MBB: University Athletic Association

[WUPHF]

Washington University leads Carnegie Mellon at the half, 33-29.

The Bears are without three starters today.  Holy moly!

Both teams started strong but cooled off quickly.  Payden Webb leads all scorers with 8 followed by DeVaughn Rucker with 7. 

Both teams are playing very good defense.
__________

NYU leads Rochester at the half, 35-34
Chicago leads Case Western Reserve, 37-31

[WUPHF]

Washington University defeats Carnegie Mellon, 80-72 to move to a two-way tie for first with Brandeis.  Brandeis is headed to St. Louis next Friday.

As for this game, the Bears had one of the best defensive games in the first half, but found themselves trailing for most of the second half.  The Bears needed big games from Payden Webb, Charlie Jacob and Kameron Mack and they got it. 

Payden Webb almost matched his career high from Friday, scoring 20 including 4-8 from the perimeter.  He is a good candidate for the UAA player of the week as Webb scored 41 points in just 47 minutes between the two games this weekend.

Five Bears scored in double figures in all.  Rucker finished with another double-double and Arenas quietly had one of his best games. 

To the Carnegie Mellon play by play guy, if you read the boards, a question: you are allowed to call a foul on every Washington University defensive play for 10 consecutive minutes, but Nolan gets hacked and he has the reputation for complaining?

[deiscanton]

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a UAA race in the 14 game tournament.  Brandeis defeated Emory, 75-73.  I will post more later today.

[deiscanton]

My thoughts on the Brandeis vs Emory game--

Last year, Brandeis had a matchup problem with Emory.  For today at least, Brandeis solved that problem and was able to play the game that the Judges wanted to play.  Watching from the stands, I was able to see that Brandeis was able to carry over the effort from Friday's beatdown of Rochester into today's Alumni Day matchup against Emory.

The suspense was there the entire game.  I was worried that Emory was going to escape with a win at about 90 seconds left in the game when the ref first called Brandeis for a lane violation on a second FT attempt, and then calls a 5 second call on Darret Justice.  Brandeis had only one timeout left to call at 1:26 left and did not want to use it to prevent the 5 second call, especially since Coach Jean Bain thought that the ref was too quick on the count.

Anyway, game is tied with less than 30 seconds left coming out of a timeout.  I am thinking overtime at this point before Eric D'Aguanno makes the basket at 0.8 seconds left.  Ballgame! We have a UAA men's race!

I really enjoyed the kosher cheese pizza slices in the Alumni Hospitality Room today.  Somehow, we found a third room in Gosman for the men's basketball players social, with the Trophy Room reserved for the Brandeis Alumni, and one of the Multi Purpose rooms reserved for Brandeis Faculty/Staff.

Emory got the win on the women's side, but CWRU has made it a race on the women's side as well with their sweep of Wash U and Chicago.

[deiscanton]

Courtside post game comments from Brandeis coach Jean Bain and from Eric D'Aguanno on today's win vs Emory are now up on the Brandeis Judges Youtube channel.

Special thanks to Brandeis sophomore Jesse Lieberman for today's play by play call of the men's game and for the post game questions.

[deiscanton]

Eric D'Aguanno's game winning shot vs Emory is now up on the Brandeis Judges Youtube channel.  One angle of the shot is from the crowd end with commentary, with another angle from the view of the Brandeis bench.

[jaybird44]

Congrats to Brandeis on gaining the victory over Emory!  It seems that the men of Brandeis and the women of Case have been trying to get momentum rolling toward UAA contention for a couple or three years, and their trains are now starting to roll.  They have added a nice amount of spice to what is always an exciting UAA conference race.

WashU persevered and got an important victory, doubly so after the Brandeis win over Emory.  It has been fun to watch the unflappable Charlie Jacob take the reins of the offense and keep the yips from creeping into the team's performance.  Kameron Mack has really matured this season, becoming more than a hopeful 3-point shooting specialist.  His shifting of his game into a basket slasher has made him multi-dimensional.  His sequence of a 3 and subsequent take to the basket put the Bears ahead for good with about a minute left.  And, Payden Webb has done what you hope he would do...pick up the scoring slack for injured senior guard Matt Nester.  As a result, the Bears have continued to prosper without three starters.

This creates what might be the earliest most-important UAA weekend in quite a few years, with WashU hosting Brandeis Friday night in a battle of 3-0 co-leaders of the UAA...the Bears then playing NYU on sleepy Sunday...Brandeis playing at WashU and Chicago...and Emory looking to rebound against Case and Carnegie Mellon.

[deiscanton]

I have been listening to the Top 25 Double Take on Hoopsville.  Today, the topic is conference races.

As to Dave McHugh's comment that the first AQ comes from the UAA, that comment may be true most of the time, but not always.  The AQ race has come down to Matchday 14 in some years.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

I have been listening to the Top 25 Double Take on Hoopsville.  Today, the topic is conference races.

As to Dave McHugh's comment that the first AQ comes from the UAA, that comment may be true most of the time, but not always.  The AQ race has come down to Matchday 14 in some years.

I was being a little tongue and cheek. LOL

[WUPHF]

You guys are forgetting about last season.

In terms of key match-ups, Chicago, Washington University, Emory and Rochester were the only teams that had a chance at the league title last season and they had all played each other at this point in the season.  That was one of the toughest starts to a season in my time following the league.  Those teams would finish 1-4 in the standings.

In terms of league championships, Emory defeated Rochester in the last game of the season to win the championship and the automatic bid.  I am not sure though if any other conference tournaments had been decided at that point though.

[WUPHF]

And Jay, you, may have a better eye for basketball than I do, but Brandeis had their best upperclassmen quitting in protest and just enough talent to get three wins in league play just two seasons ago.

I had Lawrence Sabir and Eric D'Aguanno in my keeper fantasy league as they had obvious talent, but Brandeis is the last team I expected to compete for the championship two seasons later. 

The turn-around by Coach Bain is still one of the biggest UAA stories of the 21st century.

[deiscanton]

You guys are forgetting about last season.

In terms of key match-ups, Chicago, Washington University, Emory and Rochester were the only teams that had a chance at the league title last season and they had all played each other at this point in the season.  That was one of the toughest starts to a season in my time following the league.  Those teams would finish 1-4 in the standings.

In terms of league championships, Emory defeated Rochester in the last game of the season to win the championship and the automatic bid.  I am not sure though if any other conference tournaments had been decided at that point though.

I believe that the CUNYAC and at least one of the NJAC AQs (men or women) have their championship games on Friday of conference tournament week, so if the UAA race goes to the final day, then the UAA AQ would not be the first awarded.

[deiscanton]

Eric D'Aguanno's shot with 0.8 seconds left to beat Emory yesterday made it to #7 on ESPN's Top 10 plays on Sportscenter this morning.  Congratulations!

[WUPHF]

A look at the UAA standings after the first two weekends.

Case Western Reserve and Carnegie Mellon probably needed to go 2-0 at home this weekend to have a chance.  Rochester and Chicago have been on the road for the first three games but I am not sure if there will be enough margin for error for either team to have a chance.

3-0 Washington University
3-0 Brandeis
2-1 Emory
1-2 Rochester
1-2 Case Western Reserve
1-2 Carnegie Mellon
1-2 Chicago
0-3 NYU

[deiscanton]

Brandeis breaks into d3hoops.com Top 25...

UAA teams in poll this week--

#8 Emory-- 449 points
#13 Wash U-- 313 points
#24 Brandeis-- 57 points
RV-- Rochester -- 6 points