University Athletic Association

[deiscanton]

UConn women also on my slate tonight as well.  I concur with what Wydown Blvd said about Geno's comments as well-- it may seem harsh to hear, but well worth it-- the media never seemed to take note of when UConn beat Howard on Nov. 26 to break Wash U's 81 game winning streak, but they certainly took notice of the UCLA streak.  At least UConn is good enough to mention it in their game notes on the website for each game that they play.  (I did watch the UConn game on Sunday when they beat Ohio State).

An interesting note about Div III-- no other men's or women's basketball program in DIII (other than the Wash U women) has ever won more than 60 games in a row.

Geno is a great mentor for basketball. 

[deiscanton]

Some musings as I am awaiting the big game between Wash U and Hope tonight:

(1)  I caught the video of some of the second half between Carnegie Mellon and Otterbein last night.

It looks to me like Jacki Cortese is still recovering from the injuries that kept her out of UAA competition last season-- she only scored 12 points in last night's game.   Normally, she is capable of averaging 20+ ppg, but she is only averaging about 12 ppg so far this season with her season high being 18 in a game.

Ali Aunkst seems to have gotten injured in the off-season and is working her way back into playing shape, but she is having a hard time of it.   Her 3 point shooting has really suffered this season, and that is the strongest part of her game.   For the season, she is only hitting 2-23 from 3 pt range, she played 26 minutes in last night's game and went 0-9 from 3 pt range.  Last season, Ali Aunkst was Carnegie Mellon's best 3 point shooter.

Nicole Vaccarella for the Tartans has probably been the only notable bright spot.   She made 4 3's in last night's game vs Otterbein, and is currently Carnegie Mellon's best 3 point shooter right now-- she gained UAA recognition a few weeks ago for hitting 7 3's against Oberlin, the most by a CMU player in a single game in school history.

Carnegie Mellon is loving the up-tempo game, but is having trouble handling the ball on offense.   The CMU defense needs dramatic improvement, as Otterbein shot 36 of 67 from the field in last night's game without too much difficulty.   Otterbein only had 2 wins on the season going into last night.  Tjhe 86 points scored by Otterbein was a season high for the Otterbein Cardinals, and the second most points given up in a game this season by the CMU defense--  Denison scored 91 on CMU earlier this season.

In short, unless Jacki Cortese and Ali Aunkst show improvement, and the CMU defense gets tougher, I find it hard to see Carnegie Mellon winning another game this season, let alone a UAA game.

(2)  Case is back in action today and tomorrow-- I'll check their box scores.

(3)  On the Brandeis front,  I will go to Brandeis to see my Judges play Husson on Friday.   Although I expect Brandeis to beat Husson on Friday in the second matchup ever between the Judges and the Husson Eagles, Husson has been able to play competitively against Bates and S. Maine this season.  Husson is trying to improve from getting blown out by Bowdoin and a not so-great showing against the GNAC's St. Joseph's (Maine), where Husson only scored 46 points in that game and lost by a point.

In the only previous matchup between Brandeis and Husson, Brandeis won by 40, but the make-up of both teams has changed a bit since January of 2008.

(4)  With NYU coming up on January 8 to start the UAA season for my Judges, I will be interested in checking out how NYU does against Swarthmore.     NYU has been without the services of senior center Chrissy Kilmurray all season due to injury-- if Kilmurray is to play this season, I would expect that she would see action against Swarthmore-- otherwise I don't really see how Kilmurray would be able to work her way back in playing shape against UAA competition-- of course, I should always expect a few surprises along the way as  far as the UAA is concerned.

I expect NYU to defeat Conn College in the tune-up game before the game vs. Brandeis on January 8th at Auerbach Arena.

Swarthmore is led by a leading player in the Centennial Conference in 6-0 senior forward Kathryn Stockbower (#23), and has former Carnegie Mellon basketball player Sandy Rectenwald (CMU '03) as an assistant coach for the Garnet.  The Garnet's 6-5 senior center (#50) is not one of their best players, however.

For Swarthmore, Stockbower averages a double-double every game, with 16.3 ppg and 13.1 rpg.   Stockbower has 70 double-doubles on her college career, 9 shy of tying the NCAA Division III record for most college career double-doubles.   I'll try to look up how many double-doubles former NYU player Jessica McEntee got for her college career.

Update-- Former NYU player Jessica McEntee only had 53 career double-doubles, and she did not get her first double-double until her sophomore campaign.   McEntee battled mono as a frosh, otherwise Jessica McEntee might have been able to hold the NCAA record for that category.

So far on the NYU front,  Chelsea Blake has been very effective as the starting point guard for the Violets-- she is the UAA leader in assists per game with 6.6 apg.   Cara Bertino has been very effective as well as the #2 point guard for the Violets.

On the NYU scoring front,  Maggie Ely has developed her game over the off-season, and in her sophomore campaign is the current leading scorer for NYU.   Maggie Ely got UAA recognition as a player of the week for her performance against Juniata a few weeks ago.

On the NYU rebounding front, sophomore Mackenzie Hirz and NYU frosh Kelly Loughney have been doing a relatively decent job in leading NYU on the rebounding front in Chrissy Kilmurray's absence-- however as  Coach Trompeo has stated in games where NYU has lost, NYU needs to do better on getting the clutch rebounds when they count in the game.  

(5)  UW-Platteville against Chicago this week-- I'm looking forward to see any comments on that game.

(6)  Emory should be able to defeat Agnes Scott on Friday-- I'm looking forward to see how they do against ranked NAIA-2 power Brescia (Kentucky) next week.  

I will also be interested in Emory's Sunday road game at defending Great South Athletic Conf. champion Maryville (TN)--  the Maryville Scots were Wash U's first round NCAA opponent last March when Wash U won the title.   Maryville (TN) is also a regular non-conference opponent of Emory's.

That is all for now--  Wash U v. Hope is tonight-- I'll be watching the videocast of that game.

[David Collinge]

Wash U./Hope will have live stats and an audio/video webcast, courtesy of Ohio Wesleyan, available here.  Wash U's game on Thursday, against either Bluffton or OWU, will also be videocast.

[deiscanton]

Note:  Carnegie Mellon is competitive.     22-4 run against Capital in the Smokey Ballenger Classic consolation game in last 5 minutes yesterday to make it interesting.  CMU was down by 28 with 5 minutes to go.

CMU frosh Alexis Zambino scores a personal best 11 pts in the game yesterday.   8 of those 11 points came in the last 5 minutes of the ball game. 

CMU outrebounded Capital yesterday, 46-28 as well.

CMU still has a lot of work to do, however....    I'll check their box score Friday against Hiram. 

[David Collinge]

CMU still has a lot of work to do, however....    I'll check their box score Friday against Hiram. 

Forewarned is forearmed: Hiram is terrible.

[deiscanton]

Yes, historically Hiram is the one non conference team that CMU can be counted on to beat, but according to the Massey ratings going into the holidays,  Kenneth Massey has Hiram as a 6 pt favorite and a 70% chance to finally beat CMU at Skibo Gym.    Of course, the results from the Smokey Ballenger Classic have not yet been entered, so I don't know how that will chance the handicapping calculation.  It seemed interesting, but I don't take Massey as gospel.... 

(Both CMU and Hiram have low Massey rating numbers in DIII going into the holiday break.)

I'm not going to read too much into Friday's results, but just looking at them to check up on CMU's form going into the UAA.

Hiram did beat Bluffton and has 6 wins on the season-- better than most years for the Terriers at this point in the season.

Which means that Wash U and Hope should be able to beat their respective opponents today as well, with Wash U facing Bluffton and Hope taking on Ohio Wesleyan.

[deiscanton]

For New Year's Eve, I'm back on the Brandeis campus to see the Brandeis v Husson game.   When I called Brandeis SID director Adam Levin this morning, he told me that tomorrow's game vs Husson has been moved upstairs to Shapiro Gym due to resurfacing work on the Brandeis track--  however, I expect Auerbach Arena to be ready for the UAA doubleheader vs NYU on January 8th.

Shapiro Gym was the old home court for the Brandeis Judges until 1990, when the Gosman Center started construction.  For basketball, it is currently used for intramural games as well as practice sessions.

Although Shapiro Gym is still used as volleyball courts #2 and #3 when Brandeis hosts volleyball meets, regular season basketball games have rarely been played on that court since Auerbach Arena opened in 1992.    One of the few basketball games played in Shapiro Gym since 1992, to my distant memory, occurred when a Brandeis men's basketball game vs Mount Ida some years back had to be moved upstairs to Shapiro Gym due to a Brandeis player breaking a rim in Auerbach Arena during warmups and there was no replacement rim immediately available.

It will be interesting for me to sit in a makeshift bench tomorrow cheering on Brandeis.  Maybe I'll stand tomorrow instead... 

[David Collinge]

Well, Allen, Hiram won at Washington & Jefferson today, something I thought would never happen in my lifetime.  W&J is way down this year, but maybe, just maybe, Hiram's a little better than I've been giving them credit for.  Tomorrow's Hiram/CMU game will be videocast by CMU (link here) with a 1pm tip time, and I'll be watching.

[WUPHF]

Some musings as I am awaiting the big game...

Your musings are always much appreciated.  Please keep them coming.

Do you have any thoughts on the Washington University-Hope College rematch?

My initial thought is that a 49-47 loss is about the best possible loss mid-season, given what both teams returned from last season.

[deiscanton]

I watched some of the game on video--  I was not surprised that the Wash U v Hope game was a low scoring affair, given that it was in late December when neither team is expected to be at the top of their game.   

Special thanks to Ohio Wesleyan for arranging the game for their tournament.   

Whoever won that game was going to have to win it in a grind-it-out affair, given that the defenses were very strong, and neither offense was at the top prime March level yet.    Carrie Snikkers's 13 pt, 14 rebound game for Hope was one factor in the outcome, but at least she did not hit the game winner. 

That being said, I agree that Wash U is not that far off the pace as far as the national championship picture is concerned.

If you now take a look at the Massey ratings which include the result from that game, Hope now has the #1 rating in DIII as of right now, with Amherst dropping to #3 in the Masseys as a result of the forced cancellation of the Lord Jeffs's trip to Las Vegas due to last week's blizzard.   It was a shame that the weather prevented Amherst from taking on St. Norbert, although the Jeffs tried their best to get their team on to flights to Vegas-- unfortunately, not even their proposed solution of trying to bus to Columbus, Ohio and fly out from there panned out.

I listened to the most recent interview with Emory coach Christy Thomaskutty on the Eagles web site relating to her thoughts on the 3 games Emory is playing against Agnes Scott, Maryville (TN), and NAIA-2 ranked Brescia (Ky).  Coach Thomaskutty was pleased with the way practice has been going for her young Emory squad, and I guess that it did pay off-- the Eagles had an easier time of it this year defeating the Agnes Scott Scotties than Emory's game last year at their crosstown rival.  Emory is playing at Maryville (TN) today-- Wash U defeated Maryville in the first round of the NCAAs last March on the way to the national title.

Wash U at Chicago next Saturday is the UAA game of the day with NYU at Brandeis the second game to watch.   I'll have more thoughts on the four matches later this week--  Case should win at Carnegie Mellon on Saturday, however, just for my first pick.

Brandeis v Husson could have gone better, but I'll take the 17 point win under the circumstances this week.  I'm looking to see how NYU does against Swarthmore tomorrow-- I'm not too worried about facing Lasell on Tuesday, although I want to see if some of the underclassmen play better than they did in the second half against Eastern Nazarene.  That being said, although Lasell may not seem to be competitive right now, I expect the Lasers to become stronger over the next few years now that a former Bates assistant is coaching the squad.

Rochester finally comes back to action from the break with a Tuesday tilt against RIT, and seeing that CMU lost to Hiram, will the Tartans be able to win at AMCC opponent Penn State- Altoona?

[deiscanton]

Final--  Maryville (TN) 76,  Emory 69

Emory did not have a great first half-- the Eagles trailed by 21 late in the first half and were down at halftime by 19 pts.    However,  Emory had a comeback run in the second half to cut their deficit to as little as 3 pts, but 2-15 shooting from 3 pt range and 17-32 shooting from the charity stripe were factors that prevented the Eagles from tying the game or taking the lead.

[Wydown Blvd.]

I know there are non-conference games this week, but my picks for the weekend:

New York U. at Brandeis - Toughest pick of the weekend
Emory at Rochester    - Revenging last year's upset
Case Western Reserve at Carnegie Mellon - Could be a blowout
Washington (Mo.) at Chicago - After watching WashU face Hope, I think WashU's defense holds the Maroons for the win

[deiscanton]

Halftime update from NYU v Swarthmore-- I am listening to the audio webcast on WNYU--

Too bad NYU is not video streaming this game.

At the half, NYU leads Swarthmore by a score of 30-28.

NYU's defense doing a good job on Kathryn Stockbower from Swarthmore--  Stockbower held scoreless in first half, only 1 rebound.

Chrissy Kilmurray, the star NYU center, has been activated.--   She played 7 minutes in the first half, but sat out most of the half with 2 quick fouls--  Coach Trompeo is not deliberately limiting her minutes.

Kilmurray has 3 pts for the half and 2 defensive rebounds.

NYU had a 27-16 lead with 3:22 to go in the first half, but Swarthmore went on a 12-3 run to close out the half-- the Swarthmore run consisted of 2 treys, 1 inside bucket, and 4 points from the charity stripe.

Swarthmore held to 7 of 28 shooting for the half, 4 of 14 from downtown, but 10-11 from the charity stripe is keeping the Garnet in the game.

[deiscanton]

Final from Coles Center--

Swarthmore 74, NYU 67

Swarthmore's Kathryn Stockbower, after being held scoreless in the first half with only 1 rebound, came up big in the second half.

Stockbower finished the game with 22 pts and 18 rebounds for the Garnet, and that double-double came almost entirely in the second half.   Stockbower put on a performance for Swarthmore today similar to what Brandeis got from Jessica Chapin last year in most of the comeback efforts. 

I believe that is the 71st career double double for Stockbower, leaving her 8 shy of the NCAA DIII record.

Swarthmore outrebounded NYU on the glass, 54-36.

Relatively good game for NYU's Chrissy Kilmurray in her first game back--  Kilmurray had 8 pts and 5 rebounds for the game.    NYU frosh Kelly Loughney led all NYU rebounders with 10 caroms.

NYU shot 23 of 73 for the game:  31.5%,  5-24 from 3 pt range, and 16 of 22 from the charity stripe.

Swarthmore shot 23 of 58 for the game:  39.7%, 8 of 24 from 3 pt range, and 20 of 27 from the stripe.

NYU handled the ball well despite the loss,  15 assists, with just 13 turnovers.  The shots just did not fall when NYU needed them.

If any NYU supporter witnessed the game, I would appreciate any thoughts that they had on this one.

[deiscanton]

From NYU's post game recap:

Coach Trompeo's remarks on NYU's failure to stop D3Hoops.com All-American Kathryn Stockbower in the second half of today's game vs Swarthmore:

"I'm disappointed in our effort against her in the second half.  We did an excellent job shutting her down in the first half--  we held her to zero points and four turnovers.  But we just conceded to her and let her off in the second, and that was the difference."

Coach Trompeo's remarks on NYU center Chrissy Kilmurray's first game back:

"Obviously, she's going to help us out a lot.   Getting out there for the first time, she showed signs of production and also signs of fatigue after being out a full semester."

NYU led, 62-56 with 5:22 to play before a late 14-0 run by Swarthmore made it Swarthmore 70, NYU 62 with 1:46 remaining.

For NYU,  Chelsea Blake had 14 pts, 4 steals, and 3 assists.    NYU freshman Kelly Loughney had a double-double with 13 pts and 10 rebounds in her first career start.   Bianca Storts had 11 pts and 3 steals for NYU.

NYU plays Conn College tomorrow.    Brandeis defeated Conn College by 32 points earlier this season.