I’m borrowing that line from Hoopsville host Dave McHugh, who used it when I shared a nugget about the most interesting statistical nugget I saw from this weekend.
I know of colleagues in the media world who collect baseball box scores, and while the basketball ones aren’t as interesting, they tell some neat stories from the opening couple days of Division III hoops.
The inspiration for this piece was the showing of the Coast Guard women’s basketball team, which ventured cross-country to California for games with Whittier and Cal Lutheran. Coast Guard won both games despite shooting 2-for-29 from 3-point land in the second one (63 rebounds, 4-for-6 shooting from the field in OT, and a couple of good games from the post players helped). That and a visit to Disney made it a good trip. By the way, thanks to a little checking from CGA SID Jason Southard, I learned that it’s the first time both Bears squads (men and women) are 2-0 since 1988-89.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, you had the adventures of the Grinnell men’s team the last two days, in matchups with UW Eau Claire and Wartburg. Those used to Grinnell’s system (previously referenced on-site many times) will be familiar with this kind of box score line from Eau Claire. The Blugolds shot 74.7 percent for the game (Dan Beyer was 15-for-15, tied for 4th-best in NCAA history) and had 41 assists, yet lost, 137-132. Eau Claire had the misfortune of having its turnovers (36) match its foul total. Grinnell was 20-for-50 from 3 in the win and got its most notable showing the next day from David Arseneault, who tied a school record with 17 assists in a 105-103 win over host Wartburg.
Some other box score notables
* When there’s a Will, there’s a way…A quick perusal of some New England games found three different ones whose teams had good weekends. Wil Lyons (6-9, 260 pound Rhode Island College center) and Will Lyons (6-4 WPI forward) each came off the bench in a pair of wins for their respective teams (WPI, by the way, took 58 3-pointers in an opening win over Nichols). Will Dawkins (6-foot guard at Emerson) started and hit a buzzer-beating three-pointer as his team surprised William Paterson. Emerson is a solid 2-0 after beating Vassar by a narrow margin as well.
* What fatigue? FDU-Florham’s women’s team won the title game of Johns Hopkins season-opening tournament despite using only six players in its 68-56 win over the hosts. Shealyn Taggart gave four of her five teammates breathers as the squad’s lone sub, netting nine points and nine rebounds in 32 minutes (Katie Daly played all 40 minutes). Emily Cerankowski led the victors, who were 15-16 on free throws in the second half, with 31 points.Not as fortunate were the Texas Lutheran women, who played all five starters for all 40 minutes in losses to Pacific Lutheran (64-16) and Concordia-Portland (70-45).
Shooting Most Foul: It was an odd weekend for the No. 1 ranked Washington University men’s basketball team, particularly in this respect. The Bears, who shot 74 percent from the foul line en route to a Final 4 spot last season, were 21-44 from the stripe in the first two games of the season, including 9-20 in their loss to Calvin.
Share your favorite box score nuggets, or tidbits from the season’s opening weekend here…
Any idea why Texas Lutheran used only five players in each of their two games over the weekend?
TLU only has about 10 players on their team. All but 4 are freshman. There are two Juniors with college experience and two sophomores that don’t have any or at least not according to their website. It seems to me the coach may think there are only 5 players on the team that can give them a chance to compete. Early in the season I would rather see more players play so they can have that experience when conference time comes around, which in the ASC isn’t long at all.
I read that only six made the trip, so I’m not sure what the deal is with the other four.
In UWSP’s 105-72 win over Carroll on Saturday night, Point shot 11/19 from the FT line. Last season, Point led all of college basketball and set the D-III FT record shooting 82.3% from the charity stripe… they were a bit rusty in shooting just 57.9% on Saturday. I think they should have just stepped back about 4 feet… Point broke the school record making 18/26 from deep for the game!
“I think they should have just stepped back about 4 feet…”
Funny you should say that. Farmingdale State’s Damien Santana does just that. It’s something I’ve never seen before. In two games at Wooster, he hit 11 of 15 attempts that way (73.3%), which is good enough for me. Considering he poured in 60 points in two games, including a tournament record 37 in an utterly dominating performance against Otterbein, I guess he can shoot free throws from anywhere he likes!
David,
So what did he do? Did he step back so his heels were just inside the arc? I’m pretty sure you can’t leave the free throw circle to shoot a free throw. Did he shoot a regular jumper, or did he shoot it like a free throw?
He stands right in the middle of the semicircle (midway between the foul line and the ‘top’ of the circle) and shoots a normal flatfooted free throw. Why he feels like that is the appropriate distance for his shot is a mystery.
It may be his way of concentrating on the shot more and doesn’t necessarily have to do with the distance. One of my friends I played with in high school shot his free throws halfway between the 3 pt line and the free throw line. He felt he was too close to the other players and wanted to be as far away from them as possible so they would be less of a distraction. His reasons may be different but that’s one thought.
David
Great note. I may have to call them and find out for myself.
My dad made me practice free throws flat-footed from the top of the circle. Sure made it easier to hit them from 15 in practice.