MBB: University Athletic Association

[Ralph Turner]

How about the NEAC with Univ. Dallas?

Actually the cost of UDallas to the NEAC is the cost to maintain the AQ until all of those provisional members can come online!  (I cannot think of a single sport in which the NEAC would get a Pool B bid.  Beating UDallas is the price of the AQ!       ) 

After looking at the fall sports, UDallas won Men's soccer and Women's Cross Country.  I think UDallas has a good chance to win both men's and women's AQ in basketball, and maybe men's golf.  The UDallas women's volleyball program joins in next season.  I think that the NEAC will be glad to have UDallas gone the minute that it no longer needs UDallas for the AQ!   

[Ralph Turner]

There are two other conferences to remember in terms of mileage.

The SCAC, Colorado College (Colorado Springs) on the West to Oglethorpe in Atlanta on the east, and Trinity in San Antonio on the south to Greencastle IN (DePauw) on the north, is 12 schools in two divisions.  (The SCAC is the UAA in concept without the plethora of airport hubs.)

The Northwest Conference is nine members from Whitworth in Spokane WA on the east to the rest of the conference on the western side of the states of Oregon and Washington.  That is about 400 miles across.

Allegheny College (Meadville, PA) and Wabash College (Crawfordsville, IN), both members of the North Coast Athletic Conference, are 455 miles apart.  Wabash has no conference opponents within 100 miles, and only two (of nine) within 180 miles.  Allegheny's nearest NCAC foe (Hiram College) is 75 miles away, and has six conference rivals more than 200 miles distant.

Thanks, David.

So, the academic types do not mind the longer travel distances of the NCAC when compared to their previous conference alignments so they achieve "like-mindedness".   

"Like-mindedness" seems to be the common factor in the UAA, the SCAC and the NCAC, even to the point of trumping geographical dispersion.

[Gregory Sager]

[

Tough teams and travel are a lethal combination.  Not familiar with the geography of the CCIW.  What are the travel distances, roughly?

Most CCIW games involve a one-to-two-hour bus or van ride. A few are shorter (Elmhurst and Wheaton, and Wheaton and North Central, are only fifteen minutes apart), some are longer (Carthage and Millikin are more than four hours apart, and Carthage and Augustana are almost four hours apart as well). I'm not downplaying the UAA experience of having to fly to distant cities and live in hotel rooms for three weekends every season, but there's a lot to be said on behalf of an airline seat if you're 6'5 that can't be said for a bus seat or a van seat. CCIW road trips are like Navy SEALS operations: You endure a long and uncomfortable ride to your target destination, you do your job in a hostile environment under very trying circumstances, and then you get out of Dodge and back to your home base as quickly as you can.

Of course, as Ralph points out, nobody has it worse than the ASC ... and the NWC and SCAC travel schemes are no picnics, either.

Really?  I'm 6'3" and there are few things I like less than crying babies and the clown in front of me deciding my legs make a nice support for his seat back during his nap.  I think I would prefer a motor coach where I got my own seat.  Unless you're saying that the CCIW guys ride those short yellow school buses.  Then I get it.   

I've traveled with the NPU men's team on a motor coach before. Trust me when I say that: a) you don't get your own seat; it's bench seating, just like every other charter bus I've ever been on; and b) the seats aren't all that comfortable, and they don't recline. On the plus side, there's no crying babies ... although, if the team lost and the coach is in the mood to yell at people, that might be worse.

[Hugenerd]

[

Tough teams and travel are a lethal combination.  Not familiar with the geography of the CCIW.  What are the travel distances, roughly?

Most CCIW games involve a one-to-two-hour bus or van ride. A few are shorter (Elmhurst and Wheaton, and Wheaton and North Central, are only fifteen minutes apart), some are longer (Carthage and Millikin are more than four hours apart, and Carthage and Augustana are almost four hours apart as well). I'm not downplaying the UAA experience of having to fly to distant cities and live in hotel rooms for three weekends every season, but there's a lot to be said on behalf of an airline seat if you're 6'5 that can't be said for a bus seat or a van seat. CCIW road trips are like Navy SEALS operations: You endure a long and uncomfortable ride to your target destination, you do your job in a hostile environment under very trying circumstances, and then you get out of Dodge and back to your home base as quickly as you can.

Of course, as Ralph points out, nobody has it worse than the ASC ... and the NWC and SCAC travel schemes are no picnics, either.

Really?  I'm 6'3" and there are few things I like less than crying babies and the clown in front of me deciding my legs make a nice support for his seat back during his nap.  I think I would prefer a motor coach where I got my own seat.  Unless you're saying that the CCIW guys ride those short yellow school buses.  Then I get it.   

I've traveled with the NPU men's team on a motor coach before. Trust me when I say that: a) you don't get your own seat; it's bench seating, just like every other charter bus I've ever been on; and b) the seats aren't all that comfortable, and they don't recline. On the plus side, there's no crying babies ... although, if the team lost and the coach is in the mood to yell at people, that might be worse.

The motor coaches were always really nice when we rode them, and their was ample space, except when we had to share a bus with the womens team going between NYU and Brandeis.  The experience of busing on an off day (for example the saturday between games in the UAA), is definitely different than busing to a game, however.  On the off day the coaches dont mind if you put a movie in over the tv system that most coaches have and there are a lot of people sleeping, playing cards, etc.  On game days though, you have to start trying to get prepared for the game mentally so, if you have a long ride, it could definitely effect your preperation.  There are pros and cons to both.

[Hugenerd]

Brandeis loses their 3rd game in a row to start the season, going down 68-62 to UMD.

CMU tied with Wooster 35-35 at the half.

[Hugenerd]

CMU beats Wooster 74-68, behind balanced scoring from Jack Anderson (19), Ryan Einwag (14), Shane Rife (13), and Corey Orourke (13).  They improve to 3-0.  CMU never trailed in the second half and led by as many as 12.

[BUBeaverFan]

WashU pulls a Houdini and escapes with a 97-89 OT win over Aurora at the Anderson University tournament. Bears went cold midway through the first half and then Aurora shot their way back in after WashU had built an 11 point lead in the second half.  Zach Kelly came up big again 25 pts. and 10 boards. Tyler Nading with 19 pts. and 11 boards,  AT with 17.  Sean Wallis with 9 assists. Bears will take on Anderson for championship.  Anderson defeated Miami-Middletown 92-88 I think.

[Marty Peretz]

Q: How do you win a game when your all-American point guard fails to hit a single field goal?
A: Have Zach Kelly score 25 points.

Kelly's productivity over the last two contests is simply astounding. I don't know how anyone will compete with the Bears if he continues to play at even one half the level he's been playing at.

Wash.U. could conceivably attain 22 or 23 wins before tournament play....early prediction: the race for the UAA runner-up trophy runs Pittsburgh...I like what I'm hearing about the Tartans.

[Gregory Sager]

WashU pulls a Houdini and escapes with a 97-89 OT win over Aurora at the Anderson University tournament. Bears went cold midway through the first half and then Aurora shot their way back in after WashU had built an 11 point lead in the second half.  Zach Kelly came up big again 25 pts. and 10 boards. Tyler Nading with 19 pts. and 11 boards,  AT with 17.  Sean Wallis with 9 assists. Bears will take on Anderson for championship.  Anderson defeated Miami-Middletown 92-88 I think.

Wow. File that one under "That's why they play the games" -- can't think of a more appropriate place.

Two things jump out at me in the box score:

* Sean Wallis went 0-7 from the field; and
* AU junior guard Dusty Magee, who over the course of his career has gone 126-332 (.380) from beyond the arc, went 4-16 (.250) from downtown in this game, including 4-14 (.286) in regulation. If his shooting hadn't been far so off his usual pace, Aurora would've pulled off the upset of the year.

[Gregory Sager]

Kelly's productivity over the last two contests is simply astounding. I don't know how anyone will compete with the Bears if he continues to play at even one half the level he's been playing at.

Huh? A winless and badly undersized Aurora team comes within an eyelash of beating Wash U, and you're saying that you don't know how anyone will compete with the Bears? Well, perhaps UAA coaches should consult with AU head coach James Lancaster, because his team obviously competed with the Bears!

Wash.U. could conceivably attain 22 or 23 wins before tournament play....early prediction: the race for the UAA runner-up trophy runs Pittsburgh...I like what I'm hearing about the Tartans.

Again, I don't quite see how you're bursting with such raging optimism that you foresee a 22-3 or 23-2 campaign for Wash U the day after it escapes with an overtime win over a team that came into the game with an 0-4 record. Is Wash U a great team? Of course it is. But your timing is bizarre, to say the least.

[Marty Peretz]

Greg,
Aurora, if I'm not mistaken, was a a tournament team last year. Wash.U. has struggled out of the blocks in each of the last few seasons. Sean is just getting his bearings after a full year away from the court and we are learning to play as a team without last year's POY. I'll take a hard fought win like this any day of the week, particularly after the way we shot the ball in the first half. It was also a day after Thanksgiving on the road, etc. If we were to struggle again today, I'd be a bit more concerned, but 4-0 without a home game to our name, is just fine...even if it did require the Bears to stave off a near upset.

We'll find out a lot about Wash.U. after they play IWU next weekend.

[Marty Peretz]

Bears win again, 70-68 over Anderson...I thought the game was at 3 central, so I tuned in for the last 5.7 seconds...I said going in that I'd be concerned if we struggled, but since Anderson's only other loss was by 2 points to no.7 Platteville, I'm going to say that I'm content with a 2 point victory on the road. 5-0 with IWU forthcoming...no one can fault Edwards for scheduling cup cake non-conference opponents and considering the early struggles of UAA teams, these early season battles could prove helpful come March.

[Darryl Nester]

After close games vs Augustana, Aurora, and Anderson, Washington should do fine for the rest of the season.  They have won convincingly against opponents whose names do not start with "A."

[Gregory Sager]

Greg,
Aurora, if I'm not mistaken, was a a tournament team last year.

The two key words in that sentence are "last" and "year". Aurora no longer has multi-year All-American Larry Welton, or any of its other top four scorers from last season. The Spartans lost about 85% of their scoring and 67% of their rebounding from last year's team.

Last year's edition of Aurora was a tournament team. This year's Aurora squad was winless going into the Wash U game.

Sean is just getting his bearings after a full year away from the court and we are learning to play as a team without last year's POY. I'll take a hard fought win like this any day of the week, particularly after the way we shot the ball in the first half.

Almost every team has issues of one form or another at this point, and in the larger scheme of things Wash U's issues are smaller than most, because the returning talent pool is both deep and experienced. But, yeah, a win -- no matter how you get it -- is always the bottom line.

It was also a day after Thanksgiving on the road, etc.

... just like it was for Aurora.

After close games vs Augustana, Aurora, and Anderson, Washington should do fine for the rest of the season.  They have won convincingly against opponents whose names do not start with "A."

Better hope, then, that Amherst isn't poised for a rematch in March.

[tommygun]

I thought it worth noting that CMU won their 18th consecutive non-conference game today.  That surprised me.  Their last three wins have been against Catholic, John Carroll, and Wooster.  Last year they beat a 21 win Gwynedd Mercy team, and a 19 win Misericoridia team in the ECAC, as well as Christopher Newport, Ohio Northern, Averett, and Capital (they beat Catholic last year as well.)  So it seems they haven't exactly been ducking people. 

I'm not really sure what any of this means, other than recently Carnegie Mellon has won a lot of non-conference games, but it seemed worth mentioning.  Wash U. has also won 18 consecutive non-conference games.  This is also an outstanding achievement as six of those wins came in last year's NCAA tournament, as many people might remember.