MBB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[Rose Basketball]

If you would have asked Rose-Hulman coach Jim Shaw how his team is playing after his club dropped a 66-60 decision to Tri-State on Conseco Fieldhouse on December 30th, he probably would have spent 15 minutes going over all the things that are wrong with the Engineers. The defense was still pretty solid, but offense was nowhere to be found. Rose was already 0-2 in the SCAC, stumbling out of the gate by dropping two in a row on the road to both Hendrix and Rhodes.

However, since that loss at Conseco, the Engineers have rattled off 5 straight to begin the "real" conference schedule, and now find themselves in 3rd place, just a game back of league leaders Trinity and Southwestern. What has been the difference? It's hard to say. Probably a combination of alot of things. Guys are starting to understand their roles alot better, and Munchie Muskeyvalley has turned up his game a notch during conference play.

Rose starts 2 seniors, 1 junior, 1 sophomore, and 1 freshman. The seniors, Raymond "Munchie" Muskeyvalley and Brennan Dunville pace the Engineers in scoring at 14.9 and 11.0, respectively. Muskeyvalley has shown the ability to take over games throughout his entire career at Rose, and he did just that last week as Rose-Hulman rallied from 16 down to defeat Millsaps on the road. Dunville has been a consistent post presence, using his athletic ability to his advantage at opportune times.

Junior Jason Bednarko and sophomore Jared Moore, the only two players to start every game for Rose this season, both have provided solid defensive games during the current 5-game streak. Moore has always been the lockdown defender, routinely guarding the opponent's top athlete or scorer, while Bednarko is counted on to provide ball-handling, strength at the guard spot, and outside shooting. His defense, however, has steadily improved as the season progressed and he too is becoming a player that while on the floor, provides a variety of good things. Freshman Lorenzo Rice, the final starter, has started to feel much more comfortable in the offense and has been using his great rebounding ability and athleticism as another scoring option for a Rose team struggling to put points on the board.

Rose-Hulman has also gotten strong bench play recently from the likes of David Yarachefski, Ron George, and Shane McCue. Yarachefski specifically, as he averaged 13 ppg during the last road trip.

This Rose team is lights years above the team we saw from Decemeber 2nd through December 30th, when they lost 5 of 7 and fell to 4-8 overall. But, that doesn't mean that things will continue be all roses. With both Trinity and Southwestern coming to town this weekend, the Engineers' hopes of a regular season title could take a major hit with two losses. A split would be very nice and a sweep, though unlikely and very tough, would be amazing.

Looking at the remaining conference schedule outside of Trinity and Southwestern, there is a good possibility of 4, possibly 5, more wins in there. That's not counting the non-conference contest against Robert Morris of Springfield, Illinois.

I am excited about the way this club is playing right now, but at the same time, I know things can fall back to the way they were just as fast. Rose must stay focused and continue to play good basketball. If they do that, it could be an exciting finish to the season. I think we will know alot more about where this team stands after this weekend.

[Fan of the Game]

I would be interested in mattgrub's comments on the Oglethorpe win over Maryville. 

[frank_ezelle]

In all fairness to Matt and Maryville, maybe it's only the SCAC champions that they run out of town--they just seem to have trouble with the 2 thru 10 teams.

Thanks for the updates on Hendrix and RHIT.  I'll agree 100% with the comment that Andrew King of Hendrix is a heck of a freshman and a big star to be in this league and with the comment that Munchie has the ability to take over a game on the offensive end.  From the one game I saw, I think RHIT might still improve during the season by fine tuning the balance between the times that Munchie takes over and the times that the others are involved in the offense.  That's a difficult balancing act for teams at all levels with maybe the best example I know being Allen Iverson and the 76ers.

[scottiedoug]

I will not comment for MattGrubb.  But I did see the game and posted on the GSAC board.

Congrats to Oglethorpe for taking it to the Scots.  Good game plan, well executed.  MC did not play well, but Oglethorpe did.

[Rose Basketball]

HALFTIME

Trinity 44, Rose-Hulman 33

Rose Burt (T), 19 points
James Lake (T), 14 points

Munchie Muskeyvalley (R), 12 points
Brennan Dunville (R), 10 points

The Tigers have connected on NINE three-point field goals in the 1st half.

[Rose Basketball]

FINAL

Trinity 77, Rose-Hulman 55

TRINITY (14-4, 7-1)

Burt, 23 points (9-16 FG)
Lake, 17 points

ROSE-HULMAN (9-9, 5-3)

Muskeyvalley, 19 points
Dunville, 15 points

[frank_ezelle]

Millsaps 83, Oglethorpe 69

In a game that was about as "must win" as you can get at the midway point in the season, Millsaps took a double-digit lead in the first half and was able to keep a lead in the 10-20 point range for the entire second half.  I don't have a stat sheet from the game but it followed the typical pattern:  Edrick Montgomery with a lot of rebounds, Rodney Rogan with a solid game all around, Tyler Warren with a bunch of clutch shots, Lorenzo Bailey with some deadly outside shooting, etc., etc.  OU seemed like they couldn't miss a free throw for most of the game and if you left a man open he would drill a 3. 

With the win, Millsaps is just a Munchie M. missed layup away from being in 3rd place in the SCAC.  But, Munchie did make the layup and Millsaps is in the middle of the SCAC at #5 with some tough games to go.  For the remainder of the season Millsaps has road games to Sewanee, Centre, Rhodes and Hendrix and they host Trinity and Southwestern.  I doubt that anyone would rate us heavy favorites in any of those games but I'd like to think that going 3-3 for the rest of the season isn't out of the question and that would give Millsaps a decent seed in the SCAC Tournament.

[frank_ezelle]

Millsaps took an easy win over LaGrange Sunday.  Millsaps looked flat for most of the first half but they were up by 10 at halftime and stayed in control the rest of the way.  Tyler Warren had 18, Rodney Rogan had a perfect shooting night (5 of 5 FG, 3 of 3 FT) for 13 points and Edrick Montgomery added 11 points and 17 rebounds.  Allen Odum, Justin LeBlanc and Lorenzo Bailey just missed double figures with 9, 9 and 8 points respectively.

From a Millsaps prospective, I hated to see the DePauw win over Trinity.  Millsaps and DePauw are now tied in the win column with Millsaps having the tiebreaker. 

Sewanee got a much needed road win at Rhodes and now they will have 4 home games to try and climb out of the 9th spot in the league.  I imagine they feel like they need 3 out of 4 wins at home (vs. Millsaps, OU, DePauw and RHIT) to get into the SCAC Tournament since they finish on the road in Texas. 

Rhodes goes to Indiana this weekend and that is followed up by a trip to Hendrix.  If they don't get a win on the road it might not be enough that they host OU and Millsaps on the last weekend.  I'm sure Hendrix would like to find a win in Indiana this week and hopefully have a 2 game lead on Rhodes prior to the Rhodes-Hendrix matchup.

As for the top of the league, it looks like Southwestern and Trinity are going to be hard to knock out of the top two seeds and Centre is looking pretty good at #3 with 4 home games coming up against the 4 teams that are directly below them in the standings.  They certainly would be viewed as the favorite in the race for the 3rd spot.

[scaccommish]

RHODES' GONDA; OGLETHORPE'S CHURCHWELL; SEWANEE'S HARRIGAN HIGHLIGHT SOUTHERN COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC CONFERENCE'S 15TH ANNIVERSARY MEN'S BASKETBALL TEAM

SUWANEE, Ga. – Rhodes College guard Mike Gonda, Oglethorpe University forward Russ Churchwell and Sewanee-University of the South center Ryan Harrigan highlight an impressive list of past standouts named to the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference's 15th Anniversary men's basketball team.

For complete release, click link:
http://www.scac-online.org/anniversary15

[carlweathers]

Hard to argue with the SCAC 15th Anniversary team.  While I didn't think Chuchwell should have been POY either of the past two years, I would have him on this team. 

I know that he wasn't eligible but you can't talk about greatest players in SCAC history without talking about Bryan Egli.  He had an unbelievable year. 

[frank_ezelle]

I agree that a good job was done in picking the 15th Anniversary team.  One of the "close but no cigar" players must have been Thomas Adams of Millsaps.  An injury during part of his junior year kept him from being at or near the top of the career scoring and rebounding lists in the SCAC.

I was glad to see Phillip Robinson make the team.  Millsaps joined the SCAC after Phillip's freshman year so only 1,370 of Phillip's career total of 1,882 points are included in the SCAC record books. 

[carlweathers]

Frank,

I have to agree with you about Thomas Adams.  Had one of the single most dominant seasons in SCAC history the year Millsaps won it.  Absolute killer that year.  Without the injury he would be hard to keep off the list.

Another note about Adams.  He was the victim of perhaps the most punishing "and 1" dunk in SCAC history courtesy of Trinity's Adam Luton. 

[Herb]

Carl,

Brutal!

[carlweathers]

Great win for Trinity tonight.  Still a tough schedule down the stretch but a great win. 

[Herb]

Congrats to the Trinity Tigers for a big road win and the completion of the season sweep of Southwestern.