MBB: American Southwest Conference

[golden_dome]

For those who missed the story on the front page, Coach Jones had bypass surgery this afternoon but is expected to make a full recovery. He was scheduled for a few tests this morning and his doctors decided to go ahead and do the surgery. Coach Lofton will be running the team in Coach Jones' absence.

[Ralph Turner]

Get well soon, Coach Jones! 

[golden_dome]

I had an opportunity to see the Choctaws play an exhibition tonight at Arkansas-Monticello, a Division II Gulf South Conference member.

MC lost 77-72, but I came away impressed. Particularly considering that Coach Lofton played 16 players and is still experimenting while UAM looked like they already had their regular season rotation figured out with nine players playing.

Prince Trotter hit 8-8 shots to score 19 points and also grabbed eight rebounds for the Choctaws. Kiki Christmas finished with 15 as eleven players scored. Good early game for MC against a pretty good team. UAM is usually a middle of the pack GSC team. They were down a bit last year after a Sweet Sixteen run in 2006.

[Gregory Sager]

Kiki Christmas finished with 15 as eleven players scored.

... and we have our first nominee for "D3 Name of the Year"!

[#1ascfanman]

Sounds like there is a reason why the Chocs are once again favorites to win the ASC, how on earth do they keep reloading and continue this kind of success? Is anyone going to ever be able to step up and dethrone them? My cats are sleepers!!!!!!

[golden_dome]

Mary Hardin-Baylor had an exhibition game at UT San Antonio last Saturday night and lost 76-58. Looking at the boxscore, UMHB played very well with Ryan Burgart scoring 18 points with nine rebounds. UTSA is a DI member of the Southland Conference and returns four starters from last year's 7-22 team.

Here's the game story
http://www.goutsa.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=55680&SPID=5988&DB_OEM_ID=13100&ATCLID=1301742

[gccfan]

I was just looking at the ASC composite schedule and there are a few early season games that could tell us a bit about how strong the conference is.  Both LeTourneau and McMurry are at the Colorado College season opener this weekend and I would be disappointed if the two didn't meet in the championship game.  UT Tyler gets a chance to show if they will be back in the mix this year as they open up against Sewanee and Emory, two teams that weren't very good last year but come from more well known conferences SCAC and UAA.  Hardin-Simmons gets a chance to take a bite out of the SCAC's Southwestern on 11/20 and Trinity on 11/26.  Trinity was 16-12 last year.  La. College has a potentially tough match up at Millsaps on 11/23.  Millsaps was 18-9 last year.  The best game may be the UMHB-LETU matchup on Nov. 24 that won't count toward the ASC standings.  Last year, the Jackets were the last team to beat the Cru before they reeled off something like 20 straight wins.

Will anybody be at any of these games?  The only one I will see is the UMHB-LETU game. 

Ralph, are you gonna try to get to Colorado this weekend?

[Ralph Turner]

No, but if you are there, I think that McMbluedevil will be there.

Travel safely! 

[Ralph Turner]

I was just looking at the ASC composite schedule and there are a few early season games that could tell us a bit about how strong the conference is. 
...
The best game may be the UMHB-LETU matchup on Nov. 24 that won't count toward the ASC standings.  Last year, the Jackets were the last team to beat the Cru before they reeled off something like 20 straight wins.

gccfan,

Are they not counting the inter-division games towards the division title?

I hope that is the case.  It gives a team the chance to learn how to work together, and keeps teams from being eliminated before the start of spring classes!

[dballa]

Ralph i think that first meeting is just a filler game.  They play again Jan. 3rd for a game that counts in the standings.

Like you I think it's unfortunate to have so many conference games.  With only having 25 regular season games, once you play in one tournament your out of conference games are pretty much used up.

[golden_dome]

gccfan,

Are they not counting the inter-division games towards the division title?

I hope that is the case.  It gives a team the chance to learn how to work together, and keeps teams from being eliminated before the start of spring classes!

Ralph,
    The intra-division games do count toward the conference standings again this year.

[Ralph Turner]

Thanks for the clarificaiton.

I strongly disagree with that policy for the reasons that I have stated. 

There are advantages for the teams that are thinking that they can get the Pool A bid. (I guess that is all 15!)

The decision to play inter-division does help with "in-region" games.  However, the real season ought to start after a school has played 10-12 games in the early season. (I will concede the early cross-over games, e.g., McM-HSU in December.)

It helps no one to scheudle a bunch of NAIA's or more than 1 D-1 (money game).  The only way to make the conference look stronger is to book in-region D3's (and win them.)

[gccfan]

Ralph, I will actually be headed to Alabama this weekend to watch the LeTourneau women's team.  The reason the LETU men are playing UMHB in a non-conference game is because I think originally the Jackets were going to be playing in the UMHB Christmas tournament, but something happened that made it not possible to happen so UMHB decided to come out to Longview instead.  I'm not for sure on the specifics but am reasonably sure it's something along those lines.

[#1ascfanman]

Did anyone go to the Let. Lamar game? Saw the Jackets had a tough one.  Seems that the two favs, MC and UMHB had the most competitive exhibitions so far.

[gccfan]

Well, the ASC took care of business in Colorado tonight, both McMurry and LeTourneau won and it looks like both won fairly easily just looking at the scores.  Too bad they have to play each tomorrow.