MBB: University Athletic Association

[tartanfan]

Carnegie Mellon 78  Rochester 68

Tartans win UAA title all alone.

[hugenerd]

NYU falls big today to Brandeis, Rochester and WashU also fall, as mentioned earlier.  Whereas the UAA looked like it had at a shot at a couple Pool C's, it now looks like they may not get any.

[hugenerd]

To extrapolate on what I said earlier, NYU fell apart at the end of the season without the services of All-League candidate Jason Boone.  The lost to WashU, Chicago and Brandeis to close out the season.  7 in region losses (all in the UAA) will most likely be too much to get Pool C consideration.  A similar argument can be made for the Rochester at 13-8 in region (7 losses in the UAA).  The only team that has a legitimate shot is WashU at 14-6 in region, although the loss to Chicago hurts.  It will depend on how many upsets there are today and tomorrow.  Disappointing end of the season for several UAA teams.

[Gregory Sager]

I was at the Wash U @ Chicago game today, and the Bears certainly didn't play with a lot of urgency. You'd never get the impression that they were playing for a share of the UAA title, or for a possible tournament berth. The only Bear who really looked intense was Scott Stone, and he apparently felt that Wash U wouldn't be able to get to the big dance unless he took it upon himself to jack a 25-footer every time that he touched the ball. He went 0-9 from downtown for the day, 0-12 from the field in total, and laid a goose egg in the scorebook. It's a shame to see a senior who has had such a fine season become a liability in what will probably be his final game. Apart from a brief run led by Troy Ruths (11 pts) towards the end of the first half in which the Bears cut a Chicago lead from 12 points down to 4, it was all Maroons this afternoon. Mike Grunst was the only other Bear in double figures with 16.

Solid game by Chicago, especially seniors Clay Carmody (9 pts) and Jason Hicks (13 pts), and juniors Brandon Woodhead (13 pts) and Jesse Meyer (18 pts) also played well. Meyer went into the U of C record book for equaling the all-time best in number of treys made in a season. Good crowd of about 1,500, too.

As Hugenerd said, Wash U is very much on the bubble now. My guess is that they won't get a bid.

[hugenerd]

Now that the regular season is over we can restart the conversation for player of the year, rookie of the year, and all conference first team.

My guess for player of the year is Nate Maurer (CMU). I think he should get the nod because his team won the conference, he is 3rd in scoring (lead most of the year but Ferdirigos and Deluca both passed him with huge games the last couple of weeks, but neither is on an over 0.500 conference team), is 4th in the conference in rebounding, and is ranked in blocks, 3Pt%, Assists, FG%, FT%, and 3p FG made.  Clayton Barlow Wilcox also has a shot, he averages 5 points less a game and slightly less rebounds per game in conference, but shoots about 2.5% higher than Maurer from the field and is ranked in steals.  I don't think anyone from another team really has a shot because they were not head and shoulders above the big two for CMU  that would warrant them being leage POY without winning the conference, like Derek Reich did his junior and senior year. I think in terms of stats and the fact that his team won the conference outright he should get it.

Rookie of the year could be Tyler Nading (WU), Sean Wallis (WU), or Johnny Pinto (EU).  I think it will be Nading for his scoring (23rd in conference), rebounding (17th in conference) and for his intense defense.

All conference could go to alot of people, here are my choices for every team, in no particular order:

Brandeis
1st team: Steve Deluca
Other teams: Florian Rexhepi, Joe Coppens, and Kwame Graves-Fulgham

CMU
1st team: Nate Maurer, Clayton Barlow-Wilcox
Other team: Marques Johnson (outside shot at 1st team), AJ Straub, maybe Bary Dunn

Case
1st team: Carsen Oren
Other teams: Funso Lafe, Mason Conrad, Matt Cannan

Chicago
1st team: most likely nobody
Other teams: Jesse Meyer, Brandon Woodhead, Jason Hicks, maybe Nate Hainje

Emory
1st team: Spiro Ferdirigos, (Jeff Hall if only 7 out 14 games is enough to qualify him)
Other teams: maybe Johnny Pinto or Eric Barvin

NYU
1st team: Jason Boone, Jared Kildare
Other teams: Michael Decorso, Matt Basford
(Daniel Falcon only played in 2 games so he wont qualify)

Rochester
1st team: Jon Onyiriuka
Other teams: Mike Goia, maybe Jeff Juron

WashU
1st team: Troy Ruths, maybe Scott Stone
Other teams: Mike Grunst, Tyler Nading

So by my estimation there are about 10 first team contenders and about 20 guys that could get either second team or honorable mention.  If your not familiar with the UAA, alot of times they just dont pick 5 players per team so it is possible to have like 7 guys on a first or second team and honorable mention is never just 5 guys but more like 10 or more from what I remember.

[sandman]

Case defeated Emory in the season finale today, 89-78.  After the Spartans built an early 11-point lead, the Eagles came back and took the lead before halftime, and after the teams went back and forth early in the second half, Case slowly pulled away.

Carson Oren scored 17 points and pulled down a career-high 21 rebounds; he will graduate with totals of 1,563 and 727, the highest in school history.  Fellow seniors Rich Mullen and Funso Lafe also scored 17, while sophomore Mason Conrad added 14.  Jeff Hall scored 18 for Emory to lead everyone.  Case outshot Emory 60% to 36% for the game.

So Case finishes at 12-13 and 4-10 in the UAA.  The conference record doesn't look like much, but the Spartans have won more UAA games this year than the last two years combined.  (This was also the first time I saw both the men's and women's teams win on the same day since 23 January 2004 against Carnegie Mellon.)  The Spartans finish tied for seventh place with the Eagles.

[Bba11man]

all uaa 1st team-mauer, barlow-wilcox, deluca, boone, ruths, kildare, ferderigos-he's a good player but i don't think he's as good as the others, i think his numbers are inflated b/c of the team he plays on, they don't have many scorers. and i don't know that he's unstoppable, his 45 was very impressive, taking nothing away from him but, i believe he did have stone guarding him who is one of the worst defenders in the UAA.

[Gregory Sager]

Well, I'm changing my mind on Wash U after going over the Pool C candidates with the proverbial fine-toothed comb. I now think that they'll make it in after all, but they'll be seeded pretty low.

[hugenerd]

Looks like the UAA didn't get much respect with the late season stumbles by 3 teams (NYU, Rochester and WashU).  Hopefully CMU can represent as well as Rochester did last year, they definitely have the talent to if they play together.

Go Tartans!

[bouttime]

CMU is going to need to play very well to advance through the first 2 rounds. They have to play maybe the 2nd or 3rd best team in ohio in the first round and then potentially the best team in ohio (wittenburg) in the second round. CMU's tough road schedule including 7 in a row on the road during the regular season should play off now that they are in the tournament. The other advantage I see for CMU is the fact they arent playing someone in conference who knows everything that they are goin to run. I think they will be able to jump on people because they wont have a real good idea of what CMU is goin to do.

[username1111]

I thought CMU would get to host, but hopefully they prove themselves on the court.

Anyone know why NYU, Rochester, and Brandeis are all absent from the ECAC brackets? Is the UAA not participating this year? It seems hard to believe that they all simply were not selected.

[hugenerd]

CMU was in the South tourney last year, Rochester and NYU may have just turned down their bids.  I know the NESCAC schools in New England do not play in the ECAC tourneys anymore.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I'm not sure all the UAA schools even put their names in for consideration.  I doubt Brandeis at 14-11 would have been selected anyway.  Rochester's AD is on the Upstate committee, so I would guess they turned a bid down.  I'm not sure about NYU.

[bouttime]

NYU/UR most likely turned down ECAC bids. I know several other teams with good records (Johns Hopkins) declined to participate.

[username1111]

That's a shame, in my opinion, although the format of the ECACs is uninspiring, with lots of lousy teams in each bracket. Don't know why the coaches wouldn't want to give their kids a few extra games, especially the seniors.