MBB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[Ralph Turner]

I saw the Trinity - HSU game last night.  Trinity came out and played very well in the first half.  They built a big lead at halftime by shooting well and neutralizing HSU's inside players.  Like is always true, you could just feel that HSU would make its run in the second half.  They did and had some pretty big momentum and made the game close.

For Trinity fans, the Tigers were able to keep their composure and take care of business to get the win.  Given the youth and inexperience they are working with, this is very encouraging.  One game does not make a trend, but this may very well be a big step in the right direction.

Of note, Brandon York led the team in scoring.  He's been struggling a bit so far, and they are counting on him to be a scoring presence.  Casey Hill did a nice job on the boards especially late in the game.  Mike Gilb played very tough inside.  Both of HSU's inside players (the JEAN brothers?) fouled out before Gilb fouled out as well with under two minutes to play.  Patrick Robinson is emerging as a real threat from 3-poont land.

The Tigers have been and continue to be a work in progress.  This game gives Trinity supporters some reason to believe that progress is being made!

Thanks for the report on HSU Trinity.

The Jeans are brothers, Mardochee and Dan.  Dan began playing at HSU, came to McMurry last year, and seems to be playing more at HSU this year.

This is a conondrum.  McMurry pulled away from Trinity the night after the hard McM loss to HSU.  TU has handled TLU and Schreiner as predicted, but has that loss to UMHB.  I don't think that we know the real UMHB yet.  (Virginia Wesleyan comes to UMHB on Dec 29th!)

If we are talking a very, very, very young team at TU, then (IMHO) Coach Cunningham can probably have them ready for the tournament.

[warriorfan]

Hendrix just returned from a hard, but successful weekend of play in Dallas.  On Friday evening, they took on Dallas Christian and won 79/48.  The Warriors held Dallas to only 16 points in the second half but struggled with fouls.  It was a hard game to watch, seems like Hendrix couldn't move without something being called and in the end had 24 fouls while Dallas had 13.  Saturday afternoon, Hendrix beat the University of Dallas 71/68.  Hendrix actually was scoreless the first five minutes or so of the game.  They rallied though and pulled out a tough win over an aggressive Dallas team.  One player from Dallas was ejected from the game after running across the court and punching a Hendrix player in the face.  The Dallas coach escorted him out of the gym.  Later, a foul was called on a Dallas player, which was his 5th, and then the refs decided to give the foul to another player after the call was made and after a short discussion on the court. When the buzzer sounded that the game was over, another Dallas player kicked the basketball against the wall so hard it echoed all over the gym!!!!!  I don't remember playing in Dallas as being this crazy the last couple of years.

Here's a question for you that have been to the gym.  Why don't they cover the doors and windows that allows the sun to beat on the court during the games?  During the first half, the sun was glaring through the glass so much that some of the crowd had to move to see the game.  I was wondering if it was effecting the players.  When the second half came and Dallas shot on that end, someone decided to cover the windows and the doors with paper.  Wonder why they didn't do this before the game started?

[DPU3619]

DePauw also a winner today... 84-63 over Illinois Institute of Technology.  DePauw led by like 35 at halftime, but put a stamp on the second half and mailed it in.  Austin Brown had a career-high 27.  DPU continues to shoot it well.. they were over 50% again to hold the season average right around that same number.

That's also a good win for Hendrix.  The first SCAC team to beat UDallas this year.  I guess I wasn't too sure what to make of the Warriors, but they're starting to look like they might be for real at 10-3.  However, the holiday layoff is awfully long in Conway.  HC is off until the 2nd.

[Ralph Turner]

  I don't remember playing in Dallas as being this crazy the last couple of years.

Here's a question for you that have been to the gym.  Why don't they cover the doors and windows that allows the sun to beat on the court during the games?  During the first half, the sun was glaring through the glass so much that some of the crowd had to move to see the game.  I was wondering if it was effecting the players.  When the second half came and Dallas shot on that end, someone decided to cover the windows and the doors with paper.  Wonder why they didn't do this before the game started?

Home Court Advantage! 8)

[Ralph Turner]

I saw UDallas get past LaGrange, by making free throws down the stretch.

UDallas 79 LaGrange 71.

LaGrange pulled to within 2 at 60-62 with 4:59 left and to within 3 at 2:02, 63-66.  UDallas hit 14-19 in the second half, including something like 10 of their last 12-14 points from the line.

I want to see the result against Austin College tomorrow night!

[warriorfan]

Hendrix's Coach Priest and Coach McCracken did some serious recruiting and have put together a good team with a good bench.  If one player is not making it happen, there are a few more itching to get in there and mix it up.  The bench has been vocal and pumped up.  Andrew King is doing great inside and has two double doubles for the season.  Secrease just missed his first free throw of the season last night.  The Warriors have some hot handed outside shooters and some big kids inside.  The layoff won't hurt this team.  These players have the work ethic to keep themselves going until their first practice. 

[scottiedoug]

Sewanee found a sleeping Maryville team in the first half and for the first part of the second half but something finally woke the Scots up.  Garcia is a a real player but the Tigers did not seem to be going to him as much late as I would have expected.

[Ralph Turner]

HSU game report in the Abilene Reporter-News

Salient quote--

''We had a good scouting report,'' Howard said. ''We knew they could shoot the ball. They are a good team. They run their sets perfectly. Those are the teams we have problems with.''

This was a "dinged-up" HSU squad, so we must look at the loss as another benefit if the in-region records play a factor in the NCAA post-season.

Pickelman still has the bad wrist (FG 2-14, but FT 12-16 for his 16 points).  That is the same bad wrist that sank the last-second FG against McMurry.

HSU did not have Dinkins and Peters for the perimeter defense, either.

[carlweathers]

Devins is not 7'0.  Listed at 6'10 for his entire Trinity career.   

Yes, you didn't directly challenge the fact that Devins wasn't a good SCAC center.  That is fair. 

You did say that in the few times you saw him play that he didn't shoot outside very much.  With a little bit of research I found that he was 8 of 21 from 3 as a senior.  Pretty good for 6'10.  Probably could have taken many more if he hadn't been so good in the paint.  His numbers (both defensive and offensive) were not as impressive as they could have been because Trinity had so many solid players during that stretch that they were winning by a big margins often and spreading the minutes around.  Not sure if Devins ever averaged more than 25/26 minutes a game during his career. 

It was a weird statement that because a 7'0 kid couldn't shoot from outside that it wasn't surprising that he couldn't play pro (i.e. minor league European ball).

As far the height differences in D3.  Yes, obviously you don't have giants at this level, but I am not sure how many 7'0 footers are roaming around the German 3rd division pro league either.  Also, Devins was probably better against the bigger guys he ran into.  The 6'4 meatballs that you will see in the post in D3 used to give him trouble. 


On another SCAC note.  Good to hear that Chris Eddy is getting close to being healty again.  That kid can really go and should give Sewanee a big lift. 

[johnnyalexander]

In response to the Devins conversation, I agree with carlweathers that Devins certainly possesses skills not typical of your usual 6'10'' D3 center. Devins was an amazing free-throw shooter, had tremendous touch, and had an un-stoppable left hand hook all in addition to his shoot-blocking and rebouding abilities. Even if Devins was only 6'7'' or 6'8,'' those skills would have carried him well and certainly those are skills that are coveted regardless of height or wingspan... and Devins had all of them. Undoubtedly one of the greatest centers in SCAC history.

Glad to see Trinity got back on the winning path this weekend. TU is a team with lots of talent but little experience and once the experience starts to kick in the team should begin to win games consistently, hopefully all in time for the conference tourney.

[frank_ezelle]

Any thoughts on why Bates is still playing and Devins wasn't able to ink any sort of deal?

The Sean Devins I remember is a kid who is almost 7'0" and might weigh 125 pounds right out of the swimming pool.  The times I saw him, I wasn't really that impressed with his ability to step out and hit a jumper.  Perhaps the 3 or 4 times I saw him were an exception to the rule, but I can't really recall him having anything much outside of about 15 feet or so. 


So, you've got a tall, lanky guy with not a lot of muscle down low and an average at best (from my observations) jumper.  While he was a great shot-blocker and rebounder, I attribute that more to his ridiculous size advantage at this level and having arms that might have actually been 6 feet long.

Just quoting the above to keep the Sean Devins posts in perspective.  The question was asked about why Devins wasn't able to sign a pro contract and the above answer was given.  I think the answer was pretty much right on target.  Devins was an outstanding SCAC player and a very good D3 player.  He certainly was helped by his size and long arms but obviously he had talent.  He was an exception to my rule of thumb that any D3 player over 6'8" is probably a player with very little athletic ability (a player that size with athletic ability usually gets a scholarship somewhere).

But DPU pointed out that Devins lack strength and Carl backed that up by pointing out that the shorter but stronger players were the ones who gave Devins trouble.  I just don't think he was strong enough to play in the post at a higher level and I don't think he had the skills on the offensive end to convert over to a 3 or 4 spot.  That doesn't mean that he wasn't a great small college player, it just means that he didn't have the tools or the strength needed to play at the pro level.

(The little message popped up saying someone had posted while I was writing.  Let me just say that the one weakness Sean Devins had was at the offensive end.  A 6'10" guy in a league of 6'6" centers and he never averaged as much as 13 ppg--either he wasn't great on the offensive end or that's just terrible coaching to not take advantage of such a mismatch.)

[carlweathers]

I think I acknowledged the DPU's original post was not about Devins place in SCAC history, but as a pro.  While I think the reasoning is poor, it is fair and I acknowledged my mistake.

Frank, you are undoubtedly the Dean of SCAC posters.   That is why it surprises me that you would say that Devins weakness was on the offensive end because he never averaged more than 13 ppg.  That is bad reasoning

The reason why he never averaged more than that is because that team was absolutely loaded while he was at Trinity.  There were plenty of guys to score on that team so it got spread around.  As I said in my last post, Devins never played more than 24/25 minutes a game because of the depth.  Also, pace of play has a great deal to do with it.  The 04-05 TU team is 4th all time in SCAC in scoring margin but they are the only team in the top 5 to not score at least 80 points a game.  That Trinity team averaged 71.  So you have a loaded team, that beats people by relatively large margins and there isn't that much relative scoring to begin with because they don't fly up and down the court and because they were so good defensively that people used lots of clock when Trinity was on D.

Thus it isn't fair to use Sean's 13 ppg as a sign that his weakness was on offense.

Trust me on this.  When Trinity needed a basket late in the game the ball was going to Devins and more often than not he delivered.  That is why he was SCAC tourney MVP as a junior and senior and all-tournament as a sophomore.  His D was great but he could really score.

And that brings me to why I got going on this to begin with.  There were lots of "he was really tall and had long arms" comments but no acknowledgement about how skillful of a player he was.  At any level of college basketball it is relatively rare to see a 6'10 kid with the hand and feet skills that Sean Devins has.   Yes, strength was obviously an issue but it is just plain wrong to say that the kid couldn't shoot it, score, play offense, etc. 

[frank_ezelle]

One thing about the SCAC is that you only get to see the players on opposing teams once or twice a season.  Certainly a Trinity fan would know more about a Trinity player than the rest of us.

Maybe Devins would have been a 25 ppg scorer on a weaker team that needed more points from him.  All I know is what I saw and that is just a small slice of Devins career:

2004-05 Trinity at Millsaps:  Devins scores 11 points on 3 of 6 shooting in 30 minutes.  Millsaps freshman center Sandro Norris scores 17 points on 7 of 11 shooting in 26 minutes.  Millsaps wins game 67-64.

2004-05 Trinity vs. Millsaps at SCAC Tour:  Devins scores 16 in 26 minutes on 5 of 8 shooting.  Trinity easily wins 84-69.

2003-04 Trinity at Millsaps:  Devins scores 18 points on 6 of 13 shooting in 32 minutes of play.  The Millsaps center is 6'1" Carr Van Brocklin.  Trinity wins the game 61-56.

2003-04 Trinity vs. Millsaps at SCAC Tour:  Devins scores 13 points in 20 minutes on 5 of 7 shooting.  Once again he is up against a 6'1" center.  Trinity wins 67-53.

2002-03 Trinity at Millsaps:  Devins scores 13 points in 28 minutes on 5 of 6 shooting.  He is playing against Thomas Adams, a smaller but stronger center.  Millsaps wins the game 60-51.

That's all I have to go on, Trinity winning 3 out of 5 games vs. Millsaps.  In two of those games Devins was going up against a 6'1" center who really didn't jump very well.  In two of the other games he was a senior going up against a freshman.  I just didn't see greatness on the offensive end of the court in those games but they were just a small slice of his career.  You saw more games so you are probably right about his offensive abilities.  I think we all agree that he was a very good SCAC player during his career.

[DPU3619]

DePauw up a couple spots to #22 this week in the d3hoops.com poll.  DPU @ Kenyon tomorrow evening.

[frank_ezelle]

A note for the Millsaps faithful--the Millsaps game vs. D1 Southeastern Louisiana is being broadcast this evening.  The pregame is at 7:30 and the tipoff should be at 7:45.  Here's the link to the broadcast:

http://www.espnradio1240.com/