MBB: USA South Conference

[hasanova]

I believe the moon most have aligned somwhere, there were quite a few upsets throughout college basketball.  #1 on both D1 sides both lost.  d3hoops main page filled with scores.  Any thoughts on why?

Conference play (no more East Podunk State Teachers College to pad the schedule), road games (no more "friendly confines" for every game), rivalries (Bates/Amherst, for example), parity (let's see Coach Wooden win 12 now!), raucous crowds (Cameron was a sellout yesterday in Durham for women's hoops), revenge (Duke women remembered Maryland's comeback in last spring's title game), inferiority complex (VPI loves to beat all the traditional ACC schools who snubbed them for so long).  Take your pick! 

[PrideSportBBallGuy]

I believe the moon most have aligned somwhere, there were quite a few upsets throughout college basketball.  #1 on both D1 sides both lost.  d3hoops main page filled with scores.  Any thoughts on why?

Conference play (no more East Podunk State Teachers College to pad the schedule), road games (no more "friendly confines" for every game), rivalries (Bates/Amherst, for example), parity (let's see Coach Wooden win 12 now!), raucous crowds (Cameron was a sellout yesterday in Durham for women's hoops), revenge (Duke women remembered Maryland's comeback in last spring's title game), inferiority complex (VPI loves to beat all the traditional ACC schools who snubbed them for so long).  Take your pick! 

I think what you said, anyone fits.  Personally I think the #1's weren't #1's in my book.  I am from MD and have grown up as a MD fan never thought the women were #1 preseason despite having everybody back.  Top 5 yes though.  UNC I don't understand it one bit the only really proven players on that team are Hansbrough and Terry.  I could see in MD's case where they had just about everybody return for the following year.

[notamensa]

cnu fans; why didnt theo baker play last night?

[Rikki_Tikki_Tavi]

From what I was told, Theo was sick. Apparently not as sick as Coach Woollum who missed the whole second half due to flu-like symptoms. 

[Rikki_Tikki_Tavi]

It was a strange game to watch. It had an eerie beginning, much like the Shenandoah game where PC scored the first 10 points of the game. They were quick, and exceptional ballhandlers and they didnt always settle for a shot. If they didnt see what they liked, they moved the ball again until they found an open man for an easy bucket, and it worked. Coach Glenn Im sure thinks he undersized but he has to like the way his boys played last night. The Lions just seemed to want it more and CNU looked as though they were going thru the motions. You'd think with the size advantage the Captains had, just like against Shenandoah, they would run whatever plays they could to get it inside to Mark, Ed and Korey. It almost seemed like they wanted to settle for the 14-20 footers instead of anything inside 14 feet. Need to bounce back and win conference game no. 2 on Tuesday and it wont be easy.

[sludge]

Let me get this straight...

You developed a statistical formula to rank the teams, then you looked at the results and disagreed with the statistical rankings (assumingly, based on your personal assumptions).  So then you tweaked a statistical variable to make the new rankings align similarly with your personal assumptions?

P.S. Narch- proberb...funny stuff.

Yeah, this sounds too much like the approach that was proberbly used by the Iraq war justification team. 

[Pat Coleman]

I believe the moon most have aligned somwhere, there were quite a few upsets throughout college basketball.  #1 on both D1 sides both lost.  d3hoops main page filled with scores.  Any thoughts on why?

Conference play has started and upsets get more likely as the teams are more familiar with each other.

[narch]

ah Leroy-

Here is the thing anyone who has followed my power ranking system knows that a) this is my first year and I still haven't gotten it right  b) the one I have been using actually predicted last year's USASouth standings.  C) if you look at one of my posts about last weeks d3hoops (it might have been the week before) I took the 3 teams that got 1st place votes and the order I thought closely related the competition they played.

ok...let me take these in order
a) you're correct b)how can a power ranking system "predict" a season after it has been played? c) if i remember correctly, your system had very little relation to the relative s.o.s. for the top 3 teams...and don't you think 3 is a pretty small sample size to use when testing this formula?

i'm with leroy...just call it the psbbg rankings and be done with it...no need to crunch numbers, just follow your gut

I took a closer look at this "overall team efficiency" concept.  The average % follows the higher it is the higher where a team places in conference. (Last years standings)  Again though FC and SU again mess up the concept like before.  I guess those are outliers.  I have no idea.

the highlighted text is the only thing i came even remotely close to understanding, but i think you're dead on it with that statement

I believe the moon most have aligned somwhere, there were quite a few upsets throughout college basketball. 

i think the moon is pretty much always aligned SOMEWHERE...we could really be in for it when it gets out of alignment

d3hoops main page filled with scores.  Any thoughts on why?

well, one of the reasons that the d3hoops main page was filled with scores is that there are a lot of d3 games played on saturdays, particularly this time of year as most conferences are into the swing of conference games - also, as i'm sure you know, d3hoops.com is "The definitive resource for Division III men's and women's basketball"

[narch]

the monarchs beat piedmont 71-55 today - pc took just 2 leads in the first few minutes and played catch-up all day as the monarchs led by as many as 21 in the second half - the monarchs really looked like they were playing with a lot of intensity on the defensive end from the outset of this game and really clamped down on the pc shooters, holding them to 2-22 behind the arc...i'd like them to bottle that effort and intensity every night...they'd be tough to beat if they could - i will say that this was a very tough trip for piedmont - going from demorest to norfolk to fayetteville is not easy, and i'm sure the captains took a lot out of the lions last night, but i think the monarchs defensive intensity was the difference in this game - they played an aggressive match-up zone that really tested pc, made them take rushed or bad shots, forced them into 17 to's and held them to by far their lowest scoring effort of the season - the monarchs got a balanced offensive effort, with all 5 starters scoring double figures while bascom and shuford both got double/doubles - radmanovic did not play...not sure if he's hurt, or if the coaches just didn't like the matchup for him - the monarchs weren't able to keep baldwin off the boards (he had 18 rebs), but they did hold him to 15 points fewer than the captains last night....he's an incredible player and i hope that some folks start to realize what a talent he is on a national level - the pg, green is a really nice player, too...he's quick and really handles the ball well - the mu/pc game is always bitter sweet because i have so much respect for coach glenn...if pc wins, i'm happy for him but upset the monarchs lost and vice versa - i think the monarchs needed this win a little more than the lions did though...it's nice to get 2 in a row after dropping the previous 5...the boys have to bring the A+ game on wednesday if they're going to make it 3 straight

box score

[Rikki_Tikki_Tavi]

Newport News narch!! Please dont lump us in with the "other" schools in Norfolk!!

[exmonarchsid]

Narch... Two great wins for the Monarchs over the weekend... It puts me thinking back to the 2003-04 season when Methodist was 4-6, lost their conference opener at Greensboro, but proceeded to go 11-2 over the remainder of the conference slate to win the regular season title. Lighting does strike twice! Anyway, what's the latest on a couple of the players... Travis McBride hasn't been in the boxscores over the last five-six games. Is he back in school? What is the latest. Also, why did Radmanovic not play against Piedmont? Since that 27-point game against Guilford, he hasn't done much. I like this Bascom kid - sounds like another coming of Seth Thomas. It should be a good game at Averett tomorrow. By the way, my teams are at UNC-Pembroke on Saturday - the No. 14 women and No. 2 teams in the nation in Division II. All is great here in Hotlanta!

[narch]

Newport News narch!! Please dont lump us in with the "other" schools in Norfolk!!

doh...sorry, rtt...NEWPORT NEWS

Narch... Two great wins for the Monarchs over the weekend... It puts me thinking back to the 2003-04 season when Methodist was 4-6, lost their conference opener at Greensboro, but proceeded to go 11-2 over the remainder of the conference slate to win the regular season title. Lighting does strike twice!

that would be great...i'm not banking on it because i think the conference is better overall than it was in 03-04, but stranger things have happened - the wins were nice, primarily because they came after a 5 game losing streak

Anyway, what's the latest on a couple of the players... Travis McBride hasn't been in the boxscores over the last five-six games. Is he back in school? What is the latest. Also, why did Radmanovic not play against Piedmont? Since that 27-point game against Guilford, he hasn't done much.

mcbryde won't be back this semester...not sure if it's grades or finances, but he is no longer with the team - i understand he plans to return in the fall, though - as for the situation with dragan, i'm still hunting for info. - he has been very streaky throughout his career and the monarchs will need his offensive production at some point - he was in uniform, and seemed to be getting the guys pumped up...maybe he tweaked something and the coaches held him out since it was a non-conference game...if i get info. i'll share it with you

I like this Bascom kid - sounds like another coming of Seth Thomas.

i do too - he's an outstanding athlete (much more athletic than thomas) and a very good defender, but he's not as good a shooter as seth was...time will tell, but seth didn't put up the kind of numbers that bascom is putting up until his sophomore year...he could be special before all is said and done

good to see you on the board!

[SU97]

Good win for the Pride tonight.  79-55.

Wow, what a weekend.  I spend all day back and forth from Lowes putting in some time around the house for the wife and it looks like the whole landscape for conference play has turned upside down with the Averett loss...   Did they have all their top players back?


Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time.

[SU97]

Hey SU97.  Trust me, there's some opposition to NCWC becoming a part of the UNC system, so it's just in exploratory stages right now.  If anything happens along those lines, it could take years.

Thanks Hasanova, we didn't get much info on it this far north of the VA/NC line...

On another note, it looks like regardless of Pridesport's WMD rankings it now looks like a CNU-GC showdown, but it's still early. 

Finally, even though SU took another one in the "L" column over the weekend I will say congrats to POTW JLawrence who had a huge week with something like 50+ points and 30+ rebounds.  Unfortunately I don't think he will have a chance at POTY this year if SU continues to lose...  He's a POTY type player, but I would think the team needs to be in the top three to get the nod.  Not sure if SU can pull that off this year unless some of the outside game steps up. 

[PrideSportBBallGuy]

Hey SU97.  Trust me, there's some opposition to NCWC becoming a part of the UNC system, so it's just in exploratory stages right now.  If anything happens along those lines, it could take years.

Thanks Hasanova, we didn't get much info on it this far north of the VA/NC line...

On another note, it looks like regardless of Pridesport's WMD rankings it now looks like a CNU-GC showdown, but it's still early. 

Finally, even though SU took another one in the "L" column over the weekend I will say congrats to POTW JLawrence who had a huge week with something like 50+ points and 30+ rebounds.  Unfortunately I don't think he will have a chance at POTY this year if SU continues to lose...  He's a POTY type player, but I would think the team needs to be in the top three to get the nod.  Not sure if SU can pull that off this year unless some of the outside game steps up. 

I haven't looked at his stats, but I am the person that says if a player is putting up the best numbers in the conference no matter where that team finishes they deserve the POTY honors.  It tends to always lean in favor of the top teams though.