Daily Archives: February 19, 2008

Top 25 News and Notes–Week 12

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This week is the final week of the regular season for the great majority of D3 teams. Most conferences hold their post-season tournament next week, with the NCAA Tournament beginning the following week. I thought this might be a good time to catch up with last years Final Four teams.

Men’s 2007 champion Amherst sits atop the men’s poll for the third straight week and fifth this season. The Lord Jeffs have completed an unbeaten NESCAC season, finishing a full three games clear of their nearest competitors, and for the fourth consecutive year will be the top seed in the NESCAC Championship. Amherst sits at 22-2 overall, with their only D3 loss at #6 Brandeis back in early December, and hosts Colby to open the conference tournament.

Virginia Wesleyan, the 2006 champions and 2007 runners-up, have now won four straight games and check in at #19 in this week’s men’s poll. The Marlins are 13-4 in the ODAC, in second place, trailing #13 Guilford by two games in the loss column, and tied (also in the loss column) with Randolph-Macon. The Marlins finish their regular season on Saturday hosting Lynchburg, before advancing to the ODAC Championships at Salem, VA.

Both the men’s and women’s squads from Washington U. reached the Final Four last year, with the women falling in the final and the men winning the third-place game. The men’s team started this season as the #1 team, but lost two of their first four games, falling to #12 before recovering to their current ranking of #4. The Bears currently lead the UAA by a game at 9-2, and as the UAA has no post-season tournament, the league title is still up for grabs. Wash U. still has three league games remaining, starting with a matchup with second-place and sixth-ranked Brandeis Friday in St. Louis.

Last year’s fourth-place finisher, Wooster, knocked off arch-rival Wittenberg this week, clinching the top seed in the NCAC tournament for the fourth straight year, and avenging one of their two D3 losses (the other was at Lake Erie back in November.) With the win, the #12 Scots reached the 20-win plateau for the 12th straight year.

2007 women’s champion DePauw sits at #8 in this week’s poll with an overall record of 20-3. Of their three losses, one was to a quasi-scholarship D3 provisional team (Birmingham-Southern), and the other two were to teams currently in the top 5 (#3 Thomas More and #5 Messiah), both before the New Year. As the BSC loss does not count in the SCAC standings, the Tigers hold down the conference lead at 12-0, two losses better than #25 Oglethorpe and 2003 NCAA champion Trinity (TX) . The Tigers and Stormy Petrels meet this Sunday in a game that will influence the seeding in the upcoming SCAC tournament in Conway, AR.

The Bears of Washington U., runners-up in 2007 and champions for four straight years from 1998 through 2001, have had an up-and-down season. They sit at 16-6 overall after losing at Emory this past week, a loss that cost them their position in the Top 25 as well as a chance at sole possession of the UAA lead. At 8-3 in conference, the Bears are part of a four-way logjam atop the standings with three games remaining.

Preseason #1 and last year’s third-place finisher Mary Washington lost their first CAC game of the season this week at St. Mary’s, but recovered to wax second-place and then-#22 ranked Marymount by 31 points on Saturday. The sixth-ranked Eagles are 21-2 overall and lead the CAC with a 13-1 record, one game ahead of the Saints with two to play. UMW’s only other loss this season was in December at the hands of #4 UW-Whitewater on a neutral court in California.

The news is not so good for last year’s fourth-place finisher, NYU. After starting the season with twelve straight wins and reaching #3 in the poll, the Violets have dropped 8 of their last 10 to sink to 14-8 overall and just 3-8 in the UAA, leading only winless Carnegie Mellon. Of all of last year’s Final Four teams, it looks like the Violets are the most likely to miss out on this year’s tournament. Still, they can exact a measure of revenge, as their final three games are all against co-leaders of the UAA (Chicago, Wash U. , and Brandeis).

Debutantes:
Women: none this week.
Men: Not really a debutant, per se, but nevertheless congratulations to #2 Centre, which this week became the 39th men’s program to attract at least one #1 vote.

Streakers:
Women: Third-ranked Thomas More has been in the Top 10 for ten consecutive weeks. #15 Tufts, #16 Medaille, and #19 Rochester are each ranked for the tenth straight time. Longer ranking streaks belong to #12 Southern Maine (90 weeks) and #9 McMurry (40 weeks.)
Men: Guilford, the lucky #13 this week, has now received votes in 25 consecutive polls. Third-ranked Hope is Top 10 team for the tenth straight week, while #20 UW-Oshkosh is ranked for the 10th week in a row.

Milestones:
Women: Unbeaten and #2-ranked Howard Payne has now received votes in fifty polls, while Chapman has a reached the 25-poll votegetting threshold. Other voting milestones were achieved by #5 Messiah (120 polls), #21 Lake Forest and Salem State (70 each.) Tenth-ranked Illinois Wesleyan is a Top 25 team for the 25th time. #19 Rochester is ranked for the 70th week, while #16 Medaille (20) and #15 Tufts (10) also reached ranking milestones. Finally, this week marks the tenth Top 10 appearance by #3 Thomas More.
Men: Top-ranked Amherst is a member of the Top 10 for the 80th time. #16 St. Thomas has been ranked 60 times, while #22 Occidental has received votes 60 times. #13 Guilford reached two milestones this week, their 25th appearance among the votegetters, and their 20th week as a ranked team.

High-Water Marks:
Women: Thomas More remained unbeaten and moved up to a new high ranking of #3 this week. #14 Amherst also reached a new poll high, while previous highs were matched by #2 Howard Payne and #10 Illinois Wesleyan.
Men: For the second straight week both #2 Centre and #17 Ursinus reached new highest-ever perches in the poll. #11 Plattsburgh St. matched their all-time high, set earlier this season.

Movers and Shakers:
Women: UW-Stevens Point knocked off then-#3 UW-Whitewater as part of a 2-0 week, and scored the week’s largest gain (120 points.) The biggest fall was recorded by #19 Rochester, which lost at Brandeis and discarded 136 points and six poll placements. Other downward movers included NWC compatriots #18 George Fox and #22 Puget Sound, which each lost 129 points and six slots.
Men: Stop me if you’ve heard this before… UW-Stevens Point knocked off then-#2 UW-Whitewater as part of a 2-0 week, and scored the week’s largest gain (100 points.) The biggest fall was recorded by #14 Rochester, which lost at Brandeis (and at NYU in double overtime) and discarded 179 points and eight poll placements. Joining Rochester in free-fall mode was #23 UW-Platteville, which lost 159 points and seven slots after an 0-2 week.

Insider: On the road again

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Unfortunately I was unable to make the UAA trip this past weekend. The good news is my roommate Tyler Nading did and is making a guest entry for my blog this week. Congrats to Ty who became the 17th member of the 1,000 point club at Wash U in yesterday’s game at Emory.

Greetings from the Atlanta airport!

On the back end of a long four-day road trip, the Washington University men’s and women’s teams just want to get home! But the weather has another plan and our delay here should keep us out of St. Louis until well after midnight, which will make it really tough to wake up for 11:00 class tomorrow morning.

Sure, traveling is great, and it’s fun (and sometimes a relief) to get away from campus life for a weekend, but road weekends in the UAA can take a toll on a team. My weekend started out Thursday night taking a test in coach’s room in Cleveland (Case Western Reserve) with two other guys after trying to study all day on the plane and bus. We missed a full two days of class to travel, and at WU it isn’t easy to be MIA so often and still make the grades. Our guys usually spend a considerable amount of time studying on the road and can be seen weighed down with class books walking through the airport. It really isn’t just all basketball in the UAA, although the success of the conference may lead you to believe otherwise.

But don’t get me wrong, we still do have our fair share of fun running through the streets of New York (NYU), Boston (Brandeis), and Chicago (U of C). When we travel to these schools, we stay right in the heart of the cities and are able to walk around downtown, find a place to eat, and putz around for a while before curfew. For a lot of our guys it is their first time visiting these cities so flying over the skyline of New York can get pretty exciting.

This weekend was a good weekend for WU as we stole three out of four games between our two teams (two for the men and a tough loss for our girls today at Emory keeping us away from a clean sweep). I say “stole” because it really is tough to go onto another team’s court and walk away with a victory. On Friday night, we faced a fired up Case Western Reserve team in the first game of their annual “throwback weekend,” where they donned their old maroon Western jerseys and we played in the retired field house gym.

Case was in control for most all of the game, including a nine-point halftime lead behind strong guard play and outside shooting from Steve Young and Colin Mullholland. We stayed within striking distance though and got some miraculous play down the stretch from Troy Ruths (if you didn’t already know his last name you should spend more time on D3hoops), including 4-4 FT and a crucial steal with the game on the line, in order to escape with the win.

7:30 a.m. wake-up call to join our girls on the bus to Akron and 10:00 flight to Atlanta was tough on Saturday morning as most of us were still sore from the previous night. Coach Tim Whittle and freshman Spencer Gay didn’t mind though as it gave them a chance to show us around their hometown and spend time with family after 4:00 practice. Later, a bunch of us gathered in the hotel lobby to watch the slam dunk contest and other all-star weekend festivities. There is always some down time for us, so it’s no wonder how close our team gets by the end of the season. Lights were out by 11:30 to try to get some rest before our Sunday morning showdown with Emory. (I feel like I need to mention here how amazing the beds at the Marriott are. In all seriousness, sleeping becomes something to look forward to, especially after so much travel and basketball.)

Sunday morning proved to be just as tough as we thought it would be as the lead seemed to change several times in the first half. It’s always difficult to wake up and get energized for these Sunday games as they are so early and there are usually few, if any, fans in the crowd. This was the case today until a bunch of rowdy, shirtless Emory students stormed in midway through the first half with WASHUSUCKS! scribbled across their chests, which proved to be pretty entertaining. They proceeded to heckle us with information that they had found out about us from Facebook; “Ser-en-dip-ity” while I was shooting FTs, “Ross likes Fergie” while our PG Ross Kelley was bringing the ball up, and “Han-nah In-gram”, Cam Smith’s girlfriend’s name, while he had the ball. Both teams fed off this intensity and fought hard through regulation and into overtime. When all was said and done, we had pulled away after a key three-pointer by Aaron Thompson and some FTs down the stretch. After the game, I think we all just wanted to collapse in the locker room. Two games in 40 hours with a lot of travel in the middle had taken just about everything out of us. After a quick 15-minute dip in the cold ice bath, we hustled out to root our girls on in the second game of the double-header.

One thing that I wanted to make sure and talk about is the relationship that we develop with our women’s team. On all of these trips we share planes and buses, stay in the same hotels, eat at the same places, and are the other team’s only form of support in some gyms. It’s a nice opportunity to get to know these girls and share our experiences on the road in the UAA.

So next time you’re wondering how or why something wacky happens in the UAA, especially on Sunday afternoons, just remember that it is a long weekend for both teams and games can often come down to a simple test of mental toughness. Congrats to all of the teams in the UAA thus far and good luck. We’re rooting for you!

Take care,
Tyler

Thanks, Tyler. And I can’t tell you all how pumped I am to have first-row seats for Friday night’s heavy-weight fight for the D3 Championship BeltTM. –Sean Wallis