MBB: Southern Athletic Association

[albatross]

SAA Dude how am i just now reading these? I got a good chuckle out of these reviews...

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Men's first regional rankings this season: http://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2018/02/men-regional-rankings-first

[SAA DUDE]

SAA Dude how am i just now reading these? I got a good chuckle out of these reviews...

Sahhhhhh Albatross welcome to the party

[SAA DUDE]

Where Were We...

Hey there. Last time we talked was February 2nd, Moving Weekend, I checked my phone that night in hopes of seeing my picks succeeding and those lynx cats rolling. I blacked out. Twelve days later i've mustered up enough courage to figure out what the hell is the SAA. I actually was flu ridden and the doc said no bad basketball for at least 5-7 days. I have a strict listen to doc policy because of my inevitable obesity sprinkled with diabetes. We;re gonna walk the path of each teams treacherous and inconsistent journey since that dreadful first weekend in february and get back to where we are now, 3 days away from the final regualr season games with the title and hosting responsibilties on the. The d3 world is watching with baited breath. HA! Thats just me mouth breathing in front of my laptop.

My Picks Record from 2/2/18 Spread: 1-3; Totals: 1-3; Overall: 2-6 (Spread: 1-7; Totals: 3-5; Overall: 4-12)
(I am the Berry College of Picks SHEEEEESH)

Rhodes College Lynx- Since 2/2 the lynx kittens are 3-1. Not too shabby. Wins over Fraudlethorpe, Millscraps and BS College. The lone loss is  absolutely BRUTAL against berry at berry where the lynx seemed to be throwing the ball out of the cage instead of in to the hoop. Berry DIDNT MAKE A THREE AND ONLY TOOK ONE! Its 2016 berry adapt or die, im triggered. The fighting degeorges recovered nicely getting a YUGE 3 point victory over the petrels followed by a weekend of defending home court with Ws over the hot majors and the CBHS Panthers. Are the young house cats peaking at the right time? I'm worrisome since we are the only team in conference to lose to both berry & hendrix besides those two bottom feeders themselves. A fourth straight victory would be nice as the warriors hit up Mallory Gym this saturday.

Berry College- The root of my flu. Since 2/2 the Vikes are 1-3. Their lone win versus the aforementioned lynx at home. Looks like they lit rome to ash on friday and saturday instead of burning the midnight oil studying hendrix as their winning streak was haulted at 1. Tough one there trying to gain momentum, need to grab the W when you got some warriors locked in a cage. Berry went on to fall victim to the centre/sewanee trip, struggling to stay competitve against the top 2 teams in the conference. They take on oglethorpe saturday at home, but don't worry theyve solidified there rock bottom position.

Hendrix Warriors- Since 2/2 Thaddeus and the boy's are 1-3. Big win over berry in order to not lose the fantasy basketball league losers bet. BUt were unable to hang with oglethopre or bs college. They gave the majors all they could handle at home, but it was too little too late as mr. sullivan fought off the pesky warrior clan. Hendrix marches (literally) in to memphis looking to get the season sweep vs. rhodes.

Oglethorpe Stormy Petrels- I hate this team so much. They are so fake and so predictable its mind blowing. I knew theyd piss away the top spot right when they heard greg masons tap shoes creeping up behind them. Since 2/2 The ponders of the blacktop are 1-3. The lone victory over the warriors, close losses to rhodes at home and centre on the road, but an absolute massacre in sewannee,TN. Tigers eat birds apparently. Petrels fly to Rome saturday for the finale, tough scout for berry seeing no one knows which oglethorpe team is gonn show up.

Center Praying Colonels- I'm done with this dog and pony show spelling center, centre. It's unbelievable the amount of real estate Prime minister Mason owns in my brain that i've spelled it their way for 8 years. Since 2/2 the colonels have completely hit their stride posting a 4-0 record and sticking their lawn chair atop the SAA standings. Wins vs bs college, millsaps, oglethorpe and berry. A couple of close ones in their to give the kids a chance, but same song different year as all 7 teams are looking up and centers fat ass is blocking the sun all for themselves. What's that? It's not over? Sewannee comes to town saturday for the finale to try and steal the top spot and host, how exciting!

BS College Panthers- Hand up, havent watched these cats at all, i'll watch them vs rhodes today if its ever up on synergy. Since 2/2 they'd stood pat in that coveted 4 spot going 1-3, beating who they should and losing to rhodes plus the top teams. They're just so blah, its all deneka and a bunch of guys i don't know. Dont think theyre talented enough to beat anyone better than them. They go to the hanger dome to take on the majors. This game is a big one for the panthers, a must win in order to keep the 4 seed and stay away from the host school in the tournament.

Sewannee Tigers- Since 2/2 adrian thomas and company have gone 3-1. A tough loss to the red hot majors, but bounced back to win three straight, at BSC, vs oglethorpe and vs. berry. A huge weekend for the tigers, their conference season opening win vs center and their record have put them in position to win the regular season and host the tournament if a win should develop saturday afternoon. Defense travels and they're the best in the league, both teams are hot and it should be a great one in danville.

Millsaps Majors- Since 2/2 the majors have cooled off a little posting a 2-2 record, wins over sewanee and hendrix, losses to rhodes and center. The most dangerous team in the conference resides in jackson, ms and saturday at home versus the panthers is a big one in terms of momentum heading in to tournament play.

Updated Standings/Tourney Outlook Next on FOX SPORTS D3

[SAA DUDE]

Saturday Night Fever

First off, how pissed are you right now if your a SAA coach not named Mason or Bubba, im mean Hedgepath. Everyone else is sitting at home, booking busses and hotels for 2 of the worst places in the world, danville and sewanee, because hosting won't be determined until saturday evening. Sewanee has 1 lodge, not even a hotel and danville is just so, ugh we're sick of this place. Oglethorpe let everyone down, atlanta plenty of hotels and eateries, it's never been in atlanta EVER. Only downside is traffic, which sucks but i digress. Last little rant, this problem is maybe avoided or determined earlier if the SAA commissioners office wasnt so dumb. These games on saturday should have been played on saturday january 27th to break up the conference schedule right in the middle, but instead everyone had everyone play the same teams on back to back weekends. Sad!

Here's what things look like as of now:

1. Center 11-2
2. Sewanee 10-3
3. Oglethorpe 8-5
4. Birmingham Southern 7-6
5. Rhodes 6-7
6. Millsaps 5-8
7. Hendrix 3-10
8. Berry 2-11

Let's start from the bottom up- Berry will be the 8th seed and Hendrix will be the 7th seed no matter what happens saturday. If hendrix loses and berry wins, hendrix wins the head to tiebreaker, so everyone will stay put at 7 and 8. Millsaps owns the 6th seed all by themselves and will not move up if they win and rhodes losses becasue rhodes will own the head to head tiebreaker, so the majors will stay at 6. The 4 and 5 is a little interesting because rhodes and BSC could flip, but in the grand scheme of things it truly doesnt matter because whoever wins that matchup will inevitably play the 1 seed in the semis of the tournament, so what these two are cheering for is whoever they want to host. Anyway, if rhodes wins and bsc loses rhodes would take the 4 seed and the panthers would drop to the 5th seed. If rhodes loses they remain at 5. There is a scenario where oglethorpe loses and bsc wins, they would tie, they split the regular season head to head, so we move to record vs top teams and oglethorpe is 1-1 versus both sewanee and centre while the panthers are 0-2 against those teams, which results in oglethorpe remaining in the 3 seed no matter the outcomes. Drumrollllllllllllllll, we head to danville, Cantucky where the SAA title hangs in the balance, the grandaddy of them all. Easy outcome, center wins the game they win the league outright and will host, the fazoli's owners rejoice. We dont want that, we want drama, if sewanee steals the finale they would tie center record wise, both teams would have to put a big fat ugly CO- next to champions on their regular season banner, but sewanee would claim the true prize winning the head to head tie breaker and hosting for the first time since Ulysses S. Grant was in office. Sewanee is a bloggers paradise for this tournament, chaos, middle school gym where anyone can win, drunk rabid fans, lack of lodging, food and water. Oh i just might have to go cover it on sight (My venmo is open).

P.S. For you out there with carpel's tunnel and cant click back to page 10 of this virtual SAA watercooler to see my predicted final standings, let me refresh your ethernet cables:

How Me thinks this will play out:

1.) Sewanee (11-3)
2.) Centre (11-3)
3.) Oglethorpe (10-4)
4.) BSC (9-5)
5.) Rhodes (7-7)
6.) Millsaps (3-11)
7.) Hendrix (3-11)
8.) Berry (2-12)

I frickin nailed it. Ya my spreads and picks suck blah blah im not here to talk about the past becasue i got this ish right. My records are a little off, didnt see BSC sinking to be closer to rhodes (probably should have seen that coming), definitely didnt see millsaps emerging, but all my teams are in the right spots i just need a Tiger victory so bad to get one thing right this season.

Spreads and totals will be out friday at 2pm olympic time. Happy researching!

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Week 2 Regional Rankings are out: http://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2018/02/men-regional-rankings-second

[SAA DUDE]

The (Regular) Season Finale

We're just over 24 hours away from one of the most infatuating regular seasons in SAA lore to come to a close. These 8 teams are scratching and clawing for momentum and barrack obama's coveted supply of hope. The anticipation of a champion is paramount. Tomorrow, no more than 240 people will huddle around their computers to cheer on their squads, with one tab open to the SAA website checking on that Centre vs sewanee score and another tab on greyhoundbus.edu with tickets ready for either danville, KY jelly and sewanee, no ten's i see. Lets get to the matchups!

My Picks Record Spread: 1-7; Totals: 3-5; Overall: 4-12

Oglethorpe @ Berry 8pm EST- The petrels begin to solidify their fakeness tomorrow. They will lose, they will self combust, they will not win  a tournament game, the connor smith era will die in flames that are not his shooting (dis)ability.

Place your Bet: Oglethorpe -2.5, o/u 130.5 (My Pick: Berry Wins 73-69)

Hendrix @ Rhodes 5pm CST- Revenge game for the lynx. They will continue to roll winning their 4th game in a row heading in to the tournament where they remain the defending champs. The real question looming around this one is "Is SAE presents The Jungle Party on friday or saturday?" Let's hope its on friday for the warriors sake.

Place your Bet: Rhodes -5.5, o/u 195 (My Pick: Rhodes 110-101)

BS College @ Millsaps 4pm EST- The majors defense is really and so is the threat of the hanger dome. I see BSC slipping in this one, giving rhodes the 4 spot, but they could be dangerous next weekend. I got a sickly 2013 feeling about these millsaps boys.

Place your Bet: BSC -3, o/u 144 (My Pick: Millsaps 74-72)

Sewanee @ Center 2pm CST- Mr. Mason has this whole thing figured out. Schedules the early game duh, what a genius. He wins, gets his saturday party started before everyone else is done with warm-ups, plus his guys get more rest than everyone in the conference, ole pop trick. They lose, first dibs on the luxurious sewanee hotels and his players get a head start on some rest, remarkable coaching. Everyone in the SAA will have this one on to see where the top two seeds fall, ratings thru the roof.

Place your Bets: Center -3, o/u 141 (My Pick: Sewanee wins 71-69)

I'm so torn, if sewanee wins my standings are right, but if center wins i may be able to go to danville for the tournament. The age old question of would you rather be right or go to danville? You choose.

GOOD LUCK ACES!

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

The NCAA men's basketball regional advisory committees released their third set of rankings, and as expected, the Atlantic Region was among those getting shuffled. Here's the full list: http://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2018/02/men-regional-rankings-third

[SAA DUDE]

Regular Season Recap

The stage was set early afternoon on Saturday, with Center frolicking their way to another SAA title (This may be their first outright win in the SAA era). Let's see how our bets did and get a look at that bracket which im sure everyone has filled out days ago.

This Week: Spread (2-2) Totals (2-2) BIG TIME WEEK BABY All Time: Spread (3-9) Totals (5-7) Overall (8-16)

Princess Oglethorpe 58 @ Berry Bad Vikings 69 (Nice)- YAWN, called this one, i hope the petrels only booked one night in danville because they just flat out suck at being resilient.

Hendrix 112 @ Rhodes 115- Wow, rhodes almost pissed this one away. Senior day up 20 in the second half, i hear multiple tiny bombs opening up during the broadcast. Thats when the warriors made their move claiming the lead with under two minutes. I couldnt have been more heated, i wish the lynx would have just lost since they didnt bother to cover. Darst saves the day, grabs the 4 seed.

BS-College 61 @ Hanger Dome 79- Idk if BS writes short recaps because they lost or becasue they have a limited vocabulary. I'll take the latter. Called this one, SAA DUDE on fire from the moneyline. The majors love march and they love madness. Hot seat, tim wise curse. The panthrs are trash, straight milos hamburgers trash

CHoking Tiger 64 @ Hidden Colonel 76- Sewanee, let me down more, you cant. I needed to be right, needed to get this standing W for my credibility with readers (especially albatross) and you were right there. for three quarters you were so tough, you saw that title in you grasp you take a 3 point lead with 9min to go. Then you dookied your shorts because you saw the siloette of a mountain of amn taking a fierce swig of a diet coke resting on his scorers table. That man was outright champion gregory P. mason. I can't believe i doubted the colonels in this one.

TOurnament Matchups:

Session 1
(8)Berry vs. (1)Center 1pm EST
(5)BS-College vs. (4)Rhodes 3pm EST

Session 2
(7)Hendrix vs. (2)Sewanee 6pm EST
(6)Millsaps vs. (3)Oglethorpe 8pm EST

This week sucked, had to decide if i wanted to make my way down to Danville to get my live coverage on for the fans. Asked my boss if I could take off work he said "what is a SAA and if its not a conference working on your procrastination then gtfo of my face". I said whatever bro i dont have the media budget available anyway. However if i get one damn response to this post i'll create a twitter account and live tweet the games (please soemoen im so bored at work)

NEXT UP

SEASON AWARDS
MY BRACKET

[SAA DUDE]

"FIRST TEAM ALL SAA"- In my Tony Allen Voice

It is absolute horse manure that i dont have an official ballot this year for the SAA voting. I wrote to the commissioner and said

"bro literally NO ONE is covering this ish, have you heard of the National BAsketball Association? The AP Poll? The academy? All voted on by the media aka journo's like myself. I will be dismissing myself from the tournament festivities until my voice is heard. Good day, #useD3dontletD3useyou"

Every year the coaches of the SAA place their votes for Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Newcomer of the Year 1st Team All Conference, 2nd Team All-Conference, Honorable Mention and Coach of the Year. These results will be announced tomorrow before the first game. I will place my votes here, I will not give reasons you must trust my knowledge and research.

Player of the Year is Adrian Thomas, Sewanee: 18.5 ppg, 9.6 reb, 1.6 asts, 56.8% FG, 73.8 FT, 2nd Place in the SAA, Just an absolute BEAST

Defensive Player of the Year is Elijah Hirsch, Berry: 8.4 reb, 2.2 blks, 1.1 stls, Berry was 1st in blocks, 2nd in steals and middle of the pack in points allowed and opponent field goal percentage. I hate putting a kid from a losing team here, but those stats are undeniably impressive defensively.

Newcomer of the Year is Luke Smith, Sewanee: 15.5 ppg, 4.6 reb, 4.3 asts, 43.3% FG, 37.5% 3FG, Sewanee was 2nd in conference. This was hard, Kam Brasfield put up big time numbers, but winning matters when looking at these awards. Hendrix has another frosh who put up numbers too. This always happens but then they still are a bottom tier team. Weird stuff, classic arkansas.

Coach of the Year is Mick Hedgepeth, Sewanee: 1st year coach, right in the mix of winning the league/hosting the tournament, 14-10 (10-4) record, lost two 1st team All SAA players from a year ago, second best defense in the conference.

1st Team All Conference

Adrian Thomas          Sewanee
Harrison Deneka       BSC
Luke Smith               Sewanee
Art Walker                Center
Will Perry                 Oglethorpe

2nd Team All Conference

Perry Ayers          Center
Michael Sullivan    Millsaps
Elijah Hirsch         Berry
Kam Brasfield       Hendrix
Daniel Darst         Rhodes

BONUS AWARD

The Sportsmanship Man of the Year is Jeff Cleanthes!!!!!!!!!

   

[SAA DUDE]

BRACKETOLOGY

LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, THE TIME HAS COME TODAY, DEGEORGE WILL LEAD THE WAY, OGLETHORPE WILL LAY TO WASTE, CENTRE SHOWS BERRY NO GRACE, 4 OTHER TEAMS WILL PARTICIPATE AS WELL, blah blah ok i dont know where i was going with that ****. Guys, guys... its here, its tourney time, the greatest weekend of them all. i'm sure you, ALL OF YOU, have been waiting with baited breathe for my bracket. I hope not because i'm waiting until the very last second to expose mine. WHo's cinderalla? Chalk, chalk, chalk? Who's hot whos not? Historically a tourney team? All questions you gotta figure out before 1pm est. All answers that cha boi has in my pea brain. Lets break ROUND ONE down!

(8)Berry vs. (1)Centre 1pm EST- The host team could roll out the B squad because that should be #notworried about these viking squad. I'm sure the cage was all foggy from the heat and sweat as they worked on screwing in lightbulbs and pushing a brick from one end of the floor to the other. Greg mason opened synergy, clicked berry, then slammed his laptop shut and cackled before he saw their miserable stats. The 1 seed rolls, berry gets a head start on oglethorpe back ON THAT MIDNIGHT TRAIN TO GEORGIA

Place your Bet: Center -8, o/u 152 (My Pick: Center Wins 82-71)

(5)BSC vs. (4)Rhodes 3pm EST- The Panthers and Petrels are cut from the same cloth of mass basketball confusion. This could be one of the best games of the day, which it should be because both these teams have struggled with inconsistencies. Rhodes is rolling with 4 straight wins as BS college is coming off a road loss to the saps. this series is knotted at 1-1 and the rubbermatch cums when it matters most. Rhodes got the best of the panthers in the ship last year, I see a repeat offense by the lynx, ending the panthers life early, tell the center AD to call peta.

Place your Bet: Rhodes -2, o/u 192.5 (My Pick: Rhodes Wins 103-100)

*Pretzel Break*

(7)Hendrix vs. (2)Sewanee 6pm EST- Last time the warriors were the 7th seed they won the whole daggonit thing, too soon to taalk about it or for hendrix to do it again? Much too soon, the young warriors have a very monta ellis/adonal foyle feel to them, actually its more like a stench. See ya next year conway crew, sewanee is taking hardware and your hearts right out of your chest. Cinderella found her shoe and is sprinting west for an early spring break at he ozarks.

Place your Bet: Sewanee -8, o/u 147 (My Pick: Sewanee Wins 80-66)

(6)Millsaps vs. (3)Oglethorpe 8pm EST- 5 years ago TO THE DAY, a determined tim wise and a spunky lefty from lafayette walked into alumni gym in danville, ky and took down a giant. Today the majors will do the same (substitute giant for fraud) behind a storm of moment and talent not seen in jackson for some time. If ive said it once ive said it a thousand times, oglethorpe implodes and the majors squeeze into cinderellas dress, time is a flat circle.

Place your Bet: Oglethorpe -1, o/u 141 (My Pick: Millsaps Wins 68-64)

MY BRACKET:
(ATTACHED)

[pbrooks3]

What an incredible tournament outcome with the 7th & 8th seeds facing off in Sunday's final.  Neither team has a .500 winning % but both Berry & Hendrix have displayed grit.  D3 may not think much of it.  However, it shows the relative parity of this year's SAA.  Congrats to the victors!

[pbrooks3]

Most folks on this board know of my affinity for the Centre Colonels and the consistently good teams of Coach Mason over the years. Mason's guys took awhile to get it going this season. However, the team found its groove mid season & ran off a string of league wins to close out the regular season with another title.  I saw evidence in a couple of the late season tilts that the team was "leaking oil".   So while a loss to the 8th seeded Berry Vikings was unexpected on their home court in the tournament, it was not a total shocker to me.  Coaches at all levels & varying experiences often struggle to keep their teams engaged & motivated, particularly when it seems to count most for the average fan. This is part of what makes the sport compelling.  Centre boys just peaked about 2 weeks early in 2017-18.

[pbrooks3]

Congrats to Berry on going from the "outhouse to the penthouse" in 3 well-played tournament games @ Centre to advance to the D3 1st round.  A career game by the Vikings' Caleb Johnson was a contributing factor to propelling the team to their final victory over Hendrix.

[BerryViking92]

Wow, what a great tournament for Berry.  Kids played their hearts out.  Very, very happy for the seniors.   I am a bit confused as to why we didn't do better in the regular season, considering how we played against Oglethorpe on senior night and obviously in this tournament .... but I guess it is always good to peak at the right time.  Hats off to Hendrix as well.

Honestly, not a very good season for the SAA as a whole.  Hoping all the teams improve.  Also hoping Berry can build on this.  Losing lots of seniors, but the big kid inside gets another year.

I watched the game yesterday online ... truly there are few things better than an exciting basketball tournament.