Author Archives: Gordon Mann

Insider: Seeing the light

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Justin Riley, whose Chapman Panthers have risen to No. 12 in the latest rankings, is blogging about his experience this season. Here is his latest entry.

From the first time I picked up a basketball at age five to my college days, I could never escape the word “teamwork.”

“Why does it always have to be about the team, coach”?
“Why does he get to shoot the ball more than I do?”
“I am better than he is!”

These quotes bring back memories of me in my high school days of basketball when I struggled with the concept of teamwork and being a team player. During those days, I was known as the kid with talent who would make or break practices. If it was a good day, practices would go really well; if it was a bad day, let’s just say there were several arguments between me, coaches and teammates.

As I entered college, that poor attitude still haunted me.

“Why isn’t coach playing me as much?”
“Coach is biased. I’m going to quit!”

When would the light switch on and I’d finally figure out that maybe, it is not about me? When was I going to finally grow up and realize that the only way to be successful was to put my ego aside and see that “I” don’t win championships, “we” do.

15 years later… the light finally turned on.

For the first time, I can honestly express how it feels to be a part of a selfless team that is willing to do whatever it takes to win. With this attitude and commitment to each other, we are off to a 7-0 start. We just recaptured the Lee Fulmer Tournament championship this past weekend after a four year hiatus from the top.

In the three games of the tournament, we held our opponents (UC Santa Cruz, Cal Lutheran, and George Fox) to a 30% shooting average and out rebounded each team by 14.6. These games were the first defining point of the season because every member of the team had the same attitude: team defense first, scoring second.

It feels great to be connected with a group of guys who want nothing more than to get a chance to play in the postseason and prove to the doubters that we have the talent and can compete with the best teams. On December 9, we begin a three-game home stand against the very talented and well-disciplined Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Redlands and La Verne.

I can’t say enough how much I respect the guys I play with and am very excited to continue down this road of success. As Mia Hamm stated, “I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team. I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion.”

Insider: First goal met

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Here is the second entry from Illinois Wesleyan’s Holly Harvey. In this issue she recaps an exciting day in Bloomington and the Titans’ big victory over then-No. 1 Washington U.

Hello again, I just returned to IWU from a short but sweet Thanksgiving break at home in Chicago. I am happy that I was able put the end of the semester rush of school work aside for a few days and just enjoy my family and friends. The break was also a nice way to settle down after an exciting weekend for sports on the Wesleyan campus.

On Friday night we kicked off our Tip Off Tournament with a game against Central. We came out strong and our defense proved to be effective as we forced 39 turnovers. All 17 players saw game time and 14 made it in the scoring column. We won the game 85-60 and advanced to face #1 ranked Washington University the next day.

Saturday gave Titan fans the most opportunities to take in the excitement of IWU athletics. Our football team kicked everything off with their first round playoff game against Wabash at noon. Our Tip Off Tournament championship game against Wash U followed at 4 P.M. The Men’s Basketball team closed the day with the first game of their tournament at 8 P.M. During our shoot around before warm-ups we had one of our grade school fans running between the gym and the football field giving us updates. Finally after the exciting news of overtime and then double overtime we learned that we won. This gave us a little more fire going into our game.

Our game with Wash U had a lot of hype to go along with it because we lost to them in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament last season. We drew a big crowd with a lot of our alumni there to support us. The game was close the whole way through. Our defense once again proved to be strong as we forced 31 turnovers. We needed that defense all the way to the end as Wash U hit two 3 pointers in the last minute cutting our lead to 3 each time. We shot 72 % from the free throw line for the game including some important ones at the end. We got a solid double- double from senior post Christina Solari with 16 points and 13 rebounds. The final score put us on top 58-53. A victory by our Men’s team over Johnson and Wales gave IWU 3 home wins and 0 losses for the day.

Our most recent game was against Olivet Nazarene University. It was definitely a different style of play than we are used to. They subbed a group of 5 new players every minute. It was a very fast moving up and down the court game. Unfortunately the game had a total of 83 turnovers as we had 41 of them. We didn’t take as good of care of the ball as we wanted to but we shot well and won 108-83.

We are currently 4-0 and we’ve met our first goal of winning the Tip-Off Tourney and are now focusing on our challenging non-conference games that are coming up.

“Very little margin for error”

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This is the second entry from D3hoops Insider Justin Riley whose team is off to a quick start this season.

The 2009-2010 season of hoops is here and I couldn’t be more excited to get the ball rolling on this season. As stated in my previous blog, Chapman is not affiliated with a conference, therefore each game has to be played with conference intensity and preparation–there is very little margin for error.

With that said, we opened up our season on the road against the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens. Last year, the Sagehens made it to the SCIAC championship game where they were defeated by the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags. We knew the Sagehens were an experienced team (they added only one new starter) that had the smarts and talent to beat us. After getting off to a slow start, we quickly turned the game around and defeated the Sagehens by 18 points. It felt great to get the first win of the season under our belt, but we noticed some flaws in our game that would need to be corrected before facing the #14 ranked Cal Lutheran Kingsmen.

During the practices leading up to the game, I noticed a change in our team’s dynamic. We realized this would be one of the most important games of the season. Just hours before the game, I had butterflies in my stomach as I paced back and forth in my apartment. I was anxious to step on the court at 7 PM and give everything I had. This was the first time since my senior year of high school that I was this excited to play in a game. Before I could even blink, my teammates and I were on the court awaiting the ref to toss the jump ball and let play begin!

From the opening tip to the ending buzzer, the game was everything I had pictured it would be. We secured an upset victory over the visiting Kingsmen, 80-74. Both teams battled during the entire 40 minutes and the cheering fans added to a fun-filled environment that all players enjoy. Unlike Hope and Calvin, which averaged 2000 people in attendance per game last season, Chapman had about 500-600 fans in the stands for this game and the noise level was still pretty high. Ultimately, it was a great game for both teams and I am looking forward to potentially playing them again in the Lee Fulmer Tournament hosted by Redlands University December 3-5.

It feels good starting the season off with wins over two experienced and very good SCIAC teams. Next week we face La Verne on their home court, and Elmhurst on our floor. After these two games we will play UC Santa Cruz in the first round of the Lee Fulmer Tournament.

Chapman as well as the other SCIAC teams have improved from last year and returned several veteran players. This could be the year that sees a Southern California team walk the same lines as the best teams of the Northwest Conference. Keep your eyes and ears open for anything that comes from our area!

Until we meet again,
Justin Riley-Chapman University

Meet the Insiders: Aaron Trigg

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The third of our Insiders for this year is Aaron Trigg, a senior guard for the Gordon Fighting Scots. If his first post is any indication, he will have a humorous, interesting take on life in “The TCCC.”

I am so excited to write for D3hoops this season. As most Division III basketball players can relate, I have looked at this site more often than NBA refs miss traveling. (See Majerle, Dan). Anyways, it is great to follow some of the successful bloggers of the past like Sean Wallis from Wash U and Mike Dietz of Baruch. Hopefully there is a correlation between deep NCAA tournament runs and D3hoops bloggers.

Before I get too far, I want to give a little introduction to myself and our team. My name is Aaron Trigg and I am one of six seniors and 14 returning players to the Gordon College Fighting Scots. I don’t know what a Fighting Scot is, but if it is anything related to our logo it must be a member of the ferret family. We are a non-denominational Christian college located 30 minutes outside of Boston in Wenham, MA. Gordon is a member of The Commonwealth Coast Conference (TCCC). From the department of redundancy department “the” is part of our acronym. Saying “The TCCC” is actually repetitive and completely unnecessary. I could bore you with more details about our school but there is plenty of time for that later.

Our team is actually much more interesting. Despite possibly being the least diverse team this side of the seven dwarfs, we have quite a few distinct characteristics. So many, actually, we believe ourselves to be “The Only Team in America” with many of these traits. Here are a few examples of what I’m talking about:

• We are the only team in America who has a player who posted his own You Tube video of Hannah Montana’s Hoedown Throwdown.

• We are the only team in America whose entrance music for home games is the theme from Space Jam.

• We are the only team in America who has debated which team member would look best in a dress.
• We are the only team in America who has been to Chuck-E-Cheese’s five or more times this Fall.
• We are the only team in America who awards the “Selfish Award of the Week” going to whoever has been the most selfish person we know. We even have a board for past winners (or losers, depends how you look at it).
• We are the only team in America that sings a cappella before games.
• We are the only team in America with a life size poster of one of our captains in our living room.
• We are the only team in America whose starting point guard must stretch for 2.5hrs before any physical activity, including biking to class.
• We are the only team in America whose Halloween costumes included a cow, a farmer, Fred Flintstone, Barney Rubble, a guy riding a pony, and most randomly… a shark eating a person (It was inflatable, and awesome).

These are just a few of our unique characteristics. If anyone out there would like to challenge our self proclaimed Only Team in America title, I would be glad to know. We would appreciate some company.

Back to what I’m supposed to write about. Our group of seniors has had very high expectations since we stepped onto campus 3 years ago. It has been our goal to transform Gordon into a nationally recognized program and we feel we have an opportunity to do so this year. With a veteran led team and a strong group of underclassmen we seem poised to reach our lofty goals. As everyone in basketball knows, nothing comes easy. We will have to work harder than we ever have and compete on every possession if we want to reach our potential. This will be an exciting season and I am looking forward to giving an inside view of our small college team looking to make a name for ourselves on a larger stage.

Meet the Insiders: Justin Riley

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Each year we invite a handful of men’s and women’s basketball players to provide us with insight on their season as it unfolds. This year we have a very interesting mix that covers a wide range of the Division III landscape. Let’s meet the second Insider who is setting his sights on playing games into March 2010

Introducing Justin Riley

Welcome to the 2009-2010 season! I am very excited that I have been selected to blog about our season this year. My name is Justin Riley and I am the starting power forward at Chapman University. I am in my junior season and couldn’t be more excited to enter this season with the group of guys we have.

I decided to come to Chapman and play Division III basketball because I wanted to go to a school that would provide me a great education and give me the opportunity to still play basketball. I had the opportunity to play at lower-tier Division I schools, but decided not to follow through because I didn’t think I wanted to play basketball in college and didn’t want to go to an average academic school just to play basketball. Looking back three years later, I would love to have had the opportunity to play Division I basketball, but nevertheless, I have enjoyed my experience at Chapman University.

For those of you who do not know, Chapman University is not apart of a conference and unfortunately we have been stuck as an Independent. As an Independent, it is very difficult to get a bid into the the post-season tournament. Last season, we went 24-3, but had the third “easiest” strength of schedule. We very well should have won one of the games we lost, and looking back, that could have been the game (UDallas) that cost us the post-season bid.

Anytime you are apart of a team that goes 24-3 and end up in the “other receiving votes category” for several weeks, you feel that you deserve the chance to prove yourself on the big stage, but that didn’t happen. I can go on until I am blue in the face arguing that we should have received a bid, but the season is over and there is nothing that is going to change; for that reason, I will let last year end and move on to this season with the hopes of finally getting the chance to play in the post-season tournament.

For the 2009-2010 season, my biggest goal is to earn a post-season bid. As a competitor, I am not satisfied with ending the season short of the post season. I have always wondered what it would be like to play in the tourney at any level, and now that we are knocking on the door, I will not accept anything less. We return all five starters from last years very successful team and have several talented role players that can come and fill any voids. Out of all the previous seasons at Chapman, this is the one year where it is our season to win or lose. All the guys have that bad feeling of what is was like to be so close, therefore all of us our ready to go out and win every game with pride and passion. Besides making it to the post-season, I am striving to earn All West Region honors. The west region is filled with many talented players and I would love to be able to enter the ranks of the top players in the West.

This season has the makings to be a great one and I am excited to see what will happen. I hope everyone will pay attention to us and realize that the Chapman team has the ability to make some noise.

Good luck to all Division III teams this season!