MBB: University Athletic Association

[WUPHF]

Washington University defeats Pomona-Pitzer, 66-62.

It is not often that I can say free throws made the difference in a Washington University win, but tonight, the Bears were 8-9 while the Sagehens were 9-13.  Rucker went 1-2 from the line with 17 seconds left to give the Bears a two-point lead. 

Hunter may have had the biggest rebound of his career on the next possession and then knocked down two incredibly big free-throws to ice the game.

Next up: UW-Platteville.

[jaybird44]

Happy for Hank Hunter, especially after he was plagued with foul trouble for most of the game.  He grew up a little bit at the end of the 2nd half, gaining those three key defensive rebounds without picking up his 5th foul before his game-winning 2 free throws with 2.6 seconds left.

Same goes for DeVaughn Rucker, who had 10 points and 6 rebounds, and carried the Bears on his shoulders for a few minutes when the rest of the offense struggled.  He also showed great wisdom in not losing his cool to a rough rebounding effort by a Pomona-Pitzer player.  Marcus Meyer also turned in yeoman work with a career-high 13 rebounds.

Jack Nolan did his thing when he had the chance, as Pomona-Pitzer focused on shutting him down first and foremost.  Justin Hardy looks like he's a very special find.  The freshman had 20 points on 9-18 shooting which included two 3s.

Encouraging to see the resiliency that was displayed in the 2nd half, when the Sage Hens tried several times to break the will of the new-roles Bears.  Another tough test tonight with UW-Platteville (2-2) who was preseason ranked #10 and who won 24 games last season.  A great championship game to end the 35th Lopata Classic!  Tipoff around 7:00 pm CST after the 3rd place game between Alma and Pomona-Pitzer.

washubears.com (click on the Live Broadcasts link)

[WUPHF]

Washington University falls to UW-Platteville, 64-62.

This is the second time in three seasons that a WIAC team is headed home with the Lopata Classic championship.  Cold shooting was a key factor in both losses.

The Bears were colder than cold in the first half, connecting on 5-25 field goal attempts and finishing with just 17 first half points. 

The stats mostly moderated over the course of the second half in which the Bears outscored the Pioneers by 15.  But the Bears fell short in the comeback bid.

Platteville was better from the perimeter (9-22) than Washington University (7-25) thanks in part to strong perimeter defense and the shooting of Quentin Shields and Justin Stovall who combined to go 5-6 from beyond the arch in the second half.

The Bears surely wish they had a few of those possessions that were lost to unforced turnovers...

[WUPHF]

Brandeis snares Babson, 74-49.

Brandeis has played a weak schedule for sure, but the Judges looked very good today against a team ranked in the Top 100 in Massey.  The Judges move to 5-1 which is the best record in the UAA.

Corey Sherman led all scorers with 25 points to go along with 6 rebounds and 3 assists.  Sherman had an OK season last year as a junior-transfer but has come alive as a senior.  The same could be said for Chandler Jones who had a good first-year campaign, but is playing very well as a sophomore.  Today, he scored 18 along with 6 rebounds.

[AmherstRules]

Happy for Hank Hunter, especially after he was plagued with foul trouble for most of the game.  He grew up a little bit at the end of the 2nd half, gaining those three key defensive rebounds without picking up his 5th foul before his game-winning 2 free throws with 2.6 seconds left.

Same goes for DeVaughn Rucker, who had 10 points and 6 rebounds, and carried the Bears on his shoulders for a few minutes when the rest of the offense struggled.  He also showed great wisdom in not losing his cool to a rough rebounding effort by a Pomona-Pitzer player.  Marcus Meyer also turned in yeoman work with a career-high 13 rebounds.

Jack Nolan did his thing when he had the chance, as Pomona-Pitzer focused on shutting him down first and foremost.  Justin Hardy looks like he's a very special find.  The freshman had 20 points on 9-18 shooting which included two 3s.

Encouraging to see the resiliency that was displayed in the 2nd half, when the Sage Hens tried several times to break the will of the new-roles Bears.  Another tough test tonight with UW-Platteville (2-2) who was preseason ranked #10 and who won 24 games last season.  A great championship game to end the 35th Lopata Classic!  Tipoff around 7:00 pm CST after the 3rd place game between Alma and Pomona-Pitzer.

washubears.com (click on the Live Broadcasts link)

What is Lopata?  I live near the Charles, not the Mississippi.

[iwumichigander]

Happy for Hank Hunter, especially after he was plagued with foul trouble for most of the game.  He grew up a little bit at the end of the 2nd half, gaining those three key defensive rebounds without picking up his 5th foul before his game-winning 2 free throws with 2.6 seconds left.

Same goes for DeVaughn Rucker, who had 10 points and 6 rebounds, and carried the Bears on his shoulders for a few minutes when the rest of the offense struggled.  He also showed great wisdom in not losing his cool to a rough rebounding effort by a Pomona-Pitzer player.  Marcus Meyer also turned in yeoman work with a career-high 13 rebounds.

Jack Nolan did his thing when he had the chance, as Pomona-Pitzer focused on shutting him down first and foremost.  Justin Hardy looks like he's a very special find.  The freshman had 20 points on 9-18 shooting which included two 3s.

Encouraging to see the resiliency that was displayed in the 2nd half, when the Sage Hens tried several times to break the will of the new-roles Bears.  Another tough test tonight with UW-Platteville (2-2) who was preseason ranked #10 and who won 24 games last season.  A great championship game to end the 35th Lopata Classic!  Tipoff around 7:00 pm CST after the 3rd place game between Alma and Pomona-Pitzer.

washubears.com (click on the Live Broadcasts link)

What is Lopata?  I live near the Charles, not the Mississippi.

Definition - A loyal husband and wife alumni, highly successful business people who write BIG checks, fund multiple buildings named after them and writes a little check for a basketball tournament.  Whom also happen to be really nice people.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

So much for a UAA down year?

Let's give it a few weeks ... or months.

I do think we need to take wait a few months to be sure.

I don't know about you guys, but in a few MONTHS I expect to be talking baseball, not D3 basketball!

When I posted my comment it was late November. Thus, I was thinking late January - when we've gotten halfway through conference season and are heading into the second set of conference games.

If you are thinking baseball in late January, so be it.

[hopefan]

Sign of at least one UAA team being down.

NYU LOSING TO ALFRED STATE?!!!!  OUCH

[Gregory Sager]

File under 's' for: Serves 'em Right to Break a Tooth on a Stone Hidden in the Umpteenth Cupcake They've Feasted Upon in Non-UAA Contests.

[WUPHF]

NYU is not down relative to the last two seasons.

They are more or less where they were before in terms of results.

It is interesting though because they had been the biggest UAA rebuild ever two seasons ago and added quality players both last year and this year.  The coaches picked them to finish fifth in the league this season.

They have been playing without a key senior in Ethan Feldman so there is that.  Otherwise, NYU has work to do.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

File under 's' for: Serves 'em Right to Break a Tooth on a Stone Hidden in the Umpteenth Cupcake They've Feasted Upon in Non-UAA Contests.

I know there has been some kind of effort behind the scenes to have NYU bolster their schedule. I am not sure if the advice has been listened to, but I was asked for some general notes (not an uncommon request in the off-seasons). I am not sure how much of this season's schedule was already in place for the current administration. Maybe in the future we will start seeing a change.

[WUPHF]

NYU does have a Thursday match-up with a 6-2 Albertus Magnus team that was 20-6 last season. 

I am not all that excited by 5 of the 8 non-conference schedules to be honest.

The UAA strengths of schedule summary looks something like this:

Chicago, Washington University, Emory

[big gap]

Rochester, Case Western Reserve, Carnegie Mellon, Brandeis, NYU

I would have liked to see Rochester schedule a Skidmore or Hamilton or John Carroll or Baldwin-Wallace or the like this season, but alas...

[WUPHF]

The UAA is currently 37-20 with 4 games to play tonight.

I thought I would take a quick look at the 6-2 Emory Eagles.

I have been talking about this sophomore class since this time last season.  I do not want to discount the seniors, but I have never looked at a sophomore class and predicted three consecutive UAA titles and three deep runs in the tournament.  I believed that before they added two sophomore transfers and still believe that today even though another sophomore is out with an injury.

At the moment, three Emory sophomores are averaging 15 or more points or more per game while another sophomore is averaging 10 or more points per game.  Add in a senior who is averaging 10 points per game.  In rebounding, they have three sophomores averaging 6 or more rebounds per game.

Emory leads the league in almost all key stats including points per game, rebounds per game, three point made/attempts/percentage, assists, and steals.  They are close to leading in field goal percentage, free-throw percentage and so on.

I'll mention two players and talk about the rest in subsequent updates...

Nick Stuck is coming of the bench but is effectively the starting point guard.  He is second in the league in assists (and A/TO) despite playing significantly less minutes.  It helps being on the highest scoring team (by a margin), but Stuck is good.

Lawrence Rowley is one of two players in the league to be in the Top 10 in the league in scoring, field goal percentage and rebounding.  The league has a few 6'5 players who play much longer than that and Rowley is one of them.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

The Division III basketball season is nearly a month along. We have reached the first quarter pole of the season to evaluate where everyone is and where teams are headed. There have been plenty of surprises, upsets, teams stubbing their toes, and more. There are also some who are doing well despite maybe not being fully saddled when they left the gate.

On Thursday's edition of Hoopsville, Dave takes a look at three programs which had very late coaching decisions and how those decisions have affected the programs. Two teams, Salisbury men and Trine women, saw their coaches suspended and then fired in the month leading up to their first games. Another, Brandeis men, saw their coach make national headlines, be fired, an interim hired, but then that decision reversed and a new coach hired just two weeks before practices began.

All three, are off to terrific starts accounting for a total of two losses on the season so far.

What is it like to adjust to a last minute coaching change? What is it like to take over a program, or enter an athletic department and school, in such perceived turmoil? How hard is it to put the blinders on and focus at the task at hand? We follow up Ryan Scott's terrific story last week with a chat with two players and a coach on the experience of dealing with change.

Plus, after years of waiting it finally happened! Division III women's basketball is getting it's own All-Star Game! Williams' coach Pat Manning discusses the long journey to the announcement, how they found a sponsor, and why the game will be the center piece of changing the women's Championship Weekend altogether.

Hoopsville is presented by D3hoops.com and airs from the WBCA/NABC Studio. You can watch Thursday's show live starting at 7:00 p.m. ET here: http://bit.ly/2E4YCb4.

If you have questions about Division III basketball, feel free to send them and we will answer them on a the show. Email them to hoopsville@d3hoops.com or use any of the social media options below.

Guests Schedule (order subject to change):
- Jean Bain, Brandeis men's coach
- Chase Kumor, Salisbury men's senior
- Cassidy Williams, No. 11 Trine women's senior
- Pat Manning, Williams' head coach & WBCA All-Star Game Committee member

If you enjoy the show via the podcasts instead, you can get access to them or subscribe one of the three following ways (click on the images when necessary):
SoundCloud: www.soundcloud.com/hoopsville




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[WUPHF]

NYU falls to Albertus Magnus, 77-76 after leading for almost the entire game.

Ethan Feldman led the way with 19 points in his triumphant return.