Category Archives: General

Insider: Winnin’ & Havin’ Fun

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It’s been a while since my last entry so here’s a run through of our recent games.

Last time I checked-in we were 2-0 and heading to Augustana for a #1 vs. #2 showdown. The game was a blast—playing in front of 2,000+ fans, most of which were yelling obscene things at me (side note: what does it mean to be called a dirty Serbian? I’m not even Serbian and I don’t think womens tennis pro Ana Ivanovic, who is Serbian, is dirty), brought me back to my days in high school.

Augie is a great team and they play incredible defense. Over the past three years we’ve developed a really great rivalry with them and had four games decided by just a few points. As much as I love seeing my AAU teammate Alex Washington and a few of the other guys from Augie, I’d have to say I wouldn’t mind if I don’t see them again this year on the court. We won a great game in overtime which made getting back from Rock Island, Illinois at 4 AM all worth it!

The next weekend we traveled to Anderson, Indiana, for our thanksgiving tournament. Cameron Smith is from Noblesville, which isn’t too far from there, so we ate thanksgiving dinner with his family. We took on Aurora in our opener and pulled away in overtime. They had some fantastic individual performances and didn’t play like a winless team. While they struggled at the beginning of this season, they’re going to compete for their conference championship and I’d expect them to get better as the season goes on.

In the championship game we played Anderson, a veteran team that had only lost to UW-Platteville by a few points a couple days earlier. We got into some serious foul trouble but were able to fight through the adversity to get a W.

This past weekend we were at home (FINALLY!!!) as we hosted the 25th annual Lopata Classic. Friday night we took on an undefeated Hamilton team in front of a pretty hostile crowd at the WU Field House. We played extremely well and I believe they’re a much better team than the final score indicated.

The next afternoon we took on a young, but talented Illinois Wesleyan team. The hardest part wasn’t physically being able to turn around and play a game the next day (because we were relatively rested from the night before) but having to prepare for them in such short period of time. They ran a ton of ball screen motion, which we were extremely unsure how to play against the entire first half. We’re a team that uses preparation and our coach’s scouting report really well. Normally we’ll use defensive drills in practice to prepare for what a team likes to do—but we weren’t able to simulate or really get a feel for their motion. At halftime we made some great adjustments and were able to contain what they did a little better. We were just able to get a few more stops in the second half, which was the only difference in the game.

I’d have to say because of sitting on the sidelines and my injury last year, I really have been looking at things in a different way this year. If a few years ago I had a game where I had eight turnovers (like @ Augustana) or didn’t make a field goal (like against Aurora), I would beat myself up over it. I would think about it a lot, it would get me down and I’d even have it in my head the following game. But this year is different for me—I can honestly say it isn’t about stats, getting double-digit assists or being the leading scorer on my team—I just want my team to keep winning. I want to contribute and be a key part of one of the best teams in the country—and through seven games I think I’ve been able to do that, even coming off a pretty brutal injury. If that means I need to be getting AT shots or put Ty in positions to score– then that’s great by me as long as that’s what will be great for our team.

We play against undefeated Fontbonne on Saturday which is always a good test. Then we head up to the Chicago area for a tournament at Elmhurst. If we can win our first game against Eureka, we will most likely take on Elmhurst in a battle of top-five teams. Sure hasn’t been an easy schedule—but I know we wouldn’t want it any other way!

I’ll check back before the holidays. Shoot me an e-mail at walliss@wustl.edu if there’s anything you want me to touch on in my next entry. Good luck on finals to all.

Take care,
Sean

60 teams: That’s progress

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I know that there is some debate as to how many Pool B teams there should really be in this year’s NCAA Tournament and thankfully, we have some time for the NCAA to resolve that, in what seems to be an annual occurrence in every sport we cover.

But I, for one, was glad to see the tournament field expand, even by just a little.

This so-called incremental expansion has been skipped in previous years. Remember the 48 teams the men’s tournament was stuck at for a long time? That was based on one playoff spot for every 7.5 NCAA teams, the old ratio before expansion came a few years back. Except by the time the last 48-team tournament came around, we were actually getting shorted by the NCAA because more teams had joined Division III without new teams getting added to the postseason.

Sadly, one person close to the committee said they couldn’t figure out how to construct a 49-team field, as if it had to be seven brackets of seven teams. Not a high point!

So I was afraid that we would have to wait until we got all the way to 416 Division III men’s teams, a full 64-team field, before they bothered to expand it. We will probably get to 64 eventually, but the field isn’t likely to grow any larger, since ESPN has no interest in broadcasting a D-III play-in game.

Hello from Baruch College

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My name is Mike Dietz and I am a senior at Baruch College located in New York City. This is my second year on the team after playing my first two seasons at SUNY Plattsburgh. I was born and raised in Queens, which was the main reason for me changing schools to come back home.

I loved my experience at Plattsburgh; winning two SUNYAC championships and winning an NCAA tournament game will stay with me forever. I’m still close with all the players and the coaches; I wish them nothing but the best! I still follow the team and will always consider myself a part of the Plattsburgh family.

I’ve had many interesting experiences playing basketball. I played my high school basketball at Archbishop Molloy in Jamaica, Queens. I played for Hall-of-Fame coach Jack Curran and many of our games were against future NCAA & NBA players such as Rudy Gay and Mario Chalmers. It was also nice playing alongside 2008 SEC Tournament MVP Sundiata Gaines (Georgia). We had a very strong team all those years, which was needed because the competition in the CHSAA is unmatched by any high school conference in the country.

I feel I should offer some insight on Baruch College and the CUNYAC (conference) as a whole. The CUNYAC is unlike any other conference in the country in my opinion. Unlike other conferences where road games involve jumping on a bus and traveling for at least an hour (I hated the bus trips at Plattsburgh), the CUNYAC games are closer in proximity. Tomorrow, we play in Brooklyn against Medgar Evers, which will be a 20-minute bus ride for some, while others without classes Tuesday afternoon will hop on the subway. That’s right, we take the subway to our games!

No conference game is further than 30 minutes away, and that’s when we have to go to the College of Staten Island every other year. There will be several instances when our whole team will take the subway to our games. It is very different than your normal D3 team.

Also, Baruch is a commuter school with no dorms, so everyone lives on their own. This forces us to have to deal with many obstacles not seen at your regular D3 programs. Each player has to travel to school everyday for practice, and for me that is 45 minutes on the R train. We have players coming from all five boroughs (Queens, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx and Staten Island for you people not familiar with the city), including Westchester County and nearby New Jersey.

Our season this year has had its up and downs losing two very heart-breaking games. We are 3-2 after beating Polytechnic, Immaculata, and Stevens Tech this past Sunday. Our two losses are to NYU and Farmingdale (OT Loss), and both were close games right down to the wire.

The Farmingdale game in particular is a heart-breaker because we had a 24 point lead in the first half before finally losing the lead in overtime. It was a crushing blow because we played so well in the first half, and we had the lead the entire game until the last 15 seconds when they finally tied it up. We had nothing left in overtime as we eventually lost by seven. We start our conference play tomorrow (Tuesday) versus Medgar Evers.

The 2008 Baruch Bearcats can be best described as what a team is supposed to be. If you were a coach, you would love coaching this group of guys. It really is a pleasure to play on this team because everyone is involved and everyone truly cares for one another. It is a selfless group, which is rare nowadays.

I’ll keep everyone updated on our team’s progress as we try and build on our big road win at Stevens Tech. Hopefully, I’ll have some good stories from our subway journeys. You can keep track of our team at www.BaruchAthletics.com, where our scores and statistics are always updated on the website before I’m done showering!

Talk to you soon,

Mike Dietz

Hoopsville Podcast: Season Premiere

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The 6th season of Hoopsville tipped off tonight On the Road at the Provident Pride of Maryland Basketball Tournament. The tournament is in its fourth season and this marks the second time that Hoopsville was on the road, broadcasting during the championship game, hosted at Stevenson University (formerly Villa Julie College) this season.

Guests included:
– Buena Vista Coach Brian Van Haaften
– Westfield State Coach Brian Sutter
– Trinity (TX) Coach Pat Cunningham
– St. Mary’s (MD) Coach Chris Harney

Also, regional reports from the Northeast, Atlantic, Midwest, and others.

Hoopsville, Nov. 30, 2008

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Hello From The Lone Star State

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Hello to all from Tyler, Texas! My name is Caitlyn Scelfo & I am a junior at the University of Texas at Tyler. I transferred from Texas A&M Universityafter attending for two years as a regular student. I transferred to UT Tyler with high hopes of playing basketball for their Women’s Basketball Program under head coach Terri Deike. However, due to a recent diagnosis of Osteoarthritis in my left knee, after a 4 year struggle with a knee injury, I have had to make the decision to not play basketball anymore. Though it was a difficult decision to make, I had incredible support from my coaches, teammates, friends, and most importantly my family. And I believe that God has a plan for everyone, and desires to use us in ways that may not be quite “on schedule” with our desires. Coach Deike has given me the awesome opportunity to now be the manager for the UT Tyler women’s basketball team. I am still able to be fully involved with the team as I take on a new role. It is a blessing to still have the opportunity to be a part of this basketball program. All of the coaches and the girls are wonderful, and I want to work hard everyday to make a positive contribution to the program.

 

We enter the 2008-2009 basketball season picked to finish first in the ASC East conference. Our team enters the season with six great freshman, two awesome seniors, six wonderful sophomores, and 1 fabulous junior. They are all working hard each day on the court in practice and off the court hitting the books as we make our way to the next level of being the 2009 ASC Conference Champions. The girls are becoming more of a team and a family each day as they set aside their differences on and off the court, and put together the talents, outstanding individual qualities, and key roles they each have to offer to the UT Tyler Women’s basketball program. Let me introduce you to our 2008-2009 coaching staff, starting with Head Coach Terri Deike.  Coach Deike started the UT Tyler Women’s basketball program seven years ago and has led them to three ASC East Division Championships and a 77-51 record in that time.  Our assistant coach is Cassi Little, who is in her second year with the program.  She was a year starter at post for the University of Texas at Dallasfrom 2002-2006 where she set five career records and one season record. Last but not least is our graduate assistant, RaTonya Hunter.  She was outstanding point guard for the UT Tyler Patriots from 2003-2007, helping lead them to two ASC East Division Championships. 

 

We opened our season with a win the other night against Jarvis Christian College. This weekend we play our first two games in front of our home crowd here at UT Tyler as we take on 23rd-ranked College of St. Benedicton Friday night and Wisconsin-Platteville on Saturday afternoon in the 2008 Fred Jacoby I-20 Tip-off Classic. Next week we take our first major road trip traveling south to Seguin, Texas to take on the Texas Lutheran Bulldogs, then head over to Kerrville, Texas to play Schreiner University. Yep, safe to say the 2008-2009 UT Tyler Women’s Basketball season is under-way, and all roads lead to Hope, Michigan, home of the 2008-2009 Division III Women’s Basketball National Championship.

 

Looking forward to keeping yall updated on the good times to come this season on & off the court! Until next time, take care, and God Bless!

 

Caitlyn