Hoops History, FBCB2

[Marmel]

Hoops History, v2
FBCB2

We begin in the year 1939, the first year of the NCAA tournament, and for the purposes of this dynasty, we'll say that is the first year of existence of college basketball. Every team in the nation will start off at a prestige of 30. Every conference will start with a prestige of 2. Every team and conference will begin on equal footing (besides the randomness of the league creation talent spread of players and coaches). By adjusting prestige before creating the league, all teams will truly start out equal.

The NCAA tournament will have 64 teams, none of that silly play in game stuff. It will determine the National Champion. The NIT will exist for the next best 32 teams. No third and fourth BS tournaments here.

It is 1939 so there is no 3 point shot. Players stay all 4 year, or even 5 if they redshirt. The NBA doesn't pay very well yet.

For now, there is no conference movement, but I think I'll turn that on for a season or two, every 5-10 years and see what happens. I reserve the right to manually make adjustments, but I doubt I ever would.

Transfers can play immediately. Why not?

Injuries and academic suspension are set to 50%, just because.

I don't control a team at this time, but usually after a sufficient history has been created, I do take a team. I just play as the NCAA commissioner.

Oh, and the Great West Conference gets an auto bid to the tournament, because they play the same game and its only fair. Hey, it is my universe.

Want updates on your favorite teams? Interested in specific information about awards, recruits, etc...?
Hell, I'll even put you in the game if you want, but it is not technically one of those dynasty reports.

[Marmel]

1939

This first season is pretty much a big muddled mess. You got ranked teams at 7-13. You have about 60 teams in the other receiving vote category. The pollsters have no idea what the hell is going on. Most of them are not even paying attention to the sport. Here is the February 1, 1939 poll, for what it is worth.

Top 25

# Team FPV Record Points Prv
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Bowling Green (72) 18-2 1800 2
2. Oregon 20-2 1728 1
3. North Dakota State 16-3 1656 3
4. San Diego 18-4 1584 4
5. Arkansas-Pine Bluff 16-4 1512 9
6. South Alabama 17-4 1436 11
7. Stony Brook 19-4 1372 5
8. Dartmouth 16-4 1279 13
9. Mississippi 17-4 1190 18
10. Duquesne 16-4 1184 15
11. Central Florida 16-4 1099 6
12. Lipscomb 17-5 1008 7
13. Ohio 17-6 925 NR
14. Marshall 16-5 857 NR
15. East Tennessee State 17-6 803 NR
16. Boise State 16-7 688 14
17. Quinnipiac 10-12 588 19
18. Wichita State 10-12 411 20
19. Akron 11-10 159 NR
20. Alabama 10-11 115 22
21. Albany 8-15 90 24
22. Alabama A&M 6-14 88 23
23. Arizona 7-13 82 25
24. Cal State Fullerton 8-12 72 NR
25. California 8-11 59 NR


At one point in the 19-25 spots, they just start ranking teams alphabetically because there are not 25 "top" teams yet.

[Marmel]

OK, enough screwing around. As commissioner, I've invited the 64 best teams in the nation to the first annual NCAA Tournament, to crown our first champion. Trust me, in 70 years from now people are going to say I was brilliant for designing a 64 team, perfectly balanced bracket, that is one of the most beautiful things in sports, and then they will question why some dumb asses would want to mess with this formula and think that 96 teams would have been a better idea. Nah, nobody would could screw this up, right?

SIXTY FOUR. Perfection.

Now, I'm gonna introduce your #1 seeds, but I think it almost certain that a 16 seed wins this year, and probably only 1 of them, at best, actually make the Final Four. Don't get to used to these guys.

First, out of the Summit League, with a record of 25-7 (14-4), the #1 seed in the West, North Dakota State! These guys did nothing really great this year. They scored 68.3 per game, good for 33rd in the land. They got their share of steals and blocks, but their scoring defense was nothing special.

Next, with a 29-3 (15-1) record out of the Mid-American Conference, Bowling Green! You want a favorite? It might be them. They score 78.5 per game, tops in the nation. Best rebounding team, best assist team. They got a point guard who can ball. Claude Ethridge. 18.1 per game with 5 dimes.

In the South Region, we have Arkansas-Pine Bluff, out of the SWAC. 25-8 (12-6). They score 71.7 per game. They get killed on the boards and can't shoot free throws. One and done?

Finally, in the East we have Marshall out of Conference USA. 27-6 (14-2). These guys play a very good defense, and in my book, that will get you places.

Let the mayhem begin!

[hoopsguy]

I'm interested in hearing how Illinois does.

[Marmel]

Rounds 1 & 2

We have a whole bunch of double digit seeds advancing, but very surprisingly to me (because I've done this a few times in the past and a 16 ALWAYS wins at least once), all 4 of the #1 seeds make it to the Sweet 16.

In the West, #1 North Dakota State meets #13 Montana State while #3 Oregon faces off against #10 Citadel

In the Midwest, everyone's favorite, #1 Bowling Green gets #4 IPFW while #6 Portland gets #15 Loyola-Il.

Down South, #1 Arkansas-Pine Bluff tips off against #13 Eastern Kentucky while #2 Mississippi takes on #14 Bryant University.

Finally in the East, #1 Marshall will deal with #13 America and #2 Duquesne takes on #3 Dartmouth.



Rounds 3 Results

North Dakota State moves on to face the #10 seed Citadel. Citadel was 22-11 (12-6). Nothing really strikes me as interesting about them, but that is the nature of the first couple of seasons here.

#1 Bowling Green moves on to face #6 Portland. Portland was also 22-11. They play a respectable defense, but they can't stop our Bowling Greeners!

Down South, the top 2 seeds advance in #1 Arkansas PB and Mississippi. Mississippi went 30-6 and look like they might be the real deal.

In the East, a #1 seed finally gets slayed! #13 American takes down Might Marshall! They get #3 Dartmouth.



Your 1939-1940 Final Four teams:

#10 Citdel
vs
#1 Arkansas Pine Bluff

#13 American
vs
#1 Bowling Green




We interrupt this tournament to inform you that Jacksonville State has won the NIT tournament.


Final Four Results:

Did you enjoy watching Butler play basketball this season? No? Me neither. But for those of you who did, you'll love this final 4. Not much talent, lots of missed shots and chippy defense.

Citadel 69 – Arkansas Pine Bluff 60
Bowling Green 64 – American 55


In the Title game, nobody turns out to watch it, but those few who are there...save your ticket stubs. They will be worth a fortune!

Every sport has its defining moment. The one that breaks that sport out in the public's eye. In another basketball universe you might get guys with weird names like Bird and Magic. Bird and Magic? But here, in this dynasty, you get Monte Downing.

Bowling Green trailed at the half, 41-34 and then by that same margin most of the second half. But late in the game, they began chipping away at that lead. With 10 seconds it is tied. Bowling Green's Alonzo Marx shoots with the clock winding down. It is off the rim. Downing with the tap back....it goes in! Bowling Green wins 68-66! Thank god there is no instant replay because I really think he didn't get that shot off. Doesn't matter. BG's young coach, 45 year old, Chris Etter tells the 1,243 fans in attendance that this game of “Basketsball” is a great sport and his team just gave you one shining moment to cherish. Hey, that sounds pretty catchy....

[Marmel]

The Big 10 didn't have a single ranked team to end the season. Illinois went 16-17 (7-11). Maybe they will get some good recruits?

[Marmel]

1939-1940 Quick Wrap

I was going to skip this because it is tough to read anything into this first season, but as I pulled up the awards, I had to tell you that the National Player of the Year was Monte Dowling! If I could rename the award, there you have it. Wait, I am the commish. I can rename it!

Bowling Green's coach won the Coach of the Year Award.

There is not much else to say, so I'll throw this random, but meaningful screen shot at you. A List of the regular season conference champs.


Conference Team Record
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
America East Conference Stony Brook 23-7 (11-5)
Atlantic 10 Conference Duquesne 26-5 (16-0)
Atlantic Coast Conference North Carolina State 23-10 (12-4)
Atlantic Sun Conference East Tennessee State 23-9 (15-5)
Big 12 Conference Kansas 16-16 (12-4)
Big East Conference Connecticut 23-10 (14-4)
Big Sky Conference Montana 23-8 (13-3)
Big South Conference Radford 20-13 (13-5)
Big Ten Conference Michigan 17-13 (13-5)
Big West Conference UC Irvine 20-11 (11-5)
Colonial Athletic Association Drexel 20-12 (14-4)
Conference USA Marshall 27-6 (14-2)
Great West Conference Houston Baptist 18-13 (9-3)
Horizon League Detroit 25-9 (16-2)
Independent 0-0 (0-0)
Ivy League Dartmouth 24-6 (12-2)
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Manhattan 19-12 (13-5)
Mid-American Conference Bowling Green 29-3 (15-1)
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Delaware State 24-9 (13-3)
Missouri Valley Conference Creighton 25-8 (15-3)
Mountain West Conference Brigham Young 22-10 (12-4)
Northeast Conference Fairleigh Dickinson 19-12 (14-4)
Ohio Valley Conference Morehead State 19-11 (12-6)
Pacific-10 Conference Oregon 28-6 (13-5)
Patriot League Holy Cross 20-11 (11-3)
Southeastern Conference Mississippi 27-6 (14-2)
Southern Conference Citadel 19-11 (12-6)
Southland Conference Sam Houston State 27-5 (15-1)
Southwestern Athletic Conference Prairie View A&M 24-10 (14-4)
Summit League North Dakota State 25-7 (14-4)
Sun Belt Conference South Alabama 23-8 (14-4)
West Coast Conference San Diego 25-6 (10-4)
Western Athletic Conference Nevada 24-8 (12-4)

[Marmel]

1940 Offseason

Usually, I'll give you my “Most Prestigious Teams in College Basketball” List here, but I think based on last year and all teams starting at 30 prestige, you can figure it out for now. No conference prestige changed yet. I guess that'll take a little while to shake out.

By the way, Monte Dowling was drafted #16 overall.

The best part of these dynasties is to see who gets the early leg up in recruiting these first few years.
By class, here is the top 20:


1939 Recruiting Rankings

# Team Conference Best Player Rtg 5* 4* 3* 2* 1*
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Texas-Arlington Southland SF Albert Parsons ***** 1 2 0 0 0
2. Southern Methodist Conference USA SG Chris Troxell **** 0 1 3 0 0
3. Davidson Southern SF Edward Williams **** 0 2 2 0 0
4. Santa Clara WCC C Robert Marshall ***** 1 0 1 0 1
5. Purdue Big Ten PF Timothy Huggins **** 0 2 1 0 1
6. Florida SEC SG David Tims ***** 1 0 0 0 2
7. Texas State Southland SF Jack Josephson ***** 1 0 2 0 0
8. Cal State Northridge Big West SF Samuel Goss ***** 1 0 1 0 2
9. Wright State Horizon League PF Gerald Lower **** 0 1 1 0 1
10. Louisiana-Monroe Sun Belt PG William Cantrell ***** 1 0 0 1 1
11. Duquesne Atlantic 10 PF Colin Cowan **** 0 1 1 0 2
12. Wofford Southern SG Shannon Michalski **** 0 1 2 0 1
13. Mercer Atlantic Sun PF Richard Marens ***** 1 0 1 0 0
14. Arkansas-Little Rock Sun Belt PF William Cahill **** 0 1 2 0 1
15. Houston Conference USA SF James Tapia **** 0 1 2 0 0
16. Southeast Missouri State Ohio Valley PG Steven Dow **** 0 1 2 0 0
17. Jackson State SWAC C Earnest Lampe **** 0 1 1 1 0
18. James Madison CAA PF Jonathan Harvey **** 0 1 1 1 0
19. Long Beach State Big West C Justin Zajac **** 0 1 2 0 1
20. Lehigh Patriot League SF Roland Newhouse ***** 1 0 0 1 0


Illinois ended up at #83, not too bad really.


If you go by top players, you get something a bit more cryptic.


1939 Recruiting Rankings

# Player Pos Ht Team Conference
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 David Tims SG 6-0 Florida Southeastern Conference
2 Dennis Alexis PG 6-0
3 Robert Marshall C 6-8 Santa Clara West Coast Conference
4 Ivan Bell SG 6-2
5 Kenneth Ortega SF 6-7
6 William Cantrell PG 6-4 Louisiana-Monroe Sun Belt Conference
7 Roland Newhouse SF 6-4 Lehigh Patriot League
8 Jesse Daniel PG 6-4
9 Jack Josephson SF 6-5 Texas State Southland Conference
10 Andy Barriff PG 5-10
11 Stewart Thomas SG 6-2
12 Herman Krol SG 5-11 Ohio Mid-American Conference
13 Corey Mowry PG 5-11 California Pacific-10 Conference
14 Linwood Vassar PG 5-11 Toledo Mid-American Conference
15 Sonny Swain SF 6-7
16 Richard Marens PF 6-6 Mercer Atlantic Sun Conference
17 Ali Robbins SF 6-7 NON-QUALIFIER
18 Albert Parsons SF 6-6 Texas-Arlington Southland Conference
19 Don Dalessandro SF 6-4 Portland State Big Sky Conference
20 Darrick Paige PG 6-2

It seems like a bunch of these recruits thought they were too good to commit to a 30 prestige team? Their loss, and it will all work out in the end.

Check out the #1 recruit in the land, David Tims. This guy could set some long held scoring records!


PLAYER DETAILS

#13 SG David Tims - Florida - Freshman
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Height: 6-0
Weight: 185
High School: Greensboro High School
Hometown: Greensboro, FL

Attributes:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type INS JPS FTS 3PS HND PAS ORB DRB PSD PRD STL BLK PFS QKN STR JMP STA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current: 86 84 43 55 43 17 4 24 9 54 31 9 71 78 35 92 28
Potential: A A B B B D F C F B C F

Health: Good
Scholarship: Yes
Status: Active Roster
Academics: 71

Stat Averages:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season G GS MIN PTS ORE REB AST TO A/T STL BLK PF
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Career 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 A/T 0.0 0.0 0.0

Shooting Averages:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season FGM FGA FG% FTM FTA FT% 3PM 3PA 3P% PPS +/-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Career 0.0 0.0 .000 0.0 0.0 .000 0.0 0.0 .000 0.00 0.00

Stat Totals:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season G GS MIN PTS OREB REB AST TO STL BLK PF
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Career 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Shooting Totals
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season FGM FGA FTM FTA 3PM 3PA +/-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Career 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Career Highs:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type Pts OReb Reb Ast Stl Blk TO FGM FGA FTM FTA 3PM 3PA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Career 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Awards & Acheivements:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season Award
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1939 High School: Rated ***** and #1 overall by the FBCB scouting service.
1939 High School: All-State (Florida)
1939 High School: Mr. Basketball (Florida)




Alright, we are going to keep things moving, even though I can spend a long time pouring through stats. Like I said, it is all pretty meaningless for a few seasons.

[Izulde]

You know I love this type of dynasty. Although I'm curious what made you choose 30 prestige instead of zeroing it out.

[Marmel]

Izulde, The only thing that came to mind was, I don't want the talent to be so bad that every game is 34-30. Also, this way teams have a little room to go down. There was not much thought put into it.

[Tellistto]

Interesting stuff, I'll follow along. No requests yet, but perhaps in time. Tell

[kobe360x]

this very interesting

[kobe360x]

oh yeah any chance you can follow Santa Barbara and Riverside for me

[Marmel]

1940-1941

Each new season brings hope to 347 basketball teams, and this year is no exception. One good recruit can take you from first to last in the infancy of this league. We'll skip the meaningless preseaon polls and fast forward right to March. Trust me, you still have about 50 teams in the Other receiving vote categories and nobody is doing anything spectacular yet, even in the final regular season polls, which look like this:


Top 25

# Team FPV Record Points Prv
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Tennessee Tech (72) 28-5 1800 1
2. Grambling State 26-6 1692 2
3. Southern Utah 25-7 1692 3
4. San Diego 26-6 1584 4
5. Pennsylvania 24-5 1512 5
6. Sam Houston State 25-6 1440 6
7. Delaware State 27-7 1333 7
8. Binghamton 23-7 1331 8
9. Iowa State 25-7 1224 9
10. Army 26-6 1152 10
11. IPFW 24-8 1080 11
12. South Dakota State 24-10 1006 12
13. UMBC 24-8 938 13
14. Air Force 24-7 864 14
15. Mercer 26-8 792 15
16. Delaware 25-8 720 16
17. Mississippi 24-8 648 17
18. Fairleigh Dickinson 25-9 573 18
19. VCU 24-8 503 19
20. Gonzaga 12-18 382 20
21. Davidson 16-16 375 21
22. Citadel 15-16 61 22
23. Portland 12-18 52 23
24. Drexel 10-21 25 24
25. Bryant University 14-16 24 25


The great thing is, I think World Wide Wes had a vote because Memphis, at 4-28, was in the others receiving votes.

And hey, Illinois won the Big 10 regular season at 12-6 and finished 19-13 overall. They also won the B10 conference tournament, so get your dance shoes on hoopsguy!

David Tims, last years #1 ranked recruit, started all 30 games for Florida and averaged 17.6 ppg. He led Florida to a 12-18 record.





It is tournament time and here are your #1 seeds, region by region.

Out West we have Southern Utah, out of the Summit League with a 25-7 (14-4) record. They don't score much, but they hold teams to 56.1 per game. Illinois grabbed the 15 seed in this region and will play Penn in round 1.

In the Midwest, out of the Summit League as well, is South Dakota State, 24-10 (14-4). They don't do anything well other than play decent defense. 16 over 1, I'm calling it.

Down South you have Tennessee Tech, from the Ohio Valley Conference with a 28-5 (15-3) record. They are the #2 scoring defense in the country.

In the East, Iowa State out of the Big12 grabs the final #1 seed. They were 25-7 (13-3). By far the best offensive team of the top 4 seeds.

[Marmel]

oh yeah any chance you can follow Santa Barbara and Riverside for me

Added. This year SB went 13-19 (7-9) and Riverside went 8-21 (3-13), last place. Neither were any better in Season 1. Sorry. :(

[hoopsguy]

I wholeheartedly approve of the Illini winning the Big Ten. I threw up a little in my mouth seeing scUM win the initial conference title.

Time to kick some Quaker butt!

[korme]

How did you change every team to 30 prestige? Tell me you didn't do it team-by-team (I want to replicate this idea).

edit- nevermind, figured it out pretty easily!

[Marmel]

1940-1941 Tournament Time Baby!

Rounds 1 & 2

In the West Bracket, things were almost chalk. #1 Southern Utah will battle #13 Drake in the Sweet 16 and in the other half of the bracket, the 2 and 3 seeds advanced in Penn and UMBC. This also means Illinois was bounced in round 1, 66-62.

More chalk in the Midwest with #1 South Dakota State meeting #4 Sam Houston State while #3 San Diego takes on #7 Oral Roberts.

Things went haywire in the South. #1 Tenn Tech matches up with #13 Hartford while #10 Mississippi State tips off against #11 Eastern Kentucky.

In the East, we get back to the higher seeds with #1 Iowa State and #5 Northeastern on one side along with #2 Binghampton and #6 Mercer.




Sweet 16 results

Our Regional Finals are set.

Out West #1 Southern Utah gets #2 Penn. Penn was 27-5 and one of the highest scoring team in the nation.

The Midwest will have #1 SD State vs. #3 San Diego. San Diego was the 6th best scoring defense.

In the South #1 Tenn Tech draws #11 Eastern Kentucky. EK was 24-12. The one thing that stands out is their efficient offense, scoring 1.21 per shot, good for 17th best.

The East shows us that all four #1 seeds have advanced this far, with #1 Iowa State facing #6 Mercer. Mercer was the highest scoring team in the country at 76.6.

Do you have a favorite? I'll take the BCS team in Iowa State. I also like the way the Summit league plays, so you can't go wrong with Southern Utah.

[Marmel]

How did you change every team to 30 prestige? Tell me you didn't do it team-by-team (I want to replicate this idea).

In docs and settings/all users//shared docs/gds/fb2010:

backup teams, tourneys and conf CSV files. Then open them in a spreadsheet program and change prestige to whatever you want, copycat. :p

[Marmel]

Welcome to Saturday night on CBS where we will host the NCAA tournament for the next 70 years and inexplicably never give you split screen coverage of two games coming down to the wire!

For those that care, Montana beat NC State for the NIT title. Heh, even in an alternate reality, the Wolfpack can't win anything!


Did you make your predictions yet? Mine were all wrong! Here are the riveting final 4 matchups:

#2 Penn vs. #11 Eastern Kentucky. Penn's coach, Rick Flores said before the game that this final 4 should be a breeze. His team's toughest game came in round one where they squeaked by Illinois. Everything has been easy since.


#1 South Dakota State vs. #6 Mercer.


Penn keeps on marching with a 66-58 victory. South Dakota State took the win as well, 74-69. Both were pretty tightly contested games.


In the Title game, the Quaker's run comes to an end and the mecca of college hoops now resides in South Dakota! They win 69-64. Penn was never really in the game.

CYA next season!

[Marmel]

1940-1941 Quick Wrap

The winner of the Monte Dowling Award was Sr. PG Alvin Langford out of Dartmouth.
Penn's 41 year old coach, Rick Flores was National Coach of the Year.
California's SG Corey Mowry was the Freshman of the Year. He was the 13th ranked recruit last year.

This year's random screen shot is last year's Conference Tournament winners.


Conference Team Record
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
America East Conference Hartford 22-12 (12-4)
Atlantic 10 Conference Xavier 24-9 (12-4)
Atlantic Coast Conference Virginia 23-9 (11-5)
Atlantic Sun Conference Mercer 26-8 (13-7)
Big 12 Conference Iowa State 25-7 (13-3)
Big East Conference Connecticut 24-9 (15-3)
Big Sky Conference Northern Colorado 21-11 (10-6)
Big South Conference Winthrop 16-18 (7-11)
Big Ten Conference Illinois 19-13 (12-6)
Big West Conference Cal State Northridge 19-13 (9-7)
Colonial Athletic Association Delaware 25-8 (13-5)
Conference USA Marshall 22-11 (10-6)
Great West Conference Texas-Pan American 16-15 (8-4)
Horizon League Loyola-IL 20-13 (13-5)
Independent
Ivy League
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Canisius 20-13 (14-4)
Mid-American Conference Buffalo 19-16 (6-10)
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Delaware State 27-7 (15-1)
Missouri Valley Conference Drake 23-10 (13-5)
Mountain West Conference Brigham Young 20-13 (10-6)
Northeast Conference Mount St. Mary's 22-11 (12-6)
Ohio Valley Conference Tennessee Tech 28-5 (15-3)
Pacific-10 Conference Oregon 24-9 (14-4)
Patriot League Army 26-6 (11-3)
Southeastern Conference Arkansas 19-15 (8-8)
Southern Conference College of Charleston 19-15 (11-7)
Southland Conference Sam Houston State 25-6 (11-5)
Southwestern Athletic Conference Grambling State 26-6 (14-4)
Summit League Southern Utah 25-7 (14-4)
Sun Belt Conference Florida International 16-18 (9-9)
West Coast Conference San Diego 26-6 (10-4)
Western Athletic Conference San Jose State 15-19 (6-10)

[Marmel]

1941 offseason

I know you have all been waiting for my famous Most Prestigious List. Wait no longer!

1)South Dakota State (Summit) – NCAA Champs and 2 time NCAA participant
2)Bowling Green (MAC) – NCAA Champs and NIT participant
3)American University (Patriot) -
4)Eastern Kentucky (Ohio Valley) -
5)Mercer (A-Sun) -
6)San Diego (WCC)
7)Arkansas Pine Bluff (SWAC)
8)Iowa State (Big12)
9)Mississippi (SEC)
10)Tennesee Tech (Ohio Valley)

Illinois: 33 prestige
UC SB: 28
UC Riverside: 25



Top Recruiting Classes of the year:


# Team Conference Best Player Rtg 5* 4* 3* 2* 1*
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. San Diego State Mountain West SF Dominick Gonzalez ***** 1 2 0 0 1
2. Bowling Green MAC SG Leif Rue ***** 1 0 1 0 1
3. Western Illinois Summit PF Lou Johnson ***** 2 0 0 0 2
4. Fordham Atlantic 10 SF Alfredo Popovich **** 0 2 1 0 0
5. Ball State MAC PF Joseph Halsey ***** 1 1 1 0 0
6. Jacksonville State Ohio Valley PG Derrick Tolman **** 0 2 2 0 0
7. Hawaii WAC SG David Jones ***** 1 0 2 0 0
8. Fairleigh Dickinson Northeast PG Rupert Turcotte ***** 1 1 0 0 1
9. Holy Cross Patriot League C Daron Frisby ***** 1 1 0 0 0
10. California Pacific-10 SG Jason Bolden **** 0 1 3 0 0
11. Cal State Fullerton Big West PG Nolan Byrd ***** 1 0 2 0 1
12. Santa Clara WCC SG Efrain Graziano ***** 1 0 0 1 1
13. Portland State Big Sky SG Landon Pennell ***** 1 1 0 0 1
14. Pacific Big West PG Jim Peery **** 0 2 2 0 0
15. Sam Houston State Southland C Angel Scott **** 0 1 2 0 0
16. St. Peter's MAAC C Elroy Shipley **** 0 1 2 0 0
17. Colorado State Mountain West SF Richard Gerry **** 0 1 2 1 0
18. Oregon Pacific-10 PF Conrad Greco ***** 1 0 1 1 0
19. Central Florida Conference USA PF William Comeaux *** 0 0 4 0 0
20.Eastern Michigan MAC C Jospeh Shumate ***** 1 0 1 1 1

Bowling Green really capitalized on their National Title and landed the #2 ranked class.

Illinois checked in at #88
Santa Barbara at #157
Riverside at #230



By player:


1940 Recruiting Rankings

# Player Pos Ht Team Conference
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Leif Rue SG 6-6 Bowling Green Mid-American Conference
2 Efrain Graziano SG 6-2 Santa Clara West Coast Conference
3 Jack Sanches SF 6-8 VCU Colonial Athletic Association
4 Mark Majewski PF 6-6 Bryant University Northeast Conference
5 Daron Frisby C 6-9 Holy Cross Patriot League
6 Rupert Turcotte PG 6-1 Fairleigh Dickinson Northeast Conference
7 Lou Johnson PF 6-5 Western Illinois Summit League
8 Conrad Greco PF 6-5 Oregon Pacific-10 Conference
9 David Jones SG 6-4 Hawaii Western Athletic Conference
10 Dominick Gonzalez SF 6-5 San Diego State Mountain West Conference
11 Charles Boucher PG 5-9 Wofford Southern Conference
12 David Phillips C 6-8 Georgia Southeastern Conference
13 Mario Morelli PG 6-4 Western Illinois Summit League
14 Joseph Halsey PF 6-6 Ball State Mid-American Conference
15 Nolan Byrd PG 5-10 Cal State Fullerton Big West Conference
16 Jospeh Shumate C 6-6 Eastern Michigan Mid-American Conference
17 Joaquin Bernal C 6-8 San Diego West Coast Conference
18 John Barre PF 6-7 Cal State Bakersfield Independent
19 Andrew Henke PG 5-8 New Orleans Sun Belt Conference
20 David Rowles SG 6-3 Michigan Big Ten Conference

I am particularly impressed with the #2 guy, Efrain Graziano.


PLAYER DETAILS

#54 SG Efrain Graziano - Santa Clara - Freshman
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Height: 6-2
Weight: 174
High School: Westmont High School
Hometown: Campbell, CA

Attributes:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type INS JPS FTS 3PS HND PAS ORB DRB PSD PRD STL BLK PFS QKN STR JMP STA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current: 50 66 58 83 18 20 45 19 24 58 26 33 33 79 33 95 13
Potential: A B B A D D B D C A D C

Health: Good
Scholarship: Yes
Status: Active Roster
Academics: 47

Stat Averages:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season G GS MIN PTS ORE REB AST TO A/T STL BLK PF
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Career 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 A/T 0.0 0.0 0.0

Shooting Averages:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season FGM FGA FG% FTM FTA FT% 3PM 3PA 3P% PPS +/-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Career 0.0 0.0 .000 0.0 0.0 .000 0.0 0.0 .000 0.00 0.00

Stat Totals:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season G GS MIN PTS OREB REB AST TO STL BLK PF
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Career 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Shooting Totals
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season FGM FGA FTM FTA 3PM 3PA +/-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Career 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Career Highs:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type Pts OReb Reb Ast Stl Blk TO FGM FGA FTM FTA 3PM 3PA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Career 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Awards & Acheivements:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season Award
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1940 High School: Rated ***** and #2 overall by the FBCB scouting service.



And on we go to the third season...

[Marmel]

1941-1942 Season

Preseason Polls.

I won't bother you with them, but things are just starting to get a bit of consistency near the top.
South Dakota State started this season where they ended last season, at #1. North Dakota State is #5. Who knew the Dakota's were basketball hotbeds?? Bowling Green cracks the top 10, coming in at #9. A bunch of the final 8 teams from the last two seasons pepper the rest of the top 25.


We are starting to see a few teams that we are familiar with put together good seasons and stay ranked on a consistent basis. Let's head to March....


Your #1 seed in the West is Ball State, out of the MAC with a 26-7 (13-3) record. This team prides itself on defense this year. They are #2 in scoring defense and #5 in opponents shooting percentage.

In the Midwest, it is everyone's favorite team, Bowling Green! They represent the MAC as well and went 27-5 (13-3). Top 20 in both scoring and opponent scoring defense. Third in rebounds. They look primed to make a real run at their second title.

The South Region has Sam Houston State from the Southland Conference as the #1 seed. They went 30-4 (15-1). They were tops in the nation in scoring defense and shooting percentage defense.

In the East we have Arkansas Pine-Bluff, out of the SWAC at 27-5 (14-4). To counter all the defensive minded #1 seeds, they come into the tournament with the 4th ranked offense.


Will offense or defense prevail? Or will a low seed crash the party? I'm officially on the Bowling Green wagon.

[Marmel]

Illinois finished 3rd in the Big10 at 11-7 and 16-15 overall. the NIT snubbed them after they dropped the conference title game to Michigan State.

Riverside and Santa Barbara both finished 6-10 in conference, tied for next to last and both flamed out early in the Big West tournament.

[Marmel]

Round 1 & 2

The West bracket was not friendly to the top seeds. In fact, it wasn't friendly to single digit seeds. #16 Eastern Illinois pulls the big upset over Ball State 65-61. Also the 10, 11, 12 and 14 seeds all win. They would be Central Michigan, Texas Pan-Am, Lafayette and New Mexico. Your Sweet 16 matchups in the West will be #16 Eastern Illinois vs. #4 Air Force and #10 Central Michigan vs. #14 New Mexico.


In the Midwest we had one major upset as #14 Boise State crashed the Sweet 16 party. They will meet #7 Akron. #1 Bowling Green had 2 easy wins to advance and they will meet #4 Towson.

The South looks just like the West. Everyone's brackets are destroyed as #16 Denver beat the #1, Sam Houston and makes it to the Sweet 16. They face #5 Maryland East Shore. The #2 seed, Jackson State bites it against #15 American, a familiar name. American advances to the round of 16 to face #11 St Francis-PA. In this region the only single digit seeds to win in the first round were #9 James Madison and Maryland ES.

Normalicy returns to the brackets in the East as 3 of the top seeds advance. #1 Arkansas PB goes against #4 Central Florida. #3 Mercer battles #7 Southeastern.



Sweet 16

#16 Eastern Illinois is on a wild ride as they advance to the Regional Finals to take on #10 Central Michigan! Eastern Illinois was just 18-17 on the year and advanced as the 7 seed in the 8 team Ohio Valley tournament. Central Michigan does a decent job scoring points, but their defense has been terrible for most of the year.

The Midwest sees #1 and tournament favorite, Bowling Green advance to play #7 Akron. Akron is from the MAC and was 22-12. They are better on the defensive end of the court.

Down South, the #16 seed Denver fails to advance, but the 15 seed, American lives to see another day. They will play #5 Maryland East-Shore.

The East has #1 Arkansas Pine Bluff taking on #3 Mercer. Mercer tries to make back to back Final 4 apearances. Pine Bluff tries to make their 2nd in three seasons.





Final Four matchups

#16 Eastern Illinois
vs
#5 Maryland East Shore


#1 Bowling Green
vs
#1 Arkansas Pine Bluff

Remember in 1996 when Syracuse and Miss. State were one final four matchup and Kentucky and Umass were the other? Everyone said that the Kentucky/Umass game was the real title game. Same deal here. Syracuse actually gave Kentucky about all they could handle that year, but everyone was right. I'd love to see a Bowling Green Eastern Illinois finals. How can you not root for the 16 seed?

[Marmel]

NIT Champion:

Tennessee State


Welcome to the Final Four!

In the first game of the night, we see the huge underdog, the Cinderella story, final come to an end. They lose by 9 to Maryland ES, 71-62.

In the nightcap, Pine Bluff puts up a very valiant effort, but Bowling Green is just too much. They take it 58-50. It just seems like a team of destiny.


And on Monday night, Bowling Green caps off their run, which really never seemed in doubt from the tip off of the tournament. They take care of East Shore, 71-66. We officially have our first dynasty, as Bowling Green wins 2 of the first 3 National Titles.





Season Wrap

The Monte Dowling Award goes to Cal Poly's PF Clinton Averill. 16.9 ppg, 11.0 rpg
Coach of the year is East Shore's Don Kimble. The 36 year old coach has a bright future.
Cal State Fullerton has the Freshman of the Year in PG Nolan Byrd. He was the #15 ranked recruit.


All of you crazy Rutgers fans will love this year's screenshot of conference tournament winners.


Conference Team Record
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
America East Conference Vermont 24-10 (11-5)
Atlantic 10 Conference Richmond 25-8 (14-2)
Atlantic Coast Conference Virginia Tech 22-10 (14-2)
Atlantic Sun Conference Mercer 28-6 (16-4)
Big 12 Conference Missouri 14-19 (8-8)
Big East Conference Rutgers 19-13 (11-7)
Big Sky Conference Sacramento State 24-7 (14-2)
Big South Conference Gardner Webb 17-15 (10-8)
Big Ten Conference Michigan State 21-11 (13-5)
Big West Conference Cal State Northridge 20-13 (9-7)
Colonial Athletic Association UNC Wilmington 16-17 (8-10)
Conference USA Central Florida 25-7 (12-4)
Great West Conference Texas-Pan American 20-11 (7-5)
Horizon League Loyola-IL 25-6 (14-4)
Independent
Ivy League
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Canisius 22-11 (11-7)
Mid-American Conference Bowling Green 27-6 (13-3)
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Coppin State 21-14 (6-10)
Missouri Valley Conference Illinois State 27-7 (14-4)
Mountain West Conference New Mexico 21-14 (9-7)
Northeast Conference Fairleigh Dickinson 24-8 (14-4)
Ohio Valley Conference Eastern Illinois 15-17 (8-10)
Pacific-10 Conference Oregon 27-4 (16-2)
Patriot League American 19-14 (8-6)
Southeastern Conference Mississippi 22-10 (10-6)
Southern Conference Appalachian State 25-8 (13-5)
Southland Conference Sam Houston State 30-4 (15-1)
Southwestern Athletic Conference Arkansas-Pine Bluff 27-6 (14-4)
Summit League Oakland 19-13 (10-8)
Sun Belt Conference Denver 19-15 (9-9)
West Coast Conference Saint Mary's 23-10 (9-5)
Western Athletic Conference Boise State 22-11 (11-5)

[Marmel]

1942 Off Season

Most prestigious teams in college basketball:

Bowling Green 65
Mercer 54
American 53
Pine Bluff 53
South Dakota State 53
Central Florida 45
Mississippi 45
Tennessee Tech 45
Citadel 45

Illinois 36
Santa Barbara 26
Riverside 25


Conference Prestige has worked itself out and now there is clear separation:

Top rated conferences (5*)
America East
Big South
MAC
Mountain West
Patriot
Southland
SWAC

(4*)
ACC
Great West
Southern
West Coast

...and score one for the little guys, down with the BCS, etc. etc.

(1*)
Big12
Big East
Big10
Pac10
Conf USA
Sun Belt
Big Sky
Independants


The surprise to me was the Summit League being 2*. With the 2 Dakota teams being national players I thought they would be 4 or 5 stars.




Coaching Notes:

Pine Bluff's coach has retired.



Recruit Rankings, by Class:


1941 Recruiting Rankings

# Team Conference Best Player Rtg 5* 4* 3* 2* 1*
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. San Diego WCC SG Ronald Houle ***** 2 0 0 0 0
2. Liberty Big South PF Oscar Fee **** 0 2 2 0 0
3. Green Bay Horizon League SG Edwin Whitmore ***** 1 0 2 0 0
4. Tennessee State Ohio Valley SF Tod Barney ***** 1 0 3 0 1
5. Canisius MAAC PG Stanley Jahnke **** 0 2 1 1 0
6. Marquette Big East PG Danilo Christopherson ***** 1 0 2 0 2
7. Sam Houston State Southland PF Ruy Pardo **** 0 1 3 0 0
8. Kansas Big 12 SF John McGuigan ***** 1 0 2 0 0
9. Bryant University Northeast PF Ronald Hull ***** 1 0 1 0 0
10. South Dakota State Summit PF Daniel Gatto ***** 1 0 2 0 1
11. Central Florida Conference USA SF Jae Hamilton **** 0 2 1 0 0
12. Cal Poly Big West SG Daren Wisniewski ***** 1 0 1 0 1
13. UC Davis Big West SF Wilford Wisniewski **** 0 1 2 1 0
14. Florida A&M MEAC SF John Sevigny ***** 1 0 2 0 0
15. Drexel CAA PG Antone Williams ***** 1 0 1 0 0
16. California Pacific-10 C Jamison Hampton ***** 1 0 2 1 1
17. American Patriot League SF Stephen McCormick **** 0 2 0 1 0
18. North Carolina State ACC SF Ali Robbins ***** 1 0 1 1 1
19. Texas Christian Mountain West PG Dusty Randel ***** 1 0 0 2 1
20.Mercer Atlantic Sun SG John Milton **** 0 1 2 1 0

American and Mercer making good use of their tournament runs to lure some top recruits.

Illinois recruiting took a hit this year. They were ranked #179.
Santa Barbara was ranked #115
UC riverside was #168.




Here are the top 20 recruits and were they went:


1941 Recruiting Rankings

# Player Pos Ht Team Conference
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 John McGuigan SF 6-6 Kansas Big 12 Conference
2 Danilo Christopherson PG 6-5 Marquette Big East Conference
3 Ronald Houle SG 6-3 San Diego West Coast Conference
4 Antone Williams PG 6-4 Drexel Colonial Athletic Association
5 Edwin Whitmore SG 5-10 Green Bay Horizon League
6 Ali Robbins SF 6-7 North Carolina State Atlantic Coast Conference
7 Dusty Randel PG 5-9 Texas Christian Mountain West Conference
8 Ronald Hull PF 6-9 Bryant University Northeast Conference
9 Jon Womack SF 6-7 Kennesaw State Atlantic Sun Conference
10 Tod Barney SF 6-5 Tennessee State Ohio Valley Conference
11 Ike Martineau SF 6-7
12 Daren Wisniewski SG 6-4 Cal Poly Big West Conference
13 Dennis Merchant C 6-11 Mount St. Mary's Northeast Conference
14 Jewell Boisvert SF 6-4 Hawaii Western Athletic Conference
15 Jack Crump PG 6-2 Southern Methodist Conference USA
16 Daniel Gatto PF 6-6 South Dakota State Summit League
17 Jamison Hampton C 6-8 California Pacific-10 Conference
18 John Sevigny SF 6-6 Florida A&M Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
19 Linwood Lathrop PG 5-11
20 Jerry Ortiz C 6-11 Buffalo Mid-American Conference

So the BCS conferences score some nice recruiting points, landing the top 2 players and 3 of the top 10.



Christopherson from Marquette will be a scoring machine!


PLAYER DETAILS

#10 PG Danilo Christopherson - Marquette - Freshman
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Height: 6-5
Weight: 191
High School: Allendale Public High School
Hometown: Allendale, MI

Attributes:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type INS JPS FTS 3PS HND PAS ORB DRB PSD PRD STL BLK PFS QKN STR JMP STA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current: 56 60 39 71 46 25 16 38 5 40 37 36 89 82 27 56 44
Potential: A A C B C C D C F B B C

Health: Good
Scholarship: Yes
Status: Active Roster
Academics: 60

[Izulde]

In docs and settings/all users//shared docs/gds/fb2010:

backup teams, tourneys and conf CSV files. Then open them in a spreadsheet program and change prestige to whatever you want, copycat. :p

*bookmarks this tip for his next Zeroed Out dynasty*

In FBCB1, I had to do every team by hand and it took forever.

[Marmel]

1942 Preseason


Top 25

# Team FPV Record Points Prv
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Bowling Green (42) 0-0 1770 2
2. South Dakota State (30) 0-0 1751 10
3. Central Michigan 0-0 1659 NR
4. Arkansas-Pine Bluff 0-0 1588 5
5. Grambling State 0-0 1476 8
6. Army 0-0 1407 NR
7. New Mexico 0-0 1269 NR
8. American 0-0 1199 NR
9. Portland State 0-0 1114 NR
10. Binghamton 0-0 861 NR
11. Sam Houston State 0-0 830 1
12. Akron 0-0 723 NR
13. Fairleigh Dickinson 0-0 705 NR
14. Ball State 0-0 670 4
15. Brigham Young 0-0 626 NR
16. Maryland 0-0 540 17
17. Air Force 0-0 505 14
18. Eastern Michigan 0-0 485 16
19. Florida 0-0 436 NR
20. Liberty 0-0 428 NR
21. Colgate 0-0 330 NR
22. Santa Clara 0-0 326 NR
23. Virginia 0-0 264 NR
24. Texas State 0-0 231 NR
25.Alcorn State 0-0 230 NR

We still have quite a few other teams receiving votes, so the dust has not quite settled yet. Bowling Green returns 4 players who have started at least 30 games in the careers. The clear #1 and favorites once again this year. Last year's #1 recruit and now a sophomore, Leif Rue, is going to lead this team in 1942. He scored 14.6 a game last year and looks to be even better this year.

South Dakota, Central Michigan, Pine Bluff and American should all be pretty familiar sounding teams by now. They have all shown they can win games in the tournament. Of course, there will be teams that come out of nowhere this year.

[Marmel]

1942-1943 Regular Season

Before we get to selection Sunday, here is the final Top 25 of the year.


Top 25

# Team FPV Record Points Prv
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Bowling Green (72) 30-3 1800 1
2. Southern Methodist 31-2 1728 2
3. Stony Brook 28-5 1656 3
4. Texas A&M-CC 26-6 1584 4
5. Air Force 25-6 1512 5
6. Arkansas-Pine Bluff 25-6 1440 6
7. Grambling State 25-7 1368 7
8. Maryland-East Shore 28-7 1296 8
9. Virginia 27-6 1224 9
10. Saint Mary's 24-6 1152 10
11. Sacramento State 27-7 1065 11
12. South Dakota State 27-7 1023 12
13. Alabama 26-7 934 13
14. Stephen F. Austin 24-9 866 14
15. Alcorn State 23-9 729 15
16. Santa Clara 15-15 489 16
17. Duquesne 15-16 313 17
18. Michigan 15-16 267 18
19. Liberty 11-19 121 19
20. Alabama A&M 13-19 113 20
21. Alabama State 12-18 108 21
22. Colgate 13-17 100 22
23. Cal Poly 13-19 96 23
24. Texas State 10-19 89 24
25.Mississippi 11-19 86 25

There is still some weirdness going on at the bottom of the Top 25 poll, but most of the teams' prestige numbers are still clumped together within a relatively small range.

Is it clear that Bowling Green is the top team in the nation year in and year out, as they finish the season ranked #1. Pine Bluff and East Shore both had excellent seasons and should be in contention to knock off the defending champs.


Here are the regular season conference champs:


Conference Champs

Conference Team Record
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
America East Conference Stony Brook 28-5 (13-3)
Atlantic 10 Conference Dayton 21-12 (13-3)
Atlantic Coast Conference Virginia 27-6 (12-4)
Atlantic Sun Conference East Tennessee State 20-11 (13-7)
Big 12 Conference Kansas 19-13 (10-6)
Big East Conference Notre Dame 19-11 (14-4)
Big Sky Conference Sacramento State 27-7 (13-3)
Big South Conference Coastal Carolina 23-9 (13-5)
Big Ten Conference Northwestern 21-9 (12-6)
Big West Conference UC Riverside 16-15 (10-6)
Colonial Athletic Association Northeastern 24-8 (13-5)
Conference USA Southern Methodist 31-2 (16-0)
Great West Conference NJIT 16-14 (9-3)
Horizon League Loyola-IL 20-11 (13-5)
Independent 0-0 (0-0)
Ivy League Pennsylvania 19-10 (10-4)
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Manhattan 17-12 (12-6)
Mid-American Conference Bowling Green 30-3 (14-2)
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Maryland-East Shore 28-7 (14-2)
Missouri Valley Conference Evansville 19-13 (14-4)
Mountain West Conference Air Force 25-6 (12-4)
Northeast Conference Central Connecticut State 22-7 (15-3)
Ohio Valley Conference Jacksonville State 21-10 (14-4)
Pacific-10 Conference Oregon 25-8 (15-3)
Patriot League Lehigh 23-9 (10-4)
Southeastern Conference Arkansas 24-9 (13-3)
Southern Conference Elon 22-10 (14-4)
Southland Conference Texas A&M-CC 26-6 (13-3)
Southwestern Athletic Conference Arkansas-Pine Bluff 25-6 (15-3)
Summit League South Dakota State 27-7 (14-4)
Sun Belt Conference Florida International 18-12 (12-6)
West Coast Conference Saint Mary's 24-6 (11-3)
Western Athletic Conference New Mexico State 22-9 (13-3)

Notice UC Riverside won the Big West Conference. Santa Barbara finished 8-8, right in the middle of the pack. Riverside lost the conference tournament title game to Cal State Fullerton. Riverside finished the season 16-15 and did not receive a post season tournament invite.

Illinois finished 4th in the Big10 at 10-8, but only 14-17 overall. They lost in the semis of the Big10 tourney.



Fill out your Brackets!

A look at each region, starting in the West....

Southern Methodist, out of Conference USA takes the #1 seed. They were 31-2 and finished a perfect 16-0 in conference play. They had the top defense in the nation, holding teams to 54.0 ppg. Air Force is the #2 seed in the West.

In the Midwest, Bowling Green has the #1 seed and will try to defend their title. They are out of the MAC and went 30-3 (14-2). Leif Rue led the team in scoring with 14.8 per game. They are top 15 in offense and defense, scoring wise. Grambling State is the #2 seed.

In the South, Texas A&M CC grabs the #1 seed. They play in the Southland Conference and finished 26-6 (13-3). They are a top 10 defensive team. Pine Bluff is the #2 seed.

Finally, in the East we have Stony Brook with the final top seed. Stony brook plays in the American East Conference where they went 28-5 (13-3). Defense will get you top seeds in the tournament in this universe. They were the 4th best scoring defense. Maryland East-Shore is the #2 seed.

Will Bowling Green pull off the repeat? I wouldn't bet against it.

[Marmel]

Round 1 & 2

In the West, #1 Southern Meth advances to the Sweet 16 with ease. There they will face #5 Alabama. Also advancing was #7 VCU and #14 Chicago State

The top 2 seeds in the Midwest advance in #1 Bowling Green and #2 Grambling State. #2 South Dakota State, who has proven they can win any game should give Bowling Green a stiff challenge. #11 New Mexico State also advances.

Down South, the top 2 seeds also advance. #1 Texas A&M CC will meet up with #5 Radford while #2 Pine Bluff gets the cinderella team, #14 Campbell.

In the East, the fourth #1 seed also advance in Stony Brook. They will meet #4 McNeese State. On the other side of the bracket are a couple of higher seeds, #7 Winthrop and #14 Fairfield.



Sweet 16

West: Southern Meth advances to meet #7 VCU. VCU was 25-8 this year. Their one strength is on the boards, limiting opponents to few second chance points.

Midwest: Bowling Green wins by 9 to move on and face #11 New Mexico State. NM's top scorer is injured for the upcoming game, making matters worse for them.

South: A real heavyweight matchup in tis region as #1 Texas A&M CC will battle #2 Arkansas Pine Bluff.

East: The only region where the top seed has lost sees #4 McNeese State go up against #14 Fairfield. This is your classic offense (Fairfield) vs defense( McNeese) matchup. The difference will probably be McNeese's PF Frank Hargett who will be the best player on the court and score over 18 per game.

[Marmel]

Welcome to the Final Four. Here are your matchups for Saturday night:

#1 Southern Methodist
vs
#2 Arkansas Pine Bluff

Pine Bluff is making its third Final Four appearance, but still searching for that first title. This is Southern Methodists's first trip to the tournament and what a ride it has been.


#1 Bowling Green
vs
#4 McNeese State

Bowling Green will try to win back to back titles and their 3rd in four seasons. This is McNeese's first trip to the tournament, though they did make the NIT 2 years ago.

Odds would say that Bowling Green will beat Pine Bluff for the title, but anything can happen at this point.




First, just wanted to let you know that Binghampton won the NIT title.



Results:

In game 1, Pine Bluff were the slight favorites, but they forgot to show up and got blown off the court by Southern Meth, 79-64. Southern Meth was led by Jeremiah Hawk, off the bench with 26 points.

In game 2, Bowling Green systematically shut down McNeese and dominated in a 63-44 blowout.


Monday night:

Unless you are a big Bowling Green fan (and who isn't??) this game was a yawner. Bowling Green completely dominated play and even got their walk ons in for a good chunk of the second half. Final score: 74-48.

An amazing 3 titles in 4 season for Bowling Green!

[Marmel]

1942-1943 Season Wrap-up and 1943 Offseason

The Monte Dowling Award goes to McNeese States PF Frank Hargett.
Coach of the Year is Texas A&M CC's Cecil Hesse.
Freshman of the year was Kansas' John McGuigan, last year's #1 recruit.


Most prestigious teams:

Bowling Green 79
Pine Bluff 65
American 60
South Dakota State 56
Binghamton 52
Grambling State 52
Mercer 52
Air Force, BYU, Central Michigan, Citadel: all 51

Illinois 34
Riverside and Santa Barbara 28


Southern Methodist's coach retired in the offseason.


Recruit Rankings, by class:


# Team Conference Best Player Rtg 5* 4* 3* 2* 1*
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Bowling Green MAC SF Ted Tanaka ***** 1 1 2 0 0
2. North Dakota Great West SG Robert Zimmerman ***** 2 0 2 0 0
3. Air Force Mountain West SG Lamar Butts ***** 1 1 2 0 0
4. Binghamton America East SF Tad Martinson ***** 2 1 1 0 0
5. Mercer Atlantic Sun SG Theron Huss ***** 1 2 0 0 0
6. Radford Big South SF Steven Sanders ***** 1 1 0 0 2
7. Arkansas-Pine Bluff SWAC SF Branden Matson **** 0 3 1 0 0
8. Saint Mary's WCC PF Lawrence Hileman ***** 1 0 2 1 0
9. Samford Southern PG Micah Lopez **** 0 3 0 0 1
10. Bucknell Patriot League PF Grady Estrada ***** 1 0 3 1 0
11. Northwestern State Southland PG James Lampkin **** 0 1 4 0 0
12. Texas-Arlington Southland SG Ali Alvardo **** 0 2 2 0 0
13. New Mexico Mountain West C Gregory Polite **** 0 1 4 0 0
14. Army Patriot League PG David Louis **** 0 3 0 0 0
15. Utah Mountain West C Brian Arthur ***** 1 0 1 1 0
16. Texas State Southland SG Scott Benson ***** 2 0 0 0 0
17. Holy Cross Patriot League SG Elton Holley ***** 1 0 1 1 2
18. UNLV Mountain West PG Nickolas Gallegos **** 0 2 2 0 1
19. Liberty Big South SF William Scott **** 0 1 3 0 0
20.Texas A&M-CC Southland PF Eric Davis ***** 1 0 3 0 0

Bowling Green is going to be good for a long, long time!

Illinois was ranked #137
UC SB was #176
Riverside was #248


Top recruits:



# Player Pos Ht Team Conference
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Ted Tanaka SF 6-6 Bowling Green Mid-American Conference
2 Elton Holley SG 6-2 Holy Cross Patriot League
3 Steven Sanders SF 6-6 Radford Big South Conference
4 Lamar Butts SG 6-1 Air Force Mountain West Conference
5 Edward Hart SF 6-4 Eastern Kentucky Ohio Valley Conference
6 Brian Arthur C 6-7 Utah Mountain West Conference
7 Lawrence Hileman PF 6-9 Saint Mary's West Coast Conference
8 Tony Simmons C 6-10
9 Robert Zimmerman SG 6-0 North Dakota Great West Conference
10 Casey Sanders PG 5-11
11 Scott Benson SG 6-1 Texas State Southland Conference
12 Theron Huss SG 6-1 Mercer Atlantic Sun Conference
13 Tad Martinson SF 6-5 Binghamton America East Conference
14 Eric Davis PF 6-8 Texas A&M-CC Southland Conference
15 Werner Jones SF 6-11 North Dakota Great West Conference
16 Darron Villasenor SF 6-5 Northern Illinois Mid-American Conference
17 Mac Madrid PF 6-9 San Diego State Mountain West Conference
18 Rudolph Fairchild PG 6-3
19 Daniel Leflore PG 5-10 Lafayette Patriot League
20 Richard Rountree SG 6-2 Binghamton America East Conference


Check out the scoring ability of #2 recruit, Elton Holley!


PLAYER DETAILS

#52 SG Elton Holley - Holy Cross - Freshman
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Height: 6-2
Weight: 184
High School: Chelsea High School
Hometown: Chelsea, MA

Attributes:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type INS JPS FTS 3PS HND PAS ORB DRB PSD PRD STL BLK PFS QKN STR JMP STA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current: 48 47 79 72 39 15 40 24 24 36 40 31 58 70 59 56 69
Potential: A A A A C D B D D C C C

Health: Good
Scholarship: Yes
Status: Active Roster
Academics: 76



Before we move on, let's go back and take a look at a couple of the recruits from the 1st two classes.

Florida's David Tims was the #1 overall recruit in the first year of this dynasty. He has lived up to the hype, averaging just over 20 ppg for his career! Last year he was up to 23.5. He will be a senior this year, but Florida has yet to play in the post season.

The following year I highlighted the #2 recruit, Efrain Graziano (Santa Clara). He scored 11.7 as a freshman and 15.9 last year. The top recruit that season was Leif Rue (Bowling Green). We know how that turned out!

[Izulde]

UNLV with the #18 class makes me smile. :)

[Marmel]

Welcome to the 1943-1944 season

I'm going to start stream lining this a bit more.

Preseason Polls
Final regular season conference champs
Top 2 seeds from each bracket
Round 1&2 results
Sweet 16 results
Elite 8 results
Final Four weekend results
Awards
Prestige changes
Recruiting

The meat of this dynasty has been and really strives to focus on the tournament results and the different teams that build dynasties.


So, here we go with the 43-44 season and the preseason top 25


Top 25

# Team FPV Record Points Prv
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Bowling Green (72) 0-0 1800 1
2. Binghamton 0-0 1728 NR
3. San Diego State 0-0 1606 NR
4. Texas-Arlington 0-0 1498 NR
5. Saint Mary's 0-0 1439 10
6. Arkansas-Pine Bluff 0-0 1398 6
7. Cal Poly 0-0 1369 23
8. Jacksonville State 0-0 1276 NR
9. Duquesne 0-0 1140 17
10. Southern Methodist 0-0 1091 2
11. Fairleigh Dickinson 0-0 1028 NR
12. Mercer 0-0 880 NR
13. South Dakota State 0-0 845 12
14. Texas State 0-0 841 24
15. American 0-0 800 NR
16. Toledo 0-0 531 NR
17. Grambling State 0-0 477 7
18. Air Force 0-0 457 5
19. Central Michigan 0-0 396 NR
20. Brigham Young 0-0 393 NR
21. Central Florida 0-0 314 NR
22. Eastern Michigan 0-0 295 NR
23. Drake 0-0 264 NR
24. Sam Houston State 0-0 236 NR
25.Army 0-0 199 NR

Bowling Green just gets inked in at #1 to start each season and usually finishes there as well.
Binghamton comes off an NIT title and expectations are running sky high this year.
Pine Bluff always in the top 10.
Southern Methodist now has higher expectations to live up to.




Regular Season Conference Champs:


Conference Champs

Conference Team Record
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
America East Conference New Hampshire 25-9 (13-3)
Atlantic 10 Conference Duquesne 25-6 (14-2)
Atlantic Coast Conference Virginia 18-12 (11-5)
Atlantic Sun Conference North Florida 24-8 (16-4)
Big 12 Conference Baylor 19-12 (12-4)
Big East Conference Providence 21-10 (15-3)
Big Sky Conference Sacramento State 26-6 (14-2)
Big South Conference Gardner Webb 24-8 (15-3)
Big Ten Conference Purdue 25-7 (13-5)
Big West Conference Long Beach State 20-11 (11-5)
Colonial Athletic Association UNC Wilmington 21-11 (12-6)
Conference USA Central Florida 25-7 (13-3)
Great West Conference Utah Valley 18-12 (8-4)
Horizon League Cleveland State 23-9 (14-4)
Independent 0-0 (0-0)
Ivy League Dartmouth 19-11 (10-4)
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Canisius 19-11 (12-6)
Mid-American Conference Northern Illinois 27-6 (14-2)
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Coppin State 18-12 (11-5)
Missouri Valley Conference Drake 26-7 (17-1)
Mountain West Conference San Diego State 21-10 (12-4)
Northeast Conference Fairleigh Dickinson 27-6 (14-4)
Ohio Valley Conference Jacksonville State 26-7 (14-4)
Pacific-10 Conference Oregon 24-7 (15-3)
Patriot League Holy Cross 29-4 (14-0)
Southeastern Conference Alabama 22-10 (12-4)
Southern Conference Elon 26-7 (15-3)
Southland Conference Texas-Arlington 22-9 (12-4)
Southwestern Athletic Conference Arkansas-Pine Bluff 22-10 (14-4)
Summit League IPFW 19-13 (12-6)
Sun Belt Conference Louisiana-Monroe 20-12 (12-6)
West Coast Conference Santa Clara 18-13 (10-4)
Western Athletic Conference San Jose State 24-8 (11-5)


Illinois finished 2nd in the Big10, but was bounced in their first game of the Big 10 tournament. A 20-10 record got them an at large big to the big dance as an 11 seed. They will face #6 Oregon.

Riverside finished 8-8 while SB finished 6-10, neither did anything in their conference tournament.


Final Top 25


Top 25

# Team FPV Record Points Prv
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Holy Cross (72) 29-4 1800 1
2. Bowling Green 25-7 1693 2
3. Northern Illinois 27-6 1691 3
4. Sam Houston State 27-6 1584 4
5. Fairleigh Dickinson 27-6 1512 5
6. Jacksonville State 26-7 1440 6
7. Drake 26-7 1368 7
8. Gardner Webb 24-8 1259 8
9. Central Florida 25-7 1238 9
10. Duquesne 25-6 1175 10
11. Air Force 24-9 1055 11
12. Toledo 22-9 1021 12
13. Grambling State 25-8 948 13
14. Elon 26-7 849 14
15. Southern Methodist 23-8 769 15
16. Oregon 24-7 724 16
17. Purdue 25-7 660 17
18. Eastern Illinois 24-9 577 18
19. Sacramento State 26-6 497 19
20. Eastern Michigan 22-10 460 20
21. Texas-Arlington 22-9 350 21
22. South Dakota State 16-17 265 22
23. Cleveland State 23-9 90 23
24. Akron 13-17 57 24
25.San Jose State 24-8 37 25


Brackets

Bowling Green once again takes a top seed, this time out West. Leif Rue led the team in scoring with 16.3 per game. Once again this team is balanced on both sides of the court, but they are particularly great on offense, scoring 78.7 per game, 2nd best in the land. The #2 seed is Fairleigh Dickinson.

In the Midwest, Northern Illinois gets the top seed out of the MAC at 27-6 (14-2). They are led by a senior who was ranked #23 in the 1939 recruiting class, Herb Wyatt. Their defense is lacking but they score 75.5 per game. The #2 seed is Central Florida.

The South has Sam Houston State out of the Southland conference with a 27-6 (11-6) record. They have a top 10 defense. The #2 seed is Eastern Michigan.

Finally, in the East, the top seed is Holy Cross from the Patriot League with a 29-4 (14-0) record. They are led by a diaper dandy (god, did I just use that term?), #2 recruit Elton Holley. Remember him from the last post? He scored 15.9 per game as a freshman! The #2 seed is Toledo.

The only question is, who can stop Bowling Green??

[Marmel]

Round 1 & 2

West: A 21 point and a 31 point win puts Bowling Green in the Sweet 16. Very little surprise there. They will face a Big10 team in #5 Purdue. Also, #15 Cal-Poly is the West bracket's Cinderella team. They will try to extend their dream season against #3 Southern Methodist, who is trying to wrap up some unfinished business from last year.


Midwest: #1 Northern Illinois squeaks past #8 BYU in the second round to advance and will face #4 Drake. Also, #2 Central Florida advances to take on #14 Chicago State. Chicago State played like a top seed, blowing out their 2 opponents by an average margin of 21 points!


South: Another #1 advances to the round of 16 in Sam Houston State. There they will face #12 Binghamton. Binghamton was preseason #2 and won the NIT last year. Their regular season was a disappointment, but they are making up for it when it counts.


East: The East, lately, seems to be bad luck for top seeds. Holy Cross was defeated in the first round by #16 Rider, who was then beaten by #8 Alabama. 'Bama will meet #5 Duquesne. Also, #3 San Diego State will tip off against #7 Army.




Sweet 16

West: The margin of victory gets bigger each round for Bowling Green. A 38 point victory this time. #15 Cal Poly continues their wild ride. Can they pull the ultimate upset though?


Midwest: Another #1 seed goes down as #4 Drake advances over Northern Illinois. Also, #2 Central Florida advances. They are led by senior SF Nicholas Huth and his 16.4 ppg.


South: Another #1 seed bites the dust when #12 Binghamton beat Sam Houston State. Binghamton is finally living up to the preseasn hype and is one game from the Final Four. They have to get through #3 Jacksonville State first.


East: #8 Alabama doing the BCS conferences proud and advancing to the Elite 8 where they will face #3 San Diego State. Alabama has a top 20 offense. San Diego has a top 5 offense, but their defense is near the bottom in the nation, giving up 71.4 per game. Alabama could put up 100 this weekend!




Final Four matchups

#1 Bowling Green
vs
#12 Binghamton

Could Bowling Green win 3 in a row? They will have to face preseason #2 Binghamton who seems to have peaked at the perfect time.


#2 Central Florida
vs
#8 Alabama

Alabama will try to score one for the down and out BCS conferences.

[Marmel]

NIT Champs: Canisius

It is time for the Final 4. we have 2 great match ups this Saturday night, so let's get right to it!


Game 1:

This was an all time classic. This dynasty might go for 100 years and not see a game this good. Binghamton led 33-32 at the half and from there it just got crazier. There were about 20 lead changes down the stretch. One team just matching the next, shot for shot. When it come down to it, Binghamton had the ball on the final possession. They got it inside to their stud Center, Tanner Perrone and he made the tough baseline fadeaway for the game winner and Binghamton dethroned the champions, 69-67!!!


Game 2:

For all the excitement in game 1, game 2 was the exact opposite. Alabama jumped out to a 17 point halftime lead and ended up winning by 30, 86-56.



Finals

Like there was any possible way Binghamton was not winning this game? Alabama gave them all they could handle, even leading by 6 at the half, but this was just binghamton's year obviously and they cut down the nets with a 60-56 victory and their first National Title, to go along with their NIT title.

[Marmel]

1943-1944 Wrap up and 1944 Offseason

Maryland East Shore's PF Charles Shelton won the Monte Dowling Award.
Holy Cross' Jason Egbert was Coach of the Year, despite the 16 over 1 tournament upset.
Lehigh's Casey Sanders, a point guard and ranked #10 overall in the recruit rankings last year, was named freshman of the year.


Prestige Rankings

Bowling Green 87
Pine Bluff 72
Binghamton 68
American 67
Air Force, Eastern Michigan, Grambling State: 60
BYU, Sam Houston State, 59
Army, McNeese State 57

Illinois 36
Riverside 29
SB 26





Recruit rankings, by class


# Team Conference Best Player Rtg 5* 4* 3* 2* 1*
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. American Patriot League PF Jared Mercado ***** 2 2 1 0 0
2. Army Patriot League SG Joseph Pollard ***** 2 1 0 0 0
3. Lafayette Patriot League SG Cortez Shippy ***** 2 0 3 0 0
4. Bowling Green MAC SG Davis Han ***** 1 3 0 0 0
5. Charleston Southern Big South PF Michael Roberts ***** 1 2 1 0 0
6. Grambling State SWAC PG Kenneth Hix **** 0 4 0 0 0
7. Saint Mary's WCC C Brandon Arce ***** 1 1 2 0 0
8. Binghamton America East PF Gerald Murdoch **** 0 4 1 0 0
9. Air Force Mountain West C Kyle Bolinger **** 0 3 1 0 0
10. New Mexico Mountain West SG Normand Barbieri ***** 1 1 1 2 0
11. Arkansas-Pine Bluff SWAC PF Steven Moore **** 0 3 0 0 0
12. Alabama State SWAC SF Gregory Haskell **** 0 2 2 0 0
13. Sam Houston State Southland C Jose Echols **** 0 3 0 0 0
14. Liberty Big South PF Antwan Bodnar ***** 1 1 0 0 0
15. Stony Brook America East PF Felton Ashcraft ***** 1 0 1 0 1
16. Portland WCC C Donny Moss **** 0 2 2 0 0
17. Nevada WAC SF Romano Coviello ***** 1 0 1 1 3
18. Colorado State Mountain West C Benito Ashcraft ***** 1 0 1 0 2
19. Radford Big South PG Dominic Otte ***** 1 1 0 0 0
20.McNeese State Southland SG Hilton Hale ***** 1 0 2 0 0

Wow, looks like the Partiot League is getting primed to dominate in the coming years. Bowling Green of course pulls in a great class.

Illinois was rated #135
Santa Barbara #295
Riverside #246


By recruit:


# Player Pos Ht Team Conference
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Joseph Pollard SG 6-0 Army Patriot League
2 Benito Ashcraft C 6-8 Colorado State Mountain West Conference
3 Ben Bythewood C 6-10
4 Romano Coviello SF 6-10 Nevada Western Athletic Conference
5 Cortez Shippy SG 6-2 Lafayette Patriot League
6 Antwan Bodnar PF 6-9 Liberty Big South Conference
7 Felton Ashcraft PF 6-6 Stony Brook America East Conference
8 Seth Hill PF 6-5 Ball State Mid-American Conference
9 Brandon Arce C 6-6 Saint Mary's West Coast Conference
10 Aldo Bode PG 5-11
11 Stephen Johnson C 6-9
12 Jared Mercado PF 6-10 American Patriot League
13 Oscar Gomez SF 6-7 North Dakota Great West Conference
14 Michael Roberts PF 6-9 Charleston Southern Big South Conference
15 Matthew Shanks SG 6-0 Florida Southeastern Conference
16 Normand Barbieri SG 6-2 New Mexico Mountain West Conference
17 Andrew Johnson PF 6-6 Lafayette Patriot League
18 Emile Showers PG 6-2 American Patriot League
19 Davis Han SG 6-0 Bowling Green Mid-American Conference
20 Charles Cox SF 6-5 Army Patriot League

A bit of a weak class, at least up on top, but #5 recruit Cortez Shippy might have a very nice career. 6 of the top 20 recruits are going to the Patriot.

[Marmel]

1944-1945 Season

The preseason polls are out.



# Team FPV Record Points Prv
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Bowling Green (72) 0-0 1800 2
2. Binghamton 0-0 1728 NR
3. Holy Cross 0-0 1607 1
4. Jacksonville State 0-0 1566 6
5. Liberty 0-0 1532 NR
6. San Diego 0-0 1410 NR
7. Arkansas-Pine Bluff 0-0 1278 NR
8. Army 0-0 1277 NR
9. South Dakota State 0-0 1171 22
10. Mercer 0-0 1098 NR
11. Texas State 0-0 1081 NR
12. Saint Mary's 0-0 915 NR
13. Radford 0-0 900 NR
14. San Diego State 0-0 895 NR
15. Texas-Arlington 0-0 696 21
16. American 0-0 683 NR
17. Canisius 0-0 525 NR
18. Air Force 0-0 486 11
19. Eastern Michigan 0-0 440 20
20. Grambling State 0-0 399 13
21. Brigham Young 0-0 330 NR
22. Eastern Kentucky 0-0 288 NR
23. Sam Houston State 0-0 287 4
24. McNeese State 0-0 208 NR
25.Ball State 0-0 131 NR

Despite the head to head victory and the national title last year, the pollsters still think Bowling Green is the team to beat. Binghamton can stake their claim as equals to BG if they can cut down the nets this year.

Holy Cross, despite the big upset in last year's tournament, is still getting at on of respect. Pine Bluff is a fixture in the preseason top 10, even with the double digit seed and first round exit last year.



Regular Season Conference Champs


Conference Team Record
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
America East Conference Binghamton 29-4 (14-2)
Atlantic 10 Conference Duquesne 26-7 (14-2)
Atlantic Coast Conference Florida State 23-8 (12-4)
Atlantic Sun Conference Belmont 18-13 (17-3)
Big 12 Conference Missouri 23-8 (13-3)
Big East Conference Marquette 24-8 (14-4)
Big Sky Conference Sacramento State 25-7 (15-1)
Big South Conference VMI 25-7 (14-4)
Big Ten Conference Indiana 18-12 (13-5)
Big West Conference Cal Poly 23-8 (13-3)
Colonial Athletic Association Drexel 25-8 (14-4)
Conference USA Southern Methodist 26-6 (14-2)
Great West Conference Texas-Pan American 21-9 (9-3)
Horizon League Green Bay 18-10 (12-6)
Independent 0-0 (0-0)
Ivy League Brown 17-12 (9-5)
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Siena 17-13 (12-6)
Mid-American Conference Bowling Green 31-3 (14-2)
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Coppin State 26-6 (12-4)
Missouri Valley Conference Northern Iowa 22-11 (14-4)
Mountain West Conference Texas Christian 21-10 (12-4)
Northeast Conference Fairleigh Dickinson 23-10 (17-1)
Ohio Valley Conference Jacksonville State 26-6 (16-2)
Pacific-10 Conference California 20-10 (14-4)
Patriot League Holy Cross 29-4 (11-3)
Southeastern Conference Arkansas 24-9 (12-4)
Southern Conference Citadel 26-6 (13-5)
Southland Conference Texas-Arlington 22-9 (12-4)
Southwestern Athletic Conference Alabama State 19-11 (15-3)
Summit League IPFW 19-13 (15-3)
Sun Belt Conference Florida International 16-14 (11-7)
West Coast Conference Saint Mary's 26-5 (11-3)
Western Athletic Conference Louisiana Tech 20-11 (11-5)


Illinois finished 3rd in the Big10, and was beaten in the conference title game by Purdue.
Santa Barbara and Riverside both finished near the bottom of the league standings and neither did much in the BigWest tournament.


Final Top 25 Poll


# Team FPV Record Points Prv
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Bowling Green (72) 31-3 1800 1
2. Binghamton 29-4 1728 2
3. Holy Cross 29-4 1656 3
4. Ball State 26-6 1584 4
5. Saint Mary's 26-5 1512 5
6. Lafayette 27-6 1440 6
7. Jacksonville State 26-6 1363 7
8. Tulsa 28-4 1301 8
9. Citadel 26-6 1224 9
10. Liberty 25-8 1152 10
11. Southern Methodist 26-6 1074 11
12. Eastern Michigan 24-8 1012 12
13. Duquesne 26-7 938 13
14. VMI 25-7 864 14
15. San Diego 23-9 792 15
16. Texas State 23-7 694 16
17. Cal Poly 23-8 674 17
18. Radford 24-9 576 18
19. Arkansas 24-9 476 19
20. Sacramento State 25-7 420 20
21. Coppin State 26-6 400 21
22. Colorado State 23-8 241 22
23. Canisius 16-17 233 23
24. Texas-Arlington 22-9 55 24
25.Brigham Young 8-22 32 25

The top 3 teams from the start of the year finish in the exact same order at the top to finish the year. Arkansas seems to be the most consistent of the few BCS teams that are players in college hoops.



Brackets

West: The #1 seed is Ball State out of the MAC, with a 26-6 (12-4) record. They are a top 10 scoring team and 2nd in the nation in rebounding, but their defense is near the bottom of the nation. The only thing they do good on defense is block shots. That doesn't bode well for their tournament chances. The #2 seed is Liberty.


Mid-West: Bowling, as usual, takes a #1 seed. Leif Rue continues to lead the nation's best team. As a senior now, he scored 17.2 per game to lead the team. Sophomore Ted Tanaka looks to be next in line as a great scorer for Bowling Green. He added 14.3 per game. The #2 seed is Tulsa. They have 2 17 point scorers and can almost match Bowling Green in scoring and scoring defense. That could be a great matchup.


South: St. Mary's from the WCC grabs the #1 seed with a 26-5 (11-5) record. Their offense is average, but they play a very stingy defense, giving up 58.5 per game, top 10. Lafayette takes the #2 seed.


East: Defending champion Binghamton is the final #1 seed. Their defense was top 5 this year. Their offense, while not a top one, was still quite productive. Holy Cross is the #2 seed. I thought they were a legit #1 seed, so an Elite 8 matchup between them and Binghamton could be a classic.

[Marmel]

Round 1 & 2

West: #1 Ball State puts a pair of 10 point victories to advance to the Sweet 16. They will face #13 Loyola-IL. #3 Southern Methodist, a familiar team, also advances and will meet the 7 seed, Fordham.


Mid-West: Bowling Green barely breaks a sweat in the first two round, a pair of 20+ point victories puts them in the Sweet 16 where they will face #4 Citadel. #2 Tulsa gets bounced in the first round by #15 Purdue. They go down in round 2 and we see #10 Missouri and #14 Northern Iowa in the other half of the bracket.


South: #1 St. Mary's advances in a couple of blowouts and they will get #4 Radford. #2 Lafayette also advances and ges a tough #11 seed in Arkansas Pine Bluff.


East: #1 Binghampton rounds out the four number one seeds, all advancing to the Sweet 16. There they will face #4 VMI. Also, the other top seeds advance with #2 Holy Cross getting #3 Jacksonville State. This is a loaded bracket.




Sweet 16

West: The two higher seeds will meet up in the Elite 8, #1 Ball State and #3 Southern Meth, who got by in a 1 point victory over Fordham.


Midwest: Bowling Green continues to stream roll every team in their way as they advance to meet #10 Missouri.


South: Another #1 advances in St. Mary's and they get #11 Arkansas Pine Bluff. Don't let the #11 fool you, this is a traditionally great team.


East: Binghamton's quest for a repeat falls a bit short as they lose to #4 VMI, 72-55. VMI will face #2 Holy Cross, who is doing great after last year's monumental upset.



Final Four Matchups:

#3 Southern Methodist
vs
#1 St. Mary's

The last 2 seasons has seen Southern Methodist make a name for themselves with a title game loss to Bowling Green and a Sweet 16 appearance. Now they return to the Final 4 for the second time and will try to close the deal. St. Mary's has been in the big dance every year, but until now, they have failed to make it out of the first weekend.



#1 Bowling Green
vs
#2 Holy Cross

You know Bowling Green is a Final 4 fixture and will be the big favorites to win it for the 4th time, but Holy Cross is a formidable opponent.

[Marmel]

NIT Champion: Fairleigh Dickinson


Saturday night games

Game 1 saw St. Mary's lead by 3 at the half, but they couldn't hold the lead. It was a tight game throughout, but in the end, Southern Meth took the 76-74 victory.

In Game 2, Bowling Green showed why they are the favorites. They blew out Holy Cross 86-68. Bowling Green hasn't been challenged yet in this tournament and everyone expects another 20 point win on Monday night.




Title Game

The game looked like it was heading for a blowout by halftime, when Bowling Green led 39-25. Southern Methodist made a valiant comeback and got within 5 late, but Bowling Green is just too good. They take home the title, their 4th, with a 74-67 victory.

6 seasons, 5 Final Fours and 4 Championships. Amazing.

[Marmel]

1945 Off Season

Awards

Monte Dowling Award: Senior Center Aubrey Daniels, VMI. 22.4 ppg, 8.8 rpg
Coach: Jason Egbert, Holy Cross (2nd COTY award)
Freshman: C Hans Hierl, Chaleston Southern - #46 recruit



Most prestigious teams

Bowling Green 99
Pine Bluff 81
Binghamton 77
American 69
Eastern Michigan 67
Air Force, Grambling State, Sam Houston State 66
Radford 65
Ball State 64
St. Mary's 63

Illinois 34
Riverside 30
Santa Barbara 25

Iowa 13
Oklahoma State 13
Southern Miss 13
Washington State 12
Troy 11



Top Recruiting Classes


# Team Conference Best Player Rtg 5* 4* 3* 2* 1*
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Army Patriot League PG Don Sheldon ***** 1 4 0 0 0
2. Eastern Michigan MAC SF Kip Wood ***** 3 1 0 0 0
3. McNeese State Southland SG Rudolph Penner ***** 1 3 0 0 0
4. Jacksonville State Ohio Valley SF Richard Clark ***** 1 2 2 0 0
5. Sam Houston State Southland C Matthew James ***** 1 3 0 0 0
6. Arkansas-Pine Bluff SWAC PF Carl Creighton ***** 2 1 0 0 0
7. Central Michigan MAC PF Carl Taylor **** 0 2 3 0 0
8. Texas-Arlington Southland C Garth Underwood ***** 1 3 0 0 0
9. Stony Brook America East SG Nathan Watts **** 0 4 0 1 0
10. Appalachian State Southern C Jewel Perea **** 0 4 0 0 0
11. Akron MAC C Carl Robertson **** 0 3 1 0 0
12. Binghamton America East PG Jeffrey Heredia ***** 1 2 0 0 0
13. UNC Asheville Big South SF Chris Alvis ***** 1 1 2 0 0
14. Ball State MAC SF Wallace Dryer ***** 1 1 1 0 0
15. Saint Mary's WCC SF Thurman Grindle **** 0 2 2 0 0
16. American Patriot League PF Sydney Kearney ***** 1 1 1 0 0
17. Bowling Green MAC C Jack Engle ***** 1 1 0 0 0
18. Radford Big South C Clark McKinney **** 0 2 1 0 0
19. Grambling State SWAC C Andrew Hill ***** 1 0 2 0 0
20.Alabama SEC C Bruno Grijalva **** 0 2 2 0 0

Eastern Michigan lands three 5 star players, and although Army has a bit more depth in their class, that haul by Eastern Michigan is pretty amazing. Pine Bluff also picked up two 5 star players. Bowling Green only had 2 scholarships to use, but did a fine job.

Illinois only had the #213 class.
SB was #342
Riverside #272




By player:


# Player Pos Ht Team Conference
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Don Sheldon PG 6-2 Army Patriot League
2 Jack Engle C 6-8 Bowling Green Mid-American Conference
3 Wallace Dryer SF 6-9 Ball State Mid-American Conference
4 Bill Phelps SG 6-0 Boise State Western Athletic Conference
5 Carl Creighton PF 6-5 Arkansas-Pine Bluff Southwestern Athletic Conference
6 Stevie Okeefe SG 6-1 Arkansas-Pine Bluff Southwestern Athletic Conference
7 Dwayne Almond PF 6-6 NON-QUALIFIER
8 Sydney Kearney PF 6-7 American Patriot League
9 Kip Wood SF 6-5 Eastern Michigan Mid-American Conference
10 Chris Alvis SF 6-5 UNC Asheville Big South Conference
11 Andrew Hill C 6-11 Grambling State Southwestern Athletic Conference
12 Rudolph Penner SG 6-1 McNeese State Southland Conference
13 Darin Diehl C 6-7 Texas A&M-CC Southland Conference
14 Johnson Smiley PG 6-2
15 Justin Morelli SG 6-2 North Dakota Great West Conference
16 Bill Parker PG 5-11
17 Jeffrey Heredia PG 5-9 Binghamton America East Conference
18 Richard Clark SF 6-7 Jacksonville State Ohio Valley Conference
19 Garth Underwood C 6-8 Texas-Arlington Southland Conference
20 Matthew James C 7-0 Sam Houston State Southland Conference

The MAC is going to continue to be loaded with talent, as is Pine Bluff with 2 top 6 recruits.


Bowling Green's top recruit:


#31 C Jack Engle - Bowling Green - Freshman
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Height: 6-8
Weight: 246
High School: Little Miami High School
Hometown: Morrow, OH

Attributes:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type INS JPS FTS 3PS HND PAS ORB DRB PSD PRD STL BLK PFS QKN STR JMP STA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current: 66 35 40 15 48 19 41 73 33 9 11 41 24 31 81 25 40
Potential: A C C F B D C A B F F B

Health: Good
Scholarship: Yes
Status: Active Roster
Academics: 36

[Marmel]

1945-1946 Regular Season


Pre-Season Polls


# Team FPV Record Points Prv
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Bowling Green (72) 0-0 1800 1
2. San Diego 0-0 1661 15
3. Binghamton 0-0 1648 2
4. Army 0-0 1624 NR
5. Liberty 0-0 1518 10
6. Saint Mary's 0-0 1461 5
7. American 0-0 1376 NR
8. Radford 0-0 1235 18
9. Alabama State 0-0 1223 NR
10. Arkansas-Pine Bluff 0-0 1122 NR
11. Air Force 0-0 1080 NR
12. Mercer 0-0 991 NR
13. Eastern Michigan 0-0 917 12
14. Ball State 0-0 866 4
15. South Dakota State 0-0 738 NR
16. Akron 0-0 652 NR
17. Texas State 0-0 543 16
18. Central Michigan 0-0 436 NR
19. Stony Brook 0-0 409 NR
20. Holy Cross 0-0 305 3
21. Jacksonville State 0-0 304 7
22. Tennessee State 0-0 215 NR
23. Appalachian State 0-0 204 NR
24. Citadel 0-0 159 9
25.Prairie View A&M 0-0 120 NR

Obviously there is no surprise on top. There are a few teams who might take that next step and knock Bowling Green off of their perch. Binghamton, St. Mary's, American and Pine Bluff are probably the top candidates by name at this point.




Regular Season Conference Champs


Conference Team Record
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
America East Conference Binghamton 25-6 (14-2)
Atlantic 10 Conference Richmond 22-10 (13-3)
Atlantic Coast Conference Georgia Tech 23-9 (12-4)
Atlantic Sun Conference East Tennessee State 19-12 (14-6)
Big 12 Conference Nebraska 16-14 (12-4)
Big East Conference Pittsburgh 24-9 (15-3)
Big Sky Conference Montana State 21-10 (13-3)
Big South Conference Radford 25-6 (14-4)
Big Ten Conference Michigan State 23-9 (13-5)
Big West Conference UC Santa Barbara 18-12 (12-4)
Colonial Athletic Association Drexel 27-6 (14-4)
Conference USA Southern Methodist 24-9 (12-4)
Great West Conference North Dakota 20-10 (11-1)
Horizon League Cleveland State 19-11 (13-5)
Independent 0-0 (0-0)
Ivy League Pennsylvania 19-9 (11-3)
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Iona 20-11 (12-6)
Mid-American Conference Bowling Green 32-2 (14-2)
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Bethune-Cookman 16-16 (10-6)
Missouri Valley Conference Missouri State 21-9 (12-6)
Mountain West Conference Air Force 25-8 (10-6)
Northeast Conference Mount St. Mary's 18-13 (13-5)
Ohio Valley Conference Eastern Kentucky 21-10 (13-5)
Pacific-10 Conference Oregon State 20-11 (12-6)
Patriot League Holy Cross 24-8 (11-3)
Southeastern Conference Mississippi State 21-12 (13-3)
Southern Conference Citadel 30-5 (15-3)
Southland Conference Texas-Arlington 20-11 (12-4)
Southwestern Athletic Conference Alabama State 26-6 (13-5)
Summit League Western Illinois 20-11 (13-5)
Sun Belt Conference Louisiana-Monroe 19-12 (11-7)
West Coast Conference Saint Mary's 24-6 (11-3)
Western Athletic Conference Louisiana Tech 20-11 (12-4)


Illinois finished 5th in the Big10 and lost their first game in the conference tournament. A 16-14 record does not get them an NIT bid.

Santa Barbara won the Big West regular season. Riverside finished 8th, but they are the ones who went on to win the conference title and earn the automatic bid. Santa Barbara did grab a 7 seed in the NIT. Riverside is the #15 seed in the West and will play #2 Akron.

Final Top 25 poll


# Team FPV Record Points Prv
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Bowling Green (72) 32-2 1800 1
2. Alabama State 26-6 1728 2
3. Citadel 30-5 1656 3
4. Saint Mary's 24-6 1578 4
5. Radford 25-6 1518 5
6. Binghamton 25-6 1440 6
7. Air Force 25-8 1368 7
8. Akron 23-8 1296 8
9. Ball State 25-8 1224 9
10. Stony Brook 22-8 1152 10
11. Holy Cross 24-8 1080 11
12. Eastern Michigan 23-9 1008 12
13. Colorado State 24-9 936 13
14. Lamar 24-9 864 14
15. Gardner Webb 22-8 792 15
16. Drexel 27-6 720 16
17. San Diego 22-11 638 17
18. Army 23-9 586 18
19. Texas State 21-10 390 19
20. Central Michigan 13-19 181 20
21. Canisius 15-15 126 21
22. New Hampshire 16-16 109 22
23. McNeese State 14-18 82 23
24. Lehigh 14-17 78 24
25.VMI 16-17 60 25



Brackets


West: St. Mary's from the WCC earns their second consecutive #1 seed with a 24-6 (11-3) record. They are pretty average on offense but they hold teams to 59.7 per game. They are also a great rebounding team and don't give up many second chance points. The #2 seed is Akron.


Mid-West: Bowling Green goes 32-2 this year and once again is a #1 seed. Ted Tanaka, now just a junior, led the team with 20.2 per game. They are the #1 offense with 85.0 ppg and the #4 defense at 56.9 per game. I don't know how they even lost 2 games. The #2 seed is Air Force.


South: Alabama State out of the SWAC earns a #1 seed with a 26-6 (13-5) record. They have a senior and a sophomore both averaging over 17 a game, so a nice mix of young and old. They have a high scoring offense, but struggle on defense. The #2 seed is Ball State.


East: Binhamton grabs another #1 seed with a 25-6 (14-2) record. They are top 25 in both offense and defense. The #2 is Radford


Other seeding:
American: 9 seed
Sam Houston State: 7 seed
Citadel: 3 seed
Southern Methodist: 9 seed
Pine Bluff: 7 seed
Holy Cross: 4 seed
Eastern Michigan: 3 seed

[Marmel]

Round 1 & 2

West: Lately, the #1 seeds have been advancing, at least to the Sweet 16, almost all of the time. This year, the first region we review sees the #1 seed St. Mary's lose to the #8, American. American will meet #5 Texas State. #2 Akron will go against a Cinderella team in #11 Cleveland State.


Midwest: The #1 seed is not going to lose in this bracket. Bowling Green had a scare with only a 3 point win over Loyola-IL in the second round, but they did advance and will face #4 Lamar. In fact, all 4 top seeds advance as #2 Air Force will play #3 Portland.


South: #1 Alabama State advances to play the highest seed left in the tournament, #13 Coastal Carolina. #2 Ball State and #3 Stony Brook both advance as well.


East: Another #1 seed goes down, this time it is Binghamton. Since winning the title two years ago, they have not advanced past the Sweet 16. #8 Southern knocked them off this year and will play #4 Holy Cross. #2 Radford and #3 Eastern Michigan also advance.




Sweet 16

West: #8 American cannot build on the win over the #1 seed and they fall by 5 to the 5 seed, Texas State. They will play the #11 seed Cleveland State who pulls off their third upset with a win over #2 Akron.


Mid-West: The top 2 seeds advance in this region, setting up a heavyweight battle between #1 Bowling Green and #2 Air Force. Air Force has been consistently good, making the tournament 6 of the 7 seasons and usually being highly ranked, but this is the first time they have advanced past the sweet 16. A major test awaits to see if they can make that next step.


South: #1 Alabama State makes easy work of the #13 seed Coastal Carolina, 84-66. they will battle #2 Ball State for a trip to the final four. This is Alabama State's second trip to the tournament. This is Ball State's 5th trip, making the Elite 8 last season.


East: #4 Holy Cross was in the Final Four last year and they are 1 game away from a return trip. To get there they will have to beat #2 Radford and their superstar junior SF Steven Sanders. Sanders was a #3 ranked recruit and scored 21.1 per game, including a 41 point outting this year.





Final Four matchups

#5 Texas State
vs
#2 Ball State

Not to take anything away from Texas State, but their road to the Final Four went through the following seeds: 12, 13, 9, 11. Survive and advance is the name of the game though. This is only their second trip to the tournament. They lost in the first round last year. Ball State beat Alabama State 81-73. These guys are a high flying offense, scoring 76.7 per game. They are only ranked #276 on defense though.


#2 Air Force
vs
#2 Radford

That's right. Air Force, a good team that never was able to break through, did it in a big way this year. This team is not particularly great at any one thing, but just a solid, deep squad. It took everything they had to hold on to a 1 point victory over the 4 time champion Bowling Green squad! That makes Radford almost an afterthough, but don't overlook the way they easily handled Holy Cross in a 70-46 blowout.

[Marmel]

NIT Champ: Savannah State (Weren't they a favorite to play as in the original FBCB?)


Welcome to the Final Four, it is Saturday Night and we have some new faces that have worked hard over the past few years to get here. Let's go right to the games!


Game 1:

I questioned the schedule Texas State played to get this far, but there is no more questions about this team. They are legit. They led just seconds into the game and never looked back. The game was over at halftime en route to a 76-46 performance.



Game 2:

I told you not to overlook Radford. They have played and won a lot of close games this year, plus they have Steven Sanders, who went off for 31 points. Radford needed just about everyone of those points to get away with the 80-77 victory.




Monday Night

Texas State's Noel Vasquez outplayed Sanders from Radford. He scored 29 to Sanders 23. But it was Radford's 6-4 senior point guard, Joseph Wheeler who stole the show with a 10 point, 11 assist performance. The kid was making some of the most amazing no look passes that led to many easy buckets and the way he led the break was a thing of beauty. Radford wins their first National Title with a 78-71 victory.

[Marmel]

1946, Offseason

Awards

Monte Dowling Award: Sophomore Center Benito Ashcraft, Colorado State. 12.1 ppg, 12.7 rpg, 3.2 blocks per game.

Coach: Citadel's Brian Feinberg. Feinberg had been the Air Force coach since 1939, but took the position with Citadel when their coach retired.

Freshman: SG Don Sheldon, Army. He was the #1 ranked recruit last year



Prestige:

Bowling Green 100
Binghamton 82
Pine Bluff 80
Radford 80
American 76
Ball State 74
Eastern Michigan 74
Air Force 73
St. Mary's 72
Stony Brook 70

Illinois 35
Riverside 35
Santa Barbara 34

Depaul 13
Eastern Washington 13
Washington State 9




Top Recruiting Classes


# Team Conference Best Player Rtg 5* 4* 3* 2* 1*
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Bowling Green MAC C Maximo Harris ***** 2 2 0 0 0
2. Arkansas-Pine Bluff SWAC SG John Reinert ***** 2 0 1 0 0
3. Akron MAC SF Wallace Hernandez ***** 1 3 0 0 0
4. Buffalo MAC SF Lenny Andrews **** 0 3 3 0 0
5. Jacksonville State Ohio Valley C Reuben Radcliffe ***** 1 3 0 0 0
6. Central Florida Conference USA SG Fred Malcom ***** 1 1 1 1 0
7. Ball State MAC SG David Heyer ***** 2 1 1 0 0
8. Santa Clara WCC PG Charles Parker **** 0 1 5 0 0
9. Eastern Michigan MAC PG Gary McMullin ***** 2 1 0 0 0
10. Central Michigan MAC SG Liam Erickson ***** 2 0 1 0 0
11. American Patriot League C Brent Raumaker ***** 1 2 0 0 0
12. Radford Big South PF James Gamache **** 0 4 0 0 0
13. Army Patriot League SF Abel Romero ***** 1 1 0 0 0
14. Cal State Fullerton Big West SF Ronald Shell ***** 1 0 1 1 1
15. Grambling State SWAC SF Jeff Delgado ***** 1 1 0 0 0
16. Wofford Southern PF Vavrinec Novotny ***** 1 0 2 0 0
17. Appalachian State Southern PF Wesley Martin **** 0 2 1 0 0
18. VMI Big South PF Gregory Wilkins **** 0 3 0 0 0
19. Liberty Big South SF Jacques South **** 0 2 1 0 0
20.Binghamton America East SF Xander Lyons ***** 1 1 0 0 0

The MAC is going to be absolutely loaded in the coming years. 6 of the top 10 recruiting teams, including 3 of the top 4 are all MAC teams!

Illinois was ranked just #299
Santa Barbara was #123
Riverside was #228



By player



# Player Pos Ht Team Conference
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Ronald Shell SF 6-7 Cal State Fullerton Big West Conference
2 Fred Malcom SG 6-2 Central Florida Conference USA
3 Vavrinec Novotny PF 6-7 Wofford Southern Conference
4 John Reinert SG 6-2 Arkansas-Pine Bluff Southwestern Athletic Conference
5 Abel Romero SF 6-6 Army Patriot League
6 Jeff Delgado SF 6-5 Grambling State Southwestern Athletic Conference
7 Liam Erickson SG 6-1 Central Michigan Mid-American Conference
8 Fabian Thorpe SF 6-7 NON-QUALIFIER
9 Wallace Hernandez SF 6-6 Akron Mid-American Conference
10 Leo Cuellar C 6-9 Arkansas-Pine Bluff Southwestern Athletic Conference
11 David Heyer SG 6-3 Ball State Mid-American Conference
12 Gerard Thompson SG 6-3 Pepperdine West Coast Conference
13 Xander Lyons SF 6-5 Binghamton America East Conference
14 Brent Raumaker C 6-7 American Patriot League
15 Jayson Medeiros PF 6-7 NON-QUALIFIER
16 Lon Percy SG 6-2 Ball State Mid-American Conference
17 Omer Murdock PG 5-9 NON-QUALIFIER
18 Maximo Harris C 6-8 Bowling Green Mid-American Conference
19 Gary McMullin PG 6-0 Eastern Michigan Mid-American Conference
20 Cliff Scott C 6-8 Bowling Green Mid-American Conference

The best player could be the #2 guy, Fred Malcom


PLAYER DETAILS

#22 SG Fred Malcom - Central Florida - Freshman
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Height: 6-2
Weight: 201
High School: Coral Springs High School
Hometown: Coral Springs, FL

Attributes:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type INS JPS FTS 3PS HND PAS ORB DRB PSD PRD STL BLK PFS QKN STR JMP STA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current: 80 79 58 77 22 55 22 23 28 48 41 45 90 80 48 76 41
Potential: A A B A D B C D C B B C

Health: Good
Scholarship: Yes
Status: Active Roster
Academics: 57

[Marmel]

1946-1947


Preseason Polls


Top 25

# Team FPV Record Points Prv
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Bowling Green (72) 0-0 1800 1
2. Saint Mary's 0-0 1718 4
3. Army 0-0 1654 18
4. Eastern Michigan 0-0 1592 12
5. Arkansas-Pine Bluff 0-0 1507 NR
6. American 0-0 1402 NR
7. Air Force 0-0 1386 7
8. Binghamton 0-0 1274 6
9. Akron 0-0 1248 8
10. Radford 0-0 1176 5
11. Stony Brook 0-0 1027 10
12. Alabama State 0-0 1026 2
13. San Diego 0-0 949 17
14. Ball State 0-0 859 9
15. Portland 0-0 800 NR
16. Appalachian State 0-0 677 NR
17. Citadel 0-0 622 3
18. Texas State 0-0 534 19
19. Mercer 0-0 410 NR
20. Central Michigan 0-0 379 20
21. San Diego State 0-0 308 NR
22. Liberty 0-0 292 NR
23. Charleston Southern 0-0 236 NR
24. Lamar 0-0 162 14
25.Lafayette 0-0 118 NR

Most of the usual suspects up in the top 10. I thought Radford would get a bit more respect, especially with their star player returning. Bowling Green has guys that were ranked #1, 2, 3 and 10 in their recruiting classes, including senior star Ted Tanaka, who scored 19.7 per game last year.



End of Regular Season

Bowling Green holds the top spot in the polls, going 30-2 and also winning their conference tournament. Defending champion Radford finished #4 with a 26-6 record. Eastern Michigan, always a top team, but never able to advance past the Sweet 16 is the #2 ranked team.

Here are the automatic bids to the Big Dance:


Conference Team Record
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
America East Conference Stony Brook 27-6 (13-3)
Atlantic 10 Conference Saint Joseph's 20-12 (13-3)
Atlantic Coast Conference Florida State 24-9 (10-6)
Atlantic Sun Conference Mercer 23-11 (14-6)
Big 12 Conference Iowa State 19-15 (8-8)
Big East Conference Marquette 26-7 (15-3)
Big Sky Conference Sacramento State 23-8 (13-3)
Big South Conference Charleston Southern 25-9 (11-7)
Big Ten Conference Purdue 20-13 (12-6)
Big West Conference UC Riverside 23-8 (12-4)
Colonial Athletic Association Delaware 20-12 (12-6)
Conference USA Southern Methodist 21-10 (11-5)
Great West Conference Chicago State 24-8 (8-4)
Horizon League Loyola-IL 21-11 (12-6)
Independent
Ivy League
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Siena 21-11 (11-7)
Mid-American Conference Bowling Green 30-2 (14-2)
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Maryland-East Shore 23-10 (13-3)
Missouri Valley Conference Creighton 18-14 (11-7)
Mountain West Conference Air Force 29-5 (14-2)
Northeast Conference Central Connecticut State 22-11 (12-6)
Ohio Valley Conference Southeast Missouri State 22-11 (13-5)
Pacific-10 Conference Oregon 16-18 (11-7)
Patriot League Army 26-6 (10-4)
Southeastern Conference Mississippi State 21-12 (8-8)
Southern Conference Appalachian State 26-8 (16-2)
Southland Conference Texas State 23-8 (10-6)
Southwestern Athletic Conference Arkansas-Pine Bluff 27-5 (14-4)
Summit League IPFW 19-12 (13-5)
Sun Belt Conference Louisiana-Monroe 22-11 (13-5)
West Coast Conference Saint Mary's 25-7 (9-5)
Western Athletic Conference Idaho 24-9 (10-6)

Illinois finished 6th in the Big 10 and was beaten in the quarterfinals of their conference tournament.

UC Riverside tied for first in the Big West, while Santa Barbara was next to last. However, the 2 teams met in the Big West Conference Championship game. Riverside won in a blowout and gets a 12 seed where they will face a very tough Ball State team in the first round.


Here is a look at the rest of the brackets.


West: The #1 seed is Portland, out of the WCC with a 27-4 (12-2) record. This is a top5 team in scoring, rebounding and assists. Their downfall could be their defense, which is only ranked #273. The #2 seed is Texas State.


Mid-West: Big surprise, Bowling Green is the top seed in the midwest. Tanaka is scoring 20.7 per game this year. They have 3 other players with at least 11 per game. They are by far the #1 ranked offense in the country. They also have the #5 defense. No surprise that they are the most complete team in the land. The #2 seed in their bracket is St. Mary's.


South: Akron, also out of the MAC with a 26-5 (14-2) record is the top seed. They are one of the two teams to beat Bowling Green this year. They are a better offensive team than defense, but can clearly hold their own. He #2 seed is the defending champs, Radford.


East: Eastern Michigan, the third MAC team this year to earn a #1 seed finished with a 28-5 (12-4) record. They are a very similar team to Akron by the numbers. They are set up this year to final advance past the Sweet 16. The #2 seed is Pine Bluff. After 3 final fours in 4 years, Pine Bluff has struggled to get out of the first weekend more recently.

[Marmel]

Round 1 & 2

West: The top 2 seeds in the West both bomb out in the second round. #8 Eastern Kentucky pulled off the 79-71 upset over Portland while #7 Grambling State knocked off #2 Texas State. Eastern Kentucky will meet #5 Lamar while Grambling gets #3 Charleston southern.


Mid-West: This bracket was all chalk with #1 Bowling Green set to face #4 UNC Asheville and #2 St. Mary's going up against #3 Air Force. This is really a stacked bracket from 1-4.


South: It has been a few years now, but finally another #16 seed has won a tournament game. #16 Creighton has pulled the upset over #1 Akron, 72-57. they didn't just eek one out either. Creighton couldn't get by #8 Northwestern State in the second round though. NW State will face #12 Florida State. Also, #2 Radford will go up against #3 Army.


East: It is almost chalk here in the east as #1 Eastern Michigan advances to play the 5 seed Colorado State. #2 Pine Bluff will tip off against #3 Liberty.




Sweet 16

West: This bracket is now totally busted. The 5th seeded Lamar team moves on to the next round by beating #8 Eastern Kentucky. They will face #7 Grambling State. This is Grambling's first trip back to the dance in 3 years.


Mid-West: Bowling Green cruises past Asheville 63-47 to set up an Elite Eight re-match with #3 Air Force. If you remember, it was Air Force that took down big bad Bowling Green in the Elite 8 last year. Does Air Force have their number, or was it a fluke?


South: #2 Radford should have an easy time getting back to the Final Four and defending their title. They draw #12 Florida State, who is one of the few BCS representatives to make it this far in recent years.


East: In the East, Eastern Michigan finally takes another step forward by winning 71-64. they get #2 Pine Bluff, who is trying to get back to the Final Four, which used to be familiar territory for them.




Final Four Matchups


#5 Lamar
vs
#2 Radford

Lamar won in a shootout on a last minute basket. The final score was 87-85. Lamar has a tough team to defend. They have 5 players who average at least 10 points a game, so their go to guy is whoever is open. Radford had a much tougher time that expected against the 12 seed, but pulled off the 1 point victory.


#1 Bowling Green
vs
#2 Pine Bluff

These two teams had some good battles in the first first years of the league, and here they are meeting up again in the Final Four. Bowling Green are huge favorites to win 2 more games and claim their 5th title, but if they have to go through 2 very good teams to get it, and possibly beat the defending champs in the process.

[Marmel]

NIT Champs: Coastal Carolina


Welcome to the Final Four!

I don't know about you guys, but this really seems like one of the better Final Fours in recent history. Sure, Bowling Green could just blow everyone out and walk to the title, but I am not convinced that will happen. Both Pine Bluff and especially Radford are quality teams that are very capable of getting it done.



Game 1

Both teams had their offenses in high gear tonight. Radford had all 5 starters in double figures. Lamar also had 5 double digit scorers and they had an amazing performance from their PG, David Stumpf, who handed out an amazing 16 assists! Still, Radford's George Raad, just a sophomore SG, saved his best game for tonight, going off for 29 points and leading Radford to a 91-85 victory and just 1 game away from a repeat.



Game 2

Pine Bluff showed up to the game, but I think they were scared of the name Bowling Green because they played timid throughout. Bowling Green was just way too much for the 7th ranked team in the nation. They rolled 71-52 and that doesn't bode well for Radford on Monday night.




Title Game

Radford looked ready to go in the first half and jumped out to a 35-28 lead at the break. Bowling Green got their act together in the second half. They wouldn't let Geroge Raad, or Radford beat them tonight. They held Raad to 4 of 10 from the field and denied him the ball all second half. Steven Sanders, last year's hero, had a quiet tournament. He did manage 18 points but the rest of the team struggled and Bowling Green cuts down the nets for an amazing 5th time with a 69-61 victory.

[Marmel]

1947-1948


Awards

Monte Dowling Award: Junior Center Benito Ashcraft, Colorado State - 2nd time winner, 15.4 ppg, 13.1 rpg, 3.2 blocks per game

Coach: Stanley Roberts, Portland

Freshman: SF Wallace Hernandez, Akron. He was the #9 recruit.


Last year's guy that I highlighted, Fred Malcolm from Central Florida scored 18.6 per game.




Prestige

Bowling Green 100
Radford 90
Binghamton 85
Pine Bluff 84
Eastern Michigan 81
American 80
Ball State 78
Air Force, St. Mary's 77

Illinois 35
UC Riverside 42!
UC Santa Barbara 37




Top Recruiting Classes


1946 Recruiting Rankings

# Team Conference Best Player Rtg 5* 4* 3* 2* 1*
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Radford Big South C Hank Redding ***** 2 2 0 0 0
2. Citadel Southern PG Cameron Boring ***** 1 4 1 0 0
3. Coastal Carolina Big South C Agustin Crafton ***** 2 2 1 0 0
4. Binghamton America East PG Michael Baker ***** 3 1 0 0 0
5. Albany America East C Dennis Morell ***** 2 2 0 0 0
6. Bowling Green MAC SG Austin Carlos ***** 1 3 0 0 0
7. Ball State MAC PG Clarence Santillan ***** 2 1 1 0 0
8. Holy Cross Patriot League C Nigel Babcock ***** 2 1 0 0 0
9. Eastern Kentucky Ohio Valley SF Eli Hill ***** 1 2 1 0 0
10. Stony Brook America East PG Quintin Calder ***** 2 1 0 0 0
11. American Patriot League C Jacob Hutchison ***** 1 1 1 0 0
12. Alabama SEC PG Judson Rancourt **** 0 3 0 0 0
13. Liberty Big South C Gayle Suarez **** 0 3 1 0 0
14. Hartford America East PG Charles McAuliffe **** 0 3 1 0 0
15. Arkansas-Pine Bluff SWAC SF Chuck Keys ***** 1 1 0 0 0
16. Loyola-IL Horizon League PG Joseph Pierre **** 0 3 0 1 0
17. San Diego WCC SF Don Price **** 0 3 0 0 0
18. Air Force Mountain West C Justin Sherer **** 0 2 1 1 0
19. Gardner Webb Big South PF Chris Simon ***** 1 1 0 0 0
20.Toledo MAC SF John Jordan **** 0 2 3 0 0
21.

Lots of balance among the top conferences, who, by the way are:

America East
Big South
MAC
Patriot
Ohio Valley
Southern
WCC

Illinois rebounds with the #106 ranked class.
Riverside #126
SB #181






By player



# Player Pos Ht Team Conference
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Eli Hill SF 6-6 Eastern Kentucky Ohio Valley Conference
2 Chuck Keys SF 6-6 Arkansas-Pine Bluff Southwestern Athletic Conference
3 Jacob Hutchison C 6-9 American Patriot League
4 Agustin Crafton C 6-8 Coastal Carolina Big South Conference
5 Dwayne Almond PF 6-6 Brigham Young Mountain West Conference
6 Chris Simon PF 6-5 Gardner Webb Big South Conference
7 Hank Redding C 6-9 Radford Big South Conference
8 Nigel Babcock C 6-9 Holy Cross Patriot League
9 Monroe Hoyt SF 6-6 Central Michigan Mid-American Conference
10 Dennis Morell C 6-8 Albany America East Conference
11 Clarence Santillan PG 6-1 Ball State Mid-American Conference
12 Michael Baker PG 5-8 Binghamton America East Conference
13 Quintin Calder PG 6-3 Stony Brook America East Conference
14 Vernon Strong SF 6-6 Central Florida Conference USA
15 Cameron Boring PG 5-8 Citadel Southern Conference
16 Thomas Dixon PF 6-8 Albany America East Conference
17 Thaddeus Manners SG 6-3 Stony Brook America East Conference
18 Cody Morrill SG 6-0 Holy Cross Patriot League
19 Robin Shaw PG 6-1 Ball State Mid-American Conference
20 Andy Bateman SG 6-0 Binghamton America East Conference

Not the greatest class ever. The top couple of guys are good of course, but I think this guy might be the best of the bunch, a JUCO who chose BYU (especially if he was able to develop any kind of jump shot from 10 feet away)


PLAYER DETAILS

#25 PF Dwayne Almond - Brigham Young - Junior
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Height: 6-6
Weight: 237
High School: Pinnacle High School
Hometown: Tempe, AZ

Attributes:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type INS JPS FTS 3PS HND PAS ORB DRB PSD PRD STL BLK PFS QKN STR JMP STA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current: 82 28 23 26 40 26 66 64 45 51 46 51 59 27 83 49 89
Potential: A D D D C D A A B C B B

Health: Good
Scholarship: Yes
Status: Active Roster
Academics: 55

[Marmel]

1947-1948

Preseason Polls


Top 25

# Team FPV Record Points Prv
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Bowling Green (72) 0-0 1800 1
2. Arkansas-Pine Bluff 0-0 1685 7
3. Eastern Michigan 0-0 1680 2
4. American 0-0 1582 15
5. Akron 0-0 1487 6
6. Radford 0-0 1486 4
7. Army 0-0 1362 8
8. Air Force 0-0 1241 5
9. New Hampshire 0-0 1210 NR
10. Stony Brook 0-0 1135 12
11. Charleston Southern 0-0 1120 14
12. Appalachian State 0-0 938 11
13. Sam Houston State 0-0 859 NR
14. Grambling State 0-0 840 22
15. Saint Mary's 0-0 818 9
16. Binghamton 0-0 770 NR
17. Ball State 0-0 664 17
18. Jacksonville State 0-0 617 NR
19. Coastal Carolina 0-0 542 NR
20. Liberty 0-0 445 13
21. Portland 0-0 383 3
22. Lafayette 0-0 297 NR
23. San Diego 0-0 140 NR
24. McNeese State 0-0 126 NR
25.Central Michigan 0-0 63 18

New Hampshire is a new comer to the top 10. They've had very little real success in the past. A couple of tournament bids, but they never did any real damage. They had 3 top 25 recruiting class (#21, 22 and #26) the previosu 3 years and all that talent are upperclassmen now, so they should be good.



End of Regular Season

Bowling Green once again finished #1 in the country, but with 4 losses and they didn't win their conference tournament. Regular season boredom for them, or some chinks in the armor?

Radford finished up 2nd in the nation with a 28-5 record and will try to win their 2nd title in 3 years.

New Hampshire did have a great season finishing #7. Lamar and Pine Bluff, the other 2 teams in last year's Final Four are both in the top 10 as wel.


Here are the automatic qualifiers to the tournament:


Conference Team Record
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
America East Conference Stony Brook 27-4 (13-3)
Atlantic 10 Conference Saint Joseph's 21-12 (12-4)
Atlantic Coast Conference Virginia 25-8 (13-3)
Atlantic Sun Conference East Tennessee State 17-15 (10-10)
Big 12 Conference Kansas 22-9 (11-5)
Big East Conference Marquette 20-12 (11-7)
Big Sky Conference Weber State 20-11 (10-6)
Big South Conference Radford 28-5 (13-5)
Big Ten Conference Michigan 21-12 (10-8)
Big West Conference UC Irvine 17-15 (8-8)
Colonial Athletic Association Georgia State 16-16 (11-7)
Conference USA East Carolina 18-14 (10-6)
Great West Conference Texas-Pan American 20-13 (6-6)
Horizon League Loyola-IL 22-10 (12-6)
Independent
Ivy League
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Canisius 19-13 (9-9)
Mid-American Conference Ball State 24-8 (11-5)
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Norfolk State 26-8 (11-5)
Missouri Valley Conference Evansville 22-10 (10-8)
Mountain West Conference Brigham Young 25-8 (12-4)
Northeast Conference Fairleigh Dickinson 20-13 (11-7)
Ohio Valley Conference Jacksonville State 25-7 (13-5)
Pacific-10 Conference UCLA 14-19 (7-11)
Patriot League Lafayette 25-7 (10-4)
Southeastern Conference Florida 26-7 (13-3)
Southern Conference Elon 24-10 (11-7)
Southland Conference Stephen F. Austin 28-5 (14-2)
Southwestern Athletic Conference Arkansas-Pine Bluff 29-5 (15-3)
Summit League Western Illinois 19-13 (9-9)
Sun Belt Conference Denver 18-14 (12-6)
West Coast Conference Loyola Marymount 19-15 (6-8)
Western Athletic Conference San Jose State 25-10 (11-5)

Illinois finished 2nd in the Big10 and lost in the Semi's of the tournament.

Riverside and Santa Barbara finished 8th and 9th, and neither did anything in the tournament this year.



Brackets


West: Air Force, out of the Mountain West, with a 29-5 (15-1) record takes the #1 seed. Their star player, Rodney Cruz is injured and will probably miss the first weekend of the tournament. They will miss his scoring badly, as their whole philosophy is to just outgun their opponent and don't play defense. The #2 seed is Eastern Michigan.


Mid-West: Bowling Green, of course, is the #1 seed. A troubling stat for them is how far their defense slipped this year. They are always great on both sides of the ball, but were only ranked #165 in defense this season. The #2 seed is Pine Bluff!


South: Radford, out of the Big South with a 28-5 (13-5) record, is the #1 seed. They have a deadly threesome of scorers, all over 15 a game. Their point guard averages 9 with 8 assists! They are the #1 ranked offense, topping 80 points per game. The #2 seed is Ball State.


East: Charleston Southern, from the Big South, with a 27-4 (16-2) record grabs the final #1 seed. Their first trip to the tournament was last year when they made the Sweet 16. They made a huge jump up this season. The #2 seed is Stony Brook.

[Marmel]

Rounds 1 & 2

West: What a crazy first weekend in the West! The top seeded Air Force team get a brutal draw in the second round and fall to #8 Akron, 86-78. Akron will get #4 Stephen F Austin. #2 Eastern Michigan, who finally advanced deep in the tournament last year is back to their old ways, getting upset by the #15 seed, Marquette. Marquette moves on all the way to the Sweet 16 to face #3 Lafayette.


Mid-West: Mostly chalk in the midwest with Bowling Green winning by 40 and then 30 to advance and face #4 San Diego. #2 Pine Bluff will get #6 Santa Clara. Could we get another Bowling Green/Pine Bluff game? I hope so!


South: Again, mostly chalk here as the 1 seed, Radford makes easy work of their first two games. They get #4 Army, no easy task. #2 Ball State will face #6 Virginia. A few BCS teams are making noise this year.


East: #1 Charleston Southern makes their regular season look like a total fluke when taking their history into account. They drop to #8 American in the second round, although American is a highly prestigious team, and there is no shame in losing to them. They will get #5 Appalachian State. Also Colorado State and Florida, the 6 and 7 seeds meet in the other half of the bracket. Go BCS!





Sweet 16

West: #8 Akron, probably under seeded continues their ride with a 12 point win. 15 seed Marquette's journey comes to an end with a loss to #3 Lafayette.


Midwest: As hoped for, we get yet another Bowling Green-Pine Bluff game! Despite their weakened defense stats, Bowling Green is making easy work of their opponents this year and even held San Diego to just 54 points.


South: #1 Radford marches on in search of the 2nd title and will get #6 Virginia out of the ACC.


East: #8 American, also under seeded due to a strange regular season for them (they usually are in the 2-4 seed area), advances to the Elite 8 with a 81-54 beat down. They will get #6 Colorado State out of the Mountain West.




Final Four matchups

#3 Lafayette
vs
#1 Radford

#8 Akron couldn't quite finish the job as the 8 seed and Lafayette will make their first Final Four appearance. The furthest they have ever gotten was the Sweet 16. Radford was totally dominate in their 77-43 win over Virginia. At this point, they might be the favorites, even over Bowling Green.



#1 Bowling Green
vs
#8 American

Bowling Green's defense is not bad at all. They have held their tournament opponents to scores of: 38, 34, 54, and 58. OK, I guess they should be the favorites over Radford. American plays an excellent defense themselves and will try to get it done as an 8 seed, an unheard of achievment.

[Marmel]

NIT Champ: Sam Houston State


OK, let's get right to the Final Four games!


Game 1:

Radford dominated as expected with a 79-58 victory. Their PG, Dominic Otte scored 12 points and had 10 assists while C Hank Redding had 20 points and 8 boards. Not much to say about this game, they led the whole way and it was virtually over at the half.


Game 2:

Bowling Green had a slightly tougher time with their opponent, but still won comfortable, 73-60. BG's PG, Aldo Bode also had 10 assists to match Radford's point. Big Center, Ben Bythewood had 18 and 11 boards while the best player on Saturday night was their SF John Fast, who put up 25.

We have one incredible Finals matchup between Bowling Green and Radford!



Title Game

This game was tight the whole way and only some free throws at the end made the final score look worse than it ever really was. Radford's George Raad was amazing, scoring 23 points in the game. The deciding factor though was that Bowling Green did a wonderful job shutting everyone else down on Radford. Williams, their SF had 10 and nobody else could hit a bucket. Meanwhile, Bowling Green had 4 players in double digits, led by Senior SG Pat Hedrick with 16.

Yes, Bowling Green goes back to back and now have 6 National Titles to their name. They are the most dominant team in sports right now. With the recruits they keep bringing in, there might not be any stopping them.

[Marmel]

Impressive:


NCAA Champs

Season Team Record Score
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1947 Bowling Green 34-4 72-65
1946 Bowling Green 36-2 69-61
1945 Radford 31-6 78-71
1944 Bowling Green 37-3 74-67
1943 Binghamton 28-10 60-56
1942 Bowling Green 36-3 74-48
1941 Bowling Green 33-6 71-66
1940 South Dakota State 30-10 69-64
1939 Bowling Green 35-3 68-66

[Marmel]

1948-1949 Off Season

Awards

Monte Dowling: Senior PF Benito Ashcraft, Colorado State – 3 time winner! 16.6 ppg, 15.9 rpg, 4.1 bpg. Sadly, the team only went 6-4 in the tournament in his 4 seasons.

Coach: Elbert Leone, Charleston Southern. Why hasn't Bowling Green's Chris etter won it more than once?

Freshman: C Hank Redding, Radford. He was the #7 recruit.



Prestige

Bowling Green 100
Radford 96 – A true challenger for top dog
Binghamton 88 – Quiet in the last couple of years
Pine Bluff 86 – They keep losing to Bowling Green
American 85
Eastern Michigan 85 – Tournament choke artists
Ball State 83
St. Mary's 83

Illinois 37
Riverside 43
SB 39



Top Recruiting Classes


# Team Conference Best Player Rtg 5* 4* 3* 2* 1*
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Eastern Michigan MAC PF Jayson Medeiros ***** 3 1 0 0 0
2. American Patriot League PG Leon Privett ***** 1 3 1 0 0
3. Radford Big South C Brian Withers ***** 1 2 0 0 0
4. Holy Cross Patriot League SF Leroy Dacosta ***** 2 2 0 0 0
5. Appalachian State Southern SG James Cantor ***** 1 2 1 0 0
6. Grambling State SWAC PG John Walden **** 0 4 0 0 0
7. Akron MAC PG Gary Fonseca ***** 1 2 1 1 0
8. Arkansas-Pine Bluff SWAC SF Logan Arciniega ***** 3 0 0 0 0
9. UNC Asheville Big South SF Fabian Thorpe ***** 1 1 2 0 0
10. Bowling Green MAC SF Hunter Delossantos ***** 2 1 0 0 0
11. Eastern Illinois Ohio Valley C Colby Sussman **** 0 3 1 1 0
12. Stony Brook America East C Dennis Monaghan ***** 1 2 1 0 0
13. Binghamton America East PF Kelly Cerda ***** 1 2 0 0 0
14. Eastern Kentucky Ohio Valley PG Václav Stanek **** 0 3 1 0 0
15. Northern Illinois MAC C Eric Woodruff ***** 1 2 0 1 0
16. Portland WCC PF Joseph Ellis ***** 1 0 3 0 0
17. Loyola Marymount WCC PF Víctor Montero **** 0 3 0 2 0
18. Saint Mary's WCC C Alvin Fifield ***** 1 0 2 0 0
19. Army Patriot League PF Ted Williams ***** 1 0 2 0 0
20.San Diego WCC PG Kevin Conlon ***** 1 1 0 0 0

I want to say this recruiting class is wasted on Eastern Michigan, but with3 5* guys, they better break though in the next few seasons. Radford is not going to slow down as they keep up their excellent recruiting. Bowling Green's last couple of classes have been great, but not quite what you might expect.

Illinois #142
Santa Barbara #86
Riverside #202



By player


# Player Pos Ht Team Conference
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Brian Withers C 6-7 Radford Big South Conference
2 Jayson Medeiros PF 6-7 Eastern Michigan Mid-American Conference
3 Richard Muller SF 6-6 NON-QUALIFIER
4 Fabian Thorpe SF 6-7 UNC Asheville Big South Conference
5 Kevin Conlon PG 6-2 San Diego West Coast Conference
6 Alvin Fifield C 6-7 Saint Mary's West Coast Conference
7 Ted Williams PF 6-8 Army Patriot League
8 Hunter Delossantos SF 6-7 Bowling Green Mid-American Conference
9 Lou Menjivar PG 5-9 Eastern Michigan Mid-American Conference
10 Logan Arciniega SF 6-6 Arkansas-Pine Bluff Southwestern Athletic Conference
11 Kelly Cerda PF 6-6 Binghamton America East Conference
12 Leon Privett PG 5-11 American Patriot League
13 James Cantor SG 5-11 Appalachian State Southern Conference
14 Dennis Monaghan C 6-7 Stony Brook America East Conference
15 Charles Blume SG 6-1 Eastern Michigan Mid-American Conference
16 Larry Holguin SG 6-1 Bowling Green Mid-American Conference
17 Scott Taylor SG 6-2 Jacksonville State Ohio Valley Conference
18 Joseph Ellis PF 6-6 Portland West Coast Conference
19 Leroy Dacosta SF 6-6 Holy Cross Patriot League
20 Mel May PF 6-7 Arkansas-Pine Bluff Southwestern Athletic Conference

Eastern Michigan with 3 of the top 15 recruits!

I'm not in love with any of the top recruits, but #6 Alvin Fifeld looks promising for a big guy. He is going to St. Mary's.


PLAYER DETAILS

#15 C Alvin Fifield - Saint Mary's - Freshman
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Height: 6-7
Weight: 218
High School: Westchester Senior High School
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA

Attributes:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type INS JPS FTS 3PS HND PAS ORB DRB PSD PRD STL BLK PFS QKN STR JMP STA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current: 76 15 37 9 33 39 41 58 76 44 35 42 50 21 65 20 4
Potential: A D C F C C B B A C C B

Health: Good
Scholarship: Yes
Status: Active Roster
Academics: 39

[Marmel]

1948-1949 Season

PreSeason Polls


# Team FPV Record Points Prv
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Eastern Michigan (72) 0-0 1800 8
2. Bowling Green 0-0 1728 1
3. Appalachian State 0-0 1654 18
4. Akron 0-0 1575 NR
5. Arkansas-Pine Bluff 0-0 1510 6
6. Radford 0-0 1453 2
7. Ball State 0-0 1366 10
8. Binghamton 0-0 1296 22
9. Air Force 0-0 1180 3
10. San Diego 0-0 1146 24
11. Saint Mary's 0-0 1049 NR
12. Army 0-0 1041 14
13. Stony Brook 0-0 943 4
14. Jacksonville State 0-0 838 16
15. UNC Asheville 0-0 829 NR
16. American 0-0 712 NR
17. Brigham Young 0-0 674 19
18. Albany 0-0 586 NR
19. New Hampshire 0-0 496 7
20. Northern Illinois 0-0 351 17
21. Texas State 0-0 302 NR
22. Coastal Carolina 0-0 282 NR
23. Grambling State 0-0 118 15
24. Holy Cross 0-0 116 NR
25.Toledo 0-0 98 NR

There really is no justifiable reason to put Eastern Michigan, of all teams, #1 over Bowling Green. This is pretty shocking to me. Eastern Michigan are perennial failures in the tournament. Appalachian State makes an appearance way up top in the polls.





One of the more interesting regular season's we have had. First of all, Bowling Green had a very down year. They finished 22-10 with a final ranking of 16. I wouldn't say their dynasty is quote over yet, but it might take another year or so before they are back in the Final Four.

Eastern Michigan goes wire to wire as the top ranked team in the country. They finish 33-1. Now, can they get it done in the tournament? Pine Bluff finishes #2. are they back to Final Four form?

Binghamton finished 3 and will be looking for their second National Title.

Here are the automatic qualifiers:


Conference Team Record
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
America East Conference New Hampshire 28-5 (12-4)
Atlantic 10 Conference Charlotte 17-17 (10-6)
Atlantic Coast Conference Miami 21-13 (7-9)
Atlantic Sun Conference Florida Gulf Coast 16-16 (9-11)
Big 12 Conference Baylor 18-14 (12-4)
Big East Conference Connecticut 21-12 (12-6)
Big Sky Conference Portland State 18-13 (12-4)
Big South Conference UNC Asheville 30-4 (14-4)
Big Ten Conference Illinois 19-13 (12-6)
Big West Conference Cal State Fullerton 21-10 (12-4)
Colonial Athletic Association Towson 21-11 (11-7)
Conference USA East Carolina 20-13 (10-6)
Great West Conference Chicago State 22-10 (9-3)
Horizon League Cleveland State 24-10 (11-7)
Independent
Ivy League
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Canisius 22-11 (12-6)
Mid-American Conference Eastern Michigan 33-1 (15-1)
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Coppin State 22-9 (9-7)
Missouri Valley Conference Illinois State 18-15 (10-8)
Mountain West Conference Air Force 29-4 (15-1)
Northeast Conference Fairleigh Dickinson 20-14 (13-5)
Ohio Valley Conference Jacksonville State 24-9 (12-6)
Pacific-10 Conference Stanford 19-14 (9-9)
Patriot League American 28-6 (12-2)
Southeastern Conference Mississippi 20-11 (12-4)
Southern Conference Appalachian State 28-5 (17-1)
Southland Conference Sam Houston State 25-8 (10-6)
Southwestern Athletic Conference Arkansas-Pine Bluff 32-2 (17-1)
Summit League Oral Roberts 18-14 (10-8)
Sun Belt Conference Western Kentucky 23-10 (15-3)
West Coast Conference Santa Clara 27-6 (9-5)
Western Athletic Conference Boise State 17-16 (8-8)

Illinois finished 2nd in the Big 10 and then beat top seeded Indiana! Illinois receives a 14 seed and will play #3 Bowling Green.

Riverside finished 7th and Santa Barbara last. Neither did anything in the Big West Tournament.


Brackets


West: UNC Asheville, out of the Big south, with a 30-4 (14-4) record grabs the top seed in the West. Defense is their strength, but they can score points when they need to. They have a Sweet 16 appearance in 3 trips to the tournament. The #2 seed is Santa Clara.


Midwest: Eastern Michigan takes the top seed in the midwest. They are out of the MAC and finished 33-1. They have 5 players scoring in double figures. They have the #1 offense and the #7 defense in the land. Air Force is the #2 seed and Bowling Green grabs the 3rd seed.


South: Pine Bluff gets the top seed here. They play in the SWAC and had a 32-2 (17-1) season. They have 2 16 point scorers on their team. They are top 15 in both offense and defense. The #2 seed is Appalachian State.


East: Binghamton gets the #1 seed after a 30-3 (15-1) regular season out of the American East conference. They are top 25 in offense and defense. American is the #2 seed in this region while Radford fell to a 5 seed.


This is one of the more wide open tournaments we have seen. Bowling Green is still a threat as a 3 seed, but they are not the overwhelming favorites anymore. Eastern Michigan is clearly the best team in the regular season, but now it is time to put up or shut up. There are a few teams that were denied glory by Bowling Green and now is the time for them to get it done.

[Marmel]

Round 1 & 2

West: It is all chalk in the west. #1 UNC Asheville will play #4 Akron. #2 Santa Clara gets #3 BYU and their star JUCO recruit from 2 years ago, Dwayne Almond. He put up 15.5 and 10.2 this year.


Midwest: All chalk in this region as well. Eastern Michigan is one third of the way to their goal, although they had a close one in round two, beating Citadel 68-62. they will play #4 San Diego. Also, #2 Air Force gets the very dangerous #3 Bowling Green. BG will not go down without a fight.


South: Almost all chalk here as well as #1 Pine Bluff cruises through the first two rounds and will get #5 Cleveland State next. #2 Appalachian State plays #3 New Hampshire, who is finally living up to expectations.


East: Other than the 5 seed in the South, all top 4 seeds have advanced in every region. That means #5 Radford fell to #4 Army, and they will get #1 Binghamton, who has one title under their belt already. Also #2 American will get #3 Ball State.




Sweet 16

West: The top 2 seeds will face off in what should be a great game between #1 UNC Asheville and #2 Santa Clara. This is Santa Clara's second tournament appearance. They made the Sweet 16 last year. This is asheville's 4th trip to the dance, advancing as far as the Sweet 16 two years ago.


Midwest: #1 Eastern Michigan wins by 9 points over San Diego and now must get by a weakened Bowling Green team if they are going to win a title, or even make a Final Four. Bowling Green refuses to die, as they knock off the 2 seed, Air Force, 77-74.


South: #1 Pine Bluff beats Cleveland State by 15 to advance and will get #3 New Hampshire. NH has 1 tournament win in 3 previous appearances, but are now 1 win from a Final Four. Pine Bluff is trying to reach their 5th Final Four. They haven't won it all in their previous 4 trips.


East: #1 Binghamton gets #2 American. Binghamton won the title back in 1943. American is looking ofr back to back trips to the Final Four and it would be their third trip overall.



Final Four matchups

#2 Santa Clara
vs
#1 Pine Bluff

In the battle of relative newcomers to the tournament, Santa Clara beats Asheville. Pine Bluff took an 8 point win over New Hampshire.


#1 Eastern Michigan
vs
#2 American

Eastern Michigan gets it done over Bowling Green, 62-48. They imposed their will on BG and now have to be the favorites to cut down the nets next Monday night. American got by the top seed Binghamton team 77-75.

[Marmel]

NIT Champ: Texas State


Final Four

Game 1

Pine Bluff's defense got the job done in the first half, effectively taking Santa Clara out of the game. They led 45-29 at the half and never looked back in a 75-60 victory. Junior Shooting Guard John Reinert led the way with 28 points.


Game 2
It was a huge second half where they outscored American 42-12 that puts Eastern Michigan in the championship game. Holding a team to 12 points in a half in the Final Four is pretty amazing. This game was the most dominating performance in a Final Four that we have ever seen. The final score was 87-47.




Title Game

Eastern Michigan had a phenominal season and I think they went a long way in shedding that choker moniker, but they couldn't seal the deal, despite their obviously superior talent. Pine Bluff controlled the boards, took an early lead and kept the pressure on all night long en route to a 71-63 victory.

It took many years and 5 trips to the Final Four, but Arkansas Pine Bluff is finally cutting down the nets as champions of college basketball. Great for them!!

[Izulde]

I'm glad Bowling Green made it to the Elite 8. I thought they got robbed as a #3 seed. Too bad they couldn't knock off EMU, but at least PB took the Eagles down.

[Thomkal]

Enjoying your dynasty Marmel, how are my hometown Marist Red Foxes doing?

[Young Drachma]

I love all of the concepts here from the 30 prestige for everyone to starting in the earlier years and building an alternative history. This is great stuff. I'm following and now I have an idea of how to finally get started on my own, as I wasn't sure how I wanted to go.

Good stuff.

[Marmel]

Thanks for following along guys. It is always nice to know somebody is interested.

FYI, I plan on adding the 3 point shot at the appropriate time, and then start letting juniors declare, then sophomores, etc...

Marist...not so good thus far


MARIST TEAM PERFORMANCE

Season Team W L CW CL Rank RPI PRS Result
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1948 Marist 16 15 9 9 213 188 33 No Postseason
1947 Marist 15 17 6 12 208 213 31 No Postseason
1946 Marist 17 16 10 8 255 205 34 No Postseason
1945 Marist 20 13 11 7 155 113 34 Loss in NCAA Tourney Round 1
1944 Marist 14 18 9 9 261 166 30 No Postseason
1943 Marist 16 14 10 8 108 159 30 No Postseason
1942 Marist 19 13 8 10 100 144 29 No Postseason
1941 Marist 15 15 9 9 183 168 30 No Postseason
1940 Marist 17 17 7 11 219 211 29 No Postseason
1939 Marist 12 18 9 9 302 281 30 No Postseason

[Marmel]

1949-1950 Offseason

Awards

Monte Dowling: Senior Center Jack Engle, Bowling Green. 19.7 ppg, 11.4 rpg, 3.1 bpg, 2.3 apg

Coach: Clyde Swanner, Norfolk State

Freshman: Center Joseph Chirey, Pine Bluff - #21 overall recruit

Note: The Eastern Michigan coach, after finally reaching the Final Four, has retired.


Prestige

Bowling Green 100
Radford 98
Pine Bluff 94
Binghamton 93
Eastern Michigan 91
American 89
Ball State 88
St. Mary's 86
Army 84
Air Force 83
Appalachian State 83
Holy Cross 82

Illinois 37
Riverside 40
SB 35
Marist 33

Villanova 10
Washington State 3



Top Ranked Recruiting Classes


1948 Recruiting Rankings

# Team Conference Best Player Rtg 5* 4* 3* 2* 1*
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Saint Mary's WCC PF Quinton Lammers ***** 3 2 0 0 0
2. Air Force Mountain West SF Richard Thacker ***** 2 2 0 0 0
3. American Patriot League C Rickey Ayers ***** 3 1 0 0 0
4. Army Patriot League PG Andreas Aguirre ***** 1 4 0 0 0
5. Binghamton America East PF Eric Ward ***** 1 3 0 0 0
6. Arkansas-Pine Bluff SWAC PG Edward Levasseur ***** 1 2 0 0 0
7. Holy Cross Patriot League PF Ronnie Burgess ***** 1 2 1 0 0
8. Northern Illinois MAC C Delmer Knox ***** 2 0 0 0 0
9. San Diego State Mountain West PG Jonathan Dugan ***** 1 0 3 0 0
10. Stony Brook America East SG Dale Hannan **** 0 3 1 0 0
11. UNC Asheville Big South SF Warren Amin ***** 2 1 0 0 0
12. Miami-Ohio MAC SG Michael Carter **** 0 3 0 1 0
13. Texas State Southland SF Irving Stokes **** 0 2 2 1 0
14. Grambling State SWAC C Marty Birnbaum **** 0 3 0 0 0
15. Albany America East PF Edward Bennett **** 0 3 0 0 0
16. Gardner Webb Big South PF Arnoldo Kemp ***** 1 1 1 0 0
17. Ball State MAC C Stephen Rodriquez ***** 1 1 1 0 0
18. San Diego WCC PF Stephen Legault ***** 1 0 3 0 0
19. Appalachian State Southern PG John Brown ***** 1 1 1 0 0
20.Loyola-IL Horizon League SG Gil Kwan **** 0 2 1 0 0

Bowling Green had 3 scholarships and slipped all the way to #27 in the rankings. The teams you would probably expect to be near the top, are. The Patriot League having another great recruiting year, landing 3 of the top 7 classes.

Illinois #320
SB #195
Riverside #347 – no scholarships given out
Marist #97 – best in the MAAC


By player


# Player Pos Ht Team Conference
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Richard Thacker SF 6-5 Air Force Mountain West Conference
2 Edward Levasseur PG 6-1 Arkansas-Pine Bluff Southwestern Athletic Conference
3 Quinton Lammers PF 6-6 Saint Mary's West Coast Conference
4 Delmer Knox C 6-6 Northern Illinois Mid-American Conference
5 Wade Thompson PG 6-3 Northern Illinois Mid-American Conference
6 Jonathan Dugan PG 6-3 San Diego State Mountain West Conference
7 Matt Bulter PG 6-4 Saint Mary's West Coast Conference
8 Rickey Ayers C 6-6 American Patriot League
9 Coleman Jacobsen PG 6-1 Citadel Southern Conference
10 Jeffrey Bobo PG 5-11 Saint Mary's West Coast Conference
11 Rolland Ecker C 6-8 Air Force Mountain West Conference
12 Ronnie Burgess PF 6-10 Holy Cross Patriot League
13 Chris Benton SF 6-4 Texas A&M-CC Southland Conference
14 Kevin Crawford SF 6-8 Lafayette Patriot League
15 Larry Meister SF 6-6 NON-QUALIFIER
16 Arnoldo Kemp PF 6-9 Gardner Webb Big South Conference
17 Israel Phillips SG 6-3 American Patriot League
18 Warren Amin SF 6-6 UNC Asheville Big South Conference
19 Andreas Aguirre PG 6-4 Army Patriot League
20 Eli Keeney PF 6-7 UNC Asheville Big South Conference

Particularly impressive was both Northern Illinois, grabbing the 5th and 6th best players and St. Mary's landing #3, #7 and #10.


PF Quinton Lammers looks like a pretty versatile big man. He should be a great low post scoring presence, great at defense, excellent rebounder, solid hands and a very good passer out of the post.


PLAYER DETAILS

#55 PF Quinton Lammers - Saint Mary's - Freshman
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Height: 6-6
Weight: 203
High School: Clairemont Senior High School
Hometown: San Diego, CA

Attributes:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type INS JPS FTS 3PS HND PAS ORB DRB PSD PRD STL BLK PFS QKN STR JMP STA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current: 68 20 32 0 25 41 65 50 59 32 59 31 30 27 68 37 41
Potential: A D C F C B A B A C B C

Health: Good
Scholarship: Yes
Status: Active Roster
Academics: 34




Let's take a quick look back at the player I highlighted in the recruit rankings each year since 1946, which would make that class Seniors now.

1946 #2 recruit SG Fred Malcolm, Central Florida – From his first game, he was the best scorer on Central Florida. He has averaged: 18.6, 17.4 and 19.4 per game in his three years. His team has been to the tournament once and was out in the first round.

Now, compared to the #1 ranked recruit that year, SF Ronald Shell, Cal State Fullerton. Shell has averaged: 12.4, 14.9 and 13.8 per game. His junior year he finally found his place on the boards and grabbed 9.6 rebounds per game. His team has been to the tournament twice and they won one game.


1947 was the JUCO player. The #1 recruit that year was SF Eli Hill from Eastern Kentucky. He has averaged 15.5 per game and 6.7 boards from the SF spot. He has just 2 NIT appearances.


1948 C Alvin Fifield, St. Mary's. He started all 33 games last year but only chipped in with 5.4 ppg and 6.6 rebounds. Fifield actually played out of position at PF because St. Mary's has a total stud at Center who is a senior this year and gets most of the scoring chances down low.

The #1 recruit last year was C Brian Withers with Radford. Radford is a strong, deep team and Withers only got 3.1 minutes per game. They have 2 senior centers this year, so Withers will probably be the man in his last two collegiate seasons for a team who is always a threat to reach the Final Four.

[Marmel]

Quick Note: Eastern Michigan hired away UNC Asheville's head coach. 42 year old David Walley has done a nice job building up Asheville, after starting his career as the Arkansas head coach. He brought Asheville to a #1 seed and an Elite 8 appearance last year. Now he has the pressure of finally getting Eastern Michigan a National Title. He comes in with the rep as a top recruiter, but only an above average gameday coach.

[Marmel]

1949-1950 Season

Preseason Top 25


Top 25

# Team FPV Record Points Prv
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Arkansas-Pine Bluff (69) 0-0 1797 2
2. Radford (2) 0-0 1726 15
3. Bowling Green (1) 0-0 1661 16
4. Binghamton 0-0 1580 3
5. Eastern Michigan 0-0 1515 1
6. Ball State 0-0 1441 11
7. Akron 0-0 1351 19
8. Saint Mary's 0-0 1276 NR
9. American 0-0 1251 9
10. Air Force 0-0 1125 6
11. UNC Asheville 0-0 1052 4
12. Albany 0-0 979 NR
13. Coastal Carolina 0-0 958 NR
14. Appalachian State 0-0 908 5
15. Grambling State 0-0 778 25
16. Stony Brook 0-0 670 NR
17. San Diego 0-0 663 12
18. Northern Illinois 0-0 609 NR
19. Citadel 0-0 548 20
20. Loyola-IL 0-0 412 NR
21. Santa Clara 0-0 330 10
22. Cal State Fullerton 0-0 267 NR
23. Buffalo 0-0 250 NR
24. Army 0-0 89 13
25.Jacksonville State 0-0 70 21

The defending champions have the top spot in the preseason poll. They next 4 years are all annual contenders for the title, so it should be no surprise. I have a feeling we have seen the end of the total dominance of the Bowling Green dynasty.

Now, I am sure they may win another title, but I don't think they are set up to be the overwhelming favorite each season, nor will they hold the #1 ranking from start to finish each year. Their recruiting has slipped a tiny bit and the other teams now know they are not invincible.




End of regular season

The reports of Bowling Green's demise may have been a bit premature. They finished the season 32-3 and ranked #1 in the nation. Binghamton, American, Radford and Asheville round out the top 5. By the way, Asheville hired away Loyola-IL's coach, who was good at making the tournament, but never advanced very far, except for one Sweet 16 appearance.

The defending champs, Pine Bluff finished #8.

Auto bids


Conference Team Record
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
America East Conference Binghamton 31-3 (14-2)
Atlantic 10 Conference Temple 20-12 (12-4)
Atlantic Coast Conference Miami 19-12 (10-6)
Atlantic Sun Conference Belmont 23-9 (14-6)
Big 12 Conference Kansas 22-10 (10-6)
Big East Conference Rutgers 21-12 (12-6)
Big Sky Conference Northern Colorado 16-15 (10-6)
Big South Conference Radford 29-5 (15-3)
Big Ten Conference Penn State 21-11 (12-6)
Big West Conference Cal State Fullerton 21-9 (12-4)
Colonial Athletic Association Hofstra 16-17 (9-9)
Conference USA Central Florida 28-4 (15-1)
Great West Conference North Dakota 25-8 (7-5)
Horizon League Milwaukee 25-6 (14-4)
Independent
Ivy League
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Loyola-Maryland 19-14 (10-8)
Mid-American Conference Bowling Green 32-3 (14-2)
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Maryland-East Shore 20-12 (11-5)
Missouri Valley Conference Missouri State 23-9 (13-5)
Mountain West Conference Wyoming 19-13 (7-9)
Northeast Conference Quinnipiac 20-13 (13-5)
Ohio Valley Conference Eastern Kentucky 21-12 (12-6)
Pacific-10 Conference UCLA 17-15 (10-8)
Patriot League American 28-4 (13-1)
Southeastern Conference Auburn 22-11 (12-4)
Southern Conference Appalachian State 25-7 (16-2)
Southland Conference Sam Houston State 18-15 (7-9)
Southwestern Athletic Conference Arkansas-Pine Bluff 27-6 (14-4)
Summit League IPFW 22-11 (12-6)
Sun Belt Conference Florida International 22-10 (12-6)
West Coast Conference Portland 22-11 (7-7)
Western Athletic Conference Hawaii 21-12 (10-6)

Illinois won the Big10 regular season title, but was bounced by the 8 seed in the Big10 tournament. They did get a 4 seed in the NIT.

Riverside finished 6th and Santa Barbara 9th in the Big West. Neither did anything in the conf. Tourney.

Marist finished 9th in the MAAC and made a run to the tournament semi finals, but fell short.



And the rest of the brackets:


West: Akron grabs the top seed in the west with a 27-7 (13-3) record out of the powerful MAC conference. Senior SF Wallace Hernandex, a former top 10 recruit led them with over 20 points per game. They are the 3rd ranked offense in the nation, but their defense is only ranked #289. Not good. The #2 seed is Ashville.


Midwest: Bowling Green is once again the top seed in the midwest bracket. They had 5 players in double digit scoring, but their versatile SF is out for the entire tournament. They were top 10 in offense and top 30 in defense this year. Santa Clara is the #2 seed.


South: American is the #1 seed this year. They are in the Patriot league and finished 28-4 (13-1). Their Junior Center Jacob Hutchinson led the way with 18.9 points a game, 8.4 boards and a very impressive 4.3 blocks. His interior defense propelled them to the 3rd ranked defense in the land. #2 seed is Ball State.


East: Binghamton is the final #1 seed. They were 31-3 (14-2) out of the American East Conference. They are top 20 in offense and top 25 in defense. They protect the ball as well as anyone and won't turn it over leading to easy baskets for the opponent. The #2 seed is Radford. Pine Bluff is the 3 seed and Eastern Michigan is the 4 seed in this absolutely loaded region!

[Marmel]

Rounds 1 & 2

First, a quick note on Illinois. They won the 4/5 matchup vs. New Orleans, but then lost to the #1 seed in the NIT West bracket, Citadel.


West: This region goes all chalk. #1 Akron will get a tough 4 seed in Grambling State. #2 Asheville will face #3 San Diego.


Midwest: Just a minor upset here in the midwest as #8 Texas State topples powerful Bowling Green in the second round, 73-65. Except for the second season of this dynasty, when they totally missed the tournament, Bowling Green has been to at least the Elite 8 each year. Texas State will get #5 Cal Poly. #2 Santa Clara will face #6 VMI.


South: The top seed American advances , although they had a real scare in the first round against #16 Loyola Maryland, 94-91. They get #13 Belmont, who upset the 4 seed St. Mary's and then beat Eastern Kentucky. #2 Ball State face #3 Coastal Carolina.


East: In the bracket of doom we have the dream matchups as the top 4 seeds advance. That sets up a great weekend of hoops in the East with #1 Binghamton vs. #4 Eastern Michigan and #2 Radford vs #3 Pine Bluff. This bracket might rival any final four set of teams we have ever had!





Sweet 16

West: #1 Akron manages to just get by Grambling State, 76-72, while #3 San Diego blew the doors off of Asheville, 80-56.


Midwest: #8 Texas State is for real after beating Bowling Green, they handle #5 Cal Poly and advance to the Elite 8 where they will get #2 Santa Clara.


South: The top 2 seeds advance here with #1 American going up against #2 Ball State.


East: Eastern Michigan didn't even put up a fight and went down 79-57 to the top seeded Binghamton team. The second game was more competative, but the defending champs from Pine Bluff fell to the 2nd seeded Radford team, 86-76.



Final Four matchups

#1 Akron
vs
#1 American

Akron didn't have much trouble in their game with San Diego. They advance to their first final 4 after a couple of previous trip to the Elite 8. American also won by a comfortable margin and now advances to their 3rd straight Final 4 and 4th overall. They have yet to even advance to the title game though.



#2 Santa Clara
vs
#2 Radford

Texas State couldn't quite finish the job, though they played tough against Santa Clara. Santa Clara is making just their 3rd NCAA tournament appearance, all coming in the last 3 years, but this is already their 2nd straight trip to the final 4. Radford beat one of my favorite teams, Binghamton, 93-77 to advance. Radford is the only team in this year's Final Four who has won a title. They have also lost 2 title games. This is their 4th trip.

[Marmel]

NIT Champs: Central Michigan

Game 1

American found themselves behind by 8 at the half, but a huge second half by their star center, Jacob Hutchinson (who I actually featured 2 posts back) led back back and eventually on to victory, 82-78. Hutchinson scored 18 points and had 12 rebounds as well as 4 blocks.



Game 2

This game was won in the first half by Santa Clara's great defensive effort, holding Radford to just 24 points. It was a low scoring game the whole way, but SC won 63-60. Santa Clara is a real newcomer to the scene but they are on the verge of becoming the kings of college basketball.


SANTA CLARA TEAM PERFORMANCE

Season Team W L CW CL Rank RPI PRS Result
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1948 Santa Clara 31 7 9 5 5 3 67 Loss in NCAA Final Four
1947 Santa Clara 24 10 11 3 24 8 57 Loss in NCAA Sweet Sixteen
1946 Santa Clara 19 16 6 8 62 34 46 Loss in NIT Round 2
1945 Santa Clara 16 16 4 10 86 98 39 No Postseason
1944 Santa Clara 13 18 5 9 133 112 36 No Postseason
1943 Santa Clara 18 14 10 4 80 65 35 Loss in NIT Round 1
1942 Santa Clara 15 15 4 10 164 224 28 No Postseason
1941 Santa Clara 13 18 4 10 192 221 27 No Postseason
1940 Santa Clara 18 13 9 5 120 96 29 No Postseason
1939 Santa Clara 6 24 3 11 296 297 27 No Postseason



Title Game

It takes some teams years, or even decades to become an elite program, and at halftime, with Santa Clara leading 54-40, it looked like it might only take 3 years for this team. But American is experienced and would not just give up. They fought all the way back in the second half behind a pair of 20 point performances by their star SF Malik Abernathy (20 points) and SG Israel Phillips (24 points). American was down 1 with just seconds to play. Phillips had the open look from the wing and drained the shot to send American to their first National Title! 94-93 was the final score.

[Marmel]

1950-1951

Awards

Monte Dowling: Junior PF Hank Redding, Radford. 20.1 ppg, 9.1 rpg

Coach: Chris Almarez, Santa Clara

Freshman: PG George Corn, Texas State – Ranked just #62



Prestige

Bowling Green 100
Radford 100
American 96
Binghamton 95
Eastern Michigan 93
Pine Bluff 92
Ball State 91
Akron 88
St. Mary's 88

Santa Clara 76

Illinois 38
Marist 31
Riverside 40
SB 32



Top Recruiting Classes


# Team Conference Best Player Rtg 5* 4* 3* 2* 1*
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Brigham Young Mountain West SF Hugh Kingsley ***** 1 2 1 0 0
2. Arkansas-Pine Bluff SWAC C Robert Baber ***** 1 2 1 0 0
3. Santa Clara WCC SF James Martin ***** 1 1 4 1 0
4. Radford Big South C Kevin Gonzales ***** 1 3 0 0 0
5. Army Patriot League SF Levi Heath ***** 1 3 0 0 0
6. Albany America East SG Andreas Anders **** 0 4 0 0 0
7. Citadel Southern SF Arnulfo Kass ***** 1 2 0 0 0
8. San Diego WCC SF Richard Muller ***** 2 0 0 0 0
9. Appalachian State Southern PG Saul Schuler ***** 1 2 1 0 0
10. Bowling Green MAC C Richard Strauss ***** 1 2 1 0 0
11. Charleston Southern Big South PF Ronnie Friedman **** 0 2 2 0 0
12. Ball State MAC SG Brendon Charlton ***** 1 1 2 0 0
13. Eastern Kentucky Ohio Valley PG Louis Alexander ***** 1 2 1 0 0
14. Akron MAC PF Chris Valdez ***** 1 2 1 0 0
15. Saint Mary's WCC C Tal Denny ***** 1 1 0 0 0
16. American Patriot League SG Nick Perkins ***** 2 0 0 0 0
17. Portland WCC SG Enoch Kelly ***** 1 1 0 0 0
18. Air Force Mountain West SG David Ortiz ***** 1 1 1 0 0
19. Eastern Michigan MAC PG Logan Pace ***** 1 1 1 0 0
20.Binghamton America East PG Scott Louie ***** 1 1 0 0 0

BYU with the #1 ranked class is a bit of a surprise. San Diego is the only team to land more than one 5* recruit. Bowling Green back into the top 10. Eastern Michigan with their hotshot head coach finished just 19th.

Illinois #272
Riverside #153
SB #158
Marist #249



By player


1949 Recruiting Rankings

# Player Pos Ht Team Conference
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Richard Muller SF 6-6 San Diego West Coast Conference
2 Robert Baber C 6-9 Arkansas-Pine Bluff Southwestern Athletic Conference
3 Hugh Kingsley SF 6-4 Brigham Young Mountain West Conference
4 Gregory Olin PG 5-11 Samford Southern Conference
5 Tal Denny C 6-6 Saint Mary's West Coast Conference
6 Arnulfo Kass SF 6-4 Citadel Southern Conference
7 Norris Broomfield SG 6-4 San Diego State Mountain West Conference
8 Saul Schuler PG 5-11 Appalachian State Southern Conference
9 Enoch Kelly SG 6-1 Portland West Coast Conference
10 Kevin Gonzales C 6-7 Radford Big South Conference
11 David Finch SG 6-2 Holy Cross Patriot League
12 Nick Perkins SG 6-3 American Patriot League
13 Louis Alexander PG 5-11 Eastern Kentucky Ohio Valley Conference
14 Richard Strauss C 7-0 Bowling Green Mid-American Conference
15 Daniel Welborn SF 6-5 American Patriot League
16 Harold Stillwell PF 6-7 Grambling State Southwestern Athletic Conference
17 Levi Heath SF 6-4 Army Patriot League
18 Logan Pace PG 5-10 Eastern Michigan Mid-American Conference
19 David Ortiz SG 6-3 Air Force Mountain West Conference
20 Mauricio Crespo PF 6-8 San Diego West Coast Conference


I'm not really in love with any of the top recruits, but this guy, who committed to Citadel, looks like he could score a ton of points one day


PLAYER DETAILS

#15 SF Arnulfo Kass - Citadel - Freshman
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Height: 6-4
Weight: 194
High School: Mitchell-Baker High School
Hometown: Camilla, GA

Attributes:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type INS JPS FTS 3PS HND PAS ORB DRB PSD PRD STL BLK PFS QKN STR JMP STA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current: 83 66 34 45 34 24 12 28 53 24 43 36 55 57 45 69 85
Potential: A A C C B C F C A D B C

Health: Good
Scholarship: Yes
Status: Active Roster
Academics: 67

[Marmel]

Penn, a 53 prestige team, hired away Illinois' head coach. They replaced him with a career assistant, Avery Menchaca. He is rated 1 in recruiting. Yes, that is 1 out of 100. He is considered an offensive genius though, but he really looks like he belongs as an assistant coach. Bad hire.

[Marmel]

Addendum to the Illinois coaching position:

To make matters worst, this new coach spends his whole budget on a scout and an assistant who is all about offense as well. Then, he has no money left and hires some bum off the street to be his recruiter. so basically, they will get no good recruits and not teach anybody on their team defense. Ouch.

[hoopsguy]

Penn, a 53 prestige team, hired away Illinois' head coach. They replaced him with a career assistant, Avery Menchaca. He is rated 1 in recruiting. Yes, that is 1 out of 100. He is considered an offensive genius though, but he really looks like he belongs as an assistant coach. Bad hire.

Hard to believe that the recruiting could get any worse than it has been up to this point. My impression has been that the Illini do pretty well in regular season but come up very small in postseason under the old coach. And that is not a formula for NCAA bids when the Big Ten has been turned into the MEAC, for all intents and purposes.

[Marmel]

I guess they have to try something, hoopsguy. We'll see how it works out over the next few years.

I like having these random teams to follow, just to see how the AI handles it, what changes work, what doesn't etc...

[Marmel]

1950-1951

Preseason Poll


Top 25

# Team FPV Record Points Prv
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. American (71) 0-0 1799 3
2. San Diego (1) 0-0 1710 10
3. Binghamton 0-0 1667 2
4. Holy Cross 0-0 1581 19
5. Arkansas-Pine Bluff 0-0 1501 8
6. Albany 0-0 1438 NR
7. Saint Mary's 0-0 1385 15
8. Air Force 0-0 1297 18
9. Coastal Carolina 0-0 1194 12
10. Radford 0-0 1132 4
11. Stony Brook 0-0 1120 NR
12. Bowling Green 0-0 971 1
13. Grambling State 0-0 954 14
14. Citadel 0-0 893 NR
15. Eastern Michigan 0-0 755 20
16. Appalachian State 0-0 687 11
17. Eastern Kentucky 0-0 672 NR
18. Ball State 0-0 607 6
19. Northern Illinois 0-0 500 NR
20. Gardner Webb 0-0 428 NR
21. Army 0-0 343 25
22. Hartford 0-0 279 NR
23. Akron 0-0 243 7
24. UNC Asheville 0-0 156 5
25.Loyola-IL 0-0 53 NR

Hmmm, a few surprises here I think. First, American is #1 after winning the title, no isse with that. All traditionally great teams in the top 5.

Bowling Green 12!
Eastern Michigan down to 15.
Asheville all the way down to 24.

And hey, Hartford in the top 25, checking in at #22. My favorite non-BCS team!




The regular season ends with San Diego as the #1 team after a 30-3 campaign. Radford, St. Mary's, American and Ball State round out the top 5.

Bowling Green finished #7. Pine Bluff is #9. Binghamton drops to #15. Santa Clara finished 16-15 with no postseason bid.

Eastern Michigan falls to 21-11 (7-9) and an 8 seed.


Illinois finished 5th in the Big10, but goes on a huge run and wins the Big10 tournament! They will make their 4th NCAA tournament appearance (with one win in the previous 3) as a 14 seed facing Albany in round 1. Perhaps I was premature in my coaching assessment!

Riverside was 6th in the Big West and lost in the semi finals. SB was 9th.

Marist was 6th in the MAAC and lost in the title game to Canisius. No postseason bid though.

And the rest of the brackets:


West: San Diego is the top seed out of the WCC. They made the Elite 8 last year. They are the top ranked offense in college basketball, scoring 81.2 ppg. Their defense is respectable, in the top 50. They share the ball so well, averaging over 21 assists per game! The #2 seed is Bowling Green. Binghamton is the 3 seed.


Midwest: Ball State, 27-5 (14-2) out of the MAC is the #1 seed. They have a pair of senior guards, both scoring over 17 per game. They have the 7th ranked offense, but their defense is just outside of the top 100. The #2 seed is St. Mary's.


South: Radford grabs the top seed here with a 30-4 (15-3) record out of the Big South. Senior Center Hank Redding is averaging over 20 a game. He was the #7 recruit. They are the #2 offense and their defense is just outside the top 50. The 2 seed is Holy Cross. Hartford grabs the 7 seed.


East: American, the defending champs are the final #1 seed. They were 30-6 (10-4) in the Patriot. Most of last year's team is back, so they have a great change to repeat. They are top 10 in offense, top 20 in defense. Probably the most well rounded team in the nation. The 2 seed is Stony Brook and the 3 seed is Pine Bluff.

[Marmel]

Round 1 & 2

West: #1 San Diego scored over 90 points in both of their games and cruised to the Sweet 16 where they will face a Cinderella team in #12 San Diego State. What an exciting time for the city of San Diego! #2 Bowling Green and #3 Binghamton will meet in a heavyweight battle on the other side of the bracket.


Midwest: Illinois lost by 11 to Albany, not a bad showing. #3 Albany advances past the weekend to face #2 St. Mary's. #1 Ball State had a squeaker in round 2 but got by Pepperdine. They will face #5 Coastal Carolina.


South: #1 Radford gets blasted in the second round, 76-55, by #8 Eastern Michigan. That is one dangerous 8 seed though. Nice to see them actually play above their seeding. They will face #4 Grambling State. Also, #2 Holy Cross gets #3 Northern Illinois.


East: Almost all chalk here as #1 American is still alive in their title defense. They play #5 UNC Asheville, a dangerous opponent. #2 Stony Brook plays #3 Pine Bluff.




Sweet 16

West: The top 2 seeds both advance, so we have #1 San Diego, who beat crosstown rival SD State, 80-62 and #2 Bowling Green, who is looking to re-establish their dominance.


Midwest: #1 Ball State takes care of Coastal, 77-73 and will play #3 Albany for a trip to the Final Four.


South: #8 Eastern Michigan fails to capitalize on their big win in the second round, and falls to #4 Grambling State, 71-54. Grambling will get #2 Holy Cross.


East: #1 American's quest for a repeat falls short of the Final four. They go down to UNC Asheville, 77-67. Asheville will take on #2 Stony Brook.



Final Four matchups

#1 San Diego
vs
#4 Grambling State

This is San Diego's 7th consecutive trip to the tournament. They made it to the Elite 8 last year and now they have finally arrived on the big stage, earning their first Final Four trip. Grambling has been to every tournament but 2, but have only made the Sweet 16 three times, and advancing once to the Elite 8. So two first time Final Four teams will play each other.



#1 Ball State
vs
#5 UNC Asheville

Ball State has been to the postseason every year, 10 times in the big dance. They did make the Final Four back in 1945. This is the 5th straight appearance for Asheville, and their first Final Four. We will have a first time champion this season.

[Marmel]

NIT Champ: Gardner Webb


Game 1

San Diego comes in as the #1 team in the final polls and now they will be playing for a National Title on Monday night. A 23 point performance by 5th year senior PF Kent Ferland led the way to a 80-72 victory after the game was tied at the half.



Game 2

The other #1 seed, Ball State had an easy time tonight, winning 88-66 behind a 24 point performance by senior SG Clarence Santillan. Ball State only turned the ball over 5 times.




Finals

When the season ends with the #1 team winning the title, it just goes to show that the tournament is perfect, doesn't it? The best team runs the gauntlet and proves it on the court. This year was no exception. San Diego was totally dominant in their crowning performance. A 99-67 showcase by San Diego has them cutting down the nets. Kent Ferland put a huge stamp on his fine career with a 35 point showing in the title game and was named MOP.

[Marmel]

1951-1952

Awards

Monte Dowling: C Hank Redding, Radford – 20.6 ppg, 10.0 rpg

Coach: Donnell Burke, Hampton

Freshman: PG Gregory Olin, Samford - #4 recruit



Prestige

Bowling Green 100
Radford 100
Ball State 97
American 96
Binghamton 95
San Diego 94
Eastern Michigan 93
Pine Bluff 91
Holy Cross 91
St. Mary's 90

Illinois 38
Marist 32
Riverside 38
SB 31



Coaches:

Pine Bluff's great coach, Rudolph Fontes has retired as the 2nd winningest coach in history, with a 335-88 record and a national title.

Pine Bluff poached Grambling State's Ike Abarca, fresh off of taking his team to the Final 4. Sounds like a good hire.




Recruiting, by class


1950 Recruiting Rankings

# Team Conference Best Player Rtg 5* 4* 3* 2* 1*
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Radford Big South C William Davis ***** 2 2 0 0 0
2. UNC Asheville Big South PG Michael Larios ***** 2 2 0 0 0
3. Charleston Southern Big South SF David Giddings ***** 1 2 1 0 0
4. Holy Cross Patriot League SG Walker James ***** 1 3 0 0 0
5. Grambling State SWAC SG Mario Heinrich ***** 2 1 1 0 0
6. Binghamton America East PG Paul Porterfield ***** 1 2 2 0 0
7. New Hampshire America East SG Tony Puentes ***** 2 1 1 0 0
8. Albany America East PG Gary Blackstone ***** 1 2 1 0 0
9. Elon Southern SG Joel Edwards ***** 1 2 0 0 0
10. Colorado State Mountain West SF Richard Nesmith ***** 2 0 1 0 0
11. Ball State MAC SG Jacob Cowen ***** 1 2 0 0 0
12. American Patriot League PF Raphael Willis **** 0 3 0 0 0
13. Arkansas-Pine Bluff SWAC PG Ezra Revels ***** 1 2 0 0 0
14. Air Force Mountain West PG Richard Mullen ***** 1 1 2 0 0
15. Coastal Carolina Big South SF Larry Meister **** 0 2 2 0 0
16. Citadel Southern PG Alfred Wild **** 0 1 4 0 0
17. Army Patriot League SG Clifton Person ***** 1 0 1 0 0
18. Bowling Green MAC SF Jess Corr **** 0 3 0 0 0
19. Sam Houston State Southland SG Richard Valenzuela ***** 1 0 2 0 0
20.Loyola Marymount WCC SG Tristan Black ***** 1 1 1 0 0

The big story here is the Big South and the American East Conferences hauling in all of the good recruits!

Illinois #205 (3rd in the big 10)
Riverside #195
SB #206
Marist #231



by player:


1950 Recruiting Rankings

# Player Pos Ht Team Conference
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 William Davis C 7-0 Radford Big South Conference
2 Clifton Person SG 6-4 Army Patriot League
3 Richard Valenzuela SG 6-0 Sam Houston State Southland Conference
4 David Giddings SF 6-4 Charleston Southern Big South Conference
5 Mario Heinrich SG 6-4 Grambling State Southwestern Athletic Conference
6 Carlos Ramos PF 6-8 Grambling State Southwestern Athletic Conference
7 Richard Nesmith SF 6-6 Colorado State Mountain West Conference
8 Gerald Johnson PF 6-5 Brigham Young Mountain West Conference
9 Michael Larios PG 6-3 UNC Asheville Big South Conference
10 Richard Mullen PG 6-2 Air Force Mountain West Conference
11 Paul Porterfield PG 6-4 Binghamton America East Conference
12 Tony Puentes SG 6-1 New Hampshire America East Conference
13 Sydney Kozlowski C 6-7 Colorado State Mountain West Conference
14 Ian Holiday C 6-10 Radford Big South Conference
15 Sean Gamez C 6-9 Samford Southern Conference
16 Jacob Cowen SG 6-3 Ball State Mid-American Conference
17 Walker James SG 6-0 Holy Cross Patriot League
18 Joel Edwards SG 6-2 Elon Southern Conference
19 Gary Blackstone PG 5-10 Albany America East Conference
20 Jack Beers SF 6-6 Liberty Big South Conference



I have a huge man-crush on Sam Houston State's newest player, the #3 ranked recruit, Richard Valenzuela from Pleasanton High School in Texas.


PLAYER DETAILS

#22 SG Richard Valenzuela - Sam Houston State - Freshman
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Height: 6-0
Weight: 185
High School: Pleasanton High School
Hometown: Pleasanton, TX

Attributes:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type INS JPS FTS 3PS HND PAS ORB DRB PSD PRD STL BLK PFS QKN STR JMP STA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current: 32 76 56 41 51 35 19 41 43 47 65 20 30 66 37 70 22
Potential: B A B B B C D B B B A D

Health: Good
Scholarship: Yes
Status: Active Roster
Academics: 53

He does everything. If he can gain 20 pounds and grow 2 inches, my word!

[Izulde]

Might as well add UNLV to the teams to follow list. :D

[Marmel]

1951-1952

Preseason polls


Top 25

# Team FPV Record Points Prv
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Arkansas-Pine Bluff (72) 0-0 1800 9
2. Saint Mary's 0-0 1728 3
3. American 0-0 1653 4
4. Northern Illinois 0-0 1566 14
5. Holy Cross 0-0 1507 6
6. Bowling Green 0-0 1466 7
7. San Diego 0-0 1368 1
8. Akron 0-0 1254 22
9. Air Force 0-0 1224 10
10. Grambling State 0-0 1157 12
11. Radford 0-0 1093 2
12. Eastern Michigan 0-0 972 NR
13. Appalachian State 0-0 971 NR
14. Army 0-0 882 NR
15. Stony Brook 0-0 763 8
16. Ball State 0-0 748 5
17. Central Michigan 0-0 654 19
18. Eastern Kentucky 0-0 517 11
19. Albany 0-0 440 18
20. Citadel 0-0 412 NR
21. Eastern Illinois 0-0 401 NR
22. Binghamton 0-0 369 15
23. Gardner Webb 0-0 227 NR
24. UNC Asheville 0-0 103 13
25.Texas State 0-0 90 NR

Pine Bluff and their brand new head coach are getting a ton of respect. Northern Illinois a surprise visitor to the top 5. Binghamton and Asheville not getting a ton of respect to start up the season.




End of Regular Season

At the top of the final poll sits American University with a 32-2 record. They split the first place votes almost evenly with the 2nd place team, St. Mary's. Pine Bluff came in 3rd while San Diego and Radford round out the top 5.

Bowling Green is next up at #6.

Illinois finished 7th in the Big10 and lost their first tournament game.
Riverside finished 8th and Santa Barbara 9th, neither winning anything in the tournament.
Marist finished 7th in the MAAC and made a run to the semi-finals, but that was all.
UNLV finished 7th in the MWC and lost their first game.


Auto Bids


Conference Team Record
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
America East Conference Stony Brook 20-13 (7-9)
Atlantic 10 Conference Duquesne 16-16 (10-6)
Atlantic Coast Conference Virginia 27-6 (15-1)
Atlantic Sun Conference Lipscomb 14-18 (9-11)
Big 12 Conference Colorado 22-10 (11-5)
Big East Conference Cincinnati 14-19 (9-9)
Big Sky Conference Northern Arizona 15-17 (8-8)
Big South Conference Radford 30-3 (17-1)
Big Ten Conference Purdue 22-11 (14-4)
Big West Conference Cal State Fullerton 24-9 (11-5)
Colonial Athletic Association Delaware 16-17 (9-9)
Conference USA Memphis 23-9 (13-3)
Great West Conference NJIT 22-9 (8-4)
Horizon League Milwaukee 23-8 (13-5)
Independent
Ivy League
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Iona 19-13 (10-8)
Mid-American Conference Bowling Green 28-5 (13-3)
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Coppin State 26-7 (12-4)
Missouri Valley Conference Indiana State 18-16 (9-9)
Mountain West Conference San Diego State 18-14 (8-8)
Northeast Conference Quinnipiac 19-13 (11-7)
Ohio Valley Conference Eastern Kentucky 30-4 (16-2)
Pacific-10 Conference Washington State 18-14 (12-6)
Patriot League American 32-2 (13-1)
Southeastern Conference South Carolina 21-13 (9-7)
Southern Conference Appalachian State 24-8 (14-4)
Southland Conference Stephen F. Austin 24-8 (12-4)
Southwestern Athletic Conference Arkansas-Pine Bluff 32-3 (16-2)
Summit League North Dakota State 20-12 (10-8)
Sun Belt Conference Arkansas State 20-12 (12-6)
West Coast Conference Saint Mary's 31-2 (12-2)
Western Athletic Conference Boise State 19-12 (9-7)



Brackets

West: St. Mary's gets the #1 seed with a 31-2 (12-2) record out of the WCC. 5 players are averaging double digits on this team. They are a top 10 offensive team and top 20 defensively. The #2 seed is Bowling Green.


Midwest: The defending champs, San Diego earn the #1 seed here with a 29-4 (12-2) record out of the WCC as well. Their senior SF (who came in as the #1 ranked recruit as a JUCO) averages 18.6 per game. Their offense has slipped down to 50th best, but their defense is nasty this year, ranked 3rd in the nation at 54.9 ppg. Ball State is the #2 seed.


South: Pine Bluff grabs the #1 seed here after a 32-3 (16-2) regular season in the SWAC. Big prblems though for Pine Bluff as two of their starters will be out injured for the tournament. The #2 seed is Holy Cross.


East: American went 32-2 (13-1) in the Patriot League to earn the final #1 seed. Junior shooting guard Israel Phillips is scoring over 20 a game for the 3rd best offense in the country. Their defense is just top 100. the #2 seed is surprise team Eastern Kentucky while the 3 seed is Radford.

[Marmel]

Round 1 & 2

West: The top 2 seeds, St. Mary's and Bowling Green both had an easy time advancing to the Sweet 16. St. Mary's will matchup with #5 Eastern Michigan. You never know what you are going to get out of this team. Bowling Green will meet #6 Appalachian State.


Midwest: #3 Albany loses in the first round to #14 North Dakota State, but otherwise all the top seeds advanced in this region. #1 San Diego will play #4 Eastern Illinois while #2 Ball State gets #6 Maryland East Shore.


South: #1 Pine Bluff has avoided being upset due to their injury problems and gets a good draw in the Sweet 16 with #12 Lamar. #2 Holy cross gets the 6 seed, Citadel.


East: #1 American also advances, so we have all four #1 seeds. They also get a good draw with #13 Dartmouth. #7 Central Michigan took down the 2 seed, Eastern Kentucky and will now face #3 Radford. That is one tough 3 seeded team.




Sweet 16:

West: The top 2 seeds advance. #1 St. Mary's is a strange team. They have never missed the tournament, but only advanced to the second weekend 3 times before this year with 1 trip to the Final Four, yet I consider them a very strong team for some reason. Bowling Green is not as dominant as years past, but they are always in the mix still.


Midwest: The top 2 seeds also advance here with the defending champs from San Diego set to meet #2 Ball State.


South: And again, the top 2 seed advance. #1 Pine Bluff doing a terrific job dealing with their injury problems, beat Lamar by 10. #2 Holy Cross made the Elite 8 last year and will try to get back to the Final Four for the second time in their history.


East: #1 American ensures that all four top seeds are still alive as they handle Dartmouth easily. They get another good draw with #7 Central Michigan. This is CM's 7th trip to the big dance, with one previous Elite 8 appearance and no other time advancing past the first weekend.




Final Four matchups

#1 St. Mary's
vs
#2 Holy Cross

St. Mary's took care of business against Bowling Green. BG just can't seem to regain their form where they were almost a lock for the Final Four. Now they can't seem to get back there. Holy Cross took full advantage of Pine Bluff's injuries.


#1 San Diego
vs
#1 American

What a terrific matchup pitting the last two National Champs against each other!

[Marmel]

NIT Champs: Wright State


Game 1

St. Mary's created some seperation early in the game and took a 9 point halftime lead. They held a working margin throughout the second half. Their PG, Matt Bulter, controlled the game, scoring 8 points and finding the open guy virtually every time and dished out 11 assists.



Game 2

San Diego controlled the boards and kept American's shooting in check tonight and earned the 70-63 victory. San Diego is going to try and become only the second team to win multiple titles as well as repeat as champions.



Title Game

St. Mary's dominated the entire game from start to finish. Despite a brilliant 30 point game from San Diego's Richard Muller, St. Mary's had big contributions from all 5 starters. PG Matt Bulter once again was the most important player on the court, scoring 12 and handing out 12 assists.

St. Mary's becomes the 8th difference National Champion.


NCAA Champs

Season Team Record Score
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1951 Saint Mary's 37-2 88-64
1950 San Diego 36-3 99-67
1949 American 34-4 94-93
1948 Arkansas-Pine Bluff 38-2 71-63
1947 Bowling Green 34-4 72-65
1946 Bowling Green 36-2 69-61
1945 Radford 31-6 78-71
1944 Bowling Green 37-3 74-67
1943 Binghamton 28-10 60-56
1942 Bowling Green 36-3 74-48
1941 Bowling Green 33-6 71-66
1940 South Dakota State 30-10 69-64
1939 Bowling Green 35-3 68-66

[Marmel]

1952-1953


Awards

Monte Dowling: Senior PG George Hibbs, New Hampshire. 11.2 ppg, 9.5 apg

Coach: Michael Slaton, NJIT

Freshman: C William Davis, Radford – Ranked #1 overall



Prestige

Bowling Green 100
Ball State 100
Radford 100
San Diego 99
American 98
St. Mary's 97
Holy Cross 95
Binghamton 93
Eastern Michigan 93
Pine Bluff 92

Illinois 33
Marist 31
Riverside 38
Santa Barbara 33
UNLV 47



Coaches

UC Riverside fired their coach. They hired San Jose State's Richie McKenzie who has a career 126-125 record. He is a good X&O guy, but not a good recruiter.



Recruiting Rankings by class


1951 Recruiting Rankings

# Team Conference Best Player Rtg 5* 4* 3* 2* 1*
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. American Patriot League PG Herman Rodas ***** 2 2 0 0 0
2. Coastal Carolina Big South SG Scot Steward ***** 1 3 0 0 0
3. Eastern Michigan MAC SF Everette Simpkins ***** 3 1 0 0 0
4. Holy Cross Patriot League PG Van Craig **** 0 4 0 0 0
5. Radford Big South PF Gregory Cervantez ***** 2 0 2 0 0
6. San Diego WCC PF Justin Carlson ***** 1 1 3 0 0
7. Arkansas-Pine Bluff SWAC SF James Bussell ***** 1 2 0 0 0
8. Grambling State SWAC PG Royal Cole ***** 2 1 0 0 0
9. UNC Asheville Big South PF Joe Ashley **** 0 4 0 0 0
10. Albany America East SG Matthew Dilworth ***** 2 0 2 0 0
11. Bucknell Patriot League PG Amos Schrock ***** 1 1 2 0 0
12. Northern Illinois MAC SF Henry Williams ***** 2 0 0 0 0
13. Samford Southern SF Joe Curry ***** 1 1 1 0 0
14. Stony Brook America East SG Jonathan Mitchell ***** 1 2 0 0 0
15. Appalachian State Southern SG Odis Ellis **** 0 2 1 0 0
16. Toledo MAC SF James Grissom ***** 1 0 1 0 0
17. Sam Houston State Southland PG Lincoln Brinkman **** 0 2 1 0 0
18. Colorado State Mountain West PF Bruno Deleon ***** 1 0 2 1 0
19. Central Michigan MAC SF Van Lemons **** 0 2 1 0 0
20.Chicago State Great West SG Chris Cawley **** 0 2 1 0 0

The Eastern Michigan coach lived up to his hot shot recruiting reputation by pulling in 3 blue chippers.

Illinois somehow pulls in the #104 ranked class.
Santa Barbara #81
Riverside #207
Marist #332
UNLV #25!



by player


1951 Recruiting Rankings

# Player Pos Ht Team Conference
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1 Herman Rodas PG 6-4 American Patriot League
2 Scot Steward SG 6-2 Coastal Carolina Big South Conference
3 James Grissom SF 6-7 Toledo Mid-American Conference
4 Charley Morgan SF 6-5 NON-QUALIFIER
5 Henry Williams SF 6-4 Northern Illinois Mid-American Conference
6 Joe Curry SF 6-6 Samford Southern Conference
7 Bruno Deleon PF 6-9 Colorado State Mountain West Conference
8 Gregory Cervantez PF 6-7 Radford Big South Conference
9 Eddy Plummer SF 6-4 Radford Big South Conference
10 Matthew Dilworth SG 6-3 Albany America East Conference
11 James Bussell SF 6-4 Arkansas-Pine Bluff Southwestern Athletic Conference
12 Anton Huynh PF 6-7 Army Patriot League
13 Everette Simpkins SF 6-5 Eastern Michigan Mid-American Conference
14 Justin Carlson PF 6-5 San Diego West Coast Conference
15 Amos Schrock PG 6-1 Bucknell Patriot League
16 Dee Simpson C 6-7 Northern Illinois Mid-American Conference
17 Royal Cole PG 5-10 Grambling State Southwestern Athletic Conference
18 Jude Wheat PG 5-10 Eastern Michigan Mid-American Conference
19 Vance Coulombe C 6-9 American Patriot League
20 Jonathon Fox SG 6-5 Eastern Michigan Mid-American Conference


The guy I highlighted last year didn't have a big breakout freshman season. He did start all year for Sam Houston State but only averaged 9.3 ppg

The #1 recruit this year is probably the best of a bunch of guys who seem to have one serious flaw in their games.


PLAYER DETAILS

#5 PG Herman Rodas - American - Freshman
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Height: 6-4
Weight: 187
High School: Jefferson County High School
Hometown: Dandridge, TN

Attributes:
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Type INS JPS FTS 3PS HND PAS ORB DRB PSD PRD STL BLK PFS QKN STR JMP STA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current: 36 48 58 33 46 68 42 21 5 53 56 33 68 81 31 52 44
Potential: C A B C A A C D F A B C

Health: Good
Scholarship: Yes
Status: Active Roster
Academics: 34

[rjolley]

What's the story with Penn State? Are they in the Big 10 in this dynasty?