Busy Tuesday night as we head into the holiday. By the way, first Team of the Week posted. That’s the longest-running feature on this site, by the way, since the 1997-98 season, when we took over Division III Basketball Online.
This is what the season is going to be like for Lincoln. Too much traveling to be consistent from night to night. A couple people raised comparisons to Savannah Art & Design (which left the NCAA a couple years back) and that seems to be a reasonable model.
Pretty good night for Wittenberg considering Dan Russ didn’t score through the first 25 minutes.
Kudos to D-III coaching alumnus Pat Flannery (was Lebanon Valley, where he won a national title, now at Bucknell) for his team’s upset of Syracuse. In other D-I news, Lafayette needed a 21-7 run to put away Alvernia, 86-80.
The Springfield men lost to Tufts 72-71. That means they’re 0-3, with the three losses by one, two and three points.
The Eastern Connecticut women bounced back nicely from their pasting at the hands of No. 3 Bowdoin, knocking off No. 13 Emmanuel 65-55.
Light schedule tomorrow: No. 22 DePauw at Fontbonne highlights the women’s schedule, and Carleton travels to No. 22 Aurora on the men’s side, with Carthage playing Concordia-Irvine, an NAIA power, in Hawaii. Plus La Sierra plays at Cal Baptist. If two teams play a game and nobody reports the score, does it make a sound?
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Well, we didn’t have anything that rivaled Michigan State-Gonzaga, but there were plenty of good games…
Some non-top 25’s that caught the eye
Men’s side there were 2 bubble 25’s that dropped close ones, probably keeping them ‘bubblicious’ (for lack of a better term…Hardin-Simmons edged Southwestern at home. Those 2 teams look about even from what I’ve read about their games the last 2 years, and Trinity, which won twice at F&M, lost a squeaker to ECSU
Women’s side…I remember noting Ithaca’s early-season struggles last year, but the Bombers turned out just fine, as their non-league sked warmed them up for an E8 title and a tough loss to Southern Maine in NCAAs. Well, the Bombers are 0-2 (with Bowdoin and Southern Maine on the sked in back-to-back days just prior to New Year’s), but I’m guessing they’ll be alright.
St. Norbert went 1-5 against the WIAC last season but picked off Eau-Claire last night. Whitewater and the real toughie against Stout await.
My two-cents (plink, plink)…
Montclair State hands NJCU a 7-point loss on the men’s side and a 17-point loss on the women’s side as a welcome back gift. The Gothic Knights were outside the conference last year after trying to get into the Skyline.
Scranton’s Randy Arnold continues to shine with 24 points in the win over Clarkson. That’s a looooong way to go for a week night game.
I don’t want to make a big deal of it, but the WIAC has scuffled a little bit out of the gates. No. 13 Whitewater men lose to Loras…No. 2 Oshkosh men to Lawrence…Oshkosh women to Carroll.
A little note on the MSU NJCU game. Gian Paul Gonzales of MSU had a career game, 40 points 18 or 18 from the line. I did not see the game but they must have been feeding him in the post and without Abe Williams on the roster NJCU has no one that can really defend him inside. Just guessing but the Knights were probably doubling up on him and he drew a lot of fouls. Reading the press release it sounded like a good game, typical NJCU MSU game.