MBB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[Ron Boerger]

Sadly for Trinity, Freddie Ricks III did start last night, scoring 18 to lead the Celts to a not-as-close-as-it-sounds 67-59 road win which, barring injury or something very unusual, basically locks up the regular season championship and top seed for next month's conference championships in San Antonio as the Celts now enjoy a three-game lead and at least some tiebreakers. 

Trinity started out quickly and led 19-12 midway through the first half, but the Celt defense stiffened, the Tigers' shots stopped falling (when they weren't turning the ball over), and by the end of the half the seven point lead had turned into a six-point deficit.  St. Thomas almost immediately built a double digit lead coming out of the locker room; Trinity eventually closed to within two midway through the final stanza thanks in no small part to a dreadful Celt performance at the line (5 for 14 in the first 35 minutes), but over the next five minutes Trinity would miss all their attempts from the field.  The result was the largest deficit of the game, 60-45, with 4:30 remaining.  From there, Trinity's attempts to close the gap were blunted by St. Thomas finally hitting its free throws (7 of 8) and a continued inability to hit from deep (part of a 1-15 performance from beyond the arc in the second half).

St. Thomas only held a 16-12 turnover advantage, but their swarming defense on inside moves were largely responsible for Trinity taking 29 of its 55 shots from three-point range.  Had the Tigers been able to bury more than 1 in 6 of them, the night's result could have been different, but on this night St. Thomas showed it deserved its top-15 ranking. 

One question, having it seen it now twice in the last three games:  what convinces coaches that sending nobody to help rebound on free throws is a good idea?  Both St. Thomas and Southwestern deploy this strategy and I simply don't understand why you would abandon any chance of getting the ball back after a miss.  I guess you could be terrified of the opponent getting an open shot bringing the ball back up court but it seems curious. 

[Ron Boerger]

Was in attendance at yesterday's SCAC championship which saw Schreiner ease past Trinity when a last second three with a good look was just off target as time expired.  Those (like me!) wondering about the Mountaineers' sudden resurgence may find some answers in this part of an daily email digest from the Kerr County Lead, a locally-produced news site:

After a 5-0 start, the Mountaineers faced many issues, including internal conflict leading to suspensions. Two weeks ago, it didn't even look like Schreiner would make the conference tournament in San Antonio. Before Friday's first game, the Mountaineers were 12-13, including a 6-10 record in the conference. Ahead of them were three teams who had swept the regular-season home-and-away series.

What made Sunday's title game fascinating was Schreiner coach Marwan Elrakabawy trust in his veteran guard Alex Dehoyos because the two haven't seen eye-to-eye at times, leaving the perennial starter on the bench. However, in the tournament, Elrakawaby turned to Dehoyos to start in all three tournament games.

Dehoyos delivered with 13, 17 and eight points in the tournament.

The full game summary from the Lead (which doesn't include these details) can be found here.  The Mountaineers won their three games by a total of five points - and while good teams make their luck, they certainly had a lot of 50-50s going their way yesterday (and Trinity shooting under 20% on threes isn't something you'll often see, though you have to credit the SU defense).  The guy who really killed Trinity in the second half was backup C Cristian Rodriguez, a first-year who went 7-for-7 inside, taking advantage of foul trouble on Trinity's Braxton Berry who had four and could not defend as aggressively as he would have liked.

It'll be interesting to see what they do in their first-round matchup.  They'll draw the top seed in their pod (unless they end up in the same pod as St Thomas should the Celts host).  They had a *huge* crowd at Trinity - probably the largest visitor crowd I've seen in all the years I've gone to games there - and they were loud enough to at times drown out what was probably an equally large home contingent.  Official attendance was listed at 1178 against an average Trinity home attendance of 355 (including yesterday). 

[Riley Zayas]

The beat coverage of Schreiner is great from The Lead...don't see this for every D3 school out there. He does a good job, and seems very well connected to the program. What is interesting is if you go back to articles from December, when it talks about Schreiner being in a "freefall". There was definitely some internal conflict there early in the year.

[Ron Boerger]

Nobody will see this, but the entire squad the US is sending to the upcoming FIBA U21 3x3 men's basketball championships edit: qualifiers later this month in China are from Trinity.  They have spent time working with the women's 3x3 team that won the Olympics last year, perhaps the team that won the 2023 FIBA 3x3s to Sunday too.   The tweet announcing the team selection said simply "The team from @TU_Basketball, which has supported USA Basketball 3x3 over the last several years, will compete June 23-29 in Handan, China."

There's not a lot of 3x3 played here (to my knowledge) so the fact that these guys have been involved in the sport for a while with USA 3x3 probably was a huge factor in the choice.   Players chosen include Braxton Barry, Christian Green, Jacob Harvey, Grayson Herr, Jacob Millhouse, and Abdullah Roberts.   All but Green are returnees from last year's squad.

Edit2:  The winners of this round in China (six teams competing) advance to the FIBA U21 championships In September, to be held in Mongolia.

[Riley Zayas]

Nobody will see this, but the entire squad the US is sending to the upcoming FIBA U21 3x3 men's basketball championships edit: qualifiers later this month in China are from Trinity.  They have spent time working with the women's 3x3 team that won the Olympics last year, perhaps the team that won the 2023 FIBA 3x3s to Sunday too.   The tweet announcing the team selection said simply "The team from @TU_Basketball, which has supported USA Basketball 3x3 over the last several years, will compete June 23-29 in Handan, China."

There's not a lot of 3x3 played here (to my knowledge) so the fact that these guys have been involved in the sport for a while with USA 3x3 probably was a huge factor in the choice.   Players chosen include Braxton Barry, Christian Green, Jacob Harvey, Grayson Herr, Jacob Millhouse, and Abdullah Roberts.   All but Green are returnees from last year's squad.

Edit2:  The winners of this round in China (six teams competing) advance to the FIBA U21 championships In September, to be held in Mongolia.

Wow, that is awesome! Had no idea...yeah, my understanding is that 3x3 is way more popular as an organized sport in Europe than it is here. Hope that starts to change, especially with 3x3 being in the Paris Olympics in '24. I'll certainly be following along to see how they do in that qualifier later this month.

[Ron Boerger]

Trinity's non-conference opponents, with last year's records, after changes at the D3hoops classic:

Whitman (22-5)
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (21-5)
Hardin-Simmons (19-9)
Concordia (13-12)
Mary Hardin-Baylor (23-6)
Washington and Lee (18-8)
University of Chicago (10-15)
Clark (15-12)
Pomona Pitzer (20-7)

[Ralph Turner]

Trinity's non-conference opponents, with last year's records, after changes at the D3hoops classic:

Whitman (22-5)
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (21-5)
Hardin-Simmons (19-9)
Concordia (13-12)
Mary Hardin-Baylor (23-6)
Washington and Lee (18-8)
University of Chicago (10-15)
Clark (15-12)
Pomona Pitzer (20-7)

That is a great schedule. UChicago gives TUTx access to the UAA's OWP's

[Ron Boerger]

While we wait - and wait - for Trinity to post their full schedule and roster, word comes that Enzo Sechi, who did not play last season, transferred to Catholic and will play while pursing his master's degree in engineering management.

[D3Navy]

Looks like the TU men's roster is now updated.

[D3Navy]

Solid outing by the Trinity men tonight in an exhibition game at UT San Antonio.  The size advantage of DI UTSA was obviously a huge factor in their 100-70 win.

Strong performances from returning starters Tanner Brown, Jacob Harvey, and Abdullah Roberts.

Two freshmen look to be immediate contributors with Christian Green and Dean Balo contributing significant points and leading the way in rebounding against stout UTSA.

Looking forward to seeing them in action against DIII opponents.

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=488105

[Ron Boerger]

Trinity picks up an unexpected W tonight in exhibition at D2 UC-Colorado Springs, 76-75, despite losing one starter to injury early and having another pick up three fouls and have to sit out much of the first half.  Abdullah Roberts' three with 1.8 seconds left was the difference in a game in which the Tigers shot 16-24 in the second half.

[Greek Tragedy]

Trinity picks up an unexpected W tonight in exhibition at D2 UC-Colorado Springs, 76-75, despite losing one starter to injury early and having another pick up three fouls and have to sit out much of the first half.  Abdullah Roberts' three with 1.8 seconds left was the difference in a game in which the Tigers shot 16-24 in the second half.

Do you know who got hurt? Is it significant?

[Ron Boerger]

Trinity's non-conference opponents, with last year's records, after changes at the D3hoops classic:

Whitman (22-5) W 86-58
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (21-5) W 74-64
Concordia (13-12) W 91-84
Hardin-Simmons (19-9) W 82-82
Mary Hardin-Baylor (23-6) W 83-64
Washington and Lee (18-8)
University of Chicago (10-15)
Clark (15-12)
Pomona Pitzer (20-7)

Perhaps somewhat unexpectedly, but with the SCAC season getting underway this weekend, Trinity is off to a 5-0 start including last night's 83-64 win over UMHB which saw the Tigers end what had been a close game with a 21-2 run over the last 7:02.  Jacob Harvey had 24 including 6-of-10 from deep, and Christian Green had the best game of his young career with 20 and 15, shooting 8-of-12 from the field.  Braxtpn Berry had early foul trouble and was DQd after only 18 minutes, so Green was forced into extra action (37 minutes) and did his best Magic Johnson playing at the five on defense for a good deal of the second half. 

Green and fellow first-year Dean Balo (13 points in 26 minutes) have both played surprisingly key roles in Trinity's hot start, nicely augmenting strong play from Harvey and Tanner Brown.  Green leads the team in scoring at 15.6 ppg, Harvey is right there with 15.4, and Brown adds 14.4.  Balo almost makes it four in double figures with 9.2.

As mentioned, the Tigers start SCAC play on the road at Southwestern on Friday, followed by TLU on Sunday.  If they win both (the two are a 1-13 combined) I would hope to see Trinity jump into the Top 25 next week. 

[Ron Boerger]

On TLU:  that one win came against UMHB, who surprisingly find themselves 2-3 after consecutive road losses to the Bulldogs (77-78), St. Thomas (82-90 in OT), and Trinity.

[Greek Tragedy]

Trinity and St. Thomas are 8-1 vs the ASC.