MBB: University Athletic Association

[mark_reichert]

game is going to be tremendous. WashU has alumni weekend the same day and is doing a campus-wide promotion with the goal of selling out the 2950 seat field house.

It wouldn't be a sellout in the conventional sense since they sell no tickets.  Anybody can walk in.  It's only for post-season NCAA events that tickets are sold.

They do have a big banner on the athletics page calling upon people to pack the house.

[ILive4This]

Brandeis 32, Case 26 at the half

Brandeis was up 14 with just a few minutes to go in the half but case went on a run, that included a disputed buzzer beater shot, that Coach Meehan argued and was given a technical foul for. Steve Young from case made 1 of the 2 free throws to bring Case within 6 at the half.

Steve Deluca of Brandeis led all scorers at the Half with 10,

At this point 14 minutes left in the second, score is 40-30 Brandeis, Deluca now with 17, Steve Hill with 6, Joe Coppins held only to 6 after 28 against Emory on Friday.

[ILive4This]

Final Score from Cleveland Brandeis 56, Case 51

Brandeis nearly handed Case their first conference win in the season up by only 6 with less than 2 minutes left to go, the spartans made some standard intentional fouls to put Brandeis a team which shoots 70% + at the line for the 1 and 1. Brandeis proceeded to miss the front end of all three of their 1 and 1 attempts, giving Case what could have been the chance to even the game, however, Case couldnt convert on their end of the floor either. Once the double bonus hit, it did not go much better for the judges, still only hitting one of the freethrows each time down. In all Brandeis only made 5 free throws out of well over 10 although i do not have the number in front of me.

Scoring for the Judges went like so:
Deluca - 22 he shot 4/9 from 3pt range and 8/15 from the floor
Coppins - 9
Hill - 8

I must also mention that the players missing the front end of the 1 and 1's all shoot 80% or better from the line.

I unusually low scoring game for the Judges, I would attribute this to missed free throws and other should be made buckets, rather than stiff D from the Spartans.

That is now 5 in a row for Brandeis after starting out the conference season 3-5 they are now 8-5 going for the 9th win at the Coles center at NYU next weekend. Either way this is the best UAA season for Brandeis, in quite some time.

[howardjp]

Props to DeLuca for any number of big shots when it counted.  Give the team a little slack for a letdown.  Real deal is next Saturday.

[howardjp]

NYU wins by 3 at Emory, perhaps both they and Brandeis looking a bit ahead.

[sean-o]

Congrats, Maroons, on earning at least a share of the UAA title! (Even if they lose at Wash U, giving the Bears the automatic berth thanks to the head-to-head results, they will still be considered UAA co-champs).

We're going to have ourselves a championship game next week!

[hugenerd]

Congrats, Maroons, on earning at least a share of the UAA title! (Even if they lose at Wash U, giving the Bears the automatic berth thanks to the head-to-head results, they will still be considered UAA co-champs).

We're going to have ourselves a championship game next week!

I think this is the second time in league history that two the teams competing for the conference crown will play head-to-head on the final day of conference action to decide the champion.  The other was Rochester-CMU 2 years ago (which Rochester won at home 62-57).

[ILive4This]

Hey, I was just wondering what everyone's predictions were for the UAA getting in the tournament, I know it has been discussed before, but I am just curious now that there is only one game to be played for each team. Before people were saying the conference deserved five teams, but would most likely only get in 3. Is this still the case, especially with the teams moving up in the regional rankings. Did the rochester win vs. Rochester hurt or help the conference in total numbers. How much will the loss to CMU early in the season hurt both NYU and Brandeis. Are Wash, Chicago, and Rochester locks after this past weekend with Brandeis and NYU playing for their spot at the Coles center this weekend?

[deiscanton]

Here is my opinion on how many UAA men's teams get in.

As it stands, I believe that there are 2 definite Pool C locks in Wash U and Chicago (one of these two teams will be the Pool A bid with the other being the first of the UAA teams to get a Pool C), with Rochester getting the UAA a 2nd Pool C bid if they beat Carnegie Mellon on Saturday.  That will make 3 teams from the UAA in the men's tournament, with the NYU/Brandeis winner on Saturday probably in line for the UAA getting a 3rd Pool C bid-- if there aren't too many major upsets in the conference tournaments.

The UAA certainly deserves 5 men's basketball teams in the NCAA tournament, as after Saturday's games, Wash U, Chicago, Brandeis, NYU, and Rochester will all finish their seasons with regional percentages above .700-- no matter who wins between NYU and Brandeis on Saturday.   If NYU defeats Brandeis, Brandeis will have a .720 in-region percentage (18-7), with a QoWI slightly below 10, but probably above last year's cut-off for men's Pool C bids of 9.692.  (Last year, both the UW-LaCrosse men and the NYU women got Pool C bids with a .720 regional percentage, with the NYU women's QoWI slightly above 10.)   Regardless, a .720 regional percentage and a QoWI slightly below 10 for Brandeis would certainly make me sweat out Selection Sunday at the very least, as Brandeis would most likely be the team left out if only 3 UAA men's teams are picked by the NCAA national committee for Pool C bids in this situation-- the winner of the NYU/Brandeis game would be more secure of getting a Pool C in this situation, with Brandeis probably being on the national table when it comes time for the 18th and 19th Pool C selections to be made-- thereby creating a good risk for Brandeis's bubble to pop.  (That is, if there aren't too many major upsets in conference tournament play this week.)

Look for the NYU men to climb back into the East Region rankings this week, as Utica picked up a couple of losses since last Wednesday's regional rankings, so both Brandeis and NYU will be regionally ranked by the NCAA going into Saturday's matchup. 

In short, I would treat the Brandeis/NYU matchup on Saturday as though it were an NCAA tournament elimination game-- with the winner practically assured of a 3rd Pool C bid, and the loser probably preparing for ECACs.  I don't have enough information right now that could prove me otherwise.

[hugenerd]

I wrote my comments on this topic on sunday on the Pool C board, here they are:

It is really difficult to compare NYU, Brandeis, and Rochester head to head (considering WashU and Chicago are locks to get in).  All three teams really havent had more than one bad loss (NYU and Brandeis both lost on the road to CMU).  Rochester's only losses have been to 23-2 Lake Erie, 20-5 St. John Fisher, and then all the rest have been to the other top 4 teams in the conference (Chicago twice, NYU, Brandeis, and WashU).  NYU has one bad loss (CMU), and the rest have been Brandeis, Chicago, Rochester, and WashU (which really shouldnt be considered a loss because the were outscored by 30 points at the FT line and only lost by 1 in OT).  Brandeis, similar to NYU, has the bad loss to CMU and then only losses to Chicago (twice), WashU, Rochester, and Amherst.  I think that Rochester will get in with a win at home against CMU and then the winner of the Brandeis-NYU game will most likely get the nod as well.  However, I think NYU needs the win much more than Brandeis because of their extremely weak out of conference schedule.  Brandeis has a chance either way with wins versus Rochester and WashU in the last few weeks, coupled with previous wins versus NYU and some good northeast region wins (Babson, Tufts, Elms, and a decent showing versus Amherst).

In summary, I was and still am much in agreement with Allen.

[hugenerd]

Back to the discussion of NYU vs. Brandeis.  If you look at the new QOWI numbers, Brandeis is at 10.125 through 24 conference games (18-6) and NYU is 9.87 through 23 games (18-5).  Just to be able to calculate scenarious, let us assume that none of the previous teams will change win classes (that is pass the 0.333333 or 0.666666 thresholds for in conference win percentage). 

If NYU wins the game, Brandeis' new QOWI will be (10.125*24+7)/25 = 10.000 and NYU's QOWI will be (9.87*23+14)/24 = 10.04.  Meaning that if NYU wins, both teams will have almost the exact same QOWI and they will both be at or above 10.0 going into the playoffs.  Brandeis will have an 18-7 regional record (0.720) and NYU will have a 19-5 regional record (0.792).  If this scenario results, I think both teams have a very good argument for the tourney and they would have split the head to head match up for the year.

On the other hand, if Brandeis wins: Brandeis will have a QOWI of 10.32 and NYU will have a QOWI of 9.71.  In this case I dont think NYU has that great of a chance.

[Hoop Dreams]

We need some chatter about the championship game on Saturday.  Having attended Washington's 70-59 victory at Chicago back on January 6...and no, it wasn't that close..I think Wash U has to be considered the favorite in this one. 

The first thing that jumps out at me as I think of a key to this game is that the Maroons have to do a better job of containing Troy Ruths.

Ruths had 28 points on 11-12 shooting in that matchup; simply put, Chicago could not stop the Texan.  Nearly every Ruths touch led to an automatic deuce.  Since then, the Maroons have done a much better job defensively against the other post stalwarts in the conference, e.g. Boone/Falcon of NYU and the Rochester twin towers of Onyiriuka and Ndubizu.  Whatever the Maroons have learned about post defense over the course of the conference season, they will need to apply Saturday at the Wash U Field House.

Jesse Meyer will shoot better than he did in the first meeting vs. the Bears:

Jesse Meyer, 3-Point Field Goals
Jan. 6 vs. Wash U: 1-10 (10.0%)
12 Games Since: 37-68 (54.4%)

UC will need Jesse to shoot the ball like he has been shooting it.  They also will need strong all-around efforts from Brandon Woodhead and Nate Hainje and to limit the easy buckets for Troy Ruths.

If all of these things happen, the Maroons can spring the upset in St. Louis and win the UAA title outright.

[Bba11man]

I think the game Saturday will be a good game and more evenly matched than the first game.  Chicago is a much different team than what they showed in the first meeting.  First off, that was one of their worst shooting performances of the year not to mention one of their lowest total scores.  I think WashU has been consistent the entire season and has played very well at home. I don't believe there is a favorite. I think it could go either way, but in any case, it should be a really fun game.

[Marty Peretz]

The Bears are yet to lose at home this season (13-0). For that reason alone, I can't bet against them. UC does has the experience factor, but with the expected packed house in WashU's favor, I can't see the Maroons pulling it out. It wouldn't shock me if they did, but they have no answer for Ruths. WashU 78, UC 74.

[Gregory Sager]

I think the game Saturday will be a good game and more evenly matched than the first game.  Chicago is a much different team than what they showed in the first meeting.  First off, that was one of their worst shooting performances of the year not to mention one of their lowest total scores.  I think WashU has been consistent the entire season and has played very well at home. I don't believe there is a favorite. I think it could go either way, but in any case, it should be a really fun game.

Oh, I think that there's a clear favorite in this game: Wash U. Like Hoops Dreams I was at the earlier contest down in Hyde Park, and like Hoops Dreams I can attest that the game was not as close as the final score indicated. As for Chicago's shooting woes in that game being an excuse, it's not likely that they're going to be in a better frame of mind shooting in their archrival's gym than they were in the Ratner Center. Plus, the excuses cut both ways -- Wash U's Tyler Nading (14.8 ppg, 6.1 rpg) had his worst game of the season in that first matchup against the Maroons (4 pts, 5 rebs), and the Bears still won handily.

Stopping Ruths will be easier said than done. It will have to be done by committee, as Chicago has no one who can stop Ruths in the low post by himself, and Mike McGrath will probably have to employ a lot of double-teaming as well. And that could mean a breakout game for Nading or Wallis. The key, I think, for the Maroons is to do a better job of denying the entry pass than they did the first time around; Ruths got the ball in good spots in the first game between the two teams, and if the Maroons can force a few turnovers on entries or force Ruths to go fetch the ball in a place where he's less likely to zoom straight to the cup, he probably won't put up those gaudy 11-12 shooting numbers again.

Of course, I'm rooting for the Maroons ... but make no mistake, they're clearly the 'dogs in this one.