After James's NCAA Top 100 programs in recent history post, I decided to try to do the same with the Top 50 programs in NAIA Division I recent history. I cannot even pretend to know all about the NAIA's top programs, so I decided utilize my own mathematical musings to come to some conclusions based on the numbers. Now, I know that the NAIA isn't exactly a hotbed that our traditional Swish Appeal readers follow on the regular, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't start paying attention to teams in your area now.

Similar to the football BCS that everyone loves to hate, the final order was determined by three distinct parts, and two of which are human-based. I also went back five years (like James did) and factored in the average of the last five final season coaches polls for 1/3 of the tally. The other 1/3 with human involvement is the last five tournament results, with teams getting points based on how far they advanced in the NAIA Division I Championships.

The third and final piece of the overall score was this season's preseason Massey Ratings, released this week. If you don't already know, in football the Massey Ratings are one of the computer programs used in the BCS system. Massey takes numerous factors into account and uses complex statistical formulas to reach his final order.

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When she takes the court with her headphones on, bopping her head to her favorite of Lil Wayne, Chasity Workman is ready to play the game that she loves with the team that she loves.

A team that she calls a family.

The senior at Oklahoma City University is playing in her one and only season with the Stars after transferring from Washburn (Kan.), yet she's using this final year of college basketball as yet another stepping stone in her basketball life.

"I just think this team is more of a team," Workman said. "We mesh together, we joke around. It's like having another family. I enjoy it. I love it, I love it."

Aside from her basketball family on the court of Abe Lemons Arena, Workman has a basketball in her blood. Her father is former NBA player and current NBA referee, Haywoode.

"Having my dad as a NBA basketball player slash referee now, it has a lot of good perks," Workman said. "I guess it's just within me. Growing up, my mom kept me pretty humble about the situation. She was just like, you know your dad plays in the NBA. So I was kind of like a fan more than ‘oh, that's my dad'."

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The basic premise of Robert Coles' book the Call of Stories is only a little more complex than it first sounds: stories not only grab us, but ultimately have some sort of transformative power that is absent from a sort of clinical diagnosis of a person.

Unfortunately, as Brian Phillips of Run of Play (a soccer blog that I should be reading more of) wrote in a provocative piece on Monday, sportswriting often fails to capitalize on the capacity for stories to either engage or transform, whether that be due to convention, routine, or simply the expectation that the audience needs the score in the first three paragraphs because they likely don't want more suspense than that.

In a way, Phillips' piece could be considered a sports translation of Coles' book and is absolutely worth reading in its entirety. However, after discussing it with a couple of fellow internet writers I respect, we encountered a dilemma: the article focuses primarily on telling the stories of incredible games, which obviously lend themselves to greatness but are rarely actually written in ways that match that. But what about the not-so-incredible games? The games that were almost unwatchable to begin with thus rendering them either unwritable or seemingly not worth the time to re-create?

There are plenty of those in any sport and for a game like women's basketball they're as important a part of the story as the most incredible feats.

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When it's gametime in Abe Lemons Arena, you know it - the girls make you aware of it with their introduction to take the court.

Recorded phrase by phrase by the members of the team, this credo rings through the gym -

In the heart of the city lies a school built on a winning tradition where pride knows no boundaries.
You mess with one you mess with all.
We've been uncomfortable.10, 260 minutes and counting. 
For every shirt that started out dry has ended up drenched.
We've come two seconds short, two times too many.
For all the reasons I'm now comfortable, you're about to be uncomfortable.
Have you really put in your hours, because we have.
Are you ready? Are you ready? Because we are.

Now that Oklahoma City University has a dozen wins under their belt, they want you to know it too. They're ready.

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UC Irvine forward Mikah Maly-Karros didn't make a jumper outside of the key in leading the Anteaters to a 69-55 win over the Seattle University Redhawks last night at the Connolly Center in Seattle.

And despite appearing to have the type of athleticism and frame to play the perimeter, she really didn't need to on her way to a sixth double-double of the season with a team-high 20 points and 12 rebounds. 

In the first half, she established position on whoever was guarding her and just pulled up for turnaround jumper after turnaround jumper from the middle of the key. When Seattle U's defense applied more pressure in the second half and Maly-Karros was playing in the high post more often, she still made her presence felt by crashing the offensive boards - on one of the three shots she missed, she simply got the offensive rebound and got a second chance layup out of it. 

The only immediately evident answer during the game: Bonvicini yelling repeatedly to go at her after she picked up her second foul with the Redhawks down by seven points with eight minutes left in the first half. But Maly-Karros never ended up getting called for that third foul and the Redhawks never got any closer after that point.

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Almost every opposing coach that comes to the Connolly Center to play the Seattle University Redhawks has expressed confidence in second-year coach Joan Bonvicini's ability to guide them through the rough transition to Division I.

Although those might just be dismissed as empty platitudes wrapped in coach-speak, it's probably safe to say that their 62-43 upset of the University of Idaho Vandals could be considered as much a confirmation of her colleagues' faith in her as it was a surprise.

"To me this was more of a statement game for us in terms of how we want to play, what we want to do, and it's going to really build confidence for us," said Bonvicini.

In addition to being the largest margin of victory over a Division I opponent in Bonvicini's tenure with the Redhawks, it marks their third win in the last five games, and among their best shooting performances of the year in shooting 9-for-20 from beyond the arc.

And perhaps even more surprising is just how far they've come as a 3-6 team after starting the season 0-4: they executed as more of a unit last night than at any time this season.

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Seattle University junior guard Elle Kerfoot was as surprised as anyone by just how well the Redhawks shot in the second half of the Redhawks' 66-56 win over Montana State last night.

"That's a first," said Kerfoot, with a pleasantly surprised chuckle when informed that they shot 51.7% in the second half of their first game in the Seattle U Thanksgiving Tournament. "I think against their zone, we had a lot of open looks against the perimeter so we had to keep shooting in order to spread out that zone. So as we kept building on the lead, we had to make shots."

And indeed, given that the team has been shooting under 30% from the field and beyond the arc this season, that they managed to shoot well enough to bust MSU's zone is something of a watershed moment for the progress of this team this season. In fact, this first win of the 2010-11 season might have been the best half of the best game of Redhawks coach Joan Bonvicini's career in Seattle.

"It was the first complete game since I've been here," said Bonvicini, agreeing that this was arguably the best game they've played in her tenure in Seattle. "We're still getting there - we're a work in progress - but I saw a much, much improved [team], hard-working, good decision making. It was a very, very, good game start to finish for us."

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Seattle, WA - A 74 to 57 loss to Cal Poly at home is not the way that the Seattle University women's basketball program wanted to begin their second season playing Division I basketball.

The Redhawks seemed scattered, without a plan, and just at a loss for ideas. Such is to be expected when only 70 minutes were played by upperclassmen. The new faces led to an in cohesive squad.

"We played like we had a lot of new kids trying to get chemistry together, and it showed," said Seattle U coach Joan Bonvicini. "So I think I'll take this one, I think it is my responsibility to get these guys ready, and we weren't as ready as we should have been."

Whoever takes responsibility seems irrelevant though. Sure, one game of a season is hardly enough to make sweeping judgments about a team, but at the same time the Redhawks seemed to be facing some obvious holes.

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