Top 25 talk

[CNU85]

Just glanced through the Top 25 and saw Millikin receiving votes. That must be a case of looking at the record and not knowing the team. I saw them play twice this weekend. They were blown out by 20 pts by 2-10 York and then barely got by Maryland Bible 55-54 with Maryland Bible missing a shot at the buzzer. Anyway - just an observation.

[Pat Coleman]

Probably, but someone apparently is still impressed with the win against a provisional D-I team and no losses anywhere else on the schedule.

[HopeConvert]

pffffftttttt...........not hard at all to get Finlandia to Duke.

Finlandia > St. Scholastica > UW-River Falls > UW-Oshkosh > Lawrence > UW Stevens Point > Trinity, Tx > Olivet > Franklin  > Wilmington > Capital > John Carroll > York, NY > Millikin > SIU-Edwardsville > Western Michigan > Detroit Mercy > Central Michigan > Cleveland State > Syracuse > Kansas > Tennessee > Georgetown > Maryland > Michigan State > Texas > Wisconsin > Michigan > Duke

Thanks to Boston College..........

Finlandia > St. Scholastica > UW-River Falls > UW-Oshkosh > Lawrence > UW Stevens Point > Trinity, Tx > Olivet > Franklin  > Wilmington > Capital > John Carroll > York, NY > Millikin > SIU-Edwardsville > Western Michigan > Detroit Mercy > Central Michigan > Cleveland State > Syracuse > Kansas > Tennessee > Georgetown > Maryland > Michigan State > Texas > Wisconsin > Michigan > Duke > Purdue > Boston College > North Carolina

Almost as easy as getting from earth to Planet X. Go to the 2:23 mark:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5j1TiW-KwM

[sac]

Almost as easy as getting from earth to Planet X. Go to the 2:23 mark:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5j1TiW-KwM

Ok how many watched the whole thing?

.....and how many of you watched more than one.

[nescac1]

Huge shocker out of New England as Wesleyan beats Amherst on a last second 3.  Upset of the decade in the region for certain -- Wesleyan has some awful losses this year.  No explaining that one. 

[Ralph Turner]

Almost as easy as getting from earth to Planet X. Go to the 2:23 mark:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5j1TiW-KwM

Ok how many watched the whole thing?

.....and how many of you watched more than one.

Ehhhhh, it was re-run! 

[magicman]

#30th ranked Middlebury wins a tight one on the road at Plattsburgh St. 68-64.

[Hugenerd]

Huge shocker out of New England as Wesleyan beats Amherst on a last second 3.  Upset of the decade in the region for certain -- Wesleyan has some awful losses this year.  No explaining that one. 

I agree, a really bad loss.  Amherst has seemed a bit shaky all year though, only beating emmaneul by 2 and skidmore by 3.  They have really taken advantage of their extremely weak schedule to this point.  10 games into the season (through tonights game), their opponents combined record is 37-67 (0.355 winning percentage) and only 3 of those teams have a winning record (no team however is more than 2 games over 0.500, Lasell 5-4, Springfield 7-5, Westfield St. 7-5).  I know they are Amherst and they are "always" a good team, but after tonights loss coupled with the facts that they have no signature wins and have played a bunch of really bad teams (5 of the 9 teams they beat have 3 wins or less, including 1-10 Caltech, 1-10 Mass College, 2-8 Curry, and 2-8 Pomona-Pitzer). 

I guess the Williams game on saturday will give us a better assesment of Amherst but I expect Williams to win that game.  In my opinion, Williams is playing like the best team in the northeast at this point (there are a couple other teams that you could make arguments for), despite their 3 early losses (they lost to a top 25 team in Ursinus by 3, to Salem State on the road who are 10-2, and they split two road games with a solid Framingham State squad who also upset Brandeis this season), they appear to be putting things together now and I look for them to play well on Saturday.

[Ralph Turner]

Hugenerd or someone else,

Help me here...

How much of a rivalry game is Wesleyan-Amherst in men's basketball?

Thanks.

[Pat Coleman]

Not enough of one that we should throw out the record books. I mean, Wesleyan hadn't won a game from Amherst since 2001.

[Hugenerd]

Im no NESCAC expert, but from what I hear (as Pat mentioned) it has been very one sided for almost the last decade so I wouldnt call it a rivalry.  Wesleyan won only 3 NESCAC games the last three seasons combined.  Wesleyan's win against Amherst was their first victory of the season against a team with a winning record  (it is actually their first win against an opponent with a winning record since Jan 5 of last year).

[nescac1]

Ralph, not much of one.  Williams, Amherst and Wesleyan are the little three and coaches try to play that up, but folks at Williams and Amherst rarely get fired up about Wesleyan games.  In fact, in most sports, Wesleyan is at best the third biggest game on the schedule (for example, in football, Williams gets much more excited to play Trinity).  Part of it is that W and A hate each other so much that there is not really room for a third wheel (sort of like Harvard / Yale, with Princeton as third wheel, although I think more extreme than that).  A big part of it is that Wesleyan is usually awful in sports, especially the highest profile sports, football and basketball.  Wesleyan students also don't get all that fired up for sports, it is not exactly known as a place with a big athletic culture.  They are kind of the cool, hippy younger brother to both W and A, while to each other, they are the hated evil step brother.  I am sure Wes was very fired up for that game, but no doubt Amherst was looking ahead to Williams on Saturday.  Even a relatively down Amherst squad should have killed this year's Wesleyan team, which has probably four guys who could even make the Amherst roster. 

[gordonmann]

Nescac1 found video of Wesleyan's buzzer beater.

It's posted off the front page: www.d3hoops.com

[Ralph Turner]

Nescac1 found video of Wesleyan's buzzer beater.

It's posted off the front page: www.d3hoops.com

On that last play, it is literally throwing up a prayer!

Amherst cannot guard him any more effectively!

(Thanks, nescac1!  +1!) 

[Darryl Nester]

How They Fared -- Midweek edition
Please let me know if I missed anything ...

Top 25
#1 Wheaton (Ill.) (12-0): def. #19 Illinois Wesleyan, 74-70; 01/10 at North Park
#2 St. Thomas (11-0): def. #36 Bethel, 73-64; 01/10 vs. Carleton
#3 Washington U. (10-1): def. Webster, 68-55; 01/10 at Chicago
#4 UW-Platteville (13-1): def. UW-Oshkosh, 81-59; 01/10 vs. #6 UW-Stevens Point
#5 Amherst (9-1): LOST at Wesleyan, 69-72; 01/10 at Williams
#6 UW-Stevens Point (10-2): def. UW-River Falls, 95-87 OT; 01/10 at #4 UW-Platteville
#7 Augustana (11-2): def. #10 Elmhurst, 56-55; 01/10 at Carthage
#8 Buena Vista (11-1): def. Cornell, 71-68; 01/10 vs. Central
#9 UW-Whitewater (12-2): def. UW-La Crosse, 92-86; 01/10 vs. UW-Eau Claire
#10 Elmhurst (9-3): LOST at #7 Augustana, 55-56; 01/10 vs. #40 Millikin
#11 Capital (11-1): def. Mount Union, 89-79; 01/10 vs. #41 Ohio Northern
#12 Ithaca (11-0): def. Utica, 87-64; 01/09 vs. Nazareth; 01/11 at Rochester Tech
#13 Richard Stockton (12-2): LOST at New Jersey, 73-79; 01/10 vs. T#29 William Paterson
#14 Carnegie Mellon (10-1): 01/09 at #32 New York University; 01/11 at Brandeis
#15 Whitworth (10-1): 01/09 at Willamette; 01/10 at Linfield
#16 Trinity (Texas) (11-1): 01/09 at Southwestern
#17 Puget Sound (10-2): def. Pacific Lutheran, 77-60; 01/10 at George Fox
#18 Elms (10-1): 01/10 at Becker
#19 Illinois Wesleyan (8-4): LOST at #1 Wheaton (Ill.), 70-74; 01/10 vs. North Central (Ill.)
#20 Mass-Dartmouth (10-1): def. Roger Williams, 69-68 OT; 01/10 at Keene State
#21 Ursinus (6-4): LOST at Johns Hopkins, 70-73; 01/10 vs. McDaniel
#22 Roanoke (11-1): def. Emory and Henry, 101-86; 01/10 vs. Eastern Mennonite
#23 St. Norbert (9-1): def. Beloit, 77-44; 01/10 vs. Ripon
#24 Texas-Dallas (10-1): def. Hardin-Simmons, 79-62; 01/08 vs. Texas Lutheran; 01/10 vs. Schreiner
#25 Anderson (10-3): def. Earlham, 81-74; 01/10 vs. Defiance

Others receiving votes
#26 Franklin and Marshall (10-0): def. Swarthmore, 92-67; 01/10 at Washington College
#27 Gettysburg (7-2): def. Washington College, 77-69; 01/10 at Muhlenberg
#28 Centre (8-3): 01/09 vs. Rhodes; 01/11 vs. Birmingham-Southern
T#29 St. Mary's (Md.) (10-2): def. Salisbury, 63-52; 01/10 at Hood
T#29 William Paterson (9-2): LOST at New Jersey City, 52-62; 01/10 at #13 Richard Stockton
#31 Middlebury (10-2): def. Plattsburgh State, 68-64; 01/08 at Colby-Sawyer; 01/10 vs. Skidmore
#32 New York University (9-0): def. Oneonta State, 62-55; 01/09 vs. #14 Carnegie Mellon; 01/11 vs. Rochester
#33 DeSales (10-1): def. Eastern, 73-64; 01/10 vs. Alvernia
T#34 Mary Hardin-Baylor (5-5): def. Concordia-Austin, 92-77; 01/08 at Louisiana College; 01/10 at Mississippi College
T#34 St. John Fisher (7-2): LOST at Rochester Tech, 36-56; 01/09 at Utica; 01/11 at Elmira
#36 Bethel (8-2): def. Hamline, 90-75; LOST (at home) to #2 St. Thomas, 64-73; 01/10 vs. St. Olaf
#37 Salem State (10-2): IDLE
#38 Worcester Polytech (9-3): def. Coast Guard, 59-55; 01/10 vs. Springfield
#39 Randolph-Macon (9-3): def. Bridgewater (Va.), 78-61; def. Hampden-Sydney, 79-59; 01/10 at Christopher Newport
#40 Millikin (9-2): LOST (at home) to Carthage, 55-63; 01/10 at #10 Elmhurst
#41 Ohio Northern (10-3): LOST (at home) to Wilmington, 71-78; 01/10 at #11 Capital
#42 Wooster (8-4): def. Kenyon, 74-64; 01/10 at Wabash

Other teams to watch (as suggested by posters on this board)
--- Cal Lutheran (8-3): 01/10 at Occidental
--- Mount Union (9-4): LOST (at home) to #11 Capital, 79-89; 01/10 at Wilmington
--- St. Norbert (9-1): def. Beloit, 77-44; 01/10 vs. Ripon
--- St. Joseph's (L.I.) (8-1): 01/08 vs. Farmingdale State; 01/10 at SUNY-Purchase