WBB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[gordonmann]

Good to know. Thanks.

Always hard for teams out here to get mindshare from your voters, who I am sure are much more familiar with teams back east because that's simply where most of them are, and there are more marquee matchups as a result.   It is surprising to me that UMHB - with one win against a top 20 team - loses two of three to UT-D and AC and still stays above both of them in the rankings.   And whoever loses the Trinity - AC matchup this weekend probably drops off the ballot of some (more) voters.

That may be true, but we try to balance the voting panel. The SCAC has been represented the last couple of years (including this one) with a coach on our panel.

[Ron Boerger]

Lordy, Southwestern lost to Centenary who were 0-13 before tonight.

[jekelish]

Ugly win for Austin College tonight. Ended up winning 71-48 but that's a little misleading given it was a 5 point game after three quarters. The 'Roos had an abysmal night shooting the ball but finally started to knock down a few threes late in the game to take control and open things up. I wonder if some of it was the pressure of being ranked again (last year they lost their first game after getting into the rankings) and if some of it was looking ahead to tomorrow's game against Trinity.

[Ron Boerger]

Ugly win for Austin College tonight. Ended up winning 71-48 but that's a little misleading given it was a 5 point game after three quarters. The 'Roos had an abysmal night shooting the ball but finally started to knock down a few threes late in the game to take control and open things up. I wonder if some of it was the pressure of being ranked again (last year they lost their first game after getting into the rankings) and if some of it was looking ahead to tomorrow's game against Trinity.

Sounds like Trinity's game last month against TLU, probably their worst effort of the season.  Sometimes you just can't get into the flow.  Here's hoping that's not a problem for either of our teams tonight. 

Gordon, I wasn't trying to be critical of your pollsters (and thank you for your efforts to represent the entirety of D3), it's just human nature that you'll have a higher regard for the teams you know than the ones for which you only see the occasional linescore.

[jekelish]

Disappointing result for AC but honestly one that I kinda saw coming. The 'Roos haven't been playing their best ball the last few games, and Trinity is really good. Bad combination. The Tigers made shots and executed when they needed to and AC just couldn't make enough stops to chip away when Trinity started to pull away. I think the final score is a LITTLE misleading, as Trinity had a couple big runs to blow open what had been a really competitive, evenly matched game, but the Tigers were definitely the better team today. They're terrific at getting into passing lanes, and early on it didn't help AC's case that they had a few really sloppy passes that made Trinity's ability to turn a team over easier. That kinda set the tone, and Trinity's ability to make shots down the stretch (and a poor shooting performance from the 'Roos) were the biggest differences.

[Ron Boerger]

Unfortunately, as the broadcast was behind a paywall, all I can go from is the live stats/box score, but last night's game does seem indicative of recent results where Trinity combined strong post play (Holland 14 points, 12 boards, 7 assists; Milton, 17, 8, and 4; Simmons, 9 and 9) with their full-court pressure to eventually wear down Austin. Would agree that the final margin is a bit misleading and don't expect it to be repeated when the two face off against next month in San Antonio.

Did notice that Anna Muller, who had been playing so well of late, didn't see any playing time either last night or in the previous night's blowout over Dallas.  Hope she's OK; they've already had some injury problems in the post and don't need more.

Speaking of paywalls, the conference announced a partnership with PrestoSports earlier this season that sounded like it should have been rolled out to all schools by now.  There is a "SCAC portal" on Prestosports but it doesn't seem to have a great deal of content (there are a couple of St. Thomas-produced things today but no archives or future listings that I can find).  Will have to ping the commish to see what's up with that.

[Ron Boerger]

Other notes:   Trinity's string of five 80+ point games with margins of victory also 20+ is the first time that's happened in team history, per the TU game writeup.

Also noticed that #8 George Fox lost in conference to an unranked (very good, but unranked) opponent for the second straight weekend.   Maybe Trinity will be ranked above them now that they not only have a better overall record but beat them by nearly 20 earlier this season.    Not going to hold my breath, though 

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Gordon, I wasn't trying to be critical of your pollsters (and thank you for your efforts to represent the entirety of D3), it's just human nature that you'll have a higher regard for the teams you know than the ones for which you only see the occasional linescore.

Ron - consider this, though, if Gordon (and Pat on the men's side) makes sure there is fair representation across the country including places like Texas have voters, then how is everyone familiar with the "team you know."

I hear this often and for starters I'm aware as many others are that 2/3s of the division is east of the Mississippi, but there is an effort to get representation around the country to keep things as balanced as possible. Would the Northeast know Texas well? Probably not. But Texas voter isn't going to know the Northeast as well either in that mentality.

I will add I think voters do a pretty solid job trying to best understand teams around the country even well outside their own areas - even if we expect a bit of a pull to one's own 'region.' Coaches have access to video of teams around the country at their disposal and I know many who use it. Media members, like myself, don't tend to sit in window-less rooms and only stare at box scores. And SIDs who are on the panel tend to be the kind who search out more information.

I also know Gordon and Pat both also keep an on the voting and voters. If they see irregularities of any kind (and the list is long), they make adjustments - usually in the off-season - if they feel the poll needs that adjustment.

I understand the "island" teams feel slighted from time to time ... but believe it or not, I think that could be said about teams in the backyard of voting members as well. It isn't that easy to always get the poll absolutely accurate especially as we now are seeing more and more parity now on the women's side.

[jekelish]

I hope AC doesn't drop from 18 all the way out for losing to another top 25 team, even if the final margin was 21. It was a tight game for the first 30 minutes or so, and then Trinity got a big run that put the game away. Plus, AC is still 12-1, and earlier this year when Trinity beat George Fox (when the Tigers were unranked), George Fox only dropped from 8 to 12. At the end of the day I suppose it doesn't really matter what the rankings are in the middle of the season, of course, but it'd feel like a harsh reaction by voters, IMO.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

I hope AC doesn't drop from 18 all the way out for losing to another top 25 team, even if the final margin was 21. It was a tight game for the first 30 minutes or so, and then Trinity got a big run that put the game away. Plus, AC is still 12-1, and earlier this year when Trinity beat George Fox (when the Tigers were unranked), George Fox only dropped from 8 to 12. At the end of the day I suppose it doesn't really matter what the rankings are in the middle of the season, of course, but it'd feel like a harsh reaction by voters, IMO.

My usual motto is this: if a person's ballot expected that result (higher ranked team beating a lower ranked team), then the lower ranked team shouldn't be 'punished' for the result; if I have two ranked teams and the lower ranked team wins, I start with making sure I swap them (unless it's, say a 25 beating a 1, that isn't a direct swap necessarily). The only time I'd consider removing a team from my ballot for losing to someone is when that other team is not ranked or shouldn't be ranked.

I would hope Austin doesn't leave the poll and I kind of doubt they will. There were enough losses below them and in the receiving votes category to probably soften the "fall" as it where.

[Ron Boerger]

Good point.  I think nearly as many teams in the top 25 lost a game this weekend as did not (including UT-Dallas).

[jekelish]

Just counted it up: 10 teams in the Top 25 lost this week, and 11 teams who were receiving votes took losses as well. Man, the weekend really was a bloodbath (more so than I even thought).

[gordonmann]

At the risk of losing your clicks as you repeatedly hit "refresh" on the Top 25 page, we have five ballots outstanding but Austin looks like it'll safely be in the Top 25.

[jekelish]

At the risk of losing your clicks as you repeatedly hit "refresh" on the Top 25 page, we have five ballots outstanding but Austin looks like it'll safely be in the Top 25.

You're a fine human being. I'll make sure to refresh anyway to get those clicks in.

[gordonmann]

Thanks. Cha-ching!

https://www.d3hoops.com/top25/women/2019-20/week6