MBB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[frank_ezelle]

With the SCAC tournament website, there is no need to post stats on any of the games.  Just a general feeling that I have is that I would prefer to be the team that had the tougher 1st round game rather than the team that had a blowout.  Millsaps was pushed by Hendirx the entire game and they really had to hold up to the pressure down to the end.  I think that helps for today's game--not a whole lot but I'm not sure that there is a whole lot of difference between the final 4 teams.  I expect two great games today.

One general comment about Millsaps and we'll see if it holds true.  Allen Odum is a key piece of the Millsaps team and he missed a lot of action in the last month.  That cost Millsaps at least a tie for the SCAC regular season crown (in my opinion) as he didn't play in the loss to Trinity and he didn't start in the loss to DePauw.  But if they win the tournament this weekend it might very well be because of his recent lack of playing time.  With Allen out of action, Chris Sanders has had to become a scoring option and he has suddenly gone from about 5 points a game to being a leading scorer in 3 of the last 5 games and winning SCAC POTW.  Chad Songy has also step up his game with the increased playing time and I think he is a far more comfortable player on the court now. 

Allen played 32 minutes yesterday and had 15 points and 6 steals.  If he is able to stay at full strength for the rest of the tournament and you add in the improvement made by some of the players over the last few weeks, that just might be enough to get Millsaps a tournament championship.

[scaccommish]

All-SCAC team announced:

http://www.scac-online.org/basketball_mens/07all-scac.htm

[carlweathers]

YES!

Congrats to Coach Cunningham and the San Antonio Tigers.

[evacuee]

Hooray for Trinity, but shame on DePauw.  19 turnovers?  I'm not saying this to gloat.  That had to be awfully frustratiing for DPU folks, especially the coach, who you know does a better job than that tally indicates.  Should the San Antonio Tigers pull it out on Sunday, I'm sure the Tigers from Greencastle will go much farther in the NCAA tournament.  The loss just means more rest for y'all. 

Still, a heckuva win!

[pbrooks3]

Centre's stingy defense proved to be the difference with Millsaps as I predicted.  Credit Millsaps in the 2nd half starting off with a tough zone defense that made it near impossible for the Colonels to find a shot anywhere on the court.  A couple of critical shots at crucial times made the difference.

The Tigers of San Antonio did as I predicted as well.  Never ever count out a Pat Cunningham team.

My prediction is the best team will win on Sunday in the final - Centre.  Will be a close defensive game with Centre triumphing by 9 points.

[JJFlash]

Cinderella was in the house!

A few observations from the Trinity - Depauw game.  The game was not as close as the score.  DePauw hit some shots down the stretch that were best characteriszed as desparation.  Without these, it could have easily been a double digit win for Trinity.  Give DePauw credit they didn't and wouldn't go quietly.  Give Trinity the props for hitting their free throws in crunch time.  They played the "A" game I mentioned earlier and got a well deserved win.  They finished with 77 points and the leading scorer had 14.  This was truly a team effort!

To TU:  The turnover differential was due more to tough D on the part of Trinity and less to sloppy play on the part of DePauw.

The clock may strike midnight for Cinderella tomorrow, but for the moment, she's still dancing!

[pbrooks3]

Trinity did in fact look solid for the 20 minutes I saw.  They still have a chance even though I'm in the Centre court for Sunday's final game.  Thanks to Trinity there is good news for the Colonels; latest ratings have them effectively reversing positions with DePauw in the D3 standings.  Centre is #23 & above the coveted 10 on the ratings.  DePauw has dropped to #37.

[pbrooks3]

DPU, I would be curious to hear your assessment of the DePauw-Trinity tilt in Memphis.  Was there a problem with the venue or the refs for this one?  I think it was defense that contributed to this loss.  Let us hear from you.

[DPULefty22]

First, didn't see the game today so I can't really comment - though I know I'm not the DPU you're looking for, pbrooks. I had to stop in and comment about the All-SCAC selections...

Matt Nestheide? Really? He's the confrence POTY? Seriously? Edrick Montgomery might want to call the Jackson Police Department, because he just got ROBBED. That's one heck of a head-scratcher, I gotta tell ya. I suppose he could go for 35 in the title game tomorrow with that Reggie Miller-esque jumpshot of his and make me look like a fool, but... come on, on what planet is he a better player than Montgomery?

[DPU3619]

DPU, I would be curious to hear your assessment of the DePauw-Trinity tilt in Memphis.  Was there a problem with the venue or the refs for this one?  I think it was defense that contributed to this loss.  Let us hear from you.

No problem with either, as far as I could tell.  Thanks for asking, though!

I wasn't there.  I followed the live stats casually while the Indiana game was on (which went just as well).  I do know that even if you shoot 54% from the field, when you turn it over 19 times AND have the opponent make 21 more free throws than you attempted while committing only 5 more fouls... you won't win unless your opponent shoots about 8%.  TU shot better than 8%, in a related story. 

DePauw was in a hole early (12-4 or so if I recall), but rallied to within two.  Near the end of the first half, DPU let Trinity get away to a lead of 8 or 10 or so.  DPU made a nice run to start the second half to get within a bucket, but TU pulled away again.  DePauw was down like 12 or so with 3:00 to go I think, but couldn't get it all back. 

It shows that DePauw turned it over too much.  They had a very nice shooting percentage from the floor even while shooting poorly from 3 with 27 attempts.  Also, a nice advantage in the rebounds.  Can't get the line just 10 times with 19 TO's and win unless you shoot 70%.  Just doesn't work that way. 

WGRE guys made it sound a pretty poorly officiated game on both sides.  They made it out to seem like the Trinity guys thought the calls were just as bad as the DePauw guys did.  I can't really say one way or another since I didn't see it.

The latest QoWI numbers (DPU - @ 38 w/ a 9.87) make me a little more antsy than I was before the game,  especially considering today's upsets elsewhere.  Centre's suddenly in the driver's seat (@23 w/ a 10.200) regardless of tomorrow's outcome.

I actually shared Lefty's sentiments about the POTY voting when I first heard them on WGRE at halftime this evening.  I think Edrick got hosed.

[pbrooks3]

As far as the MVP goes, apparently DPU and others didn't blog enough on the subject to get Montgomery anointed!  Interesting that 6 coaches saw it differently than you guys.  Austin Brown garnered a vote.  I'm guessing that vote might have come from Centre's coach.  Guard play usually captures coaches' eyes and that's where Centre shines.

I was impressed with Millsap's Montgomery in the 3 games I saw him play this year.  I thought before the Millsaps-Centre game yesterday that he would present a major match-up problem for Centre's John Patterson.  But Patterson played a monster game on defense and really disrupted the inside flow.  The way he either blocked or altered several Montgomery shots was impressive.

OK, DPUs, what happens if Trinity pulls another rabbit today?  You guys be the judge.  Who will be dancing then?

[pbrooks3]

As far as the MVP goes, apparently DPU and others didn't blog enough on the subject to get Montgomery anointed!  Interesting that 6 coaches saw it differently than you guys.  Austin Brown garnered a vote.  I'm guessing that vote might have come from Centre's coach.  Guard play usually captures coaches' eyes and that's where Centre shines.

I was impressed with Millsap's Montgomery in the 3 games I saw him play this year.  I thought before the Millsaps-Centre game yesterday that he would present a major match-up problem for Centre's John Patterson.  But Patterson played a monster game on defense and really disrupted the inside flow.  The way he either blocked or altered several Montgomery shots was impressive.

OK, DPUs, what happens if Trinity pulls another rabbit today?  You guys be the judge.  Who will be dancing then?

[pbrooks3]

I do think Matt Nestheide is deserving of the honor.  His balance of stats on the court and tenacity is consistent with the way the Centre team plays.  Nestheide is the kind of player that thinks team first.  He wasn't even around the gym when the honors were announced last night.

One unsung kid on the Centre team who received no recognition at all was Thomas Britt, the smallest player on the court most nights.  He plays 100% all of the time and is the best defender for his size in the conference.  His stat line most nights doesn't look impressive, but he contributes to team wins in so many ways.  He is one heck of offensive rebounder for a 5' 11" player.  Britt, too, is unselfish and the epitome of a team player.

[JJFlash]

As I noted a bit earlier, I saw te Trinity-DePauw game.  The officiating was not a factor IMHO.

[frank_ezelle]

I have 3 post so I'll make them brief.  On the Millsaps-Centre game, it was 47-46 in favor of Centre with 9:53 to go.  Looking at my photos I see the scoreboard again at 5:48 and the lead is 57-47.  That 10-1 run over 4 minutes is what seperated the teams and after that it was fouls and 3-point shots by Millsaps in an attempt to catch up.

It could be that Millsaps got a little tired at the end of the game and that led to missed shots down the stretch.  Millsaps is not a deep team and they aren't a big team and that may have caught up with them at the end.  All year Millsaps needed one more big player and it is unfortunate that Sandro Norris didn't play this year.  But, they have no seniors this year and they won 18 games after a 4-5 start so it was a pretty good year.

On the other semifinal, I had no preference one way or the other but DePauw is the only team that would probably get an at-large bid so the SCAC now has a good chance to put 2 teams in the tournament.  I think Centre would do the best in the NCAA's because they have the better guard play and they do have a big man in the middle but Trinity has a lot of size and their guards do a good job so both teams make good representatives for the league.