WBB: Southern Athletic Association

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

It is Monday and you should try and spend your afternoon tuned into to Hoopsville!



One month. That's all that's left in the DIII regular season. It doesn't seem that long ago when the holidays marked an early half-way point and there was still lots to figure out and games to enjoy watching.

There are still lots of games still to enjoy and there is plenty to still figure out. However, just a month remains before the regular season is over and the two 64-team NCAA Tournaments will be set.

Time is running out.

On this midday edition of Hoopsville (due to schedule conflicts), we focus our attention on Regions 1 & 2 (combined), 4, 6, and 8 (the old Northeast, Atlantic, South, and Central) to talk to programs still jockeying for home court advantage in their conference playoffs or to make sure they get into the NCAAs no matter the avenue.

Guests include:
- Rodney Rogan, Rhodes women's coach
- Jon Miller, Hanover men's coach
- Top 25 Men's Double-Take
- Steven Schulman, Lehman men's coach
- Craig Dagan, Maine Maritime women's coach

Hoopsville airs LIVE 1:00 PM ET: www.d3hoops.com/hoopsville/archives/2021-22/jan31 (you can also watch the show On Demand or listen to the podcast after the show goes off the air).

[Ron Boerger]

BSC loses WBB coach Ricks (a proponent of the ridiculous System) who is taking the same role at Goucher.

https://twitter.com/gouchersports/status/1654153914218938368

[Riley Zayas]

BSC loses WBB coach Ricks (a proponent of the ridiculous System) who is taking the same role at Goucher.

https://twitter.com/gouchersports/status/1654153914218938368

Get ready for Goucher to lead the nation in scoring! Lol. I like the System, actually. But there is obviously a major downside in that the defensive quality suffers greatly. Works for some, certainly not for all. It's very tough to watch when it is sloppy. But for the few who have the athleticism and basketball IQ to actually run it, it can be very effective IMO.

[Ron Boerger]

Trinity finally posted their WBB schedule on Instagram yesterday.  They are on the road a LOT this season, if I counted correctly 15 of their 25 games are on the road.  Other than SAA games:

OLLU (exhibition - NAIA)
@Incarnate Word (exhibition - D1)
Emory
@Illinois Wesleyan tournament
- Millikan @IWU
@HSU
@McMurry
Concordia TX
TLU
@MHB pre-Christmas tournament
- ETBU @MHB
- MHB @ETBU post-Christmas tournament
@ETBU

SAA play begins at home Jan 3 against Soutwestern and there are no non-conference games once that starts.  3 straight home, 4 straight away, 4 straight home, 3 straight away.

[Ron Boerger]

Trinity's schedule no longer shows the two exhibitions noted above, and there's no indication of one on the UIW site.  OLLU still says there was one, last month, but no details are available.  The rest of the schedule remains.

Trinity at long last posted their roster today.  The only non-senior who didn't return is Natalie Anderson, who suffered a second season-ending injury prior to play last season and may have decided it wasn't worth risking a third (or may have had medical advice to no longer play) her senior year.  They add seven freshman and one transfer, Dana Gingrey, a junior who saw limited time last year at Hardin-Simmons.  That all adds up to 21 women on the roster, a pleasant change from two years ago when Trinity had only twelve, and last year, when they had 16 but only 15 were available due to Anderson's injury. 

[D3Navy]

I was at TU for the football game and passed through Calgaard Gym (almost said Sams Center) and the ladies were indeed scrimmaging OLLU (down 11-17 at the time, I believe). 

It did, indeed, happen.

[Ron Boerger]

The SAA has published the results of its coaches' preseason poll, and have picked Trinity to win its inaugural SAA championship over last season's champion, Centre:

1. Trinity - 52 (4)
2. Centre - 46 (2)
T3. Berry - 37
T3. Millsaps - 37 (1)
5. Oglethorpe 36
T6. Rhodes - 26 (1)
T6. Sewanee - 26
8. Southwestern - 20

Unfortunately, the release incorrectly claims that Josie Napoli and Bailey Timmons return; hopefully that erroneous information was not also shared with the coaches when polling took place.  This is two pretty glaring errors by the SAA front office in a week; when announcing the women's soccer tournament seed, the conference claimed Trinity had a "perfect" 7-0 record in conference play when they actually went 5-0-2. 

Edit: they corrected the poll release, possibly in response to a Xeet pointing out the error.

[scottiedawg]

I have my eye on Oglethorpe who could outperform that poll position.

I also understand that they're basically tied for 3rd with Berry and Millsaps so ending up 3rd isn't reallly that much of an outperform of the poll position!

I definitely see Trinity and Centre as the top 2.

[Ron Boerger]

Trinity is not going to be very deep this year with all the first- and second-year players, it'll be about whether or not they can find some contributors from that group.

In totally unrelated news, Ava Limonciello, a TU WBBer who graduated in 2024 but left the team during her senior year, has suddenly been elevated from graduate assistant to acting HC of the Nichols College women's team after the team's former head coach suddenly stepped down today.  Ava was a GA last season when the school had its best season in 16 years (13-12), and almost everyone returns this year.

[Ron Boerger]

Checking in on Ava Limonciello, still acting HC - her Nichols squad went 7-2 in non-conference play, 2-4 so far in conference for a 9-6 record.  Not bad, kid - keep up the good work.

It's been an interesting start for the SAA.  Centre has come flying out of the gates at 13-1 and shares the early conference lead at 3-0 with Trinity, who had the exact opposite experience starting 0-5 (admittedly against the stiffest competition faced by anyone in the conference**).  Trinity has gone 7-2 since as some of the younger players have started to find their footing in college ball, and with the return of C/F Natalie Greenwood from injury in the sixth game.  Two other schools, Millsaps and Southwestern, started out hot (10-2, 9-3 respectively) but find themselves tied with everyone else at 1-2 after the first two weekends of play.  Oglethorpe also started out 9-3 before an 0-2 weekend in Texas.  Sewanee, Berry, and Rhodes round out the conference with records of 8-6, 7-7, and 5-9 respectively.

If you look at NPI, Centre naturally leads at 55, followed by Southwestern (109), Oglethorpe (115), Trinity (121), Millsaps (134), Berry (172), Sewanee (240), and Rhodes (248).  It's highly unlikely the conference can secure a pool C bid (d3datacast gives only Centre any chance, and that 6.8%) given those values.

Massey Ratings, which more significantly factor MOV and H2H results, has Trinity ranked 68th, Centre 85th, Southwestern 132, Oglethorpe 140, Berry 156, Millsaps 159, Rhodes 232, and Sewanee 274.

This week will see Southwestern and Trinity visit Millsaps and Rhodes, while Centre and Sewanee head to Berry and Oglethorpe. 

** - according to D3DataCast, Trinity has faced the 40th most difficult schedule in all of D3 so far this season; Centre the 301st.  Other schools rank between 148 (Berry) and 319 (Millsaps).  These numbers will tend to converge now that the schools are only facing each other.