MBB: American Southwest Conference

[Titan Q]

Here are bullet-points on the ASC and its non-conference games/OWP/OOWP

Building the national reputation.  Things every team can do.

--Play more D-III opponents, outside the ASC.
--Travel to other parts of the country to play D-III teams.
--Invite D-3 teams to play in Texas/the ASC over the holidays.

In think this (in bold) is something the ASC teams can really leverage.  A ton of teams from the north take annual snowbird trips to play 2-3 games.  My alma mater, Illinois Wesleyan, traveled to L.A. between Christmas and New Year's this year to face D3 schools Occidental and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (both in-region games).  A few years ago, IWU participated in the Southwestern/Trinity tournament in Georgetown, Texas with Ohio Wesleyan.  This year, Carthage (from IWU's league) played in that same tournament.

The expansion of the "in-region" definition (via the administrative regions), has opened up the pool of candidates quite a bit.  Illinois Wesleyan vs a Texas-based school is in-region, for example.   This should be pursued by ASC teams looking for more non-conference, in-region games.

[CUAfan]

Way to go, Ralph, actually coming up with solutions to the problem. Good ideas too. I still find it annoying that things like UTD beating UT-Arlington last year doesn't count come tourney time. If it could somehow be demonstrated that, say, NAIA-I was the equal in quality of D3, then games against such should count, especially given the relative rarity of nearby D3 schools in the West and South. I don't know where someone would start looking for the statistical data though.
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Speaking of statistics, here are some top (and bottom) teams in various statistical measures that I've come across. They include all games, not just ASC ones, so if you know a team played a couple D1 non-conference games, take their numbers with a grain of salt. I might post a complete list in a day or two if people want it, otherwise I'll send additional info to whoever asks for it via a private message when I can. A few notes..."pace" refers to possessions per game, efficiency to points per hundred possessions, and "rate" numbers refer to a how many times a team had an opportunity to do something that they actually did it (example, assist rate is how many made shots a team got an assist on).

Fastest/Slowest Pace - Concordia-Texas (83.93)/Texas-Dallas (66.65)
Biggest Overachiever - Mary Hardin-Baylor (Actual Win% .880, Projected .672)
Biggest Underachiever - Texas Lutheran (Actual Win% .120, Projected .279)
Highest/Lowest Offensive Efficiency - Mississippi College (113.13)/Texas Lutheran (87.97)
Lowest/Highest Defensive Efficiency - Mary Hardin-Baylor (90.42)/Schreiner (111.98)
Highest/Lowest Assist Rate - Texas-Dallas (60.9%)/Texas-Tyler (41.3%)
Highest/Lowest Block Rate - Hardin-Simmons (8.2%)/Schreiner (2.1%)
Highest/Lowest Steal Rate - Texas-Dallas (13.5%)/East Texas Baptist (7.4%)
Lowest/Highest Turnover Rate - Mississippi College (19.3%)/Texas Lutheran (28.5%)
Highest/Lowest Off Rebound Rate - Texas-Tyler (38.1%)/Louisiana College (24.1%)
Highest/Lowest Def Rebound Rate - McMurry (71.9%)/Texas Lutheran (61.8%)

[Ralph Turner]

Here are bullet-points on the ASC and its non-conference games/OWP/OOWP

Building the national reputation.  Things every team can do.

--Play more D-III opponents, outside the ASC.
--Travel to other parts of the country to play D-III teams.
--Invite D-3 teams to play in Texas/the ASC over the holidays.

In think this (in bold) is something the ASC teams can really leverage.  A ton of teams from the north take annual snowbird trips to play 2-3 games.  My alma mater, Illinois Wesleyan, traveled to L.A. between Christmas and New Year's this year to face D3 schools Occidental and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (both in-region games).  A few years ago, IWU participated in the Southwestern/Trinity tournament in Georgetown, Texas with Ohio Wesleyan.  This year, Carthage (from IWU's league) played in that same tournament.

The expansion of the "in-region" definition (via the administrative regions), has opened up the pool of candidates quite a bit.  Illinois Wesleyan vs a Texas-based school is in-region, for example.   This should be pursued by ASC teams looking for more non-conference, in-region games.

Thanks Titan. 

This only works if we don't have mandatory single round-robin inter-division games.

Coach Holmes played two in-region opponents at Colorado College in the first weekend (George Fox and the winner of the Colorado College-LeTU game, LeTU).

Coach Holmes played his D-1 Money game (to cover the cost of the Colorado trip)  over the Christmas Holidays.   He waited until after Thanksgiving to play his fourth and final "non-conference date" (against ETBU during) the mid-week of the third week.

With mandated 20/21 game schedules, we are killing ourselves as determined by the way the Championships Committees of the NCAA wants to determine championships.  We have almost no flexibility to do anything to help us with scheudling "in-region" opponents!

UMHB fans, if you win the tourney and get flown 1000 miles away for the first round games, look only to the conference-determined scheudling practices for the culprit!

Once again, I recommend this scheudle to all:

1)  Double round-robin to determine the division seeding and champs.
2)  Two (Mandated) Crossover inter-divisional tourneys to give "in-region" games.
3)  Permit schools to arrange any other crossover tourneys or crossover games to fill the schedule. 

[mcmfan]

Any chance of MC getting a Pool C bid from the NCAA after losing in the first round of the tournament?  The HSU women's team managed it two years ago, so it will be interesting to see what happens.

[cp1123]

Ralph - your ideas are sound in principle but lack practicality.  Many schools in the ASC need the money games from D1s for finanical purposes.  The programs are told by their administrations to schedule those games.  In the same vein, not all our schools can go to Colorado or another state to play D3's like McM can.  And schools would hesitate to come to Texas to play if the agreement did not include the ASC team returning the home game. 

Also, it is not as though the other South regional teams, like the SCAC, are 100% amicable to playing all the ASC teams.  For most ASC teams, those are the only teams close enough to play.  Therefore, if the SCAC teams won't play you, you have nowhere to turn but another ASC team or a NAIA/D2/or money game.

[Ralph Turner]

Ralph - your ideas are sound in principle but lack practicality.  Many schools in the ASC need the money games from D1s for finanical purposes.  The programs are told by their administrations to schedule those games.  In the same vein, not all our schools can go to Colorado or another state to play D3's like McM can.  And schools would hesitate to come to Texas to play if the agreement did not include the ASC team returning the home game. 

Also, it is not as though the other South regional teams, like the SCAC, are 100% amicable to playing all the ASC teams.  For most ASC teams, those are the only teams close enough to play.  Therefore, if the SCAC teams won't play you, you have nowhere to turn but another ASC team or a NAIA/D2/or money game.

cp1123, thanks for the comment.

Those suggestions are meant to encourage some flexibility.

There are two components to the 20/21 game.  The first is that it only leaves 4-5 games available for the coach to improve his profile for the selection committee.  The second thing is that the mandated 20/21 games removes available dates from the coaches schedule in which he/she could schedule a nearby SCAC team (which only mandates 16 conference games).

Take away the mandated dates.  Permit the flexibility to the coach that needs the extra dates and games to make the best case for the tourney.

This has hurt us in the past...

-- Mississippi College men were the #1 seed in the South Region and were moved to Virgina for the second round.

-- ETBU women did not get a Pool C bid last year.  IMHO, the coach did not have any D3 non-conference games for the committee to evaluate for the Pool C bid.  An in-region tourney appearance (with two wins) might have given ETBU the difference to earn a Pool C bid.

[CUAfan]

CTX beats HPU 105-92 for a chance at the title.

If (and I know I'm getting ahead of myself) Concordia wins the title, how does everyone think their 40-minute press-and-run style will work in the NCAA's? I think it would be at least a little bit of an advantage, since I don't think many teams play as fast as we do.

[Ralph Turner]

CTX beats HPU 105-92 for a chance at the title.

If (and I know I'm getting ahead of myself) Concordia wins the title, how does everyone think their 40-minute press-and-run style will work in the NCAA's? I think it would be at least a little bit of an advantage, since I don't think many teams play as fast as we do.

If you play smothering defense at that pace of the game...

I think that the midwestern teams do not have the pure athletes that we have in the ASC.  I think that the forte in the midwest is basketball savvy.  Midwestern teams know how to score on the run-and-gun teams.  That is why Grinnell and Emory and Henry have never shown any dominance.

That style does make for a good match-up.  SRSU had some success (Sweet 16) with their type of up-tempo in 2004.  (The last five games are ASC and NCAA Tourney games.)  McMurry made it to the Elite 8 in 2000 and the Sweet 16 in 2001 with an up-tempo (intensive defense) style.

[mcmfan]

CUAfan,
Before you get your hopes up, don't forget that McM beat CUA both times they played this season, and McM didn't even make it to the tournament.

[golden_dome]

This has hurt us in the past...

-- Mississippi College men were the #1 seed in the South Region and were moved to Virgina for the second round.

I don't think any nonconference games would have helped MC in that situation, and it doesn't matter how well you manage the nonconference portion of the schedule. The only scenario I could envision that results in a deep south team getting a sectional would be two other teams remaining in the field who also face flights, coupled with a deep south team on top of the regional rankings with the facilities to host.

Smart nonconference scheduling can certainly help get teams from the ASC in the tourney though, just not sure it will play much of a factor in hosting a sectional.

[Ralph Turner]

Of course, having two conferences in this part of the country is another discussion...

and we are not at that point yet! 

ARGHHHH

On the Women's side, the ASC-East is 5-32 versus the ASC-West.

[Ralph Turner]

...
just not sure it will play much of a factor in hosting a sectional.

We may never see a Sectional for the men.

[golden_dome]

...
just not sure it will play much of a factor in hosting a sectional.

We may never see a Sectional for the men.

I think it will happen sooner or later, but the stars would have to align perfectly. Not only does a team need the credentials to host, everything has to play out just right in that particular year.

[rimrocker]

So, with a win today does anybody think UMHB has a shot at hosting next week or will they go to Centre?

[armywife]

Can anyone explain to me how to access the live video feed of the game at UMHB today?
When I get to the website, there is a screen to join but I can't find the link to the game. Do I need to wait until closer to game time to get that?