MBB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[pbrooks3]

Ditto Frank.  I'd like to hear about the Majors.  While I'm a Centre partisan, I live 400 miles from campus.  My oldest child graduated from there in 04.  My son goes to Hendrix, but I live 2 blocks from Rhodes.  That's why I'll be at Rhodes tomorrow to check up on the new member, Birmingham-Southern.  Keep posting guys - it should be a fun SCAC campaign!

[pbrooks3]

Colonels move to 9-1 with an 80-68 win over Oglethorpe at Danville tonight.  DePauw won as well.

[frank_ezelle]

Millsaps wins over Southwestern 66-57 after leading 43-25 at the half.  The 9-point final margin might have been the closest the game got after about 10 minutes of play.  Rogan had 20, Chris Sanders had 15, and Chad Songy had 13 for Millsaps.  Sanders led Millsaps with 8 rebounds in a game where Millsaps was outrebounded 46 to 29.  In double-figures for Southwestern were Ross Hayes with 13, Goran Stojcic with 11, and Ben Schleif with 11.  Stojcic led the SW rebounding with 8.

More in a little while after I get something started on downloading my photos to my PC.

[JJFlash]

Trinity beat Hendrix by 25 (75-50) tonight in Conway.  They never trailed in the game and held Hendrix to 23% shooting from the field.

[frank_ezelle]

Box score on Trinity-Hendrix:  http://www.hendrixwarriors.com/stats.aspx?gs=1089

[frank_ezelle]

Trinity led Hendrix 39-23 at the half tonight and went on to extend the lead to a final score of 75-50.  Millsaps led Southwestern 43-25 at the half tonight and let the lead shrink to a final score of 66-57.  That sums up my biggest worry about the Millsaps basketball team.  I don't think I'm being negative by pointing out the obvious about Millsaps which is that no lead is safe when Millsaps is playing--they have the talent to come from way behind and for whatever reason, they have a bad habit of giving up big leads.

You old-timers like myself will remember the Austrailian tennis star Evonne Goolagong, an extremely talented player who won 7 Grand Slam tennis titles in the 1970's.  As talented as she was, she is just as well remembered for the several major titles that got away because she had a habit of cruising to a lead and then "going walkabout", an Australian term for losing her focus. 

In fairness to this year's team, I must admit that the problem isn't as bad this year as it has been in the past, but the second half tonight makes me a lot more concerned about tomorrow's game with Trinity.  That's especially true since in the first SCAC game this year Millsaps led Hendrix by 18 in the first half and that lead was cut to 5 on two occasions in the 2nd half.  You might be able to go walkabout against Hendrix and Southwestern and still manage a win, but I doubt that many teams will get a win if they lose their focus for long stretches against Trinity.

[Pat Coleman]

Ditto Frank.  I'd like to hear about the Majors.  While I'm a Centre partisan, I live 400 miles from campus.  My oldest child graduated from there in 04.  My son goes to Hendrix, but I live 2 blocks from Rhodes.  That's why I'll be at Rhodes tomorrow to check up on the new member, Birmingham-Southern.  Keep posting guys - it should be a fun SCAC campaign!

http://www.d3hoops.com/dailydose/2008/01/03/southern-hospitality-coaches-speak/

This won't help you with Millsaps but it will with Birmingham-Southern.

[frank_ezelle]

It has probably happened before, but it seems like a rarity that 4 SCAC teams have such good records after the Christmas break:

Centre:  9-1, with the one loss being the season opener to Rust by a 68-67 score, a game that still surprises me.

DePauw:  9-2, losing back-to-back road games at the start of December, at Centre 78-64 and at Wabash 71-60.

Millsaps:  9-1, the one loss being on the road to Division 1 Southeastern Louisiana, 73-55.

Trinity:  10-1, the one loss being to Carthage (Wisc.) 56-49 in the first game after the break for exams.

Either Millsaps or Trinity will fall to two losses this evening and then I think the next game between any of these teams is when Millsaps travels to Centre and DePauw on the last weekend of January.  The 2004-05 season is the only year that the SCAC has had 3 teams finish with 20 or more wins.  It certainly seems like that is a possibility this season with an outside chance that all 4 teams could hit that mark.

[frank_ezelle]

One last post regarding Millsaps and Southwestern:

Link to game story:  http://www.millsaps.edu/athletic/basketball-m/010408x2release.shtml
Link to box score:  http://www.scac-online.org/basketball_mens/sumc.htm

[pbrooks3]

Frank, I saw the game between Rust and Centre.  It was the opener for Centre.  They were still trying to find their "defensive shoes" so to speak in that one.  It didn't help that Rust was on fire in the first half with lots of threes going in despite decent Colonel defense.  Rustiness at the foul line and not making a few clutch plays down the stretch prevented Centre from pulling out a win.  Believe me, Coach Mason still is unhappy about that loss.

Will be very curious to hear how the Trinity-Millsaps tilt goes tonight.  It seems that Trinity really has the defensive presence of years past going in 2008.  23% shooting for Hendrix on their homecourt is impressive.  I haven't seen the individual stat lines on that game, but you got figure Hendrix was having a bad night.  Andrew King usually makes the Warriors competitive.  Look out for the Texas Tigers!

[hendrixfan]

Hendrix definitely didn't have one of their better nights against Trinity on Friday.  King played well, but the injury to Foley left them too small to match up to Trinity's size.  Trinity also did a good job shutting down Cal Rose from the outside.
After beginning the conference season with tough games against Millsaps & Trinity, maybe the Warriors can bounce back Sunday with a good effort against Southwestern.

[golden_dome]

Anyone want to predict the score of the Millsaps-Trinity game tonight? I have watched Millsaps a couple times and am very impressed with them this year. Just based on Trinity's scores and statistics thus far, I would say Millsaps by about ten. That might not be fair to Trinity though because I haven't had an opportunity to see them yet, but looking forward to the game tonight. I know Trinity had some trouble with Texas Lutheran and Hardin-Simmons, two teams Mississippi College handled by 18 and 21.

[pbrooks3]

Just watched the Rhodes Birmingham-Southern tilt

Final Score:
Birmingham Southern  70
Rhodes 58

3 guards for B-S all score double-figures
Rhodes-Smith 13  Hoskins 12 and Thompson 11

Herb Hilgeman (Rhodes Coach) is obviously searching for the right combos for his squad. He sat Cory Smith for significant portion of 1st half.  Lynx looked lethargic and uninspired.  Standard defense - play it for 20-25 seconds & then fold.  B-S took what Rhodes would give them and maintained a comfortable lead during opening 20 minutes. 2 very mediocre teams at best.  Rhodes had 1 decent run to start 2nd half. They got few calls from the officials, missed many cripple shots and never got the loose balls.  Otherwise, they had a shot at winning the game.

B-S could be a sleeper in their own D1 gym.  If the crowd and the 3-pointers are going down strong, they'll win some home games against SCAC opponents.


Tonight - I like Millsaps in a reasonably tight game 70-64.

[evacuee]

Just read that Trinity trails by a bucket at half time at Millsaps.  Can anyone provide more insight?  That game has to be almost over by now, 9:20 PM.

[pbrooks3]

Think we'll have to await word from Frank on the game.  I, too, can't find any additional info.