MBB: University Athletic Association

[WUPHF]

Friday in the UAA is almost here...

Emory at Chicago
Eagles over the Maroons, 86-77

Case Western Reserve at Brandeis
Judges over the Spartans, 74-65

Carnegie Mellon at NYU
Tartans over the Violets, 77-76

Rochester at Washington University
Bears over the Yellowjackets, 67-63

Last season, Washington University handed Rochester their worst game of the season and a few weeks later, Rochester repaid the favor.

[WUPHF]

Washington University leads Rochester at the half, 37-35.

The Bears have Hardy and Nester back but Coach Juckem is easing them back in.

Love the play of our first year bigs so far.

[ScottieSuit]

CMU defeats NYU 84-71.

CMU senior Colin McNeil ties Rusty Loyd of Chicago (vs. Brandeis, 1/19/97)  for the UAA record for assists in a game with 17.

[WUPHF]

Washington University defeats Rochester, 76-66 to improve to 6-0 in league play.

The Bears have a one-game lead over Emory (5-1) and Brandeis (5-1) who both registered nice wins tonight.  Rochester falls to 3-3 and though they have the other three teams at home on the schedule, the Yellowjackets are probably out of contention for the UAA championship.

As for the game tonight, Rochester started off strong and had a 10-2 lead just four minutes in to the contest.  The Bears would fight their way back to a two-point lead at the half.  Rochester quickly regained the lead again in the second and held it for most of the half.  The Bear would tie the game at the five-minute mark and then slowly build on a lead that they would hold thanks in part to 80% free throw shooting.

DeVaughn Rucker is playing so well and did it again tonight.  Hardy was back and finished with 17 points and some key rebounds down the stretch.  Nolan finished with 13 which was enough to allow him to eclipse the 1,000 career point mark (congratulations Jack!).  Webb had 9 on 2-4 shooting from three-point range.

This game was going to come down to defense and the Bears looked good yet again.  Nice defense by Davet and Boehm against the more experienced post players for the Yellowjackets.

Emory comes to town on Sunday for what is now the biggest game of the season.  Emory brings a much different line-up (much shorter, much faster) and a much different style.  The Bears have to make the adjustments and figure out how to get out of the gates quickly while bringing the defense again.  And the subplot: battle of the Davet brothers.
__________
In other UAA games...

Emory over Chicago, 83-66
Brandeis over Case Western Reserve, 71-64.
Carnegie Mellon also got the win as mentioned

[jaybird44]

Sometimes I get it right.  Or, I'm really extremely lucky.

As I watched Patrick Benka light up the Bears to the tune of 21 points, I thought that he could be a one-man wrecking crew that could wreck their chances of remaining in sole possession of the UAA lead.

A timeout was taken by Rochester after Benka reached 21.  A good number to stick on if you're playing blackjack, but Benka certainly was looking for much more.  During the timeout, I said on the air that Benka's career high was 22 points...and if WashU couldn't hold him under that, then there would be a 3-way tie for the lead in the UAA at the end of the night (Brandeis had already won and Emory was leading at last report).

This was with 5:33 left in the 2nd half.  At that spot in the game, Benka was 8 for 11 overall and 5 for 7 from 3-point range. The odds were long for WashU holding Benka scoreless the rest of the way.

Benka did not score a single point for the rest of the game.  He was 0 for 2, after his airspace was taken away by Justin Hardy and DeVaughn Rucker; who took turns making Benka uncomfortable for the final 5:33.  Benka wasn't the only one who faced a lockdown; his Rochester teammates were 1 for 8 for the rest of the 2nd half.  As a result, the Bears' defense transformed a two-point deficit into a 10-point margin of victory.

Since the injuries began in late December at Fontbonne, the Bears had beaten long odds on their way to the top of the UAA standings.  In my opinion, the primary reason has been their defensive performances--especially in the last five minutes of the 2nd half of those games.  Some of my research for Sunday's WashU-Emory broadcast will be spent crunching those late-game numbers during WashU's six-game winning streak, to see if the numbers support the opinion.

As much as I have thoroughly enjoyed watching Jack Nolan join the 1,000-point club, and Rucker becoming an absolute tour de force on the court, I am having more fun watching WashU's defense pull the plug on opponents' brewing victory celebrations, in the final five minutes of games.  Can they do the same against visiting Emory on Sunday?  It will be a lot of fun to watch that high-noon (CST) duel...I heartily endorse putting that on your pre-Super Bowl watch list.

[WUPHF]

Sundays in the UAA...

A quick reminder of the importance of the game in St. Louis. 

If Washington University wins, they improve to 7-0 with a two-game lead over Emory in advance of the road game in Atlanta and a one or two game lead over Brandeis (TBD).

If Emory wins, they improve to 6-1 for a tie for the lead in the UAA with Washington University and probably Brandeis.  Notably, Emory would then have the only road win over the other two.  Emory lost only two games at home over the past two seasons and only one at home this season.

Just looking at the Emory box score from Friday and the Eagles had 47 rebounds.  They had 47 in St. Louis last season.  Emory is averaging almost 5 more rebounds a game than anyone else in the league.  Washington University had 31 on Friday against Rochester.  Rebounding is definitely a key to a win for either team.
__________

As for those games...

Rochester at Chicago
Yellowjackets over the Maroons, 69-66

Carnegie Mellon at Brandeis
Judges over the Tartans, 77-66

Case Western Reserve at NYU
Violets are favored to win for the first time this season, 73-71

Emory at Washington University
Eagles over the Bears, 82-78

[deiscanton]

Another game day in Waltham.  I am at Auerbach Arena, where the visiting CMU fans are starting to arrive.  Light crowd so far-- typical for a Sunday morning.  Brandeis just sent out a tweet as to tipoff time today.

[deiscanton]

Final on our scoreboard is Brandeis 87, CMU 68.  That is indeed the true final score.

Live stats had Brandeis 85-70.

Either way, Brandeis is now 6-1 in the UAA; best first half UAA start in program history.

[WUPHF]

Emory leads Washington University at the half, 37-31.

Three pointers are hard to come by today.

[deiscanton]

CWRU defeated NYU today, 85-77.

NYU now 0-7 in the UAA.

Rochester defeated Chicago, 64-59.

[WUPHF]

Emory defeats Washington University, 80-67.

Three way tie for the UAA.

Lots of good shots but nothing was falling. The Bears shot 6-31 from three point range.  Lots of good looks around the rim but...

I'll let Jay Murry write the game narrative from now on.

[WUPHF]

Just looking at the box scores and dang...

The Central region travel partners could not buy a bucket from the perimeter today.

Washington University was 6-31 (19%) and all but 2-3 were quality looks.  They had only shot below 30% once this season (excluding the exhibition) and had been shooting an average of 40% in the previous league games.

Chicago was 5-28 (17.9%), but they have been hot and cold from the perimeter so this is a little less surprising.  Chicago is 7-11 and needs to win at Rochester or Emory to have a chance at avoiding a losing record.

Incidentally, both teams shot above 80% from the line.

[jaybird44]

Not much to write about today's game...other than to say that Emory's defensive display was the best I have seen from the Eagles.  Granted, I don't get to see them much, so there may be other such performances that I am missing.  Emory contested nearly every shot and made every pass extremely difficult to complete.  Kudos to Coach Zimmerman, his staff, and his players for an exceptional performance!

WUPHF, feel free to write whatever you want to write.  My commentary is not meant to parrot yours, or to nudge yours out of the way.  I have always thought that two perspectives are better than one, especially since you get to see more basketball than I do.  I have never, ever intended to be the de facto WashU spokesperson on this message board. 

You be you.  You write here.

In the next two weeks and beyond, I am going to be ramping up my efforts to get a Rett syndrome fundraising project off the ground for later in 2020.  I will probably not be able to watch the Bears much, as they hit the road.  I certainly won't have the time to write here...for the project also involves an increase in my running regimen to train for an ultra marathon event in October.  My planner also tells me that I have an unrelated writing assignment elsewhere to start and finish in the upcoming week.

So, I'l be gone from the board for a while, out of necessity. 

[deiscanton]

Road record in UAA games--

Wash U-- 2-0 in UAA road games

5 road games left--

1.). At Rochester-- 2/7
2.). At Emory-- 2/9
3.). At Brandeis-- 2/21
4.). At NYU-- 2/23
5.). At Chicago-- 2/29

Emory-- 3-1 in UAA road games

3 road games left

1.). At Carnegie Mellon-- 2/21
2.). At Case Western Reserve -- 2/23
3.). At Rochester-- 2/29

Brandeis-- 2-1 in UAA road games

4 road games left

1.). At Case Western Reserve -- 2/7
2.). At Carnegie Mellon-- 2/9
3.). At Rochester-- 2/14
4.). At Emory-- 2/16

[WUPHF]

One of the more interesting stories from league play and one that I did not pay attention to until Sunday is the emergence of Mason Johnson, the only Emory sophomore who played limited minutes last season.

Johnson had a good game against Pfeiffer scoring 15 earlier this season and then went quiet.  He then scored in double figures over the last four games including 14 at Chicago and 14 at Washington University, going 6-10 and 6-9.

Johnson was credited with two assists which surely would have been higher had WUSTL double-teamed him more.