MBB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[pbrooks3]

Close game at the half in Danville - Centre leads 35-34. Oglethorpe is getting second chance points with 9 offensive rebounds. Todd Ward has 9 points and 7 boards. Ryan Crowdis has just 3 points for Centre but he's got 6 boards and 6 assists. TC Thomason has 12, Danny Noll has 10 and Chris Bentley has contributed 9 with 3 3-pointers.

[pbrooks3]

Centre picks up their 20th win of the season with an 81-71 win over Oglethorpe.  Todd Ward put a double-double together (26 points, 12 rebounds and 4-6 on 3's) to make it a hard earned win for the Colonels.  Centre canned 17-36 from behind the arc with Chris Bentley getting 8 of them.  Danny Noll pitched in 18 points with 4 3's, TC Thomason had 17 (3 3's) and Ryan Crowdis scored a double-double of his own with 10 assists and 15 points.  The Colonels evened things out in the 2nd half on the  boards as both teams ended with 31 rebounds.  Alex Lloyd had a 8 rebounds for Centre.

[pbrooks3]

Here's what I believe the SCAC seedings are for next week in Conway:

West
Trinity #1
Hendrix #2
Southwestern #3
Austin #4

East
Centre #1
DePauw #2
Oglethorpe #3
Sewanee #4

[DPU3619]

I'd say you're correct Mr. Brooks.  Here's the bracket from the home office:

Friday - Quarterfinals at Conway High School
1 p.m. CT - #1W Trinity (13-2/22-3) vs. #4E Sewanee (4-10/7-18)
3 p.m. CT - #2E DePauw (11-3/19-6) vs. #3W Southwestern (7-8/16-9)
6 p.m. CT - #1E Centre (12-2/20-4) vs. #4W Austin College (6-9/13-12)
8 p.m. CT - #2W Hendrix (9-6/16-9) vs. #3E Oglethorpe (7-7/16-9)

Saturday - Semifinals at Hendrix College
5 p.m. CT - Winner #1W/#4E vs. Winner #2E/#3W
7 p.m. CT - Winner #1E/#4W vs. Winner #2W/#3E

Sunday - Finals at Hendrix College
2:30 p.m. CT - Winner 5 p.m. Semifinal vs. Winner 7 p.m. Semifinal

Bad thing about being that #2 in the East is that you pretty much have to go through Trinity AND Centre to win the whole thing.

[pbrooks3]

Another fine regular season chocked up by the Centre Men finishing with a 20-4 record.  The road record this season was outstanding with a single 4 point loss at DePauw.  Two close losses at home to outstanding teams from Transylvania and Trinity.  Coach Mason, staff and players are to be commended. 

Today's finale had seniors TC Thomason, Ryan Crowdis and Kris Bentley all making big plays.  Good performances were turned in as well from senior backups Kameron McRay and Beau Braden.  Of course, we hope that these seniors might advance beyond SCAC tournament action and have a chance to play on further, and maybe with some good fortune play a bit more before the home folks!  We'll just have to wait & see.

These seniors have experienced some run with three straight 20 win seasons and two 2nd round NCAA appearances.  So anything further these men put together in their Centre careers on the hardwood will be like "frosting on the cake" as far as I am concerned.

I will look forward to watching these five young men play in Conway Friday.

[kyballr]

Have not seen the Colonels since the very first game of Transy's year....wow,  seems like forever, but I think the colonels have a great shot at another SCAC Tourney Championship in Conway, AR.  Good luck and make KY proud!  Coach Mason always seems to get the best out of them late in the year.....  rooting for Transy in HCAC but GO KENTUCKY D-III Schools!!!








 

[pbrooks3]

kyballr, thanks for visiting the SCAC board. I didn't see the Transy win at Centre, but one of my friends who did commented that Transy had an excellent team, and thought they would finish high in the Heartland this season. Centre has had another solid season following the Tranzy game. The SCAC tournament looks to me to be among 4 teams as to a winner - Trinity, DePauw, Centre and Hendrix.  We'll see what happens - 2nd round games and beyond are played on Hendrix's homecourt.
If both Transy and Centre get into the post-season D3 mix, I expect these 2 might get matched up again. Should Transy win their conference tournament, I got a feeling they'll be hosting 1st round in Lexington and Centre might be placed there, too. Still a lot of cards to deal yet, but a possibility anyway.

[Ron Boerger]

Here is the website for the SCAC men's tourney:

http://www.hendrix.edu/athletics/content.aspx?id=38292

There will be free live stats and pricey live video. 

I guess they're having to have the men's quarters at a local HS because the women's quarters are at Hendrix. 

[pbrooks3]

Ron, you are correct on the quarters. Last year at Hendrix, the Ladies' quarters were at a local high school. So they flip-flopped things this year with the men doing the honors. One additional difference is this year's high school. Conway High is a new venue for the quarters; I'll be surprised if Conway's gym isn't larger than Hendrix's - Conway HS is one of the largest high schools in the state. This is not to slight Hendrix's facility - they have a 1st rate athletic complex that contains something like 1,100 chair-backs in the gym. If last year's tourney in Conway is any indication, no one game will probably draw more than 600-650, so there will be plenty of room.

Curious on the Live Video; is there a separate price just for tournament games?  They had something like a 30-day offering for $9.99 that included   the schools in the plan and the various sports they had set up for video. I watched 2 Hendrix basketball games and another one from Southwestern.

[Ron Boerger]

The only thing I saw was the $79.99 yearly option.  I didn't want to provide the laundry list of info they want to sign up to get more info.

[frank_ezelle]

Before the focus shifts totally to the SCAC Tournament (as it should), I'd like to get in one last post about Millsaps. 

Prior to the season, if you had looked at the stats of returning players and the rosters to check out height and classification, most people would have expected a big down year at Millsaps.  After all, you  only had two returning starters (Chad Songy and Chris Sanders), and three role players who saw some playing time in 2007-08 (Blake Martinez @13 mpg, Cameron Varnado @12 mpg, and Russell Booth @8 mpg).  Those were the only 5 from the 2007-08 team that played the bulk of this season.  That left Chris Ingle coming off a medical redshirt and a handful of freshmen to fill out the roster (some of last year's freshmen started the year but none completed the season).

There's no question that Millsaps came into this year lacking experience and depth.  Where their talent level stacked up compared to other teams in the league is something I'll leave for others to decide.  It was a team that most wouldn't have expected to reach the tournament and that proved to be the case, but they were oh so close in so many games:

--Millsaps lost at Trinity (W1) by 5 early in the season before beating them at Millsaps.
--Centre (E1) hits a 3-pointer with .3 seconds left to edge Millsaps 59-56.
--DePauw(E2) gets a putback basket with 2 seconds left to send the game into OT, finally winning 85-83.
--Millsaps lost by 2-points and 4-points to Austin.  In SCAC play, Millsaps ended up 2-6 in games decided by 5 points or less and that number was 1-4 in games decided by 3 points or less.

As we all know, a loss is a loss regardless of the margin.  By the same token, a 9-16 season is 7 games under .500 regardless of who you lost from the previous season.  But in some ways, a 9-16 season can be just as impressive as a 28-4 season that results in a trip to the NCAA Final Eight.  From the standpoint of playing hard, making the most of their ability, and doing everything within their power to win ball games, the 2008-09 Millsaps team was no step down from the 2007-08 group.  That goes for the players and for the coaches.

Personally, I doubt that Millsaps had much of a chance to win the tournament in Conway this weekend.  Expecting them to win 3 tough games in 3 days would be too much to ask for a team with their limited depth.  I just wish they had gotten there as a reward for continuing to battle when it looked like they were getting every bad break that a team could get.  They wouldn't have won the tournament, but they would have given someone a heck of a first round game. 

And finally, since I plan to get out of the way and let the tournament team fans do the posting, I want to wish the SCAC representative(s) in the NCAA Tournament the best of luck this year.  I hope you play well and get that break or two that is needed to go a long way.

[hendrixfan]

Conway High has a really nice gymnasium.  This link might provide a glimpse of what we're talking about:

http://bluedogphotos.smugmug.com/gallery/7113557_giGm4#456124489_RtvEd

Hopefully that works.  And for those who visit Conway this week and wonder what a "Wampus Cat" is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wampus_cat

Conway plays in 7A, Arkansas' largest classification.  It is too bad that all the teams won't play at Hendrix,  but playing at Conway high will definitely not be a letdown as far as facilities are concerned.

[brave heart]

Very nice post Frank and quite accurate.Millsaps has a very good team,in fact as a DPU fan that has seen every game this year,I would have rather faced any non #1 seed team than Millsaps.This includes the "home" tournament team that defeated us this season. A basket here or a miss there and Depauw,Centre and Trinty would not be where they are.

[pbrooks3]

Ron, here's the text from the video provider on the $9.99 30-day trial. As I said, I did this about 10 days ago to see several games. Since I'll be in Conway for the SCAC tournament, I won't be plugged in watching video on my laptop, but the subscription still covers things through mid-March for me. Incidently I've done as indicated to cancel my subscription beyond the 30-day trial.


MESSAGE FROM COLLEGE TV TICKET


Unless you wish to view the games for the whole year, I would suggest a one
month subscription.  You will receive all content for the 30 day period. This
subscription automatically renews at the end of the month but you can prevent
the renewal and additional $9.99 charge by going into your preferences and
clicking the "Cancel Subscription" option.

[pbrooks3]

The 2009 SCAC tournament at this point hasn't exactly incited a riot of comments on this board!  Any projections and thoughts on this?