MBB: University Athletic Association

[hopefan]

OK Wash U fans.. here is the Spalding team coming from Louisville ...

Coach Kevin Gray uses a 9 or 10 man rotation... towards the end of the season and in the SLIAC Conference Tourney, Starters tended to see a few more minutes than in the past, but bench strength is still a positive for Spalding.

This is Spalding's first year of being eligible for the SLIAC conference tourney and a trip to the NCAAs... they took an unusual step to get there... two players who would have been playing their fourth and final year LAST year decided to forego playing in 2011-12, saving their final year for this year and a chance to play in the tourneys.... Cody cutsinger had been a steady starter as an underclassman, and DeWhon McAfee had been the SLIAC Player of the Year as a Junior...   both played extremely well in their 5th year, but unfortunately McAfee suffered a significant leg injury 3 weeks ago and is out for the season.. but Spalding didn't play dead without McAfee's 20 ppg... instead they have gone 6-0 since his injury, including blasting Webster in the SLIAC semis and nipping Eureka in Overtime to earn the NCAA bid.

Starters in both games of the tourney were:

Cody Cutsinger  6'0" Sr  2 guard...  7.7 ppg, 2 apg, toughnosed, good shooter, penetrates and dishes, smart player

Johnell Hardin   6'0"  Sr  point guard.... 3.7 ppg  3 apg, strong, rarely look to score, solid ball handler, only hoop in conference tourney final was 3 pointer in OT to win it....

Jametrius Brasher  6'6"  SR    Post.... 11.5 ppg  6Rpg...  extremely strong, tough, very strong with ball around the basket, and deadly 15 foot shot if not played tightly.  Has saved his best for the end of the season, and really took over scoring when McAfee went down.... shot 67% from the field for the season...  2nd team All Conference only because he played a diminished role when McAfee played... he may have been the MOP in the league the last 3 weeks of the season, and he was MVP of conference tourney. 

Thomas Blakemore  6'3" Jr   Fwd....  8 ppg,  4 rpg...  confident perimeter player

Dominique Sangester  6'3" SR  Fwd  7 ppg, 5 rpg... Athletic, jumps, goes to hoop... nice shooter... Made all Tournament team with 11 points vs Webster  and 11 vs Eureka including 5 for 5 critical foul shots whan no one else on Spalding could make one... he should match up with Wash U's Klimik, and may not be strong enough

Strong Bench

Montray Robertson  6'7"  JR post    4 ppg, 4 rpg.... mobile big man

Brandon Gabriel  6' 1"   Soph  Point   5 ppg, 2 apg...   quick, solid ball handler...  had 13 against Webster in tourney

Will Barber  6' 3"  Soph  Forward  9 ppg....  seems to be bothered by facial injury and mask... but I saw him score double digits several times in conference before injury.... good player

Brandon Goeing  6' 0" frosh... 8 ppg....designated 3 point shooter... has the green light off the bench... runs from one side of floor off of picks to the other side looking for wing 3 pointers....


Don't be fooled by the low ppg... any of these guys can hit for double digits, and defense is pretty good...

[mark_reichert]

This is Spalding's first year of being eligible for the SLIAC conference tourney and a trip to the NCAAs...

I'm just curious how a Louisville team came to be in the ST. LOUIS Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.  Because it's LOUISville?   Yes, you can groan now.

[WUPHF]

Jametrius Brasher  6'6"  SR    Post... 11.5 ppg  6Rpg...  extremely strong, tough, very strong with ball around the basket, and deadly 15 foot shot if not played tightly.  Has saved his best for the end of the season, and really took over scoring when McAfee went down... shot 67% from the field for the season... 

Washington University does not have an extremely strong low post by UAA standards and not a lot of extremely strong posts around the conference, though it is all relative.  The match-ups will be intriguing.

What is your final prediction for the record?

[jaybird44]

When I see low point numbers from reserves, I look at their points per 40 minutes.  Brandon Goeing's "p40m" is an outstanding 20.0 points.  An explosive outside shooter perhaps similar to Brandeis' Derek Retos.  Retos torched the Bears in their only home loss of the season.

Wash-U is not looking past Spalding.  Westminster gave Wash-U a really tough battle 3 seasons ago in the first round, before the Bears were beaten by IWU.  Folks close to the program believe Spalding may be the best team that the SLIAC has ever sent to the tournament.  Hopefan can address that particular point, but the Bears are certainly not looking past Saturday night.

Should be a fun game to broadcast!

[hopefan]

I'm sorry, I'd love to see the SLIAC rep get a tourney win, and there's not a SLIAC team that's won conference that I haven't liked in the last 8 years, but history tells me that Wash U is simply at a different level than Spalding... IF Spalding had Dewhon McAfee, there would be a better chance.. an explosive streak shooter, if McAfee got hot, he could turn a game around... there isn't anyone like that on Spalding now... I love Brasher's toughness.. but he can be denied the ball or doubleteamed inside and he has to give the ball up...I'm going to copy the statements I made over in the SLIAC room  :

Unfortunately, the more I think about the personnel, and the setting, the more I think that Spalding could be in for a rough night....

Spalding has the long trip

Spalding's first appearance in the tourney

Wash U kids have played in the tourney before, and played better competition this year (though I will note Spalding played 2 tourney teams in their nonconference schedule.. losing to Transy by 1 and to Dickinson by 6)

Wash U plays 'bigger'...  While I've never been a fan of Robert Burnett in the middle for Wash U, he'll match up pretty well in strength with Spalding's Jametrius Brasheer.. But I don't see a good match up to Chris Klimek.. and Spalding had trouble with Eureka when Eureka went to two big men....

Spalding shot poorly vs Eureka on their home court... they have to spread the scoring out to the perimeter

Wash U's guards likely will not have the serious trouble with spalding's press that Eureka did....

How will Spalding react to the frat boys in the corner???

Teams playing against Mark Edwards motion offense for the first time generally have a very difficult time defending it...  UAA teams who get used to  it may not give up a lot of layups, but when those screens and backdoors hit you for the first time, it's tough... spalding has not seen a precision offense like this in the SLIAC.... hopefully lots of film has reached Louisville so they know what to expect.....

[WUPHF]

Three wins in the UAA tonight!

Emory gets a convincing win over Randolph 77-56 while Rochester gets by Fitchburg State 91-86. 

Fitchburg had it to within three points with 0.04 seconds left before time ran out on them.  John DiBartomoleo scored nearly half of that 91, scoring 42 on 11-27 shooting from the field and 17-22 from the line.  If you look at that stat line separately, DiBartomoleo from the field and DiBartomoleo from the line were the highest scoring players on the team.  Nate Vernon added 16 along with 13 for Rob Reid.

Washington University pulled out the win over Spalding, 70-61, in a hard fought contest that featured a Golden Eagles squad that shot 47% from the field in the first half with the Bears shooting 33%, but the percentages switched in the second half thanks in larger part to the work of Ben Hoener.  The senior regularly elevates his game in the second half and tonight was no exception with almost all of his 19 points coming in the second half.  Rob Burnett did not shoot well, but scored 13, mostly on second chance looks and was key to the great rebounding margin (+19) with 10 boards.  Tim Cooney, Alan Aboona, and Matt Palucki all finished with 8 points respectively.

Spalding came to play and had one of the better defensive performances that I have seen this season, particularly in the first half.  Chris Klimek struggled with foul trouble and played an underwhelming 20 minutes.  Spalding gave Klimek few looks, and held the junior to 7 points on 3-5 shooting.  Spalding was led by Jametrius Brasher who scored 16 with more than enough skills to keep the home crowd nervous.

[(509)Rat]

Emory has a long trip ahead of them to a rather hostile environment in Spokane. However, the defense that feasted on Randolph is the kind that opposing coaches lose sleep over. I expect Whitworth to do a much better job of handling the half court pressure, but they'll have to do a better job of getting the ball inside this week if they want to host one more weekend.

[WUPHF]

Emory has a long trip ahead of them to a rather hostile environment in Spokane. However, the defense that feasted on Randolph is the kind that opposing coaches lose sleep over. I expect Whitworth to do a much better job of handling the half court pressure, but they'll have to do a better job of getting the ball inside this week if they want to host one more weekend.

In my time on D3boards.com, I cannot remember ever seeing an Emory fan.  I though that may change with Emory advancing to tournament for the first time since 1990.

Emory has played very good basketball as of late, but this will obviously be a big test for the Eagles.  The one advantage to Emory going out west is that UAA diehards will be able to watch two games on Saturday night.

Incidentally, the Emory Women's Basketball team defeated Whitworth in the first round and will play fellow Northwest Conference rival Whitman on Friday.

Five of six UAA teams are still in the tournament.

[WUPHF]

A look at a few of the most recent match-ups between Washington University and Illinois Wesleyan from Student Life.

Link: http://www.studlife.com/sports/mens-basketball/2013/03/07/mens-basketball-a-look-back-in-the-day-with-wash-u-and-iwu/

__________

An annual rivalry will get another go-around this Saturday evening at the Field House as Washington University and Illinois Wesleyan University will square off in the second round of the NCAA Division III men's national championship tournament. The teams already faced off once this year, back on Dec. 1, with then-No. 10 Wash. U. beating then-No. 7 IWU 67-57, but IWU leads the all-time series by a 19-14 margin. Saturday will mark the sixth time in the four-year careers of the class of 2013 that the two teams will have faced each other. Let's review the instances of school years past.

Dec. 17, 2011 (Bloomington, Ill.): IWU 71, Wash. U. 56:

In the teams' most recent showdown in Illinois, Wash. U. was handed its third loss of the fall season by IWU, which never trailed after the game's opening minute. The Bears were led by then-sophomore Alan Aboona, who scored 15 points—at the time, a career-high—off the bench.
Paul Goedeke | Student Life

Junior Alan Aboona drives down the baseline past an Illinois Wesleyan University defender during the Washington University men's basketball team's 67-57 win over the Titans on Dec. 1, 2012. Aboona scored 15 points in the win, and another strong performance from him will only help the Bears' chances at advancing past IWU for the first time in tournament history.

Dec. 18, 2010 (St. Louis): Wash. U. 83, No. 12 IWU 75 (OT):

Having started the season at a disappointing 4-4, the Bears looked poised to keep the poor start going against IWU as they trailed for most of the contest. But a shocking three-pointer by Aboona tied the game at 68 as regulation expired, and an outstanding overtime from senior Spencer Gay (nine points in the overtime) gave the Bears their signature win of the 2010-11 campaign. Gay ended the game with 21 points, as did junior Dylan Richter.

March 6, 2010 (St. Louis): IWU 75, No. 1 Wash. U. 70:

The game that marked the end of Wash. U.'s championship streak took place in the Field House as top-ranked Wash. U. was stunned in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Despite the lead never reaching double-digits and senior Aaron Thompson's 16 second-half points, IWU maintained a lead over the final 18:56 of the contest and picked up an offensive rebound on its own free throw with 15 seconds remaining, short-circuiting Wash. U.'s comeback attempt and ending the Bears' run at a third straight title.

Nov. 22, 2009 (Bloomington): Wash. U. 76, IWU 71:

In their third game of the season following their second national title, the Bears used some strong shooting (54 percent, including 62.5 percent in the first half) to maintain their season-opening winning streak. Thompson led the way with 31 points for Wash. U.

[WUPHF]

And, a look back at the Alan Aboona three-point buzzer beater to take Illinois Wesleyan to overtime.  Washington University would eventually get the win 83-75.  This proved to be the signature win of the 2010-2011 season in which the Bears finished 13-12.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm7BTPkiqas

[dcahill44]

What Does everyone think about the Ithaca Rochester game? I think both teams are very good... Its a toss up for me

[Ethelred the Unready]

What Does everyone think about the Ithaca Rochester game? I think both teams are very good... Its a toss up for me

Two teams headed in opposite directions.  Ithaca is healthy and playing extremely well while UofR has stumbled after starting 18-0.  I haven't seen them play lately but I wonder if John Di is trying to do too much.  Still think Rochester should win but wouldn't be surprised if Ithaca pulls it out.  And the over/under on this game must be around 210 points

[magicman]

What Does everyone think about the Ithaca Rochester game? I think both teams are very good... Its a toss up for me

Two teams headed in opposite directions.  Ithaca is healthy and playing extremely well while UofR has stumbled after starting 18-0.  I haven't seen them play lately but I wonder if John Di is trying to do too much.  Still think Rochester should win but wouldn't be surprised if Ithaca pulls it out.  And the over/under on this game must be around 210 points

Ethelred,
Strangely enough though Massey has Rochester winning by a score of 73-66. I'm thinking that Ithaca might pull off the upset here so I'm picking the Bombers to win by a 74-71 score. 

[magicman]

What Does everyone think about the Ithaca Rochester game? I think both teams are very good... Its a toss up for me

Two teams headed in opposite directions.  Ithaca is healthy and playing extremely well while UofR has stumbled after starting 18-0.  I haven't seen them play lately but I wonder if John Di is trying to do too much.  Still think Rochester should win but wouldn't be surprised if Ithaca pulls it out.  And the over/under on this game must be around 210 points

Ethelred,
Strangely enough though Massey has Rochester winning by a score of 73-66. I'm thinking that Ithaca might pull off the upset here so I'm picking the Bombers to win by a 74-71 score.

I was pretty close with my score as the final was Ithaca 70 Rochester 68. Only missed the total by 7 points and the MOV by 1. Didn't figure I'd be too high though. Hard to believe that DiBartolomeo only got 2 points and didn't make a field goal.   

[WUPHF]

Great game in the Field House tonight, but in the end, the long armed Titans proved to be the better team tonight.  As I said earlier in the season, all great teams need a guy with a headband or mustache.  That guy proved to be the difference for the Titans down the stretch.

Thanks to players, coaches and everyone else involved with the program for another great season.  In the end, I attended 15 games, paying just $15 in ticket fees; the most I have ever seen of one team in a season.