MBB: American Southwest Conference

[gccfan]

Well, you probably already know, but UMHB came out on a 17-0 run to start the second half and held off the Jackets by 5.  I would suspect that neither team would say they put their best foot forward, but both looked good in stretches.  You gotta hand it to UMHB for buckling down and not giving up early.  Hopefully for Letourneau they are learning some valuable lessons in the early going that they can use for the rest of the season.

[Ralph Turner]

No radio at ETBU for the McMurry game tonight... 

[etbualum]

i think our radio doesnt start until conference 

[#1ascfanman]

Saw the McNasty and ETBwho conference, nonconference game ended up with the Artist formely known as Indians winning by 10.  Anyone at the game?  ETBwho's your Daddy now is struggling mightely being 0-4.   They may be the only team who has not won a game in the conference.  Any insites on this one?  Can't wait until we see them this year, always a tough game!


Go Wildcats!!!!!

[Ralph Turner]

Let me get this rant/appeal posted before this weekend's action.

Miss College (widely known as the team I want to beat most other than winning the Abilene City Championship    ) should not be forced to play a conference game on the road at UMHB for its 3rd game of the season.

I appeal to the conference and the conference coaches to re-think these things.

Goal #1 -- Have a fair and equitable Division Race.

Goal #2 -- Have a fair an equitable post-season tournament to determine the post-season bid.

Goal #3 -- Position ASC teams (in all sports, not just basketball) to be viewed most favorably by the Selection Committee.

As we consider basketball here, I believe that the Divisional race should only include the double round-robin intra-divisional games.  These games should be scheduled as late in the season as possible, but giving latitude to the travel partners to schedule their games when convenient and most appropriate.  This gives the coaches 10-12 games in which to work out the kinks, make sure that the players have remained eligible and to give a "second chance" to those teams that have a slow start.

Therefore, vote in 2008-09 to have the divisional title determined by the Divisional Record.

This also helps with the fair access to the tourney.  Altho' end of the season performance is not an NCAA primary criterion for the playoffs, it does give a better championship to have almost all of the teams competing for that (3rd and 4th) playoff berth going into the last 2-4 games of the season.   Now that UT-Tyler is a full member, they are strengthening the field from the ASC-East.  A team that is competing against a team that is still in tourney contention is better for the level of competition than a team that has "checked it in" for the year.

This point reinforces the argument for the Divisional Title being determined by intra-divisional games.

Provide some flexibility to teams who wish to play in tournaments in other parts of the country.  As it is now, the conference schedule of 20/21 mandated games takes away some of the weekends in which an ASC team could schedule a tournament in another part of the country to boost the OWP and the OOWP, which impact regional rankings.  Inter-divisional games have value as being South Region games, but were the conference to mandate only four games played in January, this would allow the coaches some flexibility to schedule some non-conference /in-region games in December.  It is to a team's advantage to play in-region foes, but you have to have the open dates to do that.  Once those dates have been used, then a team can play an extra inter-division game to fill out the schedule, as ETBU and McM have done and LeTU and UMHB have done.  It is most preferable to play a D3 school in the non-conference over NAIA's, unless it is that D-1 "money" game that pays for the trip to the good high-profile tourney. 

Thus, mandate four inter-divisional games for those first two weekend in January to help fill the 25 games needed.

Strongly encourage ASC teams to play more D3 schools in the non-conference, so as to raise the profile of the ASC.

[#1ascfanman]

Mr. Turner, you had me at hello!
I am confused but I am not a smart man. 
Anyways you are right, I really don't like we have the opportunity to only play 2-3 nonconference games while the other conferences don't have too.  I say we split the East and the West into two new cnferences that way the teams can still play each other if needed in the regular season and then each conference can play the regular season and invite their whole conference to the tourney and see if a cinderella 6 win team can pull out the upset and go to the little big dance!
Go LC Wildcats!!!!!!!

[#1ascfanman]

Lucky for us we got to play Millsaps and Huntingdon along witht the money game.  Other schools are not so fortunate.  I know I pick on ETBwho but they played three NAIA schools and according to you, Ralph, that is no good for them especially since they went 0-3.  I don't know how many more D3 schools are close enough for the Texas schools but luckily we are within range of the Mississippi schools we can get a few in.

[Ralph Turner]

#1ascfanman, LaColl and LeTU did great jobs on their non-conference schedule, trying to get D3 opponents.

It is tough, being isolated, but LaColl co-operating with Millsaps, getting 2 in-region games was great! 

[gccfan]

#1ascfan... it would be tough to start two new conferences because I think you need 8 (maybe 7) teams to have an automatic bid.  This might work out for basketball, but the other sports would suffer dramatically without the automatic bid because not every school plays every sport.  I do like Ralph's idea of playing only four of the other division schools each year.  Baseball only plays two schools from the opposite division.  I think that could work, then you get a chance to play some other in-region opponents and gives teams a chance to get their squad together before conference games start.  +1 Ralph

[Ralph Turner]

To start another conference getting the AQ, one needs seven teams in 5 sports (5 men's and 5 women's) and one sport in each of the three seasons, fall, winter and spring.  To hold a formal championship, there must be a minimum of 4 teams.  Seven teams are required for the AQ.  AQ's are now available in FB, VB, Soccer, Hoops, Baseball, Softball, Tennis and Golf, both men's and women's.

It works out that about four schools would need to add various sports, and there would be affiliation possibilities to split into 2 distinct conferences in some of the "minor" sports.  I have heard that we need about 2-3 more schools on the East and the West to really make it work well. But, I sure wish we could!

Let me see what I can find at home that describes this.

[#1ascfanman]

I guess UMHB is for real, thought my Wildcats would fair much better.  Hopefully we can pull one out against Concord ia grapes.

[gccfan]

LeTourneau looked great today against Hardin-Simmons.  The Jackets ran out to a 43-20 halftime lead.  Jesse Hayes went 6-for-8 from three-point range for LETU and Marcel Louimeus did a great job on Jean in the first half.  He held him to 2-of-10 shooting in the first half, Jean finished with 17, but most were against the Jacket second stringers in the second half.  Overall, a very good win for LeTourneau on the road.

I also heard that ETBU beat McMurry on a last second three, that's a huge upset.

[golden_dome]

Just a few notes from the MC-UMHB game. Biggest early season game I can remember in the league in quite a while with UMHB ranked #9 and MC #23.

Long night for MC shooting as they just couldn't buy a shot and UMHB shot over 50 percent both halves. MC trailed 41-24 at the half after hitting 10-36 shots (27%). MC got back in the game and trailed 69-64 with four minutes remaining, but still shot bad in the second half and hit 28-83 for the game (33%). UMHB was 29-52 from the field (56%).

The Cru were 27-37 from the foul line, MC was 17-24. UMHB sealed the game with 12-13 free throws in the final 3:30. MC outrebounded UMHB 49-40 with 28 offensive boards and actually only had 13 turnovers to 17 for UMHB, but just couldn't score.

Tyler Winford had 20 points and 14 rebounds for the Choctaws. UMHB was led by Tillman Gaddy (23) and Tim Lytle (21). Several new players played well for UMHB, they have another very good team.

I thought MC would have a hard time this week having played just one game entering this week and playing in two tough venues, particularly at UMHB where everyone has trouble. MC actually suffered their only regular season loss two years ago at UMHB when they went 29-2 so losing there is nothing to be ashamed of, especially considering this could be the best team they have had.

I'm really excited about the ASC this year with a some good nonconference wins already. MC has very good players again but with 9 new players in the 12 man rotation, it might be after Christmas when they start to play well together. UMHB is getting a lot of national attention and LeTourneu looks like they picked up where they left off. McMurry, UTD, and Sul Ross also have good teams so far. I wouldn't be surprised if Concordia surprises some people this year, very good athletes on that team.

MC has one game next week, Wesley College, and then hosts McMurry and HSU the next week.

[gccfan]

Chris, I totally agree with you on the quality of the ASC.  There are quite a few good teams this year in addition to the usual good ones.  Looks like Concordia might be set for a break out type season now that they have had their guys running the same system for a few years.  Looks like they handled an Ozarks team that beat a good DII about two weeks ago.  It looks like UMHB will move up to #6 this week after three teams ahead of them lost.   It looks like anybody can beat anybody else.   

I have a question to throw out there, who are players that have been surprising to the rest of you out there.  A few I have noticed is Tim Lytle (UMHB), Tom Hermann (TLU), Art Gonzalez (SRSU) and Brad Walker (CTX), all four of them have really stepped up there play in the early going from where they were a year ago.

[mcmfan]

The final McM score was ETBU 63, McM 60.  We were ahead 60-59 with just 30 seconds to go and the ball; all we had to do was throw it in, get fouled, and make our free throws.  But we botched the throw-in and ETBU got it and made a 3-pointer.  That left us 15 seconds but we missed the basket and then, to add insult to injury, we called a timeout when we were out of timeouts.  The resulting technical gave ETBU one more point.  It was not a good outcome for both our first conference game and first game at home.