Monthly Archives: January 2008

Insider: Never Die Attitude

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In my Dec. 6 blog, I responded to the poll on D3hoops and numerous message board posters debating how good Wash U would be with me sidelined. As most seemed to write us off after a loss to No. 5 Augustana and numerous close wins, I said that no one would truly be able to tell for another 3-4 weeks how good this team actually is and how good we can be come March. People needed to adjust to different roles and learn to do some different things before anyone could really evaluate. After this past weekend and the new No. 1 ranking- it’s pretty apparent that there doesn’t seem to be much of a debate of whether this WU Bears team is for real.

Sean Wallis in an airportMaybe we lost 13 points and 7 assists a game, some intangibles and floor leadership among other things when I went down—but my injury didn’t take away what made this team so special last year and is still embedded in us this year: the never die attitude. I’ve been lucky enough to be on a ton of talented teams (including the 2005 Illinois State Championship team with Jon Scheyer and current teammate Zach Kelly) and I can honestly say that I’ve never been around a team that has had something so indescribable that believes no matter the situation we will win the game. I don’t know if it’s that we have such a high level of competitiveness but there comes a point that teams could throw the towel in, give themselves a pat on the back for competing and pack it up, but this team just doesn’t do that.

Trailing 69-62 with 1:37 left at Brandeis and reeling off the last nine points in a flurry to win 71-69 may seem completely ridiculous, insane and unheard of at first glance… but in retrospect, over the past two years we’ve had some eerily close games like that:

In Salem in the Final Four last year we trailed Virginia Wesleyan by nine points with just under five minutes left … in kicks the never die attitude … we went on a run to take a two- point lead with 2:45 left on the clock eventually falling.

Earlier in the year we were down 14 at Calvin with three minutes left, a point at which many teams throw the towel in… in kicks the never die attitude… we cut the lead to four with 59 seconds left before eventually falling.

After I got hurt we were down 11 with 3:58 to play against Augustana … in kicks the never die attitude … we cut close the gap to just two points with 40 seconds left before losing.

The difference was at Brandeis we actually came all the way back to win so everyone noticed! I think the moral of my story is that while yes, me being hurt may have taken away a lot of things our team did at the beginning of the year, we didn’t lose the never die attitude. Add that to the fact that we have people (Ross Kelley, Danny O’Boyle and Moss Schermerhorn) playing their roles to perfection and our stifling team defense and we have a tough squad with or without me.

Are we the most talented team in the country right now? Probably not. Will we be ranked first in the country at the end of the year? Maybe. Will we be ranked first after we go on the road to #3 Rochester and Carnegie Mellon this weekend? I don’t know. But is this team going to listen to people telling them they’re not talented enough to win games when it counts on the road in the UAA and in March? I wouldn’t bet against us and our never die attitude.

On a personal note, today was my first day walking without crutches—which is very exciting. I’d like to send a good luck out to Jamie McFarlin of our women’s basketball team who is having surgery on her ACL this weekend. Also, check back next week my roommate Tyler Nading is going to write an entry about the experience of a road trip in the UAA.

Peace, love, and jumpshot,

Sean Wallis

Top 25 News and Notes–Week 9

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This week, I have the honor of unveiling the News and Notes Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Men’s and Women’s Hoops, or NNAOAMWH for short. Without further ado…the envelope please.

First, the schools that finished sixth through tenth in the balloting of our panel of experts (well, expert…and even that is debatable!). UW-Stevens Point finishes in sixth place on the strength of having both teams ranked (men #12, women #24). New men’s #1 Washington U. is seventh, conference foe Brandeis eighth, and Randolph-Macon ninth; these schools each have one team ranked with the other in the “receiving votes” category. Coming in tenth is Carthage, with both teams among those receiving votes.

The fifth-place winner, and the best counter-argument to the alleged “east coast bias,” is Puget Sound. The men from Tacoma moved up to #7 in this week’s poll, and are tied with cross-state rival Whitworth atop the Northwest Conference. Their female counterparts are ranked #23, and trail only #12 George Fox in the NWC standings. Together, these programs have compiled a record of 28-5.

In fourth place are the Lord Jeffs of Amherst college. A frequent visitor to the men’s Final Four, and the 2007 men’s champion, Amherst moved up to #2 in this week’s men’s poll after decisively beating archrival #13 Williams on their home court. The women’s team suffered its first loss of the season this week, but still sit at #17 in the poll. Together, these teams have racked up 33 victories against just 3 defeats.

Taking home the Bronze NNAOAMWH Medal are the Rochester Yellow Jackets of the UAA. The women’s team pulled off an incredible comeback at Emory this week, maintaining their conference lead and moving into the women’s Top 10. The men were not so fortunate in Atlanta, suffering their first defeat of the season in an overtime loss to the Eagles, but still occupy the #3 ranking in the men’s poll. Together, the Yellow Jackets are 30-2 on the season.

UW-Whitewater has put together two outstanding basketball teams to complement its national champion football team, and is rewarded by standing second in the coveted NNAOAMWH field. The male Warhawks are ranked #8 in this week’s poll and are in a three-way tie atop the WIAC; their female counterparts are ranked #3 and trail only #20 UW-Eau Claire in the conference standings, with the two set for a rematch this Saturday. Overall the Warhawks are 31-4 on the season.

These great basketball programs are all looking up at the NNAOAMWH Gold Medalists, the Flying Dutch of Hope. The men’s squad reached #4 this week after beating their archrivals from Calvin, while the women’s team recorded their fifth consecutive week atop the women’s poll. These two teams lead the MIAA standings, and have combined for an outstanding record of 31-2.

Tune in next week, when I reveal the winners of the Awards for Excellence in men’s and women’s swimming, also known as a 10,000 word essay on Kenyon. 🙂

Debutantes:
Women: None this week.
Men: #5 UMass.-Dartmouth became the 38th men’s program to join the #1 Votes club. Congratulations to the Corsairs!

Streakers:
Women: This being the tenth poll of the season (including the preseason poll), the number 10 recurs with great frequency in this category. For example, six women’s teams now have 10-poll voting streaks: #3 UW-Whitewater, #15 Tufts, #20 UW-Eau Claire, #24 UW-Stevens Point, #25 Baldwin-Wallace, and unranked Chicago. Longer voting streaks were recorded by top-ranked Hope (50 weeks), #4 Mary Washington (40), #6 McMurry (40), #21 NYU (25), and #12 George Fox (20). Wilmington dropped from the voting rolls for the first time in 25 weeks. Hope is in the Top 10 for the 10th straight week, and in the top 25 for the 40th. #2 Howard Payne is ranked for the 20th consecutive time, while #3 UW-Whitewater, #18 Illinois Wesleyan and #24 UW-Stevens Point have each been ranked in 10 straight polls.
Men: Top-ranked Washington U., #3 Rochester, #12 UW-Stevens Point, and #24 Wheaton (IL) each received votes for the 25th straight week, while #4 Hope and #10 Augustana have voting streaks that have reached 40 weeks. Rhode Island College dropped from the voting for the first time in 25 weeks. Both #6 Capital and #7 Puget Sound have been in both the voting and the Top 25 for 10 straight weeks. Other teams that celebrated a tenth consecutive ranking include #3 Rochester (all ten weeks in the Top 10), #8 UW-Whitewater, #13 Williams, #15 Mary Hardin-Baylor, and #16 Plattsburgh St. #12 UW-Stevens Point has been ranked for 25 straight weeks, while #1 Washington U. has been in 20 consecutive Top 25s.

Milestones:
Women: DeSales re-entered the voting this week, marking their 75th appearance among the vote-getters. #5 Thomas More received votes for the 25th time. Other vote-getting milestones were reached by #8 Simpson (80 weeks), Eastern Conn. (70), and Chicago (40). #2 Howard Payne is ranked for the 30th time, 20 of which have been within the Top 10. #4 Mary Washington is among the Top 10 for the 25th time, while #3 UW-Whitewater is ranked for the tenth time.
Men: #1 Washington U. is in the Top 10 for the 50th time. #10 Augustana is a Top 10 team for the 25th time, and a ranked team for the 50th time. #18 Wooster is in the Top 25 for the 125th time, extending their record in this category. Not far behind is #12 UW-Stevens Point, ranked for the 110th time. #16 Plattsburgh St. has some catching up to do, but has now been ranked in ten polls. Sixth-ranked Capital has received votes in 50 polls, twenty fewer than Randolph-Macon.

High-Water Marks:
Women: #14 Medaille reached a new high for the third straight week. All-time highs were equaled by #2 Howard Payne, #5 Thomas More, and #6 McMurry, as well as by William Smith, whose ranking of #16 matches their best-ever mark established in the very first D3hoops.com women’s poll in 1999.
Men: #5 UMass-Dartmouth’s metoric rise in the poll has set another new all-time high for the program. #6 Capital and #11 Centre also established new high-water marks this week.

Movers and Shakers:
Women: Despite the fact that no teams dropped from the Top 25 this week, the two biggest moves were still made by women’s teams, both downward. #24 UW-Stevens Point had an 0-2 week and lost 309 points, falling 14 slots in the poll. #21 NYU also went 0-2, losing twice at home, and shed 292 points and 13 poll placements. The biggest gain was recorded by #20 UW-Eau Claire, which beat Stevens Point and moved up 100 points and 5 spots.
Men: Ninth-ranked Brandeis, losers of three straight games but two of them to the last two #1-ranked teams, shed 202 points and fell seven poll slots. Millsaps made their first appearance in the Top 25 since 2002 a brief one, losing 163 points and falling out of the rankings after a two-week stay. The largest upward movements were made by #19 Lawrence, entering the poll on the strength of a 128-point gain, and by #11 Centre, which beat Millsaps in overtime and gained 124 points.

Podcast: Lawrence in new hands, usual spot

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When Lawrence coach John Tharp went to Division II Hillsdale last April, the Vikings knew the program was left in familiar hands. Joel “JoJo” DePagter played at Lawrence and worked as an assistant under Tharp before taking over as head coach.

In just his first year, DePagter has the Vikings atop the Midwest Conference at 8-0, 13-1 overall. He spoke with D3hoops.com’s Gordon Mann about that start, including the recent wins over No. 20 UW-Oshkosh and Grinnell. What is his approach to short-circuiting “the system” and how do we solve the scoring triangle between Lawrence, UW-Oshkosh and No. 7 UW-Stevens Point?

No. 5 Mass-Dartmouth is the last undefeated team standing, a position Lawrence held in 2006. The Vikings’ run ended in the Sweet 16 against Illinois Wesleyan. Is it better for a team to take a loss before the NCAA Tournament or is there no such thing as a good loss? You might be surprised at Coach DePagter’s thoughts.

Listen below.

Hoopsville Podcast: January 27th

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Here is this week’s Hoopsville Podcast.

Last week, I was asked if I could put in where each interview and reporter was in each segment. While the little voice in my head screams to not give up all the information for the show, so you can all listen to it all, I will help those listeners who don’t want to listen to the entire show! 🙂

For all of you podcast/iTunes folks, the first file should upload to your iTunes automatically (right?!).

Part 1:
Chatting with Pat Coleman
Great Lakes Region Report – Matt Florjancic
West Region Report – St. Scholastica Coach David Staniger

Part 2:
NABC Coach’s Corner – Wabach Coach Mac Petty
Hoopsville Rant
Northeast Region Report – Mark Simon
South Region Report – Marcus Fitzsimmons

Part 3:
Atlantic/East Region Report – Gordon Mann
Provident Pride School of the Week – Centre Coach Greg Mason
Midwest Region & WIAC Report – Bob Quillman

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Rant: CCIW Tournament Decision

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If you read the front page of D3hoops.com or read the Post Ups in the Men’s CCIW in the last week, you would have seen that the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Presidents Council decided against the coach’s plan of adding a “play-in” game to the CCIW men’s basketball tournament. It is the latest decision in what has been a crazy process for the CCIW.

A few years ago, the CCIW didn’t even have a conference tournament to decide their champion – and thus who got the automatic qualifying spot in the NCAA Tournament. Who ever had the best record, or won the right thanks to a tie-breaker process, got the AQ. Then two years ago, a four-team tournament was added. Nothing wrong with that, many conferences have decided to not include everyone in the conference tournament. And there isn’t anything wrong with the 8-team format, except for the idea that was being proposed in the CCIW.

The idea presented to the Presidents Council was to have a four-team tournament, but that all eight teams would play in a game prior to decide which four teams would get the chance to play in the tournament. Yes, sounds like an 8-team tournament, but that play-in game would not be exempt from team’s schedules, as it normally is for any conference that has an 8-team tournament. Teams in the CCIW would have to count that game as part of their 25 games of the season, reducing the number of out-of-conference games by one. Doesn’t make much sense!

The ultimate reason the Presidents Council rejected the plan sounds like it was because it would have created two different formats for the men’s and women’s tournaments (women remain a four-team tournament and did no propose getting bigger). But maybe someone (like the coaches in the conference) saw the forest through the trees. Maybe they realized that unless everyone wanted an actual 8-team tournament, having a 4-team tournament with a special regular season finale game – seeding decided on the regular season results – to determine who gets to play in that 4-team tournament was a bit too much for anyone to BS their way around.

There are 39 AQ’s right now on the men’s side of the NCAA Tournament. Soon that number will be 40 or more. And while only one conference does not have a tournament to decide that AQ (UAA). And for those who do have tournaments, they make sense for those conferences and those programs. But, let’s not get crazy with those tournaments and plans. Stick to plans that make sense, not ones that punish and reward… all at the same time.