + 2 + 4 + 0	= 12
FC	8 + 2 + 5 + 0	= 15
HC	7 + 9 + 1 + 1	= 18
MC	6 + 1 + 3 + 5	= 15
MSJ	12 + 5 + 2 + 4	= 23
RHIT	? + ? + ? + ?	= ??
TU	5 + 9 + 3 + 2	= 19

Notable: No seniors for DC, EC, and FC.

Anyone have reports on your school's incoming class?  (I know that Bluffton's 12 freshmen include, among other things, some much-needed height.)