Insider: Thoughts and More Thoughts

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As finals come to an end and the semester is coming to a close–I thought I’d drop my last entry of 2007 and use it to touch on a bunch of different topics on my mind…

The Coleman Curse: Forget SI or Madden– initially I thought it was a nice little gig when Pat Coleman asked me to write this “insider blog.” Now, I would say it is in every athlete’s BEST interest to say “Thanks– but no thanks” to Pat if he asks you to write for his website. Jordan Delp from Augustana wrote about his team’s trip overseas this summer—and now is out with an Achilles injury. I started writing—and within a week fractured my leg. Then, MIT’s Jimmy Bartolotta starts writing and hurts his ankle in a game before he can even get a post loaded to D3Hoops! All coincidences? I think not. I hope that trio of Oglethorpe women is being extra careful… I would also like to send a best-wishes/get well soon message to Jamie McFarlin of our women’s team. She’s having surgery to repair her ACL on Friday and is now my training-room buddy for the rest of the season.

WU Hoops Update: We’ve had three good wins against Illinois Wesleyan, Fontbonne and Coe College since my last post putting us at 8-2 going into the holidays. We’re definitely happy with the wins, but I think we’re still searching a little as a team for how we’re going to be successful against top competition. Illinois Wesleyan is going to be really, really, scary good sometime in the future. I think Coach Rose did a great job and brought in a ton of young talent and when that group of freshmen mature—look out CCIW. It was great to see Troy play so well against Coe (career-high 35 points and 12 rebounds) and he’s going to need to keep that up. Once we get back from break we open up with a talented Webster team and then Chicago comes to town for the opening of UAA play. Speaking of which…

The UAA is tough: Obviously no one needs to hear me say that Brandeis and Rochester are talented. But I don’t see either of those teams getting through conference play with only none, one or two losses. If any team can hold serve at home and be over .500 on the road I think that’ll get the conference championship. In the UAA, especially this year, I feel like the national attention on the teams at the top are leading people to underestimate how tough it will be to beat Carnegie Mellon (4-2 with 14 point loss at Rochester), Case Western (7-2), and Chicago (5-4 but has been without Nate Hainje) this year. I know some people complain that the UAA got four tournament bids last year but come on—the conference’s W-L in non-conference games is 50-15 this year—that’s pretty dang good!

Grinnell & Assists: There’s been so much hoopla about the breaking of the assist record and Grinnell’s “system” that I figured I’d weigh in from a player’s perspective. I’m not going to sit here and ridicule the style or anything like that because that has been done enough— in my opinion they win basketball games and that’s that… period. But the thing that bugs me about the assist record is just that it was done in a 40-point blow-out win. I’d like to think that in order to feel good about setting a record of this magnitude it must include two key elements. One, the record setting performance is an outstanding individual effort (which this CLEARLY was! I mean, 34 assists is ridiculous. I had 16 vs. Chicago last year and that’s more than DOUBLE that…). But last, that every bit of the performance was needed for the team’s victory. I’m not sure this was exactly the case as I think he played 38 minutes in the blow-out.

Headin to NYC: Tomorrow night I’m going to Madison Square Garden to catch the Duke vs. Pitt game. Since we were young and through high school I’ve played on teams with Jon Scheyer (sophomore on Duke). We’ve been really close for a long time and still talk after almost every game of his and mine. I love going through workouts with him during the summer and I’m really excited to get a chance to finally watch him and his team in-person tomorrow night. Both teams are undefeated and ranked in the top ten so it should be a good one. I really like the way Duke plays this year and they’re deep and talented enough to be a favorite to win it all come March. Look for me behind the Duke bench waving my crutches after Jon drains some 3’s!!

Happy Holidays: Merry Christmas and safe travels to everyone. Wanted to say thanks to my roommate Jared Kleinstein for taking care of me the past few weeks and wish him luck as he’s going away to Israel for the second semester—I’m going to miss [pounding him in FIFA ’08 and NFL Blitz] him.

Take care,

Sean

Top 25 News and Notes–Week 4

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This is the time of year when the D3 hoops world slows down and takes a breather. Remembering that our athletes are students first, most teams take a break to allow the players to concentrate on exams and get home for the holidays. Of the fifty teams in last week’s Top 25 polls, twenty-two took the week off from basketball, and the other twenty-eight played just 38 games between them, ringing up a record of 33-6 (one game pitted ranked foes, as the then-#9 ranked Augustana men handed #13 UW-Oshkosh their first defeat of the season.) With few games and almost no losses, the Week 4 polls look like carbon copies of their Week 3 versions. Each poll has just one new team, both sneaking in at the #25 position. Nineteen of last week’s twenty Top 10 teams are still in the Top 10, with women’s #10 Simpson moving up to replace Southern Maine.

Rather than dwell on the week that wasn’t, perhaps I should look ahead to the week ahead. Actually, next week is a two-week “week,” as there will not be a new poll released next Tuesday, due to the holidays and relative dearth of games this week. Things pick up, however, as the New Year approaches and teams in the north and east make snowbird trips between the semesters. Some of these warm-weather venues will feature top-flight D3 competition, starting this Wednesday in Orlando, where men’s #8 Hope will square off with #21 Elmhurst. On Friday, fans who are otherwise stick with nothing to do in Cancun can take in the matchup of women’s #6 DePauw and #7 Messiah. This Saturday, the tropical resort of Rock Island, Ill. will be treated to the clash of men’s #3 UW-Stevens Point against the homestanding #5 Augustana Vikings. Then on New Year’s Eve eve (i.e., Dec. 30), those lucky enough to be in the vicinity of Huntington Beach will have the opportunity to watch women’s #1 Mary Washington take on #5 UW-Whitewater.

No matter what your travel plans may be, here’s a wish from me that your holidays are safe, healthy, and happy, and filled with D3 hoops!

Debutantes:
Considering the almost complete lack of movement in this week’s polls, it should hardly be surprising that there are no debubantes in any category this week.

Streakers:
Women: Thirteenth-ranked Southern Maine has now received voting support in 100 consecutive polls. Other active voting streaks include Brandeis (60 polls), #4 NYU, and Wilmington (each at 20 weeks.)
Men: This week’s poll is the 20th since the beginning of last season. Six programs entered the voting in that poll and have stayed ever since, including #1 Rochester, #3 UW-Stevens Point (which has been a Top 25 team for all 20 of these polls), #11 Washington U., #18 Wheaton (IL), Rhode Island College (which was a voting debutante in that 2005 poll), and Aurora. Centre has now received votes in 10 straight polls.

Milestones:
Women: Defending champion DePauw is ranked #6 this week, marking the 100th time the Tigers have been ranked. Eighth-ranked McMurry is celebrating its 40th week as a Top 25 team, while top-ranked Mary Washington is a member of the Top 10 for the 20th time. #10 Simpson has now received votes in 75 polls. Other votes-received milestones were reached by #25 Baldwin-Wallace (110 polls), #22 UW-Eau Claire (90), #9 Thomas More (20), and #19 Tufts (10).
Men: #23 Wooster, which has been flirting with the bottom of the poll for three weeks, nevertheless has extended their poll record of Top 25 appearances to 120 polls (out of 128 all-time.) Twelfth-ranked Capital has now been ranked thirty times, while #8 Hope is a Top 10 team for the 30th time. Nineteenth-ranked Lewis & Clark has now been mentioned in the voting 50 times, while William Paterson has received votes in 60 polls. Other vote-getting plateaus were reached this week by UMass-Dartmouth (30 weeks), Rhode Island College (20), and Centre (10).

High-Water Marks:
Women: The five programs that reached or tied new highs last week did so again this week: #5 UW-Whitewater, #8 McMurry, #9 Thomas More, #17 Oglethorpe, and #19 Tufts. This quintet is joined this week by #20 Medaille, which matched its highest-ever ranking.
Men: #2 Brandeis and #16 Stevens each matched their highest-ever ranking, set or tied a week ago.

Movers and Shakers:
Women: With just three losses among last week’s Top 25, movement in the women’s poll was practically glacial this week. The biggest moves were suffered by #13 Southern Maine and #7 Messiah, which lost road games and fell 134 and 118 points, respectively. The largest gains, such as they were, were earned by #19 Tufts and #17 Oglethorpe, moving up 59 and 50 points respectively.
Men: If the women’s poll was glacial, the men’s poll was practically static. There were just three defeats sustained: one to a D2 squad, one in a matchup of Top 25 teams, and one by a mere two points. The largest moves were made by the loser in the first of these games (#9 Mary Hardin-Baylor, which lost 65 points) and the winner in the second (#5 Augustana, which gained 57 points), teams that switched positions from last week’s poll.

One Charge Too Many!

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A trio of Oglethorpe women’s basketball players are joining the Insider contingent.

This season we have noticed that the amounts of charges called have significantly increased since last season. We find ourselves asking each other why is this happening? Charges used be to something a player would take pride in, seeing as there would be only a few charges called every few games. Now there are charges being called, at least for our games, every game, multiple times a game. This also makes us ask ourselves is this trend the same for men’s games? We think not! Why is it that when a girl makes an athletic move to the basket she must be out of control, yet men can do it all the time? If refs think this, then an out of position player can take a charge, or flop, which can change the whole momentum of the game. NEWS FLASH: GIRLS CAN MAKE ATHLETIC MOVES TO THE BASKET TOO! A charge used to get the bench on their feet and excited. Now a charge is just another part of the game, nothing extraordinary. A charge should be called if the player is clearly out of control and contact is made with the defensive player. Many of the charges that have been called have had no or barely any contact. The defensive player flops without even being touched. We would not be mistaken to say that 85% of the charges that have been called in our 8 games of play this year have been flops. This is just something we think should be addressed. We are not in high school anymore our games should be called this way, contact is inevitable. Sorry this is all for now. We must go to practice and practice flopping abilities seeing as that is the popular thing to do these days. Until next time, try not to miss our genius insight of the game too much!

Insider: A Look Back

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The first part of the season sure has gone by fast.  It is hard to believe that I am more than a half way done with my college career.  This past semester has been filled with a lot of highs, a few lows, and a lot of twists and turns. 

This week I will briefly touch on some things that many people might not realize happens in D3 basketball.  Specifically, I will talk about our preseason commitment to the sport and some of the things we do as a program to get ready before we step on the court with coaches on October 15th.      

Most students at MIT arrive on campus a good week and a half before classes start.  We move in, help with freshman orientation, and some even participate in community service or leadership development programs. 

The end of summer is probably my favorite time of the year.  Aside from getting back together with my closest friends, there is a solid week in which I basically have no obligations.  With school, basketball, and summer internships it can be fairly hard to find some alone time to do what you please during the year so getting some time is amazing.  This year
Boston was great.  The city was lively and I had one focus in mind – get in the gym. 

I hope that every program is able to take advantage of the machine called “The Gun”.  This machine is quite a contraption that has nets to catch rebounds and an electrical throwing arm to pass to the shooter.  With this machine I was able to rattle off about 1,000-1,500 jumpers a day in about three or four hours depending on the intensity or focus of the workout. 

During these sessions I felt that I was subtly redefining myself as an individual.  I’m sure this feeling is not uncommon among athletes from all sports.  I think the biggest thing that helped me improve as a player during these workouts was the “visualization”. 

We are lucky enough to have a coach on our staff that has PhD in Sports Psychology.  Coach Oliver Eslinger (Clark ’97) talks a lot about the importance of visualizing everything we do.  Making a move as if a defender is there, imagining the footwork of a move before practicing it, and visualizing a tight release on your jumper are a few examples of the countless techniques that can be utilized.

Although a lot of players were in the gym anyway, the first day of classes signified the start of official captain’s practice.  Captain’s practice essentially takes the place of regular practice except we focus on playing, drills, and lifting.  This year we were lucky enough to have Coach Akin Aina (MIT ’96) as our Strength & Conditioning coach. 

We committed to 5 days of team plus 1 extra day of individual workout time.  It seems like 6 days a week is a lot out of season, but this type of commitment is critical in order to compete consistently at a high level.  Coach Akin developed a great strength program for us and it definitely helped us get through the tough preseason workouts.

Two reasons that I personally like the high intensity off-season workout schedule is (1) it simulates the intensity of season and (2) it separates the players that are serious about ball from the ones who think that they are serious about ball.

For conditioning we run 3 mile “bridge-loops” (run around the
Charles River crossing bridges along the way), swim, and on-court running.  Our conditioning is then tested the week before season begins.  I still claim that this test is the hardest mental and physical exertion that I have ever done for athletics.  We are required to run Harvard Stadium.  This stadium looks like a coliseum and we have to run up and down every stair in the whole stadium in under 30 minutes. 

Every year we talk it up to the freshman about how hard it is and every freshman says that the stadium is much harder than they had imagined.  I can honestly say that I will never run that Harvard Stadium after I graduate from school.

After the stadium, we rest up and fine tune our skills to get ready for the first day of practice on October 15th. 

We, as D3 players, really do commit to our sport year around.  It takes an enormous amount of effort but I believe that I speak for most when I say that it is more than worth it.  We find our best friends, learn how to time manage, push ourselves in new ways, meet great people from around the nation and world, and – hopefully – make a difference in others’ lives as well.

Off topic, I would like to thank the training staff at
Amherst for their efforts and help after an injury last week.  I am always amazed with how much competitors care about the welfare of opponents.  It is one of the reasons that I love this sport and the D3 community so much.  Thanks, good luck to all of those that have finals, and safe travels.

Jimmy Bartolotta

*In my next piece, I plan to recap the games from the whole first part of the season.

Top 25 News and Notes–Week 3

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Chaos has attacked the Top 25 this week. On the women’s side, the voters keep trying new and different combinations of teams to make up the body of the poll, while on the men’s side there is unprecedented confusion as to who the #1 team should be.

With defending men’s champion Amherst falling at the hands of then-#3 Brandeis, which in turn had been upset by Mass.-Dartmouth earlier in the week, there was room for a new #1 in the Week 3 poll. Approximately half of the voters agreed that it should be former #2 Rochester, enough to propel the Yellow Jackets into the top slot for the third time in program history. The other twelve voters, however, could only agree that Rochester was not the top team; who the #1 team should be drew a record number of responses. Never before in the history of the men’s Top 25 poll have the voters been in such furious disagreement over the top spot, doling out #1 votes to a record seven different teams. The previous record was six, and if one restricts the analysis to regular season polls, the #1 vote has never been split more than five ways before this week. One of the #1 votes went to UW-Oshkosh, a team that received a grand total of 12 vote-points last week—the equivalent of one vote for #14, or twelve votes for #25—but scored an impressive victory over then-#6 UW-Whitewater.

On the distaff side, the top of the poll contains a number of the usual suspects, including Mary Washington, perched atop the poll for the fourth consecutive week, and longtime poll stalwarts #8 Southern Maine and #4 Messiah, members of the 81 and 78 consecutive Top 25s, respectively. In fact, seven of the teams ranked in the top nine positions have been in the Top 25 since the middle of the 2005-06 season (or longer.) But this picture changes dramatically, starting with #10 Thomas More, a member of the Top 25 for just the sixth time in program history. None of the teams ranked #10 or lower has a current stay in the Top 25 longer than five consecutive polls. Five teams in this group (those ranked #20-#24) are new to the Top 25 this week, including #20 Tufts, making its Top 25 debut.

With teams now moving into final exams and holiday breaks, the number of games drops off dramatically. It seems likely that confusion will continue to reign over the polls as we move into the new year and begin conference play in earnest.

Debutantes:
Women: #10 Thomas More is off to a 7-0 start, which includes wins over #7 DePauw and #22 Wilmington. As a result, the Saints cracked the Top 10 for the first time in program history. #20 Tufts has parlayed a 9-0 start into a first-ever berth in the Top 25. Congratulations to the Saints and the Jumbos!
Men: In the same week that Rochester ascends to the top of the poll, conference mate Case Western Reserve receives a Top 25 vote, becoming the eighth and final UAA squad to enter the all-time list of vote-getters. Congratulations to the Spartans!

Streakers:
Women: #25 Puget Sound extends their streak of Top 25 appearances to 25 weeks. Fourth-ranked Messiah receives votes in the 110th consecutive poll. Both Scranton and Wash. U. received votes, extending their perfect streaks to 128 weeks, but for the first time in poll history neither squad is in the Top 25. Calvin is also not in the Top 25, snapping a string of 18 weeks. And for the first time in 98 weeks, Bowdoin did not receive a single Top 25 vote.
Men: #18 Virginia Wesleyan fell out of the Top 10 for the first time in 22 weeks, but extended their string of voter-roll appearances to 30 weeks. #23 Wooster is a member of the Top 25 for the 80th consecutive week.

Milestones:
Women: Hope moves up to #2 this week, extending their string of Top 10 appearances to 60 weeks and marking their 120th week as a vote-getter. #12 Kean is among the vote-getters for the 25th time, while Amherst received votes for the 10th time.
Men: Third-ranked UW-Stevens Point has now received votes in 120 of the 127 men’s polls, while Nazareth is a vote-getter for the 10th time. Augustana’s #9 ranking marks the twentieth time that they have been a Top 10 team.

High-Water Marks:
Women: Sixth-ranked UW-Whitewater, Top 10 debutante Thomas More, #19 Oglethorpe, and Top 25 debutante Tufts all achieved highest-ever rankings this week. #9 McMurry matched their high mark, the fifth time they have been the ninth-ranked team in the women’s poll.
Men: In defeating the then-top ranked team, #2 Brandeis ascends to their highest-ever ranking. #16 Stevens reached a new poll high for the fifth consecutive week. Mary Hardin-Baylor repeated their #5 ranking of a week ago, matching their all-time high.

Movers and Shakers:
Women: For the second straight week, the primary movement in the women’s poll was provided by those in freefall. #5 Kean was upended by William Paterson and consequently lost 202 poll points, falling seven spots. Wash. U. suffered their third defeat, falling out of their #18 slot and shedding 171 of their 179 points. Most of the other Top 25 teams of a week ago merely bubbled up in the wake of these capsizes, with the largest gain being made by #19 Oglethorpe (+76 points/+6 places).
Men: Unbeaten UW-Oshkosh knocked off last week’s big mover, #11 UW-Whitewater, and soared into the #13 slot with a gain of 321 points. Helping to make room for the Titans were #18 Virginia Wesleyan, which dropped 192 points and 9 slots, and Keene St., which shed 216 points and fell from the #16 slot into the “others receiving votes” category.