MBB: Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference

[WLCALUM83]

Men's NAthCon Playoff Finals:

Aurora 87, MSOE 80  (Spartans had half the number of turnovers the Raiders did, and also got to the line a lot more, too-per Aurora stats)

Dominican 82, Concordia-Chicago 79 (Despite being outrebounded again, the Stars hit 11 3s on the night. Cougars' D Young had two chances to tie the game in the final seconds, but both of his 3 attempts missed-per CUC PBP acct)


Dominican vs. Aurora in the final.   

[RFMichigan]

Haven't been able to comment on the semis/final, so . . .

Aurora seems primed and ready. I think last year's tournament experience has helped them.

Dominican - what can you say. This team is hot and loose. (Uh - no comments from the peanut gallery on that choice of words.) Okay, they're shooting very well and playing with poise and without being tense.  Marquis Turley is playing like he played when I saw him play for Concordia - Ann Arbor - just taking over games by relentlessly taking the ball to the rack in addition to shooting from outside quite well. I think the bonus was having (I've heard both cousin and brother) Jovan Turley step up with 20 points of his own. How they'll do against Aurora might be another story, but I wouldn't count them out.

CUC played a gritty game, but as CUW did in the quarters, allowed Dominican to dictate tempo in the second half. I thought it was key that Domincan cut an 11 point deficit with about two minutes left in the first half down to two within a minute and went in the lockerroom only down two. A late rally, and two last minute 3's, fell short to end the Cougar's season with their first winning record in 15 years.

I think this conference will be much better next year as most teams are returning a bulk of their talent. When does the all-conference team come out?

[WLCALUM83]

Second year in a row Aurora knocks off a low-seed in the final, this time beating Dominican 70-64. (Spartans had a 49-37 edge on rebounds and again got to the line more than the Stars-per Aurora stats.)   

[ausid]

Congrats to the Spartan senior class on winning the fourth consecutive NAC championship as well as NCAA bid. AU has won 17 of their last 21 after starting the year 1-6.

For the AU program this years NCAA bid is the Spartans eighth appearance since 1997-1998 and seventh apperance since 2000-2001.

[Just Bill]

Aurora heads to Carthage to face the host Red Men.  St. Thomas plays Anderson (IN) in the other match.

[Just Bill]

Carthage up 33-25 with 2:27 to go in first half.  POTY Lance Robinson scoreless for AU.

[Just Bill]

Carthage leads 38-32 at half. Robinson still without a point, but Iventosch (7-8, 15 pts) and Magee (13 pts) are keeping them in the game.

[keith45]

4 assist and 2 reb..0 points for Lance
AU hanging in so far, carthage is shooting lights out from 3..I have live stats up, video feed wont work for me

[Just Bill]

4 assist and 2 reb..0 points for Lance
AU hanging in so far, carthage is shooting lights out from 3..I have live stats up, video feed wont work for me

Not gonna happen AU fans.  Carthage up 75-61 with 3:44 to play.

[Just Bill]

Carthage finishes off AU 84-70.

[AndOne]

News of a recruit who was considering Benedictine and Aurora.......

North Central is getting Adam LeTourneau, a 6-4 guard from Batavia H.S...

http://www.kcchronicle.com/blogs/entries/2010/04/09/60907517/index.xml

 

[RFMichigan]

Why is it that other dIII schools in the midwest announce their recruits in spring, but there's not much news from the NathCon schools? Is it:
a) As a group they're low on the list for recruits and therefore pick up the "leftovers" which doesn't happen until late spring/ early summer. (Man, that's pretty harsh for me to even think that.).)
b) They're just not sure who's actually going to show up in the fall, so they don't want to go out on a limb and announce who they think are coming. (Hmmm.)
c) It's conference policy not to announce. (I'm sure that's not the case.)
c) Some schools have announced their recruits but I'm too lazy to check out their websites.

[Just Bill]

I think there are multiple reasons....

The NCAA requires that a recruit must have paid their tuition deposit before any announcement can be made.  Frankly, I think that some schools are just loose with this rule.

Some D-III schools fear announcing their recruits too early, or at all, because they worry about a scholarship school swooping in at the last second and stealing a recruit away.  With no LOIs there's really no protection for a D-III school from that sort of thing happening.

Some D-III schools simply don't feel that announcing recruits during the summer aligns with D-III philosophy.

Announcing of recruits at the D-III level is fairly new phenomon and is mostly confined to the Midwest.  You'll find very few East Coast and West Coast D-III's doing it.  To the best of my recollection the WIAC football teams were the first to really start doing it.

[RFMichigan]

JB:
    Thanks for the response.
    Frankly I think it's sort of interesting when I go to a school's basketball website about this time of year and about all I see are the obligitory picture(s) of the "signing ceremony" of a recruit with pen in hand and his future college coach (and maybe the recruit's parents and high school coach) in the recruit's high school's library sitting behind a table draped with his chosen college's logo.  
    Although this event may be more of an NAIA/scholarship/LOI thing, I wonder for how many of these young men and women, this is the most cherished moment of their entire basketball career. (And that is a topic for another time - maybe once the dog days of summer have set in.)
 
     

[AndOne]

Benedictine recruiting---

Alex Edmondson, a 6'2" 175 lb. guard from Waubonsie Valley HS in Aurora, IL will be attending Benedictine next year. He averaged 6.0 ppg, and in 27 games, he had 32 assists, 15 steals, and 34 rebounds. Consistency has been a problem for him as he tends to show strongly in one game and virtually disappear the next. Good quickness. Has some potential, but must develop a stronger work ethic and learn to take direction from the coaching staff.