MBB: American Southwest Conference

[gccfan]

Chris, I had also noticed the same thing.  I think it means that some of the previous West powers such as McM and SRSU lost a few more games than usual and LeTourneau won about three more games than usual against the West.  It should be a fun four weeks to close out the season.

[balls a dunkin]

I will be at the MC game today, so I won't have updates. You can listen at http://gochoctaws.com/.  game starts at 3

[golden_dome]

Live MC/UTT men's stats at http://www.gochoctaws.com/live/mbball/xlive.htm

[gccfan]

Wow, LeTourneau finds themselves all alone in second place in the East Division for the first time ever.  Looks like LC is starting to play pretty well... I haven't seen the boxscore yet, but locking down on UTD is impressive.  For those that haven't seen the score LC won 64-42.

[golden_dome]

Mississippi College beats UT-Tyler 66-45 and led 34-14 at the half. Senior 6'8" guard Timothy Broomfield was 4-5 from three and is 25-40 this year. MC got ahead early and UTT never got closer than 20 after the half. The UTT starters combined to score 16 points on 4-23 shooting.

MC didn't really click this week on offense but are playing great defensively. They are holding opponents to 59.9 points and less than 40 percent shooting.

[Ralph Turner]

Mississippi College beats UT-Tyler 66-45 and led 34-14 at the half. Senior 6'8" guard Timothy Broomfield was 4-5 from three and is 25-40 this year. MC got ahead early and UTT never got closer than 20 after the half. The UTT starters combined to score 16 points on 4-23 shooting.

MC didn't really click this week on offense but are playing great defensively. They are holding opponents to 59.9 points and less than 40 percent shooting.

Sounds like a Coach Jones team...

[golden_dome]

Mississippi College beats UT-Tyler 66-45 and led 34-14 at the half. Senior 6'8" guard Timothy Broomfield was 4-5 from three and is 25-40 this year. MC got ahead early and UTT never got closer than 20 after the half. The UTT starters combined to score 16 points on 4-23 shooting.

MC didn't really click this week on offense but are playing great defensively. They are holding opponents to 59.9 points and less than 40 percent shooting.

Sounds like a Coach Jones team...

A comparison from last year to this one.
Under Coach Jones this season:  76.2 pts scored and 59.9 allowed, scoring margin of 16.3 points
Under Coach Lofton last year:     81.6 pts scored and 65.5 allowed, scoring margin of 16.1 points.

Under Coach Jones this season:  FG% .517 / .396  , difference of .121
Under Coach Lofton last year:     FG% .514 / .393  , difference of .121

Its uncanny how close the numbers are. There is a slight difference in style but they are very close. I remember us in transition a little bit more last year but not a lot more and we probably make teams score in the halfcourt a bit more this season allowing fewer easy buckets. We are a bit more patient this year on offense so both teams end up with fewer shot attempts.

[CUAfan]

MCM 94, CUA 87 final.

I think McDonald was something like 0-10 from three-point range in the game. Couldn't buy a trey.

But that's not to take away from McMurry, who played some dang good ball. Found a way to beat everything we threw at 'em. I look forward to the end-of-season rematch in Abilene.

[gccfan]

After UT-D's four game losing streak and since we are halfway through the conference schedule I was wondering how everybody would rank the teams.  At this moment, here are mine.

1. Mississippi College - everybody already knows about them
2. UMHB - ever since losing at LeTourneau they have been playing some great bball and might be in line to start getting some top 25 votes.
3. LeTourneau - I know, I know, you will all ask me what I'm smoking, but at this point in the season they are playing very well and it seems they have figured out how to win the close games, plus they have victories over UMHB and HSU.
4. HSU - a veteran team who will be a tough out for anybody come tournament time.
5. UT-Dallas - I was a big supporter of them early and it seemed to be validated with their win over UTA, but since then they have hit a wall and.

My team of the week would be Louisiana College, they lose their first eight games of the season, but they keep on fighting and have now won 3 of 4 in conference, plus an undressing of the Comets on Saturday.  Kudos to the Wildcats.

[CUAfan]

I did the SI player rating math like gccfan did, but subsituted minutes played for team games played. It's not perfect, but neither method really is. It's just another way of looking at the numbers. Mabye I'll crunch the numbers on a team level and see if there's any correlation between it and team record. The top 10 players were:

1. M. Jean, HSU 1.59
2. T. Broomfield, MC 1.37
3. J. McDonald, CUA 1.35
4. J. Young, SU 1.33
5. L. Reese, SRSU 1.29
6. H. Kareem, UO 1.29
7. R. Barney, SU 1.28
8. K. Deans, SU 1.24
9. R. Burgart, UMHB 1.24
10. K. Johnson, HPU 1.23

[golden_dome]

After UT-D's four game losing streak and since we are halfway through the conference schedule I was wondering how everybody would rank the teams.  At this moment, here are mine.

1. Mississippi College - everybody already knows about them
2. UMHB - ever since losing at LeTourneau they have been playing some great bball and might be in line to start getting some top 25 votes.
3. LeTourneau - I know, I know, you will all ask me what I'm smoking, but at this point in the season they are playing very well and it seems they have figured out how to win the close games, plus they have victories over UMHB and HSU.
4. HSU - a veteran team who will be a tough out for anybody come tournament time.
5. UT-Dallas - I was a big supporter of them early and it seemed to be validated with their win over UTA, but since then they have hit a wall and.

My team of the week would be Louisiana College, they lose their first eight games of the season, but they keep on fighting and have now won 3 of 4 in conference, plus an undressing of the Comets on Saturday.  Kudos to the Wildcats.

Hard to argue with that list at this point except for the 5 spot. I would put McMurry in there simply based on the fact they beat UTD already this year and they have the same record in conference. UTD is a better team than they have played the last two weeks though. I would be surprised if they don't turn it around.

How about UMHB. They have won six in a row starting with the huge win over Viriginal Wesleyan and a win over Ripon who is leading the Midwest Conference. They also beat McMurry and HSU last week giving them four big wins in the last few weeks. They did not have a good night at MC but you could tell they had a good squad. Has anyone seen them lately?

[Ralph Turner]

McMurry beat LeTU and then catch UMHB the last weekend of the season in Abilene.  That weekend probably determines the seeding for the tourney. 

We need to turn the close games around.  We specifically need one of the candidates for team leader to take the season under his control and "will" ourselves to victory.  We have a one-point loss to HSU and a one-point loss to ETBU.  We also have a 5 point loss to Rowan.  That is unacceptable.

We have 7 home games of the remaining 11.  It is time to put this season together.

[gccfan]

I think it is safe to say that UMHB has been doing a pretty good job of defending their home court.  All six games in their win streak have come at home.  I think Ralph is correct in saying that the final weekend of the season when UMHB goes to McMurry and HSU will determine the 1,2,3 seeds in the West.

[golden_dome]

Choctaws move up to #7 in the latest Top 25 poll. That is the highest ever ranking for MC. The previous high was #8 to end last regular season. UMHB also receiving votes again with three. I thought they would get more votes though with the six straight wins including one over #5 Virginia Wesleyan.

[CUAfan]

CUA @ UMHB rescheduled for 1/23 due to weather.