University Athletic Association

[Wydown Blvd.]

How does recruiting work for UAA schools like Wash U, IW and UC?
**Recruiting in the UAA, which does not include IW (I assume that's Illinois Wesleyan and they are in the CCIW), is an art and not a science. For the most part, the caliber of player is one that is considering D2 scholarships or mid to lower level D1. Either that, or they are very talented, but a little bit too short, to slow, or lacking the athleticism for non-D3 play. To generalize, the UAA competes for recruits against each other, the NESCAC, the Ivy's, the Patriot League, and frequently D1 schools where the player is interested in walking on. The type of student must also fit the admissions criteria for the same schools.

Where do the coaches go to find players that fit their unique profiles?
**Coaches do get lists of players from recruiting services. They also do have solid roots with many feeder schools and AAU programs. Lastly and most importantly, the players find the schools and reach out to them.

Regular AAU tournaments?
**Coaches attend AAU tournaments. Usually larger regional ones where they are more likely to know the teams if its a UAA recruiting hotbed (Washington, D.C. area, the Chicago area, Kansas City region, and Westchester NY come to mind as major UAA recruiting ground)

Special camps for players with strong academics?
**Each program has its own elite summer camp. You should be able to find that online at each school's website or by calling the athletic program.

**The integral part of D3 recruiting is the pursuit by the student-athlete. Send in tapes (one highlight film, one game film), an athletic resume (highlighting GPA and test scores), and fill out the recruiting form on the websites of the program of interest. Best of luck to your daughter.

[bad knees]

Dear Wydown,

Thanks for the info.  Maybe you can help with one more set of questions.  What effect does being a recruited women's bball player have on the likelihood of being accepted to a school such a UC or Wash U?  In the NESCAC, there is a "tip" system, where coaches can "tip" a limited number of potential players each year and that player will get admitted even if they academically are in the bottom half of the applicants.  Also, a NESCAC coach can create a "protect" list, which means: "if the player is among the vast mass of qualified applicants, please let her in because I see her as a player on my team."  And the admissions department generally will honor that request.

Is there anything like this system for women's bball at UC, Wash U, and the other DIII programs with similarly outstanding academics?

Thanks,

Bad Knees

[Wydown Blvd.]

Dear Wydown,

Thanks for the info.  Maybe you can help with one more set of questions.  What effect does being a recruited women's bball player have on the likelihood of being accepted to a school such a UC or Wash U?  In the NESCAC, there is a "tip" system, where coaches can "tip" a limited number of potential players each year and that player will get admitted even if they academically are in the bottom half of the applicants.  Also, a NESCAC coach can create a "protect" list, which means: "if the player is among the vast mass of qualified applicants, please let her in because I see her as a player on my team."  And the admissions department generally will honor that request.

Is there anything like this system for women's bball at UC, Wash U, and the other DIII programs with similarly outstanding academics?

Thanks,

Bad Knees

Without getting into details of protect v. tip lists and specific schools in the UAA, in general terms, if you are qualified to get into the UAA schools, then you get into the UAA schools that you should be able to get into. Again, speaking generally, not tons of leeway in the higher ranking and more selective of the UAA schools.

[bad knees]

Interesting.  So the NESCAC has tips, but the UAA does not.  Very impressive then for Wash U and UC and others to be so competitive in DIII women's bball.  I have no evidentiary basis to doubt you, but my "real world" antennae still is telling me that a recruited athlete gets some sort of admissions benefit at Wash U and UC.  It's easy to justify.  These schools usually say they are looking for outstanding achievement in all areas - music, math, sports, etc.  A great student who happens to have an outstanding 3-pt shot is as much a contributor to the college scene as a great student who is an award-winning cellist, correct?

[Wydown Blvd.]

Interesting.  So the NESCAC has tips, but the UAA does not.  Very impressive then for Wash U and UC and others to be so competitive in DIII women's bball.  I have no evidentiary basis to doubt you, but my "real world" antennae still is telling me that a recruited athlete gets some sort of admissions benefit at Wash U and UC.  It's easy to justify.  These schools usually say they are looking for outstanding achievement in all areas - music, math, sports, etc.  A great student who happens to have an outstanding 3-pt shot is as much a contributor to the college scene as a great student who is an award-winning cellist, correct?

I sent you a PM instead.

[Wydown Blvd.]

Watched the WashU v Lake Forest game last night. Solid inside outside play contributing to WashU's 15pt victory. They seemed very comfortable playing against Lake Forest's 2-3 zone, but the Forrestor's would have been overmatched if they played man-to-man. WashU didn't run as much as they usually do. Guard play was solid. Very few turnovers (13) and great defense. Tons of freshman getting playing time. This young team will get tested next weekend (Hendrix, then IWU or Depauw), but they will get exponentially better as the season goes on. Coach Fahey goes for win #600 next weekend.

[deiscanton]

The November 22, 2011 edition of the Brandeis Justice is out, and there are some comments from Brandeis Judges players Shannon Hassan and Erika Higginbottom on their 2-2 week to open the season:

http://www.thejustice.org/sports/women-s-basketball-team-breaks-even-in-its-first-week-1.2713275

I just got the media guide yearbook on this year's Brandeis Judges women's basketball team and there is some info on the 3 new players coming in which was not reported in the yearbook-- which went to press in mid-October and came out from the press last week:

(1) Erika Higginbottom is a junior, and she transferred from DII Stonehill College, where she played the previous 2 seasons.   To my knowledge, she is the first transfer from a DI or DII school to join the Brandeis Judges in Brandeis women's basketball history. 

(2) Mikaela Garvin is only seeing some limited action right now.  Although she did play her high school basketball for Hope High School in Providence, RI, she is actually a graduate of Providence's Times2 Academy (pronounced Times Squared), a charter school in the city.   The charter school does not have a basketball team, so Garvin was allowed to play for the high school closest to her home-as per Rhode Island state rules.    At the end of her junior year in high school, she made her own web site to market herself.  I found out on her site that Ms. Garvin loves playing the drums, and that she has taken some basketball instruction from Providence College legend and former NBA player Ernie Digregorio, (more known in New England as "Ernie D") who set the NBA rookie record for most assists in a game in the 1970's, a record now shared with Nate McMillan.  Ms. Garvin is planning to major in business at Brandeis University.   In 2010, Brandeis instituted an undergraduate business major, in which some of our basketball players on both the men's and women's teams are pursuing studies.

(3)  Hannah Cain is from Gloucester, MA-- the hometown of our late D3Hoops.com bracketologist.  She is a point guard, and is the 4th player in Gloucester High School history to score 1,000 pts.  She accomplished this feat in just a little over 3 years.  She sat out most of her junior season with injuries, but recovered to lead her high school team to 1 game shy of playing at TD Garden in Boston. 

The third player to score 1,000 points for Gloucester, MA High School was Tommia Davis, who played for the Emmanuel Saints team that defeated Brandeis in the 2nd round of the NCAA DIII tournament in the 2006-07 season, so I am very glad to have Hannah Cain at Brandeis.  Ms. Cain possesses qualities in a point guard that former Brandeis players Amanda Demartino and Jessica Chapin shared.  I believe that Cain will make Brandeis a better basketball team.

[deiscanton]

Let me be the first on this board to say congrats to Wash U coach Nancy Fahey on her 600th win, which she just accomplished with Wash U's 62-52 victory over Hendrix today.   Wash U will play DePauw for the Thanksgiving Classic title tomorrow.  DePauw defeated Illinois Wesleyan in the first game.

[Wydown Blvd.]

+1 Deiscanton

Congrats to Coach Nancy Fahey on win #600!

[sumfun]

Class act, great program year in and year out.  Congrats, Coach Fahey, you deserve all the accolades!!!

[WUPHF]

Congratulations to Coach Fahey on the 600th win, though I imagine the excitement over the win yesterday was made humble with the loss today for the fiercely competitive coach as DePauw takes the annual classic with a 69-57 win over Washington University.

This is my first game of the season so while I am optimistic and agree with the previous suggestion that this team will get exponentially better as the season progresses, this team has a lot of work to do.  On defense, the Bears seemed one step behind for much of the game.  The offense was uncharacteristically one-dimensional, with no mid-range game to speak of and 20 percent shooting from three-point range.  Way too many turnovers on both sides of the court.

I miss you Alex Hoover.

[Wydown Blvd.]

I don't really comment much on non-conference action (probably because the UAA does a good job at beating non-conference teams within their respective regions).

Chicago is getting it done with the bullseye on their backs. Huge matchup with IWU coming up (although IWU isn't at full strength yet). That games looks like the last major hurdle before conference.

WUSTL is playing freshman at key spots and is pretty young, so I think similar to years past, they won't hit their prime until late in the season. Pretty interesting stat... They don't have a single scorer averaging double figures... that might be the WashU way of getting it done this year, scoring by committee.

NYU loss caught my eye... Usually their non-conference sched is one of the weaker ones in the UAA. They started out with 4 straight wins, but still can't get over the hump to beat Mount Saint Mary College (albeit a consistent tourney team). That was their only test in their non-con. Last year they finished below .500 for the first time in forever; we'll see how the rest of the non-con goes.

We have seen this on the men's side as well... the league is turning extremely top heavy over the past few (3?) years. On the women's side, UR, WashU, Brandeis, NYU, UChi were all tourney teams.. Now we are looking at three at best UChi, UR, WashU. Why the changing tide?

[Backseat Driver]

Just an irrelevant sidenote to last night's Wheaton/Chicago game: In the recap on the U Chicago website it says that the Maroons now hold a 14-13 advantage in the all-time series against Wheaton, while according to the Thunder's media guide Wheaton holds a 17-12 advantage dating to 1960-61.

A very good game last night in Wheaton. It was a see-saw battle until the last 4 minutes when Chicago turned up its intensity a bit more and took the Thunder away from the things that had made them successful all night. Other than the extremely poor officiating, it was an entertaining game to watch. Wheaton is still without 1st team all-American Laura Karsten (on Wheaton's soccer team), so this was a good measuring stick for them. Chicago looks top-notch once again, although Wheaton's aggressive defense did have them a bit discombobulated offensively at times.

[Wydown Blvd.]

Great article about Simpson from Chicago. Worth the read. Love the caliber of the student-athletes in the UAA.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/ct-spt-1130-hersh-colleges--20111130,0,1450945.column

[Wydown Blvd.]

From the CCIW boards.

Titans played UC tough today at Ratner, but came up just short, 80-77.   That's a great performance vs. the #2 ranked Maroons on their home court.  Olivia Lett had a career day, a career high 30, with 10 rebounds.  I think the Titans are going to be very tough in CCIW play, after this initiation by fire, mostly on the road.  I think Mia and her team need a little home cooking.   Congrats to Olivia Lett on one heckava game.

I'm off to see the Gorlocks vs. Titans, at The Shirk.  Titan men need a win after two pretty tough, even dismal outings on the road in cheeseheadland.

IWU70