Occidental needs to schedule Webster so we can talk about a coach named bananafangs playing the Gorloks. That is all.

Posted by bullman17 on 2/6/2014 11:53:00 AM (view original):
Nice job digging this stuff up, Carson.  Very interesting.

Thanks, but I am running out of things to look for. If anyone sees anything interesting please site mail me and I will post it in the SotD.

I have noticed mfnmyers and his gaggle of Dickinson teams.  I have a hard enough time keeping track of my three teams and they're all in different divisions.  "mfnmyers, how's your Dickinson team doing?  No the other one... no, no...no the other other one."

Gorloks love bananas.  They hate cinnamon.

After Trinity suffered their first loss of the season last night we have a new #1 team... wait, we don't?  Oh.

Last Night
#1 Trinity 90   #10 Louisiana 99
After a back-and-forth first half Trinity held a slim 1 point lead and the teams continued to exchange leads into the second.  The deciding moment happened around the nine minute mark where Louisiana went on a mini-run of 7 straight points to jump in front by a couple possessions.  That small lead was enough as the home team kept scoring the rest of the way and held on for a satisfying 9 point home victory.  That victory was so earth-shattering that both teams kept their exact same rankings despite Louisiana upsetting the top ranked team and dealing them their first loss.  The voters simply don't care.  Jerks.

Also considered: #4 S. Vermont held on for the home win over #19 Rivier 76-66, #6 Emory stayed perfect in conference with the road win over #20 Millsaps 72-62, #8 Hardin-Simmons used a big second half to pull away from Austin 100-82, #18 Stillman got past Southwestern 75-64, and #22 E. Connecticut St. won a double overtime thriller at UMass Dartmouth 87-83.

Sim blowout watch: The "Dickies" of Richard Stockton are still winless but kept it reasonably close in covering against #15 Ramapo 60-79 while Linfield also covered against E. Oregon 59-78.

ITaLRbHAGotN: DePauw coach twarnold must have drawn up a heck of a play in the huddle with three seconds left on the clock and down by 3.  Grinnell had just sunk two free throws and looked headed to a key home victory.  But Michael Cleghorn shocked the home crowd by banging home a halfcourt shot as time expired and instead of home we headed to overtime.  Shell-shocked Grinnell couldn't recover as the visitors outscored them 16-9 in the extra session and DePauw escaped with an important road win, 81-74.

GotN
#19 Rivier (13-4)(jack_duck) at #3 Johnson and Wales (15-1)(spasticity)
Another great GNE matchup as J-Dub looks to stay perfect in conference as they host cross-divisional foe Rivier.  spasticity has a 33-17 lead in the series and the Spider Monkeys are favored by 3 at home.

Also considered: #1 Trinity at Dallas, #4 S. Vermont at Emmanuel, #18 Stillman at Rhodes, Southwestern at #20 Millsaps, and Muskingum at #21 John Carroll

Sim blowout watch: Nazareth is a 54 point home dog as they host #9 Vassar and Mary Hardin-Baylor is getting 52 points at #8 Hardin-Simmons in a fierce battle for Hardin-superiority!

ITaLRbHAGotN
Wisconsin Oshkosh (13-3)(SimAI) at Wisconsin La Crosse (15-2)(theaaskimo)
Time for a visit to the Wisconsin conference where these two teams sit atop the north division with undefeated records.  This is the first of two games between these two that will most likely determine the top team in the conference and Wisconsin state bragging rights.  And probably a big pile of cheese curds.  La Crosse is favored by 2 points at home.

Yummm ... cheese curds  : ')

I agree. Jerks!

SotD: There are 5 people with a LP rating of 100. All of them are shooting over 49% and scoring and scoring at least 11 points per game. There is no one with 100 PER, but 6 with 99 PER. None of them are shooting over 54.2% but they are all scoring at least 14 points per game.

That's  a great stat of the day.  I was curious, so I looked up the athleticism rating on each of those 100 LP guys --- 40, 31, 51, 49.... interestingly, 2 of them play on the same team - and yes, you guessed it - they play triangle offense (sim coached).  I thought maybe the sim was actually targeting those high LP players, but despite those 2 seniors - the next high LP on the team is 65.  Interesting thought though - wonder if SIMs do target players that fit their team?  I always assumed it was fairly random who they recruited, perhaps with some qualifier for them to get decent players some of the time so they have some talent every now and then?

disco is right, the pollsters are idiots. Somehow they rank Trinity #1, and they are the 3rd or 4th team, at best, in the conference. Louisiana got jobbed they are easily a top 5 (or better) team. I guess when you are dealing with an algorithm, you are gonna get this to happen.

Down to five undefeated teams and also five teams with the unwanted kind of perfect record.  One of the undefeated teams is a sim while two of the later category are sims.

Last Night
#22 Rivier 67   #3 Johnson and Wales 69
A hard fought game throughout, this one came down to the last thirty-four seconds with the game tied at 67.  Johnson and Wales held the ball for a last shot and got off a floater from the right side that rattled out but J-Dub's Michael Juergens set off celebrations in the home crowd by tipping the ball back in for a 2 point lead with three seconds left.  The halfcourt prayer from Rivier went unanswered and the Spider Monkeys escaped with their perfect conference record intact.  J-Dub and spasticity kept their one game lead in the standings with the win while Rivier and jack_duck are now in a three-way tie for first in their division.

Also considered: #1 Trinity bounced back from their first loss with a clutch road victory over Dallas 69-61, Emmanuel scored the home upset over #6 S. Vermont 65-59, #16 Stillman pulled away from Rhodes 69-56, #19 Millsaps cruised past Southwestern 86-66, and #21 John Carroll handled Muskingum 76-53.

Sim blowout watch: Nazareth gave #10 Vassar a scare by easily covering 72-83 while Mary Hardin-Baylor not only lost any hope of Hardin-superiority but they became this season's first official blowout victim by getting crushed by #8 Hardin-Simmons 52-126.  No Hardin-love lost there.

ITaLRbHAGotN: Wisconsin La Crosse took care of business and coasted past simmed Wisconsin Oshkosh 75-51 to stake the early claim on the division lead.

GotN
#7 Wooster (15-2)(pseudochamp) at Allegheny (15-2)(ezekialstarr)
Time for a big cross-divisional battle in the North Coast conference as defending champs Wooster (haven't typed that in a while) pay a visit to east division co-leading Allegheny.  Wooster is a game behind first place in their division so they need to keep notching wins to keep pace while Allegheny hasn't played their two games against their co-leaders yet so a win here puts them in good position for those later games.  pseudo has won all the meetings between these two and his team is favored by 4 on the road.

Also considered: #1 Trinity at #16 Stillman, #18 Ozarks at #5 Emory, #6 S. Vermont at W. New England, Ohio Wesleyan at #11 Wittenberg, Virginia Wesleyan at #15 Lynchburg, Hendrix at #19 Millsaps, and Suffolk at #22 Rivier

Sim blowout watch: Winless Methodist is getting a massive 75 points as they host #14 Piedmont.

ITaLRbHAGotN
#23 Transylvania (15-3)(tooslim) at Manchester (9-8)(goldenboy00)
We drop in on the Heartland conference for a big cross-divisional battle.  Transylvania is off to a 7-1 start in conference play and go on the road to visit division co-leaders 5-2 Manchester.  The visitors are looking to defend their national ranking and standings lead while home-team Manchester needs a win to stay atop their division.  It's the Pioneers at the Spartans in a... wait, Pioneers?  With a name like Transylvania University?  No vampires (the smart but emotionally aloof kind or otherwise)?  I feel like that's a real waste of a mascot naming opportunity.  Anyway, the not-at-all-undead Pioneers are favored by 10.  Jeez, they're not even favored by 6-5000.  So lame.

SotD: Every team shooting over 75% from the FT line has at least a C+ team average. What is interesting is that the first team under 75% is also the first team with a C team rating.

Here's another stat of the day: Wooster RPI = .6954   Johnson and Wales RPI = .6953   Owned.

Last Night
#6 Wooster 60   Allegheny 47
The Fighting Scots were down by 7 at the break but then their chump of a coach somehow managed to randomly put words together in the locker room during half time and inspired a big-time defensive effort in the second half.  Wooster held the home team Gators to just 15 points in the second half and pulled away at the end for a key road conference win.  Wooster and pseudo move up a notch in the rankings with the win while Allegheny and ezekialstarr are now one game off the division lead.

Also considered: #1 Trinity got past #19 Stillman on the road 80-65, #4 Emory bested #20 Ozarks 55-45, #7 S. Vermont survived two overtime sessions and finally pulled away from W. New England at the end 91-84, #10 Wittenberg handled Ohio Wesleyan 80-60, #14 Lynchburg defended the home court against Virginia Wesleyan 84-69, #16 Millsaps cruised past Hendrix 79-54, and Suffolk upended previously ranked Rivier 54-50.

Sim blowout watch: Methodist couldn't keep #18 Piedmont in double digits but they still covered 67-106.

ITaLRbHAGotN: The non-Vampires of #21 Transylvania slowly built on a 2 point halftime lead to get the road victory over Manchester 78-69.

GotN
#13 Penn St. Altoona (16-2)(frankgrimes1) at #5 Susquehanna (18-1)(zeuspole)
It's that time of year again, PSA and Susquehanna are both undefeated atop the south division of the Commonwealth conference and they're of course both ranked for the first of two divisional battles.  And once again they're playing their two games against each other in just three days, the schedule-maker must just love this matchup.  frank holds a 43-25 all-time lead but the home team is favored by a point in this one.

Also considered: #16 Millsaps at #19 Stillman, #7 S. Vermont at Suffolk, #9 Louisiana at Dallas, #10 Wittenberg at Grove City, La Grange at #18 Piedmont, Rhodes at #20 Ozarks, and #25 John Carroll at Maryville

Sim blowout watch: UMass Boston is getting 57 point at home to #17 E. Connecticut State while Bethel is a 45 point road dog at #24 Hamline.

ITaLRbHAGotN
#15 Ramapo (18-0)(pgj930) at William Paterson (15-3)(SimAI)
Undefeated Ramapo is on another tear over in the New Jersey conference and this looks to be their most challenging game left on the schedule.  The have a two game lead in the standings and a win here might just sew it up.  The home team is getting 11 points.

SotD: Hardin-Simmons is currently on an 8 game streak of 100+ points. However, this is not the record for this season. Earlier in the season St. Lawrence had a 9 game streak of 100+ points. The longest streak of 100+ points by other teams I could find was only 3 by Texas Lutheran. 

Titanic battle from the Northwest Conference yesterday: www.whatifsports.com/hd/GameResults/BoxScore.aspx

Wow ... 4 OT's! Great game.