Like Pat, I was exposed to something a little different this weekend. I got to listen to Omar Al-Ubaydli and his crew broadcast a basketball game.
Omar is a PhD student studying economics at the University of Chicago and a native of Bahrain, an independent island nation in the Persian Gulf, occupied by the British until 1971, which explains why I thought Omar spoke with a British accent.
This is your typical college basketball broadcast in many ways. The student broadcasters are homers,willingly admit as much, and are still learning their craft. The games air on Teamline. Sprinkled in is occasionally goofy conversation about the likes of NBA Jam and other pop culture relevant to this age group. The one thing that makes it unique, at least in this country, is Omar’s use of language.
Omar’s expertise is soccer commentary and it is evident from the way he announces. A nice play is described as “lovely.” A pass is made “into the left channel.” A made 3-pointer draws the exclamatory call of “In!!!” and on this particular day, the Maroons men’s team set a team record for 3’s so there was plenty of exuberance. Omar also likes to pun, much to the (feigned) dismay of his colleagues. They willingly responded to my e-mails in which I provided a few tidbits on their opposition and I appreciated their receptiveness and interaction. It was a different and interesting way to experience a game. Isn’t that what we’re here for? Different and interesting is what makes Division III fun.
Anyway, a few things that were different and interesting from gazing at the scoreboard from a “lovely” weekend of basketball
* Rhode Island College was the big winner this weekend in my part of the country (New England) with its upset of Tufts. Some may have been skeptical in the preseason but any criticism was quelled after an exhibition win over Iona. The Anchormen were mentioned by some as a super-sleeper candidate but we failed to take their advice. We’re wishing we had. My other super-sleeper regret may be not picking York. I met coach Ron St. John last year at the CUNY title game and was intrigued by his energy. My instinct was that the CUNY isn’t strong enough from which to pick a super-sleeper, but a win over Christopher Newport builds a little bit of credibility.
* Interesting men’s wins that didn’t earn mention on the front: Whitworth over Wheaton (Ill), Lake Erie over Rochester, Brandeis over Springfield by 27 (Brandeis, a former super-sleeper, has Tufts and Amherst upcoming), Franklin & Marshall over Widener by 27 after F&M lost to Delaware Valley (5-20 last season) in its tip-off opener.
* On the women’s side, I saw the opening round of the Salem State tournament, which included Williams, Springfield and the hosts. Williams, tabbed preseason No. 17 after returning four starters from its Sweet 16 team of a year ago, looked not ready for prime time in its opener against Coast Guard. The Ephs may loom as Bowdoin’s top threat in the NESCAC this year with Bates center Meg Coffin out for the year with a knee injury and I’m guessing what I saw from All-America candidate Maggie Miller and company was some early-season rust. Salem State was particularly impressive, and that’s nothing new. They have the talent to match up with the best teams in the region on the right day.
* The surprise of surprises has to be that Washington University is 0-2 for the first time since 1982-83 (Usual MIAC power St. Benedict is also 0-2 after losses to Wesleyan and Salve Regina on a trip east). I don’t know what to say about that other than that they faced some stiff competition at Illinois Wesleyan’s tournament from Top-5 ranked DePauw and apparently underrated Central. Wash U may end up facing Williams next weekend at their own tournament and that should be an interesting game.
* Last word…Scranton has an occasional habit of dropping a game early in the season. Losing at Rochester, which is always tough at home, isn’t that big of a surprise to me.
Eyes….burning…no…more…data entry.
Seriously, this first weekend is painful. First you find the scores that aren’t entered. Then you enter them. Then you enter the next day’s opponent because it’s a tournament. Then you go into that – okay, don’t leave! I’ll stop whining.
Things that caught my eye from the opening weekend:
* No. 25 UW-Stevens Point 93 No. 16 Carroll 75 – The Pointers strike a very impressive opening night win as Jon Krull gets 32 points. I will officially refer to him as Krull the Destroyer in future posts.
* Illinois Wesleyan 69 No. 4 UW-Whitewater 68 OT – Big weekend for Zach Freeman who averaged 13.5 points and 13.5 rebounds. As one poster noted on the message boards, I guess the Bloomington cupboard is far from empty.
* York (NY) 98 No. 18 CNU 92: According to the CNU broadcast, the Cardinals were able to do whatever they wanted on offense. Combined with SUNY-Farmingdale’s showing against Virginia Wesleyan last year, I’m starting to believe the good teams in the maligned Skyline and CUNYAC can be competitive on the national stage. But there are some very, very weak teams in these conferences that hurt their overall credibility.
Staying in the Atlantic, No. 7 WPUNJ stands to move up the ladder with loses by Baldwin-Wallace and Whitewater. They were back to their defensive ways, holding Drew to 37 points last night.
If people ever wonder why Wooster, Amherst and Wittenberg are mainstays in the Top 25 poll, take a look at this weekend’s results – 6 wins against teams you’d expect them to beat. No surprises. Poll voters don’t like surprises (You hear that, Baldwin-Wallace?).
Finally, kudos to Coach Finney and the crew at Marymount who put together a very good women’s field. The Saints brought in Alvernia, Oswego State, King’s and Richard Stockton who have all been to the NCAA tournament within the past few years. You’ve got recent regular season or tournament champs there from the PAC, SUNYAC, MAC and NJAC respectively. Even Wesley and Gettysburg have been competitive in the PAC and Centennial. Nice geographic diversity, nicely balanced field. No 70 point beatdown for whomever draws the host in the first night.
More importantly, kudos to Gordon Mann for saving our bacon on the scores this weekend. If not for that I might not have gotten the six and a half hours of sleep I got last night. Not any of it!
Trinity Tx women face their 3rd ASC-West opponent on Tuesday at they go to UMHB for the Lady Crusaders season opener.
Trinity women lost at Howard Payne 45-76 in a game marred by the event of a referee sustaining a seizure during the Friday game. The ref was sent by ambulance to a local hosptial. I have not heard an update on (his?) condition.
Trinity went on the HSU and lost to the Cowgirls in their Saturday opener, 67-84. HSU has picked up a transfer from D-1 Stetson. One wonders about the holdover effect from the night before. Trnity’s two game-experience to UMHB’s zero more than makes up for home court advantage, so we can possibly use that as a baromoeter. UMHB is my sleeper for the ASC-West this year.
McMurry Women led Oneonta (NY) State by 9 (43-34) at the half at the Guilford Tourney and won 80-62. Oneonta State finshed 3rd in the SUNYAC last year. Apparently McM wore them down, because the Oneonta FG percentage numbers trailed off badly in the second half.
Some thoughts from the Brandeis tip-off tournaments, which I attended this weekend:
1.) The Brandeis men’s tip-off tournament was first on the menu over the weekend. Brandeis started off against Newbury, an independent DIII team which played competitively last year when matched up against some of the top New England DIII schools– last year, Newbury lost to Tufts and Gordon by an average margin per game of about 14 points– Newbury’s loss to Brandeis by 23 in the 2004-2005 season was the worst loss of the season for the Nighthawks’s 10-17 campaign.
Brandeis did a good job on Friday shutting down most of the Newbury players, with 10 Brandeis players playing 10+ minutes and balanced scoring from the Judges. If Newbury’s top 2 players of Arch Mitchell and Walky Magloire were contained to their last season’s scoring averages of 18.5 and 11.5 ppg reapectively, Brandeis would have won this game by 30. However, Arch Mitchell and Walky Magloire of Newbury combined for 50 of Newbury’s 60 points on Friday. Walky Magloire is only 6’2″, but with his frane, he plays post like a 6’6″ post player. Arch Mitchell is a shooting guard for Newbury who ranked 7th in scoring among DIII players who played on independent teams last season.
2.) The Brandeis men were down by 1 to Springfield at halftime of the championship game, but the second half of that game was probably the best second half in a Brandeis men’s tip-off tournament that I have ever seen in my years watching Brandeis men’s hoop. Brandeis hit 13 3 pointers in the title game. Next Sunday’s game vs. Tufts should be very interesting to see. Before then, the Brandeis men play Suffolk on Tuesday, but with the way the Judges played on Saturday, they should be able to beat Suffolk and go 3-0 into the Tufts game.
3.) On the women’s side, Brandeis won their tip-off by comfortable final margins in each game. I would consider the game against St. Lawrence yesterday the real start of the season, as the first of the two Brandeis opponents, Regis (MA), only had 6 players on their entire roster. Brandeis was able to put in all 15 of the players into the first game– Caitlin Malcolm (the front-runner for UAA Player of the Year going into this season) only needed 15 minutes to get a double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds on Saturday. Lauren Orlando had 13 points in 17 minutes of action in the game against Regis, and Jaime Capra, Alison Chase, and Lauren Goyette each had 8 points a piece. Regis’s 6 players weren’t bad– every one of them could play on Salem State (MA)’s roster, but as any coach can tell you, you can only do so much with 6 players. In the second half, the Regis players got really tired, so much so that, in the middle of the second half, one of the Regis players scored 2 points– in the wrong basket! On that play, I thought to myself– “That seemed easy.”, as if we did not try to defend that play. A rare 2 point gift for ‘Deis.
4.) In the St. Lawrence game yesterday, Brandeis was able to have 12 players play in the game, with 10 players playing for 10+ minutes on the court, with Caitlin Malcolm scoring 24 points in 20 minutes of action, and Jaime Capra scoring 15 points in 27 minutes of action. Now, there is a reason why I’m noting these minutes on the court. Too often last season, Brandeis played 7 or 8 deep in UAA games, and the production level dropped off when the Judges went to the bench. I heard great things during the tip-off about how the new recruiting class for Brandeis worked during the off-season and in practice to get ready for the 2006-2007 campaign, and so far, over the first two games, given these first two opponents, it’s so far, so good.
Wooster’s women opened their season by hosting and winning the Nan Nichols Classic, dropping Lake Erie College 85-52 in the opener, and defeating Thiel 78-65 in the title tilt. Olivet slipped past Lake Erie 79-69 in he consolation. I don’t expect to see any of these teams in or near the Top 25 this season, but there were two Wooster stats that I thought were worthy of mention. In the Lake Erie game, no fewer than 20 players got into the game for the Scots; a real scorekeeper’s nightmare. In the title game, Wooster senior Carly Loehrke dominated, scoring 34 points and grabbing 16 rebounds, overshadowing Thiel’s Amber Bodrick, who had a double-double (35 pts, 11 boards) of her own. One of Loehrke’s 34 points was her 1,000th in her collegiate career.
To follow up on 2 things…here’s what one insider said about the York (NY) men
“York (NY) men are going to shock a few people. I know they were only 15-14 last year but watch out. They have really loaded up after winning
the CUNY’s last season. They have a few transfers at point and inside that will be huge. Also they probably have the favorite for the CUNY
Player of the Year in senior forward Jeffrey Boone and the most veteran coaching staff.”
and the names of the other broadcasters on U. Chicago’s crew are Sean Ahmed, Joe Katz and Tim
Murphy.
One note responding to Gordon: Give Mount St. Mary credit for a credibility-building win by winning at Marymount in the Marymount Tourney.
This may be the only time we get to mention this team all year so big ups to New Ruchelle, er, Rochelle player Ruchelle Austin who put up 34 points and 26 boards in the Angels win over Yeshiva on Sunday.
For those of you who had New Rochelle in Yeshiva in the office “last team to ever be mentioned on the Daily Dose” pool, you lose.
“York (NY) men are going to shock a few people. I know they were only 15-14 last year but watch out. They have really loaded up after winning
the CUNY’s last season. They have a few transfers at point and inside that will be huge. Also they probably have the favorite for the CUNY
Player of the Year in senior forward Jeffrey Boone and the most veteran coaching staff.”
Well it looks like they shocked their first team this year.
Final Score
York (NY) 65
Pre Season #8 William Paterson 56
That would be their second team unless we’re starting the count after the first game of the season. 🙂