MBB: University Athletic Association

[Hoop Dreams]

Anybody know whether Chicago's Tim Reynolds (foot) might see action this weekend? 

I had heard he could return for the postseason.

[old_hooper]

the Trinity and Brandeis matchup is going to one of the best first round games.  The Trinity guards Clarke and Martin are very good and this might be an edge for them.  DeLuca could be the difference in that game if he gets enough touches.  Trinity's center is coming off an injury and they had a disappointing loss to Williams in the NESCAC semis.  Trinity will be plenty hungery come Friday.  Both teams are very capable to make a nice run in the tourny and would not be surprised to see the winner of this game advance to the sweet 16.  I would also expect to see Rochester advance to the sweet 16 too!  Wash U could have some problems in the second game.  Whitworth beat Wheaton on their home floor and Chicago got by them (Wheaton) at home in a squeaker.  I don't feel good about the Maroons chances to make it that far.

[sean-o]

The question with Reynolds isn't whether or not he's healthy but rather if he's match fit. He'll be a big boon, though, even if it's only for 10-20 minutes a game.

[ILive4This]

So some interesting things to note about the Brandeis/Trinity matchup besides the fact that arguably the 2nd and 3rd best teams in new england are playing each other...

Brandeis Asssitant Head Coach Colin Tabb, is a graduate of Trinity College, and is their all time leading scorer, although he only played 3 seasons at the school after transferring from D1 Quinnipiac. He also grabbed a few other individual awards while at the school. One would think that this would make the matchup interesting enough for Tabb, but no...

Apparently his brother is a Coach on the Trinity staff, and two of his cousins start for the Bantams. Talk about a tough situation to be in.

[howardjp]

As a Brandeis alum from the 70s, I can give you some more information about Brandeis' three prior NCAA appearances.  Brandeis was the dominant DIII team in New England in the 70s.  They won the ECACs in 1974, before there was a Division III, and then they went to the NCAAs three of the next four years.  In 1975 and 1978 they won the New England Regionals and went to the Elite 8 (which of course was not called that then) before losing to Brockport in 75 and then Stony Brook in 78.  The 75 team probably was the best in school history.  In the regualar season they beat at least four Division I teams: Harvard, Northeastern, New Hampshire and Vermont--that sure does not happen these days.  They even played a very close game against an Oral Roberts team that had been ranked #1 in the country by Sports Illustrated and featured two future NBA players including 7 foot center David Vaughn.   The Brandeis 1975 team was led by Mike Fahey, a shooting guard who was the best player in school history.  He was an All American and ECAC Player of the Year and led the nation (all divisions) in scoring (more than 30 a game in days before the three point line, he probably would have averaged close to 40 if he played a little later, because he was an outside shooter who could also drive to the basket).  He scored more than 1,300 career points despite playing only a little more than two years (freshmen could not play then and he was hurt most of another season).  The 77 team featured two DIII All Americans, John Martin (2d team) and Joe Carter (3d) and the 78 team had two second team All Americans, Martin and Walter Harrigan.  The 74 and 75 teams have the school win record, 20, which the current team could tie or surpass this weekend.  The current team could be up with those teams and since they have no seniors, they should be a legit Final Four contender next year, at least if they can find a more dominant big guy.  Coach Meehan has done a great job taking a program that had been woeful for nearly 10 years and bringing it back to one of the better programs in New England.

Did the 1975 team play Oral Roberts too?  Brandeis played them when Major Williams and John Perry played there and both graduated in 1974.  I can remember 'brs running the feed from ORU and Brandeis tying the score with 10 minutes left before losing. Major had his best game ever against them, holding his own against Vaughn though giving up 8 inches.

Several members of the '74 team went on to do interesting things -- Ralph Martin became District Attorney of Suffolk County (Boston) and is now Chair of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce; Glenn Wong was the arbitrator in the Oil Can Boyd (Red Sox) case and manager/PA announcer Andy Jick went on to announce the Celtics games on the PA and now does Boston College.

Mike Fahey was drafted in a late round by Washington, and I believe Harrigan was also drafted.  Globe columnist Bob Ryan was a big Fahey fan and considered him one of the top guards in New England.

Crowds back then were big and loud.  Music -- Sly and the Family Stone!

[ILive4This]

I know that this years attendance numbers especially toward the end of the season were the largest I have seen since I have been at Brandeis but i was wondering how they compare to seasons in other decades. I believe the numbers listed although only estimates were a few cames over 1000 and one over 1200, this may not seem to be much for those NYU folk who got 2200 a few times this season but we are talking about a school with only 3200 undergrads, and not a whole lot of school spirit the last few seasons.

[Gregory Sager]

Brandeis went to three of the first four D3 tourneys (1975, 1977, and 1978), accumulating a 5-3 record in the process. The Judges haven't been back to the dance since 1978. They aren't the team in this year's tourney that will have snapped the longest danceless streak -- Loras has been in D3 from the beginning, and yet this will be the first-ever trip to the tourney for the Duhawks -- but it is the longest non-appearance streak being snapped by a school that had previously appeared in the D3 tourney.

Manhattanville also snaps a very long non-appearance streak this March. The Valiants last went dancing in 1979.

Correction to my own post from the other day: The team in this year's tourney that has waited the longest for a return invitation isn't Brandeis; it's Rhode Island College, who last appeared in the big dance back in 1977.

Also, Coast Guard, like Manhattanville, returns for the first time since 1979.

[bouttime]

Just a heads up to the UAA faithful. CMU plays Lebanon Valley tonight in the ECAC South quarter finals. The ECAC is the D3 equivilent of the NIT. I know NYU is also in the ECAC Metro tournament as the #1 seed. I think that it is safe to say that the UAA has solidified itself as one of the top conferences in the country considering 6 out of 8 teams are involved in post-season play.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

The ECAC is really nothing to brag about.  NYU's bracket is pretty strong, but a lot of teams won't even accept bids to it.

[Ole Ollie]

Howard it turns out that Ole Ollie's memory is a little foggy; that's what happens when you get to our age I guess.  I checked the Oral Roberts website and the Brandeis game was in 1973.  That year's ORU team featured future pros Richard Fugua (one of the nation's leading scorers) and Vaughn and went to the NIT (the next year they got one game from the Final Four) and Brandeis ended up getting beat by more than 20; but the game was very close until near the end.  By the way, I understand Glenn Wong's son plays for Amherst now.

ILive, it is tough to compare the crowds from the 70 and 80s; it seemed like there were a lot of people at many games, but the team played in the very small Shapiro Gym then, so there could not have been all that many people at the games.  And the school was quite a bit smaller then.  There were some pretty large crowds when Gosman opened in the early 90s--they had seats on both sides of the court then.  In the down years you probably could fire a cannon into the bleachers and not hit anyone.

[mrmike88]

Glenn Wong is a sophomore backup guard on this year's Amherst squad.  He doesn't play much, but then again Coach Hixon plays his upperclassmen with few exceptions...

[ILive4This]

Actually it is very possible that 7/8 teams would be in post season play if the ECAC went down to Atlanta, but it does not and that is part of the problem. Everyone always uses the analogy with the NIT because it is the simplest way to explain it, but it really is much worse, and here is why...

1) The ECAC does not cover the whole country, East Coast Athletic Conference, it is right in the name.
2) As an ECAC champ you are not even the champ of the east coast, you actually share that honor with the winners of three other brackets, with no four team playoff to decide a true ECAC champ.
3)Many teams turn down bids they clearly must be offered, the nescac being case in point. I do not know whether it is conference policy or what, but whether it be basketball, soccer, volleyball etc. the nescac never seems to appear in an ECAC tourny. It turns out in many of these cases its simply a championship for smaller conferences.

However I do not mean to be too negative, post season play is post season play and congrats to those who receive invites and more so those who are crowned champions. Winning anything is always a big deal, I know the Judges are very proud of the back to back ECAC titles won by the womens bball team, and the titles won by mens soccer and womens volleyball this fall.

Good Luck to NYU and CMU in their respective tournies.

[pineconefan]

Hello Wash U. fans -

As a Whitworth fan, I am interested to know what the Pirates can expect on the upcoming trip to St. Louis?   What is your gym like?  What kind of turnout do you expect - attendance wise? 

I've heard rumors that your's is a pretty neat place to watch small college basketball.

[fcnews]

Pine cone - I don't want to speak for Wash U. and I'm sure mark will correct me. But, at last Saturday's game against Chicago the attendance was 1997. Look for a huge turn out from FU and Depauw usually travels well. Their gym holds about 3000 packed and it could be. It becomes a loud enviroment

[ILive4This]

It is definatly an interesting place, I not being a ball player never played there, but I can imagine it would be very tough. Even while eating food at our banquet two years ago for track you could tell it would be intimidating. There is a lower level of bleachers that come close the the court i believe on all four sides, and then a balcony level on both non-basket sides on the court. Plus windows on the top level on one of the ends where the wash u sports hall of fame is.

This may not work for most people but it vaguely remind me of the U Penn Palestra (not the one at Rochester)