Hoopsville Podcast: March 15th

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—UPDATE: Previous file problems that caused people not to hear the show have been solved – though we had to rewrite the entire post to fix them. I apologize for the mistake.—

There are only eight teams remaining to battle it out for two national championships. There are certainly some surprises; there are some teams making return trips after years out of the national scene; one school is looking for two titles in the same season; and others are looking to remain perfect. On Hoopsville we took a look back at some of the more exciting sectional games and quickly look forward at what should be two memoriable Final Fours.

Guests included:
– Wash U Women’s Coach Nancy Fahey
– Wash U Men’s Coach Mark Edwards
– Amherst Women’s Coach G.P. Gromacki

We also hread from Chris “Coach C” Pesotski on what he saw as Richard Stockton advanced, what Bob Quillman thought as he watched the Wash U men advance, Mark Simon’s opinion to Amherst tourney run, and Pat Coleman joined us as well.
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Hoopsville Podcast: March 12th

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Hoopsville was “On the Road” this week as I headed up to Cleveland, Ohio for the sectional weekend at John Carroll University. And the night wasn’t without its technical problems at the beginning of the show and following (thus the tardiness in posting this blog). However, it didn’t keep us from talking about the sectional weekend with several reports from those about to cover the games and some of those involved.

Guests included:
– Wash U Guard Sean Wallis
– York (Pa.) Women’s Coach Betsy Witman
– Texas-Dallas Coach Terry Butterfield

We also heard from (or tried to ;-)) JC DeLass, Pat Coleman, and Mark Simon.
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Insider: ‘I can’t believe the season’s over’

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As I was asked to write my final blog I’m thinking to myself, “I can’t believe our season’s over. It went so fast.” As for many teams we wanted to go all the way and get into the NCAAs, but for us that didn’t happen. Even though our season ended earlier then we would have liked, there were a lot of great memories and experience that made this season one of the best for me.

In the beginning of the season we had a slow start and not the best record, but that almost got us motivated and made us work harder, which set the tone for the rest of the season and how we played. After the rough start the team got going and we started to play well and never looked back. It was an exciting season for the team — we were working and meshing well together and playing Edgewood College basketball. One of the great memories for the team was when we went to the Bahamas for our winter tournament. We played well and we won the whole thing. That was the first tournament in my career that we have ever won, so it was very exciting.

For me, this season was one of the best in my career. Being a senior I knew I needed to be a leader for the younger players, this was going to be a learning experience for myself, just as much as it was going to be for them. My teammates were great, worked well everyday together and made playing basketball fun. I loved playing with them all, each one of them taught me something that I will never forget and will cherish every memory from this year. The same is true for the coaching staff. They put so much time and effort to help us become the team we are today. I am thankful for every single one of them and all that they do. They have taught me so much and are the ones that made me the player I am today.

As for me personally I can’t believe my college career is over. It went by so fast and it’s hard for me to know that I won’t wear an Edgewood College jersey again and go and play the game that I love. Even though it’s over for me, I had a lot of great memories and accomplishments that I never knew I would get from playing basketball. All of what I have accomplished individually wouldn’t have been possible without the help of my teammates and coaches, so thank you to you all. You made basketball the best for me here at Edgewood College and I will always remember you all.

Playing basketball here at Edgewood College was the best decision of my life. I not only grew as a player, but as a person as well. I have learned so much and I hope all of my teammates and the other future Eagles experience what I have and enjoy it all.
– Megan Scheele, Edgewood College

Up next: The Field of 4,096

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D3hoops.com contributed a photo but can take no credit for the hilarious mockery The Onion has made of the NCAA Tournament. Their Onion Sports Network video is below. It previews an NCAA Tournament bracket of 4,096 basketball teams, from D-I to D-III, community colleges to trade schools.

4096 teams

Swarthmore freshman guard Will Scheuing is from a Lou Rabito photo.

As OSN “college basketball analyst” Joe Monticello puts it: “Look out for Eckerd. They’ve got a full roster, and they’re having practices.”

When the matchups scroll by in the video, see if you can spot D-III schools Johns Hopkins, SUNY-Geneseo, Suffolk, Gustavus Adolphus … and the conference rematch in the first round. I suspect that’s probably in a 488-537 game, and you know it’s tough to beat a team three times in one season. Wait, this would be just twice.

Not sure the embed is working here so if not, click on the link.

NCAA Expands March Madness To Include 4,096 Teams

Insider: Journey Thru the Tourney

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WOW, WHAT A WEEKEND! I don’t know where to begin, but I do know that it’s Monday and it is great to still be ALIVE in the “bracket of death”! While most college kids will spend SB09 in Panama City, on a cruise, at home, or at a friend’s grandparent’s house in Naples — we on the Wash U hoops team are glad to be spending the majority of our spring break in the Northwest ‘burbs of Chicago. There’s nothing like playing in the NCAA Tourney, even if it comes at the price of my teammates getting tan (I’ve got nice bronze skin anyway, so who needs a vacation—right???).

When the pairings first came out Monday, I’m not going to lie, I was a little upset with the way the NCAA handled the Midwest and West regions. This is with no disrespect to any of the programs from the East or Northeast, etc. but it was extremely hard trying to explain to friends and family how and why the top seven ranked teams in the country only one could possibly make it to the final four. They’d say, wait so it’d be like if Pitt, UNC, UCONN, Duke and Louisville all were in the same regional—and still not believe me when I said “YES!!!”

After a good hour of pouting about not being able to play at home (since our women hosted) and being sent to the site of one of our two losses all year, we all flipped a switch and stopped feeling sorry for ourselves. I think we realized that when it was game time on Friday against Lawrence, they weren’t going to feel sorry for us so it wouldn’t do us any good to feel sorry for ourselves.

Preparing for Lawrence was really tough because of how well they play together as a team. I think they’re a lot like us. While we felt like our scout team did a good job preparing us, at the beginning of the game it was quickly realized how impossible it was for a scout team to really imitate ‘their stuff’ since they run their motion so well. They read the defense, took advantage of any mistakes we made defensively and made us pay when we didn’t get back in transition. While almost no one our team could hit a shot, luckily we had A.T. on our side.

I don’t know if I can really describe what AT has been able to do for us this season. If you’ve never seen him play–he plays the game the way it’s supposed to be played—at both ends of the court. He’s always been automatic as a spot up shooter—but now he’s a flat out scorer… he leads our team in blocks and even yanked down 10 boards on Saturday. He’s got the longest, gangliest (is that a word?) arms—which is why we say “Go, Go Gadget Arms!” when he gets his hands on balls he has no business getting. Bottom line is that he can hoop!

Anyway, we overcame some miserable shooting from myself and Tyler to somehow sneak away with a win on Friday. As I wrote about last year, the tournament is about surviving and advancing—and that is what we did on Friday. It was one of those games that I really felt like we got out played for 35 minutes or so overall, but thanks to a few good runs, a big time three from A.T., and some timely misses, we marched on to Saturday.

Watching the Elmhurst vs. UW-Whitewater game following ours was unbelievable. I’ve been to Salem the past two years, and that game featured two teams that could have taken down at least half the talent I’ve seen in the Final Four. It’s truly a shame (among a lot of other word selections I could’ve used instead of a shame) that those two played in the first round. It was an awesome atmosphere, it’s just too bad for Elmhurst’s seniors that it had to end like that—because they are a team that deserved to play more than one game in the NCAA Tourney.

With a turnaround of less than 24-hours we had to prepare for our most talented opponent of the year. UW-Whitewater featured some big time athletes inside and on the wings and our coaches did a great job getting a game plan together to help neutralize their athleticism. We jumped out to an early 11-0 lead and played some great basketball. We really frustrated them by doing a few different things defensively and even pushed our lead to 18 in the second half.

As all good teams do, UWW made a big time run midway through the second half. Somehow we held them off and only gave up the lead for 17 seconds on our way to another W. Again, we may have been the better team most of the night, but UWW had chances to win the game. We hit some timely shots, made free-throws and got a little lucky—which is sometimes better than being good this time of year. UWW was the most talented group of individuals, position by position, I’ve seen play at this level in the past four years—without a doubt. Survive and advance.

Looking forward to next week—it should be an incredible game Friday night. Wheaton obviously is a tremendous team and I’m looking forward to playing in a really fun atmosphere. We got to see them earlier in the season when they played at Webster in St. Louis and I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t watched two or three of their games on web cast. Between their threats inside and out—it’ll be a challenge, but one I know we’re up for!

Four more.

Take care,
Sean

P.S. Shout out to my boys Dylan Richter and Tom Blount—two people that have been major contributors on our team that are now out for the year. Dylan broke his foot in the first round game against Lawrence (and then proceeded to NAIL a three-ball before coming out) and Tom is having shoulder surgery this week. It’s no fun sitting on the bench from injury (I’d know from experience) but I know both of these guys are still pulling for us big time. GETCHUUUUUUUUUU SUM.