This will be the 59th season of The Yarnell Invitational (named after Yarnell Ice Cream in Searcy, AR). The Yanrell is 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: Cal Poly Ponoma [CAL CAA]
Host: New Mexico Highlands [Northern Sun] - Okay, I over-scheduled and am not actually in the tourney, but we're still the dang host. For what it is worth, we are 1-3 against Yarnell participants despite having 8 upperclassmen, so we would not have contended anyway.

Historical Conference Standings:
Heartland -15
Peach Belt - 9
Central Atlantic – 7.5
CVAC - 7
Gulf South - 4
GLV – 4
GLIAC - 4
Lone Star - 3
Cal CAA- 3

FORMAT: 5 games, Round Robin

Game #5:
Cal Poly Ponoma @ Pfeiffer
Incarnate Word @ USC Upstate
Ohio Valley @ Bentley

Game #6:
Pfeiffer @ Ohio Valley
USC Upstate @ Cal Poly Ponoma
Incarnate Word @ Bentley

Game #7:
Bentley @ Pfeiffer
USC Upstate @ Ohio Valley
Cal Poly Ponoma @ Incarnate Word

Game #8:
Pfeiffer @ Incarnate Word
Bentley @ USC Upstate
Ohio Valley @ Cal Poly Ponoma

Game #9:
USC Upstate @ Pfeiffer
Incarnate Word @ Ohio Valley
Bentley @ Cal Poly Ponoma

Here is a brief rundown of this season’s Yarnell field. I’ll often say this year’s field looks strong. This might be the best field I’ve seen. Any one of these teams would be capable of winning the Yarnell in a normal season. (Five teams in the pre-season were ranked in the top 7.) If you need more convincing, just look at the number of All-Americans and Honorable Mentions.

Cal Poly Ponoma – The defending Yarnell champs from season 99 have won 110 games in the last four seasons and came into the season ranked #2. Two seasons ago, staypuft was one of the favorites as a 1-seed in the NT before having a bad draw in the second round against the eventual champs, Pfeiffer.

Pfeiffer – zorzii’s squad is consistently good and represents the always tough CVAC. After deep NT runs in seasons 84 (Runner-up) and season 88 (Elite 8), Pfeiffer broke through in what was a mediocre regular season that earned an 8-seed to win the title in 99. They enter the season ranked #7.

Incarnate Word – Representing the Heartland, fungobatboy’s Incarnate Word team enters the season ranked #5. While fungo’s teams have made many deep NT runs over the years at Incarnate Word, NW Nazarene, U of Indianapolis and others, season 99 two seasons ago saw a team with mostly underclassmen still on this year’s squad reach the Final Four.

USC Upstate – towlie represents the dominant Peach Belt and enters the Yarnell for the first time, starting the season ranked #4. While coaching USC Upstate for more than two dozen seasons, the team has been particularly elite the last 7 seasons, reach the Final Four 4 times and winning the NT last season, with only one senior.

Ohio Valley – While dan2044 has only coached three full seasons at this WVIAC school, he has averaged 28 wins a year and has achieved a 1 and 2 seed the last couple of seasons. I know dan more from his days in the dominant D3 Freedom Conference in Crum, but he has very quickly has positioned terp21234’s old team into a constant contender. While the team didn’t have a pre-season ranking, HD often under-ranks FB/FCP teams in the pre-season.

Bentley – Another FB/FCP team in this year’s Yarnell, the0nlyis enters this season ranked #3. In 6 seasons at Bentley, the team has ranked the Elite 8 twice and has never won fewer than 21 games. In addition, the0nlyis won a title at Iba’s D3 at Tyler, Texas in season 86, among many others won in other worlds.

PRESEASON RANKINGS:
#2 – Cal Poly Pomona
#3 – Bentley
#4 – USC Upstate
#5 – Incarnate Word
#7 – Pfeiffer
NR – Ohio Valley


PLAYERS TO WATCH
Ernest Race, SG, Incarnate Word, 1st Team All-American
Leroy Lowery, SF, Cal Poly Pomona, 1st Team All-American
Jeffrey Harris, PF, Pfeiffer, 1st Team All-American
Clarence Conrad, C Bentley, 1st Team All-American
Leonard Zehr, SF, Cal Poly Pomona, 3rd Team All-American
Reginald Leduc, C, USC Upstate, 3rd Team All-American
David Holland, SG, Cal Poly Pomona, HM All-American
Lance Gregory, SG, USC Upstate, HM All-American
Mark Hill, SF, Bentley, HM All-American
Maurice White, PF, Incarnate Word, HM All-American
Branko Bidrowski, PF, USC Upstate, HM All-American
James Schindler, C, Incarnate Word, HM All-American
Jason Fuller, SG, Pfieffer
Vincent Jackson, PF, Pfeiffer
Andre Bruno, PG, Ohio Valley
Ruben Strausbaugh, PG, Ohio Valley
Brad Osborne, SF, Ohio Valley
Christopher Stolz, PG Bentley
Alan Wiggins, PF, Bentley
Gary Smith, PF, Cal Poly Pomona
Jack Alcazar, PG, USC Upstate

ROUND ONE
#1 Cal Poly Ponoma (4-0) -4 @ #6 Pfeiffer (4-0)
#8 Incarnate Word (3-1) +1 @ #7 USC Upstate (4-0)
Ohio Valley (2-2) +22 @ #3 Bentley (3-1)

Upstate sank the gamewinner at the buzzer. usually, I like a rematch, but lack that sentiment when it comes to USCU. I think that's the best we can do. Bentley has one of the most talented, least motivated players I've seen at Div2. perhaps his WE will drop to zero tonight, and he'll decide just not to show up for our game.

The game that went down to the wire last night, as fungo mentions above, was Incarnate Word at USC Upstate. Incarnate Word trailed by 11 with a little over 8 minutes to go and climbed back it to take the lead with just 23 seconds to go, only to have Upstate's Mike Bray hit the game winning shot with the game tied when there was no time on the clock.

While all games still look important, tonight we will see the defending NT champs #5 USC Upstate roll into #1 Cal Poly Pomona to take on the defending Yarnell champs. The winner will have an early 2-0 start and a key tie-breaker. Incarnate Word after a heartbreaking loss goes on the road to take on #2 Bentley, who tries to keep pace with the winner of the USC Upstate/Cal Poly Pomona game. Pfeiffer will go on the road to take on Ohio Valley, as both squads try to stay in the race and avoid an early deficit.

STANDINGS
Cal Poly Ponoma 1-0
USC Upstate 1-0
Bentley 1-0
Pfeiffer 0-1
Incarnate Word 0-1
Ohio Valley 0-1

ROUND TWO
#14 Pfeiffer (4-1) -14 @ Ohio Valley (2-3)
#5 USC Upstate (5-0) +4 @ #1 Cal Poly Ponoma (5-0)
#16 Incarnate Word (3-2) +4 @ #2 Bentley (4-1)

ROUND ONE RESULTS
Cal Poly Ponoma 53 @ Pfeiffer 43
CPP - L Lowery 16 (POG), L Zehr 11
PU - J Harris 15/7R, V Jackson 8

Incarnate Word 65 @ USC Upstate 67
USCS - B Bidrwoski 12/9R (POG), J Alcazar 14, P Mills 9/5A
UtIW - J Schindler 20, M White 15, E Race 11

Ohio Valley 67 @ Bentley 85
BC - C Conrad 18/11R (POG), C Stolz 17, A Wiggins 16
OVC - A Hargrove 14, A Bruno 11

The marquee match-up last night lived up to its hype going into OT. Despite building 9 point leads multiple times in the second half, Cal Poly Pomona was unable to put away USC Upstate in regulation who were able to climb back in and tie it up with just 2 seconds left. CPP was able to prevail in OT, but this could perhaps be a preview of a Final Four match-u later this season. Despite the final margin in the Bentley/Incarnate Word match-up, the game remained tight until the final couple of minutes and Bentley was able to keep pace with Cal Poly Pomona. The Ohio Valley/Pfeiffer affair was also closer than the final, as it was a 1-point game with less than 5 minutes to go, with Pfeiffer prevailing in the end.

Tonight, road teams are favored and ahead in the standings. The point spreads could be misleading facing these teams on their home courts. Bentley tries to maintain their early edge and travels to take on a Pfeiffer team that looks to pull even. USC Upstate goes to Ohio Valley, where both teams need a victory to stay in the Yarnell race. Cal Poly Pomona tries to stay undefeated in Yarnell play but has to go on the road to take on an Incarnate Word team with two narrow losses so far.

STANDINGS
Cal Poly Ponoma 2-0
Bentley 2-0
USC Upstate 1-1
Pfeiffer 1-1
Incarnate Word 0-2
Ohio Valley 0-2

ROUND THREE
#2 Bentley (5-1) -4 @ #16 Pfeiffer (5-1)
#15 USC Upstate (5-1) -16 @ Ohio Valley (2-4)
#1 Cal Poly Ponoma (6-0) -12 @ #25 Incarnate Word (3-3)

ROUND TWO RESULTS
Pfeiffer 78 @ Ohio Valley 70
PU - J Harris 20/11R (POG), V Jackson 15/8R, R Hawkins 2/10A
OVC - A Bruno 15, R Strausbaugh 14, M Wingo 10

USC Upstate 80 @ Cal Poly Ponoma 90
CPP - L Lowery 22 (POG), G Smith 17/10R, L Zehr 12
USCS - B Bidrowski 24/11R, R Luduc 17, P Mills 12/7A

Incarnate Word 65 @ Bentley 76
BC - C Stolz 14 (POG), C Conrad 12/8R, A Wiggins 12
UtIW - M White 22, C Tayor 14, E Race 14

Last night, the favored teams higher in the standings all prevailed on the road, so we have some separation now in the standings. Pfeiffer kept game close until Bentley started to pull away midway through the second. Since Cal Poly Pomona and Bentley still have yet to play, that eliminates Pfeiffer this year, as well as Incarnate Word and Ohio Valley. Against #1 Cal Poly Pomona, Incarnate Word again stayed in the game until the end, as the score was tied with less than 2 minutes remaining. Ohio Valley stayed within 6 points into the second, before Bentley started to pull away.

With Bentley slated to play at Cal Poly Pomona the final night of the tournament, tonight's games determine if USC Upstate will remain in the race. If USC Upstate can defeat Bentley tonight, they will be pulling for a 3-way tie that would happen if Bentley beats Cal Poly Pomona, or an outright victory if Ohio Valley tops CPP. However, if Bentley beats USC Upstate tonight, that will eliminate USC Upstate, and set up a deciding game between CPP and Bentley, regardless what happens in CPP's game against Ohio Valley tonight (since the winner of Bentley/CPP would also have the tie-breaker).

STANDINGS
Cal Poly Ponoma 3-0
Bentley 3-0
USC Upstate 2-1
Pfeiffer 1-2
Incarnate Word 0-3
Ohio Valley 0-3

ROUND FOUR
#20 Pfeiffer (5-2) Pickem @ Incarnate Word (3-4)
#2 Bentley (6-1) -4 @ #11 USC Upstate (6-1)
Ohio Valley (2-5) +40 @ #1 Cal Poly Ponoma (7-0)

ROUND THREE RESULTS
Bentley 88 @ Pfeiffer 77
BC - C Conrad 27 (POG), C Stolz 18, R Joseph 13
PU - J Fuller 21/4A, J Harris 19, V Jackson 12/12R

USC Upstate 87 @ Ohio Valley 74
USCS - J Alcazar 20 (POG), M Bray 17, P Mills 16/6A
OVC - A Bruno 15, A Strausbaugh 11/4S/4A, A Hargrove 10

Cal Poly Ponoma 63 @ Incarnate Word 56
CPP - G Smith 12 (POG), D Holland 12, L Lowery 11
UtIW - J Schindler 12, M White 11, M Johnson 10

Last night, USC Upstate was able to add a little more intrigue to the final night of the Yarnell this season by defeating Bentley. Cal Poly Pomona was able to survive a challenge from Ohio Valley to stay undefeated, but they must take on Bentley tonight. If #1 Cal Poly Pomona is able to win as they host #2 Bentley, they will finish the Yarnell undefeated and win the title outright, If Bentley can prevail tonight, they would hold the tie-breaker over Cal Poly Pomona and would win the Yarnell...if #18 Pfeiffer on their own court is able to defeat #8 USC Upstate . However, if Bentley wins and USC Upstate wins, we will have a 3-way tie at the top, with tie-breakers splitting (and me researching the next tie-breakers, based on margin of victory I think). The Yarnell will come down to one, perhaps two marque games tonight and the attention will be on #2 @ #1

STANDINGS
Cal Poly Ponoma 4-0
Bentley 3-1
USC Upstate 3-1
Pfeiffer 2-2
Incarnate Word 0-4
Ohio Valley 0-4

ROUND FIVE
#8 USC Upstate (7-1) -1 @ #18 Pfeiffer (6-2)
Incarnate Word (3-5) -8 @ Ohio Valley (2-6)
#2 Bentley (6-2) +2 @ #1 Cal Poly Ponoma (8-0)

ROUND FOUR RESULTS
Pfeiffer 65 @ Incarnate Word 57
PU - V Jackson 19/8R (POG), J Harris 15, C Heaton 11/3S
UtIW - E Race 22, M White 12/10R, J Auzenne 8A

Bentley 83 @ USC Upstate 93
USCS - J Alcazar 25 (POG), L Gregory 16, M Bray 15
BC - C Condard 31/11R, A Wiggins 11, C Stolz 11

Ohio Valley 74 @ Cal Poly Ponoma 84
CPP - L Zehr 16/3S (POG), L Lowery 15, D Holland 13
OVC - M Martinez 15, A Hargrove 13, R Strausbaugh 11

Who is winning it Bentley or Cal Poly Ponoma? We did allright, we saw what will be needed to win it all. But both Bentley and Cal are tough... Damn tough. Thanks Long_ge always great to play in the Yarnell.

Last night, the featured game #2 @ #1 again lived up to its hype. Cal Poly Pomona led by 13 at halftime and maintained a double digit lead as late as only having less than 8:30 to play. Bentley cam back and tied it with less than 2 minutes to go and took the lead before it was Cal Poly Pomona that had to hit a shot in the waning seconds to force overtime. In overtime, foul trouble was catching up with Cal Poly Pomona, as they played without 2 of their starters the entire extra period, and Bentley was able to pull away and win 93-87. The Yarnell title, though, now depended on the USC Upstate at Pfeiffer game, since USC Upstate could push the Yarnell into a 3-way tie with a win. However, it wasn't to be for USC Upstate, as Pfeiffer gained a double digit halftime lead they never relinquished.

The first Yarnell tie-breaker is head-to-head record, so with the two teams tied at the top being Bentley and Cal Poly Pomona, last night's game also serves as the tie-breaker and results in this year's Yarnell title going to Bentley. the0nlyis and his Bentley squad get an auto-invite to the Yarnell in season 103. Congrats!! Thanks to everyone for their participation this year, and I look forward to seeing some deep NT runs from what was a very strong field this year.

STANDINGS
Bentley 4-1
Cal Poly Ponoma 4-1
USC Upstate 3-2
Pfeiffer 3-2
Incarnate Word 1-4
Ohio Valley 0-5

FINAL ROUND RESULTS
USC Upstate 58 @ Pfeiffer 68
PU - J Harris 16/8R (POG), J Fuller 14/4A, V Jackson 14
USCS - J Alcazar 15, B Bidrowski 14, M Bray 9

Incarnate Word 74 @ Ohio Valley 57
UtIW - E Race 15/5A (POG), J Schindler 15/10R, M White 11
UVC - M Wingo 10, M Martinez 9, A Bruno 9

Bentley 93 @ Cal Poly Ponoma 87 OT
BC - C Conrad 23/11R (POG), C Stolz 21, A Wiggins 16
CPP - G Smith 17, L Lowery 15, L Zehr 12

Thanks a great deal for putting this together.

I appreciate it, always a pleasure to run this tournament. Hope you guys enjoyed playing in it.

thanks long_ge for coordinating the tourney and congrats to the0nlyis on winning a year's supply of Yarnell ice cream

Speaking of our Yarnell champ... where’d the0nlyis go? I’m not crazy and Bentley had a coach at the beginning of the year and now they don’t, right?