D3hoops.com Daily Dose

Thanksgiving is over and Christmas is just around the corner and everyone knows what that means…Christmas Music! Here at Gordon our team celebrates this time of year in style with a phenomenal mix of Christmas music ranging from Taylor Swift to Mariah Carey to Mannheim Steamroller. If anyone is interested in creating a similarly stellar mix, you can see our playlist here.

Not only does this time of year mean great music, it also begins round two of the Division III college basketball season. Despite only being allowed to play 25 regular season games, DIII teams still find it necessary to play three games per week on a regular basis. This is due to the commitment most schools make to facilitate the entire student-athlete experience. Because of this the DIII hoops season is divided into four neatly packed segments. Round one falls between the start of the season and Thanksgiving break. I will fondly refer to this as The Middle School Dance Period, because all teams are excited to be there, yet nervous about its prospects and most teams are not quite sure how good their moves are just yet. I call the second period, which contains the games crammed between Thanksgiving and finals, The Redneck Doublewide Period. This is because there are a few too many games, packed in a little too short of a time period, and you must become pretty comfortable with who you are because people are going to start seeing your flaws. The third period, called The Pre-Party Party Period, comes; yep you guessed it, right after Christmas and contains the post-new year’s tournament and any preparatory games before conference play. At this point of the season most teams convene at a central location to see teams they wouldn’t normally play and show off a little bit before the big show. The fourth and final period of the season is what all of the teams prepare for all season long; the conference season, or as I like to call it, The Family Reunion. By this point in the season there are no secrets. Sometimes, you even know things you would rather not know.  (Disclaimer: In no way are these metaphors directed at any member of my own family. I love you all and can’t wait to see you over Christmas.) Teams are forced to spend time with the people that know them best and everything becomes a competition. Some teams are like the cousin you don’t really talk to but acknowledge out of necessity at family functions. No good or bad blood exists here, but common affiliation forces your acquaintance. Some teams are like the annoying little nephew who would like nothing better than to be like you, and you would like nothing better than for them to go away. Alas, they never do. Another class of relative is the one you respect, and maybe even enjoy their company, yet at the end of the day it is important to leave feeling that you’re just flat superior.  However there are a select few who act as the relative who has constantly battled you for attention your entire life. You pretend their successes and failures aren’t important, but they are. You make sure to bring up their most embarrassing moments at the most inopportune times. Honestly, these are the people you really look forward to seeing. Family Reunion time is the opportunity to outshine and prove to everyone that you are the prized child and deserve the attention. In this case the attention desired is that of the NCAA Tournament.  (I realize I left out the post-season, but let’s not put the cart before the horse.  We’ll address that in due time.)

Having recently completed the Middle School Dance Period, our team has compiled a 4-2 record. Our first loss was a disappointing one to a strong Westfield State team in a game where we shot a scorching 28 percent from the field. This loss was not due to a lack of effort, intensity, or defense. The only way to lose a game in which you hold your opponent to 54 points is to shoot poorly, and that we did. Our three Middle School Dance wins came against last year’s NAC champion Husson, a hard working Maine Maritime squad, and a participant in last year’s Sweet 16 Salem State. To give you some perspective on the Salem State win, the last time Gordon College beat the Vikings, Charlie Weis was considered a valuable coaching commodity. It’s been a while. Tuesday night began The Redneck Doublewide with a home victory over Eastern Nazarene College. It was important to start this portion of our season off strong in order to build some momentum heading into a great rivalry game against Endicott College. Unfortunately we were unable to sustain any momentum we had created Tuesday night and fell 70-67 to our rivals. We trailed by 18 points with ten minutes remaining in the game and fought our way back to take the lead with two minutes remaining. Despite this, we were unable to finish our comeback and ultimately fell to the Gulls. After a tough loss a team can find out a lot about their character. I am confident in our team’s character and our ability to bounce back in the face of adversity. We have two remaining games this semester against currently undefeated MIT and one-loss Wheelock. This portion of the non-conference season is extremely important as top teams begin to separate themselves from the rest of the pack. In order to consider ourselves among the region’s top teams we must represent ourselves well against other high quality opponents. The rest of the Redneck Doublewide Period gives us an opportunity to do that. If we play disciplined, hard-nosed basketball every possession over the next week I am confident we will be happy with where we stand heading into the Pre-Party Party Period.

Here is the second entry from Illinois Wesleyan’s Holly Harvey. In this issue she recaps an exciting day in Bloomington and the Titans’ big victory over then-No. 1 Washington U.

Hello again, I just returned to IWU from a short but sweet Thanksgiving break at home in Chicago. I am happy that I was able put the end of the semester rush of school work aside for a few days and just enjoy my family and friends. The break was also a nice way to settle down after an exciting weekend for sports on the Wesleyan campus.

On Friday night we kicked off our Tip Off Tournament with a game against Central. We came out strong and our defense proved to be effective as we forced 39 turnovers. All 17 players saw game time and 14 made it in the scoring column. We won the game 85-60 and advanced to face #1 ranked Washington University the next day.

Saturday gave Titan fans the most opportunities to take in the excitement of IWU athletics. Our football team kicked everything off with their first round playoff game against Wabash at noon. Our Tip Off Tournament championship game against Wash U followed at 4 P.M. The Men’s Basketball team closed the day with the first game of their tournament at 8 P.M. During our shoot around before warm-ups we had one of our grade school fans running between the gym and the football field giving us updates. Finally after the exciting news of overtime and then double overtime we learned that we won. This gave us a little more fire going into our game.

Our game with Wash U had a lot of hype to go along with it because we lost to them in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament last season. We drew a big crowd with a lot of our alumni there to support us. The game was close the whole way through. Our defense once again proved to be strong as we forced 31 turnovers. We needed that defense all the way to the end as Wash U hit two 3 pointers in the last minute cutting our lead to 3 each time. We shot 72 % from the free throw line for the game including some important ones at the end. We got a solid double- double from senior post Christina Solari with 16 points and 13 rebounds. The final score put us on top 58-53. A victory by our Men’s team over Johnson and Wales gave IWU 3 home wins and 0 losses for the day.

Our most recent game was against Olivet Nazarene University. It was definitely a different style of play than we are used to. They subbed a group of 5 new players every minute. It was a very fast moving up and down the court game. Unfortunately the game had a total of 83 turnovers as we had 41 of them. We didn’t take as good of care of the ball as we wanted to but we shot well and won 108-83.

We are currently 4-0 and we’ve met our first goal of winning the Tip-Off Tourney and are now focusing on our challenging non-conference games that are coming up.

This is the second entry from D3hoops Insider Justin Riley whose team is off to a quick start this season.

The 2009-2010 season of hoops is here and I couldn’t be more excited to get the ball rolling on this season. As stated in my previous blog, Chapman is not affiliated with a conference, therefore each game has to be played with conference intensity and preparation–there is very little margin for error.

With that said, we opened up our season on the road against the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens. Last year, the Sagehens made it to the SCIAC championship game where they were defeated by the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags. We knew the Sagehens were an experienced team (they added only one new starter) that had the smarts and talent to beat us. After getting off to a slow start, we quickly turned the game around and defeated the Sagehens by 18 points. It felt great to get the first win of the season under our belt, but we noticed some flaws in our game that would need to be corrected before facing the #14 ranked Cal Lutheran Kingsmen.

During the practices leading up to the game, I noticed a change in our team’s dynamic. We realized this would be one of the most important games of the season. Just hours before the game, I had butterflies in my stomach as I paced back and forth in my apartment. I was anxious to step on the court at 7 PM and give everything I had. This was the first time since my senior year of high school that I was this excited to play in a game. Before I could even blink, my teammates and I were on the court awaiting the ref to toss the jump ball and let play begin!

From the opening tip to the ending buzzer, the game was everything I had pictured it would be. We secured an upset victory over the visiting Kingsmen, 80-74. Both teams battled during the entire 40 minutes and the cheering fans added to a fun-filled environment that all players enjoy. Unlike Hope and Calvin, which averaged 2000 people in attendance per game last season, Chapman had about 500-600 fans in the stands for this game and the noise level was still pretty high. Ultimately, it was a great game for both teams and I am looking forward to potentially playing them again in the Lee Fulmer Tournament hosted by Redlands University December 3-5.

It feels good starting the season off with wins over two experienced and very good SCIAC teams. Next week we face La Verne on their home court, and Elmhurst on our floor. After these two games we will play UC Santa Cruz in the first round of the Lee Fulmer Tournament.

Chapman as well as the other SCIAC teams have improved from last year and returned several veteran players. This could be the year that sees a Southern California team walk the same lines as the best teams of the Northwest Conference. Keep your eyes and ears open for anything that comes from our area!

Until we meet again,
Justin Riley-Chapman University

Hello fans and basketball enthusiasts, my name is Ashley Hostert and I am a sophomore, captain for the Lady Prairiewolves of Nebraska Wesleyan University. Nebraska Wesleyan is located in Lincoln, NE just a short drive from University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the Cornhuskers. Nebraska Wesleyan University is a wonderful school that attracted me initially through their incredible academic programs, comforting campus, caring professors, and pure excitement of developing student-athletes, who after four years at the institution would leave ready to conquer their goals.

Last year, as a freshman, my teammates and I saw our team undergo many changes. Approximately a month before the official, first day of practice, we did not have a head coach on campus. However, by September 20^th Coach Eric Jensen had accepted the job and moved his family to Lincoln to take over the Women’s Basketball program at Wesleyan. Coach Jensen brought his own style of playing and coaching. As with any changes, there are always ups and downs and last season provided its fair share of both. However, no matter how high or how low our team may have gotten Coach continued to instill in us his main philosophy, “TWW: Together We Win.” Nebraska Wesleyan’s Women’s Basketball program may not have been a threat in the past, but together we could accomplish whatever we aspire to and after hearing that day in and out, we began to believe it.

This season holds endless and exciting possibilities for our team. Originally, bringing in 15 new talented freshmen and having no seniors on the team, we look to be young, however with the basis of our core values, we are looking to be an unforeseen threat every time we step on the floor. Building the women’s basketball program at Nebraska Wesleyan to a championship level program has been our team’s motivation since the end of last season. We have set our eyes on reaching the national tournament and nothing will detract us from our vision.

As the first month of practice comes to a close and opening weekend is at the end of this week, the anticipation is high. The unique thing about our team’s situation is that we are a DIII independent team. Meaning our possibilities of making a national tournament birth, are mainly based on the few DIII games that we play during the season because we do not play in a qualifying tournament at the end of the year like most other DIII teams. This year four of our seven DIII games happen in the first two weeks of season, so it is very important for us to come out of the gates firing and ready to prove that we can compete with the best. Our opening tournament is at Cornell College, November 20^th and 21^st, there we will play Cornell College and Edgewood College. We saw neither team last year in DIII action, but with the help of our coaching staff’s scouting and preparation, we will be more than ready to step on the floor on Friday and Saturday to demonstrate the fruits of our labor from the last month of practice. Not only are our few DIII games very important, but we also play in the most competitive NAIA Division II Conference, the GPAC. Ranked very low in the preseason, our team has been fired up about the lack of people taking our team seriously and it is in the back of our minds every day that we will be the surprise underdog this year. Teams will regret not taking us seriously.

As a team we chose core values to exemplify us and what we want from our program. Every day that our team practices, every day that we stand side by side sweating and grinding out even the worst drills those values shine through everyone just a little more. Right now I am very proud of the effort and commitment our team has shown so far and cannot wait to get the season rolling so we can prove what we are capable of. Nebraska Wesleyan’s Women’s Basketball will be turning heads. Good luck to all the other DIII teams starting their seasons, we wish you the best!

God Bless, Ashley Hostert

The third of our Insiders for this year is Aaron Trigg, a senior guard for the Gordon Fighting Scots. If his first post is any indication, he will have a humorous, interesting take on life in “The TCCC.”

I am so excited to write for D3hoops this season. As most Division III basketball players can relate, I have looked at this site more often than NBA refs miss traveling. (See Majerle, Dan). Anyways, it is great to follow some of the successful bloggers of the past like Sean Wallis from Wash U and Mike Dietz of Baruch. Hopefully there is a correlation between deep NCAA tournament runs and D3hoops bloggers.

Before I get too far, I want to give a little introduction to myself and our team. My name is Aaron Trigg and I am one of six seniors and 14 returning players to the Gordon College Fighting Scots. I don’t know what a Fighting Scot is, but if it is anything related to our logo it must be a member of the ferret family. We are a non-denominational Christian college located 30 minutes outside of Boston in Wenham, MA. Gordon is a member of The Commonwealth Coast Conference (TCCC). From the department of redundancy department “the” is part of our acronym. Saying “The TCCC” is actually repetitive and completely unnecessary. I could bore you with more details about our school but there is plenty of time for that later.

Our team is actually much more interesting. Despite possibly being the least diverse team this side of the seven dwarfs, we have quite a few distinct characteristics. So many, actually, we believe ourselves to be “The Only Team in America” with many of these traits. Here are a few examples of what I’m talking about:

• We are the only team in America who has a player who posted his own You Tube video of Hannah Montana’s Hoedown Throwdown.

• We are the only team in America whose entrance music for home games is the theme from Space Jam.

• We are the only team in America who has debated which team member would look best in a dress.
• We are the only team in America who has been to Chuck-E-Cheese’s five or more times this Fall.
• We are the only team in America who awards the “Selfish Award of the Week” going to whoever has been the most selfish person we know. We even have a board for past winners (or losers, depends how you look at it).
• We are the only team in America that sings a cappella before games.
• We are the only team in America with a life size poster of one of our captains in our living room.
• We are the only team in America whose starting point guard must stretch for 2.5hrs before any physical activity, including biking to class.
• We are the only team in America whose Halloween costumes included a cow, a farmer, Fred Flintstone, Barney Rubble, a guy riding a pony, and most randomly… a shark eating a person (It was inflatable, and awesome).

These are just a few of our unique characteristics. If anyone out there would like to challenge our self proclaimed Only Team in America title, I would be glad to know. We would appreciate some company.

Back to what I’m supposed to write about. Our group of seniors has had very high expectations since we stepped onto campus 3 years ago. It has been our goal to transform Gordon into a nationally recognized program and we feel we have an opportunity to do so this year. With a veteran led team and a strong group of underclassmen we seem poised to reach our lofty goals. As everyone in basketball knows, nothing comes easy. We will have to work harder than we ever have and compete on every possession if we want to reach our potential. This will be an exciting season and I am looking forward to giving an inside view of our small college team looking to make a name for ourselves on a larger stage.