MBB: University Athletic Association

[WUPHF]

61-61 but with the way Trinity is shooting...

[WUPHF]

Bears trail by 5 and in real danger.

[WUPHF]

Trinity nearly had an and-one to set up a possible tie.  8 seconds left.

[WUPHF]

Bears lead by 5 with 6 seconds.  Trinity ball.

[WUPHF]

No upset tonight.

[iwumichigander]

No upset tonight.

"Bear-ly" no upset!  You can thank your Palucki!

[WUPHF]

Matt Palucki did indeed save the day.  He carried his weight and much, much more tonight and was awarded the Lopata Classic Most Valuable Player for his efforts.  Palucki finished with 28 points, including a 12-13 performance from the free throw line, and 8 rebounds. 

David Fatoki was also named to the all-tournament team.  He scored 15 and dished out 9 assists.  He has really stepped up his game this season.

I think the Bears were exposed tonight for their lack of depth, with only six players getting substantial playing time.  Matt Highsmith played 27 minutes, but struggled to score against the Trinity defense.  He was not alone.

In the first half, I remember thinking that Brandon Staffeil and Michael Bregman needed to take better shots if they wanted to play more.  Then, Bregman came on for an extended period in the second half and went 1-5 from three point range.  I was surprised he stayed on as long as he did, though he was part of an effective defensive effort by the Bears.

I have no idea how Trinity is 0-7 on the season, but they did not look like a winless team tonight. A.J. Pulliam was an absolute stud as was Matt Selling.  They mounted an incredible comeback, fueled largely on three pointers and a particularly effective zone defense.  Their zone will be studied by coaches in the weeks to come.  The Bears better be ready to attack it.

The Bears keep their streak of a million or so Lopata Classic wins in a row and move to 8-0 on the season.  Next up, and just in time for finals week, are Webster and Illinois Wesleyan.

[jaybird44]

32 Lopata games in a row.  What a roller coaster ride tonight!

[WUPHF]

32 Lopata games in a row.  What a roller coaster ride tonight!

I do not know how you stay neutral on the play by play call for a game like that when your team is involved. 

I would have been screaming like the guy who called the Albertus Magnus tourney buzzer beater a few years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLVqtEcB_ic

[jaybird44]

LOL

I learned about 20 years ago that a lot of hollering leads to a loss of voice.  Best learning day in my broadcasting career was doing PBP of all 7 games of the KMOX/Coca-Cola Shootout.  I discovered that I could still convey excitement without going bananas...very important in that long day's journey into night, when the first game went to double OT and the second game went to single OT.

[y_jack_lok]

I have no idea how Trinity is 0-7 on the season, but they did not look like a winless team tonight. A.J. Pulliam was an absolute stud as was Matt Selling.  They mounted an incredible comeback, fueled largely on three pointers and a particularly effective zone defense.  Their zone will be studied by coaches in the weeks to come.  The Bears better be ready to attack it.

I guess last night's game was a tune up to face the Webster zone on Wednesday. I expect the Bears to have a much easier time with Webster.

[jaybird44]

Trinity has the interior beef to make it tough to dissolve a zone from within. A.J. Pulliam and Matt Selling was joined by Josh Ingram and Matthew Bender off the bench to make it difficult to do business in the paint.

Overall, Trinity is a rapidly improving team.  It really struggled and stumbled, seemingly disjointed in its 81-55 loss at Concordia TX.  I think Head Coach Pat Cunningham hit the reset button on the way to St. Louis, and the team responded well.  Friday night, Trinity came back from a 15-point second half deficit to cut #6 Emory's lead to 5 points on 4 occasions.  That set the foundation of confidence to play WashU tough last night.

[iwumichigander]

I think the Bears were exposed tonight for their lack of depth, with only six players getting substantial playing time. ...
I have no idea how Trinity is 0-7 on the season, but they did not look like a winless team tonight. ... Their zone will be studied by coaches in the weeks to come.  The Bears better be ready to attack

bench depth might be a problem vs IWU which uses bench early, often and deep.  Yep, I would think IWU might show WUSTL some zone.

[WUPHF]

Bench depth might be a problem vs IWU which uses bench early, often and deep.  Yep, I would think IWU might show WUSTL some zone.

Depth is definitely a concern this season, but the level of concern has certainly yet to be determined.

Keep in mind, this team lost the UAA player of the year and defensive player of the year along with a 4 year starting point guard that combined accounted for 45 points and 15 rebounds per game last season, but returned two senior starters, and a junior and senior reserve that featured heavily in the rotation last season.

Washington University has arguably played three close games this season including Hendrix, Wheaton, and Trinity, but Coach Edwards relied less on the reserves last night, particularly in the second half, then in the other two games, relying heavily on the following rotation to close out the game:

Starters (including latest season statistics)
Matt Palucki 17.8 ppg, 8.1 rpg
Nick Burt 13 ppg, 5.3 rpg
Luke Silverman-Lloyd 9.5 ppg, 3.5 rpg
David Fatoki 10 ppg, 2.1 rpg

Bench (including latest season statistics)
Matt Highsmith 8.4 ppg, 2.9 rpg
Michael Bregman 5.4 ppg, 2.0 rpg

Mitch Styczynski is a starter who played most of his 10 minutes in the first 20-30 minutes of the game so I did not include him in the list above.  He is averaging 4.0 ppg, 3 rpg.  Brandon Staffeil is averaging 3 ppg and 2 rpg game, but did not feature prominently in the game last night.

I think the bench, not including the players listed above, will see less minutes overall against Illinois Wesleyan, unless the Bears struggles with foul trouble.

At least, the Titans have finals this week, rather than have an entire week off to prepare for the game which has been the case before.

Incidentally, the Massey Ratings have the Bears as one-point favorites.  But, OK, too early to talk Illinois Wesleyan.  Washington University has a game on Wednesday.

[ADL70]

Congrats to Brandeis on their win over #2 Amherst.

http://www.d3hoops.com/seasons/men/2014-15/contrib/20141209plls3x