MBB: University Athletic Association

[deiscanton]

Emory Eagles update-- Comments from Emory coach Jason Zimmerman.

First, on Friday evening, just after Emory had defeated Wash U for the program's first ever season sweep vs the Wash U Bears-- the "Eagle Watch" recorded some post-game comments from Emory coach Jason Zimmerman that were recorded in his office at Emory.  Note that Emory had not yet played the home game against Chicago at the time of these video comments.

The "Eagle Watch" for Emory men's basketball can be found at:

  http://www.emoryathletics.com/sports/mbkb/index

Second, the Emory Wheel student newspaper has just come out with their February 15 edition.   Emory Wheel reporter Geoff Gilbert wrote the article in this edition that covered Emory's victories vs Wash U and Chicago. 

Comments from Emory coach Jason Zimmerman are included in the article, and can be found at:

http://www.emorywheel.com/detail.php?n=29362

[deiscanton]

The Brandeis Justice has just come out with their Feb. 15 edition:

Jennifer Im wrote this week's Justice article on the Brandeis men's basketball team.   Comments from Brandeis senior Christian Yemga and Brandeis frosh Alex Schmidt on Yemga's influence in the development of the younger Brandeis players can be found at:

  http://media.www.thejustice.org/media/storage/Paper573/news/2011/02/15/Sports/Mens-Basketball.Men.Sneak.Past.Two.University.Athletic.Association.Foes-3977052.shtml

Justice reporter Natalie Shushan also wrote this feature on Brandeis frosh Youri Dascy, who was named the Justice Athlete of the Week:

  http://media.www.thejustice.org/media/storage/Paper573/news/2011/02/15/Sports/Athlete.Of.The.Week.Youri.Dascy.14-3977059.shtml

[deiscanton]

Hmmmm..... Just a musing as I await tomorrow's regional rankings:

I may be changing my opinion on the UAA situation in light of the fact that the top 4 regionally ranked teams in the South all lost last week-- with #4 in South Mary Hardin-Baylor picking up 2 losses.   This means that Emory could jump up in the South regional rankings tomorrow, and if that is the case, I have to think that the UAA could get 2 teams in to the NCAAs-- which would be an improvement over my earlier prediction over the UAA being a 1 bid league on the men's side-- which was based on my seeing Emory at #7 in the South in Week 1, and #6 in the South in Week 2.  Pat Coleman had mentioned the fact of some of the South regionally ranked teams losing over the past week on Sunday's Hoopsville, but I had to check on those records myself, and I just got around to doing so.

Before now, I thought that the only hope that the UAA had for sending 2 teams in was if Emory won the Pool A bid, and then Rochester could have had a strong enough Pool C resume-- Rochester being #2 in the East as of the Week 2 regional rankings with a 4-1 in-region mark vs regionally ranked opposition through Feb. 6.    However, the scenario of Emory winning the Pool A bid would most likely be the case if Emory and Rochester ended up as UAA Co-Champions, and if that turns out to be true, I would hate to think that a tiebreaker could eliminate one team from the NCAA tournament.

I will have more when the regional rankings get released tomorrow with the new SOS data.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Week 3 Regional Rankings are out: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3hoops/2011/02/16/ncaa-2011-regional-rankings-week-3/

[deiscanton]

The Week 3 Regional Rankings have changed my opinion on the UAA picture for NCAA bids.

I have changed my outlook of the UAA men from "1 bid league" to "1 Pool C bid possible, but not definite."

Emory has moved up to the #5 position in the South for Week 3, making the Eagles the second Pool C candidate to the table from the South-- assuming that the ODAC, USA South, and American Southwest Conference tournaments play to form.  Therefore, I have changed my outlook.  This is a change from when Emory was as low as #7 in South in the Week 1 rankings.

The chances for 2 teams from the UAA to get in are good if both Emory and Rochester end up as UAA Co-Champions, in my view.

With Emory's SOS being at .441 through games of Feb. 13, Emory is going to need to keep their in-region pct above .800 to keep their Pool C chances alive.  However, if both Emory and Rochester win out this weekend's Great Lakes trip, and if Emory defeats Rochester on Feb. 26, then Emory and Rochester will be UAA Co-Champions, and the tiebreaker procedures will take effect for the automatic bid.

Should Emory and Rochester end up as UAA Co-Champions, Emory will have finished with an in-region mark of 20-4 (.833), and Rochester will have finished with an in-region mark of 19-4 (.826).   Emory would finish with a in-region record of 2-2 vs regionally ranked opponents (having split with Rochester 1-1 and with Brandeis 1-1), and Rochester would finish with an in-region record of 4-2 vs regionally ranked opponents (2-0 sweep vs Brandeis, 1-1 split vs Emory, 1-1 split vs Hobart.)

If Rochester wins out their remaining 3 games, then Rochester would be the UAA Champion and have the automatic bid to the NCAAs.   Rochester would finish with an in-region mark of 20-3 (.870), while Emory would have an in-region pct of 19-5 (.792)   Given that Emory has a current SOS of .441, and has a loss on their record to a LaGrange team that only has 2 in-region wins, according to the NCAA's data, I don't think that Emory would get a Pool C with an in-region mark below .800.

At the moment, Rochester has a 1 game lead over Emory in the UAA standings with 3 games left to play.

Tournament resumes through games of February 13, 2011

Rochester-- #2 in East-- UAA Pool A Leader

In-region winning pct of 17-3 (.850), SOS of .487 (OWP .491, OOWP .478), In-region record of 4-1 (.800) vs regionally ranked opponents (2-0 sweep vs Brandeis (#10 Northeast, UAA), 1-0 vs Emory (#5 South--UAA), 1-1 vs Hobart (#5 East).

Emory-- #5 in South-- Pool C candidate

In-region winning pct of 17-4 (.810), SOS of .441 (OWP .446, OOWP .430)  In-region record of 1-2 vs regionally ranked opponents (1-1 vs Brandeis (#10 Northeast, UAA), 0-1 vs Rochester (#2 East-- UAA)).

Brandeis-- #10 in Northeast

Brandeis is too far down the regional rankings at this point to get a Pool C, in my view.

In-region winning pct of 15-7 (.682), SOS of .489 (OWP .484. OOWP .498)  In-region record of 1-4 vs regionally ranked opponents (1-1 vs Emory, (#5 in South-- UAA), 0-2 vs Rochester (#2 in East, UAA), 0-1 vs Amherst (#5 Northeast).

Conference tournaments to watch affecting the UAA picture for 2 bids:  ODAC, USA South, American Southwest, SUNYAC.

[deiscanton]

ECAC Tournament News:

 Brandeis and NYU Men's Basketball declare that they wish to be considered for ECAC tournament selection in their respective regions.

Brandeis and NYU have filed declaration papers for ECAC tournament selection in the New England and Metro Regions, respectively.  Both programs are available to host for all rounds of the ECAC Championship.  The tournament will be held with the first round on Wednesday, March 2, 2011 and the semis and title game in each region scheduled for the weekend of March 5-6, 2011.

Both Brandeis and NYU have records above .500, making them eligible for ECAC selection.

[Marty Peretz]

Gosh I wish the UAA had a conference tournament. I know it would be logistically unfeasible, but I can still dream.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Gosh I wish the UAA had a conference tournament. I know it would be logistically unfeasible, but I can still dream.

On the other hand, a conference tourney adds another in-region loss to every pool C candidate.  Lack of a tourney and being spread across 5 regions gives the UAA a HUGE advantage for pool C.

Of course, for fans (and hopefully the players ) conference tourneys sure are fun!

[magicman]

deiscanton,
If Emory and Rochester are co-champions, what would decide the tiebreaker? They would be tied head to head, so is it how they did against the 3rd place team, 4th place team and so on in descending order?

[deiscanton]

It is time to review the UAA tiebreaker procedures for determining the UAA's automatic bid if there is a tie for first at the end of UAA play on Feb. 26.     If Emory and Rochester win both of their away games this upcoming weekend, and if Emory defeats Rochester at the WoodPEC in Atlanta on Feb. 26, 2011, then Emory and Rochester will be UAA Co-Champions and a tiebreaker will have to determine who gets the automatic bid.

The UAA tiebreaker procedures are located in Section 2 of the UAA Basketball Code of Conduct, which can be found at: http://www.uaa.rochester.edu/Administrative/Code_Of_Conduct/Basketball.pdf

(Representative means the team who will get the Pool A automatic bid.)

To summarize: the tiebreaker procedure is

(1)  Best record in head-to-head UAA competition among the co-champions;

(2)  Best record in head-to-head UAA competition between the co-champions and the subsequent finishers until a representative is determined;

(3)  Best record in UAA road games;

(4)  If this process fails to determine a representative, the representative to NCAA post-season competition shall be determined by a coin flip administered by the Executive Secretary.

At the moment, if there was a tie right now and the season ended today, Rochester would have the tiebreaker advantage by virtue of tiebreaker #3 due to the fact that Rochester is 3-1 (.750) in UAA road games while Emory is 3-2 (.600) in UAA road games.  However, Rochester's 7th road UAA game is at Emory on Feb. 26.

The tiebreaker should become clearer at the end of next week's play when there should be an indicator if one team has sole possession of third, or if there are teams still tied for third place in the UAA.  Right now, both Rochester and Emory are 5-1 vs Wash U, Chicago, and Brandeis-- which is the group tied for thiird, and the other results vs the sixth, seventh, and eighth place teams do not break the deadlock.

Tuesday Feb. 15 updated addendum--  Should Rochester and Emory end up as UAA Co-Champions with a record of 12-2 in the UAA, tiebreaker #3 will not settle the tie as Rochester and Emory will each have a 5-2 mark in UAA road games.

Wash U cannot break the tie as both Rochester and Emory swept Wash U.

In this case, the tiebreaker would be as follows-- (Rochester and Emory would be UAA Co-Champions)

(1)  If Brandeis finishes ahead of Chicago in the standings--  Rochester gets UAA bid via Tiebreaker #2.

(2)  If Chicago finishes ahead of Brandeis in the standings--  Emory gets UAA bid via Tiebreaker #2.

(3)  If Brandeis and Chicago are still tied in the UAA standings--  UAA bid gets determined by coin flip.

Magicman, this should answer your inquiry.   This is Reply #3042, which I wrote earlier this week-- I have quoted it in its entirety for people who are just browsing the forum now.

In short, you are correct.

[deiscanton]

Game reset from UAA men's action-- 8 PM Eastern tips.

The halftime scores were:

Emory 41, Case 30 from Cleveland, and

Rochester 29, Carnegie Mellon 27 from Pittsburgh.

Game reset now

Rochester 43, Carnegie Mellon 34  11:37 remaining.

Emory and Case are still at the half.

Brandeis at Chicago and NYU at Wash U scheduled to tip shortly.

[deiscanton]

Game resets from the 8 PM Eastern tips:

Rochester 63, Carnegie Mellon 50--  Final from Skibo Gym in Pittsburgh.

Emory 64, Case 50-- 8:17 remaining.

Congratulations to Case's Reid Anderson on scoring his 1,000th point tonight.

Update:  Final from Horsburgh Gym in Cleveland

Emory 83, Case 64-- Final

[deiscanton]

Game resets from the Midwest tips in the UAA--

Brandeis 18, Chicago 16  7:09 left in first half.

NYU 29, Wash U 23  2:44 left in first half.

Update:  At the half from St. Louis--  NYU 33, Wash U 25

Update:  Brandeis 29, Chicago 22  2:53 remaining in the first half from Chicago.

Update:  At the half from Chicago-- Brandeis 33, Chicago 26

[deiscanton]

Second half game resets from the Midwest UAA games--

NYU 41, Wash U 32  16:55 remaining from the Wash U Field House in St. Louis.

Brandeis 43, Chicago 31  17:15 remaining from the Ratner Center in Chicago.

Update from St. Louis:  NYU 45, Wash U 38  11:46 remaining.

Update from St. Louis:  NYU 47, Wash U 47  8:55 remaining.

Update from Chicago:  Brandeis 51, Chicago 38  12:32 remaining.

[deiscanton]

Game resets with less than 10 minutes remaining in the second half in the Midwest UAA games--

NYU 54, Wash U 54 5:36 remaining.

Brandeis 54, Chicago 44  9:42 remaining.

Update:  Wash U 59, NYU 56  2:19 remaining.

Update:  Brandeis 59, Chicago 53  6:26 remaining.