The cobbers have now potentially lost Eckhoff, Dixon, Linz, and Miller all to season ending injuries.  Has anyone ever heard of ANYTHING like this before?  Top four scorers, top four rebounders, top four minute men all gone is unbelievable.

Eckhoff is gone for good with his ACL.  Dixon is questionable with his shoulder.  Linz is questionable with an unidentified foot injury suffered in last night's game.  Miller is a source of incredible concern with a potentially damaged retina.  Four serious injuries.

What-if's aren't fun, but one has to wonder what this season looks like with the cobbers full roster.  This makes St. John's Westman-issue look piddling in comparison.

cobbers lose a great game at home to the tommies.  cobbs playing without eckhoff, without dixon almost deal UST a tough loss.  sweeney was the difference maker.  when things needed to happen, he made them happen.

wonka, dixon was injured in the early stages of game.  truly a sickening sight to see. just...gross.  the man's shoulder popped out of socket and as he was walking to the stairs with the trainer it suddenly exploded back into place.  the entire crowd freaked out.  it was visibly and audibly noticeable from the stands.

th4l i believe you're thinking of Wajda.  as in the other eagle in the miac.  i think he just left st. mary's and is possibly at MCC now, actually.

it looks like concordia's wins vs. st. johns and st. mary's early in the conference season are going to be incredibly valuable.  concordia has always done very well on the world record distance trip to winona, and they get st. john's, mac, and carleton at home in the second half of the season.

concordia finally gets it right with a big win over augsburg. linz, dixon, citterman combine for something like 24 of the 32 rebounds for concordia.

templeton goes 3-4 from deep and nets a season high 16 pts.

looks like it might have been a hack fest though.

joe shimek was an all-conference player last year. an all-conference nod doesn't simply come because one is good at basketball.  similar to the mvp votes, it is based on the necessity of that player for the team's success.  the combination of general basketball talent and the necessity of a player's presence is what makes a player all-conference.  if joe shimkek is good but st. thomas don't really need him to do much other than play defense, he is a miac all-defensive team candidate.

let's try to keep things focused on the basketball and not the character attacks and commentary scrutinization...jeez, this is no longer a friendly place.

concordia beats a much improved ole squad by 14 in moorhead tonight.

linz with 19, dixon with 16, eckhoff with 14.  looks like the cobbers are starting to get more comfortable. these three players combine for almost 20 more free throws tonight bringing their conference season total up to...84 through 4 games. which means just these three players have now vaulted ahead of every single team in the miac except GAC.  they've shot over 20 more freethrows than UST, thus far!

butala is held to 4-13 fg, 0-5 3pts with 8 pts in 30 minutes.

whoa whoa whoa, take it easy.  soren nelson was better than solid.  His junior year he was one of the most difficult match-ups in the miac.  his senior year saw him start slow and pick things up extremely well.  i believe he had three 30 pt games that year.  i believe...

unbelievable.  most of the time this board's frequenters can't refrain from unleashing some vituperous tirade at some opponent or another.  now, in my most needful hour, no one has diddly to say?  it has been hours.

in the spirit of looking for the meagerest of silver linings, i appreciate your kindly allowing my posts to rule the night time hours.

please generate some dialogue, here.  i am dying in the midst of a longwinded textual barrage at the hands of some truly irrelevant psychologists.

i desperately need this board to get ative so i can distract myself.

by the way, another interesting stat concerning free throws:

the three player combination of eckhoff, linz, and dixon has combined for more free throw attempts than 7 of the TEAMS in the miac!

the only exceptions to this rule are GAC, SJU, and Mac.

FURTHERMORE, props to luke linz for stepping up and filling the highly anticipated and necessary role of second gun to keith eckhoff.  two cobbers in the top five in the league in scoring has not happened previously, to my memory.

this again leads me to raise the question of the comparability between Linz, Drake, Conboy, and Wittwer.  Rank them, if you'd like. Also, regardless of the rankings, who do you pick if you're starting a team and why?

i think this could be interesting.  what a crop of frontcourtmen.

despite agreeing with mig ak47 that concordia has a legitimate shot at supplanting gustavus as the #2 team in the league in people's minds and hearts, I feel that another team has the BEST chance of beating them.  Concordia has as good a shot as any, certainly.  However, when considering what it is that makes st. thomas tick, it seems likely that a team which may not even make the playoffs has the greatest likelihood for catching them off-step.  that team is macalester.  with conboy, boseman(Bosman?), and this stein/hollander combination, i feel that macalester has the front court flexibility to negate st. thomas' greatest strengths.

i am sad that columbian maffia's picture is the same as mine, now.

something interesting to notice:through three conference games for the cobbers, two players (Keith Eckhoff and Mark Dixon) have made more free throws than any other player from the top six teams has attempted (with the exception of Wittwer from GAC).

eckhoff has made 21, dixon 20...wittwer has attempted 23.  the next closest was schnettler with 18 attempts in one more game than wittwer, eckhoff, or dixon.

do refs love that maroon and gold or what?

willy got me thinking and here's what i snooped out.  considering just the two conference games so far, these teams had the following rebounding margins.  i didn't want to slog through all the team's statistics so i just picked out six teams that i think have pretty reasonable shots at the playoffs.  determining which teams will ultimately make the playoffs is not the point of this post, so i'm not trying to stir any stew on that front.

mac +16; ust +12; hamline +8.5; concordia +5.5;  sju +1; gac -4.5

did gustavus just run into some rebounding buzz saws?  is this indicative of a different style of gustavus basketball.  greater emphasis on transition and perimeter play, not as prone to blood, guts, and glory ball under the hoop?

or is the stat meaningless? or will the stat resolve itself over the course of the next 18 games?

that post runs more thickly with conjectures, projected scenarios, and altered histories than anything i have ever read.

to look at things in an alternate manner...

imagine st. john's going down and losing to carleton, then travelling to bethel who hits a hot shooting night and takes them out on a home court they defend well.  well that puts them at 1-3 hoping desperately for westman to return in time for the next miac action.  It may take him a couple games to reacclimate to the pace of varsity basketball so they drop their next game at st. thomas (no easy place to play). this really gets their spirits down and prepares them poorly for the longest road trip of the year down to a feisty st. mary's squad.  they lose to the riled up cards and fall to 1-5 in conference and needing a BIG turnaround to try and push for the playoffs.

what-if's, conjectures, and wistful reminiscing lead down very imprecise roads, i think.