playing for pride

so, regardless of which teams win or lose this weekend, the postseason is set for sbu. the men and the women have locked first and third seeds, respectively, in the miaa tournament. this game at emporia is still a big deal, however, because there is life beyond the miaa postseason. not that we like to get ahead of ourselves or count our chickens before they hatch and whatnot, but the thought has crossed the minds of both teams and all their supporters. a couple big games this weekend can only help our chances of making the national tournament. oooh. that gets me pumped: two teams in the national tournament. how sweet would that be? but there is alot of basketball to be played between now and then. both teams need to keep playing hard, playing smart, and playing together. (if anyone can tell me where that's from i'll be your best friend for life.) long story short: two more big games this weekend at emporia state. please keep our athletes in your prayers as they try to stay healthy and as we travel to kansas tonight.

we are the champions!!

THEY DID IT!! by winning the last home game of the season this year our men clinched the miaa regular season championship. they are the #1 team in the league no matter who wins or loses this weekend. i am so proud of our men and the way they fought every step of the way this season. they worked hard and definately earned their championship. congratulations to the men and their coaches on a job well done!

just in case you couldn't stay for the celebration, make sure you check them out on our webpage!

http://www.sbuniv.edu/athletics/mbasketball/0708/MIAAChampions2008/index.htm

you win some....

...but then you give some away for no good reason. i don't know if you've heard, but it was a rough trip to fhsu for sbu's basketball teams. it was my first trip to the wonder that is hays, kansas, and needless to say i'm not eager to return. both teams struggled through physical games and came out with losses to teams at or under .500 in conference play. i guess it goes to show you that no matter who you are playing, in this league you better come to play every night. our kids learned that the hard way.

nevertheless (is that all one word? bonde, will you be my spell checker?) we are hopeful for saturday's games. pitt state is coming to bolivar, and sbu needs a set of wins. the good thing is that our fans here at sbu are the best in the conference, bar none. our student section is outrageous and the support the teams receive goes a long way in securing victories on our home floor. what's this about another black out?? AND they are crowning courtwarming king at halftime of the men's game. there's so much going on!! hope to see you at the games saturday supporting our bearcats!

short hand

i have been (rather harshly) accused of making these entries too long. so here's the short version:

ball game tomorrow at washburn. go bearcats!

sweet revenge

when we traveled to kirksville to play truman the first time around it wasn't a good day for sbu basketball. in fact, it was downright ugly. if you remember, i didn't want to talk about it at the time. the thought of that day still makes me a little testy. but sbu basketball received retribution saturday and oh, how sweet it is.

the women's game was physical, and the refs pretty well let the girls play. good thing our girls beat on each other regularly in practice or else the game would have been tough. it came down to the final minutes and a few clutch shots from souza and shew. but before that it was solid effort from everyone that kept us in the game. it doesn't take talent to hustle and that made all the difference.

the men's game was close and kept you interested until the final minutes, just like the women's game before. our men didn't shoot the ball well from the outside, but they managed to more than make up for that in the paint.

for now, the teams are getting ready to head to topeka, kansas to face washburn university. i've never been to topeka, but i'm not sure i want to go if this weather keeps up. also the teams are trying to stay healthy heading into the home stretch of miaa competition. the normal bumps and bruises are accompanied lately by the flu and any other bug running around. basketball season is long, and it becomes a fight near the end to keep people healthy. if you aren't already, please be praying for our athletes. they are working hard and need every bit of help we can give them.

grow in grace and knowledge

just in case you haven't heard, regional and national rankings are out for this week! our men moved up to the #15 spot nationally while maintaining their #2 spot in the region. and yesterday our women moved up from #7 to #5 in the regional polls.

so it occured to me a minute ago that not everyone is a sports fan like me, so not everyone understands what some of this means to our teams. being the thoughtful, considerate bearcat that i am, i will try to explain the system so you can understand why we get pumped about silly rankings. this may be a little lengthy (not that i'm ever that way...) so bearcat with me.

the ncaa divides its teams into conferences for competition. (for example: sbu is in the miaa conference, uco is in the lonestar conference, and drury is in the glv conference.) after regular season conference play, the top teams in the conference play a tournament to determine a conference champion. hold on to that for a minute.

each conference is placed in a region. (for example: the miaa and the lonestar conferences are in the south central region, while the glv conference is in the great lakes region.) there are eight regions in the country for DII. after regular season and the conference tournaments, each region has a tournament to determine a regional champion. the regional tournament is the first part of the national tournament.

in order to make it to the first part of the national tournament (regionals) you have to be one of the top 8 teams in your region. remember that conference champion i told you to hold on to? each conference tournament champion automatically goes on to the regional tournament, regardless. then there are some spots left to fill. those spots are filled based partly on where you stand in the regional rankings.

let's say that conference ends today while our men are ranked #2 in our region. even if they don't win the conference tournament, they still stand a pretty good chance of being picked to go to the national tournament (which starts with regionals.) am i making any sense, gang?

sorry this is sooooo long. i just thought it might be helpful for some. hope you're having a great day!!

you don't even know.

there has been so much exciting news in bearcat country i don't even know where to begin...

this past saturday the men and women both won excessively stressful games against northwest which gave the women a boost in conference standings and gave the men the sweep. if you missed that night of basketball you are definately the one missing out. those games remind me why i'm a bearcat fan.

then last night the teams braved the cold and snow to head to st. joseph to face the griffons of missouri western. i won't lie: i was so nervous about the drive up. but our driver managed to keep us on the road and get us there safely. when we finally arrived, both teams struggled through the first half, but pulled it together in the second to pull out victories. a win and some pizza- that's a good night right there.