MBB: University Athletic Association

[deiscanton]

Congrats to Chicago for picking up their first W

I concur in that statement.  Unfortunately, I got my Chase Tournament pick wrong on the men's side-- St. John Fisher defeated Rochester last night in the semis, and looks favored to beat Nazareth in the title game today, but I would like Nazareth to pull off the upset tonight. 

As for Chicago, I would be surprised if the Maroons beat Wash U, CMU, or Rochester this season, although Brandeis did win at Auerbach Arena against Carnegie Mellon, so I would not put it past Chicago if the Maroons did beat Carnegie Mellon this season.

I believe that Chicago has enough talent to at least finish 7-7 in UAA play, and no worse than 5-9.  Chicago will probably not finish in 2nd place in the UAA, however--  I would be very surprised if the Maroons actually finished 2nd, but Chicago could still end up in the top half of the league by season's end.

I will look forward to the home and home when Chicago plays Brandeis this season-- Chicago is still capable of going at least 1-1 vs. Brandeis.

[Gregory Sager]

That was a three-legged dog of a basketball game at the Ratner Center last night. Chicago shot 32% from the field and Emory shot 38%, although it felt like both teams were shooting even worse than that because so many of the misses came on wide-open looks. But a lot of three-legged dogs have owners that love them, and this was one tripodal canine that Chicago will treasure.

The key to the game, surprisingly enough, was Chicago's composure. I say "surprisingly" because, in light of everything that's gone wrong for the Maroons in close games this year, the last thing that you'd expect them to do is to pick up their first win in a nailbiter rather than a romp. Still, I'm sure that when the Maroons failed to put up any bigger second-half lead than seven points everyone in the gym was thinking like me, "Here we go again," and when the Eagles cut the lead to one with 1:25 left there must've been a lot of queasy stomachs on the Chicago bench. But then Matt Corning, who otherwise had a devil of a time trying to get the ball to go into the basket, canned a huge, clutch six-foot jumper in the lane with :49 left, and the Maroons went 8-for-8 over the rest of that final minute as Emory played drive-layup-foul in a desperate and futile attempt to cut the lead lower than three.

John Kinsella was the game's big star for Chicago. Usually more of a threat from the outside, it was his drives to the basket that sparked the Maroons all night, and his 5-for-10 from the field for 17 points was easily the most distinguished scoring line on a night when both teams looked absolutely woeful in terms of shooting.

It all starts with that first win. Now the Maroons have something that they can build upon.

[pabegg]

Brandeis 65, New York U 35

Does Brandeis have their act together? Have the wheels fallen off for NYU?

[deiscanton]

Brandeis 65, New York U 35

Does Brandeis have their act together? Have the wheels fallen off for NYU?

Pabegg, I don't know yet, but NYU scored their lowest point total in years today.  Last year's Brandeis team that went to the Elite Eight swept NYU, but it was only by an average of 10 to 15 points per game.  It has been a long time since Brandeis beat NYU by 30 pts.  (Former NYU men's basketball coach Mike Muzio comes to mind for me when I think of Brandeis blowing out NYU.)

Brandeis at Amherst on Tuesday.  I'll be watching that game on line-- I believe that Amherst will stream video of that game-- if not, I'll definitely listen to the game on line.  Some answers may be provided then.

[deiscanton]

Brandeis's 30 point margin of victory over NYU breaks the old record for largest single game margin of victory for the Judges in the Brandeis/NYU series.   In 1989, Brandeis, then led by coach Kevin O'Brien, won at the Coles Center by 27 in what turned out to be then NYU men's basketball coach Mike Muzio's final game as coach of the Violets.  Brandeis had to fly in from Emory the day of the game as the doubleheaders were held on Friday and Saturday nights back then.  NYU and Emory were travel partners that season-- Brandeis had Rochester as its travel partner then.  After the Brandeis blowout, Joe Nesci took over as coach of NYU the following week, and NYU won at Brandeis's Shapiro Gym later in the season.  (The modern Gosman Center and the Auerbach Arena court had not been built yet-- Auerbach Arena opened in January of 1992.)

[Hugenerd]

Brandeis 65, New York U 35

Does Brandeis have their act together? Have the wheels fallen off for NYU?

Brandeis does seem to be playing better.  The win over CMU was big.  That was the only game of the season I think DeLuca has played like a first team All-American.

I am not sure if the wheels were ever on with NYU (it was hard to judge with their out of conference schedule).  They had a couple decent non-conference wins, but none of those were really that significant.  Of those games, they played 7 at home and 1 at a neutral site, so they only played on the road twice against ~0.500 teams (they still have 1 home non-conference game on Monday, so out of 11 games they will only play 2 on the road, nice scheduling). This is the second time in 3 UAA games that NYU has lost by 20+ points (they also lost to Rochester by 9).  Might help to play some league level opponents before you enter league play.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Heads up for UAA fans, Coach Mark Edwards will be on Hoopsville today. The show runs from 1-4 PM EST and Coach Edwards will be on at 2pm EST.

Tune in! www.d3hoopsville.com

[Hugenerd]

Brandeis hands it to Amherst tonight on the road, 73-58.  DeLuca came to play (23 pts, 12 rebs) for the second time this season against a ranked opponent (he played well against CMU earlier).  Amherst misses its last chance to have a significant out of conference victory.

[Hugenerd]

CMU finishes off its out of conference schedule with a 71-56 road win over Lycoming, to go 10-1 on the season outside the UAA.  Ryan Einwag 22 and 7 and Shaner Rife had 13 and 9 for CMU.  Lycoming had no players in double figures.

[deiscanton]

Hugenerd--

As long as I recall the Brandeis/Amherst series, I have never recalled the Judges ever getting a win at LeFrak Gym in Amherst.  When I was a student, Kevin O' Brien's Brandeis Judges never won in Amherst, and I am not sure how coach Ken Still ever did in Amherst.  I know that interim coach Chris Ford never led the Judges to a victory in Amherst.  To my recollection, the previous times that I have seen the Judges beat Amherst have all been on the Brandeis home court.   Brandeis got a huge victory tonight over the Jeffs, and I hope that Brandeis's high quality of play continues throughout the rest of the season.

Amherst led at the half, 31-29, and the game was tied at 44 with 10:20 left to go.  Steve DeLuca then hit a jumper with 9:46 to go to start Brandeis on a 9-0 run that would get Brandeis the lead for good and also would give Brandeis the upset today.

Brandeis continues this weekend with UAA play at Case and Emory.  The Judges should be favored to win both of them, as coach Meehan usually does very well in getting victories against those teams.

Update to post:  I found out today that former Brandeis coach Ken Still led Brandeis to a 81-77 victory over the Jeffs at LeFrak Gym in February, 1995.   Both Amherst and Brandeis made the ECAC New England Tournament that season, and Amherst would defeat Brandeis in the ECACs to avenge the Brandeis win.   This year's Brandeis victory over Amherst makes it the first time in 14 years that the Judges won at Amherst.

Before 1995, the last Brandeis victory at Amherst was a 91-74 win in December, 1979 under former Brandeis coach Bob Brannum.

Many thanks to Brandeis Sports Information's Adam Levin for providing me with the info.

[BornBalla]

Personally, I think Brandeis is real good. Earlier losses were the result of DeLuca getting back to swing of things. They may not be as deep as last year BUT they have a legit "go to guy" this year. last year they were a very good team but no real "when the chips are down" guy. Deluca is that. Coach Meehan is a winner coach who always seems to know what to do in every scenario. On the flip side, I am not surprised they handled Amherst in the 2nd half to get the double digit victory. Amherst is good but relies on that 3 ball a whole lot.They will lose again in league on the road, maybe twice. Brandeis is for real in NE.

[Hugenerd]

Personally, I think Brandeis is real good. Earlier losses were the result of DeLuca getting back to swing of things. They may not be as deep as last year BUT they have a legit "go to guy" this year. last year they were a very good team but no real "when the chips are down" guy. Deluca is that. Coach Meehan is a winner coach who always seems to know what to do in every scenario. On the flip side, I am not surprised they handled Amherst in the 2nd half to get the double digit victory. Amherst is good but relies on that 3 ball a whole lot.They will lose again in league on the road, maybe twice. Brandeis is for real in NE.

Completely disagree.  Joe Coppens was that guy last year, he was lights out (especially in big games). 

Amherst is a question mark, they have not beat any top tier teams out-of-conference (their biggest wins are against Lasell, Westfield State, and Babson) and the NESCAC is down this year (Massey has them rated as the #15 conference in d3, behind the NEWMAC in NE, Amherst isnt even in the top 40 in the Massey ratings because of their extremely weak schedule). 

[pabegg]

I've started my work on the annual Pool B/C projections, with my attempts to mimic the regional rankings. As of now, Carnegie Mellon is #1 in the Great Lakes, WashU is #2 in the Midwest, Rochester is #3 in the East, NYU is #4 in the East, and Brandeis is #9 in the Northeast. The first four would be in the tournament easily, but Brandeis has a ways to go, even with the latest win over Amherst.

Collectively the top 5 are 10-6 in regional games against the rest of the top 80, which is the universe of teams with any kind of shot at a Pool C. By contrast, the 7 contenders from the CCIW are a combined 3-6, and the five contenders from the NESCAC are 5-6; only the WIAC (3 teams, 6-2) has a really good record. More impressively, only Brandeis' loss to Framingham State came to a team outside of the top 80.

But what jumped out at me the most came from the future games. WashU plays their next 8 games against top 80 opponents, as they play the other four UAA schools in the top 80. By comparison, I don't think anyone outside of the UAA or CCIW plays 8 games all season against top 80 teams, much less 8 in a row.

It's a tough stretch for my Bears, but should produce some pretty incredible basketball over the next four weeks.

[ephoops]

Personally, I think Brandeis is real good. Earlier losses were the result of DeLuca getting back to swing of things. They may not be as deep as last year BUT they have a legit "go to guy" this year. last year they were a very good team but no real "when the chips are down" guy. Deluca is that. Coach Meehan is a winner coach who always seems to know what to do in every scenario. On the flip side, I am not surprised they handled Amherst in the 2nd half to get the double digit victory. Amherst is good but relies on that 3 ball a whole lot.They will lose again in league on the road, maybe twice. Brandeis is for real in NE.

Completely disagree.  Joe Coppens was that guy last year, he was lights out (especially in big games). 

Amherst is a question mark, they have not beat any top tier teams out-of-conference (their biggest wins are against Lasell, Westfield State, and Babson) and the NESCAC is down this year (Massey has them rated as the #15 conference in d3, behind the NEWMAC in NE, Amherst isnt even in the top 40 in the Massey ratings because of their extremely weak schedule). 

I agree about the NESCAC being down this year.  the leaague graduated a ton of high quality seniors last year.

I do think Amherst is still the team to beat in NESCAC.  They have both Williams and Middlebury at home the last weekend of the regular season.

As for New england, it's wide open...   

Given Brandeis' early struggles and assuming they continue to play well, do they get a pool C bid (New England region is weak this year) if they don't win the UAA???

[ephoops]

I've started my work on the annual Pool B/C projections, with my attempts to mimic the regional rankings. As of now, Carnegie Mellon is #1 in the Great Lakes, WashU is #2 in the Midwest, Rochester is #3 in the East, NYU is #4 in the East, and Brandeis is #9 in the Northeast. The first four would be in the tournament easily, but Brandeis has a ways to go, even with the latest win over Amherst.

Collectively the top 5 are 10-6 in regional games against the rest of the top 80, which is the universe of teams with any kind of shot at a Pool C. By contrast, the 7 contenders from the CCIW are a combined 3-6, and the five contenders from the NESCAC are 5-6; only the WIAC (3 teams, 6-2) has a really good record. More impressively, only Brandeis' loss to Framingham State came to a team outside of the top 80.

But what jumped out at me the most came from the future games. WashU plays their next 8 games against top 80 opponents, as they play the other four UAA schools in the top 80. By comparison, I don't think anyone outside of the UAA or CCIW plays 8 games all season against top 80 teams, much less 8 in a row.

It's a tough stretch for my Bears, but should produce some pretty incredible basketball over the next four weeks.

Pabegg - we cross posted... good analysis...