MBB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[Major_Fan]

King finished with 19 points, 14 boards for Hendrix and Rose added 13 but the 12-point halftime deficit was too much to overcome.  Centre was led by Noll (19), Nestheide (11) and Britt (10).

[pbrooks3]

You're faster on the board than I am Major_Fan!  Thanks for the update.

Glad to get through this one without an upset collapse.

[Major_Fan]

Wish we could say the same.

[DPULefty22]

I wouldn't call it a collapse, Major_Fan. I just think Millsaps ran into a DPU team that fired on all cylinders and did everything it had to do to win the basketball game.

DePauw's been a really strong second half team recently and today was no exception as they came out of the locker room hot. I was surprised to see Millsaps settle for so many jump shots - I thought they'd try and pound it with Rogan and Montgomery more. Montgomery started off on fire and I thought he'd just kill us with those 15-footers all game, but once they stopped falling he really became a non-factor. He's a great player but I think he put it in cruise control after he picked up that second foul in the first half.

True, MC was tired, and I certainly don't believe we saw them at their peak today. But don't let that take away from the Tigers. They were tremendous today - aggressive on defense and the glass. I doubt many teams have been able to outrun Millsaps this year, but DPU did exactly that. Mike Moore ought to win his second straight SCAC POTW award and is now emerging as a POTY candidate. Bench production was key as well - 34 points from DPU reserves as Lemasters hit some big threes and James was clutch at the free-throw line down the stretch.

Make no mistake - fatigue or not, DPU was the better team today and they won in convincing fashion that really isn't belied in the final score. It's their best SCAC win of the season and could vault them into the ARV (also receiving votes) category of the Top 25 this week.

Oh, and thanks for the kind words about the broadcast, Major_Fan. They're appreciated.

[hendrixfan]

Looks like Hendrix shut down Thomason & Britt, but Noll's 3-pointers hurt.
Nice fight in the second half by the Warriors after only scoring 19 in the first half.

Hopefully the Warriors will use this second half rally as a springboard to a couple of good home games next weekend.

[DPU3619]

My thoughts on DPU/Millsaps today.... and I don't want this to come across as being overly-critical, but I'm still going to tell you what I think.

While Millsaps may have gotten tired, I thought a few of Coach Wise's decisions made the difference.  Really don't want to this come off the wrong way.  I'm a big Tim Wise fan.  But, he played man-to-man on DPU's shooters early and had some success.  He went to a 2-3 zone near the end of the first half and DePauw had no problems finding wide open three point shooters.  In the second half, he went to some kind of weird 1-3-1 zone, which again, DePauw had no problems finding wide open three point shooters.  By the time he went back to man, he was down double digits.

I'm fairly sure that Coach thought he had two timeouts left when he called his last with 3:30 and change to go.  However, go look at the play-by-play on the box score.  See how many timeouts Millsaps called in the game.  Now I know that's not Coach Wise's fault. That's his assistant's fault for not keeping track correctly, but there's absolutely no excuse for a mistake like that.  There were about 4 situations after that happened that I think he wished he could have called that timeout.

On top of all that, Millsaps didn't shoot it well and DePauw shot the lights out in the second half.  So there you go.  That's all I have to say about that.

[pbrooks3]

Looks like Hendrix shut down Thomason & Britt, but Noll's 3-pointers hurt.
Nice fight in the second half by the Warriors after only scoring 19 in the first half.

Hopefully the Warriors will use this second half rally as a springboard to a couple of good home games next weekend.

Yea, you did.  Thomas Britt is the type of player that doesn't always have to show him in the stat line to contribute big to his team.  Today he only took 3 shots.  Nestheide is the same type player as Britt, and everyone has keyed on him all year long after his winning POTY last year. 

[pbrooks3]

Coach Greg Mason of Centre should be on D3HOOPS tonight at 8:30 ET.

[frank_ezelle]

"Make no mistake - fatigue or not, DPU was the better team today and they won in convincing fashion that really isn't belied in the final score."

I'm probably reading that quote incorrectly.  Clearly DePauw was the better team today but will we ever know if it was fatigue or not?  The beginning of the game makes one think that Millsaps was a pretty good team today when they started the game fresh, maybe even the better team. 

It's very possible that Coach Wise felt like his team didn't have the legs to go man-to-man the entire game and he was trying to steal some rest with some zone.  If that's the case, then it was a gamble that apparently didn't pay off due to DePauw's hot shooting.  If this was a Friday game and Millsaps had played man-to-man the entire game, something they have done most of the year, then I wonder if it would have made a difference?

I'm not trying to take anything away from DePauw, I'm just pointing out the reality of the situation.  Road trips in the SCAC are difficult, we all know that, and when you have to play a team like Centre on Friday and then travel and play a team like DePauw on Sunday, it is a very difficult task.  I said weeks ago that Trinity was the favorite in the West because they had DePauw and Centre at home and Millsaps had to play them on the road. 

Maybe I'm totally different from everyone here on the board, but I don't think I would have slept a lick on Friday night if I were a Millsaps player or coach.  Maybe all of you could have put that tough a loss out of mind in 30 minutes or so and slept like babies until it was time to hit the bus.  Even knowing that I had a tough game on Sunday, I wouldn't have gotten much rest in the 40 hours between the games.  It's just a possibility to consider.

Just my thoughts this evening.  In no way am I discounting the play of DePauw.  Just pointing out the obvious extra hurdles that Millsaps faced going into the game.

[pbrooks3]

I still rank Millsaps in my top 25.  If the two games had been in Jackson this weekend, Millsaps likely would have won both games.  There's still a lot season to go and the Majors cannot be counted out.

[DPULefty22]

"Make no mistake - fatigue or not, DPU was the better team today and they won in convincing fashion that really isn't belied in the final score."

I'm probably reading that quote incorrectly.  Clearly DePauw was the better team today but will we ever know if it was fatigue or not?  The beginning of the game makes one think that Millsaps was a pretty good team today when they started the game fresh, maybe even the better team. 

If that were the case, Frank, then the Majors only had about 8 minutes of wind in their sails today, because after they took a 20-11 lead at about the 12:10 mark of the first half, DPU took over. And I highly doubt that's the case - that's too athletic a team to just die like that.

I just think we should be careful of how much of Millsaps' play we can attribute to being worn down. It was a factor, sure, but lots of other things that DPU directly controlled were bigger factors; the way they shot from downtown against the zone, the way they forced Millsaps to settle for jumpshots and kept their bigs out of the paint, and the way they shot free throws down the stretch to ice the game.

I guess what I meant to say in my original post is that DPU was the better team today and that such a thing would have been reflected regardless of how worn down Millsaps was coming into the game. Put aside what we can only guess at - how tired Millsaps was - and focus on the numbers that give us concrete conclusions. I'm just saying that the league wide response to this one ought to be more along the lines of "Wow, DPU played a hell of a ballgame" and less "Gee, Millsaps must have been really tired."

[pbrooks3]

Ok, I will give credit where credit is due.  DPU played a great game and were clearly the better team today.  I was wrong on Mike Moore; he was able to continue wreaking havoc.  Your bigs controlled the inside.  You nailed the 3-pointers.  This is one game though, and DePauw has shown a propensity to go hide at times.  Perhaps this is the breakout that the Tigers needed, and they're going be clicking on all cylinders now, win the tournament and go on to D3 glory.  I'm not ready to concede that yet.  Let's see how this next weekend goes for both DePauw and Centre on the Texas trip.

[pbrooks3]

Well, Centre has enjoyed a fantastic streak of 16 games (so far) this season and the Friday night game with Millsaps was one for the ages. The thing that I love about basketball during a season is you can't spend much time reflecting on your resume; you've got focus and look ahead to the next game; if not you may be doomed before you start.

The remainder of the Colonels regular season is loaded with the toughest stretch of their season. Trinity and Southwestern on the Texas swing are next up. Then there are home dates against Birmingham Southern and Rhodes. The final games are on the road against DePauw, Sewanee and Oglethorpe. Plenty of potential obstacles are in the Colonels' way, particularly in the 5 road games. I hope Centre can come away with a few road victories, but every team will be gunning for the Colonels the remainder of the way. Regardless of the outcome, I know they'll challenge and play exciting basketball and that's what I like about SCAC basketball.

[scaccommish]

Video of an impressive dunk by Rhodes' Cory Smith from the Colorado College game has been linked on the Memphis ABC affiliate's website:
http://www.myeyewitnessnews.com/sports/default.aspx

I know ESPN has it as well so it may be a candidate for the Play of the Day portion of Monday night's SportsCenter telecast.

[frank_ezelle]

I'm not sure if I need to clarify this but I will:

--I don't think that anyone on the board doubts that DePauw is an outstanding team when they are firing on all cylinders.
--I don't doubt that DePauw played great Sunday, as reflected by the win and the margin of victory.
--Would DePauw have beaten Millsaps on a neutral court if both teams are rested.  Maybe, maybe not.  We'll never know.
--How much did fatigue play into the game?  I don't know, especially since I didn't see the game.  All I have to go on is the observations of the board members from DePauw.  Such as the observations:
--Edrick Montgomery started off great and then he seemed to go into cruise control.  Hmmm, maybe he just lost interest in the game or maybe the 40 minutes against Centre was a factor.  I don't know.
--Millsaps looked great in a man-to-man and then they went to a zone and it let DePauw back into the game.  Apparently this was a big factor in the game and the DePauw victory.  Was it because of fatigue that they went to a zone? I don't know.
--The comment was made about DePauw outrunning such an athletic team as Millsaps.  I'm sure DePauw has some very athletic players, but again, the observaton makes it sound like Millsaps was a tired team.

I'm not saying that Millsaps is the better team--I haven't seen DePauw play this year so that would be a rediculous statement.  I'm just saying that DePauw had a fresher team thanks to being at home, having the easier game on Friday, and not having the hangover of a very difficult loss.  Given all the factors, it's not surprising that a team as good as DePauw ended up running away from a team as good as Millsaps in the second half.  I suspect it would have been a closer game throughout if it had been the Friday night game.  That doesn't seem like such a radical notion.