MBB: University Athletic Association

[BUBeaverFan]

I think Case is poised to have a good year both in and out of conference.  If they can stay healthy improving on their 6-8 UAA and 14-11 overall records from last year seems likely.  I keep trying to get my son and his friends more excited about the Spartans.  At least he went to the Wash U games the last two years to watch his cousin.

So, let him know that Case is worth watching this year even if Aaron Thompson won't visit Cleveland after finishing a terrific basketball career! 

When he is home for Thanksgiving I can work on him a bit more!    The Spartans should be fun to watch.

[hasanova]

Quakers host a doubleheader tournament tonight in Ragan-Brown:

Averett vs Emory at 6 pm
Guilford vs McMurry at 8 pm

I look forward to seeing our Quaker Club members tonight at the halftime reception.  If any posters from the other three schools will be there, look me up!

[WUPHF]

Knepper had 17 points, including five threes, in 30 minutes of play to lead the Bears past UW-Eau Claire, 62-57.  Gay went 7-9 for 16 points and Alboona finished with nine points and four assists.

[Hugenerd]

May Emory gets some top 25 votes in the next poll?  Nice win over Guilford today and a 3-0 start.

[ADL70]

Nevermind, Spartans unable to handle burden of great potential.  Lose twice this weekend.

[WUPHF]

Not a great day for Washington University athletics, with Men's Basketball falling by 15 to UW-Platteville.

Women's Basketball dropped an afternoon game to Illinois Wesleyan. 

And, the Women's Volleyball team fell in the NCAA National Championship semi-final to Emory.  Congratulations, ladies, on a great year.

[WUPHF]

Washington University hosts Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Franklin & Marshall, and Tsinghua University this weekend for the 27th annual Lopata Classic.  The Bears play Tsinghua and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps with the Friday evening match with Tsinghua garnering the most attention on-campus.

Tsinghua hosted Augustana over the summer with the visiting team taking the win, but Tsinghua was playing without two or three of their best players.  Augustana hosted and destroyed a Washington University team that was playing their third road game in four days, a point that was left out of most of the www.d3boards.com discussion.  Injuries remain a factor for the Bears.

I had a chance to meet a few of the Tsinghua players today.  Very cool people.  I will be cheering on Tsinghua against Franklin and Marshall.

Lopata Classic Tournament Website
http://bearsports.wustl.edu/Sports/Content/Pages/mcwilliamslopata.aspx

[deiscanton]

Questions on Lopata Classic--

(1)  Will the games vs Tsinghua be played under NCAA rules or under international basketball rules?  Tsinghua University is from China, as I understand it.

(2)  Will the Chinese national anthem be played for Tsinghua first in the games where Tsinghua plays the NCAA teams?

It should be an interesting comparison to see how NCAA Division III stacks up against one of the top teams in the Chinese University Basketball Association.

Just posting those thoughts as I saw Brandeis come from 21 down tonight to defeat Clark in overtime on the streaming video.

[WUPHF]

(1)  Will the games vs Tsinghua be played under NCAA rules or under international basketball rules?  Tsinghua University is from China, as I understand it.

(2)  Will the Chinese national anthem be played for Tsinghua first in the games where Tsinghua plays the NCAA teams?

Tsinghua is in Beijing.  The games will be played under NCAA rules.  Tsinghua has been practicing with Coach Edwards and the team to get ready for the tournament. 

That is a great question about the national anthem.  I will ask.  I did ask a student a Tsinghua player if the team had a mascot and he said no, though I am not 100 percent sure that he understood my question.

[Wydown Blvd.]

Good video from bearsports on the joint practice with Tsinghua and WashU
Youtube link

[NYCHOOPER]

I'm really interested to see how NYU plays this year. In my opinion they have two of the most athletic guards in the UAA and an unstoppable big in Richie Polan. I wonder if Joe Nesci has them still running the princeton offense that nobody in the UAA is fooled by. NYU would thrive in a hybrid offense consisting of the dribble drive offense, some quality ball screen set plays and the Princeton about 40% of the time. UAA teams don't even exert themselves on defense against NYU, they guard the entry passes and beat players to the spot.  Hopefully Nesci sees an opportunity in a weak UAA year and let's his team play. Would also help them if they played some higher intensity defense, NYU has fallen a long way defensively since they lead D3 in Team Defense stats in 05-06. It's time for NYU to shed the cloak of mediocrity and try and be a great team. Nesci hasn't taken a NYU team to the tourney in how long??? There's a desperate need to change the culture at the Jerome S Coles Sportscenter.

[Titan Q]

Questions on Lopata Classic--

(1)  Will the games vs Tsinghua be played under NCAA rules or under international basketball rules?  Tsinghua University is from China, as I understand it.

(2)  Will the Chinese national anthem be played for Tsinghua first in the games where Tsinghua plays the NCAA teams?

(3)  Will the game be considered "in-region"?

[WUPHF]

(3)  Will the game be considered "in-region"?

With over 700 Chinese students and 200-300 Chinese faculty and researchers on campus, we could probably open a Tsinghua extension campus here in St. Louis if that helps.

We have done everything we can to get the Chinese students out to the Field House tomorrow, including the 75-100 Tsinghua alumni in our graduate programs.  In the end, we could have a significant number of Washington University students in attendance who are not necessary cheering for the home team.

Incidentally, I talked to a few Tsinghua alumni this week and none were aware that Tsinghua even had a team.

[Wydown Blvd.]

Incidentally, I talked to a few Tsinghua alumni this week and none were aware that Tsinghua even had a team.

then Tsinghua has something else in common with WashU...   

[deiscanton]

Questions on Lopata Classic--

(1)  Will the games vs Tsinghua be played under NCAA rules or under international basketball rules?  Tsinghua University is from China, as I understand it.

(2)  Will the Chinese national anthem be played for Tsinghua first in the games where Tsinghua plays the NCAA teams?

(3)  Will the game be considered "in-region"?

Titan Q-- Clearly, the games vs Tsinghua are classified by the NCAA as "exhibition contests against a foreign team in the US".  Therefore, not "in-region."     These types of contests can be played anytime after November 1 in the regular season, and unlike exhibition contests vs NCAA DI and DII teams, these contests are not restricted to a two week window between Nov 1 and Nov 15.

Article 17.3 of the NCAA DIII Manual clearly allows Wash U basketball to play a home exhibition contest vs Tsinghua (China) in the traditional part of the playing season.    The rule is not so clear cut on whether or not an exhibition contest vs a foreign team in the US can be played by an NCAA team on a neutral court as part of an invitational tournament in "classic format" sponsored by the host school, but I believe that the DIII governance committee would have pre-cleared it beforehand with Wash U, or else the Lopata Classic would not take place. 

Regardless, the games vs Tsinghua are exhibition contests.