University Athletic Association

[WUPHF]

[insert quote/quote]
I meant to respond to a quote earlier posted...not sure of the right process...

Hit the quote button on the upper-right corner of the text you wish to quote.  Then make sure to hit the preview button to take a second look before you hit post.

If you want to discuss the NYU win over Medaille or the fact that NYU is 4-0 early in the season, you should consider adding your thoughts as well.  Have you seen any games this season?  This is a community of fans, not professional commentators.  Please add your thoughts.

[WUPHF]

Washington University sends winless Augustana home with their second loss in two days in St. Louis.  Berger and Hoover team up to score 35 on 15-25 shooting.

[Wydown Blvd.]

[insert quote/quote]
at any rate, the conference assessment had no reference to NYU and I was wondering why...

I assume by "conference assessment" he or she meant my half-a$$ blurb....lol

Well, my fan's take (like WUH said, we are by no means professional commentators) on NYU is this:

NYU and Brandeis in recent years have had the weakest non-conference schedules. The win over Medaille definitely looks good, although I would presume there is a lot of bad blood between Medaille and UofR. Without checking, Medaille would also be a good in-region win for NYU come tournament time bc Medaille may end up regionally ranked. Only a four point win, so this doesn't tell me too much about the talent level between the three teams.

NYU is extremely young (three seniors), and I think they lost a lot of their personality in their graduating class. (especially in Carmen and Hum-Traverso). It should be interesting to see where both the leadership and scoring comes from.

Captains: Kilmurray didn't seem too vocal (and I don't believe she has played this year, maybe injured?), Blake a bit of a firecracker but can score in bunches, and Storts (streaky scorer with low shooting percentage) and Franke having reserve roles last year.

This really feels to me like it is Coach Trompeo's test -- his recruits, his system (which is similar to Coach Quinn's) -- third year as acting head coach (his first year he held an interim title). He inherited McEntee and the squad in his first year, and now its his time to show his coaching pedigree.

They are picked to finish 5th in conference, and I think thats about where they stand right now -- behind at least WashU, UofR, UChicago, and Brandeis at this point.

Feel free to add your thoughts NYUfan

[deiscanton]

My thoughts on the Brandeis women so far--

(Caveat:  I have only seen the Brandeis at Tufts game from last Sunday in person so far due to the fact that I do not own a car and unless people are available who can give me a ride to and from the Brandeis campus, it will take me a few hours by public transportation to get from the southern suburbs of Boston, where I live, to Waltham, MA, in the western suburbs.   Because of that fact, I will primarily invest in the public transportation for Brandeis home games in UAA conference play-- other than that, Brandeis now has streaming video of their home games, so I have followed the Judges on-line.   The parents of the Brandeis players may complain that I can't go to as many home games as I did in the past, and they have expressed the fact that they miss me when I am not there in person, but they aren't the ones giving me rides to and from the games, so I have to discount that for the most part, unfortunately.)

To start with, I am very thankful that the Brandeis women's softball and soccer teams gave me NCAA post-season appearances this past year.

That is because I caught a very bad break with the injury situation involving the Judges women's basketball team.   

Out of the top 6 scorers from last season, Brandeis only has 2 of those players back due to graduation and injury.  That would be Morgan Kendrew and Amber Strodthoff.

In the preseason, Diana Cincotta, who was Brandeis's top 3 point shooter among the returning players, was lost for the season due to injury.   She is redshirted this year and I hope that she will be back next season for her senior year.

In addition, another top returning player,  Shannon Hassan, who averaged 5.3 ppg last year, suffered a season-ending injury 6 minutes into the Babson game.   She was in the Brandeis starting lineup before the injury, and her injury has forced Brighid Courtney, who averaged 3.8 ppg last season, into a starting role for the Judges.

Through 6 games this season, only 3 Brandeis players are averaging more than 5 ppg.  Mia DePalo, who has primarily been a defense and rebounding specialist, now also has to score some points this season.  She has done fine so far and she is the third player currently averaging more than 5 ppg-- the other two being Strodthoff and Kendrew.

Of note, in the Tufts game, DePalo not only had 12 rebounds in that game, but she also scored 6 pts in that game as well.

Another current starter, junior Kelly Ethier, had a good campaign in her first season, but she is coming back from an injury that she sustained last year that made her miss most of last season's campaign. 

Even if Ethier and Courtney improve on the scoring front, Brandeis's success this season is going to have to depend on the efforts of the first years and sophomores.   

So far, Brandeis has only averaged about 55 ppg this season, with a season-high 68 points scored against NESCAC bottom dweller Connecticut College, and a season low 48 pts scored against Wellesley.   Brandeis has played current top 10 team Babson, and lost to the Beavers by 3 pts in overtime in what was Babson's first game of the season-- Babson returns most of their players back from an Elite 8 appearance in the NCAA tournament. 

From what I have seen so far this season, 4th place in the UAA may be a little bit too optimistic for the Judges.   I hope that the Judges can finish as high as that, but if Brandeis needs to survive by holding teams into low scoring games in the 50's, that is trouble for the rest of the season.   Brandeis has a very good defense as their strong point-- that will keep them in games such as the Tufts game from a few days ago, but against teams like Emory and others who love to play up-tempo and score high, Brandeis will be severely tested unless more players can step up and provide offense.

[Wydown Blvd.]

Including desicanton's thoughts and summary, my ranking of the UAA would be as follows:

WashU
U of R
UChicago
NYU
Brandeis
CWU
Emory
Carnegie

The top three seem to be on a different level than the rest of the conference.

Really interesting in the 5-7 spots.... Emory has a good chance to beat anyone from NYU down. CWU core scorers are clicking, but they are unproven and I cant put them above Brandeis quite yet. And, Im watching Brandeis play Emmanuel online, it's not pretty to say the least...

***Update on Brandeis/Emmanual**** After six minutes of play, 12 combined turnovers and about 7 combined airballs, I decided to switch to another game. Brandeis should win, but Emmanuel can pull it off with pressure half-court defense and man and zone full court presses.

[deiscanton]

Final from Auerbach Arena--

Brandeis 72, Emmanuel 67

I am glad that the Judges won this game-- coming into this one, I thought that this particular meeting would end up being Emmanuel's first victory at Red Auerbach Arena since the Brandeis v Emmanuel series resumed a few years ago.  The Judges, however, were able to get the win and score a season-high 72 pts in the process.

More than any of the other local rivalries involving Brandeis and other teams, this one has a special meaning for me, and I really did want to see this one in person tonight, but if I went personally to see this one, I would have to stay to see the Brandeis men play Clark, and there was no one available to give me a ride home tonight, so it would mean an after midnight arrival time back home  (public transportation back to Boston, and then a commuter train ride south.)  I was glad to see this one on video tonight.

For the Saints, the top two scorers were Kristin Lebel, (27 pts) who was the top returning scorer for Emmanuel coming into the season, and Meghan Kirwan, (17 pts), who transferred from DII UMass-Lowell where she played the past two seasons.

Brandeis was able to counter that with their first total team effort of the season, IMO, to get the win.  Kelly Ethier scored 14 pts today to back up Amber Strodthoff, who scored 15 pts.   The sophomores and first years also made healthy contributions in the victory, and I will follow up on that in a later post when the final box score gets posted.

[deiscanton]

Follow up post--

28 points for the Judges tonight vs Emmanuel came off the bench-- first years and sophomores.

Samantha Anderson (sophomore)-- 8 pts in the win.

Janelle Rodriguez  (first year)-- 10 pts in the win.

Kasey Dean  (first year)-- 6 pts

Brandeis outrebounded Emmanuel, 36-30.

High number of turnovers-- which is to be expected given Emmanuel's defense and style of play.

Brandeis needs to work on free-throw shooting for next game--  Emmanuel went 94% from charity stripe tonight, while Brandeis only went 15-26 from charity stripe.

Next game is home vs Roger Williams on Saturday.

[Wydown Blvd.]

Watching Wheaton (Ill.) v UChicago.
Interesting game... (not too much on the basketball side)...but rather getting acquainted to players stepping into new roles.

Wheaton just stopped UCs 17-0 run, and it has been pretty lopsided in what I have watched so far. Wheaton's three pt shooting keeping them in the game. Even with a solid 3pt fg %, Chicago's zone still looks good and they are basically scoring at will in the half-court.

[deiscanton]

I listened to the NYU-Farmingdale State game on WNYU tonight.  Farmingdale State won, 59-50, at Coles Center.

The less said about this game, the better.   NYU did not perform well tonight, and needs to go back to the practice court.

NYU held to 50 pts tonight by Farmingdale's defense.   NYU's Maggie Ely had 18 pts before fouling out, but that was the only bright spot in what was not a great game by NYU against the defending Skyline Conference champion.

NYU plays defending CUNYAC champion Baruch on Saturday.

[Wydown Blvd.]

Case lost to Kenyon...

Very little positive news coming in around the UAA... Down year for the conference as a whole?

[Wydown Blvd.]

From the CCIW forum

Last evening, I saw Wheaton's 84-63 loss at the U of Chicago.
Excluding team rebounds, the Maroons got 38 of the 58 contested rebounds. And, Chicago's tough half-court defense held the Thunder to 8 for 36 on 2FG attempts.
A couple of positives for Wheaton :
Lindsey Brenneman scored 18 pts from 13 FG att.
The end of the soccer season allowed Laura Karsten to join the basketball team.

[Wydown Blvd.]

About to watch WashU play New England.... My gut has a 20pt blowout, but I also know nothing about New England.

Tomorrow is a huge slate of UAA games. Everyone plays, and my picks are in bold:

Dec. 4
TBA at Washington (Mo.)    TBA    
Roger Williams at Brandeis    1:00 PM    
Emory at Piedmont    2:00 PM    
Carnegie Mellon at Oberlin    2:00 PM    
Denison at Case Western Reserve    2:00 PM    
Chicago at Ill. Wesleyan    3:00 PM    
Baruch at New York U.    4:00 PM    
TBA at Rochester    5:30 PM

Of course Im hoping Im wrong and the UAA comes out 8-0... 

[WUPHF]

I watched the end of Washington University-University of New England, but not enough to report on much.  The Bears advance with a 64-53 win to play Elmhurst tomorrow for the McWilliams title.

I read in the program that New England went 23-6 last year losing in the first round of the tournament, but I know nothing about them as well.

[Wydown Blvd.]

Watched most 3/4ths of the WashU game... nothing life-changing to report. They are definitely playing a lot of young talent... Starting with Rettig, but with Sayers, Montgomery, and Anda getting a lot of time.

It again wasn't the prettiest game, but WashU did what it does best and made adjustments at half time. They didn't shoot very well from the floor -- 24% from the floor in the first half, but 46% in the second half... Three's also weren't falling for the Bears, shooting a pretty dismal 3 for 19 for the game. With that being said, they simply dominated the boards. Every posession there was a lot of crashing the boards from both the guards spots and the posts... They ended with 28 offensive boards en route to a +24 rebounding margin. Really it was incredible the amount of effort and hustle when each shot went up.

Margo Russell was the highlight for New England with 24 points (but 6 turnovers as well) and 15 of those points from the free throw line. New England started well and kept pace with WashU most of the first half falling behind at most by 9 points, but the second half wasn't pretty and their fg % in the second half was 21% with a lot of shots coming very late in the shot clock.

I know Elmhurst is quite different from what they were last year, but I will certainly take a glimpse at the game tomorrow because of the future in-region implications.

[WUPHF]

Chicago at Ill. Wesleyan    3:00 PM     

You got that one right, but look at that score.  Illinois Wesleyan wins 76-75, scoring the go ahead basket with 0.08 and holding off Chicago's final possesion to win, providing that the live stats are right.  The CCIW thread should have the full story soon enough.