Posted by birdfan on Sat, Feb 14, 2015, at 10:47 PM:
Sure was a pleasure to see 3 former BlueJays in action at the Bess Activity Center, this evening. Trey Watkins plays for Three Rivers and both Aaron Cassell and Greg Tucker play for Mineral Area. At one point, all three were on the floor at the same time.
As a side note, Greg Tucker and Vashawn Ruffin, former Sikeston Bulldog who plays for Three Rivers, guarded each other for much of the game. The Charleston-Sikeston high school rivalry continues at the next level....nice to watch.
Replies (19)
birdfan, who won the game?
-- Posted by BonScott on Sat, Feb 14, 2015, at 11:28 PM
TRCC 77 Mac 71
-- Posted by hardwork on Sat, Feb 14, 2015, at 11:32 PM
Thanks
-- Posted by BonScott on Sat, Feb 14, 2015, at 11:35 PM
Tough loss for #10 MAC. Region 16 torunament should be a dog fight between MAC, Three Rivers, and West Plains. And talk about crazy - the Region 16 tournament is in Joplin. What the heck!!! Joplin doesn't have a juco and is about as far as possible for most teams. NJCAA must not care about attendance. Doesn't make any sense!!!
-- Posted by Bogey Man on Sun, Feb 15, 2015, at 7:17 AM
JOPLIN??? WHO WAS SMOKING METH THE DAY THAT DECISION WAS MADE? I can understand a neutral site, but Joplin?Somebody must've gotten a kickback in order for this to happen.
-- Posted by hoopaholiczanon on Sun, Feb 15, 2015, at 8:35 AM
Why wouldn't the ShowMe Center make a play to host the tourney? Might have bigger crowds than SEMO attracts.
-- Posted by birdfan on Sun, Feb 15, 2015, at 10:49 AM
Chris Stocks, PB, was introduced at the game as being a TRCC recruit.
-- Posted by birdfan on Sun, Feb 15, 2015, at 10:50 AM
Good for Chris!
-- Posted by Preacher Man Fan on Sun, Feb 15, 2015, at 2:06 PM
Is Davidson still in play for Stocks?
-- Posted by uncommon_sense on Sun, Feb 15, 2015, at 5:30 PM
I think Three Rivers would be a great fit for Stocks. He's a good player but let's face it, he's going to redshirt as a freshman at the D1 level and probably won't get much playing time until his junior season. Why not come to Three Rivers, play under a legendary coach, learn to win games and then go D1 as a junior and play.
Three Rivers is returning a great inside game and could use a shooter. He would could a lot of good looks from 3.
-- Posted by Steve Frey on Mon, Feb 16, 2015, at 12:00 PM
The Juco Region 16 tourney has been a problem for awhile. The problem is hardly any venues are willing to host. It's just not a big draw. Rolla tried it a few years ago and quit. It's been at JeffCo most of the time. But Moberly and WP don't like going there. The Joplin Sports Authority bid on it and got voted in. I'd assume Crowder Women may have had something to do with it because they're the only team in that area. They're playing men and women division 1 and 2 all the same week. It's going to be played at a small Christian College in Joplin this year. Their gym appears really small. Next year it may be at Missouri Southern.
MAC needed to win at 3R to keep alive the possibility of an at large bid to the national tourney in case they can't get there on their own. Losing probably hurt that chance pretty bad. I doubt 3R or WP can get one with the number of losses they have.
Even winning the region 16 tournament doesn't get you there this year. The winner has to go play the region 4 winner on their home floor. It kind of stinks but that's how the NJCAA has it set up.
-- Posted by oldroundballer on Tue, Feb 17, 2015, at 11:26 AM
I think MAC still has a great shot at an at large. If they lose in the tourney and finish 25-4 and ranked, they should get a invite. Three Rivers has little to no shot of an at large. They would have 8-9 losses.
-- Posted by Steve Frey on Tue, Feb 17, 2015, at 4:36 PM
You never know in Juco there's only 8 at large teams that get in and Mac will fall in rankings when they come out again.
-- Posted by BIGELW on Wed, Feb 18, 2015, at 7:02 AM
I thought the Region 16 winner always played the winner of the Iowa region and then the winner of that game advanced to Hutch...Did something change?
-- Posted by BonScott on Wed, Feb 18, 2015, at 7:54 AM
Region 16 plays region 4 winner to go to Hutch.
-- Posted by BIGELW on Wed, Feb 18, 2015, at 9:26 AM
I don't believe the reg 16 winner has always played Iowa. The HAVE played that winner in the past but there were also years where the Reg 16 winner went directly to Hutch if I'm not mistaken. NJCAA changed things a few years ago. The Reg 16 winner has been playing the Reg 4 winner since then I believe. The Iowa reg 11 winner now plays reg 13 which is Minn.
There's always been 24 regions but they only wanted 16 teams at Hutch. Some of the smaller regions had to play each other first to advance. They just recently added the at large bids to take care of the really good teams that got knocked out in their region tourney. I guess they seed them at Hutch now and the top 8 get a first round bye. This probably does get the best teams in the tourney and also makes the region tourney not as important for the top teams.
-- Posted by oldroundballer on Wed, Feb 18, 2015, at 9:39 AM
I know the Region 16 was playing the south region out of Iowa in the early 90s to advance to Hutch. I didn't know they added automatic bids.
-- Posted by BonScott on Wed, Feb 18, 2015, at 10:53 AM
There used to be, in the 1980s, a rotating system where Region 16 played Region 11(Iowa) two out of every three years, at a neutral site(Kirksville).
Beginning roughly around 1990, they played each other every year and starting sometime in the early 90's they alternated between the 2 regions as to who hosted the game - Iowa lost to Missouri for many years consecutively and finally convinced the powers that be to change the host site in order to give them a chance. Of course the powerhouse IHCC squads of the late 90's really didn't need much help!
Three Rivers hosted and lost to eventual national champ SE Iowa in 2000. In 2003, they hosted Sauk Valley IL(Region 4), so sometime between 2001 and 2003, the current format was instituted. However, for a short time, the setup called for some rotation as to which regions played which, because one year Moberly travelled to Vincennes, who was not in Region 4....
-- Posted by marcus aurelius on Wed, Feb 18, 2015, at 4:46 PM
I think things keep changing due to instability of juco programs. For instance, there are now only 5 D I Juco basketball programs in MO, which comprises all of Region 16 - 3R, MAC, State Fair, Moberly, and West Plains. That's it for NJCAA Region 16 DI basketball tournament. Some jucos elected to play D II that couldn't compete with the big 5 when NJCAA went to 2 divisions. Some jucos no longer field bball teams - JeffCo for instance only has women's bball. All the St. Louis jucos combined teams a couple of years ago, resulting in different schools providing a specific sport - Forest Park is the only juco in St. Louis with men's bball, Meramec has the baseball team. Florissant Valley the volleyball team, and so on. Some Missouri jucos play D I in one sport and D II in another sport. Nationwide, not all jucos in all states are members of NJCAA. California has their own organization and their own tournament championships. Same with Washington and Oregon forming the NWCCAA, and many other states with their own organization, which is a shame but I am guessing travel costs has a lot to do with it. And California jucos are historically highly competitive and could quite possibly dominate NJCAA teams. Part of the decline in the number of teams could be the rise of 4 year D II and D III teams. It hasn't been that many years ago that D III (and even some D II) weren't much more than glorified club teams. Now many D III schools go after the athletes with "academic scholarships" when those athletes use to go the juco route. Bottom line is the NJCAA has to keep changing the tournament format to keep the competitive balance to keep up with the ever changing sports programs under the NJCAA umbrella.
-- Posted by Bogey Man on Wed, Feb 18, 2015, at 6:53 PM
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Sure was a pleasure to see 3 former BlueJays in action at the Bess Activity Center, this evening. Trey Watkins plays for Three Rivers and both Aaron Cassell and Greg Tucker play for Mineral Area. At one point, all three were on the floor at the same time.
As a side note, Greg Tucker and Vashawn Ruffin, former Sikeston Bulldog who plays for Three Rivers, guarded each other for much of the game. The Charleston-Sikeston high school rivalry continues at the next level....nice to watch.
Replies (19)