SotD: Hardin-Simmons is forcing a ridiculous 27.8 TOs / game when they win. Even when they lose they still force 20.5 TOs / game. They score 32.7 POT and have only been outscored in this category once.

I'm about ready to demand a lifetime exemption from GotN status...I can't remember the last time I won under the spotlights.

I'm telling you, GotN is bad news... My first two GotN appearances were in the season openers. I lost each time, dropped out of the Top 25 (from #11 and #5) and spent all season trying to recover. I'll stick with Sim blowout watch.

SotD: Robert Hawk is the top 3-point shooter this season and is making 56.3% of them. His PER rating is less than 15 out of 16 of the next best 3-point shooters. He even has crappy ATH and SPD!

Ok, time to play some catchup after spending yesterday prepping for and enjoying a Super Bowl party.  Let's just recap Saturday and skip ahead to tonight's games.

Last Night
W. New England 56   #5 S. Vermont 71
The home team pretty much led this one from start to finish after building a 10 point lead at the half and maintaining it through the second.  Some people would attribute this to some sort of GotN jinx but I'm not so sure.  Clearly more research is needed into the matter.  S. Vermont and funngun moved up one spot in the rankings while W. New England and rednu dropped to the others receiving votes section after their first conference loss.

Also considered: #10 Hardin-Simmons blew Howard Payne out of the gym 119-52, #9 Louisiana cruised past Southwestern 105-85, #6 Wooster made enough free throws down the stretch to hold off Grove City 65-61, #17 Ozarks got past Dallas 68-57, #11 Wittenberg handled Ohio Wesleyan 82-54, and #20 Millsaps got the home win over Rhodes 68-58.

Sim blowout watch: Washington and Lee didn't keep it close but good enough for a cover against #16 Lynchburg 65-95 and Sul Ross St. did the same against #2 Texas Lutheran 58-90.

ITaLRbHAGotN: Wentworth Tech 76, Gordon 58.  Told you Wentworth would cover the spread, they're money when it comes to conference play.

GotN
#13 Piedmont (12-2)(bunkerbuster) at North Carolina Wesleyan (6-8)(nastynick60)
We head over to the USA South conference for a nice game between divisional rivals.  Piedmont is 4-0 in conference and holds a one game lead on three teams.  They visit one of those teams tonight as NCWes will look for a big home win to move into an early tie for first place.  bunker leads the all-time series 17-5 and his team is favored by 9 on the road in this one.

Also considered: #17 Ozarks at #19 Stillman, Rhodes at #8 Emory, Newbury at #18 Rivier, and #20 Millsaps at Sewanee

Sim blowout watch: Mary Hardin-Baylor is getting 68 points as they host #2 Texas Lutheran and California Lutheran is a 50 point home dog against #12 Whittier.

ITaLRbHAGotN
Kenyon (10-3)(jsajsa) at Allegheny (11-2)(ezekialstarr)
Time for a visit to the North Coast for an east division matchup of two-conference-loss teams chasing the lead.  A win here for either team gets them back to .500 in conference play and right back in the thick of the division race.  This is the first meeting between these two coaches (in this world) and Allegheny is favored by 4 at home.

Where are my excuse notes?

SotD: Rhodes is giving up 68.75 points per game when they lose. When they win they only give up 48.1 points per game. They are doing this with only a 41.3 DEF rating (this is after taking out the walk-ons). They are either playing really bad teams or getting really lucky or both.

Down to six undefeated teams and seven teams without a win.  I hear that having two losses is pretty attractive.

Last Night
#19 Piedmont 72   North Carolina Wesleyan 74   OT
The visiting ranked team came out on fire early and topped out with a 13 point lead almost midway through the first half.  But NCWes was able to rally the troops and get back into the game, going into the break with a 40-36 lead.  The second half was fairly low scoring and it stayed close from start to finish.  NCWes tied the game at 63 with two free throws and then nobody scored the last minute and a half and we went to overtime.  In the extra session the teams traded a bunch of free throws, the last of which for Piedmont tied the game at 72.  Then the home crowd went crazy when Jacob Hughes sunk a jumper from the left side with one second on the clock, securing the home upset for NCWes.  Piedmont and bunker drop their first conference game and fall into a three-way tie for first place with NCWes and nastynick.

Also considered: #13 Stillman got a big home win over #21 Ozarks 100-85, #7 Emory pulled away from Rhodes 69-54, #12 Rivier cruised past Newbury 71-49, and #18 Millsaps got a last-second game winner to edge Sewanee 53-51.

Sim blowout watch: Mary Hardin-Baylor covered despite allowing triple digits to #3 Texas Lutheran 65-103 while California Lutheran kept their game lower scoring while covering against #16 Whittier 63-84.

ITaLRbHAGotN: Allegheny led Kenyon by 5 at the half and were able to stay in front the rest of the way finishing off a solid 52-41 home win.

GotN
#8 Louisiana (14-1)(discodave) at #18 Millsaps (11-4)(brianxavier)
Back to the University conference for a nice cross-divisional game between second-place squads with identical 4-1 conference records.  Both teams are chasing undefeated division leaders so a win here will at least keep them a game back in the standings.  brian leads the series 29-13 but the visitors are favored by 1 point in this one.

Also considered: Ohio Wesleyan at #6 Wooster, Dallas at #13 Stillman, #19 Piedmont at Oglethorpe, and Southwestern at #21 Ozarks

Sim blowout watch: Washington and Jefferson are getting 53 points at home against #17 Lynchburg while Otterbein is a 41 point road dog at #20 John Carroll.

ITaLRbHAGotN
Hamline (13-1)(foofighter13) at Macalester (9-6)(simpixut574)
It's an early season battle for conference dominance over in the Minnesota conference as two perfect-in-conference divisional leaders are meeting for their single cross-divisional matchup.  They both already have two game leads in the standings so the winner here will be in good position to take conference bragging rights.  This is the first meeting between these two and foofighter's squad is favored by 8 points on the road.

Midseason tournament watch

Here's a conferece-by-conferece look at how many NT and PIT slots are currently projected for each league. Two conferences don't have anyone projecting into the top 96 currently. In those cases, the conference's best projection report position is shown in parenthesis.

ASC 5/0, Capital 1/0, Centennial 2/2, CUNY 1/1, CCIW 1/1, Coast 1/1, Commonwealth 3/2, Empire 1/0, Freedom (173), GNE 6/2, Heartland 2/1, Iowa 1/1, Little East 3/1, Michigan 2/0, Midwest 0/1, Minnesota 1/0, Northeast 2/0, New Jersey 1/2, N. Atlantic 1/1, NCAC 5/1, Northwest 2/1, Ohio 2/1, ODAC 1/2, Penn 0/1, Skyline 1/1, So. Cal 3/0, St. Louis 1/1, SUNY (100), University 8/3, Upstate 0/1, USA South 6/2, Wisconsin 1/2.

For those not keeping count, at present Rupp's top five conferences control 30 National Tournament slots....and 8 of the 32 PIT seeds.

SotD: There are 5 players averaging over 33 minutes per game. 3 of them have a stamina rating under 90. 2 of those have stamina under 70, and play on the same team.

Posted by carson333 on 2/5/2014 7:30:00 AM (view original):
SotD: There are 5 players averaging over 33 minutes per game. 3 of them have a stamina rating under 90. 2 of those have stamina under 70, and play on the same team.

And, not coincidentally, that team has 0 wins, a 381-ranked RPI, and is being outscored by 43.8 PPG.  But at least all of those minutes he's playing has increased the work ethic of one of those players from a 1 to a 2!

It snowed again last night and this morning.  Just want to let you know, I am officially tired of shoveling my driveway.  That's it.

Last Night
#10 Louisiana 86   #17 Millsaps 95
Millsaps continued their five game conference winning streak and stayed a game behind their division leader with an impressive home win over the higher ranked Lousiana.  The home team held a 9 point lead at the half and were able to maintain that lead for large stretches of the second half.  Visiting Louisiana made a few late runs getting as close as within 2 with three minutes left but Millsaps responded each time to build the lead back up.  Millsaps and brian got bumped up just one spot in the rankings after the win while Louisiana and discodave slip to the edge of the top ten.

Also considered: #7 Wooster survived a late push to edge Ohio Wesleyan 74-68, Dallas got the road upset over #20 Stillman 77-70, #16 Piedmont cruised past Oglethorpe 95-71, and #19 Ozarks took care of Southwestern 78-68.

Sim blowout watch: Washington and Jefferson kept the deficit to a nice round number and covered against #18 Lynchburg 62-92 and Otterbein covered on the road vs #21 John Carroll 52-81.

ITaLRbHAGotN: Newly ranked #23 Hamline watched a big 13 point halftime lead evaporate but were able to recover and pull away in the end, scoring a clutch 88-78 road win over Macalester.

GotN
#1 Trinity (16-0)(bobmeyer) at #10 Louisiana (14-2)(discodave)
Three games between ranked opponents tonight but we'll go with the top ten battle featuring our undefeated #1 team.  Trinity has been perfect so far and will look to expand their two game lead in the division standings while Louisiana will try to rebound from their second conference loss with a huge home upset.  discodave has a 20-10 lead in the series but his team is getting 4 points at home tonight.

Also considered: #12 Rivier at #4 S. Vermont, #6 Emory at #17 Millsaps, Austin at #9 Hardin-Simmons, #20 Stillman at Southwestern, and #22 E. Connecticut St at UMass Dartmouth

Sim blowout watch: Poor winless Richard Stockton is getting a hefty 80 points as they visit #14 Ramapo and Linfield is a 62 point home dog as they host #25 E. Oregon.

ITaLRbHAGotN
DePauw (9-7)(twarnold) at Grinell (9-6)(tnich)
Next up is a cross-divisional matchup in the Midwest conference with both teams needing wins to keep pace with division leaders.  It's the Tigers visiting the Pioneers in a game the oddsmakers have as an even pick.

SotD: University averages 3.29 games per day with one ranked team. They average 1.29 games per day with two ranked teams. This only leaves room for just over 1 game per day with neither team being ranked.

Nice job digging this stuff up, Carson.  Very interesting.

Anyone ever notice mfnmyers  obsession with Dickinson?  He has Dickinson in 7 worlds.  Just reminded of it again when I saw he won national title in Crum.

Congratulations.

As a side note, when studying him as an opponent last year in the NT I decided to look at all his teams to look for patterns.  He runs fastbreak/press with every team.  And almost never shoots a 3 pointer. 

FWIW, he also likes St. Olaf quite a bit in GD.