MBB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[pbrooks3]

Colonels played better in the 2nd half and won 84-77. Thomas Britt had 23; TC Thomason 17. Two road wins to make Colonels 12-1. Let's see if this is good enough to crack the Top 25.

[DPULefty22]

In the WTF file... BSC 78, DPU 63 from Birmingham this afternoon.

It was a little closer than the final score indicated... kind of. BSC led by as many as 22 in the second half before DPU cut it to 5 with about 6 minutes left. The Panthers pulled away late.

Tigers looked a step slow and got beat to every loose ball. I wish I could blame that on having spent roughly 9.5 hours on a bus the past three days, but that ain't the whole story - BSC just wanted that one more.

[Ralph Turner]

In the WTF file... BSC 78, DPU 63 from Birmingham this afternoon.

It was a little closer than the final score indicated... kind of. BSC led by as many as 22 in the second half before DPU cut it to 5 with about 6 minutes left. The Panthers pulled away late.

Tigers looked a step slow and got beat to every loose ball. I wish I could blame that on having spent roughly 9.5 hours on a bus the past three days, but that ain't the whole story - BSC just wanted that one more.

9.5 hours on a bus?  That is only one-half of an ASC road trip!   

[frank_ezelle]

Millsaps wins at Austin 85-54.  Rogan didn't play but Odum and Martinez were back.  Edrick Montgomery had his second big game of the weekend, getting 22 points and 15 rebounds.  Chris Sanders also had a double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds, and scoring in double figures were Lorenzo Bailey with 11 and Chad Songy with 10.

Link to boxscore:
http://artemis.austincollege.edu/admin/sports/results/Recaps/07mbgm13.htm

For the weekend, Edrick and Andrew King put up some big numbers on the western road trip.  Edrick scored 50 and grabbed 28 boards, and King scored 40 and had 30 rebounds.

[pbrooks3]

I think Herb Hilgeman found a team today. Starting Nathan Ollie today really energized the team coming out of the gate. There wasn't much drop off when Cory Smith got 2 fouls and went to the bench for the majority of the 1st half. Also saw some inspired play from Reid Hamilton in the post. He was able to play like a guard/wing and take his defender off the dribble several times. Rhodes defended better on the perimeter than I've seen in other games this season. A couple more made 3's and they upset Centre today. I hope this game is a watershed event that helps turn their season towards some good SCAC wins.

[pbrooks3]

Blogged on Rhodes; now I need to compliment my Centre Colonels. They played solid in the stretch with key plays from their seniors. Ryan Crowdis was big at the end converting 4 free throws in the late going. Thomas Britt played his usual outstanding game on both the defensive and offensive ends. T C Thomason hit a large 3-pointer at a critical time in the 2nd half. TC generated a double-double (17 pts; 10 boards)Matt Nestheide was defended well by Rhodes, getting all of his 12 points in the latter 20 minutes. He came up with an old-fashioned 3-point play at the end on a layup.

[frank_ezelle]

I haven't seen the new Top 25 posted on D3Hoops, but a Millsaps story says Centre moved up to #20 and Millsaps is in at #23.

http://www.millsaps.edu/athletic/basketball-m/011408release.shtml

[Gus Sinski]

 So I have to ask...and I'm checking my alum-ness at the door as much as I can...

Is it too early to speculate on candidates for Player of the Year? And is it too much of a reach to suggest Andrew King?

[frank_ezelle]

Millsaps wins at Dallas this afternoon 66-55, probably just glad to get a win and head back home after a long road trip and 3 games in 4 days.  Edrick Montgomery, Lorenzo Bailey and Blake Martinez led the scoring with 14 each and Cameron Varnado added 10.  With Rodney Rogan basically out for this trip, it's good to see some of the guys off the bench really step up and contribute.

http://www.udallas.edu/athletics/mbasketball/statdetail.cfm

[pbrooks3]

Thanks, Frank for the update.  Hope the Top 25 matches up with what's showing on Millsap's website.  I thought Centre might break into it, but I am a bit surprised by getting to #20.  I guess with others from the 20-25 listing last losing helped.  Our win over Birmingham Southern certainly makes the Colonels look better when compared to the way BSC handled DPU.  Millsaps had a successful week on the road.  I would have thought Centre and Millsaps might land side by side in the poll.

[frank_ezelle]

Gus, while it might be too early to talk about POTY, here's a tidbit that might shed some light on the chances of a player winning the POTY.  Someone may want to doublecheck me, but it appears that only twice in the SCAC history has the POTY come from a team that didn't finish 1st or 2nd in the regular season.

2000-01:  Neal Power of Rhodes wins after averaging 21.1 ppg and 5.8 rbs.  The other 1st team members that year were Joe Nixon of DePauw, Quintin Mason of Trinity, and the Millsaps pair of Thomas Adams and Daniel Waguespack.  Millsaps tied for 1st that year with a 14-4 record while Rhodes finished 7-11 and 11-14 overall.  As I recall, the voting was very close between the top 5 players that year.  I would argue that Power should have finished behind the other four players and I think the 2000-01 results could have been a factor in voting during Churchwell's years.

2005-06:  Reggie Magnusson of Centre wins after averaging 17.3 ppg and 6.1 rpg.  Other first team members were Ross Burt and Andy Bates of Trinity, Munchie Muskeyvalley of RHIT, and Jamonn Little of Southwestern.  Trinity had the best SCAC record that year at 12-2, followed by Southwestern at 10-4 and Centre at 9-5.  The voting this year wasn't really close between Magnusson and the rest of the 1st teamers.

[Gus Sinski]

Gus, while it might be too early to talk about POTY, here's a tidbit that might shed some light on the chances of a player winning the POTY.  Someone may want to doublecheck me, but it appears that only twice in the SCAC history has the POTY come from a team that didn't finish 1st or 2nd in the regular season.

2000-01:  Neal Power of Rhodes wins after averaging 21.1 ppg and 5.8 rbs.  The other 1st team members that year were Joe Nixon of DePauw, Quintin Mason of Trinity, and the Millsaps pair of Thomas Adams and Daniel Waguespack.  Millsaps tied for 1st that year with a 14-4 record while Rhodes finished 7-11 and 11-14 overall.  As I recall, the voting was very close between the top 5 players that year.  I would argue that Power should have finished behind the other four players and I think the 2000-01 results could have been a factor in voting during Churchwell's years.

Ah...talking about my era now. Excellent.

The 2000-2001 Lynx had a very disappointing season, but Power's dominance was so evident that he was pretty much able to...ahem...power his way to POY honors (though Nixon did some things that made my eyes pop out, and I still think he was better than Mike Howland, who eventually won.)

I differ from some in the sense that I don't think team success should have anything to do with the award. I had the privalage of seeing Power, Nixon, Howland, Mason, Adams, Waguespack, Sean Devins, Brian Britt, Rami Almefty and many others, but to this day the best SCAC player I have seen remains Russ Churchwell. Does it matter to me that Churchwell played for mainly mediocre Oglethorpe teams? Nope.

To me, the POY honor is for the best player in the conference. That doesn't mean best team. Will Hendrix be there at the end? No. Should it matter? Not to me. King's numbers aren't only good, they're consistently good. He's been in the league three years now, is a known (and marked) commodity, and he still ranks among the best in scoring and rebounding.

It's a testament to this league that King can make a case for winning the POY award both this year and next, but at the same time the same argument can be made for so many others. History does tend to favor the best players on the best teams, but to me, that dilutes the meaning of what is essentially an individual award.

[frank_ezelle]

Gus, it's an argument where both sides could make a strong case.  There was something this weekend that makes a case for picking the best player on the best team:

For the weekend, Edrick Montgomery and Andrew King put up some big numbers on the road against the same two teams.  Edrick scored 50 and grabbed 28 boards, and King scored 40 and had 30 rebounds.  Edrick's numbers were slightly better and King was helped by playing in a 2OT game.  Certainly a big factor in Edrick having his two biggest games of the season was the injury to Rodney Rogan, and while I hope this isn't the case, I'm sure that Edrick's numbers would stay up significantly if Rodney had to sit out for a while.  As was argued a few pages back in the Sean Devin discussion, it's hard to have league leading stats when your team is stocked with talented players.

[Pat Coleman]

Thanks, Frank for the update.  Hope the Top 25 matches up with what's showing on Millsap's website.  I thought Centre might break into it, but I am a bit surprised by getting to #20.  I guess with others from the 20-25 listing last losing helped.  Our win over Birmingham Southern certainly makes the Colonels look better when compared to the way BSC handled DPU.  Millsaps had a successful week on the road.  I would have thought Centre and Millsaps might land side by side in the poll.

It does. I try to e-mail the poll whenever one is complete but I often don't post on our site until both men's and women's polls are done.

[Dave84]

seems like this will be an age old question, doesn't it frank? haha.

Gus, I truly don't see how you could justify that winning shouldn't have anything to do with the POY.  A great player is one that gives his team the best chance of winning a basketball game (i'm not saying that Churchwell was bad, i remind you, nor King).  Statistics are such a terrible thing to judge how good a player is and the impact he has on his team winning games in the SCAC.  I don't fault any teams for this, but some teams in the conference play a cup-cake pre-conference schedule.  Any good player could put up fantastic numbers and hike his averages up to start the season against far less competitive teams.  Whether or not we all accept it, the win column is the only thing that matters.  Down the road when people discuss how good a player was, yes, they will talk about his statistics, but 9 times out of 10, when someone defends a player's talent level they will immediately follow this with, "and took his team to....." or "and carried his team to..."  For someone to label a player as "the best ever to come through the SCAC" i would imagine that individual would have to have won quite a bit of ball games for his team.  Churchwell is amongst the best ever, but it's not like he was on a team full of 4th graders and didn't know how to play the game (as i mentioned earlier, he had the SCAC's #2 leading scorer on his team his senior year, aka the year he was "screwed" out of POY).  So if we are going off of stats to vote for post season honors, then why doesn't a player from Rhodes, Olgethorpe, Sewanee win POY every year? Because the style of basketball that they play, they have the most statistically impressive (and therefore better?) players.

sorry i get worked up over this one, i just feel that in the grand scheme of things, winning a basketball game is all that really matters.  how often do you see any other conference award the POY to a player from a team that barely makes the conference tournament, if at all?