MBB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

pbrooks3 · October 19, 2009, 04:41:00 PM

Quote from: tarheelfan on October 19, 2009, 01:11:45 AM
Quote from: pbrooks3 on October 16, 2009, 10:58:45 PM
In the East, I think the teams to watch are Centre, Oglethorpe and DePauw. The West - I like Trinity, Hendrix and Southwestern.

I believe you could put Austin in the top three in the West. Are you predicting a number one finish for Trinity after losing four starters?

No I'm not predicting an order of finish at this juncture. I think Pat Cunningham is a great coach who emphasizes defense and rebounding. He'll always have competitive teams and I don't think I'm going out on a limb in predicting them among the top three. Austin is a team to be reckoned with given the way they played some teams last season. I picked three and left them out; could easily be that they win the west - who knows.

tarheelfan · October 19, 2009, 07:58:09 PM

I agree. I believe any of those four teams could win the West. Thanks for the clarification.

FlightofthePetrel · October 21, 2009, 04:36:56 PM

Preseason Poll is out....

Centre is the only team in the top 25 but Oglethorpe and Trinity are in the RV section.

http://www.d3hoops.com/top25/

Does anyone else predict that these are the top 3 schools in the SCAC? Depauw is always tough but they lost POTY Mike Moore. Do Hendrix and Southwestern out west seem to figure in this discussion at all?

Oglethorpe rolls out a roster of 21 that includes a few departures but a great group of freshman to go along with a starting 5 that lost no1. If they can put it all together I think they're the odds on favorite to win the SCAC- I believe they're the most talented team in the SCAC.

OLD STUDENT/ATHLETE · October 22, 2009, 08:15:49 AM

I would agree that Oglethorpe should be the pre-season No. 1 in the conference, based on their starting 5 returning, and possibly having the best player in the league. However, I would argue that Danny Noll at Centre is the best player in the league, and if Centre's freshmen come through, they will be an outstanding team. One should not look past DePauw as they loose only one starter, and I think they will be a better team without Moore. Millsaps has an excellent young team also. Many good teams in the league this year, Oglethorpe, Centre, De Pauw, Millsaps, Trinity, Southwestern, and Hendrix. There will be may upsets this year!

pbrooks3 · October 22, 2009, 06:50:08 PM

FlightofthePetrel is certainly right about Oglethorpe having tons of talent & experience. However, while their talent may outrank everyone else in the league, talent in & of itself doesn't necessarily win ballgames. Coach Ponder will need to work on meshing some of new players into the system. I honestly think the keys for OU winning the East this year will be rebounding and defense. Offense is never a problem for this squad.

Old Student/Athlete is right about there being good parity in the SCAC this season. Whether this translates into lots of upsets, I'm not sure. I am going to expect this year that SCAC road wins are going to be at a premium for just about all of the teams. The ones who can escape with 2 or 3 road wins might be the top finishers.

FlightofthePetrel · October 23, 2009, 11:35:43 AM

Brooks... I agree with you that the key to success is having everyone on the same page. You see what happened when team USA sent their best and brightest to the Olympics a few years ago. There were to many ME's on the team and not enough WE's. It wasn't until Kobe Bryant turned himself into a lock down defender and everyone accepted a role on the team that they restored USA basketball to the top once again.

OU has a great makeup of players... Todd Ward is obviously going to be the focal point but David Allison and Joe Kennedy can score at will if they shut Ward down. Alex Richey showed what he's capable of against Georgia State last year by keeping OU in the game while scoring 35+. Wade Weldon rounds out the starters and even he averaged double figures last year... the kid is a bulldog on the court, especially under the rim. For someone who is outsized for his position I haven't seen a kid work as hard as he does day in and day out for each loose ball- Nescit Cedere.

I've seen the guys play pickup a few times and as long as everyone stays healthy this looks to be the most complete and talented team OU has had in quite some time.

BBallFanHC · October 24, 2009, 10:03:59 PM

Hello all! New to the basketball board this year. Collected my winnings from Vegas after predicting Hendrix baseball winning the 2009 SCAC tourney. Follower of Hendrix and the SCAC. Looking forward to a new Hendrix team this year without King, Foley, Wible and....Bertrand. So basicially Hendrix will rely on soph. Nick Heathscott to hold down the inside, something he showed flashes of last year if he can stay out of foul trouble. Heathscott could be the best true post player in the conference this year. It seems the cupboard might be a little bare for Priest with bigs....hopefully someone can emerge to spot Heathscott a few minutes here and there.
Seniors Cal Rose and Janson Hightower should be able to carry the back court but it will be interesting to see who else will emerge to put the ball in the hoop. Look for Ryan Rizos to play significant minutes this year. A junior who could play the 3 or 4 is a deceptively quick scorer who could really give opposing defenses matchup problems.
With the conference really up in the air this year any team has a shot to cut down the nets in the Hanger Dome!
Well I think that is enough for me for one night. Good luck to all schools and hope for another exciting year of SCAC basketball.

frank_ezelle · October 24, 2009, 10:42:02 PM

It's hard to say what Millsaps will have this season. The roster on the Millsaps website only has the 6 returning players, maybe 7 if Jason O'Rear comes back out after football season is over, but there are a ton of newcomers:

"Millsaps' roster is very young, but talented, with SCAC experience. The Majors welcome back six lettermen, which includes three starters from a year ago, and add 16 freshmen and a junior college transfer. "

That's from the season preview which can be found at this link:

http://www.gomajors.com/news/2009/10/21/MBB_1021094442.aspx

BBallFanHC · October 25, 2009, 04:26:23 PM

Todd Ward is by far the best player in the conference in my opinion. No disrespect to Danny Noll but I believe Mason has a lot more to do with Noll's success then Ponder does with Ward.
That kind of athlete is very rare in D3 and I think with two straight first round eliminations he will come out of this offseason ready to go. He is a matchup problem for every team in the conference and I don't think there is another player you can say that about. I am really looking forward to seeing how he and the Stormy Petrels do this year as they seem to have the most coming back.

pbrooks3 · October 25, 2009, 08:56:01 PM

Quote from: BBallFanHC on October 25, 2009, 04:26:23 PM
Todd Ward is by far the best player in the conference in my opinion. No disrespect to Danny Noll but I believe Mason has a lot more to do with Noll's success then Ponder does with Ward.
That kind of athlete is very rare in D3 and I think with two straight first round eliminations he will come out of this offseason ready to go. He is a matchup problem for every team in the conference and I don't think there is another player you can say that about. I am really looking forward to seeing how he and the Stormy Petrels do this year as they seem to have the most coming back.

I
I do believe Ward is the most athletic and balanced player I've seen in the SCAC in recent years. Noll's attributes are considerable, too, but he's not the natural talent that Ward is. Noll makes up in other areas with his work ethic and his heady style of play. I think POTY could come down to these two.

kid nice · October 29, 2009, 02:44:31 PM

Frank, is the O'Rear kid going to play this year? did he get playing time last year? he obviously is having a pretty good year in football for you guys

pbrooks3 · October 29, 2009, 07:55:50 PM

Nice D3 writeup on Oglethorpe's team which is in fact loaded with returning players. Just makes me look forward with anticipation to SCAC basketball.

Patriot_Pride · November 06, 2009, 12:01:10 AM

Quote from: kid nice on October 29, 2009, 02:44:31 PM
Frank, is the O'Rear kid going to play this year? did he get playing time last year? he obviously is having a pretty good year in football for you guys

I'll respond on behalf of Frank. No, O'Rear is 95% percent staying with football only. I spoke with him the other day. He came off the bench in 23 games last year and is a very athletic kid, but I like him on the football field even more than the basketball court. I'd be stunned if he changed his mind.

frank_ezelle · November 06, 2009, 08:41:17 AM

Jason O'Rear is a very good athlete but it is very hard for a player to do both football and basketball because the seasons overlap. The more logical dual sports combination is football and baseball and I've been told that O'Rear was a pretty good pitcher in high school. As for Jason playing basketball this season, the only clue I have is the previous post plus the fact that Jason was listed on the Millsaps basketball roster a couple of weeks ago and now his name has been removed.

frank_ezelle · November 06, 2009, 09:59:22 AM

Watched Millsaps scrimmage D1 Jackson State University of the SWAC last night. Millsaps actually had a 28-27 lead after starting the 2nd half with an 8-0 run, but then reality set in and JSU won the game 70-40.

In this case part of the reality was a JSU team with 9 players listed at 6'5" or taller, topping out with two at 6'10", one each at 6'9" and 6'8", and two more at 6'7". Another part of the reality was that Millsaps wore down under the extreme workload that it takes to compete with such a big and talented team. And yet another part of the reality is that the bottom half of the JSU roster is still loaded with kids on athletic scholarships, so with both coaches trying to get all the players into the scrimmage game, the disparity between the teams showed greater as more subs entered the game.

Considering that JSU is so different than a typical SCAC team, it's a little hard to get a good feel for how Millsaps will look in conference play. Like last year, they will be a real blue-collar team that will battle you from start to finish and get the most out of their abilities. Down low, Chris Ingle will bust his tail and somehow grind out 10-12 points per game and 7-8 rebounds. Ben Cooper plays the same way and it looks like he is taking over Chris Sanders' starting spot. These two big men won't evoke the thought "poetry in motion", but they will bring their hardhat to every game and will give Millsaps some solid physical play inside.

On the perimeter, Chad Songy will be missed in a lot of ways, but I liked the play of sophomore Brian Merkel and transfer LeeVarn Sumler at point guard last night. It looks like they are going to do a good job in that role. Seniors Blake Martinez and Cameron Varnado will be counted on heavily this season as leaders and scorers. No doubt that Blake will fire up a lot of 3-pointers this season and when he is hot Millsaps is a threat to beat whoever they are playing. Plus, good outside shooting will open things up for Varnado to go to the basket, something he did with success last night.

Behind this group there appears to be some good potential. Brandon Center at 6'8" and Aaron Caldwell at 6'5" are freshmen who add some height and bulk to go along with returning sophomore Jeff Brown who is 6'4". Jarius Browning, a 6'2" guard from Florida also caught my eye, but it really was hard to tell much about the newcomers considering the situation. I just got the feeling that Millsaps will be able to put together a solid group for an 8-10 man rotation.

I guess we will find out more about these newcomers when Millsaps opens the season Nov. 17 against Belhaven, another scholarship team but not quite on the same level as JSU.

Link to story on JSU game: http://www.gomajors.com/news/2009/11/5/MBB_1105094722.aspx