MBB: Great South Athletic Conference

[Ralph Turner]

MURVUL fans, I have a feeling that MURVUL, Mississippi College and McMurry fans will be scoreboard watching this season as those teams jockey for position in divisions and in the South Region.

McMurry has come from an 11-point deficit to tie Louisiana College at the half.  That is always a strange venue for Texas ASC teams when they play LC.  If McMurry cannot take advantage of this, then we really have to work hard at Clinton on Monday night.

Travel safely!

[wilburt]

 The idea that Randy is "scared" is absurd.   He may or may not make decisions based on the kind of calculations you suggest, and we are all free to think whatever we will of those decisions, but "scared" is the wrong term.

Doug, you bring up a fair point about the use of the word "scared" when it comes to "Randy's decisions."  How about risk averse based on his calculations?   Will that suffice instead?

FISK can go to play #11 RMC and Mississippi College on the road and Coach Haynes can take his LaGrange team to play #6 Albion, but MURVUL can't do something similar?   Why is that Doug? If the "least" of the GSAC can play these top caliber teams, why can't the "standard bearer" for GSAC basketball do the same?  That's all I want to know. 

BTW, sorry about the loss to Averett.  I was hoping MURVUL would go undefeated through Xmas.  But the good news is that the UT Vols beat 6th ranked Texas.  Go Coach Pearl and Associate Head Coach Tony Jones!

[Ralph Turner]

I think that the "#6" LaGrange Men's golf team should host Albion's in return!

http://www.albion.edu/sports/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=622&Itemid=624

[wilburt]

Coach Haynes, I know Coach Beaty is not one for sentimental victories, but you have got to be proud of your team's effort against #6 Albion.  I know I am !  I am sure they will grow from this...

Go LaGrange!

[wilburt]

I think the MIAA schools get screwed in the rankings every year. The Great Lakes region is dominated by the Ohio schools in the rankings every year, because they have two conferences that can easily play each other and talk about how great the other teams are.  They don't seem to give the MIAA schools any respect because they don't have the regional games to support their good records.  Meanwhile they won't play the MIAA schools so the MIAA can prove their records.  Because of this, I think that until the NCAC or OAC can prove they can beat quality MIAA schools (Albion already owns a win over Baldwin-Wallace) they should not be ranked ahead of them, because all we have to go on is last years results, in which the MIAA (Albion) dominated.

Does this discussion sound vaguely familiar to anyone?  [Hint: GSAC Killer] Now the Great Lakes teams are complaining about getting screwed in the rankings.  Who says the midwestern teams aren't down for inter-regional games to prove their worth?

GO FISK!!

[old_lion]

In Murval's 3 point loss to Averett, I noticed Mason didn't start, didn't score, and only played 9 minutes.

What's the deal? Was he not 100% for some reason?

If Murvul's PG was not at full speed, then that put's an asterik by Averett's win.

[mattgrubb]

no asterik, when it is game time, it is like Norman Dale said, "My team is on the floor."  On sat, that was the machine that is MC bball and they lost to averrett.  They are young and they need to learn that lesson.

Great job to LC, almost had it, now maybe people will respect the GSAC a little more, keep playing good teams like Albion close and the wins will come.

Now we are pulling for Fisk to beat RMC, Maryville can beat RMC with Wansley(NCAA tourney 2 years ago), can the bulldogs, let's see
Wilburt, Tony jones told me to tell you what up
The Scots will be back with a tough game against the Transylvaniatites, they will be ready

[scottiedoug]

Bo Mason was sick w/ flu.  Did not even dress until half and tried to play after that as Murvul was way behind but he could not help.  It is my understanding that Golden was sick too but he was able to stand.

William:  Your restatement about Lambert is more accurate.  I do not knpw if the other teams in the Tampa tourney (DePauw, Kalamazoo) are in the category of Transylvania, whom Murvul plays first.  You are assuming that the kind of teams you think Murvul should play want to play Murvul...but neither of us knows.  It does take two coaches to schedule a game.

[wilburt]

You are assuming that the kind of teams you think Murvul should play want to play Murvul...but neither of us knows.  It does take two coaches to schedule a game.

It does take two Doug. I do recall Lambert playing D1 Austin Peay a couple of years ago [but if I remember correctly] Lambert did not initiate that discussion, the Austin Peay coach did. 

Don't get me wrong Doug I am not hatin on Lambert [he is an excellent coach and a fine gentleman], but I do question at times whether he is the right coach to take Maryville to the next level [Top 10-Final Four].     

[mattgrubb]

Wilburt,
are you saying we should Jerry Green Lambert.  No way, he is the right man, we love him and always will.  And I pity the Fool that says anything different.
Next subject is a question, "Who is Randy?"

[scottiedoug]

William:  You a hard man!   I don't get your repeated return to this scheduling DI foes, which I think is silly to do and lets the DI programs use DIII for no purpose useful to DIII.

It is a different subject to talk about Fisk and Murvul and LaGrange scheduling R-MC, Wooster, Albion, etc.  I support that kind of scheduling.  It is a real test and if you lose, you may have learned something useful about what it takes to win in DIII. 

[coachwgh]

William, thanks for the positive post about our close game.  Now if we only had a LC fan to talk trash with you guys our program would be complete, except for a couple of players and conference championships. 

I am not in this gig for moral victories!  That being said I was very proud of how we played both Sat & Sun at Hendrix, which by the way is a great area, good looking campus and a new awesome facility on the way for 07.  There were positives and negatives to both games and I think it helped us.  I just wish it wasn't Christmas time so we could build on those things instead of sit and think for 8 days.  We took an 18 point lead in the 2nd half on Hendrix and fouled them back to 2 points before focusing and hitting 10 straight free throws and getting 2 steals in the last 1:15.  Hated to see that lead go away but loved to see our guys maintain some focus at the end and finish it out anyway.  The Albion game is tough to talk to about. They have a great coach and tradition plus a monster in the lane.  The release attatched to our score tells the story very well so I am not going to replay that for anyone.  It is very frustrating to know that playing as we did this past weekend would have gotten a couple more wins in the early part of the season and playing just two possessions better would have gotten us a landmark victory. 

On the scheduling discussions.....I didn't know going into this past weekend we were going to play the #6 team in the country, it just worked out that way.  I don't really feel that there is a difference in playing top ranked teams or middle of the pack guys.  It is most important to practice at the highest level possible and transfer that to games.  No matter if that is against GA Tech or Long Cane middle school.  I know that I would like to have some people's schedules that have included some easier games than ours instead of being 4-7 right now.  Our schedule doesn't get any easier either.  We all know that the DIII level is not all about winning games but nobody likes to lose.  I don't care at what level you are. 

I have said this before but here it goes again.  Merry Christmas!  and you can celebrate new year's with the panthers versus former Maryville asst. Chris Bunch and his Gorlocks(one of the best mascots and stories in sports) from Webster. 

[mattgrubb]

Bunch is wise beyond his years, he is a player developer if there ever was one.  A great looking guy too, i can't wait to see his bald overweight self in maryville soon

[#1 Fisk Fan]

I think fisk will leave the tournament  undefeated Becuse Chris Adams is playing the point guard role well this year is averaging 12 points and 5 assits 3 steals with three turnovers. He is my 2005 -06 GSAC player of the year. His backcourt mate i s also playing good I think Jermiah Williamson and Chris Adams is the best backcourt in the GSAC and Probabaly one of the best backcourts in the country. BY the way Chris Adams Mother Was all conferece point guard at Tennessee State University  from 1984-1988. She was top 5 in the nation in assist her junior and senior year.

[ohyeah]

typical maryville team and typical fisk fan.  Fisk fan, what tourney are you talking about....the GSAC?  Anyways, I think Fisk has already lost this year, therefore they will not leave the tourney undefeated.