Hoopsville Podcast: December 14th

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A somewhat shortened version of Hoopsville this week that was still jammed packed with interviews and reports from around the country. We talked everything from who will be the new number one team in women’s basketball along with great battles in the Midwest along with what is going on in many regions, including the Northeast, Atlantic, East, South, Midwest, and Great Lakes.

Guests included:
– Carnegie Mellon Coach Tony Wingen
– Texas-Dallas Coach Terry Butterfield
– Roanoke Coach Page Moir

And regional reports from across the country and other hot topics.

Hoopsville: Dec. 14, 2008

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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

Hoopsville Podcast: December 7th

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Hoopsville finally broadcast from its own studios and jammed the show full of guests. The season’s second broadcast covered everything from a 4OT game to traveling thousands of miles to start the season. Of course, you won’t miss a thing with thorough regional reports and plenty of coaches. And we get a first-hand look at a major WIAC double-header this past weekend.

Guests included:
– Stevenson Coach Brett Adams
– Whitworth Coach Jim Hayford
– N.C. Wesleyan Coach John Thompson
– Transylvania Coach Brian Lane
– Gordon Coach Michael Schauer

And regional reports from across the country and other hot topics.

Hoopsville: Dec. 7, 2008

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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