MBB: University Athletic Association

[deiscanton]

New top 25 is out on the men's side--

Summary of rankings of UAA teams

Carnegie Mellon-- ranked at #16 this week-- 222 points.

Others receiving votes

NYU-- effective rank #26-- 50 points.
Rochester-- effective rank #28-- 48 points.
Wash U-- effective rank #35-- 8 points.

[deiscanton]

I just finished listening to the archived replay of Mark Simon's Friday broadcast of the Brandeis/Carnegie Mellon UAA doubleheader on the BroadcastMonsters.com website, and to me as a Brandeis fan, the men's game was painful to watch live, and the archived replay was just as painful to listen.  After Coach Tony Wingen put his foot down at the 11:58 mark of the first half with Brandeis up 24-18, the Tartans just took their game to a whole new level and the younger Brandeis team just could not keep up.  I rarely see an opponent in a DIII men's game shoot 75% from the field in a half, 60% from 3 pt. range, and almost 80% from the line in that same half, but I did on Friday.  Given that CMU only outrebounded Brandeis 33-28, I would not have expected a 33 point lead in this game.

One bright spot off the bench this weekend has been Ido Givon's play-- Ido Givon had 11 points against Carnegie Mellon and 6 points against Rochester.  Another would be Huston Conti's 14 points off the bench for Brandeis in what would be CMU proving to be the better team vs. Brandeis on Friday.

Sunday's game against Rochester was okay.  Rochester did outrebound Brandeis 39-28, but anytime this young Brandeis team can get a shot to win the game with 28 seconds left, I will take it.  I wish Brandeis had made the final shot, but what can you do?  Losing 2 at home in the UAA still makes one 0-2 with 3 tough road games to follow.

Essentially, Brandeis probably did okay in trying to force Rochester to depend on Jon Onyiriuka to score the points for them-- Onyiriuka ended up being 50% of Rochester's offense on Sunday.  Unfortunately for Brandeis, 1 of Onyiriuka's points turned out to be the winning point.

Brandeis will still be entertaining to watch this year even if the UAA record may not indicate success-- I'm going to be interested to see if the men's game on Saturday at NYU will be closer than last year's brandeis game at NYU on NYU's Senior Day.

BTW, in the preseason, I had Carnegie Mellon as a slight favorite to win the UAA in a deep league, and the Tartans seemed to have justified my preseason feelings so far.  There are a lot more games to go, but 3-0 in the UAA without yet playing a UAA game at home is a big advantage.

[hugenerd]

That was a fun game to watch, I wish CMU could play like they did the 20 minutes spanning from the 10 minute mark in the first to the 10 minute mark in the second all the time.

[deiscanton]

Hugenerd--

I do agree that if CMU plays like they did against Brandeis during the middle of the game, they will be tough to beat, and that the Tartans deserve all the accolades that they get.   Last Friday's game was entertaining from the Carnegie Mellon perspective of things

From my observations of Carnegie Mellon, the first team that comes to mind when I make comparisons is to the 1991-92 Babson College Beavers men's basketball team that was coached by Serge DeBari (Assumption '71).  Mr. DeBari was the coach at Babson from 1980 to 1995 before moving on to coach at the DII level at his alma mater for 4 years.  He is currently back as the head coach for the Assumption men's basketball team after spending a few years in retirement from basketball-- although still working at Assumption in another position. 

The 1991-92 Babson College men's basketball team used an up-tempo style very similar to that of the Tartans, and they were very talented.  To my knowledge, until this season, Babson was the last DIII men's basketball team to defeat an Ivy League team on the floor during a regular season game.  Babson defeated Harvard, 100-80, at what was then the Briggs Center on the Harvard Univ. campus, but is now known as Lavietes Pavilion.  I can tell you that I watched that game in person at Harvard.  Babson ended up in the top 5 nationally, #1 regionally.  During that season, Babson also defeated a Brandeis team that went on to win the ECAC New England men's basketball championship in the postseason by defeating Bates, Williams, and Colby on the road.  (NESCAC teams were banned by conference rule from the NCAA tournament in those days.)  However, I believe that Brandeis lost by a closer score that season, and if my memory serves me correctly, the Judges believed at the end of the game that they could have defeated Babson.  The 1991-92 Brandeis team was an older and more experienced team than this current team, but the talent of this current Brandeis team is very similar to the Brandeis teams of the years when Kevin O' Brien was coaching the Judges.

Babson made the 40 team field of the NCAA tournament in 1991-92, but was upset at home in their opening game by Eastern Connecticut, I believe.

Just to add a little perspective to things....

[TheFence]

I know it's early but who are the contenders for All-Conference and Player of the Year? How about Rookie of the Year?

[sandman]

I'm leaving today for Cleveland, to see Case play Chicago and Wash U this weekend.  Can the Spartans beat the Maroons for the first time in 11 years?  They already ended their long losing streak against Wash U last year.  And can senior forward Carson Oren break the school scoring record this weekend?  He needs 31 points, and he's been averaging 15.8 this season.  Whatever happens, it should be an exciting weekend.

You can also listen to the games (for the first time) online at http://www.case.edu/athletics/varsity/broadcast

[TheFence]

I like Case to split this week-end.  Case wins over Chicago and a lose vs. Wash U.  Wash U may be as tough as any team the conference this year and nobodies talking about them.  None the Less this is a huge week-end for the Case Program.  If they lose 2 it will be the same old Case, but if they get a win or 2 then people will start to take notice.  I think if Case goes .500 in the league they would be very happy come seasons end.

[bouttime]

I think Barlow-Wilcox, Mauer, and Straub from CMU get all conference looks. Boone from NYU for sure and DeCorso also for NYU.  I think Goia and Onyiriuka from Rochester is a solid players too. I havent seen much from the other teams so thats all I can offer for now.

[hugenerd]

Another note on milestones, Nate Maurer is 66 points away from 1500 for his career.  Also, Coach Wingen just needs 4 wins to be the winnengest coach in school history. Barlow-Wilcox needs 3 rebounds the be the ninth 1000 point/500 rebound player in CMU history.

As for the best players in the UAA:

NYU

Jason Boone is a lock for first team and has a shot at player of the year if his team wins the league

Other guys who will get considereation are Decorso, Falcon, and Kildare.

Brandeis

Kwame Grave-Fulgham and Rexhepi could find themselves on one of the teams.

Wash U

Scott Stone is putting up pretty good numbers, ge could be a first team guard

Mike Grunst and Troy Ruths may also find themselves on a team, Nading has a shot

Case

Carsen Oren will make the first team and he might have a chance at player of the year....if he was on a better team.

Funso Lafe, although he has been coming off the bench, and Mason Conrad could get some consideration.

Chicago

Jesse Meyer or Brandon Woodhead may find themselves on one of the teams.

Emory

Jeff Hall is having a huge year but his team is near the bottom in the UAA so I dont see him getting any player of the year consideration.

Ferderigos and Bailey could get on a team.

Rochester

Onyiriuka and Goia are primary contenders but they have a few others guys who could.

CMU

Maurer, Barlow-Wilcox, Johnson have all played huge in UAA games this year.  After his 41 at Rochester,  Maurer cooled off in his last 2 outings with 10 and 16.  Johnson has lit it up the last two games and is 4th in the conference in scoring and since they only look at conference games for conference honors he has a shot at first team.  Barlow-Wilcox has played solid in all 3 CMU wins.  If CMU can win the UAA, I see one of these 3 guys getting player of the year and possibly all of them making first team.

Straub also has a shot on one of the teams.

In summary,

Player of the year contenders

Scott Stone
Clayton Barlow Wilcox
Nate Maurer
Jason Boone
Jeff Hall (if they win games)
Carsen Oren (if they win games)

There is alot of games to go in the UAA so you cant be certain about anything.  I think after a few more weakends we will get a better idea of who can consistently perform in league play.

[hugenerd]

A surprise in the UAA tonight, Emory upended Wash U.  Another thing that I am not sure of is the status of Jeff Hall, he has not appeared in the last 4 games for EU and has not played since Dec. 8, meaning since first semester.  He has also recently been taken off the UAA overall statistics leaders page (this may be due to missing more than 25% of his teams games).  There is no comment of injury on the EU page in any of the game reports but it will be interesting to see if he can return for the eagles because they are definitely a better team with him (any team would with a guy that gives you 21 ppg. 5 rpg. etc).  Disappointing loss for the Bears as they could not come back all the way from 18 points down at the half (they only lost by 3).

Also in the UAA this evening, Chicago was able to hold on to beat Case after a horrible start for Case. Their best player, Carse Oren, went 3-17 from the field but still managed to lead the team in scoring with 15 (never a good sign when your leading scorer shoots 17%).  Chicago was paced by a balanced offensive attack with 4 starters scoring in double figures.  The halftime score was 26-18 Maroons.

[hugenerd]

Ready for the tip in Newport News, CMU vs. CNU.

[hugenerd]

Carnegie Mellon leads Christopher Newport 49-38.  Nate Maurer has 21 points at the half.  CMU controlled most of the half but CNU ended on a 12-4 run to cut it to 11 at the break.

[hugenerd]

CMU having a field day in the second half, score is now 68-47 with 13 minutes to play.

[hugenerd]

Carnegie Mellon wins today 94-81, in a game that was not as close as the final score (they led by nearly 30 at times).  The big 3 for CMU- Maurer, Wilcox, and Johnson- had 23, 20 and 20 respectively.

[PowerBall]

NYU wins over Brandies 79 - 75.  Not able to put Judges away and at one point late in the 2nd half was down by 2.  Had 9 pt. lead with 1 minute left then it got down to 2 pts before hack a Violet happened trying to win at the foul line.  They withstand the tight play and go off to play a cupcake game against Hunter College this week.