University Athletic Association

[deiscanton]

Congratulations to Jessica Chapin for being named both the UAA Player of the Week and the New England Women's Basketball Association Player of the Week for Feb. 23 for her efforts this weekend. 

Over the weekend, Brandeis's Jessica Chapin passed Lindsey Sensenbrenner (Brandeis '02) to take over the #2 spot on most 3 pointers made by a Brandeis women's basketball player over her career.  Jessica Chapin now has made 116 3's over the course of her career at Brandeis (that is 3 more than Sensenbrenner made) and only needs to make 22 more to pass Jen Curran (Brandeis '02) and take over the #1 spot.  If Chapin hits 2 more 3's on Saturday, she will set a new Brandeis single-season record for most 3's made in a season by a Brandeis women's hoop player-- Chapin has hit 41 3's for the season so far.

In other UAA News, Janice Evans of Wash U, Alex Leach of Chicago, Jessica McEntee of NYU, and Lora Turner of Emory made the Other Notable Performance List for their efforts this past weekend.

[deiscanton]

Don't worry, Jeff Pickette and the rest of the WBRS announcers.  I am listening in to Brandeis at NYU right now on the WBRS audio feed.  I couldn't go to New York this year due to financial reasons.  I will try to make it when Brandeis goes to NYU next January.

I need whatever money I have to purchase potential NCAA merchandise next week.  I cannot afford 2 nights in a hotel in New Jersey this week.

[deiscanton]

It seems like the NYU women are on fire from the last 5 minutes of the first half on to the second half.  NYU is proving why there are undefeated against Brandeis on days when Brandeis is the opponent on NYU's Senior Day.

The only Brandeis victory at Coles in the history of the Brandeis/NYU series came on January of 2004, if memory serves me correctly.  (Note: Year corrected.  See explanation.)

Note:  Just checked the Brandeis archives from D3Hoops.com, and it turns out my memory did not serve me correctly.  I mistakenly put down 2006-- Brandeis lost, 70-68, in the January game of 2006.  Brandeis won at NYU, 76-71, in overtime, on January 17, 2004 at Coles Center.  That means that no Boston area DIII women's basketball team has ever won at NYU without having first gone to overtime.  (The Elite Eight game between Emmanuel and NYU in March of 2001 was won by Emmanuel, but NYU tied the game up at the end of regulation, thereby forcing the Saints to have to go to overtime to win that one.  Just goes to show how difficult it is for a visiting team to win at the Coles Center.)   

[deiscanton]

NYU starts the second half on a 7-0 run to take a 30-25 lead over Brandeis.

[deiscanton]

Right now, I'm glad that I did not invest in the NYU trip this time out.  McEntee is playing a number on all of Brandeis right now.  It may be only a matter of time before the rest of NYU joins in.   

McEntee got a double double in the first half alone. 

[deiscanton]

Other UAA score updates:

Wash U 57, Chicago 38  12:02 left
Emory 43, Case 31-- 14:39 left

[deiscanton]

The other UAA score update

Rochester 84, Carnegie Mellon 41 9:05 left

[deiscanton]

Recapping the final scores from today:

Wash U 70, Chicago 55
NYU 62, Brandeis 49
Emory 74, Case 59
Rochester 103, Carnegie Mellon 52

What does this all mean?

Well, Wash U is in with the Pool A automatic qualifier.

Rochester and NYU are locks for Pool C and are heavy favorites, along with Wash U, to host next weekend in the first and second round-- of course, the bracket will still have to be drawn so that it geographically makes sense, but if a bracket can be drawn that will allow those 3 UAA schools to host, it will probably be drawn.

Despite the loss, I still believe that Brandeis will get in as a Pool C team-- the overall record in terms of quality of opposition still favors the Judges, although everyone is harping on the fact that Brandeis finished 5th in the UAA with a 7-7 record.  However, conference standings don't necessarily factor into the primary or secondary criteria for selection purposes other than the fact that it would affect the overall regional percentage. 

Brandeis finishes with a 16-7 regional record, 17-7 overall, for a regional percentage of .696-- naturally, I am disappointed that Brandeis could not finish over .700 in the regional percentage which was the team goal at the start of the season, but Brandeis's 9-0 first semester record which includes wins over Tufts and Bowdoin as well as Brandeis's very high OWP and OOWP should be key factors in getting Brandeis in as a Pool C.  I do not know about Brandeis's chances of hosting games as a result of this loss, however, as I don't know how the secret Northeast regional rankings would fare out, but since Brandeis was ranked at #3 in the Northeast with a .667 regional percentage the first week out, I would be surprised if Brandeis radically drops in the secret Northeast rankings when the selections come out.

Also, don't count Chicago out just yet despite the fact that they are unranked in the Central and finished with a 17-8 regional record for a regional percentage of .680-- although I don't know what the expanded secret regional rankings will be when the national committee convenes tomorrow to make the Pool C selections, I have a hunch that Chicago would be #7 in the Central just behind St. Norbert.  If I am right, then Chicago may be third in line in the Central to get to the national table for Pool C selection.

In a change from an NCAA release from earlier this week, the women's committee has now joined with the men's committee in that the women's committee will not announce their Pool B and Pool C selections until they are ready to announce the bracket.  That means that we will have to wait until Monday to find out what happens.  I know that Hoopsville has an expanded show for tomorrow night for speculation.  I will be in the chat room, and I encourage all UAA fans to join in and listen to Hoopsville tomorrow starting at 5 PM Central/6 PM Eastern.

[bearsfan]

With the amount of upsets yesterday in the conference tournaments, I would say Chicago's chances are very slim. I believe the other day that 22 teams that were ranked in the last regional rankings were vying for the 20 Pool C spots and with the amount of upsets (Tufts, York, Washington and Jefferson, Eastern Connecticut, DePauw, and Greensboro) the list of teams competing just grew to the point of making Chicago's chances pretty slim. One thing helping them is that St. Norbert lost which might give them a chance to sneak to 6 in the last unpublished rankings but find it hard to come up with a scenario where they get in with yesterday's loss.

[bearsfan]

Just wanted to report that my impression is that WashU is going to have its least successful year in a long while.  Of course, I also thought so when they started 1-3 and ended up in the championship game.

Their defense is still tight under most circumstances, but it can be broken through easily enough by a well practiced offense.  I'm not the student of basketball that most are here, but I do know my dismay when the opposing team gets hot by continually threading the ball to somebody who can reliably toss in a layup.

But as usual, the least reliable part of the Bears game is the offense.  Too little discipline, not enough of those threaded passes to somebody who'll actually get the ball in.

Anyway, what makes this season the one where they fall is that so many of the other UAA teams have done so well in non-conference games.  The Bears may actually lose more than two home games and over half their road games.

This just goes to show that early season prognostication doesn't always turn out to be true. Wash U ends up winning the UAA and nearly goes undefeated in doing so (3 point loss to Rochester at Rochester being the only setback).

Think a major reason it was so hard to judge this year's Wash U team early on is cause there is not one star. Whereas other teams in the conference clearly knew their go to players early in the year, Wash U has had to try and discover that on a team loaded with lots of talented folks. Seems from the stats that what they discovered was to just figure it out game to game. Some days its Janice Evans, some days its Jaime McFarlin, some days its Zoe Unruh, and the list goes on and on. Think once they discovered that, it really fixed the offensive inconsistencies and made them very tough to plan for. That they fared so well in the conference this year is saying a lot to with the quality of the conference overall. It's really too bad teams like Chicago might not get in as they could easily do some damage in the tournament. Even Carnagie was a tough competitor this year despite their record. There are no easy games in the UAA and Wash U's run this year has been fun to watch.

Some interesting notes on the stat front for Wash U is that defensively, since the Spokane trip, they have only surrendered more than 60 points twice in their last 18 games (very impressive). On the offensive side over the same stretch, they have only scored less than 60 points once (hard to lose with stats like that).

Wish them and everyone else in the conference the best of luck in the postseason and let's hope Chicago manages to get bid #5 for the conference.

[mark_reichert]

Just wanted to report that my impression is that WashU is going to have its least successful year in a long while.  Of course, I also thought so when they started 1-3 and ended up in the championship game.

Their defense is still tight under most circumstances,

This just goes to show that early season prognostication doesn't always turn out to be true. Wash U ends up winning the UAA and nearly goes undefeated in doing so (3 point loss to Rochester at Rochester being the only setback).

Well, I was right about two things: I don't know much about prognostication and their defense is still tight.

The year they started out 1-3 was after Manning and Beehler left with a large chunk of the offense, and obviously the team took some time to gel in their absence.  It's a lot easier to recognize an offense built around a couple of stars with recognizable routines than 6 players bunched up from 7-9 points a game.

[bearsfan]

So, not suprising that UAA got 4 bids, but am suprised that the UAA teams are all hosting with Brandeis ending up getting a host. Definitely a good team, but just suprising to me that a team with 7 loss ended up getting to host. Gives the UAA a great chance to get 4 teams to the Sweet 16. That would be great for the conference. Would have liked to see Chicago get in though.

[quaj]

I was surprised as well about how many UAA schools were hosting but good luck to all the UAA teams this year. I'm looking forward to some great basketball in the Washington University Field House this weekend.

[deiscanton]

I'm sure that Bobby DeMartino of New Jersey is shocked as well.  He is the father of former Brandeis point guard and current Northwood (Fla) (NAIA-2) head coach Amanda DeMartino, and Mr. DeMartino was saying all season that Brandeis was not going to get a break playing in the UAA and taking all of those losses.  For once, playing in one of the top conferences in Division III means something, and I'm glad that all of the UAA women's basketball teams will host this weekend. 

Sorry that Chicago couldn't make it in to the NCAAs, but the loss to Carroll earlier this season probably doomed the Maroons.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

I was surprised as well about how many UAA schools were hosting but good luck to all the UAA teams this year. I'm looking forward to some great basketball in the Washington University Field House this weekend.

You can thank the fact that it is 2009 - an odd numbered year. Women have priority over the men in the first two rounds for hosting so NYU, Wash U, Brandies, and Rochester all got their opportunities... especially considering the fact all of those teams are in different regions! Four teams, four regions, odd numbered year, hosting chance!