MBB: University Athletic Association

[hopefan]

Washington University 79
Carnegie Mellon 59

Nick Burt scored a career high 20 points in just 24 minutes and also finished with 9 rebounds.  David Fatoki also set a record for steals in a game with eight.  The Mitch Styczynski story continues with 15 points, 8 rebounds and three big blocks. 

The story of the night though was the emergence of a second group of vocal young men who challenged the Bomb Squad for fan supremacy.  The other group showed up in athletic jerseys, rather than camouflage, and set-up on the upper level.  Not sure if it is another fraternity, but the Bomb Squad was barely louder than our section for much of the game.

Sundays can be quiet, but hopefully both groups show up on Sunday when Washington University hosts Case Western Reserve.

"our section"....   hmmm, WUH, the word "our" has certain implications here...

[Gregory Sager]

I know all about the folly of judging a team based upon one viewing, but, nevertheless, I wasn't impressed by Case Western Reserve last night. The Spartans certainly look impressive, as that's one of the tallest and longest starting lineups that I've seen in D3 in many a year -- and seeing them live convinced me that their listed heights aren't exaggerated, either. But Chicago is a much more athletic team, and the Maroons were able to use their quickness advantage at just about every position to good effect on offense last night. Even the Spartans' run in the middle of the first half that wiped out a 15-point Maroons lead was more a case of knuckleheaded U of C decisions with the ball than it was CWRU imposing their will upon the Maroons. Chicago was not only quicker, it won the hustle battle, too; every loose ball or contested long rebound went Chicago's way.

The game shouldn't have been that close down the stretch, but Chicago was absolutely brutal from the free-throw line. They got there 44 times, but only made 25 of 44. It was a much more convincing performance for Chicago than the nine-point final margin would seem to indicate.

I figure that CWRU must be better than it looked, based upon W-L, but the Spartans did not make a believer of me at Ratner last night.

[ADL70]

I concur Greg, an uncharacteristically lackluster performance.  The Maroons grabbed 16 offensive rebounds, nabbing 13 second chance points.

Hopefully they can rebound (in two senses) today

[sac]

Is there a better call in D3 than Fatoki passes it to Palucki?

[WUPHF]

Is there a better call in D3 than Fatoki passes it to Palucki?

Or worse than Washington University in St. Louis vs. Case Western Reserve University?  I assume this match-up together includes one of the longest two name combos for a D3 game.

Otherwise, Case leads at the half, 44-38.  The Spartans had a nice double digit lead until the Bears woke up late in the half, sparked by two defensive stops.

[7express]

After losing to Rochester Friday, NYU beats Emory today; Case was winning by about 16 or 18 with 3 minutes left vs. Wash U.  Interesting weekend in the UAA.

[ADL70]

The difference was literally night and day for the Spartans in St. Louis, beating the Bears 89-78.

CWRU and Chicago tied for first.

[WUPHF]

A very interesting weekend indeed.

Here are the latest standings.  Emory, NYU and Washington University are tied for second and one game back.  Rochester is one of the biggest surprises so far.

Case Western Reserve 5-2
University of Chicago 5-2
Emory University 4-3
Washington University 4-3
New York University 4-3
University of Rochester 3-4
Brandeis University 2-5
Carnegie Mellon 1-6

[WUPHF]

As for the Case Western Reserve win over Washington University, the Bears had a strong second half, but the Spartans were stronger.

Nick Burt followed-up his career night on Friday with another career scoring effort with 25 points and 10 rebounds.  This was easily the best weekend of his otherwise strong career.  This is the Nick Burt we need each and every game.  The Nick Burt who passes on the 17 footers and is aggressive inside.  His inside play today resulted in four assists as well.  Brandon Staffeil should take note.

Three point shooting and three point defense were the deciding factors today and have been major factors in all three loses for the Bears.  No one has scored more  from long range than the Spartans did today.  Trinity shot 60 percent from three point range, but the Bears were not too far behind in that contest.

The three point stats from the losses:

CWRU 15-30, WUSTL 2-12
NYU 10-23, WUSTL 2-18
CHI 8-19, WUSTL 2-19

[WUPHF]

Did anyone watch the NYU-Emory game?

Hakim Harris went 1-5 from three point range, but still scored 28 points including a 11-13 performance from the charity stripe.  Judging by the stat sheet, this game was a UAA barn burner, par excellence, for a Sunday game.

[WUPHF]

At the half way point, a look at the latest Massey Ratings:

No. 15 Washington University
No. 17 Case Western Reserve
No. 20 Emory University
No. 33 University of Chicago
No. 53 New York University
No. 126 University of Rochester
No. 157 Brandeis University
No. 170 Carnegie Mellon

[gordonmann]

I drove to New York City for the Emory game. I wanted to see the Eagles in person since I seldom get to Atlanta and the Coles Center is one of my favorite venues.

It was a very good game with NYU holding a comfortable lead for much of the second half and then holding on for the victory when the Eagles rallied late.

The Violets really took advantage of their strength down low, repeatedly pounding the ball in the post for Gontikas and Evan Kupferberg. Those two had a lot of point blank shots or put back opportunities.  Eventually the Eagles had to help their low post defenders and that opened up some outside shots for the Violet shooters.

And, when that didn't work, Hakim Harris created on his own. He didn't shoot well from behind the arc but, with his quickness, he could get to the rim and score there. Plus he and Papesch were automatic from the free throw line line.

I was impressed by Emory PG Florin who had two really good offensive halves in two very different ways. I'll have a feature story on him later this week. Rao is a solid spot-up shooter, Terry scored a lot of points down low despite having four fouls and Foster has very nice touch, though he had a relatively off night (6-for-18 FG, 15 points). The Eagles are light in terms of true low post defenders.

Very entertaining game. I'll check out the rematch on video this weekend.

[DagarmanSpartan]

OK, so SIX of the eight teams in the UAA are now in the Top 30 according to d3hoops.com.

Now THAT is MY definition of a "power" conference!

[7express]

OK, so SIX of the eight teams in the UAA are now in the Top 30 according to d3hoops.com.

Now THAT is MY definition of a "power" conference!

Who's the 6th??  Case, Wash U, NYU, Chicago, Emory....did they really rank Rochester just for beating NYU??

[ADL70]

No, there are just 5.

Curiously, CWRU got fewer votes despite beating #7 WUStL.  With the loss to RV Chicago, I wouldn't have expected them to advance, but I expected them to hold their ranking.  Although they did only drop one spot.

They did advance in Massey and now are given 62% chance to beat Chicago and 60% to beat WUStL this weekend at home.  Emory 78% to beat NYU.