I think parity is the word for the men's side of USA South this year.
Most conference brackets have one team with a six or eight seed that no one wants to play, I don't think there's going to be a better seeded team in the USAC comfortable with their pairing when this is said and done.

To weigh in on the ongoing ... discussion ... on the poll voting:
As someone who had a vote for a couple of seasons while covering the South Region, Dave is dead on. There is a ton of information to sort through even with the capsule summaries of who won against who in the last week. If anything I think I tended to lean away from the South if I was in doubt if a team was a 17 or a 20, and many times found the voters from other regions had thought better of the South team than I had when the poll came out and that team was a 15 or 16 that week.

I think most conscientious poll voters realize they may have a regional bias and if anything overcompensate for it by being harder on teams they know well than they are on the ones they only know from streaming or stat sheets in the dark old days of the green screens and VAX.

As I haven't posted these up this season, here are a couple links. be judicious, it's five free stories in a 30-day time period.

Averett 78, MC 75   http://www.thedailytimes.com/sports/scots-comeback-bid-falls-short-against-averett/article_498f9e23-ca46-57d9-9956-332cbfcdb7ab.html

Methodist 91, MC 76   http://www.thedailytimes.com/sports/methodist-storms-back-to-down-mc-men/article_cf1b20c5-22e6-5d72-8b2b-11a4386df01a.html

Greensboro 91, MC 76  http://www.thedailytimes.com/sports/scots-slide-continues-with-home-loss-to-greensboro/article_a4ca749a-96c2-573b-836a-05b5993edfe2.html

Covenenat 91, MC 87: http://www.thedailytimes.com/sports/covenant-knocks-off-maryville-men/article_db07bdea-105e-5808-852f-b919e0a616ee.html

MC's win over Meredith. Trent lit it up for 30. Having the Fighting Squirrels Saturday.

http://www.thedailytimes.com/sports/mc-women-pitch-a-trent-to-fell-angels/article_685e3a0a-db2e-5205-ba90-dd8fbeec7e9a.html

Last week's win over NC Wesleyan
http://www.thedailytimes.com/sports/got-the-message-maryville-college-women-shut-down-bishops/article_1f94dcb3-55cc-5405-83ca-3805ea959c19.html

Coach T gets his 100th win
http://www.thedailytimes.com/sports/travillian-gets-th-after-puckett-gets-in-second/article_db18140e-9e06-11e4-862d-b7653c0702fd.html

Sorry for the delay this season. Here's the nonconference game stories on the four home games for Maryville College women so far this season.

For those who have had troubles with our website in the past, we upgraded at end of last basketball season to a new provider that works much better. Its a paywall but the first 20 stories in a given month are free to nonsubscribers.

Last night's game we also got a great interview with first year Sewanee coach Tom Campbell on some of his Knoxville area players, and about his thoughts following Sewanee's conf game with Centre, where he was an asst, over weekend.

http://www.thedailytimes.com/sports/maryville-women-defend-ranking-against-sewanee/article_45000e06-7fe7-5015-b7c3-f33b3a7267ac.html

http://www.thedailytimes.com/sports/maryville-college-defense-smothers-lady-panthers/article_b7f91846-6bfa-54e8-8485-26a8acaa7722.html

http://www.thedailytimes.com/sports/maryville-college-shooters-show-out-against-emory/article_1d60e86b-61cc-538f-aab8-88c404f4b463.html

http://www.thedailytimes.com/sports/starting-the-season-right-lady-scots-use-runs-to-defeat/article_004969e0-62ba-558b-94c5-4b7916dc2bfd.html

I think it may be Ferrum's league in the North. I'm curious to see what happens with them and Piedmont on the 24th, Lady Lions young but never underestimate what coach Purdy teams can pull off.

I think the unexpected slide at LaGrange with abrupt coaching change and no freshman (another story or another chapter from football?) leaves the South to Maryville or Piedmont.

If Ferrum holds serve out of conference and builds up a good T25 resume, maybe get two teams in tourney this season. Three would require a lot of breaks I think but isn't impossible.

Quote from: mattgrubb on December 17, 2013, 09:58:09 PM
the hawks are bad.  Real Bad.  I don't think NCWC is much better, we will see.

The scots win in double overtime over Capital?  What?  They are supposed to lose the close ones?  Maybe they have gotten the message.  Nice win.  Looks like Oscar has woken up with another strong game.  Hopefully they can get a nice W tomorrow.

Check the box score online. Scots gave away win in regulation at free throw line, had to rally in first overtime. Finally hit free throws in 2nd OT to win. They shot better from the floor (56 percent) than the foul line (54) until they hit the last seven in a row. How often does that happen?

Could take it as they got tougher to pull it out, getting clutch 3 to go to second OT or that they caved in final minute of regulation at foul line.

If I'd been picking, the blocked PAT return by Greensboro would have been a much better nominee. But then that might have gotten awkward seeing how it ended and how far back up the sideline the official was when he signalled the return was good for 2 points. Still it was one heck of a return and one heck of a chase scene to the pylon the last 20 yards.

I think Pat cleared this up already, but yes next two seasons are an 8-game conference schedule. My understanding is that if CNU then departs it would go back to 7, provided that no one else is added and that no current full members, currently without it, start football.

Isn't it ironic that MU has first unsettled then settled things in the standings in consecutive years to Maryville's benefit? I can't remember these two ever having an easy game against each other, the scoreboard has been deceptive a couple times on how close things were. I don't see that changing anytime soon but I could see the implications being more recognized earlier. It would be a longshot but if there was a mood for a darkhorse Pool C in the committee room, I'd really like to see Reber abuse someone out of conference with a full cranked up offense and not one still coming together the first few weeks.

After reading Keith's column and looking at regional rankings, I think Maryville's best interest is to pull for Millsaps and give the committee an obvious pairing in Miss. The Johns Hopkins thing is just odd enough to work though I wish I knew how coach Dunlevy as a Va. guy views I-81 — curse or cruise.

With the new year, we can already look to the next season.

Who wins out on this ... interesting .. concept of playing all but one team with Huntingdon joining the fold? I know the prelim skeds indicate that Maryville and NC Wesleyan won't play each other this fall, which I think is to Wesleyan's advantage but depends  a lot on how big a leap NCW makes next season and if Huntingdon and LaGrange are as strong as they were this past year.

Who else is paired up to not play each other in 2013?

Daily Times story on MC win over Covenant
http://www.thedailytimes.com/Sports_News/story/Maryville-comes-out-on-top-in-battle-of-Scots-id-032034

Bad news out of the game was that Wes Lambert appears to be out for a few games and Craig Raye out indefinitely with an eye injury. So the lone senior and the junior with the most court time are on bench. That makes this young Maryville team, even younger and more unpredictable.

I could easily see them winning one of the two road games this weekend by 20 and dropping the other by 30 and couldn't tell you if its Wesleyan or CNU that's the more likely loss, just that up in the air and volatile. When they click, they are as good as anyone and when they don't the wheels can can come off pretty fast. Which makes each game a fun adventure for the guy writing about it but my sympathies to the coaching staff. If Raul had any hair left, I believe he'd have pulled it all out.

ALSO
I think the Piedmont thing has killed any discussion on the conference strength or weakness this season. Pat may have better grasp on this than I do, but the format for USAC play this season with 9 teams was everyone plays everyone twice. Piedmont didn't play a single conference game. The league slate is now 14 games and while some folks have found a makeup opponent or two, most haven't. The majority of league teams will end up with 23 game schedules which will hurt win totals, stats etc as the NCAA doesn't recognize a forfeit.
I don't see anyway that this isn't a tourney-winner-is-it season for the dance.

Which is just the opposite of the women's side where I see three viable tourney teams — Maryville, CNU, Ferrum — and don't think they can get more than two bids.

Maryville knocks off Ferrum in Murvul and NC Wesleyan nips CNU.

Wish I could have seen both, but I'll have to try and find the video replay online later tonight.

Here's the story from The Daily Times on Ferrum at Maryville game.
http://www.thedailytimes.com/Sports_News/story/Scots-charge-ahead-Maryville-prevails-against-undefeated-Ferrum-id-032032

Just two cents on CNU from The Daily Times.

http://www.thedailytimes.com/Marcus_Fitzsimmons/story/CNU-has-the-drive-to-survive-id-020823

Here's the Lambert story link

http://www.thedailytimes.com/Sports_News/story/Mr-600---Maryville-Colleges-Lambert-hits-career-mark-with-win-at-LaGrange-id-020802

From Tuesday's Daily Times

Seems MC is missing football equipment and has filed a report treating it as a robbery.

http://www.thedailytimes.com/Local_News/story/Maryville-College-reports-16000-in-football-gear-missing-id-020146

Night owls can get it before it prints.

Column on MC coach search and Ierulli.
http://www.thedailytimes.com/Marcus_Fitzsimmons/story/Choosing-the-next-Ierulli-an-epic-decision-for-MC-id-019784

This is the story from the Highland Echo - The Maryville College student newspaper - talking to Ierulli. (The site carrying it seems to run all stories like a blog, so you have to scroll to bottom and click more by the headline)

http://blountpressrow.com/college.php

ScottieDoug I have a copy of the player evals that I assume are real since there contain all manners of handwriting and grammatical styles. Ierulli's math is pretty good on the average.The problem I ran into is there is nothing to compare the score to out there and no way to get it from a private school. We can't compare it to soccer or basketball or even past seasons to establish any baseline.

The college also no commented on what Ierulli and players have told me that the evals were filled out with AD Schram doing to instruction and collection of forms for the coaching staff. I don't know if that's kosher or not. It hadn't been done that way for football in previous year end meetings, but I don't know yet if that procedure was used for all fall sports teams as a change in athletic department policy or not.

It's made it very frustrating to not be able to file a FOI request for records to make any comparisons and if officials choose not to talk, it pretty much kills the conversation. But at the end of the day, it's not like the school will rehire Ierulli from alum pressure. The school seems to be moving on and only time will give us a measuring stick of the firing's impact on some of the football program's critical areas like recruitment and retention. I'd guess Ierulli is moving on to a new job. I do believe he'll be a big plus to someone if he's given the chance to focus on one area as the DC. (There is irony in the fact he led the USASAC coaches in the Liberty Mutual coach of the year voting)


And to totally stray into new ground, has anyone got a lowdown on what the schedules will look like next season? I'm guessing it will be plug and play with LaGrange simply filling Shenandoah's spot in the rotation for football, but haven't heard if that's what will happen or if the league is looking at making tweaks while it's on the table.

For the moment Locke, Hayes and Elliott are still employed by MC full time.
We were told they are out recruiting and that an interim head coach will not be named.

I can't help but think its going to be a hard sell to talk to players about coming to a school with no coach and no guarantee the guy talking to them will be there in the fall.

The part timers that wish to be are being retained until a coach is hired and decides on them as well.

Search committee chaired by Joe Dawson meets today.