MBB: University Athletic Association

[eastcoast]

Couple of points then I'm movin on, NYU led WashU. for the entire contest, not totally sure but anyone can look it up,  but I think WashU's first lead came in O.T.So NYU would not be fouling to stop clock or parade WashU. to the line in order to play catch-up.  They had the lead,  also, NYU ran everything through Boone first, he was not a jump shooter and neither was Falcon, he played close to the basket, Decorso was the shooter but with a lead how much could he have been firing.The extraordinary amount of fouls called that day should have just been considered incidental contact that refs and players and coaches consider part of the game, after all this is college basketball.  How many college games last year had a similar stat line?  how many times did a college basketball team shoot 45 freethrows? Of all the games played last year how many times do you think a team was called for 30 fouls?  Not many I'll bet.  Do you think fans would want to watch competitive teams play basketball only to have refs continually stop play by calling "off the ball" fouls.   Good refs let the best players play and keep the game flowing. If all games were officiated with constant whistle blowing the game would stink.

[hugenerd]

Gregory, it doesn't make sense to think that there is a home-cooking situation happening at Wash U. aside from the regular home court advantage that most teams enjoy. The UAA should be legitimate enough of a confererence  to monitor it's home and away basketball contests. What happened last season to Brandeis and NYU in St. Louis was way off the charts in regard to the refereeing.  If a similar disparity in fouls called, freethrow attempts and foul-outs to players happened in another conference; lets say the ACC for example, this would'nt have have so easily dismissed by basketball people. Imagine Duke going into Wake and shooting 12 freethrows compared to Wake's 45 and losing by 1 in O.T..those refs would have some explaining to do. As for you're other point about visiting teams recognizing how the game is being officiated, in regard to the NYU-WashU game last year it was stated before that NYU fielded a very experienced team where 3 of the 5 players who fouled out were seniors that played  significant minutes for NYU for 4 years,  and were all-conference players in some regard. You can't say that they just  weren't used to midwestern refs.  I think the UAA is a legit conference, great academic schools; there happened to be 2 isolated instances last year. For whatever reason,  the refereeing was embarrasing and I don't know how anyone can defend what happened.  Brandeis and NYU played tough road games against a quality WashU. team and instead of a satisfying win they were awarded a loss.

I'm not saying that there is a home-cooking situation at Wash U, and I'm not saying that there isn't. I'm agnostic on the issue. But I would warn anyone against tallying up all of the fouls in a game and then pointing at the officials as being somehow at fault if one team went to the FT line much more than did its opponent. Different styles lend themselves to different fouling outcomes; a team that's overly reliant upon jumpshots will go to the line much, much less than does a team that is dependent upon dribble penetration or a back-to-the-basket scorer, or both. Also, game situations -- a team that has the lead late in a game often gets a parade of players sent to the line because the other team is forced to foul on every possession by the leading team -- often dictate eventual foul disparity as well. Thus, I'm not sure that your ACC example has much validity without knowing the particulars.

All I'm saying is that anyone who is making the case that the Bears are the beneficiaries of home cooking really needs to make that case based upon more comprehensive data than one or two games.

As to the idea that the NYU @ Wash U game of last season (as well as the Brandeis @ Wash U game, if that's being cited as an ancillary case) are "isolated instances" ... well, not everyone is buying that argument. It seems as though more than one poster is insinuating that Bears-friendly reffing is a regular occurrence in St. Louis. F'rinstance, here's what dblock had to say about this matter tonight:

Instead of admiting that Wash U gets a pretty sweet home court advantage,

Note the present tense ("gets" rather than "got").

But, as I said, I have no opinion one way or the other about how the officials call the games at WU Field House. I'm simply asking that anyone who makes an accusation of home cooking do the research first. It's not an accusation that should be made lightly, so Wash U's accusers should marshal more compelling evidence to make their case if they believe that this was more than an isolated instance or instances.

I understand what you are saying, but, even if refs are biased, I dont think they are dumb enough to make calls in WashUs favor every game.  It seems like last year it was more of on a need to basis.  For example, in the NYU game, they needed alot of help and got it.  That may be one of the reason (by no means the major reason) that WashU went undefeated at home last year.  However, they have already lost a home game this year to Auggie, and even though they they were called for 5 less fouls and shot 8 more free throws while trailing the entire game (most of the time by a substantial amount), the calls did not seem to effect the outcome of the game.  Hopefully, they have remedied the problem  and this can be a mute subject the rest of the season.

[Marty Peretz]

Point of clarification...the Augustana game was played at a tournament at Webster College (about 15 minutes from the WU campus) and thus is not considered a home game.

[Bba11man]

switchin up topics, the UAA overall has been really strong the last few years. the conference is much deeper than in the late 90's when Wash, Roch, and Chicago were runnin the show with all of their stellar big men. I still think good men are prevalent but I feel there are a lot good guards in the conference now as well as some talented power/small forwards besides just teams in general having better talent. Who have been some of the better players in the conference over the past 10 years? The main ones that come to mind are reich, hauben, maurer, perez, jefferies, fawcett, boone, etc. I realize I am missing a bunch of other players with well deserved praise, so I'm asking who else were major standouts? I'm almost interested in compiling a list or even the top 20 players in the last 10 years. if not the list, i'm simply interested in other names...for nostalgia's sake.

[y_jack_lok]

Point of clarification: the Wash U - Augie game was played at Webster University (not College).

[hugenerd]

Point of clarification...the Augustana game was played at a tournament at Webster College (about 15 minutes from the WU campus) and thus is not considered a home game.

Point of clarification: the Wash U - Augie game was played at Webster University (not College).

Thanks, my bad.  Still, I hope that the subject will be mute this season.

[hugenerd]

switchin up topics, the UAA overall has been really strong the last few years. the conference is much deeper than in the late 90's when Wash, Roch, and Chicago were runnin the show with all of their stellar big men. I still think good men are prevalent but I feel there are a lot good guards in the conference now as well as some talented power/small forwards besides just teams in general having better talent. Who have been some of the better players in the conference over the past 10 years? The main ones that come to mind are reich, hauben, maurer, perez, jefferies, fawcett, boone, etc. I realize I am missing a bunch of other players with well deserved praise, so I'm asking who else were major standouts? I'm almost interested in compiling a list or even the top 20 players in the last 10 years. if not the list, i'm simply interested in other names...for nostalgia's sake.

I would add Andy Larkin for UR over Gape Perez (but that is just my opinion), maybe Rashad Williams from Brandeis, Chris Alexander from Wash, and Carsen Oren put up big numbers for Case.

If I had to rank a top 10, it would be as follows:

1. Derek Reich, Chicago
2. Nate Maurer, CMU
3. Seth Hauben, UR
4. Chris Alexander, WU
5. Chase Fawcett, EU
6. Jared Jeffries, WU
7. Jason Boone, NYU
8. Andy Larkin, UR
9. Clayton Barlow-Wilcox, CMU
10t. Carsen Oren, CWRU
10t. Rashad Williams, BU

Given my list, I am sure I missed some deserving players from late 90s, but I was in high school at the time and dont remember their names.  However, I do have one representative from every team, except for now unaffiliated JHU, who may have had a worthy player before they left the league in 2001.  Troy Ruths, along with some other current players could also work themselves onto the list. 

I was also interested to see that there have only been 6 different players of the year in the last 9 years because Reich won it 4 times and Hauben won it twice (there were, however, 2 players of the year in 2006).

[dblock]

Rochester at #2

Brandeis at #3

Wash U at #12

The UAA is killing it right now.

[Titan Q]

switchin up topics, the UAA overall has been really strong the last few years. the conference is much deeper than in the late 90's when Wash, Roch, and Chicago were runnin the show with all of their stellar big men. I still think good men are prevalent but I feel there are a lot good guards in the conference now as well as some talented power/small forwards besides just teams in general having better talent. Who have been some of the better players in the conference over the past 10 years? The main ones that come to mind are reich, hauben, maurer, perez, jefferies, fawcett, boone, etc. I realize I am missing a bunch of other players with well deserved praise, so I'm asking who else were major standouts? I'm almost interested in compiling a list or even the top 20 players in the last 10 years. if not the list, i'm simply interested in other names...for nostalgia's sake.

I would add Andy Larkin for UR over Gape Perez (but that is just my opinion), maybe Rashad Williams from Brandeis, Chris Alexander from Wash, and Carsen Oren put up big numbers for Case.

If I had to rank a top 10, it would be as follows:

1. Derek Reich, Chicago
2. Nate Maurer, CMU
3. Seth Hauben, UR
4. Chris Alexander, WU
5. Chase Fawcett, EU
6. Jared Jeffries, WU
7. Jason Boone, NYU
8. Andy Larkin, UR
9. Clayton Barlow-Wilcox, CMU
10t. Carsen Oren, CWRU
10t. Rashad Williams, BU

Given my list, I am sure I missed some deserving players from late 90s, but I was in high school at the time and dont remember their names.  However, I do have one representative from every team, except for now unaffiliated JHU, who may have had a worthy player before they left the league in 2001.  Troy Ruths, along with some other current players could also work themselves onto the list. 

I was also interested to see that there have only been 6 different players of the year in the last 9 years because Reich won it 4 times and Hauben won it twice (there were, however, 2 players of the year in 2006).

Chris Jeffries.  Jared Jeffries played for Indiana.

[hugenerd]

switchin up topics, the UAA overall has been really strong the last few years. the conference is much deeper than in the late 90's when Wash, Roch, and Chicago were runnin the show with all of their stellar big men. I still think good men are prevalent but I feel there are a lot good guards in the conference now as well as some talented power/small forwards besides just teams in general having better talent. Who have been some of the better players in the conference over the past 10 years? The main ones that come to mind are reich, hauben, maurer, perez, jefferies, fawcett, boone, etc. I realize I am missing a bunch of other players with well deserved praise, so I'm asking who else were major standouts? I'm almost interested in compiling a list or even the top 20 players in the last 10 years. if not the list, i'm simply interested in other names...for nostalgia's sake.

I would add Andy Larkin for UR over Gape Perez (but that is just my opinion), maybe Rashad Williams from Brandeis, Chris Alexander from Wash, and Carsen Oren put up big numbers for Case.

If I had to rank a top 10, it would be as follows:

1. Derek Reich, Chicago
2. Nate Maurer, CMU
3. Seth Hauben, UR
4. Chris Alexander, WU
5. Chase Fawcett, EU
6. Jared Jeffries, WU
7. Jason Boone, NYU
8. Andy Larkin, UR
9. Clayton Barlow-Wilcox, CMU
10t. Carsen Oren, CWRU
10t. Rashad Williams, BU

Given my list, I am sure I missed some deserving players from late 90s, but I was in high school at the time and dont remember their names.  However, I do have one representative from every team, except for now unaffiliated JHU, who may have had a worthy player before they left the league in 2001.  Troy Ruths, along with some other current players could also work themselves onto the list. 

I was also interested to see that there have only been 6 different players of the year in the last 9 years because Reich won it 4 times and Hauben won it twice (there were, however, 2 players of the year in 2006).

Chris Jeffries.  Jared Jeffries played for Indiana.

You are right, sorry.

[ILive4This]

UAA 1-2 in this weeks poll.... all I can say is I cannot wait for the conference season.

[ADL70]

And receiving 1 vote...CWRU!!!  While they are 7-2 (won only 5 games all last year) and have benefitted by the return of Brad Sutton as sixth man and two freshman guards, I still don't see them as more than a top-of-second division team.  Perhaps their best win was over Kenyon that took Capital to OT.

[ILive4This]

So it has been a while since anyone posted in here, so I figured I'll get it going. What key injuries still exist in the UAA, heading into the conference season after the winter Break. Clearly Wallis is out for the season, and no firm answer on Deluca just yet, any others? At this point if we are to reevaluate the conference, how would everyone predict the end results. does Wash U still beat UR and Brandeis at home, or do both these teams sweep the Bears. Assuming UR goes unbeaten at the Palestra, do they take the sweep in Waltham, or do the top two teams split the conference. Any predictable upsets?

[Jacketfan2011]

I noticed the other night that UR's Chmeloweic didn't have any cast or tape of any kind on his hand so I would assume he is on track to return after the break.  And Juron is getting increased minutes as he recovers from a preseason knee injury. 

[y_jack_lok]

Tyler Nading did not play for Wash U yesterday against Coe. However, I don't think it's anything serious.