University Athletic Association

[deiscanton]

In what was otherwise an uneventful Friday night in the UAA, Case was able to make their game against Chicago an interesting one.   The Spartans were without Ashleigh Tondo and another one of their top scorers, and the young Case team was able to battle Chicago to the point where Chicago won by just 9 points today.

After the effort by Bryanne Halfhill of Chicago in her homecoming game-- Halfhill is from Canfield, Ohio and a lot of her friends and relatives showed up at Horsburgh Gym today to cheer her on-- it looks like Bryanne Halfhill will be the UAA Newcomer of the Year when the season ends on Feb. 28.  There is still 4 games left for Erin Hollinger of Case to change that perception, however.

The other games were no-drama games.  If any Case fan watching this board can confirm what happened with Ashleigh Tondo tonight-- is it serious enough for her not to be able to compete for a while, or will she be able to play this weekend or next weekend?

[BruinFan]

Some historical perspective....

Under the old QOWI system used in 2005-2006, NYU finished 4th in the UAA after suffering many losses in February.  The 2005-2006 NYU Violets finished with a regional record of 18-7 (.720), and a 7-7 mark in the UAA, but still got a Pool C bid to the NCAA tournament.  I remember when Brandeis defeated the 2005-2006 NYU Violets at Auerbach Arena on the last day of the season, the NYU fans felt on that day like I was feeling most of this conference season with Brandeis-- that their NYU Violets would be out of the NCAA Tournament. 

Here was the non-conference in-region schedule of the 2005-2006 NYU Violets, with the regional records of their opponents-- NYU went 11-0 on this non-conference schedule:

1.)   SUNY-Brockport (14-11)
2.)   Farmingdale State (15-9)  (NYU played them twice consecutively)
3.)   Alvernia (14-12)
4.)   Manhattanville (7-18)
5.)   Mount St. Mary (23-3)
6.)   St. Joseph's Long Island (9-14)
7.)   Merchant Marine (15-10)  (formerly known as King's Point)
8.)   Montclair State (16-8)
9.)   Mount St. Vincent (6-13)
10.)  Hunter (13-11)

By comparison, here is Brandeis's non-conference schedule this season, with the regional records of their non-conference in-region opponents as of Feb. 8:

1.)  WPI (15-5)
2.)  Bowdoin (17-4)
3.)  Wellesley (8-8)
4.)  Tufts (17-3)
5.)  Emmanuel (13-5)
6.)  Wheaton (MA) (10-8)
7.)  Babson (14-6)
8.)  Regis (MA)  (15-5)
9.)  RI College (9-12)

Clearly, this year's Brandeis team played a tougher non-conference schedule than the 2005-2006 NYU Violets did, and that is helping Brandeis in their chances of getting a Pool C bid to the NCAA tournament.

This year, we are going to find out how many losses a team will be allowed to get while playing the toughest Division 3 schedule in the country and still be eligible for an at-large NCAA Pool C bid under the new OWP/OOWP system.  The Wheaton (IL) men did qualify out of CCIW for a Pool C bid last year with a regional record of 15-7 (.682) for some more historical reference.

Keep in mind that Brandeis's #22 Lauren Rashford has now been confirmed as being out for the season with what is assumed to be a torn ACL, pending the MRI findings. 

This argument would be more compelling if NYU had won a game in the 2005-06 NCAA tournament.

I love stats and I have seen a wide range of attempts to compare D3 teams across the country. It is an entertaining task, but not an exact science. D3 will always have the disadvantage of limited non-conference play across regions to help compare teams where it matters most - on the court.

In the Northwest Conference this year, unless someone other than George Fox wins the conference tournament, it seems like a long shot to receive even 1 Pool C bid. It was great to have Washington University travel to the Northwest in December. They lost both games to Whitman (likely finishing 3rd or 4th in NWC) and Whitworth (may not qualify for conference tournament). 

In the interest of full disclosure, Illinois Wesleyan came out also this season and defeated Linfield (2-10 in NW conference) by only 13 as IW had less than typical opportunity to prepare and the University of Puget Sound (2nd place team in conference). In either case, the NWC did not look out of place against a terrific team in IW.

I do not doubt that the UAA is a great conference. To take 3 of the 20 Pool C bids, when other quality conferences will be lucky to get 1 seems excessive to me. If 4 teams do advance, I hope they go deep into the play-offs to show it was the right choice.

Due to geography, in most years when the Northwest Conference has received a Pool C bid, the two NW schools have had to play each other in the 2nd round - guaranteeing only 1 school in the Sweet 16. I'm not sure the NWC has ever had the chance to see if 2 teams could advance to the Sweet 16 because of the pairings in the brackets.

Best of luck to all teams playing this weekend.

[deiscanton]

True, and the fact that Williams beat the 2005-2006 NYU Violets in the first round proves that where the numbers say that NYU belonged in the tourney that year, and your gut feeling says that NYU did not belong, sometimes your gut feeling is right.

This may indeed be the case again this year, where the numbers on the first week of the regional rankings seem to favor Brandeis, but watching Brandeis play in UAA competition seems to say to me that Brandeis would not advance past the first weekend of NCAA Tournament competition this year if the Judges happened to qualify.  I've seen Brandeis get knocked off so many times in the second round anyway-- that I want to see any UAA team that makes the NCAA Tournament be one capable of reaching the Sweet 16 at the very least.   

[Pat Coleman]

True, and the fact that Williams beat the 2005-2006 NYU Violets in the first round proves that where the numbers say that NYU belonged in the tourney that year, and your gut feeling says that NYU did not belong, sometimes your gut feeling is right.

Just because NYU lost in the first round doesn't mean they didn't belong in the tournament. Someone has to lose first-round games, right?

[BruinFan]

Just because NYU lost in the first round doesn't mean they didn't belong in the tournament. Someone has to lose first-round games, right?

Yes, many teams will lose in the first round. The criteria and records may not allow for this, but I would just prefer that a first round loss be by a conference X school that only received 1 Pool C bid rather than the 3rd Pool C team from conference Y. Spread the excitement and fun out a little bit. And who knows, that Conference X school may just surprise us. I think we get into ruts believing that particular conferences are always deeper and stronger. It is hard to determine when a strong conference is having a down year.

[pabegg]

Just a reminder. Conferences don't get Pool C bids. Schools get Pool C bids.

Each conference gets one Pool A bid, which they can distribute any way they want. Then there's Pool B, for the non-qualified conference teams and independents.

The Pool C bids go to the remaining teams with the best results, regardless of conference. So the UAA doesn't get Pool C bids because it is by far the strongest conference in the country; individual schools get Pool C bids because they have stronger records than the competition.

Strength of conference may or may not translate into Pool C bids. You could have a conference that is top-heavy that is all but guaranteed to have two Pool C bids, or a conference that is deep could end up knocking each other off enough so that they'll have no Pool C teams. The men's WIAC is an example of the first category this year, while most years the opposite is the case for them.

[nyufan]

I have to share our experience from this weekend's games. The NYU team flew out of Newark Thursday night, heading to Rochester. It was nearly the same time as the flight that was flying to Buffalo that crashed due to weather conditions. It was the same type of plane, my daughter thinks. And, when I spoke to her Friday, she said the team was watching the news, all talking about how they were in the airport with those people and probably saw them before they boarded that flight. I know they carried that with them all day.

Sometimes we forget that these players are just kids, young adults. I am always worried about travel to Rochester, because it's prop planes. Does this bother anyone else?

[deiscanton]

I know that when Rochester goes on the trip to Brandeis and NYU, the Yellowjackets do not fly-- they bus all the way.  The reason why Brandeis and NYU have to fly to Rochester or back from Rochester is that when these two teams are on the road, they have to also play Carnegie Mellon on that weekend.  Next year, Rochester will be paired with Emory.

I guess in the future that NYU should consider using JetBlue out of JFK to go to Rochester instead.  It feels safer, and I always like hearing the pilot gives instructions to the flight attendants in plain English rather than hearing the terms "Flight attendants, cross check and all call."  and the response being "Cross check complete."  I know what these terms mean, but less experienced fliers may not know what these terms mean.

I have flown to Rochester twice.  The first time, I used JetBlue from Boston's Logan Airport and got a connecting flight at JFK.  The second time, I used Airtran from Logan to fly to BWI-Thurgood Marshall Airport where I used a connecting flight to go to Rochester.

I have flown on a small prop plane recently when I returned from Plattsburgh, NY after seeing the Brandeis men's basketball team lose to Amherst in the Elite Eight.  I used Cape Air to fly from Plattsburgh Airport back to Logan-- Cape Air uses 9 seat small propeller planes on their routes, and it was an experience sitting very close to the pilot as the plane flew to Logan.  It is not the same as being on a jet plane.

[deiscanton]

Congratulations to my Brandeis Judges-- both the men's and women's teams, for sweeping Rochester today.  It is the first time that has happened since 1995 at least-- I have to check the 1995 result in the UAA archives, but I think that 1995 was the last time that both teams swept at Rochester.  It is the first time that Brandeis has swept a Mike Neer coached men's team and a Jim Scheible coached women's team at the Palestra on the same day.

[David Collinge]

In what was otherwise an uneventful Friday night in the UAA, Case was able to make their game against Chicago an interesting one.   The Spartans were without Ashleigh Tondo [...]  If any Case fan watching this board can confirm what happened with Ashleigh Tondo tonight-- is it serious enough for her not to be able to compete for a while, or will she be able to play this weekend or next weekend?

Ashleigh played this afternoon vs. Wash U.  She didn't start, and only played 15 minutes, but if there was anything wrong with her (physically), I couldn't tell.  She had a lousy game (2 pts., 2 reb., 2 ast.), but so did everyone else in the home whites.

[deiscanton]

I just wanted to post some quick thoughts from today's win at Rochester, and then I will give my detailed thoughts on the weekend tomorrow:

(1) As a result of the victory at Rochester, I now feel that Brandeis belongs in the NCAA Tournament, and I have no doubt about it now.  Brandeis will not only remain in the top 4 of the Northeast Rankings when the next rankings come out on Wednesday, but I believe that Brandeis will actually move up to #2 in the Northeast Rankings-- ahead of Tufts, since Brandeis beat Tufts earlier in the season.  Amherst will remain at #1 in the Northeast since Brandeis has not played Amherst yet.  Even if Brandeis remains at #3, Tufts cannot host NCAA Tournament games due to the fact that Cousens Gym is not regulation size, so Amherst and Brandeis would have good shots out of the Northeast to host 1st and 2nd round games.  The women get preference over the men to host first weekend games this year if there is a conflict with a school that has both men's and women's teams in the NCAAs that are high enough in the regional rankings to give both teams opportunities to host.

(2)   I believe that 2 wins next weekend at home against Case and Emory will give Brandeis a regional winning percentage strong enough against the top ranked OWP and OOWP numbers for Brandeis to get Brandeis one of the 20 Pool C invites when the DIII Women's Basketball National Committee makes their selections.

(3)  Jessica Chapin proved today that she can play point guard and play that position at the top level of DIII.  I knew that she played some point in high school but it was not her natural position.  In front of her hometown friends and family, she put on a performance that was very similar to what Jaime Capra did in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last year in her home state of New Jersey when Brandeis rallied to beat Southern Maine.   Jessica Chapin got her 2nd ever double-double at Brandeis today with 12 points, a career high 11 rebounds, and a career high 6 assists.

(4)  Diana Cincotta also helped out today by tying her career high of 12 points that she previously set in the game against Tufts earlier this season.  All 3 of Brandeis's 3 pointers that were made in the game were made by Cincotta in the second half.

(5)  When Brandeis rallied from behind at halftime-- Brandeis only scored 19 pts in the first half,-- I think that some of the Rochester players who played in the February 10, 2006 game at the Palestra when Brandeis rallied from behind to win at Rochester by a score of 63-51 thought in the minds a certain deja vu feeling that the 2006 Brandeis rally was going to repeat itself.  That probably helped Brandeis a lot.

I will have more to say tomorrow....

[deiscanton]

Just a few quick words-- I wanted to write more on these games, but on my previous attempt, the session timed out.

(1)  Congrats to Jessica Chapin for her efforts on Friday and Sunday-- a career high 8 steals on Friday's game, and a career best 6 assists to go on Sunday to go with her 12 points and 11 rebounds-- her second career double-double.

Jessica Chapin deserves to be named the UAA Player of the Week for her efforts this weekend.

(2) Congrats to Amanda Wells for her career high 12 points in Friday's win over Carnegie Mellon.  Congrats also to Lauren Orlando on her 3 blocked shots in Friday's game as well.

(3)  Brandeis played their best games of the season this weekend so far.  On Friday, Brandeis had 22 assists in the victory at Carnegie Mellon and did not have too much of a problem putting away the very scrappy Tartans.

(4)  I really enjoyed the Brandeis rally in the second half after Rochester took a 30-19 lead going into the locker room.   It really looked like a "Anything you can do-- I can do better" effort.  Brandeis outscored Rochester 33-20 in the second half to pull off the win.  The rally was punctuated by the Jessica Chapin to Amber Strodthoff play for the winning bucket with 57 seconds left that gave Chapin her 6th assist of the game.  Then, Amber Strodthoff put on a performance in the final minute that sealed the win for the Judges.

(5)  A note to JC DeLass-- please don't hit the mute button on the Internet video feed during timeouts unless you absolutely have to do it.  The WYSL radio commercials don't make it onto the video stream anyway, and all the mute button does is block out the pep band, crowd noise, and cheerleaders.  I like hearing the court reaction on the video stream during the timeouts.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Good luck getting JC not to hit the mute button... I bet he is doing that so what ever is happening when he thinks the station is in a break won't accidently go out over the WYSL airwaves. And I would hit the mute button even on a video feed so you don't hear me make any comments to others around me that probably aren't for broadcast!

Maybe the internet crew can install an extra mic for crowd noise to mix in with JC!

[deiscanton]

The UAA just released their pick for Player of the Week.

The UAA picked Molly Hackney of Chicago for Player of the Week based on her impressive stats in Chicago's victories over Case and Emory.

Notable performance mentions went to Jessica Chapin of Brandeis, Jessica McEntee of NYU, Zoe Unruh of Wash U, and Melissa Alwardt of Rochester.

[deiscanton]

Terrific weekend for Brandeis, as they swept Emory and Case.

I will post more on the weekend later, but I wanted to first congratulate Wash U on winning the 2008-2009 UAA Women's Basketball Championship today.  Best of luck to the Wash U women in the NCAA Tournament.

On the Brandeis front, congrats to Morgan Kendrew on her career high 15 points against Case today.  Also, congrats to Jessica Chapin on her third double-double of the season and her career (17 pts, 10 boards today), and on tying her career best 6 assists today, which she initially set against Rochester last week.

I will post more later....