MBB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[Ralph Turner]

The 2002 DePauw team went to the Elite 8 as the #4 seed in the WashUStL bracket and lost to eventual champion Otterbein.

Bracket

[frank_ezelle]

Welcome to the board, george_banks.  Your description of Devins is somewhat the impression that I always had and quite possibly this lack of interest/aggression/desire is what kept him from becoming the best player in SCAC history.  Whenever this subject comes up, I always try to stress that he was a great player in the SCAC and any negatives that are said are just in regards to where he fits among the elites in SCAC history.

I was impressed with the Trinity team when they played at Millsaps.  It was one of the closest games I can remember watching until Millsaps went on a mini-run with about 6 minutes to go.  I don't think the Trinity team will lose many games this year and they host Centre and DePauw while Millsaps has to play those two on the road, plus Millsaps now has to go to Trinity.  In reality, Trinity might be in the driver's seat when it comes to the competion between the preseason top 4:

---Trinity lost to Millsaps, but they now play Centre, DePauw and Millsaps at home.
---Centre beat DePauw, but they now play DePauw and Trinity on the road and Millsaps at home.
---DePauw lost to Centre, but they now play Trinity on the road and Centre and Millsaps at home.
---Millsaps beat Triinity, but they now play Centre, DePauw and Trinity on the road.

Of course, it is not a 4 team league as OU proved at DePauw so all of these teams will have to avoid any hint of overlooking any SCAC team regardless of the opponent's record.

In regards to Rodney Rogan, he really is a great player and a great guy.  He was banged up pretty good in that fall last Saturday but I think he is playing this weekend.  The Millsaps team showed me something by hanging in there with Trinity and then getting the win with Rogan out for the last 18 minutes, but I hope that's the last time this year that we have to see Millsaps without Rodney on the court.

[pbrooks3]

George_Banks, great insights on Sean Devins. Welcome to the board. Centre has a post player named John Patterson who graduated last year and now is playing in Europe. While John wasn't exactly in Sean's class as far as athleticism and basketball skills, he rounded into a solid defensive stopper. John's best basketball may be ahead of him given that he backed up Reggie Magnusson for 3 years. Good stuff-thanks.

[evacuee]

When you talk about a 6-10 guy such as Devins, what Mr. Banks says makes perfect sense.  Where I'm working now, we have a guy who has signed with an SEC school.  Despite being 6'9", we rarely see him go strong to the basket or hustle up and down the court.  What we do see is him hang out under the goal and block shots left and right.  He barely breaks a sweat during games.  I'm pretty sure he's going to get run right off the court when he gets to college, but when you're that much taller than everyone else, you can be successful without trying too hard, and unfortunately that can become one's mode of operation.  I saw that a lot in the scholarship players with whom I used to work, as they were all big fish in their formative years. 

[pbrooks3]

The only big guy of sorts that I ever saw in high school who worked his tail off was Tyler Hansborough.  That kid never took anything for granted about his God-given size and talent.  I think Roy Williams would agree!

[FlightofthePetrel]

Speaking of Hansborough... who saw that dunk he threw down over UNC Asheville's 7'7" Kenny George... Hansborough's work ethic should be the model for ever collegiate athlete.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnBkMz-kpsg       

[billzeffer]

That dunk was awesome, he has absolutely no fear at all.  I just wish that guy on asheville's team wasn't so unathletic.  I know it's nearly impossible to be that big and be able to move, but wow, what a sight to see if that guy was even a slightly below average athlete.  Going back in the day again does anyone remember Adam Luton for Trinity about 4 years ago.  I was at the Trinity v. Millsaps (@ TU) game his senior year and he threw down one of the most incredible dunks I have ever seen over Lash and Adams (2 of Millsaps best players) on a drop step from the block.  The kid had incredible athleticism but everything I heard from the TU players was that he just didn't have any basketball IQ. 

On to the weekend matchups, I've been a little out of the loop this year so my opinions could be slightly misguided.  I like the Depauw Rhodes matchup Friday night and i think it should be a closer game than most expect with Depauw pulling it out in the end.  Maybe not in the same dramatic fashion from their championship game a few years back but when will we ever see something like that again.  Even though everyone probably agrees Trinity is the better team I think it will be a close one in San Antonio this weekend with Trinity edging out the Pirates by 5.  My upset special comes from Austin College on sunday as I think they can take out Millsaps at home.  It's a tough travel weekend and games like these are easy to overlook.  Austin by 4. 

[frank_ezelle]

DePauw at Rhodes might be interesting.  DePauw is 5-3 in their last 8 games which includes 2 wins by just one point and another win by just 4 points.  The losses were by 14 at Centre, 11 at Wabash, and then the home loss by 2 to Oglethorpe (as a point of reference, Wabash lost to Trinity 72-66 and beat Southwestern 69-64 in games played at Southwestern).  DePauw is just not playing dominate basketball right now, not to the level that most people expected at the start of the season, so that might be a very good game in Memphis tonight.

Hendrix at Austin might be a game that falls in the toss-up category.  Hendrix has won two games against the U. of Dallas while Austin split their U. of Dallas games, but Austin has the home court.  I'm going to guess that Austin defends their homecourt and they win by 5 or less. 

I don't think the home court will be enough to help Birmingham or Colorado.  Colorado is 0-11 with large road losses to Southwestern and Trinity early in the season so I think Millsaps should get the win if they don't just assume that they will get the win.  Birmingham seems to be capable of making things interesting against Centre, but I have a feeling that Centre will have a big run at some point in the game and then they will cruise to a comfortable win.

I'll be keeping up with the action as best I can, probably listening to the DePauw radio while checking the live stats on both Millsaps games while working on Millsaps photos from last week.  I really know how to live it up on a Friday night. 8)

[pbrooks3]

Half:
DPU 42
Rhodes 20

Rhodes has no answer to DePauw's Oilar. He's got 16 and Moore 11. Going to be a laugher it would appear. 

[pbrooks3]

DPU 82
Rhodes 55 FINAL
Oilar 21 pts
C Smith 14 pts

[frank_ezelle]

Centre beats BSC 77-53:  
http://livestats.internetconsult.com/bsc/mbball/

Millsaps up 50-35 at the half.  Songy, Bailey and Montgomery are all in double figures.  Millsaps has 3 turnovers and 12 assists--the turnover to assists ratio has been a big strength for them this year:  

http://www.coloradocollege.edu/athletics/webcasts/mbasketball/xlive.htm

[frank_ezelle]

Lorenzo Bailey has hit two 3-pointers to give him 179 for his career, one shy of matching the Millsaps career record set by Brad Price.  He also is closing in on the 1,000 point total with his current total around the 930 mark.

[frank_ezelle]

Colorado opened the 2nd half with a 12-3 run to cut the Millsaps lead to 6.  With 12 minutes to go Millsaps is leading 60-50, Bailey has hit two more 3-pointers to break the Millsaps record for most 3-pointers in a career.

[pbrooks3]

DePauw had no problem with Rhodes tonight.  They got off to a 16-2 lead and never looked back.  Brian Oilar was on his game with 21, including 3-3 on 3-pointers.  Schott pitched in with a strong second half.  Poor Rhodes had no answers on the inside.  Both Justin Long and Larry Cunningham fouled out.  The search goes on as my Centre Colonels come to town Sunday.

[FlightofthePetrel]

Songy had 4  three pointers tonight.... 5 a year and a day ago against OU-  I think it's safe to say he likes mid January.

Frank I watched the live stats, I see what you mean about Millsaps taking large leads over teams and then allow them back in the second half.  I figured they'd put Colorado away, but to let an 0-11 team back to within 7 or so shows this team has a way to go.  I still believe Millsaps is one of the top 2 teams in the conference but they need to learn how to put an inferior opponent away.

Noticed Colorado went 22-23 from the line for a 95.7% rate.  Any idea where this ranks for the top free throw shooting performances in SCAC history?