MBB: University Athletic Association

[Hugenerd]

CMU holds on 70-65, overcoming extremely poor shooting in the second half.  They had lots of chances to make this one not so close but couldnt make many shots.

[pradam]

There's no reason DeLuca and Hollins can't play well together.

unless the coaches, who see them play everyday in practice, have decided that they do not play well together.

Alright, fine, let me amend that statement.  There's no reason that makes sense to me why they can't play well together.  And saying "the coaches said so, so it must be true" strikes me as a pretty lame copout, because then what's the point of questioning anything they do?

I know why the coaches think it'll work.  As a Justice editor, my reporters and I talk to them all the time.  My reporter heard that explanation with his own two ears.  Players have explained it to me.  And I still don't think it makes sense.

Alan, first of all, good to talk to you in a venue other than right before last year's Amherst game, where it's way too loud to hear each other.  Everybody I talk to references Hollins' foul issues, but I don't really get where it comes from.  Last year, Hollins averaged 2.3 fouls per game in about 24 minutes per game.  Per-minute, that amounts to less than 4 fouls per 40 minutes.  By comparison, Steve Hill, the other starter, averaged 2.9 fouls in 23 minutes per game. Hill had a higher foul rate, yet Hollins is the one tagged with the foul-prone label?  Sure, there were some games, like the first Rochester one if memory serves me, where Hollins got into foul trouble, but more often than not, they took him out of the game early just because (the Chicago game at Brandeis is the best example.  Brandeis was something like -13 when Hollins was out of the game, and Terrell wasn't struggling with fouls).  

All of the above can be argued, but it's harder to argue that Hollins wasn't a huge part of that team's success.  Because of his scoring and passing ability, Brandeis could actually run a coherent offensive set without DeLuca.  Hollins was also Brandeis' best rebounder.  (He grabbed 8 in 17 minutes Tuesday).  Without Terrell Hollins, Brandeis doesn't get anywhere close to the Elite 8.  And now, the goal is to limit his minutes?  That's why I said it's overcoaching.  There may be several logical reasons to keep Terrell on the bench, but the fact that Hollins was one of their instrumental players last year (both individually and for the team) is enough for me.  He and DeLuca can figure out how to co-exist.

In your own words, Hollins could "maximize his output every game" if he played against second-line players.  First of all, the same could be theoretically true for any player, so why does Hollins get special mention?  Second of all, how is Hollins going to get into a rhythm when he's playing fewer minutes?  Not to mention, those minutes are spaced out and erratic.  When Hollins gets into a rhythm, nobody can stop him inside.  Not even first-line guys.  Just look at what he did last year.  His production did not change against top of the line teams.  In fact, often times, it got better.  When you commit to him being the guy that destroys other teams' second units, you're committing to playing him fewer minutes because starters play more than reserves.  And it makes no sense to play your second-best player fewer minutes.
 
The starting thing isn't the end of the world -- though when you commit to not starting a guy, that's four minutes right there he's not helping you in any way.  If you want to bring him in for some sort of vaguely-defined "energy boost," then whatever.  But 17 minutes?  Terrell Hollins had 0 fouls Tuesday.  He's a second-team all-league guy and would have been first-team if he got more than 24 minutes a game last year.  Why play him less than half the game?  If he misses the first four minutes and still gets 30 a contest, I'm not upset.  Even 24 is manageable for me, because of all of Brandeis' talent up front.  But 17 minutes is pretty ridiculous, particularly against a team that's small like Lasell.  

I realize this is how Brandeis played two years ago, which is something their manager told me when I asked him about Terrell's minutes.  But Terrell's much better than he was then, as last year proved.  It's not two years ago.  I also hear a lot about Terrell's lack of conditioning, which is obviously something the coaches know better than me, but I also never noticed Terrell's production falling off late in games last year.  

(By the way, I don't think Brandeis lost because of their defense.  68 points in a fast-paced game isn't so terrible.  Neither is allowing some guy who wasn't much of a shooter last year to hit 7 of 10 threes.  Sometimes, you force the ball to who you want and they just have a hot shooting night.  I think they lost because of their offense.  They didn't shoot particularly well, didn't establish the post game and didn't punish Lasell inside like they did in the 08 tourney.  That's what everyone's told me.  And that's another reason why I'm peeved that Terrell only played 17 minutes).  

[Hugenerd]

I think its going to take Brandeis some time to mesh.  They definitely have the talent, but they may not get it going for a while.  They have another tough test this saturday against WPI, who beat RIC (ranked #16 last week) on the road tonight.

On the other hand, if WPI takes out RIC and Brandeis (#9) in the same week, they may vault themselves into the top 25 (0 votes last week). 

[Gregory Sager]

(2)  Here is a message for the Lasell athletic department:  Please upgrade your facility on at least a technological aspect so that someone can do video and/or audio webcasts and do live stats of your home games.  WBRS FM really wanted to at least audiocast the game, but Lasell did not have the technology for the radio station to come in and do it.  Lasell has a very small gym-- the seating capacity is even smaller than Memorial Hall at Plattsburgh State University-- at best you can seat about 300 people at the basketball court level and put about another 300 people standing room only on the upper track level to look down upon the court-- assuming of course,  the standing room goes about 2 to 3 deep on all 4 sides of the upper level.   Lasell placed the total attendance of Tuesday's game at 812, and you could not fit any more people in there.  Lasell had to use its entire campus police force inside the gym just to provide security for the game.  As for restrooms on the upstairs level for spectators, the men's public restroom only had 1 toilet.  Period.

Allen, be fair. Lasell College has an endowment of $12,500,000. That's chicken feed, although Lasell is by no means the poorest school in D3. Schools that have such limited financial resources have to make do with what they've got; deferred maintenance is usually a bigger concern than expansion or facilities upgrades. Also, Lasell has almost no history of intercollegiate sports. It was a women's junior college for almost the entirety of its history; it didn't become a four-year school until 1989, and it didn't admit men until the 1997-98 school year (Lasell is still best known for its fashion design major). It's basically a school that started from scratch very recently as far as intercollegiate sports are concerned.

(Having once dated a Lasell alumna, I have a bit of insight into that school's situation.)

You're an alumnus of Brandeis, a school that has an endowment of almost $700,000,000. You're used to all the amenities that a D3 school can offer. The Brandeis athletic department is reflective of this; the Judges have had perhaps their greatest success in fencing, a sport that rivals equestrian as the most elitist of intercollegiate sports (only thirteen D3 schools have fencing programs, and most of those thirteen schools are extremely wealthy). How about a little understanding for the institutional underdogs that have holes in their pockets and eat beans out of the can cooked over a Sterno flame?

[deiscanton]

Greg--

I know that Lasell is not a well-endowed school.  What I was thinking of is that relative to 5 or 10 years ago,  web cameras are relatively cheap, a service like Ustream or EZStream is very easy to get a subscription on, (for free or for a relatively low cost per event) and laptops can come with wireless or portable broadband modem subscriptions (a/k/a Verizon) to access the Internet easily these days-- the gym would not necessarily have to be hard-wired for Internet access to be available these days-- nor would the set-up costs be that expensive.  It is indeed very possible (with the research) for at least a video feed of the event (w/out even the benefit of audio) to be sent out at a very low cost for the home institution.  (I believe that EZStream only charges at most $30 in webcast fees for 1 single event.)  I think that live coverage of the big events for a small school such as Lasell would be well worth the cost required-- especially if Lasell wants to play against nationally ranked powers from outside New England, but even for home games for Lasell with opponents like WPI, RI College, Keene State, UMass-Dartmouth, Amherst and the rest of the NESCAC schools.  (I am also thinking in the sense that I can now watch videocasts of some d3 home basketball and/or soccer games live where a public state school such as Keene State or RI College is the home team.)

I was expressing my rant out of my frustration that there were a lot more fans on both sides who wanted to see the Brandeis at Lasell rematch than could possibly fit into that gym.  I was also trying to think about the alums of both institutions as well as those following D3Hoops on a national basis throughout the country.  Rationally, I am glad to see people like Greg who sympathize with Lasell's situation and were willing to wait until the end of the game for a post-game play-by-play report.

[Hugenerd]

CMU wins their second game of the seaon 90-77 over Wesley.

[Hugenerd]

Brandeis was unfortunately handled today by WPI.  It was a close first half but WPI increased the spread early in the second half and kept it that way.

Case was beat pretty bad at home by Bluffton (70-48). So much for Case turning it around right away.  I guess the good karma the football team has built up is not rubbing off as expected. (The CWRU football team was also handed their first loss of the season today, in the first round of NCAAs).

[Marty Peretz]

WU beats no.2 Augie in 2OT's 87-82. Thompson leads Bears with 26. Are there STILL doubters? Oh and Zach Kely goes for 18 and 10, perhaps putting some of the fears about Wash.U.'s post play to rest. This is a gutsy and deep Wash.U. team. They have a real chance to repeat.

[deiscanton]

Some thoughts from tonight:

(1)  Congratulations to the Wash U Bears on their impressive victory tonight at Augustana.   Also, great props to Chicago for playing Augustana tough a few days ago. 

(2)  As for Brandeis,  it seems so far that the experiment of playing Terrell Hollins off the bench is hurting Hollins and the team more than it is helping.  Of course, with the way the refs were calling fouls in the Brandeis v WPI match, it may not have mattered tonight whether Terrell Hollins was starting or was playing off the bench.  Brandeis as a team was whistled for 32 fouls, with Kenny Small and Terrell Hollins fouling out, while WPI as a team was whistled for 23 fouls.  Obviously, both WPI and Brandeis were playing aggressive defense, but if the refs are calling both teams for a combined 55 fouls, something is up-- either the refs did not really make terrific calls tonight, or the teams were not adjusting their games to the officiating.

Anyway, if anyone thought that Terrell Hollins's stat line from the Lasell game was ugly, his stat line from the WPI game seems uglier.  Terrell Hollins comes off the bench around the 15 min mark of the first half, and gets whistled for 2 quick fouls before the 10 min mark of the first half, thereby forcing him to the bench.  Hollins picks up Foul #3 with 17:47 to go in the game, Foul #4 with 9:31 to go, and he fouls out with 4:25 to go in regulation.  (FYI, I attended the Brandeis women's game tonight, but I had my laptop with me-- the women's game ended before the men's game, so I was able to follow the remainder of the men's game.)

Stat line for Hollins:  3 pts, 6 turnovers in 12 min of action. 

[Titan Q]

As I said, the key to stopping Wash U is containing Zack Kelly...and it looks like Augustana did not do that tonight.

[pabegg]

From the sounds of it on the broadcast, it was quite a game in Rock Island last night. Kind of strange following it on the broadcast and live stats, as live stats would occasionally be well ahead of the broadcast and occasionally somewhat behind.

Some thoughts on a couple of points raised in the down time of the broadcast.

One is that Augustana would have a tougher league schedule ahead of them because the CCIW is deeper than the UAA at the bottom; in effect there would be a couple of nights off for WashU when the bottom teams have to travel to St. Louis. Interesting. The flip side of that is there are no easy road games in the UAA, as even Case and Emory have been trouble for the top teams on their home courts. Generally I think the two leagues are pretty comparable with an upper hand for the UAA recently based on the teams at the top (but not this year).

The other point was that "it's a shame they can't have the rematch in Salem, but these teams will probably meet earlier because of geographical considerations." While this seems true, it's easy enough to keep WashU and Augustana apart. For example, with the 2008 bracket, you could switch Augustana into the pod with Lawrence, Wheaton, Loras, and UW-Whitewater and set up the final four matchup (in the spot that Hope got). While it depends on who's in the tournament and who has earned the right to host, the committee can probably do this if they want.

[BUBeaverFan]

A great early season win for the Bears.  AT had a strong performance.  Tyler Nading seemed to start a little slow but picked it up in crunch time.  21 turnovers probably makes Coach Edwards a little nervous.  Zach Kelly will need this type of performance on a regular basis to keep teams honest on interior defense. Cam Smith continues to work hard and contribute in all facets of the game. Cam is very tough to keep off of the glass. Another early season test in Anderson on Friday night when they take on Aurora.  This will be my first live look at the Bears this season. Go Bears!

[fcnews]

Congrats to the Bears. Keep that #1 in the STL.

[Titan Q]

The other point was that "it's a shame they can't have the rematch in Salem, but these teams will probably meet earlier because of geographical considerations."

I think that conversation is extremely premature.  All we know for sure at this point is that Augustana and Wash U are two very even teams.  But whether they are the #1/#2 teams in Division III, #4/#5, or #9/10, we really don't know at this point.  Remember, Augustana is not even the CCIW preseason favorite per the coaches poll - Wheaton is.

These are two great teams, but whether or not a tournament meeting before Salem would be unfair is something we won't have a better handle on until much later in the season.

[Pat Coleman]

From the sounds of it on the broadcast, it was quite a game in Rock Island last night. Kind of strange following it on the broadcast and live stats, as live stats would occasionally be well ahead of the broadcast and occasionally somewhat behind.

Some thoughts on a couple of points raised in the down time of the broadcast.

One is that Augustana would have a tougher league schedule ahead of them because the CCIW is deeper than the UAA at the bottom; in effect there would be a couple of nights off for WashU when the bottom teams have to travel to St. Louis. Interesting. The flip side of that is there are no easy road games in the UAA, as even Case and Emory have been trouble for the top teams on their home courts. Generally I think the two leagues are pretty comparable with an upper hand for the UAA recently based on the teams at the top (but not this year).

The other point was that "it's a shame they can't have the rematch in Salem, but these teams will probably meet earlier because of geographical considerations." While this seems true, it's easy enough to keep WashU and Augustana apart. For example, with the 2008 bracket, you could switch Augustana into the pod with Lawrence, Wheaton, Loras, and UW-Whitewater and set up the final four matchup (in the spot that Hope got). While it depends on who's in the tournament and who has earned the right to host, the committee can probably do this if they want.

It's easy to do but this men's basketball committee has shown very little desire to do so.

I agree with the assessment of the UAA and CCIW (heck, I made it, right?) But I wouldn't think there are any easy road games in the CCIW either, and maybe at best you could get one easy home game.