MBB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[Pat Coleman]

You may have already done this, but in case you haven't, I encourage you all to register to win the Salem prize package.

http://www.d3hoops.com/salemgiveaway/

• Hotel accommodations for Thursday, Friday and Saturday in one of the Roanoke Valley's fine hotels, convenient to Roanoke Regional Airport and Valley View Mall, the largest shopping destination in Southwest Virginia.

• Two tickets to the Friday and Saturday sessions at the Salem Civic Center.

• Two tickets to the Thursday evening team banquet, including talks by all four coaches, a player from each team, the introduction of the starting lineup and the ever-popular highlight video.

• Two VIP hospitality passes, giving you sideline access before the game and access to the hospitality room.

• $400 toward your travel cost to get you to and around the Roanoke Valley.

[DPULefty22]

What Pat doesn't tell you is that that prize was donated by one 'wiley123', after his plans to see his Centre Colonels in Salem fell through. He no longer had any use for those arrangements that he said he made after Centre beat DPU. 

A trip to Salem would be pretty neat, but I'm personally hoping to be in Holland, Michigan that weekend.

[DPU3619]

What Pat doesn't tell you is that that prize was donated by one 'wiley123', after his plans to see his Centre Colonels in Salem fell through. He no longer had any use for those arrangements that he said he made after Centre beat DPU. 

 

Now that's funny.

[pbrooks3]

I am picking Millsaps to win by 5 in St Louis tonight.

[fcnews]

Fontbonne players and coaches will be pulling for Millsaps tonight. Hope to meet some of the group coming up from Jackson.

[consultant]

A fast, back and forth game between Millsaps and St. Mary's (MD) tonight.....The Majors used a strong performance from Edrick Montogomery and excellent free-throw shooting down the stretch to seal the 82-73 win.  With the win, Millsaps advances to the round of 8 for the first time in school history and becomes just the 3rd SCAC team to advance to the round of 8.

[pbrooks3]

Frank, I only missed the final margin of victory by 4; I should have been more bold with my prediction!  I think you can now speak of this as special season, special team and special coach.  Isn't it amazing how things have swung over the final chapters of the season.  Centre had the great regular season run, but Millsaps has enjoyed the sweet taste of post-season play to achieve a school record in D3 tourney play.  Good to see that all three SCAC teams (DPU and OU girls) won to advance tonight.  Congratuations!

[frank_ezelle]

It was a very good night for SCAC basketball.  Edrick Montgomery had 27 points and 20 rebounds in 28 minutes--maybe he wasn't consider the SCAC POTY but I think he has some bigger post season honors coming his way.  Glad to see Rodney Rogan have a big night, scoring some big baskets while Montgomery was on the bench with his 4th foul and Songy hit a ton of free throws down the stretch to maintain and increase the Millsaps lead.

Millsaps box score:  http://bearsports.wustl.edu/mensbball/NCAA1.HTM

By the way, it has been a very good day for Millsaps athletics as Millsaps beat Austin in both baseball and softball today and they were leading the U. of Dallas by a bunch in softball when I left that game to get to my computer for the basketball game.

[pbrooks3]

Coach Tim Wise is being interviewed at halftime.  Interesting comments about how to prepare for the next opponent, Wash U or Buena Vista?  Tomorrow's game, regardless of opponent, should be an exciting one.

[pbrooks3]

This will be a tough assignment tonight against a quality opponent with proven inside/outside players for Millsaps.  As if that's not enough, Wash U gets the home court.  Grizzlies seem to be able to rely on a different step-up player each night. Last night they faced a Buena Vista squad with length and hot shooters that gave them fits. But in the end, Wash U got it done as they so often do. Key match-up tonight will be Montgomery-Rogan against Ruth-Nading. Nading struggled last night and expect him to be tough as nails tonight with his mid-range game. Go luck Majors - play your best!

[fcnews]

pbrooks - Ruths is going to get his. Nading is the one that needs to be contained. But, Millsaps guards better be on their best defensive game, to keep the Bears perimeter game from killing them. MC should be able to use their athletism to their advantage.

As a comparison to a team you saw in Jackson: Fontbonne lost to Wash U. early this season by 16. FU held Ruths to 15 points on 6-16 shooting and Nading to just 6 pts. 2-6. But, Wash U. hit 14 of 20 from beyond the arc.

FU also had 6 blocks to WU's 1. FU hit on just 8-22 from three's.

Your kids played a tough game last night. But, their 1-3-1 zone may get punished by Thompson and O'Boyle.

[pbrooks3]

Millsaps needs to use its quickness to its advantage tonight. They'll also need to switch up defenses some to make things rougher for Wash U. I think Wash U is likely to be the team cutting down the nets in Salem next Saturday.

[frank_ezelle]

I've hesitated to join in the discussion because singing the praises of a specific player seems to do two things:  (1) By saying one person deserves the POTY, some will take that as being negative about their candidate.  (2) By talking about how valuable a person is to his team, it can sound a little demeaning to that player's teammates.

Let me just say about Edrick that it would be hard to think of a player being more valuable to his team than Edrick.  Most of you know that Millsaps isn't a very big team with Edrick being listed at 6'6", Rodney Rogan at 6'5", and Chris Sanders at 6'4", and the rest of the main players are guards.  That's one of the reasons Millsaps is being outrebounded by 2 per game--think what it would be like without Edrick's 9 per game.  In addition, Edrick is counted on heavily for defense in the middle, going against bigger players and knowing that he can't afford to get in foul trouble.

Also, keep in mind what happen when Rodney Rogan was injured in the Trinity game.  Prior to that injury, Rodney was playing well enough to be a POTY candidate.  After the injury, Edrick has really stepped up his game with some much needed performances:

Colorado College--28 points, 13 rebounds
Austin--22 points, 15 rebounds
Centre--34 points, 13 rebounds
DePauw--22 points, 9 rebounds
Rhodes--31 points, 15 rebounds
Birmingham--30 points, 13 rebounds
Austin--21 points, 12 rebounds
Southwestern--17 points, 9 rebounds

He has played well enough to be named to the D3 National team of the week twice.  He has led Millsaps, now a 21-3 team, in scoring in 10 of their 24 games (and 9 of their last 14) and in rebounding in 16 of those games.  As I said earlier, it is hard to imagine that there is another player who means more to their team and this is a team that could very easily be in the top 5 like Centre if this had been the year for Centre and DePauw to travel to Jackson.

In addition, and who knows if anyone will factor this into their thinking, maybe there should be some consideration for long term excellence in the league:

--Edrick came in as a sophomore and averaged 15.8 ppg and 8.4 rpg, 8th and 2nd in the SCAC.
--As a junior he averaged 17.1 ppg and 9.8 rpg, 2nd and tied for 1st in the SCAC.  Many people felt it was enough for POTY but Centre was 24-5 and Millsaps was 18-9.
--This year Edrick is averaging 15.9 ppg and 9.1 rpg, 6th and 3rd in the SCAC.

For three years Edrick has been near the top of the league in the two main areas that you look for in a center, scoring and rebounding.  While the award is "Player of the YEAR", maybe there should be some consideration for a player who has been such a factor for 3 straight years.

Pbrooks3, that's my attempt to try and sell you on Edrick.  I know that others here can make a strong case for their favorites, but this is just my argument in favor or Edrick and I don't plan on debating his pros and cons against the other players in the running.  Ultimately it won't matter what we all think; it will be what the 12 SCAC coaches think.  It won't be an easy decision.

I don't expect anyone to read all of the above and the SCAC POTY award is old news by now.  My point being made at the time was that while Edrick's numbers weren't leading the league in any category, he had the ability to do more if more was needed because of injuries, etc. 

I doubt that many of you looked at the box score yesterday.  If you did, then you might have noticed that Chris Sanders only played 18 minutes yesterday with 1 rebound and 0 points.  I don't know his situation except that I've been told that Chris will not play tonight so he must have been far from full strength last night.  Edrick responded with 27 points and 20 rebounds in 28 minutes. 

It appears that Millsaps will be playing with a 7 man rotation this evening, Edrick and Rodney Rogan plus 5 guards--Chad Songy, Lorenzo Bailey, Allen Odum, Cameron Varnado, and Blake Martinez.  It's possible that Russell Booth will get a few minutes in the post and I won't be surprised if freshman Cody Aucoin gets his first minutes of NCAA Tournament play.  Playing a team like Washington at their place and with such limited numbers, one might expect an easy victory for the home team.  That might be the result, but I saw in Coach Wise's first season that he is a master at staying in a game when the odds look bleak.  Hopefully this is the night that Millsaps finally gets redhot from the outside.

[frank_ezelle]

Chris Sanders is playing tonight--a surprise to me and apparently to Coach Wise since he is the one who said in an email that Chris would not be available this evening.  He must be under the weather--it will be interesting to see how many minutes they get from Sanders.

[frank_ezelle]

Millsaps is up at the half 27-18.  Announcers speculate that Millsaps is probably the most athletic team that Washington U. has played all year.  Millsaps is an athletic team, but not necessarily head-and-shoulders above several other SCAC teams.  Regardless of how tonight's game turns out, apparently the SCAC isn't such a weak sister conference.