MBB: University Athletic Association

[WUPHF]

Emory Athletics posted their weekly preview which profiles the three games between the two programs.  The administration must have deemed athletics as an essential activity. 

Between this and the fact that Chicago is in Las Vegas, there are good signs that the UAA institutions are adapting to the changing conditions without sacrificing athletics.  Very interesting.

[deiscanton]

Emory Athletics posted their weekly preview which profiles the three games between the two programs.  The administration must have deemed athletics as an essential activity. 

Between this and the fact that Chicago is in Las Vegas, there are good signs that the UAA institutions are adapting to the changing conditions without sacrificing athletics.  Very interesting.

However, if NYU has lifted the athletics suspension, they are doing a poor job of communicating it to us.  There should be an explicit statement on the NYU Athletics Twitter feed announcing that the suspension has been lifted, seeing that just over a week ago, the NYU president made a big statement saying that all athletic competition, and travel would be suspended and all NYU athletic facilities closed until at least mid January.

The only thing that I have seen is that no NYU game (other than the men's basketball game on January 2 vs Salisbury at Moravian-- which is cancelled because the Salisbury men's basketball team decided not to make the trip to Moravian) has explicitly been marked as cancelled or postponed as of today, but I could conclude that as an act of neglect on NYU Athletics given their previous statement of December 15, 2021 suspending all athletic activity until further notice.  The further notice should be more explicit than just not changing their athletics schedule.

[WUPHF]

Let's go with everyone but NYU.

I did not mention them because I did not want to throw them under the bus, but yeah, obviously the administration needs to make decisions so athletics can communicate that out.

[Greek Tragedy]

There have been tons of games cancelled or postponed (probably with no intention of actually making up the games, especially if they are nonconference) over this holiday break. I can only hope when kids return next week, that some kind of normalcy will return, in regards to scheduling, and we won't have many more postponements. The conference schedule will be in full mode, so there probably won't be too many open dates to reschedule...and we haven't really had any weather-related postponements.

[deiscanton]

There have been tons of games cancelled or postponed (probably with no intention of actually making up the games, especially if they are nonconference) over this holiday break. I can only hope when kids return next week, that some kind of normalcy will return, in regards to scheduling, and we won't have many more postponements. The conference schedule will be in full mode, so there probably won't be too many open dates to reschedule...and we haven't really had any weather-related postponements.

The minimum number of games that a DIII basketball team must play to be eligible for Pool C at-large consideration this season without having to apply to the DIII Championships Committee for a waiver is 18 games, correct?

[WUPHF]

NYU appears to be the only institution that preemptively cancelled all athletics through the end of the month, but that is not 100% clear as far as I can tell.  I have to think that the NYU athletics communication staff are waiting for a clarification though, otherwise we would see more cancelled games.

The Emory and Chicago releases did not directly address athletics, but left room to preemptively cancel athletics and their teams are playing so...

The UAA is unique in Division III as every institution has high-level research programs in the biological and life sciences and medical schools (in a few cases) so their decision making process involves more internal stakeholders than most.

Interestingly, Rochester has a world-class medical school and they were one of only two UAA schools to have a Spring season.  I am not sure what they concluded that others did not, but in hindsight, everyone should have followed their lead.

[deiscanton]

Halftime of the Emory v UW-Whitewater game (today's 2nd game of the Emory Holiday Classic, as LaGrange played Birmingham-Southern in the opener earlier).

Emory Eagles lead 52-27 over the UW-Whitewater Warhawks.

Leading scorers for Emory-

Matthew Schner with 15 points on 7-10 shooting from the field and 1-2 from 3 pt range-- 0 of 1 from the charity stripe.  Schner also has 5 rebounds and 3 assists

Romin Williams with 13 points on  5-7 from the field, 3-3 from 3 pt range, and no FT attempts.

Leading scorer for Whitewater is Trevon Chisholm with 11 points. No other Warhawk in double figures in scoring.

Each team has only committed 5 turnovers in the first half.

Emory outrebounding UW-Whitewater 26-14, 7-3 on the offensive glass, but only outscoring Whitewater 8 to 3 on second chance points.

Emory has 11 assists on their 21 made baskets to Whitewater's 5 assists on their 11 made baskets.

Emory shooting 21 of 37 from the field, 4 of 9 from 3 pt land, and 6 of 8 from the FT line.

UW-Whitewater shooting 11 of 32 from the field, 3 of 8 from 3 pt land, and 2 of 6 from the FT line.

Emory outscoring Whitewater 30 to 12 on points in the paint.

[WUPHF]

Emory looks like Emory again.

[deiscanton]

Emory looks like Emory again.

In other news, Wash U just announced that all of their home basketball games and other home spectator events will be played behind closed doors effective immediately, on a temporary basis due to COVID-19.  (Just like the Bundesliga soccer games).  No in-person spectators allowed-- spectators can watch the home events on the Wash U Sports Network with Jay Murry, the voice of the Bears, on the call.

Source:  Wash U Athletics tweet at 3:17 PM Central/4:17 PM Eastern.

[WUPHF]

Well, you guys know how I feel about that decision.

[deiscanton]

Emory won over UW-Whitewater, 91-70.  Whitewater outscored Emory in the second half, 43-39, but the game was over for all intents and purposes at halftime.

Emory will play Birmingham Southern tomorrow to conclude the Emory Holiday Classic.

For Emory, Matthew Schner finished with 30 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists.  Romin Williams finished with 18 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists.  Jaxon Barber finished with 10 points.  Nick Stuck had 8 assists, while Max Fried had 7 rebounds as well.

Emory committed 12 turnovers for the game, but Whitewater only converted 5 points off these turnovers.

Emory outrebounded Whitewater, 46-37, but Whitewater led 11-10 on the offensive glass.

Emory shot 35 of 69 (50.7%) from the field, 6 of 19 from 3 pt land (31.6%), and 15 of 17 (88.2%) from the FT line.  Emory had 21 assists on their 35 made FGs.

Whitewater shot 27 of 71 (38%) from the field, 7 of 21 from 3 pt land (33.3%), and 9 of 17 from the charity stripe.

Emory outscored Whitewater in second chance points, 11-9, and in points from the paint, 52-34.

The Eagles had a nice bounceback from the loss at Covenant-- played well vs UW-Whitewater today.

[deiscanton]

The NYU Athletics suspension that was announced on December 15, 2021, remains in effect as the NYU men's basketball schedule now reflects that the NYU game scheduled for Monday, January 3 at Moravian has now been postponed to a date to be determined (if not cancelled outright.)   NYU's game scheduled for Sunday vs Salisbury (at Moravian) had already been postponed/cancelled, as neither NYU nor Salisbury will be making the trip to Moravian.

Source:  gonyuathletics.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule

[Greek Tragedy]

Well, you guys know how I feel about that decision.

Better than cancelling games...barely.

[deiscanton]

New tweet just sent out from Brandeis Athletics at 1:29 PM Eastern Thursday, December 30, 2021--

The Brandeis men's basketball home game vs Bates scheduled for Monday, January 3, 2022, has been postponed due to COVID-19 protocols to a future date to be determined.

Positive COVID-19 tests on both the Bates and Brandeis men's basketball teams are the reason for the postponement.

Today's update to the original Brandeis press release that announced the postponement of the Union game is now available at:

brandeisjudges.com/sports/mbkb/2021-22/releases/Union-Gordon



With the NYU Athletics suspension still in effect, the Brandeis men's basketball team may not be playing until Friday, January 14, 2022 against Carnegie Mellon at the earliest.  That would be the UAA opener for Brandeis, as it is most likely that the Saturday January 8 contest vs NYU will also be postponed due to the NYU Athletics suspension.

[deiscanton]

Matthew Schner had a double-double today (19 points, 11 rebounds) as Emory pulled away in the second half for a comfortable win over Birmingham Southern in the final game of the Emory Holiday Classic today.  Emory improves to 6-3 on the season and is scheduled to play at Oglethorpe on Sunday before being scheduled to host Huntingdon on Tuesday to conclude non-conference play.

3 Emory players in double figures today:  Matthew Schner with 19 points, Nick Stuck with 15 points, and Cale Martens with 14 points.

Final:  Emory 91, Birmingham Southern 67