Wisconsin Stevens-Point falls to MidAmerica Nazarene 77-64 in the semi-final of the Clarke Tournament.

It's not a bad loss. MidAmerica is a NAIA D-II power. Their starting backcourt includes the 2003 KC Metro Player of the Year and 2002 Mr Kansas Basketball. They have some amazing facilities, great tradition, and some of the best financial support in the NAIA..

They have four starters averaging double figures and their fifth starter is 6'8 Akuien Wour, a Sudanese immigrant from Des Moines. Wour was first team All-State Iowa and he has a 41 inch vertical jump.

He leads NAIA D-II in blocked shots. He averages 9 and 6 for MNU with about 3-5 blocks per game.

MidAmerica is far more athletic than your average WIAC team. However tomorrow they might get slaughtered by Robert Morris.

RMC offers 3.5 more scholarships than MNU; 11 to 7.5.

Both teams like to force the tempo. It will be interesting, but RMC is a great basketball team. They might be the NAIA's best team.

There is some legit talent at the NAIA D-I level. A lot of those schools are loaded with D-I transfers and flunkies.

NAIA D-II schools are a lot like D-III schools with scholies. The talent level is very similar, especially at the top.

Lance,

I know more about the NAIA than you would ever know, but thank you for letting me know Central Methodist is in a different conference than St. Ambrose.

It's called the HAAC, it's actually a more athletic conference than the Mid States, but trust me, SAU would've beaten Central Methodist had they played.

Again, I'm not trying to start an NAIA vs. D-III debate.

However, I do believe wholeheartedly the MidStates Conference is better and deeper than the IIAC.

As far as the low blow comment, I could give a rat's crap. I only care about watching quality football. I could care less if a player can read.

BTW, Central Methodist offers 24 scholarships. Carroll College only offers 20.
Money isn't everything, it's how the coaches use their money. Iowa Wesleyan offers 24 scholarships for that matter, but why would anyone want to attend school there? There is no logical reason. The only place worse would be Oskaloosa. Osky is quite possibly the white trash capital of the world.

Waldorf is arguably the worst team in the NAIA, and I'm not sure they've won a single game yet. Iowa Wesleyan and William Penn are brutal as well, but making a judgement on the NAIA or the MidStates because of those teams is like saying the Sun Belt Conference is better than the Big 12 because North Texas beats Baylor every season.

There are plenty of D-III conferences which are stronger than the Mid-States, but the IIAC is not one of them.

I'm not here to start "shiite" on your board, but you're kidding yourselves if you really believe the IIAC is even comparable to the MidStates Conference. William Penn and Iowa Wesleyan have both done nothing since they joined that league. And I can promise you both teams have actually improved their talent levels since they became NAIA teams.
I think a lot of you should give Loras some credit for keeping last year's game close. SAU was replacing all of their defensive backfield and virtually their whole offensive line, which was one of the best in the NAIA during the '03 season. This was a team which normally threw the football 25-30 times a game, and they were only able to muster 13 passes because of an inneffective o-line. Had those two teams played later in the season, SAU would've won the game pretty handily. I would wager SAU wins this year's game by two touchdowns or more. The rivalry aspect will keep the game closer, but the talent gap is plenty wide between both programs.

Simpson was beaten soundly by Central Methodist, a 4-6 NAIA team. The margin of victory was only 7 points, but Simpson scored their last two touchdowns against reserves in the 4th quarter. Simpson blew out Loras 31-7. There is no doubt in my mind St. Ambrose would've beaten Central Methodist handily.

Also remember, SAU beat William Penn and Wesleyan by a combined margin of 72-28.

Every season, there are two or three teams from the MidStates better than any team in the IIAC. McKendree, Trinity International, St. Xavier, and maybe even Sat. Ambrose could've beaten any team from the IIAC last year. The midstates champ would be a top 10 D-III team every season.

I'm not trying to start a D-III vs. NAIA debate, because it's a futile argument. But I will definitely take issue with anyone who believes the IIAC is on par with the Mid-States.

IMO, the NAIA and D-III are very similar at the upper echelons of both levels. You guys know very well your league is not one of D-III's elite conferences. The Mid-States MidWest is the 3rd or 4th strongest conference in the NAIA.


p.s. I'm not a St. Ambrose fan, in fact I hate them and their conference, but I can let my own personal biases fall by the wayside to inject a dose of reality into this board.

They played MidAmerica Nazarene, the NAIA's preseason #10 team.
Now when I say slow, I meant in comparison to their opponent. MidAmerica returns 19 starters from a 10-3 team in 2004 that went to the 2nd round in the NAIA playoffs. Graceland finished 8-2 last season, and MidAmerica beat them 44-10

MidAmerica has D-I and D-II transfers and tons of players from Texas, California, and Florida. Over half of their roster is All-State players from big schools around the country. They don't have near the academic requirements of the Iowa D-III schools, and they're also a fully funded NAIA school which means they can offer more scholarships than the D-II Northern Sun Conference with schools like Winona State, Wayne State, etc.

They would handle Wartburg pretty easily.

IMO, the D-III top 10 and the NAIA top 10 are about equal with regards to ability and talent. NAIA schools will occasionally have more talent than D-III's mainly due to transfers, but the high school talent is similar.

Linfield would've beaten Carroll last season, but Carroll would've beaten St. Johns in 2003. It varies from year to year.

Somebody asked about the scrimmages over the weekend. Simpson scrimmaged the #10 team from the NAIA, and got rocked.

You can't run the Spread Offense with slow athletes. I used to believe in the system and the scheme, but some people just can't get it down.