MBB: University Athletic Association

[Gregory Sager]

I asked every student I talked to today and though my sample is relatively small and included only one athlete who is not on the basketball team, no one I talked to knew Pi past 3.1415.

I think we would fare better on GPA.

Yeah, but where's the fun in that?

And then we'd hear conspiracies about grade inflation for bballers!

Exactly. Put a closed-circuit camera in the UAA executive secretary's office, bring in the team captains one at a time, and let the fun begin.

It's all about competition under pressure.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Week 2's regional rankings made an early appearance today: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3hoops/?p=2630

[WUPHF]

Week 2's regional rankings made an early appearance today: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3hoops/?p=2630

+1 Thanks Dave.

[jeffjo]

I asked every student I talked to today and though my sample is relatively small and included only one athlete who is not on the basketball team, no one I talked to knew Pi past 3.1415.

I think we would fare better on GPA.

Wait, so I know one more place of pi than the average WUSTL student?  That makes me feel a lot better about myself today.

I can't resist pulling up a 40 year old memorization: 3.1415926535897932384626433.

[WUPHF]

A nice article on Nick Burt from Student Life: http://www.studlife.com/sports/athlete-profile/2015/02/19/nick-burts-transformative-season-guides-bears-offense/

[WUPHF]

Yet another very exciting UAA weekend with three of the four games being played tonight having championship implications.  It is possible that all four games played on Sunday will have playoff implications.

I say three games tonight, but of course, Rochester (5-6) is not out of contention for the championship yet.  Seriously!

February 20th
Emory vs. Case Western Reserve
Rochester vs. Carnegie Mellon
Brandeis vs. Chicago
New York University vs. Washington University

February 22nd
Rochester vs. Case Western Reserve
Emory vs. Carnegie Mellon
Brandeis vs. Washington University
New York University vs. Chicago

The conference has only had co-champions twice, I believe, with the last occurrence in 2012-2013 when Emory, NYU and Washington University finished 10-4.  The other tie between Chicago and Washington University was in 2006-2007.

Incidentally, the 2006-2007 season was notable for the fact that both the Men and Women had co-champions.  This could easily happen again with Chicago holding a one game lead over NYU and Washington University and both teams still on their schedule.

[WUPHF]

Emory improves to 8-4 and takes a one game lead on the field after a 71-65 win at Case Western Reserve.  Chicago, NYU and Washington remain one game back at 7-5 after losses by both Chicago and NYU.

Emory has only Carnegie Mellon left on the road before returning home to play Rochester.

Brandeis pulled the upset tonight over Chicago.  I would not be surprised if Carnegie Mellon or Rochester engineers an upset, but I am not holding my breath.

__________

Washington University defeated NYU 97-75 in one of the most complete games the Bears have played all season.  I said that NYU could have beaten any team in the nation the way they played when the dismantled Washington University a few weeks ago.  Tonight, the reverse may be true.

Hakim Harris scored 30 and was not at all bothered by his two air balls, but he was bothered by Luke Silverman-Lloyd who, in my opinion, performed very well and may have kept him from scoring 60.   I have no idea what Harris did, but he was able to draw four fouls off Silverman-Lloyd that were not being called anywhere else on the court.

Harris was very impressive, but so was Silverman-Lloyd, David Fatoki, Nick Burt and Mitch Styczynski.  The energy level, the ball movement...  Overall, a complete team effort that also included some strong contributions from the bench.

[jaybird44]

I agree with you, WUH...the Bears played their best all-around game of the season, especially with the higher UAA stakes on the table after a rough 2-2 road trip.  I think last night's effort topped the performance against Illinois Wesleyan, since that game was an early-season, non-conference game.

The Silverman-Lloyd/Harris matchup was a D3 guard version of the old Bill Russell vs. Wilt Chamberlain duels.  Russell was a great defensive player, but Wilt was such a height mismatch and scoring machine in his prime.  Russell was rightly praised for holding Wilt to 20-30 points, because The Stilt was regularly scoring 40, 50, 60 points and beyond.  Such was the case last night, with Silverman-Lloyd doggedly pursuing Harris all over the floor.  All but maybe one shot was contested by Luke, yet Harris was still 8-16 from the floor.  If Luke hadn't kept Harris under duress for the entire game, Harris could've picked his number to score and perhaps set a single-game UAA scoring record in the process.  That's how incredibly talented Harris is, and how good Silverman-Lloyd's defense was last night.

Nick Burt was impressive with his 8 assists and avoiding clusters of fouls that limit his playing time.  When Nick is able to stay on the floor, he gives the Bears a secondary distributor from the post and allows them to move the ball with great efficiency.  23 assists for the team in last night's game, with Fatoki again leading the way with 10.

Everybody pulled their weight and them some more last night for the Bears.  Fun to watch and broadcast.

Incidentally, after the fact I learned that NYU head coach Joe Nesci was sick at the hotel and couldn't join the team for the game.  Hope he feels better for his team's trip to Chicago...

[WUPHF]

Thanks for the affirmation on Silverman-Lloyd.  I thought that was what I was seeing, but I did go back and forth on whether or not to mention his defensive performance against Harris.

Thanks as well for the NBA analogy.  This reminds me that I forgot to post a Student Life article from January about how you ended up as the voice of the Bears Sports Network: http://www.studlife.com/sports/2015/01/21/behind-the-microphone-sportscaster-jay-murry-brings-enthusiasm-and-balance-to-washington-university-fans/

[Greek Tragedy]

Emory and Washington U clinch Pool C bids while CWR plays themselves out of Pool C contention losing 5 of 6 including their last two.

NYU might be on thin ice too after losing both games this weekend.

[WUPHF]

Here are the latest standings with just one game to go.  Emory has clinched a share of the championship and will host Rochester with a chance to win it all.

Emory University 9-4
Washington University 8-5
University of Chicago 8-5
New York University 7-6    
Case Western Reserve 6-7    
University of Rochester 6-7    
Carnegie Mellon 4-9
Brandeis University 4-9

[Gregory Sager]

Rochester 82, @ Case Western Reserve 78
@ Chicago 77, NYU 60
@ Wash U 72, Brandeis 44
Emory 75, @ Carnegie Mellon 63

[jeffjo]

Here are the latest standings with just one game to go.  Emory has clinched a share of the championship and will host Rochester with a chance to win it all.

Emory University 9-4
Washington University 8-5
University of Chicago 8-5
New York University 7-6    
Case Western Reserve 6-7    
University of Rochester 6-7    
Carnegie Mellon 4-9
Brandeis University 4-9

If I understand the tiebreakers correctly, Emory still has to win against Rochester to receive the Pool A bid. If they lose to Rochester, they will be co-champions with either WashU or Chicago. Emory loses the tiebreaker with WashU because Emory lost twice to NYU, and with Chicago because Chicago would have beaten WashU twice.

While these tie-breakers sound validated because they require beating the "better teams" more, they are equally invalidated because they require losing to the "worse teams" more.

[WUPHF]

I thought about it for a minute and then gave up because I am unsure what happens if we have a three way tie at 7-7 if Rochester defeats Emory, Case Western Reserve defeats Carnegie Mellon and Brandeis defeats NYU.

Then we have a potential two way tie at 8-6 if Washington loses to Chicago and NYU defeats Brandeis.

Do we simply look at all the head-to-heads or do we move on to the next team in line?  Or maybe I am missing something.

Incidentally, the Field House had a great crowd on Friday, but I think the Chicago game will bring the people in for sure.

[WUPHF]

I checked the press release from the WUSTL SID which may have included tie breaker scenarios and I did not see anything, but it did confirm that Matt Palucki moved past Troy Ruths in career rebounds.

Ruths led the team in rebounds for three years, but overlapped for three years with Tyler Nading who is also in the Top 10, but Palucki overlapped with Chris Klimek for three seasons.  Regardless, it is an incredible feat as he will probably finish third all time in rebounds. 

Palucki also has a chance to move past Sean Wallis with 9 more points.