MBB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[irion]

Rhodes beat Sewanee last night in an ugly game - lots of fouls.  Rhodes played well, but 3 Sewanee starters had the flu.  It did not effect the outcome, but the officiating declined to a new low.  There was no consistency in the calls on either end of the court.  Hats off to Rhodes, they won in front of Sewanee's biggest crowd of the year - at times the gym was almost full....................

[frank_ezelle]

An interesting start to the SCAC season with 3 blowouts on the first night with the only close game being the one that doesn't count in the standings. 

The blowouts spurred me to go back and look at the scores from last year because I was thinking that Millsaps never seems to blow out teams like the scores from yesterday.  In 2006-07, DePauw and Centre were 12-2 in the SCAC and Millsaps was 11-3.  Centre had 10 regular season wins where they won by double-digits, DePauw had 7, and Millsaps had 3.  I have a general impression from last year that Millsaps often built double-digit leads only to have them vanish as the game progressed.

I know the only thing that matters at the end of the game is who won, not the margin of victory, but the team that is consistently playing close games is the team more likely to lose a close game or two.  I'd like to see Millsaps hold on to some big leads when they start fast this season--I don't know if that will take better bench play than they got last season or if it will take more focus throughout the game.  Whatever it was that was missing last year, they'll need to find it this year in order to win the SCAC which seems to get tougher and tougher each season.

[frank_ezelle]

Gus,

In the unlikely event that you drop by the board because you aren't at the ball game, is there a problem with the live stats from Hendrix?  I clicked on the link but it is still displaying the stats from the men's games with Dallas on 11-20-07.  Thanks for any input that you have--if they aren't doing the live stats then I might as well run some errands.

Frank.

[frank_ezelle]

Centre wins at home 78-64 over DePauw.

Link:  http://www.depauw.edu/ath/mbasket/index.asp?id=20474

No live stats on the Millsaps-Hendrix game today but the Hendrix SID posted the womens stat right away so maybe we'll have a score soon.

Box score just posted.  Millsaps wins 79-64 at Hendrix.  I haven't even looked at the box score.  Here's the link:

http://www.hendrixwarriors.com/stats.aspx?gs=1084

[DPU3619]

I just can't figure out what it is about playing Centre in that building.  They don't sell it out.  It's not some super-tough environment to go into. 

Whatever it is, you just can't win there.  Just something about it.

[frank_ezelle]

DePauw and Centre looked even in the stats until you see the turnovers, 24 for DePauw and 11 for Centre (a result primarily of 15 steals for Centre to 5 for DePauw).  This also resulted in Centre's 32 points off of turnovers compared to just 8 for DePauw.

[hendrixfan]

Another foul-fest at Hendrix today.  49 total fouls called.  Neither team could get in any rhythm.  Both coaches & both teams were frustrated.  King, Foley, & Avery for HC all suffered from foul trouble the entire game.  Rose played but is obviously (3 pts) still limited by a recent ankle sprain.

HC made a nice run after halftime to cut what was a 16 pt lead down to 5, but Millsaps answered with a nice run to extend the lead back to double digits.

Hopefully the Warriors can bounce back against Ozarks & Dallas before the break.

[mattgrubb]

Who are some of the better players in the SCAC this year, i am not too familiar with any of the teams other than Sewanee and i know Pursell is a super stud in the SCAC, who are some of the other studs to watch?

Does Rhodes or Centre have any studs?

[FlightofthePetrel]

Guys that I have been impressed with in the past are

Moore and Schott of Depauw  Both average double digits in point and Moore is almost averaging a double double with 9 assists per game as well

Nestheide of Centre  (last years POTY) enough said

Shaheed of Oglethorpe... good post  has double double potential every night.

Cory Smith of Rhodes... will put up points in bunches

Andrew King of Hendrix... a double double waiting to happen

Edrick Montgomery from Millsaps is a force to be reckoned with in the post...

[Gus Sinski]

 Hendrix's mini-run after halftime was possible because, briefly, the Warriors were able to control the tempo. Hendrix isn't made to run-and-gun, especially with a gimpy Rose.

But I'm not sure if any team can match Millsaps. I was very impressed with their defensive pressure, and they have guys who attack the basket like it owes them money. This will be a very tough team to beat.


Wes;

Not sure if it's different now that Centre has its new super-purty gym, but back in my day...HATED going there. One time, we played there on a Friday night and got absolutely smeared. I remember some guy sitting behind our bench wearing this hat with giant deer antlers sticking out of it heckling us the whole time. I could not wait to get out of there and to Sewanee...another place I really wasn't fond of.

The Danville trip is tough for a lot of teams. Plus, there were never any good hotels, and no place I could buy a bottle of something or other to shorten the Sunday night trip home (Coach Garrison, if you're reading this, I of course am talking about Sprite.)

If playing Centre at Centre is tough, I reckon it's just because Greg Mason goes out and gets such good players. Next to probably Rose-Hulman and DePauw, Centre's guys always had just about the best basketball IQ of anyone in the conference.

[hendrixfan]

But I'm not sure if any team can match Millsaps. I was very impressed with their defensive pressure, and they have guys who attack the basket like it owes them money. This will be a very tough team to beat.

You're correct.  I wasn't trying to say Millsaps isn't a good team by any means.  Rogan, Bailey, & Montgomery are going to be difficult for anyone to match up with.

[frank_ezelle]

Let me cover a lot of things so I don't have to get back to the Millsaps photos:

--The karma feature has its positives and negatives, literally and figuratively, and I usually don't fool with it.  Today I bumped a couple of -1's back to 0 and I gave Gus +1 for his take on road trips to Centre.  I wish those who can give karma points (people with 200 posts or more) would save their negatives for the people who are real jerks, and only then when someone comes across as a repeat offender.  Giving people negative karma, especially people new to the board, is a great way to diminish the number of people posting here which should hardly be anyone's goal.  Just remember all you Spidermen super hero types of the SCAC message board, "With great power, comes great responsibility."

--Matt, there are so many good players in the SCAC and most team have several players who can look like all-SCAC players on any given night.  Since Edrick Montgomery was a close second for POTY last season, he is an obvious pick from Millsaps along with Rodney Rogan who splits his talents over a wide area of basketball skills.  These two are usually good for 35-45 points a night and 15-20 rebounds (yesterday it was Rogan with 26 points, 8 rbs and Montgomery had 19 and 9).  Backing them up are plenty of guys who will burn you with at least 4 of them hitting for 15 or more points in a game this season.  I image the same depth of potential stars exists at DePauw, Centre and Trinity and maybe another school or two.

As for Pursell, I would be suspicious that he has hired you as a PR man if he didn't have the stats to back up your praise.  Sewanee has played solid competition so far and Pursell leads the conference in scoring and rebounding so he is living up to your hype.  This is a guy who only averaged 9.7 ppg (third on the Sewanee team) and 6.4 rpg last season so it sounds like he has taken it to another level this season, either because of improved talents or the team needs him to do more this season.  He is a big and impressive looking player, so I can see where he will be a handful for everyone this season, as will be several other post players in the SCAC.

--Gus, I always love your posts and I'm shocked that you couldn't find a Kentucky store selling Sprites.  It's too bad you weren't looking for something like bourbon because Kentucky is famous for that.     As for winning at Centre, just winning on the road anywhere in the SCAC is difficult since it usually involves a long bus trip. When you throw in talented players with good fundamentals, a description that fits a typical Centre team, it makes it tough to leave Danville with a win. 

[FlightofthePetrel]

Big win for the Petrels today as the trailed early... but then went on a huge run that put the game out of reach.  Final Score  OU 92 Rhodes 71.

Watterson had a career night with 23 pts. and 6 Rebounds
Jackson 16 pts.
Allison  14pts.
Kennedy  8 reb  6 Ast.

Hoskins 20 pts
Smith 17 pts

[mattgrubb]

Thanks Frank and Flight,
I guess you can kind of say I am a PR guy for Pursell.  He still lives in my shadow unless he makes all south like i did many years ago.  I did get the pleasure of coaching Ben this summer and he made huge strides in improving both his physical and his basketball skills.  He is the kind of kid that makes D3 ball so much fun.

Flight,
I have seen Shaheed play and i thought he was decent.  I can't wait to see my fighting scots play Centre and see how they handle Nestheide.  I saw him last year and was impressed.

Thanks a lot for the info

[frank_ezelle]

Matt, it just goes to show how difficult it is to judge players in the SCAC when you only see a player once.  I saw Shaheed play once last year and he hit 9 of 11 from the field and 6 of 7 FTs for 24 points to go along with 18 rebounds.  My thought was to wonder what this guy is doing playing D3 basketball. 

On the other hand, when you had a post this summer about this great player from Sewanee named Ben Pursell, I had no recollection of him from the Sewanee team since he only had 7 points and 7 rebounds in his trip to Jackson last year. 

It reminds me of something John Wooden once said about recruiting.  He said that given a choice between seeing a recruit play just once or not at all, he would rather not see the player play.  He knew that making an accessment based on one game might make him recruit a dud who played the best game of his career or he might pass on an All-American who played the worst game of his life.  (Keep in mind that this was era where the internet, game films, and high schoolers playing on cable TV were non-existent.)