Okay, so I was wrong. Again.
A couple weeks back on Hoopsville, Dave McHugh asked me which teams I had ranked ahead of No. 12 Randolph-Macon, on my men’s ballot. “Ha,” I clucked, “try all of them!” As is frequently the case, hindsight set in about an hour later and I realized that was a stupid thing to say. I’ve quietly made my peace with RMC by putting them on my last ballot and singing their alma mater in a remorseful tone.
That being said, from what I heard of last night’s webcast, Justin Wansley is a beast and this team is solid. They won two games in two nights against Top 25 teams (No. 21 Lincoln and No. 18 St. John Fisher) with different styles. I can only say:
Lift the chorus, speed it onward;
Ne’er let praises fail!
Hail to thee our Alma Mater,
Randolph-Macon hail!
Elsewhere the McMurry men have had a rough three days, losing to Louisiana College (3-6) and ASC favorite Mississippi College by 23. The Christmas break comes at a good time for the Indians (6-3, 5-2) who had won six in a row before this mini-skid.
Both teams at Franklin are now 8-1 after the men beat Earlham in OT last night. The male Grizzlies, whose lone loss comes to Eckerd (9-1 in Division II), play North Central (6-0) on December 28 in Naperville in an interesting clash of teams below the radar.
And nice win for the No. 12 University of Mary Washington women yesterday morning, 68-63 over Concordia (Neb.) who has been to the NAIA Division II semifinals two of the past three seasons. It’s even nicer when you get that win in Honolulu.
Mele Kalikimaka, everyone.
Solid road trip for the McMurry Lady Indians. The Louisiana College/Mississippi College road trip is a long hard one in the ASC. With different officiating crews, 10 hour bus rides, and strange hotels which may prompt changes in your plans for lodging, your team really becomes “road warriors”. The Golden Dome at Mississippi College is as hard a venue in the ASC as there is.
The Lady Indians have a nice combination of youth, new recruits, veteran players and senior leadership. They got good games from deep into the bench. From the Hardin-Simmons game and the LaCollege/MissColl games in the last 8 days, I can see talent developing to give the Indians at least a team that may be 11-deep. Of the players of national consequence, this is a solid well balanced team. One does not wish to highlight a single player over another, no slight intended! However, Junior PG Symbri Tuttle is outstanding, and Sophomore Post Tarra Richardson will be around another 2 1/2 years
The Lady Indians will have a week off before a trip to Southern California for some SCIAC opponents. In early January, they return for the last 2 ASC-East crossover games before starting up ASC-West play, including another game at HSU and a pair against 2005 Conference champion Howard Payne. Those 3 games may draw 1500-2500 screaming fans. It should be exciting in the ASC-West! 🙂
Mele Kalikimaka
Da kine and shaka brah!
Great game between two Top 25 women’s teams in Wash. PA as #5 Capital edges #21 W&J. W&J led all but the last two minutes and led by as many as 13 with 8:00 to go. Too many mental mistakes at the end did the Presidents in. Also Capital’s experience playing more games like that was also a factor. Side note: great match up between two All Americans, W&J’s Sulkowski (26 pts, 13 reb) and Capital’s Heitcamp (25 pts, 11 reb.) Those are definitely two of the best in DIII and showed it. Bias aside, I give the nod to Sulkowski as better player, but Heitcamp got the “W” Presidents showed they can play with the best but need to finish the game
Small corrections — North Central is now 7-0 with a win last night over Ripon in Hawaii. And the game vs Franklin is not in Naperville…it is @ Franklin (Indiana).
Good work as always, G Mann!
Thanks for the corrections, Titan. 🙂
gmann – probably worth mentioning that one of the teams R-MC beat (Lincoln U) they had lost to earlier in the season, changing the point differential by 44 points (from a 23 point loss to a 21 point victory). That’s probably the result of two things — playing at home instead of away, and good coaching.
Your humility is acknowledged and appreciated.
Four of McMurry’s top 10 Men’s players, including one returning starter and 3 new players, were benched for the MissColl game for infractions of team rules.
We will see what the new semester brings. They travel to D2 Henderson State AR before New Year’s. (This game was arranged after a Texas D1 canceled.)