This will be the 54th season of The Yarnell Invitational (named after Yarnell Ice Cream in Searcy, AR). As always, it'll be a 6 team round-robin tournament that'll occur in weeks 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 of the non-conference schedule. Harding University has been the tournament host historically, and it has been New Mexico Highlands University since season 92. The defending champ from the previous year is an automatic qualifier. The remainder of the field is invitation only.

Defending Champ: Incarnate Word [Heartland]
Host: New Mexico Highlands [NorthernSun]

FORMAT: 5 games, Round Robin
Game #2: DC @ Host,
Game #5: #2 @ #1, #4 @ #3
Game #6: Host @ #4, #1 @ DC, #2 @ #3
Game #7: #3 @ Host, #1 @ #4, DC @ #2
Game #8: Host @ #2, #3 @ #1, #4 @ DC
Game #9: #1 @ Host, #2 @ #4, #3 @ DC

Historical Conference Standings:
Heartland -15
Central Atlantic - 8
CVAC - 7
Peach Belt - 7
Gulf South - 4
GLV - 4

SCHEDULE
FORMAT: 5 games, Round Robin
Game #5: Incarnate Word @ New Mexico Highlands, Kennesaw St. @ Longwood, Harding @ NW Nazarene
Game #6: New Mexico Highlands @ Harding, Longwood @ Incarnate Word, Kennesaw St. @ NW Nazarene
Game #7: NW Nazarene @ New Mexico Highlands, Longwood @ Harding Incarnate Word @ Kennesaw St.
Game #8: New Mexico Highlands @ Kennesaw St., NW Nazarene @ Longwood, Harding @ Incarnate Word
Game #9: Longwood @ New Mexico Highlands, Kennesaw St. @ Harding, NW Nazarene @ Incarnate Word

PRESEASON RANKINGS:
#3 NW Nazarene (Great NW)
#5 Harding (Gulf South)
#9 New Mexico Highlands (Northern Sun)
#10 Kennesaw St. (Peach Belt)
#22 Longwood (CVAC)
#27 Incarnate Word (Heartland)

PLAYERS TO WATCH
Danny Tyberg, SF, NW Nazarene, 1st-Team All-American
Victor Burdick, PG, Harding, 3rd-Team All-American
William Tucker, C, NW Nazarene, 3rd_Team All-American
Tracy Mixson, PG New Mexico Highlands, Honorable Mention All-American
Guillermo Rodriguez, PF, Harding., Honorable Mention All-American
Dallas Davis, C, Kennesaw St., Honorable Mention All-American
Thomas Place, C, Incarnate Word
Kenneth Josey, PG, NW Nazarene
Thomas Leger, PG, Kennesaw St.
David Woolf, PG, Longwood
K. Long, PF, New Mexico Highlands

ROUND ONE
Incarnate Word (1-3) +29 @ #1 New Mexico Highlands (4-0)
#2 Kennesaw St. (4-0) -1 @ #9 Longwood (4-0)
#12 Harding (3-1) +2 @ #4 NW Nazarene (4-0)

We got called for 3 fouls leaving the locker room and loading up the bus after the game in Nampa, ID. That was a rough big boy game at NW Nazarene. Proud of my kids.

Tyberg, Tucker, and Lee and running wind sprints today.

STANDINGS
Harding 1-0
New Mexico Highlands 1-0
Kennesaw St. 1-0
NW Nazarene 0-1
Longwood 0-1
Incarnate Word 0-1

ROUND TWO

#1 New Mexico Highlands (5-0) -2 @ #7 Harding (4-1)
#17 Longwood (4-1) -15 @ Incarnate Word (1-4)
#2 Kennesaw St. (5-0) -3 @ #11 NW Nazarene (4-1)

ROUND ONE RESULTS
Incarnate Word 68 @ New Mexico Highlands 86
NMHU - T Mixson 16/5A (POG), C Numbers 17, D Odea 14/4A
UtIW - G Parsons 17/13R, T Place 14/9R

Kennesaw St. 86 @ Longwood 75
KSU - E Geary 29 (POG), T Leger 15, D Davis 11
LU - D Woolf 14, P Street 11, M Stokes 10

Harding 72 @ NW Nazarene 60
HU - G Rodriguez 25/11R (POG), V Burdick 15, A Marino (10)
NNU - F Vick 14, K Josey 9/4A, W Tucker 8/7R

Like the WIS headline states, we're simply no match for this field. Should be double digit underdogs every game. Incarnate Word has fallen on hard times after the departure of div2 legend davefilby. I guess I'm rooting for hackerhog to win what was historically his tourney. Who knows the last time that happened. He's overdue.

Posted by fungobatboy on 8/30/2017 7:44:00 PM (view original):
Like the WIS headline states, we're simply no match for this field. Should be double digit underdogs every game. Incarnate Word has fallen on hard times after the departure of div2 legend davefilby. I guess I'm rooting for hackerhog to win what was historically his tourney. Who knows the last time that happened. He's overdue.

You'll beat us for sure. Unless you want to do your old school a favor and run press or man... :)

Incarnate Word's best four players are underclassmen. Will be pretty scary in a couple years.

Smells like some homecooking last night cubcub lol. Nah man, pretty epic game... I look forward to another one in he NT.

My god 52 free throws against a really good team. And it only cost me $20!

Are you a second account?If not, you are like the fastest learner I've ever seen.

the press is my team's kryptonite

Thanks cubcub! First account actually, I basically tried to emulate what the best teams looked like and asked my conference a lot of questions (primarily teamvip and getbebarded). Plus the peach belt is like getting thrown into the fire. It also never hurts to take over an A prestige school either.

But soooo many fouls last night though, leger is gonna be close to 70 def by the tourney so don't expect him to foul out again :-)

onto IW!

Posted by adlorenz on 8/31/2017 3:04:00 PM (view original):
Thanks cubcub! First account actually, I basically tried to emulate what the best teams looked like and asked my conference a lot of questions (primarily teamvip and getbebarded). Plus the peach belt is like getting thrown into the fire. It also never hurts to take over an A prestige school either.

But soooo many fouls last night though, leger is gonna be close to 70 def by the tourney so don't expect him to foul out again :-)

onto IW!

I don't want to say anything wrong so don't take my word for it but I believe FP% Allowed is primarily DE with some ATH/SP while fouls are primarily ATH/SP. I haven't lost to a man team or press team in 27 games.

Yes, NMHU is switching to slowdown zone tonight against NW Naz for match-up purposes. Actually, I was a bit worried about slowdown zone last night, as that is the type of system that gives us the most trouble.

Last night it looked like the tourney is living up to the hype with two games going into OT. More big games to follow tonight.

STANDINGS
New Mexico Highlands 2-0
Harding 1-1
Kennesaw St. 1-1
NW Nazarene 1-1
Longwood 1-1
Incarnate Word 0-2

ROUND THREE
#8 NW Nazarene (5-1) +4 @ #1 New Mexico Highlands (6-0)
#16 Longwood (5-1) -1 @ #15 Harding (4-2)
Incarnate Word (1-5) +26 @ #6 Kennesaw St. (5-1)

ROUND TWO RESULTS
New Mexico Highlands 82 @ Harding 63
NMHU - D Odea 14/5A (POG), C Numbers 16, M Dixon 13
HU - G Rodriguez 16/12R, V Burdick 16, M Rosenfelf 6/14R/3A

Longwood 74 @ Incarnate Word 70 OT
LU - J Smalls 19 (POG), D Woolf 11/3S, C Hughes 10
UtIW - G Ahner 17, T Place 13/7R, G Parsons 12/10R

Kennesaw St. 90 @ NW Nazarene 96 OT
NNU - W Tucker 19/13R/3B (POG), F Vick 18/4A/3S, D Tyberg 18
KSU - D Dallas 26/12R, T Leger 20, L Gilbertson 9/11R

Nooooooooooo. Not zone. Not slowdown. I beg. I beg. I don't care about the D IQs.

going 5 for 14 from the FT line will get you beat every time.