Quote from: Drake Palmer on December 04, 2014, 03:35:20 PM
Opening night tidbits
Well, well, well, interesting and exciting opening night in the MIAC as the home team won 4-5 conference games. 68 was also the most popular number of the night as Augsburg beat the Carlies 68-58, STO knocked off MAC 68-58, & the Gusties beat UST 68-65.
Jays squeaked by the Cobbs 79-76, SMU beat Hamline 70-67, & in nonconference play Bethel beat Northwestern 84-75. Early front runner for FY Player of the year, Bridge Tulser from Bethel had a monster night: 29 pts on 10-13 FGA, 4-6 3FGA, 4rebs, 4 assists, 6 steals!
Saturday's game pitting Bethel vs. STO could be a dandy, & I'll have to see if I can sneak out of the house for that one.
Augsburg's FY Collin Olmscheid is quietly putting together a nice portfolio on the young season as he had 13 pts & 7 rebs in the win against Carleton. I'm guessing he must be the younger brother of the Cobbers' Darren Olmscheid?
Coach R might be getting a little thing going on down in Winona. In their first game of the season they fired out of the gates with a nice win over the Pipes with a mix of mostly underclassmen. All the more impressive since Hamline has a decent squad this season led by All-MIAC performer Dior Ford, and this was the Pipes 5th game of the season.
As I alluded to yesterday, a lack of defensive stoppers & toughness could bring the Tommies back to the pack. Having seen my fair share of talented UST teams and other tourney teams the past 10+ years or so, this year's version of the Tomcats will need to step it up if they hope to enjoy any post season success.
Nice win by the Gusties. This could be a fun, topsvy turvy season for the top two spots. Could the Lutes - GAC & STO be dark horses for the league title? The Gustie machine keeps rolling along with seemingly interchangeable parts which will always keep them close to the top of the league. The thing they seem to be lacking in recent years is that one star player who can strap the team on his back. The Oles have got the man in the middle Ben Figini, plus the best PG in the league Sterling Nielsen, along with sharpshooter Justin Pahl.
Jays have got a ton of talent and just need to figure out a way to make it gel.
*****
Shoutout to Oleroll for joining the board, hope to see you on here more frequently.
Congrats AO, wife & Aubrey. I became a grandfather for the first time in October so I may end up scaling back on my days & nights of following MIAC hoops. Hopefully, we don't totally lose our MIAC, PG 13 version of message board edginess.
Plus k to the board.
Congrats AO! I have a 4 Month baby girl, it's every emotion you could possibly imagine. Enjoy!
DP- Bethel/STO has the makings for a fun game to watch.
My disclaimer* I didn't watch a single minute of any game. I just went through the stat sheets and summaries to gather some information about the match ups from last night.
MAC/STO- This is a standard Mac game. Get down early (down 13 by half). Get close at the end (6 pts @ 4:37, 3:35// 5 pts @ 1:52). Lose by double digits 68-58.
The thing about MAC is that they have lacked a defensive presence. The type where another team walks into the gym and says, "It's going to be really tough to score tonight." It's the type of defensive psychological pressure STT and GAC have imposed on opponents for about a decade.
Point in case, STO only attempts 7 3-pt shots (2/7), and goes 22-26 from the free throw line, 30 points in the paint (PITP), and 7 team t.o.'s- resulting in only 10 pts off TO's for MAC.
On the flip side, STO created 15 TO, 22 Pts off turnovers, 18 PITP, 10 FT attempts.
STO also had a nice balanced scoring starting five of 8, 22, 10, 10, 12.
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Hamline/SMU-
The first thing that jumped out was that SMU had 9 guys play over 15 min, while 6 guys played over 20 min for Hamline.
The second thing is that so many of the stats were in Hamline's favor. Hamline outrebounded the Birds 37-24 including 13-2 on the offensive glass. It makes me wonder if the Pipers just missed shots or SMU forced the shots they wanted them to take as the Pipers were 6-20 from 3pt and 2-11 in the first half.
One thing is for sure, SMU can definitely build some early season momentum with this W.
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STT/GAC
St. Thomas starting 5 was short compared to the Gusties, rebounding and post play seemed to be the difference, and the number of minutes played per guy is interesting.
STT: 6'0", 6'0", 5'11", 6'4", 6'6"
GAC: 6'1", 6'2", 6'4", 6'6", 6'6"
37 GAC rebounds to 24 STT
8-13 GAC FT's to STT 3-5!!!
The most interesting thing is that STT played 6 guys 23+ min, and GAC played 9 guys 15+ min. Two reasons why that is important:
1.) Guarding GAC offense is often exhausting.
2.)STT has the craziest talent of JV/Bench assembled in the MIAC, many of whom might start for a majority of the MIAC teams today...Fronk, Deadrick,Veil, Kuplic, Pagel, Conroy, Burich, R. Johnson, R. Boll... It'll be interesting which ones will take advantage of their opportunities to contribute this year (hint: the ticket to the floor is defense).
Big statement win for the Gusties early on, and a wake up call to STT (I'm not sure i'd want to play them next...)
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CAR/AUG
No Shane McSparron. Not sure why he's out, but the Knights really missed him.
Noteworthy: Carleton only attempted 7 3-point shots. The Knights went 6-16 from FT. Kevin Grow is a sleeper.
Augsburg was lead by Hines (14), Rasmussen (14), and FY standout Olmscheid (13). They out rebounded Carleton 34-27 . Does anyone know how Augsburg got their points (Ball screens, on the break, iso post ups off screen the screener?)
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SJU/Con
While another similar number pops up, 34-26 rebounding advantage SJU, it was the 16 CON T.O.'s that seemed to due them in in comparison to 7 SJU. I'm guessing we had someone watch this game that could give a better analysis...chirp, chirp...
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Bethel/NW
Drake, Bridge is not just a candidate for FOY, he could very well be in the running for POY. Notice that he put up that MONSTER state line in only 27 minutes! I know it's early, but I think that's actually the scary part. His biggest weakness will be staying out of foul trouble.
Brycen must of been having his way getting to the hoop and some pull up J's going 10-16 and only 4 3- pt attempts.
Zimmerman 22 points on 7-9 shooting, 6 rebounds, 3 steals. Yup, that's a good night!
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I'll be busy with RCTC on Saturday, but I look forward to seeing people's responses to the games.
MC
? That place is darn near impossible to win at. UST couldn't do it.
...As far as the Gusties losing to the Oles- The Oles have been tough all year long and have had competed with every team ranked above them very well-barring STU(who are very good)-- Oles split w/ carl and bethel, lost by 1 to StJ after leading the whole game, and beat gustavus at their place, and lost to gustavus by 3 at home---don't count the Oles out for some late-season heroics!
