MBB: University Athletic Association

[deiscanton]

Currently watching RIT at Rochester on livestream.

Ryan Algier has not played for Rochester since December 7, 2022, due to an injury in his shooting hand.   On today's pregame livestream, JC DeLass, the Rochester PxP commentator described it as a broken bone in Algier's right hand.

Algier did not play the Dec. 10 game vs Wooster due to the injury, and he is not playing today vs RIT. 

Rochester is hoping that Ryan Algier will be able to play in UAA action starting Saturday at Emory.

Thanks for the update. I was going to ask about Algier. +k

Just in case anyone has Ryan Algier on a fantasy team this week, I would advise sitting him for the time being.  Broken bones take time to heal, and I have heard this "hopeful" talk from Rochester before on Ryan Algier's status in previous seasons when Algier was not playing in games due to injury.

If you don't see Ryan Algier in a starting iineup in a UAA contest, assume that he is not playing in that game.

(1/5/2023 update)-- Ryan Algier's injury happened in the Dec. 7, 2022 game at the Palestra vs Ithaca with 1:25 remaining in regulation.  During the Rochester vs Ithaca game, when the injury happened, JC DeLass on the play by play was hoping that it was just a jammed finger in the shooting hand, and not a broken finger.  It was during the pregame vs RIT that I heard from JC DeLass that a bone was broken in Ryan Algier's shooting hand in the Ithaca matchup.

[deiscanton]

Saturday January 7, 2023

Daily score predictions for UAA Men's Basketball games today courtesy of:

tomaroonandgold.blogspot.com/p/division-iii-mens-basketball-efficiency.html

I will be listing home team's predicted score first and away team's predicted score second.

These scorelines are based on Matt Snyder's net efficiency ratings program going into today.

Warning:  For entertainment purposes only-- Do not gamble on these scorelines!

1.)  Carnegie Mellon at CWRU-- CWRU 84, Carnegie Mellon 78

CWRU has a 72% chance of winning and is a -6.5 point home favorite.

Predicted game tempo is 79 possessions per team.

Over/under total is 161.5

2.)  NYU at Brandeis-- Brandeis 71, NYU 80

Brandeis has a 22% chance of winning and is a +8.5 point home underdog.

Predicted game tempo is 70 possessions per team.

Over/under total is 151.0

3.)  Rochester at Emory-- Rochester 79, Emory 82

Emory has a 59% chance of winning and is a -2.5 point home favorite.

Predicted game tempo is 78 possessions per team.

Over/under total is 161.5

4.)  UChicago at Wash U-- UChicago 55, Wash U 68

Wash U has a 88% chance of winning and is a -13 point home favorite.

Predicted game tempo is 62 possessions per team.

Over/under total is 123.0

[Greek Tragedy]

I'm interested to see NYU in conference play. They were 10-1 last year going into UAA play and we know how they did. Apparently they're better this year and getting some love from the Top 25 voters. Obviously some additions, mainly Spencer Freedman, have helped.

[deiscanton]

I'm interested to see NYU in conference play. They were 10-1 last year going into UAA play and we know how they did. Apparently they're better this year and getting some love from the Top 25 voters. Obviously some additions, mainly Spencer Freedman, have helped.

When NYU defeated Hanover and Roanoke on the road at the Cregger Center in Salem, VA and won the Cregger Invitational last week, they proved in my eyes that this year's Violets team is for real.

NYU had a way different coaching staff last year, and their non-conference loss last year was a 28 point blowout loss on the road at Hobart.   The previous NYU head coach, Dagan Nelson, went 0 for at Waltham.  NYU hasn't won at Waltham since 2015-16, which was the last time the Violets made the NCAA DIII Men's Basketball tournament.  Coach Dave Klatsky is going to be very determined to end this losing streak today, and my head thinks that NYU will pull it off this afternoon.

I will be watching today's NYU at Brandeis game in person.  I will be headed out the door within the next few hours to head to Waltham, MA for the UAA doubleheader.   My N95 masks and hand sanitizer are at the ready and I just took an antigen self test for COVID-19 which turned out negative.   Based on new hospital admission rates of over 20 per 100,000 admitted with COVID-19 over a 7 day period, the entire Boston area now has a high COVID-19 community risk level due to the new Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5    I got the Omicron bivalent booster shot over Labor Day weekend, so I am about as prepared as I can be to attend this game.

BTW, before the NYU men take the court, I will have to watch the NYU women take care of business-- Hopefully, the Brandeis women can hang on for three quarters like what happened last year in the opener, but with my luck, the NYU women could finish Brandeis off by halftime as well. 

The Brandeis live streams last weekend had no commentary, and I am not sure if the WBRS general manager Joshua Hertz will be doing the play by play for today's doubleheader, as the general student body is not expected back at Brandeis until the weekend of January 20-22, 2023.  Jonah White is studying abroad this semester.

[D3Parent1]

Is there any word on when Ryan will be back for RU?

[deiscanton]

Is there any word on when Ryan will be back for RU?

Ryan Algier broke a finger in his shooting hand with 1:25 in regulation in the game vs Ithaca on Dec. 7, 2022.  Since his finger was broken and not just jammed, it really depends on how severe the break is.  As a fan, I hope that he can come back for the February round of UAA games, but I do not have a definite timetable on his return. 

Last year in the non-conference portion of the 2021-22 season, Ryan Algier was not playing in non-conference action due to an unrelated injury.   I had heard hopeful talk back then that he could compete in UAA action in that particular year.  It turned out otherwise, and he sat out all of 2021-22.

[WUPHF]

No reports on the Brandeis win over NYU, @deiscanton?

The Violets scored 17 and 20 points less than their games against Hanover and Roanoke.  Only two Violets in double figures.

For the Judges, Dylan Lien had the game that we have all thought long possible and freshman Ethan Edwards, wow!

[deiscanton]

No reports on the Brandeis win over NYU, @deiscanton?

The Violets scored 17 and 20 points less than their games against Hanover and Roanoke.  Only two Violets in double figures.

For the Judges, Dylan Lien had the game that we have all thought long possible and freshman Ethan Edwards, wow!

Sorry about that, WUPHF.  I meant to post on the board on this game yesterday, but not only were there 2 DIII women's basketball games to watch yesterday (Babson v Tufts and CNU v Wash & Lee)-- I was resting in bed during the CNU vs Wash & Lee women's basketball game and missed on livestream the hysterics of CNU women's basketball coach Bill Broderick that got him ejected after the first OT. 

I am well rested now, and ready to post my personal commentary from Saturday's NYU vs Brandeis men's basketball game.

I watched the NYU vs Brandeis doubleheader in person, and naturally had to sit through the NYU women blowing out Brandeis before the men's game got underway.  Any neutral person want to put odds on the Brandeis women going 0-14 in the UAA this season? LOL.  At least in the women's game, I got to see Chloe Teter and Honor Culpepper get plenty of playing time for NYU.

I chatted a bit with coach Jean Bain before the game-- he made a comment to me about last year's Brandeis men's basketball team not getting picked for NCAAs, and in response, I replied that I couldn't believe that DI basketball wants to expand their field for March Madness to 90 teams while DII and DIII can't expand their fields.  I expressed my opinion that the only people who are going to benefit from an expanded March Madness field in DI are the sportsbooks, because they will have more to gamble on. 

On another note, I still can't believe that come March, former Mass Governor Charlie Baker is going to become the NCAA President.

Anyway, there were a lot of NYU fans in the building who attended the game in person, and it was not just some of the family members of the NYU players.   There was a big contingent of fans from Easton, MA who came to root on Caroline Peper of the NYU women's team-- leading that contigent was now retired Oliver Ames Girls High School basketball coach Laney Clement-Holbrook.  Oliver Ames is the public high school in Easton, and Clement-Holbrook retired last March after Caroline Peper helped lead Oliver Ames to the Massachusetts state title in her public high school division.  NYU Women's basketball coach Meg Barber also had her entire family at the doubleheader last Saturday as well.

The Brandeis fans who attended in person did save their strength for the men's basketball game, where it counted.

I did not know whether or not there would be play by play of the NYU v Brandeis doubleheader, but there was.  The play by play announcer made the mistake of not announcing his name, but he did say that it was his first time doing play by play for a basketball game.  Brandeis has the archived stream of the game up for a week until Friday, January 13-- it will be replaced when the Reggie Poyau track meet is held next Saturday at the Gosman Center.

By the comments that this person was making, I would not be surprised if the person doing the play by play a few days ago was WBRS FM Sports Director Will Kevorkian, and that he got pressed into service in the absence of Joshua Hertz, the WBRS FM General Manager who is supposed to be doing most of the play by play for Brandeis home UAA basketball games.  I am going to check with Adam Levin, the Brandeis Sports Information director, on this.  The play by play announcer did not mention his name on the stream, and that is something that should be corrected.--

Update:  Adam Levin just replied back to me-- The play by play commentator for Saturday's NYU vs Brandeis doubleheader was Asher Kaplan of the Brandeis baseball team.  For his first time doing play by play, he did a decent job.  He kept it nice and simple and let the basketball game do the story.

Until Friday, January 13, 2023, you can watch the archive of the NYU vs Brandeis doubleheader at:

http://brandeisjudges.com/information/streaming

It will be replaced when the Reggie Poyau track meet is held this upcoming Saturday.

Anyway, when I got to the Brandeis campus, I saw that what used to be the concession stand and seating in the Gosman Center got converted into a new student study lounge over the past year.  As a result, fans are going to have to bring in their own snacks and beverages into the games at Auerbach Arena to consume at those games (in limited quantities, of course.)

Brandeis basketball has two freshmen in Quron Zene and Ethan Edwards who are going to compete for UAA Rookie of the Year vs Emory freshmen Benjamin Pearce and Jair Knight.  NYU freshman Quinn Clark is also a candidate in that UAA race as well. 

Some of the NYU women's basketball coaching staff asked me before the men's game who people should watch, and I told them that the Brandeis "core 4" entering the NYU vs Brandeis men's game were Toby Harris, Ryan Power, Quron Zene, and Ethan Edwards.

I only thought of Dylan Lien as a great support player who can back up this core group of 4 before Saturday.  Dylan Lien had only 1 20 point game before a few days ago, and that was in the Brandeis loss against Babson back in December.  Lien was only held to 2 points last Monday at Christopher Newport-- if you told me Saturday morning that Dylan Lien would have the game of his career and lead Brandeis to victory over NYU on Saturday, I would have probably said that I will believe it when I see it.

That being said, I really hope that Dylan Lien does not end up being-- in the words of Dickie V-- a "Dow Joneser"-- I can take Lien scoring on average 15 to 20 pts a game in UAA play to help relieve the pressure that defenses will bring on Toby Harris.

As Dickie V would say, Quron Zene and Ethan Edwards are true "diaper dandies". 

BTW, I did say to NYU men's basketball coach Dave Klatsky "Welcome to the UAA" during warm up.

Also, BTW, if you are trying to ask me if Survivor castaways Monica and Brad Culpepper were in the Auerbach Arena on Saturday, they most likely watched the doubleheader on livestream.  I didn't see them in the building.

I did see former Brandeis women's basketball players Audra Lissell and Rachael Kostegan at the men's game, however.

As has been my personal tradition from the past year, I stand at the top of the bleachers to watch the men's game in-person, while I am seated in the bleachers for the women's game.

While Brandeis mostly led throughout the game, it was still a basketball game until about 5 minutes left, when the Judges put the game away with a 15-0 run before NYU scored the final 3 points of the game.

I congratulate the officials for allowing the "chess match" between coaches Jean Bain and Dave Klatsky to proceed, and I hope that I get the same next Friday at the Wash U Field House vs Coach Pat Juckem.    If there is assigned a crew in St. Louis on Friday who refs in the same way that the crews who officiated the Christopher Newport men's game vs Brandeis last Monday and who officiated the Christopher Newport women's game vs the Wash and Lee Generals yesterday (the Generals are coached by former Brandeis women's basketball player Christine Clancy, BTW), I am silently going to have a fit.

PS-- NYU no longer plays the alma mater before the singing of the national anthem at NYU home basketball games, because NYU modernized the alma mater a few years ago to now have the first verse represent Washington Square rather than the University Heights campus.  The modern version got performed at NYU commencement last spring to represent the NYU classes of 2020, 2021, and 2022, and from now on, if anyone wants to sing the NYU alma mater and sings the traditional Palisades lyrics, they will be singing it wrong.

Here are the modern lyrics of the NYU alma mater, now representing the Washington Square campus-- I am glad that I did not have to sing it last Saturday to commemorate a Brandeis men's basketball loss to NYU.   I heard these lyrics sung on Facebook yesterday and it just makes me want to cry. (In joy or in pain?  You decide....)  BTW, it is sung in the same melody and key as the Palisades:

New lyrics composed by Dorothy I. Pearce  -- NYU Class of 1948: Masters in Education, 1963.

Oh stately square that lies before us
These stony portals straight and strong
The birthplace of our alma mater
We'll ever praise in splendid song
The archway ever stands triumphant
Protecting all we seek to do
Will be Fore'er our inspiration
Oh Honored NYU.

But enough of talking about that song.  LOL. 

Any comments from the other men's basketball games played on Saturday?

[deiscanton]

Another thing to pass on--

RIP, Christian Yemga (#5), Brandeis class of 2011 and former member of Brandeis men's basketball for four seasons from the 2007-08 team to the 2010-11 team.  Helped lead Brandeis to 3 NCAA tournament appearances, including Brandeis's last appearance in the Elite Eight in the 2009-10 season.  Also helped Brandeis to win the ECAC New England Championship in the 2010-11 season.

Christian Yemga was a native of Cameroon and passed away in October, 2022, in a tragic automobile accident.

[WUPHF]

No need to apologize, I was curious what you had to say about what was ultimately the only game close to an upset over the weekend.  To the extent that you can call any home win in the UAA and upset, this season.

I did get to see both Washington University wins over the University of Chicago.  The Women's game was incredible and may be the second best win of the Henderson era after the road win over Chicago a few years ago.  That game is definitely worth watching on demand.

As for the Men's game, the Maroons hit some tough shots in the first half to take a lead at intermission.  For example, 6-5 Hopkins knocked down a three-pointer over the outstretched hand of 6-10 Wolf prompting Wolf to look over at the bench and shrug his shoulders as if to (correctly) say that no one was going to block that. 

The Bears easily won the second half, holding the Maroons to just 17 points scored.  0-8 from the perimeter.

I did not expect to see two posts in the game at a time, but that is working way better than I would have guessed, so look for that on Friday at times.  Size-wise, the Bears stack up well against Brandeis, but the additional option may be good to have.

[deiscanton]

WUPHF--

If it was last year, Wash U would have archived the basketball games and I would be able to see it.

However, when Wash U changed streaming partners, the Wash U athletic department also changed their archive policies on their streams.

Starting this year, the Wash U Sports Network no longer archives home basketball games involving their own teams.  I have to watch their games on livestream as it happens.

[WUPHF]

However, when Wash U changed streaming partners, the Wash U athletic department also changed their archive policies on their streams.

That is a shame, but I am not sure if anyone else in the league offers their games as on demand.  Rochester maybe for a fee.

[deiscanton]

However, when Wash U changed streaming partners, the Wash U athletic department also changed their archive policies on their streams.

That is a shame, but I am not sure if anyone else in the league offers their games as on demand.  Rochester maybe for a fee.

Rochester's games are on demand on their pay service, and I pay $10.95 a month to use it during basketball season.  I cancel the monthly subscription after the season ends.

[deiscanton]

Brandeis has announced that Ethan Edwards has earned his first career UAA Athlete of the Week honor for men's basketball for the week, January 9--

brandeisjudges.com/sports/mbkb/2022-23/releases/20230109o1shyt

[WUPHF]

It looks like Edwards and Benjamin Pearce got the honors.

By the way, Dylan Lien was getting starts as a freshman.  You do have to go back a while to see him a potential all-UAA player, but then he lost his sophomore season due to Covid and has been a reserve more often than not ever since.  A quality player though.