Top 25 talk

[hopefan]

Ralph  -  and I though my alma mater RPI's 13 points at half vs Hamilton was sad... GEESH!!!  That's an explosion compared to U Dallas....

[dahlby]

I haven't seen the final stats yet, but U Dallas had many open looks at the basket, especially close in. Not to be a comedian, but they should change their nickname to "DRUMERS" with all the rim shots.
But, to be fair, CU missed several shots as well. Some of the fans were commenting about how dark the gym lights were. Energy saving tube lighting I think. Both of the Chapman games I saw featured many missed shots.

I really felt for the U Dallas team and its coach. They ran their plays  well, but the ball just would not go through the hoop. Dallas did score a lot of points the night before in their win over La Sierra.

Does anyone know the record for fewest points in a half?

[deanslist]

Magicman,

To answer your question about the length of the EMU-BC game last night at Bridgewater College. I happened to look at my cell phone to see what time it was and I remember it being 9:16 and the game wasn't over yet! You could sense the frustration from both supporters as even in the 1st half the crowd began chanting, "Let them play, let them play!" I was curious to see how the refs would approach the 2nd half, but they called the exact number of fouls in the 2nd as they did in the 1st, which was 34 fouls in each. Anyways, I know the EMU coaching staff will do a good job in getting the team refocused for a tough non conference game on Thursday in Harrisonburg. Go EMU!

[Mr. Ypsi]

I haven't seen the final stats yet, but U Dallas had many open looks at the basket, especially close in. Not to be a comedian, but they should change their nickname to "DRUMERS" with all the rim shots.
But, to be fair, CU missed several shots as well. Some of the fans were commenting about how dark the gym lights were. Energy saving tube lighting I think. Both of the Chapman games I saw featured many missed shots.

I really felt for the U Dallas team and its coach. They ran their plays  well, but the ball just would not go through the hoop. Dallas did score a lot of points the night before in their win over La Sierra.

Does anyone know the record for fewest points in a half?

Probably zero if you include before the shot clock.

But I would think this just might be a new low since the shot clock began.

(I have seen women's scores even lower, but rarely.)

[Hugenerd]

There are no gimme's in conference games it appears.

After MIT, EMU, and St. Mary's went down yesterday.  Brandeis falls to Emory today at home today.

[Ralph Turner]

There are no gimme's in conference games it appears.

After MIT, EMU, and St. Mary's went down yesterday.  Brandeis falls to Emory today at home today.

Emory 77 at Brandeis 64.

Now I have a game with a frame of reference!

Brandeis went 1-17 on 3FG's.  That is ugly!

If that was the "ugly" game for Brandeis, and the Judges are better than that, then we will see later in the season.  But, you gotta defend home court.  

That outcome makes me think that Brandeis is overrated at #15.  Emory split a pair of OT games with a good but not great Oglethorpe team.  The Eagles lost to Maryville on a neutral floor, and they have a road loss to W&L.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Brandeis is indeed an enigma.  They recently won AT WashU!  Is Brandeis just SO inconsistent that their games need to be discounted, or does today's result reflect negatively on WashU?

[Ralph Turner]

Brandeis is indeed an enigma.  They recently won AT WashU!  Is Brandeis just SO inconsistent that their games need to be discounted, or does today's result reflect negatively on WashU?

I think that that we are seeing a huge "upper middle class" of teams that don't deserve to be in the Top 25, but they will be contending for the conference AQ's.

The problem that I will have tonight, as I fill out my Posters' Poll, is finding 25 teams that I can vote for!   

[Marty Peretz]

For the record, I have not seen a more uncharacteristically Wash.U. performance than that of the Deis game. The Bears went 10-22 from the foul line, 3-14 from three, and commit 21 turnovers (If I'm not mistaken, the Bears have led the nation in Assist to turnover ratio the last two years). Deis wasn't even that good; Wash.U. was just absolutely awful and still almost won (took it to OT and had a chance to win but couldn't hit a free throw whatsoever down the stretch). I wouldn't put much stock in the Deis win over Wash.U.. Even in this up and down year for the Bears, Deis stands out as a notably woeful performance.

[Hugenerd]

For the record, I have not seen a more uncharacteristically Wash.U. performance than that of the Deis game. The Bears went 10-22 from the foul line, 3-14 from three, and commit 21 turnovers (If I'm not mistaken, the Bears have led the nation in Assist to turnover ratio the last two years). Deis wasn't even that good; Wash.U. was just absolutely awful and still almost won (took it to OT and had a chance to win but couldn't hit a free throw whatsoever down the stretch). I wouldn't put much stock in the Deis win over Wash.U.. Even in this up and down year for the Bears, Deis stands out as a notably woeful performance.

Then what games should we put stock in?

I could tell you that MIT had two starters in the hospital the day before their loss to Wheaton, and two other of their top 6 players were game time decisions because they are playing with ankle/knee injuries and therefore to disregard the loss, but I dont think people care that much about excuses.

The Brandeis game wasnt the first or last game WashU has played bad.  They were almost beat by NYU at home, they were losing to and barely beat Case Western, not to mention their loss to Transylvania.  They havent been that impressive in any of the webcasts of them I have seen this season (Brandeis, NYU, Case). I think you have to go by the results and not so much with subjective criteria.  There is plenty of time to prove who is the best team in the country later in the season, but, in my opinion, the important question is where do a teams results suggest they should be ranked, not what I think they could be ranked.

[Darryl Nester]

How They Fared

Top 25

Rank	Pts	Team	W-L	Results
#1	625	UW-Stevens Point	17-1	def. UW-Eau Claire, 74-68; def. UW-Oshkosh, 73-54
#2	588	Guilford	16-1	def. Roanoke, 96-62; def. Bridgewater (Va.), 79-67
#3	534	Randolph-Macon	15-2	LOST to #12 Virginia Wesleyan, 69-72; def. Randolph, 54-48
#4	510	Washington U.	14-2	def. Case Western Reserve, 66-61; def. Carnegie Mellon, 81-60
#5	508	Williams	17-1	def. New Paltz State, 70-68; def. Wesleyan, 79-63; def. Connecticut College, 69-57
#6	457	UW-Whitewater	15-2	def. UW-Platteville, 73-63
#7	430	Eastern Mennonite	14-2	def. Emory and Henry, 101-69; LOST at Bridgewater (Va.), 83-89
#8	428	MIT	16-2	def. Springfield, 67-56; LOST to Wheaton (Mass.), 57-60
#9	418	St. Thomas	15-2	def. Hamline, 80-63; def. Concordia-Moorhead, 71-63; def. St. Olaf, 75-47
#10	412	Middlebury	16-1	def. Connecticut College, 74-55; def. Wesleyan, 77-69
#11	373	Anderson	17-1	def. #40 Manchester, 77-75; def. Mount St. Joseph, 66-63
#12	350	Virginia Wesleyan	16-2	def. #3 Randolph-Macon, 72-69; def. Roanoke, 77-63
#13	326	St. Norbert	14-1	def. Illinois College, 74-68 OT; def. Knox, 56-45
#14	280	Chapman	17-2	def. UC Santa Cruz, 79-60; def. University of Dallas, 61-29; def. La Sierra, 76-49
#15	272	Brandeis	12-3	def. #27 Rochester, 70-63; LOST to Emory, 64-77
#16	248	St. Mary's (Md.)	14-3	def. Hood, 65-54; LOST at Salisbury, 66-76
#17	220	Illinois Wesleyan	14-3	LOST at T#36 Wheaton (Ill.), 65-66; def. North Park, 83-77
#18	190	Whitworth	15-2	def. Whitman, 110-83; def. Linfield, 79-62
#19	181	Franklin and Marshall	14-3	def. Dickinson, 71-49; def. Haverford, 58-42
#20	165	Amherst	12-3	def. Curry, 87-69; def. Trinity (Conn.), 67-65
#21	124	William Paterson	18-1	def. Baruch, 87-81 2OT; def. Montclair State, 54-43; def. Rutgers-Camden, 57-44
#22	122	Texas-Dallas	14-3	def. University of the Ozarks, 92-76; def. Texas-Tyler, 70-56
#23	92	Mississippi College	14-2	def. LeTourneau, 64-59; def. East Texas Baptist, 72-63
#24	84	Medaille	17-1	def. La Roche, 66-56; def. D'Youville, 76-60; def. Penn State-Altoona, 75-69
#25	50	Wooster	13-4	def. Oberlin, 66-58; def. T#38 Wittenberg, 66-56

Others receiving votes

Rank	Pts	Team	W-L	Results
#26	32	Cabrini	14-1	def. Neumann, 88-79; def. Immaculata, 78-71
#27	23	Rochester	12-4	LOST at #15 Brandeis, 63-70; LOST at New York University, 75-78
#28	19	Wilmington	13-4	def. Baldwin-Wallace, 67-62
#29	9	Carthage	13-4	def. North Central (Ill.), 85-71; def. Millikin, 68-55
T#30	7	Defiance	14-4	LOST at Bluffton, 83-91; def. Rose-Hulman, 61-57
T#30	7	Gustavus Adolphus	12-5	def. St. John's, 76-65; LOST to Carleton, 55-60; def. Concordia-Moorhead, 79-72
T#30	7	Richard Stockton	14-5	def. Eastern, 82-74; def. Rowan, 85-72; LOST to Ramapo, 84-85
T#30	7	UW-La Crosse	13-5	def. UW-Oshkosh, 61-55; LOST to UW-Eau Claire, 51-72
T#34	5	Lycoming	15-2	def. Elizabethtown, 89-74; def. Alvernia, 83-73
T#34	5	Claremont-Mudd-Scripps	13-3	def. La Verne, 76-61; def. Whittier, 81-68
T#36	4	Maryville (Tenn.)	16-2	def. Transylvania, 75-69 OT; def. Huntingdon, 102-65
T#36	4	Wheaton (Ill.)	12-5	def. #17 Illinois Wesleyan, 66-65; def. Elmhurst, 70-43
T#38	3	Wittenberg	13-4	LOST at Wabash, 57-64; LOST to #25 Wooster, 56-66
T#38	3	Worcester Polytech	14-3	def. Clark, 67-57; def. Springfield, 86-68
#40	2	Manchester	11-7	LOST to #11 Anderson, 75-77; LOST at Hanover, 63-81
#41	1	Central	14-4	LOST at Loras, 77-86; def. Simpson, 84-80

[WUPHF]

I could tell you that MIT had two starters in the hospital the day before their loss to Wheaton, and two other of their top 6 players were game time decisions because they are playing with ankle/knee injuries and therefore to disregard the loss, but I dont think people care that much about excuses.

You could, but then you would have to acknowledge that Washington University was without a key starter against Brandeis and bringing in another key starter who had been out for a few weeks with mono (an illness that often affects people for several weeks) and only able to play limited minutes.  And, faced a similar situation against Transylvania. 

But I agree with you on this one--no excuses.

[oldchap]

It's only one game, but note the Chapman win over U of Dallas: they coasted to a 61-29 win after leading 38-3 at the half!   While Dallas is no powerhouse, they were 8-8 entering the game.  I can't recall the last time a men's college team scored three points in a half.

I was at the game and here is my opinion:
Chapman played one of the best half defensively that I have ever seen them play. Their defensive pressure forced a lot of contested shots from U Dallas. Sure, a better team would have made some of these shots, but Chapman was so relentless and focused on stopping every single Dallas play that it resulted in this lopsided score. If Chapman were to consistently play this kind of defense night in and night out, few teams except for the top ones, would resist.

For the record, Dallas shot 1-22 in the first half of this game, 0-6 from 3 point range, 1-4 FT (OK, so they could have scored 3 more points...) and had 10 turnovers. They got the ball stolen 7 times, were outrebounded 6-25 and only had 1 offensive rebound. If this doesn't point to Chapman's excellent defense, then what would it be?

[Mr. Ypsi]

It's only one game, but note the Chapman win over U of Dallas: they coasted to a 61-29 win after leading 38-3 at the half!   While Dallas is no powerhouse, they were 8-8 entering the game.  I can't recall the last time a men's college team scored three points in a half.

I was at the game and here is my opinion:
Chapman played one of the best half defensively that I have ever seen them play. Their defensive pressure forced a lot of contested shots from U Dallas. Sure, a better team would have made some of these shots, but Chapman was so relentless and focused on stopping every single Dallas play that it resulted in this lopsided score. If Chapman were to consistently play this kind of defense night in and night out, few teams except for the top ones, would resist.

For the record, Dallas shot 1-22 in the first half of this game, 0-6 from 3 point range, 1-4 FT (OK, so they could have scored 3 more points...) and had 10 turnovers. They got the ball stolen 7 times, were outrebounded 6-25 and only had 1 offensive rebound. If this doesn't point to Chapman's excellent defense, then what would it be?

Hey, don't down play your free throw defense!

[Ralph Turner]

Let's see how UDallas does in the NEAC tournament.