MBB: University Athletic Association

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Rochester's #45, preseason AA Ryan Algier, is expected to miss most of the non-conference slate due to an off-season knee injury.  He is still out of action for at least all of November, and maybe most of December, but should be ready for the UAA conference season in January.

This information courtesy of JC DeLass, which he delivered in his "10 Minutes to tipoff" segment last night prior to Rochester's opener vs Geneseo State.

That's good news. The last I heard, they were iffy for January. Glad to hear they're optimistic.

[deiscanton]

Rochester's #45, preseason AA Ryan Algier, is expected to miss most of the non-conference slate due to an off-season knee injury.  He is still out of action for at least all of November, and maybe most of December, but should be ready for the UAA conference season in January.

This information courtesy of JC DeLass, which he delivered in his "10 Minutes to tipoff" segment last night prior to Rochester's opener vs Geneseo State.

That's good news. The last I heard, they were iffy for January. Glad to hear they're optimistic.

Yes.  JC DeLass did say "likely for January" with regards to Ryan Algier.  Nevertheless, Rochester is a very strong, deep team this year even without their pre-season All-American, so they should do fine with their non-conference slate.   

[deiscanton]

Great to watch the Brandeis men back on the court again with an opening night win over Rivier, 97-71.   This was the return game of a series from 2 years ago, when Brandeis won at Rivier back in the 2019-20 season.  I watched the game on-line tonight listening as Jonah White and Jesse Lieberman gave commentary on the game.

Career high 22 pts for Nolan Hagerty, and Tommy Eastman with 15 points.  Brandeis scored 97 points on the night and beat Rivier by 26 points despite the fact that Chandler Jones and Colin Sawyer only scored a combined 15 points tonight.

Rivier in the second half made it as close as 9 points before their top player, Pharoah Davis, fouled out with about 15 minutes still to go in the ballgame.

Brandeis did fine on FG percentage defense tonight, limiting the Raiders to 36.8% shooting while Brandeis shot 52.7% from the floor. 

DI transfer Terrell Brown scored 12 points tonight in his Brandeis debut.

Now I have to wait until next Thursday before Brandeis makes the short trip to play at Emerson.  The Brandeis women play at Emerson next Tuesday, while the men's game will be 2 days later.

The New England Big 4 Challenge in a few weeks at Brandeis should be one of the more memorable runnings of this tournament.

Brandeis will also be playing at UMass-Boston after Thanksgiving as part of what the Beacons named the "Black Coaches Classic".  Tufts and Lesley will play the first game at UMass-Boston before the Judges and Beacons play in the nightcap.

Next Brandeis home game will be on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving vs UMass-Dartmouth.

[deiscanton]

I just watched an on-demand replay of last night's Emory vs Piedmont game on Piedmont's Youtube channel (a/k/a Mane Event Broadcasting Network), and of course, Piedmont's commentary team always gives fun and interesting commentary.  (And of course, the Piedmont team gave a shout-out to Ryan Scott in the second half.) 

Emory wins their opener, a hard-fought competitive game over the Piedmont Lions, 78-64.  Piedmont will be battling Maryville (TN) this season for the USA South West Division crown, and maybe a USA South conference title overall--depending on how the East Division does this season.

Cale Martens from the Dallas/Fort Worth, TX area came off the bench and, in his college debut, led all Emory scorers with a 18 point, 7 rebound performance in 22 minutes of action-- Not to mention at least one dunk in the second half. 

Matthew Schner led the Emory starters with 17 points and 6 rebounds.  Nick Stuck, another Emory starter, scored 13 points and grabbed 4 boards.

Emory will not be in action until next Friday, when they face the preseason #1 Randolph-Macon Yellow Jackets.

All 8 men's UAA teams have now taken the court.

[deiscanton]

What some people may have missed on Wednesday, with Jack Nolan's "great escape" buzzer beater that enabled Wash U to escape the upset of the early season vs Millikin, was that Carnegie Mellon sophomore RJ Holmes scored 43 points in the Tartans's 103-102 OT win vs La Roche.  The 43 points by Holmes is the most points scored by a Tartan in an individual game in the DIII era and ties a program-record last set in the 1957-58 season.

[Gregory Sager]

A mere 43 points seems like a low single-game record for a school that's been playing basketball for as long as Carnegie Mellon.

[WUPHF]

A mere 43 points seems like a low single-game record for a school that's been playing basketball for as long as Carnegie Mellon.

Historically speaking, the Scots are a football school.

[thebear]

A mere 43 points seems like a low single-game record for a school that's been playing basketball for as long as Carnegie Mellon.

Interestingly, 43 is also the single game record at Potsdam, held by Steve Babiarz in 1988.  Another team with a long history.

[Gregory Sager]

A mere 43 points seems like a low single-game record for a school that's been playing basketball for as long as Carnegie Mellon.

Interestingly, 43 is also the single game record at Potsdam, held by Steve Babiarz in 1988.  Another team with a long history.

That's even weirder. It's hard to believe that Leroy Witherspoon, for one, never put up 43 in a game.

[blue_jays]

After nearly losing to Millikin, then getting beat by Webster, is it almost time to worry about WashU?

[Gregory Sager]

Let's wait until the Bears are healthy before we assess them. That is, if the two injured players come back anytime soon and are close enough to 100% to make a difference.

[WUPHF]

It is a fair question, but I remain convinced that going 600 or more days without a meaningful game is going to affect the early season performance of a team.

It easy to forget, given the circumstances, but the majority of Division III teams, including 19 of 25 teams in the Top 25 had Spring 2021 seasons and played a game 7-8 months ago.

[WUPHF]

Tufts knows what I am thinking about. Brandeis too.
———-
Just kidding. I know nothing of their opponents.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Tufts is missing an All American, not sure about Brandeis.  Neither Suffolk nor Emerson are weak teams, but these are both pretty surprising losses.

[SpringSt7]

Insanely small sample size, I know, but Tufts in their first half with Rogers did not look great either, down 50-39 to an admittedly good UMass Dartmouth team that was playing their 5th game. Maybe Rogers is dealing with a nagging thing that he aggravated and wasn't 100% to begin with but I don't know how much better they would be with him. Defense is not his strong suit and they look porous at all 5 positions on that end of the floor.