Congratulations to the Chapman's men basketball team for taking their first SCIAC championship in their second full year in the conference! Despite the odds, I hope they have a good run in the NCAA D3 playoffs. And if they don't, the players and the coaching staff can still be very proud of what they accomplished. Great work!

Quote from: Pat Coleman on October 12, 2012, 11:06:47 PM

If Ben wants to blog about that and pass along the inspiration to a future generation, let me know. We would run that.

He does have a blog. I will email him to find out if he is willing to share it publicly, or perhaps send you the relevant information in the form of an article.

Hi Dahlby, Hi Oxybob,

I'm sure going to miss all of you guys this year as my son graduated in June. It has been a fun four years and I will remain forever an inveterate Chapman fan.

Incidentally, I just wanted to give you some fresh news. Ben Ricard is now playing semi-professional basketball in France near Cannes (yes, that would be the town on the Mediteranean best known for its yearly Film Festival). At the same time, he is attending a University near Nice where he is studying for a Master of Science in International Marketing and Business Development (http://www.skema.edu/).

Here is his new team's web site: http://club.quomodo.com/lecannetbasket/accueil.html

They are currently 3-0 and hope to be promoted to a higher division next year. That's if they finish first in their pool of 12 teams.

In his Sophomore year, Ben was inspired by the story of a D3 player who went on to play professional ball in England while pursuing his education. By posting this, I am hoping he can inspire other D3 players to do the same. In my opinion, a lot of the upper tier Division 3 players in the SCIAC would be able to play in Europe. It obviously wouldn't be a career, but it would be a great experience and an awesome adventure for a year or two.

I watched the game and was really hoping against hope that the SCIAC would win one or two post-season games on the road. It just didn't happen and I'm sorry to say, the better team lost tonight. Claremont was clearly in charge throughout most of the game. But it came down to some poor choices towards the end, especially on the offensive end. For instance, Blees isn't a 3-pt shooter (he made 5 for 22 in the entire season) and yet shot two when the game was on the line. He didn't have to. A dribble-penetration would have been better. Also, I have to admit that I'm not really familiar with this year's Stags team, but doesn't Claremont have a point guard? Why was Blees bringing the ball up the court on most possessions? I think that was a poor choice too. The guy is amazing, but he can't do everything. That doesn't place the team in a good position to set their offense.

I'm really sorry for the players and for the coach, who I respect very much. However, I keep shaking my head when I see that CMS blew a 14-point lead in the last 5 minutes of the game.

I tip my hat however to an outstanding season. And there is always next year!

Peace.

Are the Chapman players eligible for any of the All-SCIAC teams? If no, then are they still eligible as Independent? If no, this would leave them in limbo this year. I'm just curious.I really don't know what the rules are.

Fun facts regarding Cal Tech this year:

Cal Tech handily beat West Coast Baptist by a score of 95-79. That game wasn't even close as Cal Tech led from about half way through the first half to win by a comfortable margin. The same West Coast Baptist College team went on to beat Oxy and Chapman, who both beat Cal Tech without much contest.

So, what does it prove? It proves that Cal Tech lacks consistency but can be competitive on any given night. While I would not say that Cal tech is "solid", I won't say that they are "terrible" either. They are a team that has improved tremendously over the last couple of years under the leadership of a new coach and is trying to earn some athletic respect (they have plenty in the academic department). They will undoubtedly continue to get better, as their target is none other than their academic archrivals MIT, who has been consistently ranked in D3 top 25 over the last few years. It goes to show that academic prowesses doesn't necessarily equate to poor athletic abilities. In other words, you don't have to be a nerd to excel in School.

Chapman had to play against West Coast Baptist College without Brandon Lin who got a concussion in the game against La Verne and Jordan Young who sprained his ankle badly during practice on Saturday. These are two starters and the second and third highest scorers in the team. This is no excuse though because Chapman has plenty of other options on the bench and WCBC isn't quite at the level of even an average D3 team.

I wasn't at the game but from what I heard, West Coast Baptist had the perfect game, shooting near 50% from downtown and making virtually all their free throws. Chapman was up by 11 points in the first half, but lost ground in the second half as the other team started making their 3's against an ill-fated zone defense. On the offensive end, the Panthers also had to contend with a 2-3 zone, although the bigs did relatively well despite it being crowded under the basket. The Panthers were really missing Lin and Jordan Young, as these guys would have easily hit some open 3's and forced West Coast Baptist to open up the paint.

Brandon Lin should return to the lineup for the next game on Saturday at Pacifica. The bad news is Jordan Young who is out for at least two weeks. We wish him a good recovery.

Hopefully, this isn't going to hurt Chapman chances at an elusive bid for the playoffs, as WCBC isn't a D3 team. But it sure doesn't look good on their record!!

Eyewitness from La Verne, University of La Verne vs. Chapman University:

Chapman knew that playing "under the tent" was going to be much harder than the last two contests and this impression proved to be true. Although the Panthers led for the vast majority of the game, they could never muster a run that would put them up in double digits. Every time CU would score, the Leopards would answer in kind. La Verne, you could tell, was focused, motivated and intent on not losing yet another game against the Panthers this season.

On the defensive end, the Leopards were tight, contested every shot, double teamed when it was appropriate and generally did an excellent job at shutting down the players who generally put up big numbers. Offensively, they moved the ball quickly to find the open man, showed a lot more accuracy especially outside the paint and at least early on demonstrated that they could shoot the three. In fact, they went 4 for 6 from downtown in the first half, which helped them keep the game very tight going into the second half. Score after 20 minutes: Panthers up 29-28.

We saw more of the same in the second half, although as time went by both teams started to make mental mistakes due to fatigue. Chapman managed to bring the lead up to 7 points on several occasions, but the Leos kept clawing back into the game consistently.

The end of the game was quite exciting. Chapman was in the lead 51-45 with a little over 7 minutes to go, on a clutch and contested 3 point shot by Lin. That would be the last field basket they would score for the rest of the game. ULV chipped away at this lead and took the lead by one point for the first time since the very beginning of the first half with a little less than 3 minutes left on the clock.

The last 2 and a half minutes were quite interesting. Two free throws brought Chapman back in the lead. Then both teams turned the ball over, back and forth until the Leos had to foul with 5 seconds left. Garret made both free throws giving Chapman a comfortable 3 point lead. La Verne then attempted to lobe the pass up to the front court on the next inbound and the ball went out of bound on the other side. Then it was the Panthers' turn to miss their inbound, but this time Napolitano came out with the ball, pulled up to shoot the three and was fouled in the process with less than a second left on the clock. He made the first free throw, missed the second and purposely missed the third to try and catch his own rebound. A scuffle for the rebound ensued but the clock expired as both team tried to get possession of the basketball. A basket would have sent the game into overtime.

In short, I believe that La Verne is much better than what their pre-conference record shows and are capable to beat any of the SCIAC teams on a good night, especially at home where the crowd is loud and they know their way around the court.

As for Chapman, they have two more division III games against UC Santa Cruz to complete their record. Their schedules having been decided long before they were accepted in the SCIAC, they also have to play a number of non D3 teams to finish the season. Due to the special status they are in right now (part of a conference but not eligible for an AQ), their only shot at a spot for the playoffs is through a Pool C bid. Although many people think (me included) that it's highly unlikely, there is still an outside chance that it could happen, assuming that they win their last two D3 regional games. Let's keep our fingers crossed. A rematch against CMS would certainly be fun in the first round, just like two years ago!

CMS is no less than third in the Massey Ratings (http://www.masseyratings.com/rate.php?lg=cb&sub=11620) right now and even if this appears to be a tad overstated, they fully deserve to be ranked. Winning doesn't lie. Winning by a comfortable margin in most cases is even more impressive. In my opinion they aren't going to lose many Conference games this year (assuming they stay healthy) and the only team capable of challenging them seriously is PP for two reasons: they are archrivals and the Hens have many players who can light it up from downtown on a good night.

Now the question is: Can the Stags beat Whitworth and finally give the SCIAC a chance to shine in the playoffs?

Eyewitness from Pasadena, Caltech vs. Chapman University:

The Panthers dodged a bullet early on in the game and a potential major embarrassment. They finally went on to win the game by a comfortable margin.

All was not that easy however, as Caltech played equal if not better for the majority of the first half. In fact, Caltech had a 7 point lead with a little over 5 minutes left in the first half. Between turnovers and missed shots, the Panthers looked a lot like the underdog. Caltech, energized by their early success, were playing with a lot of grit and passion and for a while, gave Chapman a lesson in determination.

After a timely time-out by Coach Bokosky though, the Panthers regained their focus and went on a 15-2 run to finish the half with a 6 point lead. Although the Panthers had only managed to score 4 points in the first 7 minutes, they got the last 10 points of the half in less than 3 minutes, forcing 3 turnovers in the process.

The second half saw more of the same from the Panthers, as they quickly ran the lead to 16 points. The Beavers were fouling quite a bit early on, which forced them to rotate their starters. As you know, while the Caltech starting line-up is pretty good and can compete with any team in the SCIAC, the bench just doesn't have quite what it takes to keep up (and I mean no disrespect to this team because I fully admire Caltech's academics standards). In addition, the starters just paid for their early efforts, you could tell at that point that they didn't have much left in their tank.

The Beavers however, managed to keep the score difference under 20 points for the rest of the game but they were largely helped by the most dismal free throw shooting performance by the Panthers in recent memory. In fact, CU was awarded no less than 43 free throws for the entire contest and yet managed to make barely more than half of those!

The Beavers are a much improved team from two years ago and as an earlier poster noted, they have a chance to win a couple of Conference games this year. They defended the perimeter really well (the Panthers only made 1 basket from downtown out of 13 attempts), but they got punished down low (36 points) and had too many turnovers (resulting in 30 points for CU). Their offense is good, with a well-oiled organization and although they didn't shoot well from outside, you can tell that they could light it up at any moment to surprise some teams.

The Panthers were led by Ricard, and although he missed 8 free throws, still ended up with 19 points and 11 rebounds , his second double-double of the season. Justin Young had a career high 12 points on 5 of 6 shooting in only 18 minutes of play and an awesome offensive rebound and dunk coming out of nowhere! Special mention to Spitler and Watson, who typically don't  get a lot of minutes but showed that they belong in this group. The latter was perfect from the free throw line and managed 1 block and two rebounds in the 3 minutes he was on the floor. As an incoming freshman, he has a bright future at Chapman ahead of him.

Chapman can't play at this level tomorrow if they hope to do well against a very decent Hamline team. Let's hope they got their Holiday cobwebs out of the way yesterday and will go into the contest with greater focus and intent.

Quote from: Ralph Turner on December 13, 2011, 12:44:44 AM
Pool B  I count 11.

St Joseph's Brooklyn -- Atlantic
UMaine Presque Isle  Northeast
GSAC -4               South  (Maryville, LaGrange, Piedmont and Huntingdon)
Rust                    South
North Central         West
Neb Wesleyan         West
Finlandia                  West (any team in the West Evaluation Region plus Admin Region #3 is in-region)
UC-Santa Cruz         West

I'm sorry if I haven't followed prior discussions on this subject but Chapman is listed under Pool B in the West on Page 71 of the manual. Is this an error?

Quote from: stag44 on December 13, 2011, 09:27:34 AM
If memory serves me right, the last SCIAC team ranked was Oxy in 07-08 with Connor Whitman.

Well since it is now part of the SCIAC, Chapman was the last team ranked last season and the season before. However, technically they weren't part of the Conference then...

I'm a little confused as to the status of Chapman University. They were accepted this year into the SCIAC, although I understand that they weren't eligible to participate in Conference play until next year, and therefore do not qualify for a Pool A berth.

In the last several years, as an Independent, they were a Pool B contender. This year, I thought that being officially part of the SCIAC although not participating in Conference play, Chapman would have been removed from Pool B contention but still eligible for Pool C.

However, I see from the manual that they are counted as one of the 5 Pool B candidates in the West region.

Is this correct? Can anyone enlighten me on the process?

Eyewitness from Orange, Chapman vs. Cal Lu.:

This time, the Panthers made some needed adjustments on both ends of the floor, especially in defense and apparently these changes paid dividends, as Chapman came away with a good win.

The panthers sprinted to a very fast start helped by a very hot Lin. It was 7-21 about halfway through the first half and the lead even reached 16 points. But the Kingsmen clawed their way back into the game to within 10 points when CU went cold for the second part of the first half. In the last 8 minutes, Chapman only managed one made basket and a pair of free throws.

The second half saw similar dismal shooting from the Panthers. Another 8 minutes went by with only one made basket. The only chance Chapman was having is that Cal Lu was fouling too much and some of their key players were in foul trouble.

About halfway through the second half, the Kingsmen had managed to cut the lead to 6 points though. They were hanging in there and the Panthers couldn't muster any kind of run to put them away.

The end of the game was pretty exciting. With 6 minutes left in the game, the Panthers were ahead by a respectable 10 points. Cal Lu slowly and deliberately cut the deficit down to 2 points with 38 seconds to go, and then again with 18 seconds left on the clock. At that point, CLU could only press and foul. Lin stepped up to the line, having made 6 of his first 7 attempts and low-and-behold, missed his two free throws. On the second miss, the ball bounced to the corner and a diving Ricard grabbed it and called a timeout (you can actually see a cool action shot of this key rebound on the Chapman Athletics website). On the next inbound pass, Lin got fouled again and this time made both free throws. He finished the game with a career high 20 points, with 8 of 11 from the charity stripe. In fact, free throws weighed heavily in the balance, because the Kingsmen shot a poor 40%, converting only 6 of the 15 they were given. Had they been a little more disciplined in this exercise, the game could have taken a different turn.

The Panthers come away with a nice win, with a very good performance on the defensive end of the floor, although Cal Lu held the edge in rebounds. But their big man Van Klaveren couldn't really turn on his offense (he has had several games in the 20s this year and averages nearly 16 points per game), although he finished with a respectable 12 points, 8 rebounds. Nettles had a key 3-pointer to cut the lead to 2 at the end of the game.

This young Chapman team is still in construction. They continue to show grit, intelligence and decent skills. This game showed that they have made a tremendous amount of progress in learning to play as a team, although it was still far from perfect. The end of the season is a little easier, which is too bad. They may become complacent.

The next game however is Redlands, who won the Lee Fulmers Tournament and despite the Panthers early win against them, is sure to give them fits this time around.

I wasn't at the CU-CMS game so my comments are second hand from other observers who were at the game.

This time the Panthers put together a decent showing in defense, unlike what they did against PP. For proof, they held Claremont to only 57 points (CMS averages more than 70 points per game) and their All-American graduate star player Chris Blees, to a pedestrian 12 points and 8 rebounds (he averages more than 15 points per game and he has had games in the low 20s). Chapman even managed to out-rebound and out-block a team well known for their strength in this area of the game. They could not however muster any type of offensive rhythm. They went cold from downtown, only making 2 of the 13 attempts for the entire game and shot a dismal 50% from the charity stripe, converting only 5 of 10 free throws. In fact,the free throw difference (-13) pretty much corresponds to the margin of victory for CMS. The Panthers simply fouled too much, which disrupted their offense.

The Stags all-too-famous suffocating defense certainly contributed to the Panthers low shooting percentage, but our guards missed plenty of open shots too. Dragovich had a game high 12 points on 6 of 9 shooting. He isn't afraid to challenge bigger than him and has become a nice offensive weapon under the basket.

The Stags well deserve their thunderous start of the season: they are a well-balanced and solid team with respectable offensive and defensive skills. However for some of the spectators and to some of the Panthers, it wouldn't have been impossible for the Panthers to win that game (unlike let's say, a team like Whitworth). I see the Stags as probable SCIAC champions (Chapman isn't eligible to participate in the Conference this season), although I doubt they will sweep all teams. A team like PP will probably give them fits.

I will write about the CLU-CU game next.