University Athletic Association

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

You also have to have your plan in place when you submit the bid, several weeks before it's potentially needed.  The women could've been reasonably assured of hosting first weekend, but its never guaranteed.  Not sure you can "reserve" a gym in NYC and then not use it without paying something.  May not have been financially feasible to rent a gym you're not sure you'll need.  Plus you have to rent one with the capacity to host fans from four schools, which means an even bigger, most costly facility.  Headaches all around.

[deiscanton]

You also have to have your plan in place when you submit the bid, several weeks before it's potentially needed.  The women could've been reasonably assured of hosting first weekend, but its never guaranteed.  Not sure you can "reserve" a gym in NYC and then not use it without paying something.  May not have been financially feasible to rent a gym you're not sure you'll need.  Plus you have to rent one with the capacity to host fans from four schools, which means an even bigger, most costly facility.  Headaches all around.

I remember back in the 2000-01 season, when Emmanuel College played at the old Marian Hall Gym.  The court there was not regulation size, but the field for the tournament back then was only a field of 50.  Emmanuel was ranked #1 in the Northeast, and that ranking back then assured the Saints a first round bye.   

Emmanuel was able to use the Simmons College gym, a 500 seater just across the street from Emmanuel, to host their second round game against Springfield.  That game easily sold out. 

Emmanuel was also able to get an agreement to use Solomon Court at Northeastern University to host sectionals if Emmanuel was chosen to host them, but the Women's Basketball Committee back then awarded the sectional hosting duties to NYU and the Coles Sports Center for obvious reasons, chief among them was that NYU had one of the best 5 resumes in the country back then and earned the right to host the East/Northeast sectional.  Emmanuel was able to defeat Cortland and NYU in the sectionals to advance to the "Final Four" in Danbury, CT.

[ronk]

 Remembering the Ursinus men 2003 had a final 4 quality team but they didn't put in to host, played @ Scranton before a raucous home crowd, and lost by 2.

[deiscanton]

Breaking news--

"Mr. UAA" Dick Rasmussen, the first and only Executive Secretary, Director, and Vice President of the UAA (in most leagues, the title would be that of Commissoner), announced today that after serving with the UAA since its founding back in 1987, he will retire effective at the conclusion of the 2023-2024 Academic Year on June 30, 2024.

The UAA has initiated plans to search for a new successor to try to fill some very big shoes that will be left behind.

I will not be the only one who will miss Mr. Rasmussen when he leaves.

uaasports.info/sports/general/2022-23/razretirement

[deiscanton]

On Thursday, March 2, 2023, the 2022-23 All Association women's basketball honors were announced:

uaasports.info/sports/wbkb/2022-23/22-23_WBKB_All-Assoc.pdf

Player of the Year-- Natalie Bruns, NYU

Defensive Player of the Year-- Belle Pellecchia, NYU

Rookie of the Year-- Caroline Peper, NYU

Coaching Staff of the Year:  UChicago (Head Coach Maria Williamson, Assistant Coaches Michelle Bilek, Dolly Yuan, and Janae Gonzales)

First Team

1.) Maya Arnott, Wash U
2.) Jessica Brooks, Wash U
3.) Natalie Bruns, NYU
4.) Grace Hynes, UChicago
5.) Isabella Mills, CWRU
6.) Catherine Or, Carnegie Mellon
7.) Katie Titus, Rochester

Second Team

1.) Danielle Aronsky, Emory
2.) Claire Brock, Emory
3.) Kayla Characklis, CWRU
4.) Ellie Gross, UChicago
5.) Callie McCulley, Rochester
6.) Sophia North, UChicago
7.) Belle Pellecchia, NYU
8.) Alexis Sestric, Rochester
9.) Jenny Walker, NYU

Honorable Mention

Brandeis:  Emma Reavis;  Caitlin Gresko

[deiscanton]

Finals-- 1st round of NCAA DIII tournament games involving UAA teams--

1.)  NYU 71, Greensboro 54

(Messiah let the NYU play by play and commentary crew produce the webcast of this 1st round game-- Shaun Nadkarni did the regular play-by-play, and Jeff Bernstein, the NYU Director of Athletic Communications, served as the guest color commentator for this one.)

2.)  Millikin 76, Emory 70 

3.)  Trine 79, Wash U 69

4.)  UChicago 63, Northwestern-St. Paul (MN) 48

NYU and UChicago advance to the second round, which will be played tomorrow.

Season is over for Emory and Wash U.

[deiscanton]

Saturday, March 4, 2023

Second round NCAA DIII Women's Basketball Tournament games involving UAA teams--

1.)  NYU at Messiah-- 7 PM Eastern tip.

2.)  Whitman at UChicago-- 8 PM Central/9 PM Eastern tip.

[deiscanton]

Finals in second round NCAA DIII Women's Basketball Tournament games involving UAA teams:

1.)  NYU 62, Messiah 39

2.)  UChicago 56, Whitman 54

NYU and UChicago advance to the Sweet 16.

[deiscanton]

Next games for NYU and UChicago on the road to Hartford, CT./Dallas, TX.

Friday, March 10, 2023-- Sweet 16 round

1.)  NYU v Trine

2.)  UChicago v Rhode Island College

Updates-- Sites announced  (Pinch me, I must be dreaming-- but this is not a dream-- I can go to one of these 2 games in person next week if I wanted to do so!)

1.)  NYU v Trine-- at the Transylvania sectional in Lexington, KY

2.)  UChicago v Rhode Island College-- at Staake Gym at Babson College-- Babson Park, MA.

The other two sectional sites for March 10 and 11, 2023 are Tufts University and Smith College.

I honestly thought that Emmanuel College in Boston, MA, when they landed a sectional back in 2006-07 that had Southern Maine, eventual national champion DePauw, and Calvin (winner going to "Final Four" in Springfield, MA) was going to be my personal best dream sectional scenario that would never be topped, but this year tops it 3 times over.

[deiscanton]

My plans for the upcoming weekend (March 10 and 11, 2023)

I already have planned a trip to Trinity College in Hartford, CT for the DIII Women's Basketball national semifinals on March 18, 2023.  I will be taking Amtrak to New Haven, CT from Route 128, MA on Saturday morning and connect there to the CT rail commuter rail system to get to Hartford.  After the evening games in Hartford, I will be staying over at a nearby hotel, and return from Hartford on Sunday by train back to New Haven with a connection to Amtrak back to Boston.  I already bought game tickets some weeks back for the March 18th semifinals.  ($18 game ticket from the Trinity College athletics website for the national semifinal day.)

I have already asked my friend who usually drives me to/from Brandeis when I go to the UAA home games, but he and his wife are out of town this upcoming weekend, so I would have to take Lyft to return home from Babson on Friday.  That would be in addition to the commuter rail fare to get to Babson, meals and snacks, and the $10 game ticket for each day of the sectionals.

Since NYU is tipping off an hour earlier on Friday (at 4:30 PM Eastern) from Transylvania in Kentucky, I will be watching the Women's Basketball Sectionals from home this weekend on livestream.   2 sectionals on the NEWMAC Sports Network, 1 sectional on Jumbocast, and 1 on T1Sports app. (Transylvania).

Good luck to both NYU and UChicago this weekend.   

[deiscanton]

Kudos go out to the Messiah Falcons this weekend for two things over this past weekend:

(1)  Allowing NYU to send out a separate NYU play by play and commentary feed for both of the 1st and 2nd round games from Messiah this weekend.   For the first round game between NYU and Greensboro, NYU did the exclusive play by play and commentary feed (a Messiah cameraperson did the video that complemented the feed.)   Messiah then took over with their play by play and commentary crew for their game vs Bridgewater State.   For the second round game between NYU and Messiah, both teams sent out separate audio play by play and commentary feeds while sharing a pooled video feed.

NYU had Shaun Nakardni on play-by-play and the famous SID Jeff Bernstein on commentary on the NYU feed.

(2)  Allowing NYU to cut down the nets after their victory over Messiah, as related by Gordon Mann in this article:

Where grace meets celebration

[deiscanton]

Finals in Sweet 16 games involving UAA teams--

From Lexington, Kentucky:  NYU 66, Trine 49

NYU advances to the Elite Eight tomorrow vs the winner of Transylvania vs Ohio Northern.

From Babson Park, Massachusetts:  RI College 64, UChicago 56

UChicago's season comes to an end at 23-5 overall.

[deiscanton]

Finals from Elite 8 games involving UAA teams:

From Lexington, Kentucky:  Transylvania 79, NYU 63

NYU's season ends 1 game short of the "DIII Final Four" for the second season in a row-- NYU finishes this season at 25-3.

Transy advances to the "DIII Final Four" for the first time in program history, and will face the winner of Smith v Trinity (CT) in Hartford, CT next Saturday for the right to advance to the National Championship on April 1 in Dallas, Texas.

Postseason basketball in the UAA on the women's side has concluded for the 2022-23 season. 

[gordonmann]

I took a fun trip down memory lane this week in preparation for the rare 1-versus-2 matchup with have in the title game. A certain former Wash U coach makes an appearance...

http://www.d3hoops.com/playoffs/women/2023-cnu-transy-seventh-heaven

[scottiedawg]

5th year of eligibility + grad programs is just a force multiplier.

Look at these upperclassmen that NYU is adding* this year:
*Jordan Jankowski (I am assuming she's back from injury and still playing but have zero inside info)
Morgan Morrison
Megan Bauman
Laya Hartman

In addition to an assumedly strong FR recruiting class.