WBB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[FlightofthePetrel]

Good Point Major Fan... that would explain the missing rebounds that I didn't "see".  Thank you for your correction 

[frank_ezelle]

Millsaps gets their second straight SCAC win with a 61-56 victory over Centre this evening.  No box scores anywhere that I can find.

[pbrooks3]

Reporting from Mallory Gym - Rhodes 69 Austin 64. Rhodes played a strong 1st half leading at the half by 10. They gave the lead several times in the 2nd stanza, but prevailed down the stretch by getting defensive stops and converting free throws. Ashley Farrell & Cameron Whitaker each score 17 pts for the Lynx. A much needed conference win - the 1st.

[FlightofthePetrel]

Oglthorpe overcomes a strong and pesky Trinity team to earn their 15th win of the year- against only 2 losses.  I know this isn't necessarily a signature win but it is a resume builder for this OU team to beat a much bigger Trinity team without 2 of their posts (Richmann was back but played limited minutes).  Oglethorpe was paced by their Junior class once again as Kulavic and Findley led the team with 20 points and 6 rebounds piece.  Findley also had 5 more steals which gives her 22  in the last 4 games.  Grace chipped in 19 points.  10 rebounds   6 assists and 4 steals  and Brooks followed up her stellar defensive effort with 9 points and 10 rebounds.  Hopefully this win (along with a hopeful win against Southwestern) will kick OU back into the D3Hoops Top 25... if not we're fine flying below the radar come tournament time once again.

[Major_Fan]

Box Score from the Millsaps/Centre Game:

http://www.millsaps.edu/athletic/basketball-w/mcw-012508.htm

Great game from freshman Kristy Dowdy, scoring a career-high 14 off the bench (4-of-4 from 3-point range) in addition to LaReina Adams' double-double.  The Majors still have an outside chance at the fourth spot in the West if they win three of their last seven.

[pbrooks3]

Didn't get a lot of info on the Centre-Millsaps game. Stats reflect that Centre Girls struggled shooting in this one. When they're not able to make some 3's, the inside game usually can't develop much substance. This was likely the case last night. Centre caught a Majors squad that is improving steadily. The Colonels will need to continually improve their ball movement to make the offense go in future games. They'll need a strong performance from Chelsea Goodman Sunday to come out victorious against Hendrix.

[pbrooks3]

Rhodes played the best game I've witnessed this year last night. What made them impressive was the improved team concept they're employing, particularly on the offensive end. Their star senior, Ashley Farrell, has figured out what opponents already knew - Stop Ashley, Beat Rhodes!  Ashley was outstanding distributing the rock last night and the girls as a whole got solid perimeter ball movement throughout the game. We're even seeing some evidence of life in the post with the emergence of 6'2" Cameron Whitaker who seems comfortable going either left or right to the basket. Cameron has a nice touch and is deadly from the line when fouled. Ashley helped the perimeter game by finding Becky Atnip, Becca Clarin and others for good 3 looks several times - Becky canned 4 of them against Austin. Ashley still got her points last night, but in a different way - good shots, free throws and open drives. There were far fewer desperate possessions with wild shots or turnovers last night for Rhodes. The team seems to be melding smartly into form. 

[frank_ezelle]

It's a Saturday afternoon and I'm taking a break from working on the Millsaps photos from last Sunday.  You can only crop, edit, enhance, save and delete for so long before your eyes start spinning.  I don't claim to know all the answers or to know the future, but I think I have a reputation on the D3 message boards of being fairly straight forward and honest in my opinions.  With that in mind, here is my opinion on:

The State of Women's Basketball at Millsaps:

Let me start with my conclusion:  I think Millsaps will be a strong contender to win the 2008-09 SCAC championship.  If that strikes you as LOL funny, then I certainly understand you feelings.  When Millsaps beat Sewanee last Sunday, it had been 15 SCAC losses since their previous SCAC win, also over Sewanee, on 1/14/07.  When Millsaps beat Centre on the road last night it was their first SCAC road win since 2/5/06, another win over Sewanee.  This 2-game win streak boosts the Millsaps SCAC record to 6-30 over the last 2 and a half season, hardly a record indicating that a championship season might be on the horizon.

So either I've been drinking, or I have some reasons to back up my conclusion.  I swear I haven't touch a drop of alcohol in days, so let me go back to the beginning of the short Millsaps coaching career of Head Coach Mary Bolton (and let me stress that this is not a comparison of coaches, players or teams from the past vs. the same of today.  This is simply a post about where Millsaps is today, how they got there, and where I think they are headed.)

It's important to remember that Coach Jeffries resigned in May, 2006 and Coach Bolton was hired in August, 2006.  The timing of the change basically meant a year without recruiting players, something that is really evident this season with Millsaps often going into games with only 8 players dressed out.  It's similar to the NCAA penalizing a school by cutting down on the scholarships that can be given out--it creates a trickle down effect that last for several years.

With no chance to recruit, the 2006-07 was played mostly with the players who came back from the 2005-06 season.  Lack of experience characterized that team with just 2 returning starters and the next most experienced players had 138 and 108 minutes of playing time in 2005-06.  There was some talent amongst the inexperienced, with LaReina Adams going from 108 minutes of PT as a freshman to becoming the team's leading scorer and the SCAC's leading rebounder as a sophomore.  Debbie Sturgis went from 72 minutes of PT as a junior to becoming a solid senior starter who had a 24 point, 16 rebound game late in the season.  Still, it was a team with little experience, little depth, and a coach who was trying to put in a different style of play.  Under the circumstance, it's hard to imagine a record much better than the 3-20 that was posted.

That gets us to this year.  With a roster of 10 to start the season, depth is once again a problem.  That roster is now down to 9 and only 8 have dressed out for the last 8 games.  Of the 9 players, 5 players are new to the team (3 freshmen, 2 junior transfers), 3 players played last year, and one redshirted last year with an injury.  This is where the lack of a recruiting class in 2006-07 has really hurt.

With so little depth, the normal things that happen to a team over the course of a season have really hurt and it shows in the record.  Things that have really hurt the win-loss record this year are:
--A freshman recruit enrolled at Millsaps but never played for non-basketball related reasons.  It's not the kind of thing that would hurt an OU, Trinity or DePauw, but those are teams with enough players to actually scrimmage in practice.
--LaReina Adams didn't play to start the season, still rehabbing from knee surgery.  She's just now getting back close to the level of play she showed last year when double-doubles were commonplace.  The 5 Millsaps losses prior to Christmas were all by 9 points or less--a healthy LaReina would have reversed some of those losses.
--Jessica Bowie had a triple-double against OU but she missed the previous 5 games, all losses.  It certainly changes the look of the team when she is not available to play.
--And just in general, not having enough players to scrimmage in practice has to be a problem.  Plus, the lack of subs is often a factor in the last 10 minutes of a game, especially since Millsaps in moving to a more uptempo style of play. 

Even with all of the above problems, it is evident that progress is being made.  The two wins are nice, but just as important is the close game against OU last weekend and the effort against Trinity the previous week.  In one of the games that Bowie missed, Millsaps was within 4 of Trinity with 10 minutes to go.  That hasn't happened very often in recent years.  Millsaps was also within 6 points of local rival Belhaven with a minute to play in a game where LaReina Adams didn't dress out and Crystal Dickerson missed most of the first half with foul trouble.  Millsaps has played a lot of games where just one or two extra players would have turned a loss into a win.

And what does the future hold?  For this year, I won't be surprised if Millsaps misses the SCAC Tournament, but I don't count them out.  Winning at DePauw and Trinity would be very surprising, and winning at Southwestern would be difficult.  Can Millsaps win the 4 home games against Rhodes, Austin, Colorado and Hendrix?  Probably yes to any one of them but winning all four is a tall task.  It's not impossible to win all 4, but that would pleasantly surprise me (remember that I'm trying to give an honest opinion here).

For the 2008-09 season, if they get a recruiting class in like this year's group, then they will be tough to beat since there are no seniors this year.  I hear that the recruiting is going well and I have no reason to doubt that based on what Coach Bolton did in her first year of recruiting.  I have a lot of confidence in the coaching skills of Coach Bolton and her staff based on what I've seen her get out of her players both in 2006-07 and this year.  It gives me hope that Millsaps will soon be returning to the upper level of the SCAC standings, a place they regularly held when the SCAC was first established.

Time will prove me right or prove me wrong.  In the meantime, I guess I need to get back to all of the cropping and editing.  Taking the photos is just the tip of the iceburg when it comes to the finished product.

[DPULefty22]

Frank, I actually don't think you've lost your mind. Any team without any seniors is one that is pretty clearly building for the future, and the Majors have some solid individual talents in Bowie, Dickerson, Whitmore and Adams. The key for them will be to flesh out the roster with quality depth.

When you look at the teams that are perennially successful in the SCAC - DePauw and Trinity, to be specific - it's been their depth that has put them over the top. DPU won a national title last year because they could go 10-12 deep and not miss a beat when their reserves were in.

There have been teams in this conference - and the ones that come immediately to mind are the Huggins-Hicks-McKenzie teams at Hendrix - that have had starting fives that could stand up favorably with DPU and TU. But those Hendrix teams never had a deep, talented bench. Their reserves were used mostly to give the stars a 2-3 minute break and hopefully hold the fort, because there was a major talent drop-off between the starters and the subs. You can get away with that against other teams that aren't deep or just aren't as good, but when you run into better, deeper teams, the task just becomes too tall.

It looks like that's about where Millsaps stands at the present. A 10-player roster is enough of a handicap, and most of those reserves are inexperienced. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see them hang with the Tigers in Greencastle tomorrow, but I expect DePauw will be the sharper, fresher team down the stretch and I figure they'll pull away.

Now, with another solid recruiting class in Jackson - and I think a three-point shooter or two is an absolute must - next year's Majors have a chance to be pretty solid. I think they'll be an SCAC Tournament team next year as presently constructed anyway, but the difference between being good and cracking the conference's upper echelon is and has always been a quality bench.

[FlightofthePetrel]

Frank,  I too think that you're on the right track with your thinking... but not to the same degree.  Millsaps would be my sleeper team next year... I would probably pick them to finish 4th in the conference at best.  OU will return virtually their entire team once again next year only loosing Brittany Corbett.  I don't think they'll be able to get over the hump and beat the elite teams but I do think they will be the lower end SCAC teams and will win the close games against he middle of the pack.  This years Millsaps team, from what I saw, are relentless in crashing the boards (maybe because they know most of the shots they take have a good chance of not going in).  Regardless of this years team record I belive one more recruiting class under Bolton and maybe a transfer or two could really improve this Millsaps team.  If they work on their shots over the summer and raise their shooting percentage up a few points I could easily see Millsaps making some noise in the SCAC next year... similar to OU a few years back.

[Pat Coleman]

Hopefully this win (along with a hopeful win against Southwestern) will kick OU back into the D3Hoops Top 25... if not we're fine flying below the radar come tournament time once again.

I don't think the tournament starts this week. Even if Oglethorpe doesn't get into the poll this week it doesn't mean they won't still climb.

[frank_ezelle]

"This years Millsaps team, from what I saw, are relentless in crashing the boards (maybe because they know most of the shots they take have a good chance of not going in)."

That's actually pretty funny, and unfortunately it is also very true.  Millsaps defintely needs a couple of solid 3-point shooters, either from recruiting or from some of the players working hard on that aspect of their game.  I think there are a couple of players on the team that could fill that role in time.  It's just a matter of how hard they work on their game in the off season.

[pbrooks3]

Frank, we're in a similar boat at Centre.  Your squad may be further along given the road win your Lady Majors got at Danville last night.  We have a slightly different problem, but it too revolves around depth and consistency.  Actually there is some 3-point shooting, but you can't count on 3-pointers to fall consistently every night if you can't get the ball movement to get decent looks, or occasionally drop it in the middle.  Centre's issue is really finding a post player or two.  I don't think you're crazy either.

[pbrooks3]

Excellent win today for Wendie Austin-Robinson's Centre Girls against Hendrix. Chelsea Goodman and Jenny Jones stepped up big for the Colonels with 23 and 17 respectively. That puts them in 3rd position in the east going to Texas next weekend.

[Rufio]

Just out of curiosity, when will the first regional rankings come out?