University Athletic Association

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Believe it or not, we are busy already at Hoopsville. Just dropped the second preseason podcast with two more to go. Today's features the departure and the hiring of the WashU women's head coaching position. It takes up the first two-thirds of the podcast: http://www.d3hoops.com/hoopsville/archives/2017-18/preseason-podcasts

You will also find the previous podcast on that page which talks about the new NCAA Men's Coordinator of Officials which many may be interested in. We hope to chat with the women's national coordinator at a later time, but the men's conversation will be helpful all the same.

[deiscanton]

UAA teams went 2-3 on Day 1 of the 2017-18 season, with NYU and Chicago winning their games.  Emory, Case, and Brandeis lost their games last night.

1.). NYU defeated Stevens, a RRO last season, 68-65.  Kaitlyn Read returned from a season-ending injury last season to lead NYU with 30 pts and 8 rebounds.  Kaitlyn Read is now at #8 on NYU's all-time scoring list with 1275 career points.

2.). Chicago defeated Lake Forest, 76-32.  Taylor Lake led Chicago with 17 pts.  Olariche Obi had a double-double with 12 pts and 10 rebounds.  Chicago has a big game with Illinois Wesleyan (RRO last season) next.

3.). Roger Williams defeated Brandeis, 61-60 Rookie Katherine Puda led Brandeis with 11 pts, while newcomer Jillian Petrie scored 10 pts for the Judges.

4.) Denison defeated Case, 67-63.  Sophomore Kendall McConico had a career high 23 pts and 7 rebounds for the Spartans.

5.). Rhodes defeated Emory, 76-64.  Erin Lindhal led Emory with 23 pts, while Ashley Oldshue scored 16 pts for the Eagles.

[deiscanton]

I am watching the video stream of Brandeis vs Tufts.

Tufts is up, 28-22, at the half.  Tufts had an 18-9 lead after the first quarter by virtue of the Jumbos defense forcing Brandeis into 9 turnovers in that quarter, 6 of which were steals by Tufts.  Brandeis was able to take the second quarter, 13-10.

[deiscanton]

Tufts was able to put the game away in the third quarter, and ended up defeating Brandeis today, 62-41.

Erica DeCandido led Tufts with 19 pts, while Melissa Baptista scored 14 pts for the preseason #1 ranked team in the d3hoops.com poll.

4 Brandeis Judges scored 6 pts a piece.

Rochester has their crack vs Tufts on Friday in the Williams Classic.

[deiscanton]

I was spending the rest of the afternoon watching whip-around coverage of UAA women's teams in action.  I caught the first half of the NYU v Oneonta women's game with Russ Steinberg (of sbnation.com fame) on the call; followed by the start of the second half of Chicago vs Carthage, which saw Chicago win a thrilling double OT victory.  The best was saved for last-- action from the Midwest Challenge, with the DePauw WGRE FM Sports crew on the call-- in which DePauw fans thought that they had the game-winning layup, only to have Rachel Sondag of Wash U hit the 3 pt game winning dagger at the other end.  Wash U wins the Midwest Challenge and a potential 2 victories vs ranked opponents in the Pool C resume for February.  Wash U has nominated the Sondag 3 pointer for ESPN's Top 10 plays of the day.

[jaybird44]

It was a dandy, no doubt about it.  Had to rush the shot a bit to beat the clock, and it found its way home.

Sondag made 3 treys in the final 7 minutes of the game.  Each one gave Wash-U a lead.  Amazing.

[deiscanton]

Highlights from Chicago's win over Carthage yesterday:

Taylor Lake had a career high 26 pts for the Maroons.  She made 1-2 from 3 pt range, but more on that 3 pointer later.

First, in the first OT period, Chicago's Miranda Burt made a clutch 3 with 44 seconds left in the first OT to tie the game at 88 a piece.  Burt attempted a game winning 3 pt shot at the buzzer of that period, but the shot missed.

Taylor Lake then hit her clutch 3 ptr with 26 seconds left in the second OT to give the Maroons a 94-90 lead.  Chicago made 2-2 at the line for the final score.

[deiscanton]

Other weekend highlights:

Carnegie Mellon sophomore Makayla Filiere scored a career high 24 pts in the Tartans victory over Denison.  CMU went 2-0 in the Marietta Turkey Shoot, with Filiere being the leading scorer for the Tartans in both of these contests.

NYU went 1-1 over the weekend.  The Violets rolled over John Jay on Saturday before losing by 2 vs Oneonta yesterday.  Oneonta shot 26 of 32 from the charity stripe vs NYU's 3 of 5 from the foul line.  Kaitlyn Read led NYU with 14 pts in yesterday's loss.  NYU had a season low 10 turnovers yesterday.

[deiscanton]

Congrats to Wash U on their 800th program win-- achieved yesterday vs DePauw.  Wash U is now 800-196 all time in program history.

[deiscanton]

In their win over Brockport yesterday, Rochester was able to play excellent defense and dominate on the boards.  That work will have to carry over through the week into Friday's game vs Tufts.  Last year, Tufts proved that their defense can shut down any player in the UAA, and I have not seen anything in the first 4 Tufts games this season to think any differently.

[deiscanton]

My thoughts on Rochester vs Tufts--

1.). Rochester played well.  They scored more than 50 vs the Tufts defense. 

There were only 5 teams who scored 50 or more on Tufts last season, and Tufts went 4-1 in those games:

Skidmore-- 55 pts-- 11/19/2016
U. New England-- 50-- 12/10/2016
Colby-- 58 pts-- 1/7/2017-- NESCAC game
St Thomas (MN) -- 57-- 3/17/2017-- National Semifinal
Amherst-- 52-- 3/18/2017-- National Championship

2.) Alex Leslie had a double double with 19 pts and 12 rbs.  She led Rochester scorers in the first quarter with 4 of the 9 pts scored in that quarter.

3.). Rochester committed 10 turnovers in the first quarter, but took better care of the ball afterwards.

I was listening to Dave McHugh on Hoopsville last night, and I agree with him that Rochester should remain in the top 10 this week.  I felt that Rochester had a successful weekend.

[deiscanton]

As for Austin winning the McWilliams Classic this season, congratulations to the gameRoos.

Last year, Austin finished ranked #8 in South by the NCAA.  They had a record of 19-8, a SOS of .525, and a 0-7 record on results vs reg. ranked opponents.

This year, Austin will most likely pick up a win vs reg. ranked in February as a result of winning the McWilliams Classic. 

As for Wash U, I would not count their NCAA hopes out just yet.  Too early, especially since Wash U won the Midwest Challenge.  Wait for UAA play.  If the Bears go 0-2 on the Case and Carnegie Mellon trip, then you can worry.  The coaches did pick Wash U to finish 3rd this season, and therefore needing a Pool C bid to get in. 

Similarly, if the Bears drop 5 or more UAA games, then you can worry as well.

[deiscanton]

Since WUH has posted the current Massey rating for the UAA men, I will do so for the women's side.

Massey currently ranks the UAA Women at #3, with the WIAC at #1 and NESCAC at #2.

This is very early in the season, however.

[deiscanton]

I am very encouraged by Brandeis's first half play, as the Judges lead Babson, 38-28, at halftime.  Brandeis has not beaten Babson since Jessica Chapin's graduation in 2010. 

[deiscanton]

Brandeis is leading Babson, 52-44, after 3 quarters.

Brandeis's video stream seems to be having technical difficulties, so I may have to follow live stats for the 4th quarter.