ODACcess: Running in the RAD Center (Frostburg State @ Randolph)

Posted on by

LYNCHBURG, Va. — Randolph College, formerly Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, became coeducational in 2007. It began sponsoring men’s basketball the same year. The WildCats won their first game in program history, against Christendom College of the USCAA, and even defeated the significantly more established cross-town Lynchburg Fighting Hornets on their way to a respectable 8-14 inaugural season. In 2007.

That makes this just the seventh year of competitive men’s basketball for the Randolph WildCats. Think about that for a minute. The NCAA has sponsored Division III athletics since 1973; many of the colleges now competing at this level have been fielding teams for far longer than that. Fellow ODACian Hampden-Sydney produced its first basketball All-American way back in 1952.  Heck, this website has been covering D3hoops for 12 years longer than Randolph has been playing it.

Wanda the WildCat welcomes students to the RAD Center

In the context of that (lack of) history—and the school’s enrollment, which barely tops 500 undergrads—it’s pretty impressive that last season the WildCats earned their first trip to the NCAA Tournament, grabbing an at-large that surprised even coach Clay Nunley following a 21-6 campaign. Perhaps that can be attributed to the coach’s intensity: one fan called Nunley “the Bobby Knight of D3 basketball” after the game. Nunley’s squad lost their first tournament game on the road to Emory, but one must suspect that their experience was more thrilling than disappointing. One must also suspect that, for his returning players, it made them hungry for more.

—

The Randolph WildCats' cozy (and loud) Den

One of the peculiar things about basketball is the run. It’s a well-known maxim that, in the absence of an extreme mismatch, every team makes a run; every team finds its groove for at least a few minutes a game. Teams down by double-digits erase those deficits so quickly and so often that it’s hard to listen to a game without hearing “and they’ve closed the gap!” at least once. The frequency with which teams beat the statistical odds, only to regress back to the norm a few minutes later, is one of the most exciting anomalies of this sport.

The run can also be misleading. When a team finds that groove out of the gate, as Randolph did on Monday—scoring the first nine points and jumping out to a 12-2 lead—one can think this statistical improbability is in fact the true nature of the contest. Frostburg State seemed so outmatched, so overpowered by WildCats driving the lane for an easy layup or kicking out for a wide-open three, it was easy to believe we had a blowout on our hands when the Bobcats took a timeout just four minutes into the game. The dismantling was so bad, even the home crowd tuned out for awhile; why cheer for every basket if the game isn’t competitive?

Alas, every team makes a run, and soon it was the visitors’ turn. Randolph’s three-point attempts started clanking off the rim and its backcourt fell prey to FSU’s full-court press, Frostburg’s bench erupted for 22 points, and the first half came to a close with the WildCats clinging to a 33-27 lead.

—

The bleachers of the Den empty out after the WildCats' victory.

The Randolph Athletic and Dance (RAD) Center is aptly named. In addition to its court—The Den—it features a pool, a dance center, and a relaxation area with a big-screen TV and pretty rad couches.

The RAD Center's pool...

...and the (sign for the) dance studio.

It’s also tiny. Very, very tiny. But in this context, tiny can be a good thing. Randolph calls The Den “one of the loudest venues in the conference,” and that may be an understatement. When the referees awarded an extra free-throw to Frostburg State following an officiating error (the first FT was declared null, but it had been missed), one fan’s admonishment that “you can’t let your screw-ups screw us!” boomed across the arena. When the next free-throw was missed, his sarcastic “Give him two more!” made the entire crowd burst out laughing. And those excellent acoustics aren’t limited to the bleachers: as it echoed down to the court, I’m fairly certain even FSU coach Webb Hatch cracked a smile.

—

The Bobcats refused to go away in the second half. When Randolph scored eight of the half’s first 11 points, they responded with 11 of the next 14. When they failed to take their first lead of the game after pulling within one, at 46-45, they kept battling, until finally they broke through. Aaron Bellamy and Kurt Gangler knocked down back-to-back treys with under four minutes on the clock to put the visitors up, 58-56.

Following a pair of Randolph free-throws, the Bobcats’ Nick Smoot drilled a long two to reestablish the two-point lead with a minute to play. It was a huge shot and he knew it, throwing one arm in the air and pumping his chest with the other as he ran back on defense. Bellamy came down with a rebound on that Randolph possession, and Smoot had a chance to put away the home side for good, but he missed the jumper this time, and WildCat senior Mike Ehilegbu pulled down the board.

Nunley put the ball in the hands of Zach Desgain out of the timeout with under 11 seconds to make something happen. He delivered. Fouled hard on the dribble-drive, Desgain hopped right up and drained both from the line. Overtime.

Perhaps exhausted from 30 minutes of full-court pressing, perhaps deflated from failing to hold onto the lead they spend so long acquiring, Frostburg had nothing in the tank in OT. Randolph scored seven of the first nine, Desgain hit a dagger of a triple for a six point lead at 1:07, and Ehilegbu bookended that trey with a layup and two from the line to finish off the Bobcats.

—

Final: Randolph 75, Frostburg State 64 (OT)

Final: Randolph WildCats 75, Frostburg State Bobcats 64 (OT)
Photos: Frostburg State @ Randolph
Player of the Game: Mike Ehilegbu (16 points, 11 rebounds, 4 steals)
Mileage Tracker: 275 miles
Next Stop: ACAC Fitness and Wellness Center South Region Classic, November 23 (Hampden-Sydney, VA)

Last time I talk about Grinnell unless…

Posted on by

I am done. I have had enough.

Almost exactly a year ago I wrote an op-ed on Jack Taylor’s 138-point “performance” in the opening week of the season. I indicated I didn’t understand the point of the effort, it made me sick to my stomach and it flew in the face of everything I know to be the true spirit of sportsmanship. I also pointed out that a school of Grinnell’s stature probably shouldn’t be exploiting the accomplishment. Did I expect anyone at Grinnell to read the rant and change their tactic? Certainly not. However, I did think that since the record had been shattered and the attention had been garnered, they would shy away from their 15-minutes of fame.

I could not have been more wrong.

My first clue something was amiss was Friday night. As I arrived for the first game of the 2013-14 season and my 19th season as the public address announcer for Goucher College basketball, I read a retweet from D3hoops:

I have been around basketball long enough and I know the Grinnell system well enough to read into that very quickly. Taylor had 17 of the team’s first 20 points. Anyone who knows the system knows that means they are just feeding the ball to Taylor. Usually the offense Grinnell utilizes, The System, would have plenty of players scoring and most likely you wouldn’t have anyone with more than maybe eight or so points in the first 5:38 of the game. But Taylor had 14 of 20. Then at halftime:

Yep… 42 points of 70. He had cooled off, but he had clearly played nearly the entire half which is another example of Grinnell getting out of its offense because usually players don’t tend to play much more than 15 to 20 minutes in an entire game as they rotate three sets of five players in and out of the game. Taylor finished with 71 and I figured that would be the end of it.

Boy, was I wrong, again.

Now the national media is flying around the story like flies on a piece of fruit in the hot sun. However, this time I am hearing more voices being critical. Deadspin resurrected their criticism from a year ago, though I disagreed with how they portrayed The System, an offensive scheme I actually have no problems with. My problem is how Grinnell gets out of their offense just to try and break a record while embarrassing their opponent in the meantime. To compound the problem this year… they tried to do this a second time after clearly Friday’s attempt didn’t work.

As I mentioned, more voices are being critical and one of the best articles I have read so far is from CBS Sports’ Greg Doyel who did a lot more digging then many national media types did last year or have done since. He found some rather fascinating facts behind the recent record breaking attempt and alludes to some of the reasons probably behind these national headlines.

I have always wondered what was behind these record attempt plans and I can never get the answer from anyone at Grinnell (fans included) that adds up with reality. The usual explanation given to me on Hoopsville or off the air is that the record attempt isn’t considered until halftime. As I did last year, I call BS. By getting out of the normal flow of substitution, equal distribution of the basketball and easy shots after attempted three-pointers, coach David Arseneault is actually stepping away from the tenants of The System he writes in books. Also, consider that last year the video commentators stated they knew a record was going to be broken that night. There are rumblings even the PA announcer has told the crowd of said efforts. Sorry, but the explanation the decision to go for the record was only made at halftime after looking at the box score is hogwash. Then it hit me… is he trying to sell books? Doyel makes the exact same conclusion, but he points a timeline on the fact. We didn’t see these record attempts until books were being considered and published.

I also jokingly said to some that maybe Grinnell is paying teams to come to their gym to be a patsy, whether they knew it or not. Doyel tackles that as well and as a surprising answer: yes, in a way. Crossroads, the latest victim, was offered and paid $1,400 to come to Grinnell on the opening weekend of the season. They didn’t know why, but they accepted because they needed the money. Then they saw last year’s 138-point outbreak and got worried. However, they still needed the money.

This time of year, schools do pay teams to come to their gyms for games. But those games are for tournaments where the schools are enticing teams to take part in their event and help with the costs of hotels and transportation. In Division I, they pay lower-end Division I, Division II and Division III teams to play all the time, however have you ever seen a Division I team decide that their game against a Division III team is the perfect excuse to break a record? Not once.

Grinnell paid Crossroads to be a patsy. They paid Crossroads to come to their gym and ultimately humiliate them. Many Grinnell supporters indicate that the players and the opposing teams don’t mind or don’t care, but that isn’t true. In Doyel’s story, he talked to a Crossroads player who said they couldn’t stop Taylor because the refs were being tight with their calls and they were worried about finishing the game with just four guys on the floor (they arrived with nine). In other words, they were trying to stop Taylor but short of actually taking him out and sending a message, they couldn’t.

So I stand by everything I said in last year’s rant and I applaud those like Greg Doyel who have clearly figured out this is a sham. And with that I tell you this… I have had enough. I am done talking about Grinnell. I am moving on the rest of the season and seasons to come and I won’t mention them again. That’s right… I won’t talk about Grinnell online, in social media or on Hoopsville. They don’t deserve the attention or the spotlight. I am also tired of giving a program that seems to think sportsmanship isn’t a value worth respecting and upholding to its highest values attention.

But as the title indicates, there is an “unless.” I will talk about Grinnell should they win their conference tournament and we are talking about their first-round game in the NCAA tournament. Then we will know they deserve the national attention. They have earned it in their conference and won the right to be recognized. Until then… no more talk. I won’t even utter the school name.

I am doing what other teams for whatever reason can’t… I saying I am done with…

ODACcess: Lessons from a Near-Miss (Randolph @ Liberty)

Posted on by

As we embarked on our drive to Lynchburg last night, we knew we were off to see an exhibition game. And to some degree, this was an exhibition for us as well: preparation for the real work ahead. Luckily, aside from a lack of foresight regarding parking at the Vines Center—who knew that 7,000 people would show up?—it went well for us and for the team we were there to see.

This experience, as fans and as writers, was far different from what we expect to encounter as the project continues. This was our one encounter with the world of D-I sports for the duration of the project and we went in understanding a few things. First, the Wildcats would be at a clear physical disadvantage. Second, the Vines Center would be the largest venue we would visit by a long shot. Third, this would be our biggest chance to root wholeheartedly for one of our teams, along with the few Randolph faithful who traveled across town to root for their Cats.

Randolph fans

What we didn’t expect was all the distractions from the game: the television feed on the massive over-the-court scoreboard; the literal flamethrowers which briefly lit up the arena for every Liberty three-pointer, dunk, and free-throw (yes, even free-throws); the variety of media timeout entertainment activities; the seemingly omnipresent t-shirt cannons; even the (admittedly awesome) trampoline dunk team during halftime.

Trampoline

Those distractions, though, were far less interesting than the surprisingly competitive game going on in between the timeouts.

Liberty had a substantial size advantage on paper; the Flames average almost three full inches over their Wildcat counterparts, and that translated into a 37-to-22 edge on the boards and eight blocks by the final buzzer. It seemed throughout the game that every time the Cats tried to engineer something in the paint, there was a larger Flame there to break it up. Drives inside, post-up moves, and even fast-break layups were struggles for the Cats, who managed only 26 points in the paint.

And yet for the first 30 minutes or so, it was a hard-fought matchup. Hot perimeter shooting from sophomores Jason Eddie and Zach Desgain, who together went 7-for-8 from the field and accounted for more half of the Cats’ scoring in the first half, mitigated LU’s advantage inside the arc. As good as the Liberty interior defense was, Randolph countered with effective ball movement. The Flames’ 2-3 zone failed to adequately contest mid- and long-range jump shots for most of the game, and the Cats rode the hot hand to stay within single-digits at the break.

It seemed reasonable to assume Liberty head coach Dale Layer would institute some adjustments and put the Cats away. Instead, his guys were plagued by sloppy play for the first five minutes out of the break. However, Randolph failed to capitalize effectively, turning Liberty’s five turnovers into just three points. And yet, with 14:46 left, it looked as if Randolph might be poised for the upset, down only four. That’s when Liberty buckled down and the Cats’ shooters cooled off. Six turnovers fueled a 19-3 Liberty run. By the third media timeout of the half, it was all but over.

A loss was to be expected. To the best of our knowledge, no D3 team upset a D1 opponent last year. Just yesterday, Manchester was handed a 101-49 defeat. The competitiveness of this game should give Randolph coach Clay Nunley hope that, despite the loss of first-team All-American and Jostens Trophy recipient Colton Hunt, his reloaded Wildcats team will be able to compete in this conference. We’ll get an opportunity to find out when the regular season begins next week.

Vines Center

Final: Liberty Flames 74, Randolph Wildcats 53.
Photos: Randolph @ Liberty
Player of the Game: Zach Desgain (14 points, 2:1 assist/turnover ratio)
Mileage Tracker: 141 miles
Next Stop: The W&L Tip-Off Tournament, November 19 (Lexington, VA)

Welcome to ODACcess

Posted on by

“With me poetry has been not a purpose, but a passion.” ~ E.A. Poe

rmc-hassell-480x400 With all due respect to our friend Edgar, sometimes passion is a purpose. What, for example, is the purpose of Division III athletics? At the risk of overgeneralizing, it seems to us that to a significant degree its purpose must be to enable athletes passionate about their craft to pursue their love for the game. We mean no disrespect to those for whom college athletics is a means to an end, a vehicle for a scholarship-endowed education or a chance at greater glories at the professional level. But it cannot be disputed that those incentives do not exist at the D3 level. With few exceptions, we think a D3hoopster suits up on game night because he or she is truly passionate about the game of basketball.

College basketball is our passion, too. Though neither of us played college ball (or at any level after we could grow facial hair), we are as wild for our teams as fans can be. We are also students of the game, voracious consumers of basketball minutiae, committed road-trippers, and lovers of hoops wherever it is played, by whoever is playing it.

In that vein, today we welcome you to The ODACcess Project. For the next few months, we will be traveling to every arena in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, witnessing in person the play of every men’s basketball team in the league. We — Sidney Helfer and Dominic Pody, for those scoring at home — have no connection to the teams we will be following. Rather, we embark solely because of our passion. Our purpose is to document in these pages what we see and hear on our journey.

odac-logoMost of the news coverage that surrounds D3 sports — to the extent that it exists outside of this website — is dry, factual recitation. More Joe Friday than Hunter S. Thompson. Informative game recaps are perfectly valid journalism, of course, but knowledge that Player X scored Y points and grabbed Z rebounds doesn’t tell the whole story of the game. We promise to tell that whole story, to give you the “access” explicated in our name. We will take you to the campuses, inside the arenas, and even into the student sections if we can. These communities are the lifeblood of D3 hoops, and that is what we want to tap.

Chances are, if you’re reading this, you already understand the pulse of D3 hoops. We get that. We are neither here to evangelize D3 athletics (though we certainly wouldn’t mind changing some skeptical minds) nor to patronize it. Our goal is simply to describe the experience of being there. We want to fill the gap that exists somewhere between beat writer, wire reporter, and diehard fan, and give national exposure to these teams and players that are often familiar only to locals, or to the coaches and ADs who live and breathe the game.

And although this project is about the players, people, and passions constituting D3 basketball, please indulge us for a moment as we introduce ourselves.

Sidney: My introduction to the world of Division III athletics happened mostly by accident. My parents both attended Beloit College, but growing up 650 miles from their alma mater, it was difficult to be passionate about them. Once at age 8 I was brought along to a college reunion and found myself attending Beloit’s homecoming football game against Monmouth College (they lost). That was the extent of my experience until I left to attend college myself. I’d developed passion for sports generally along the way, although my love of college basketball was still in its nascent stages.  My decision to attend the College of Wooster was not impacted by their status as a high-achieving D3 program. However, once there, the success of the basketball team, the comparable lack of success of their football counterparts, and the intimacy of the collegiate community, instilled in me a love of the sport, the team, the school, and the town that embraced it so wholeheartedly. Soon I found myself making road trips to Springfield, to Delaware, to Oberlin to follow the Scots, players whom I knew and respected as students and peers as well as athletes. And with the passion came a share of heartbreak, as my Scots kept falling a few buckets short of the ultimate goal: a championship in Salem. But no matter how the season ended, no matter how many games they won, we all went back to being students and members of our little community. Therein lies the magic of Division III basketball: the passion these athletes play with, and the community of their fellow students that forms behind them. Even though I’ve left campus, I still want to be part of that kind of community, and through this project I can be there and hopefully bring you along as well.

Dominic: Unlike Sidney, I come into this project as an outsider to the world of D3 sports. I do have two experiences that led me here, however. For a little while after graduating college, I worked as a copywriter in the newsroom of small national sports wire service. As many sportswriters will tell you, the thrill of being paid to cover sports is incredible, at least at first. But despite writing about some wonderful moments — covering both Lehigh-Duke and Norfolk State-Missouri on the day both 15-seeds shocked the NCAA tournament is particularly memorable — the joy waned with each boring game story. Writing that player X scored Y points and grabbed Z rebounds is just as unsatisfying as reading it. What I truly enjoyed during and after that time was my time with The Mid-Majority, a site for fans of Division I’s perpetual underdogs to congregate and discuss fandom from the perspective of an extreme monetary disadvantage vis-à-vis the big dogs. TMM will sadly close its doors at the conclusion of this college basketball season, but one of its core tenets, if not its central message, will live on: sports are better when you’re there. That is the key reason I’ll get behind the wheel to drive to our first game this Friday.

So now that you know a little about us and our philosophy, it’s time for the important question: what do we have on tap for the year? Well as far as teams go, we’ll be covering three of the country’s top-25 programs: Hampden-Sydney, Randolph-Macon, and Virginia Wesleyan. Two of these teams—H-SC and R-MC—share an historic rivalry, which we will explore in detail; the other is a former national champion and perennial contender. We’ll also visit 2012-13 NCAA Tournament squad Randolph College, who will be taking on a surprise Division I Tournament team in Liberty on Friday. There may be a surprise team or two, who knows. Whether we’re visiting these teams or others, we’ll do a little live-tweeting during the games, so give us a follow if you’re into that sort of thing. Eventually, we would like to take you behind-the-scenes, talking to coaches and players about their experiences in-game and out. What else? Only time will tell. This is, in part, an experiment for both of us. We hope you’ll join us for the ride.

See you Friday.

 

Augie: Men’s team finds its bond

Posted on by

Decked out in Brazilian wearThe Augustana basketball teams are in Brazil this week and are blogging on the trip. Brandon Motzel is blogging for the men’s team and you can catch their blog posts on the D3hoops.com Daily Dose. Chaney Tambling blogged for the women’s team.

We are back on U.S. soil!!

While it feels great to be done with the long plane rides, it is weird to not be running out to the beach to body surf on the waves or go shopping at the markets. From the basketball side of the trip in São Paulo to the relaxation and tourism side of the trip in Rio, there was never a dull moment. We were always going on adventures to markets or visiting iconic sites or relaxing at the beach. I know it was a trip of a lifetime for me and I could not be happier that I shared it with my team and coaches and their families.

Coach Giovanine’s son Grey even wrote an eloquent poem about the trip that he read to us on the last night. We all have a special bond and countless stories to tell and reminisce about for years to come. We were already a close-knit team, but this trip brought us together even more. This has been a huge step towards our team contending for and winning championships.

We will need to continue to build on this experience and learn from it as much as possible. We know that the physical Brazil game experience has helped to prepare us for the tough CCIW. All of the guys who went on the trip, and the new members of the Augie family are excited to begin the 2013-2014 season! We are ready to embrace the challenges and become a great team. Training will begin with the infamous timed 2-mile in early September.
That will do it for our blogs from Brazil! It was truly the trip of a lifetime!
Obrigado (thank you) for following along!