Looks like the three-week “real” NCAA Division I (D1) season starts this coming Tuesday.
If you want to see some D1 talent on the court, though, and you cannot make it to the numerous D1 conference tournament venues this weekend, Grace College’s Manahan Orthopaedic Capital Center has been the place to be, starting with last night’s action.
What the heck… Friday nights hereafter among high school gyms are dark, so if you had a chance to check out the two basketball games in the Lancers’ arena last night, you saw a mix that includes athletes who chose NAIA basketball via the transfer program after they spent at least one season in D1.
Coaches at the collegiate level will also tell you outside of the D1 power conferences, much of the other talent among mid-majors, D2, D3, and NAIA is somewhat interchangeable.
Warsaw’s Kyle Mangas, now playing for the San Antonio Spurs G-league team in Austin, Texas is a case in point.
The work Mangas continued to do to further improve his shooting, building speed and strength, and learning to play with even greater length paid off in his professional basketball career starting in Czechia, moving to the G-League in Noblesville (the Mad Ants, an Indiana Pacers affiliate), and on to the Spurs within the aforementioned league.
It’s fair to say Mangas could have landed a spot at a “higher” level of college basketball, but the cultural fit at Indiana Wesleyan, a member of one of the country’s strongest, deepest NAIA conferences (the Crossroads League) was sufficient for him to hone his skills, garner awards, and move onto professional basketball.
If you attended any of last night’s NAIA regional men’s basketball action, you might have seen rosters listing the hometowns as well as colleges and universities listed to the right of each player’s name, school year, number, and position.
I spend winter (mostly) Wednesdays and Saturdays public address (PA) announcing for Indiana University South Bend’s men’s and women’s basketball teams. The IU South Bend teams play in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC), a decent league, but not as powerful as the Crossroads League is in the NAIA.
The NAIA scholarships afforded to players (partial and full) allow the athletes who transfer from D1 schools an opportunity to play ball as opposed to the limited help/aid these athletes would get from D3 schools.
Here are some of the differences I enjoy while watching NAIA basketball:
If you cannot shoot, you better be able to play some defense. The expectations of athletes to play better defense are part of the transition from high school hops at any collegiate level.
Bounce pass “sightings” are less frequent in the men’s NAIA game. There are times coaches will give their athletes an exasperated look when a bounce pass is executed.
A NAIA team’s arsenal of offensive plays is quite rarely supplemented with a spontaneously diagrammed play during a time out. I don’t know what to think of this yet, because this certainly resurfaces in the NBA.
Athletes, instead, will run the offenses given to them verbally by coaches or nonverbally via signals in the heat of action. The competitors are expected to execute the pays they continually practice or move on to the next play the coach calls when the original plan does not pan out as expected within the constraints of the 30-second shot clock.
The players’ sideline energy of the women’s game makes the crowd feel bigger, and the game feel like it has more juice.
The men’s game, on the other hand, is played with great length you don’t see in women’s games, but the noise level starts out very lightly. When you announce a men’s NAIA game you have to let the game cook and adjust your announcing energy as the game progresses through its varied stages.
I love the shot clock.
The shooting percentages form women’s games are not always great, but the ball has to change hands in at least 30-second intervals. Warsaw Lady Tiger fans who take some time to watch NAIA action will be disappointed int eh difference in shooting percentages between the sharpshooting Lady Tigers and the NAIA action they’ll watch.
On one hand, part of the shooting percentage dip is these college athletes are seeing tougher defenders than they could imagine seeing in prep action. Furthermore, as a matter of comparison, athletes in NAIA women’s basketball will see far superior defenders than what the other Northern Lakes Conference teams not named Northridge will try to throw at Warsaw.
One of the things I do not like about them men’s games is the newly prescribed electronic media time outs following 15-, 10-, and 5-minute tranches in both halves. They add about 15-20 minutes to the game after all the dawdling is finished, and everyone finds his place for the post break inbound play.
I understand, from a business standpoint, these media timeouts are supplying life blood in the form of advertising revenue to the increased electronic media outlets streaming or televising games. It costs money to give the people what they want, and the product is good in this region.
It’s late in the season, but if you’re a high school basketball fan who wants to fill one more weeknight and another weekend with more basketball action, try watching regular season and postseason NAIA action for a change.