MBB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[Ron Boerger]

TU-AC box.  Trinity ends up with a 52-28 advantage on the boards including a whopping 20 offensive boards. 

[pbrooks3]

At the 1/8th mile pole, it looks like Trinity and Centre. Any other observations on various teams through these opening SCAC games?

[jekelish]

My observation on AC: they are improved from a year ago, and will keep getting better.  Once they are clicking a little more (the young guys getting a little more experience, Sturtevant getting it going a little more, etc) they will be in position to be a possible spoiler for some teams come conference tourney time.  Burke and Lintelman are improved from a year ago, and a couple of the freshmen look really, really promising.

[pbrooks3]

Jekelish, just a follow-up to your comments yesterday,what did you think about the Trinity team Austin faced in the 2nd half?  I sense Coach Cunningham may have what it takes this year to be back in the D3 post-season. 

[pbrooks3]

Wonder whether Colorado College can pull out another victory or two. It seemed to me that the schedule set up pretty well for CC to spring the upset Saturday night. I'm glad Centre doesn't have to play back-to-back nights at Austin followed by a game at Colorado Springs. Who else is playing on Saturday night in Colorado after a Friday night tilt this season?

[Ralph Turner]

Wonder whether Colorado College can pull out another victory or two. It seemed to me that the schedule set up pretty well for CC to spring the upset Saturday night. I'm glad Centre doesn't have to play back-to-back nights at Austin followed by a game at Colorado Springs. Who else is playing on Saturday night in Colorado after a Friday night tilt this season?

Here is the answer.

You gotta love this website!   

[jekelish]

Jekelish, just a follow-up to your comments yesterday,what did you think about the Trinity team Austin faced in the 2nd half?  I sense Coach Cunningham may have what it takes this year to be back in the D3 post-season. 

The biggest thing I can say is that, from the one game I saw, Trinity as a whole is a clutch team.  I don't mean just making a big shot (which they did, however) but the little things, too.  Anytime AC was on the verge of getting right back into it, they came up with a big play.  You know, grabbing an offensive board when they needed it, coming up with a defensive stop when they needed it, or hitting a jumper with the shot clock winding down, like the three they got with 1:18 left.  That shot was pretty much the backbreaker, and the moment I knew the game was over.

[Walter17]

What a weekend of basketball!  Does anyone have comments on the DePauw/Oglethorpe game? 

I too was at the Austin/Trinity game and jekelish gave a pretty good description of what happened.  Austin could be a real bubble burster of a team this season and even more frightening - next season!  With only two or so seniors and their real "star power" coming back after this season, I see this team making great strides towards being a threat for conference.  Coach Wecker has done a great job.  He has brought in great size and athleticism, now they just need to get a "winner's mentality."  And that's exactly what Coach Cunningham has instilled in his players over the past few years. 

This Trinity team came in on the tail end of Trinity's four year NCAA tournament stretch.  None of the current players really saw time their freshmen year and weren't key parts of Trinity's success.  Over the last two years, they have met their fair share of let downs (overtime losses and lost leads in crunch times).  It is obvious that they have learned from their mistakes in the past.  One major defining point for the Tigers this season is their ability to control the boards.  They made a huge statement this weekend by having 25 and 20 offensive rebounds in each game!!! That's amazing; especially for a team that doesn't have a single player over 6'7.  It really speaks volumes about the attitude of this team.   They don't have the height or "star power" that the Devins' Trinity teams had, but they definitely are a scrappier bunch that comes up big when needed to.

[pbrooks3]

Good stuff on the Trinity & Austin crews.  I don't know why we're not getting much on DePauw other than the typical DPU posters aren't thrilled with the team's start.  Or perhaps they're still discussing the football season!  On Oglethorpe, I was prepared to be more impressed with them then what I saw on Sunday.  They truly have a dynamite player in Todd Ward - he's a gifted athlete and he can do a lot of things.  They basically surround him with 4 guards.  So there's not much size.  Coach Ponder has an athletic freshman named Erik Strong coming off the bench (6'5" or so) that will be a force down the road.  He's a banger playing close to the basket with a definite desire to go get the ball.    All of the guards can shoot the 3.  I thought they played well against Centre in the 1st half.  Centre simply played much better defense in the 2nd half, and OU went cold as well.  They also had to protect Ward a bit because of fouls so that probably worked against them.  Ward has to be in the game most of the time for them to beat good teams.  I suspect the coach would say his team didn't play well against Centre, and that's probably an accurate assessment.  But I think all in all, Centre was the better team.  Neither squad shot the ball particularly well, and Centre truly stunk it up on the free throw line.  TC Thomason, who shot better than 70% on the line last season, clanked 7 of 9 free throws against OU.  I think Oglethorpe will be competitive.  How many league games they can win on the road will be a key to their season.

[brave heart]

Its hard to get a feel this early on a team with one Senior.Depauw played decent on Friday in Atlanta.Ward is athletic,but made several tunovers.We were killed by Kennedy's shooting touch torching us for 20 second half points.Going 1 and 1 on a road trip this early is resonable.I expect we will turn the table on Ogelthorpe at home.

[Walter17]

It looks like Trinity is receiving some love from the voters - #25!  We won't see them back in action until next weekend.

[pbrooks3]

Pretty ugly opening half at Mallory with Rhodes and Rust knotted at 42-42. Lots of poor passing and turnovers by both squads. Rhodes has Dean Shroyer hitting 5-7 on 3-pointers so far. Not be outdone, Nathan Ollie has 15 as well with 3 3's. Cory Smith is empty from the field with 4 free throws and a couple of nice assists. Rhodes should be up by 10, but sloppy ballhandling and porous defense have  contributed to their current fate.

[pbrooks3]

12:49 to go - Rust is up 65-51. Rhodes looks tired and uninterested.

[pbrooks3]

Ollie is a one-man wrecking crew for Rhodes. He's got 26 and the Rhodes in within 7 at the 6:59 mark.

[pbrooks3]

79-79 with 2:55 to play. Ollie has 32 with five 3s.