Claremont-Mudd-Scripps is usually known as that, or CMS. Also much easier, highly recommend :)

How was Muskingum not previously in the OAC? That's just bizarre. They're my school's nearest rival IRL (and here too I suppose).

Marietta pulled out an exciting (though angina-inducing) 66-62 conference opening win after frittering away a 13-point second half lead against Capital. CAP took a 58-55 lead with 2 minutes on Peavler's 4th triple of the night, but MAR re-took the lead and the game seesawed until Peavler missed with 14 seconds to go, then the last of Marietta's 9 steals robbed the Crusaders of their chance to tie or win. CAP might well be wondering what their defense was doing, as their press twice committed fouls in the first 5 seconds of the shot clock in the final minute, negating buckets from the Bexley-based visitors.

MC doesn't figure to do nearly as well next time out as they travel to University Heights to face John Carroll.

Psuedo- Maybe consider the Wentworth Tech- Gordon showdown as a potential italrbhagotw. Gordon has a 87 RPI, Wentworth 91. Gordon has a good record against bad teams, wentworth bad against good teams. No blowouts this time!

SotD: 11 of the 12 University Teams have a higher RPI than the Great NE Conference combined. All of the University Teams have a higher RPI than the OAC combined, and they are the 7th rated conference.

Not much change at the top of the rankings but we're down to ten undefeated teams.

Last Night
Millsaps 67   #6 Ozarks 77  OT
Visiting Millsaps had a 2 point lead at halftime and were leading or tied pretty much the entire second half.  Unfortunately for them the tied part was at the end of regulation when Ozarks nailed a 3ptr with just seven seconds on the clock, after Millsaps had gone 1 for 2 from the line in the previous possession.  The home crowd breathed a huge sigh of relief when a close-in game winning attempt fell short as the buzzer sounded and we went to overtime.  In the extra session, Ozarks turned on the offense and managed to score more free throws than Millsaps had overtime points.  Ozarks and westcoast moved up one spot in the rankings with the win and Millsaps and brian slipped into the others receiving votes section.

Also considered: #19 Rivier got the home upset win over higher-ranked #7 S. Vermont 68-60, #8 Louisiana handled Hendrix 86-76, #15 Wittenberg got past Earlham at home 67-53, and #14 Stillman cruised past Southwestern 104-74.

Sim blowout watch: The Stags of CMHMS/Claremont-Mudd-Scripps/CMS/whatever had no issues covering against #21 Whittier 62-94.  I think they got extra points for having such a long name.

ITaLRbHAGotN: The Smart but Emotionally Aloof Scots of Maryville took just enough time away from being sparkly and talking about their feelings with high school girls to open up their conference slate with a home 62-51 victory over the Muskies of Muskingum.  Maryville was led by 26 points from starting guard Larry Carr.

GotN
#14 Stillman (11-0)(swany623) at #1 Trinity (11-0)(bobmeyer)
I promise every GotN the rest of the season won't be a University game.  Probably.  But this one is too good to turn down as two of the three 11-0 teams in the west division face off on night two.  This is the first meeting between these two and the home team is favored by 5.

Also considered: #4 Wooster at #15 Wittenberg, #6 Ozarks at #8 Lousiana, #10 Emory at Dallas, #18 Allegheny at Grove City, #19 Rivier at Suffolk, and Newbury at #22 W. New England

Sim blowout watch: Washington (MD) is getting a solid 44 points as they travel to take on #12 Ursinus.

ITaLRbHAGotN
George Fox (10-1)(benwich) at E. Oregon (9-2)(ldhope)
Next up we travel out to the Northwest conference, another conference to add a couple humans this past off-season.  They're down to only four sims left so this has the potential to turn into some competitive title races.  Tonight we have a cross-divisional meeting of teams that won their openers last night.  This is another first-time meeting and the home team is favored by 3 points.

I would not say I got handled by Louisiana. The only reason I lost was because my players forgot which team they were on sometimes. Maybe you should take over the SotD and I will do the GotN since you are making teams look worse than they actually are. :)

Or perhaps you're reading more into my use of the word handled than what's appropriate.  What word/phrase would you have preferred there?  "Enjoyed some victory bacon with"?

for what tis worth, psue,  i like to call that california school "alphabet soup"

i approve of the use of  "handled" in reference to the La vs Hx game.   now if you had said "man-handled" that would have been excessive and borderline offensive.    "handled" is an accurate descriptor.


sorry carson.

takes me back to may days as sports editor of the junior high newspaper.   do not ask how long ago that was.  ill just say it was well after the printing press was invented but well before the internet.

anyway, it seems like i would spend hours trying to come up with different ways of saying "teamA beat teamB"

I guess were right, dave and pseudo. My team could't handle the ball and therefore we were handled. You can keep your job pseudo, you are much better at it than I ever would be.

Wow, with all this talk of man-handling victory bacon I'm surprised the ghost of Roy Hibbert hasn't reared it's head on this thread yet, haha.

SotD: The top 25 3-points shooting teams all have at least one person with 87 or better perimeter except for Ozarks. They have one player with 70 perimeter that has taken 58/60 of the 3-point shots.

Not much change at the top of the rankings except for that loser Wooster team falling out of the top five.

Last Night
#22 Stillman 88   #1 Trinity 92
This one was extremely close until the home team went on a run about five minutes into the second half to open up the first double digit lead of the game.  Stillman was able to stop the bleeding however and eventually mounted a comeback with a run of their own, going so far as to take an 83-80 lead with four minutes left to play.  The teams traded a couple baskets and then Trinity went ahead by 1 with a minute and a half to go.  The home team got two clutch stops in Stillman's final three possessions and made their free throws to seal the win.  Trinity and bobmeyer defend their top ranking with the win while Stillman drops a few places in the rankings with their first loss.

Also considered: #5 Louisiana stayed perfect with a solid home win over #10 Ozarks 84-72, #9 Emory traveled with the ball with the game tied and two seconds left in regulation but they escaped regret with a game-winning bucket with five seconds left in OT to upend Dallas 59-57, Grove City upset formerly ranked Allegheny 70-58, #16 Rivier got past Suffolk 65-59, #18 W. New England cruised at home over Newbury 97-61, and #12 Wittenberg handled #8 Wooster 66-56.  See, everyone gets "handled" occasionally, it's ok.  Nothing to be embarrassed about.

Sim blowout watch: Washington (MD) covered with plenty of room to spare against #15 Ursinus 60-74.

ITaLRbHAGotN: E. Oregon started to pull away right before halftime and went into the break with a 42-33 lead over George Fox.  The visitors were unable to regroup and E. Oregon built up the lead the rest of the way, finishing with a 88-69 home victory.

GotN
#18 W. New England (11-1)(rednu) at #6 S. Vermont (11-1)(funngun10)
We move over to the Great Northeast conference for a divisional battle of 11-1 directionally named schools.  S. Vermont has split their first two conference games so a win here would help them keep pace for the divisional race.  W. New England is 2-0 so far, a big road win here would be a nice early boost in the standings.  funngun leads the all-time series and his team is favored by a point at home.

Also considered: #24 Howard Payne at #14 Hardin-Simmons, #5 Louisiana at Southwestern, #8 Wooster at Grove City, #10 Ozarks at Dallas, #12 Wittenberg at Ohio Wesleyan, and Rhodes at #25 Millsaps

Sim blowout watch: Washington and Lee is a 55 point home dog against #13 Lynchburg while Sul Ross St. is getting 54 points as they visit #2 Texas Lutheran.

ITaLRbHAGotN
Gordon (9-2)(SimAI) at Wentworth Tech (5-7)(chewchad)
I don't have a lot of rules but one of them is this: if a request comes in with xx-large font size, chances are good I'm going to respond positively.  The giant of the Commonwealth Coast conference is actually getting points at home in a conference matchup.  I have a feeling that they won't have the slightest difficulty covering the spread.

Thank you. Now I hope you jinxed them!