There’s been a lot of head-scratching about Averett, which lost three games this week after coming in at No. 11.
Here’s the scoop: Cory McDaniel broke his hand back in December and didn’t play in the game against Guilford. He played with a soft cast against Richard Stockton and shot 3-for-11. He was Averett’s leading scorer when he went down. Jonathan Rumley, who had played all 10 games and was the team’s leading rebounder, did not play, and neither did Tyler Eubanks, who had started five of Averett’s 10 games.
Just figured we should get that out front and center. Feel free to use this space to talk more about Friday’s and Saturday’s games.
The mercurial #2 Ohio Northern Polar Bears suffered their second double-digit home loss today, losing to Capital 68-57, and they didn’t have any injury excuses. The OAC is a tough league, there is no doubt, but ONU didn’t sound like they played very well today.
Shouldn’t lose to Capital. They should be better than that.
McMurry finished off the UT-Dallas road “Trip to Abilene”, 81-57.
Best game of the season for McM! We have replaced 14 players on the roster this year. They have really good chemistry, and we are still missing our starting point guard, who broke an ankle in the first 20 seconds of the opening game vs. Rowan, a 68-63 loss at the Hopkins Tourney. The ASC-West should be very tough. The current 2 game lead by Miss College over UT-D in the ASC-East standings put the Chocs in position to host the 8-team conference tourney in late Feb.
Mississippi College held off Howard Payne in the Brownwood Mausoleum, 1200 miles into the Sul Ross State/HPU bus trip to extend a 3 point lead with 9 minutes left to win, 76-64.
David, the Choctaws did okay on the trip to Alpine! 🙂
A good many ranked teams are coming up short of late. Is it global warming? Wrong alignment of the stars and planets? Phase of the moon? What?
Kindly advise ASAP ….
Conference play certainly contributes to it, I would think.
I’ve had a chance to review the McMurry/UT-Dallas game. McMurry played smothering defense in the last 9:34. UT-D’s Martin Salinas hit his final points (a 3FG) to make it a 56-50, McMurry lead. After the media timeout, the McMurry defense only allowed a layup and 5 FT’s in the remainder of the game on their way to their 81-57 victory.
The ASC-West battle is now between pre-season favorite Hardin-Simmons, McMurry, Mary Hardin-Baylor, and maybe Sul Ross State.
I never had a doubt, Ralph! 🙂
Here’s a puzzler: Assume that you are in more or less agreement with the current poll, in that there’s an upper echelon comprised of Stevens Point, ONU, and Amherst; then Wooster, about 60 points back; then St. Thomas and Whitworth, another 50 or so points in arrears. From this group, ONU lost by double digits at home for the second time, and St. Thomas continued to struggle, beating Bethel in 2 OTs. The one thing we know “for sure” in this group is that ONU is better than Wooster, as the PBs won on Wooster’s home court by 7 just last week.
So how do you re-order this group? Specifically, do you drop ONU behind Wooster? Do you keep them ahead of Wooster because of the head-to-head result, which probably means they are #3, despite losses by 11 and 17 at home? UST and Whitworth haven’t done anything this week to warrant moving them ahead of Wooster, and the Scots won tonight by 29 with their most productive player in street clothes (granted, it was a terrible Denison squad they beat.) So it seems like if Wooster was #4 before, they’re no worse than #4 now.
What’s the new top 5 going to look like?
Okay, David. Here goes…
This is my first draft for Mr Ypsi’s Fan top 25.
1) UWSP
2) UWSP second team
3) Pointers’ alumni hoopsters
4) Friends of the University of Wisconsin -Stevens Point.
5) Pointer cheerleaders.
David, I don’t know how to rate the tumult that we are seeing in the Great Lakes/Midwest/WIAC. Richter Scales? Fujita Tornado Scales? Decibels?
This week, a 5-loss McMurry and a 6-loss HSU dismantled a D3 that unraveled a D1 team the week before. Mississippi College is looking better all of the time, but they have never defeated a Great Lakes Region team in the Tourney.
Amherst’s win over Trinity TX doesn’t look any better after Trinity lost to Hendrix on Friday night. I caught a glimpse of Hendrix at UDallas 3 weeks ago…no great shakes!
Why not Whitworth and UPS…they play next Friday.
I think that I will have a 4-way tie among 5 teams for 16th for the CCIW. (We have to leave someone out.)
Is Wash StL the team in the UAA this year? I think that we can have 2 from the UAA by the first round of conference play.
I will give 3 of the Top 25 to the WIAC.
Drop Larry U. with their loss to Ripon. Ripon lost to UMHB and edged a wounded HSU. Receiving votes for Ripon…probably.
Averett needs to get healthy.
No one in the SCAC and is there anyone other than VWC in the ODAC?
Hope! The team and the noun!
Thanks for the inquiry…It gave me an excuse to stay up to listen to “Whippin’ Post” by the Allman Brothers Band on my streaming audio! 🙂
Okay…can we say that Pacific boxed UPS? 😉
Back to the drawing board!
I dunno, RT, those Pointer alumni hoopsters are pretty good, maybe #3 is too low for them. 🙂
“Is there anyone other than VWC in the ODAC?” Tune in tomorrow (later today, actually) as VWC takes on unbeaten Guilford.
Today, the top 25 collectively went 13-9, with Puget Sound a late entry into the upset victims’ category (defeated 77-71 by Pacific).
Pointer alums are looking better all the time!
Do we know if all three of those guys will be back at full strength for Averett anytime soon?
Coach Allen said he hopes they will be ready for conference play this week. They’ll need them for Greensboro (9-3). In fact, Allen implied that they could’ve played this weekend but weren’t 100 percent.