MBB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[Ralph Turner]

Cush, do you have the URL?


Found it! 

http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/goodmanonfox

[Ron Boerger]

+1, RT (your 600th).  Specifically:

CENTENARY

I received an e-mail from Centenary sports information director David Pratt, relayed a message from the school's athletic director, Dr. Tom Tallach, that the school does not intend to go the Division III route in a few years.

According to my sources, it's a possibility. However, Tallach maintains it's not true.

[Ralph Turner]

+1, RT (your 600th).  Specifically:

CENTENARY

I received an e-mail from Centenary sports information director David Pratt, relayed a message from the school's athletic director, Dr. Tom Tallach, that the school does not intend to go the Division III route in a few years.

According to my sources, it's a possibility. However, Tallach maintains it's not true.

Thanks Ron.  The quality of information that we fans have brought to the D-III community has been amazing.  D-III is now able to build a community!

I wonder if Goodman's source is the "D-IV" document that explored schools investigating D-III.

In that document, there were notations of schools inquiring about D-III that I suspect were:  Centenary LA, Huston-Tillotson in Austin, TX, Albertson ID, Berea KY, Berry GA, a Chicagoland school and a school around Kansas City.  (The Huston-Tillotson reference is on a separate map from these profiles.  Berry GA is starting women's equestrian.  I am not completely certain about the other Georgia  reference.)

I heard from another source that the men's basketball coaching interviewees are being told that the job is for a "D-1" slot.

IMHO, three of those schools would be good matches for the SCAC:  Centenary, Berea KY and Berry GA.  That might make UDallas that much more acceptable to go with two 8-team conferences.  (Colorado College, UDallas, Austin College, Southwestern, Trinity TX, Centenary LA, Rhodes and Hendrix)

[wusliac1]

Anyone on here have any inside info on the Sewanee job?  I have a good friend that applied and I wanted to know if there's anything I can tell him...

Is it really open, is it a good job, etc.

[tarheelfan]

The SCAC decided at a coaches meeting yesterday to reverse the original plan of having the guys play first on friday and sunday.  The schedule will be just like the 07-08 season.  Thoughts?

[frank_ezelle]

Back in the the late '60s and the '70s, the college game for women was totally different from the big time sport that it has become at the D1 level.  Instead of the NCAA holding a national championship, it was the AIAW and Delta State out of Cleveland, MS was always in the running for the national championship.  This was for the overall national championship, not a lower division (for example, they won the national women's basketball championship over LSU in 1977).

Anyway, as tradition would have it, the women always played first at Delta State, followed by the men's game.  During those glory years they would play before a packed house and most of those folks would empty out the stands when the men's team came out for the second game of the evening.  It must have been quite deflating for the men to see the crowd filing out as they took to the court.

Let's be honest about the state of basketball in the SCAC.  On most nights, hardly anyone supports the men, much less the women.  I know at Millsaps the women's games start off with a handful of parents and loyal supporters and then the crowd slowly grows until there is a fairly good crowd for the end of the women's game.  We all know that a good part of that crowd is coming for the men's game and they get to the gym early to catch the end of the women's game.  If you reverse the order, would you reverse the process with maybe some people hanging around for the start of the women's game and then the stands slowly emptying by the end of the game?  Unfortunately, I think that would be the case.

I can see the political correctness of reversing the schedule to let the women have the second slot, but I think it would result in less people watching the ladies when the game is on the line and when you want a crowd in the stands adding to the excitement.

[Ralph Turner]

B-SC is denied waiver by membership committee.

I think that I understand what I think that it says, B-SC is not getting "double-promoted".   

[frank_ezelle]

The Oglethorpe Men's basketball team with on a 9-day trip to Europe in Mid-May.  I throughly enjoyed the blog posts done by OU player Wade Weldon giving details of the games played and placed visited.  It sounds like they had a great trip on and off the court.  Here are links to his 4 posts:

http://www.d3hoops.com/dailydose/2008/05/13/
http://www.d3hoops.com/dailydose/2008/05/15/
http://www.d3hoops.com/dailydose/2008/05/17/
http://www.d3hoops.com/dailydose/2008/05/21/

[lammersk]

I've been seeing things here and there about D4. Does anybody have a handle on this?

Is it an argument that schools such as those in the SCAC, which have higher academic standing, reputation, and history should separate themselves into another Division?

Has the SCAC taken a position on this?

[Ralph Turner]

I've been seeing things here and there about D4. Does anybody have a handle on this?

Is it an argument that schools such as those in the SCAC, which have higher academic standing, reputation, and history should separate themselves into another Division?

Has the SCAC taken a position on this?

Please go to the Future of D-III board (General D-III) for the updated news releases on the issues prompting the D-III/D-IV split, and here is one news article about the vote.

Only one SCAC voice was strongly present on the issue (Pres. Jake Schrum at Southwestern who spoke for the "D-IV" point of view.).  Most of the SCAC seemed to be "assigned" to the "Remaining in D-III group".

[pbrooks3]

The Oglethorpe Men's basketball team with on a 9-day trip to Europe in Mid-May.  I throughly enjoyed the blog posts done by OU player Wade Weldon giving details of the games played and placed visited.  It sounds like they had a great trip on and off the court.  Here are links to his 4 posts:

http://www.d3hoops.com/dailydose/2008/05/13/
http://www.d3hoops.com/dailydose/2008/05/15/
http://www.d3hoops.com/dailydose/2008/05/17/
http://www.d3hoops.com/dailydose/2008/05/21/

Don't normally post much during the offseason, but just wanted to thank Wade Weldon for the blog on Oglethorpe's European trip.  This brought back recent memories of my own family's trip to many of these sites in France & Italy last summer.  I also fondly remember visiting with Coach Ponder and his team during the SCAC tournament at Conway this season where we stayed at the same hotel.  He's got the makings of a fine young team, and the boys I am sure were great ambassadors for SCAC basketball while traveling abroad.

[Ralph Turner]

Wow!  Who would imagine that Sewanee would get an HSC head coach!

I am confused about his Tennessee connections from the article on the front page.

[Pat Coleman]

Clarified.

[Ralph Turner]

Wow!  Who would imagine that Sewanee would get an HSC head coach!

I am confused about his Tennessee connections from the article on the front page.

I think that Sewanee got a good one.

Can Sewanee tap into the same talent base that has gone to Maryville?

I doubt that the academic qualifications for Sewanee and Maryville are that dissimilar.

Or is this a demographic/sociologic factor that has been described by southern historians and political scientists such as Grady McWhiney or V.O. Key?

[awadelewis]

I think that Sewanee got a good one.

Our new coach has a good resume.   It's surprising to me our Administration and A.D. went out and put the money and effort into hiring a coach with a successful record away from a place like H-SC.   It goes against the trend for how our Administration has approached athletic hiring in the past.  He's coming into a tough situation as a lot of people on the Mountain were very upset with the firing of Joe Thoni. 

Can Sewanee tap into the same talent base that has gone to Maryville?

I doubt that the academic qualifications for Sewanee and Maryville are that dissimilar.

I think you will find that most of us from Sewanee would highly disagree with that statement. 

The talent pool is broader as there has been a push over the past 10 years to broaden the recruiting of students beyond our traditional base in the South.    There has been a major push from our Administration to attract students from the Northeast and from the UAA schools.   

Peace,
AWL