Agree that the video has been terrible.  I don't know why there needs to be a replay on every single play of the game either.

Anyone else having issues with the video feed?

From my experiences I believe they get 4 or 4 1/2 hours to complete the double header.  While playing we did have one or two that we didn't finish and one where they even turned the lights out on us.  I've never heard of only a 3 hour limit though so unless the first game is super high scoring and lasts well over 2 hours you should be able to see at least 5 or 6 innings in the nightcap.

Doesn't Bethel go to play St. Thomas, not the Johnnies?  I would think the top seed gets the lowest remaining seed, but I haven't kept up with things a whole lot this season.  Can anyone clarify this?

I have been shocked at Bethel and their ability to run off wins against quality opponents.  After going to the tip off tourney early in the year I thought maybe they'd finish ahead of 2 teams tops in the league.  I haven't been able to make any more games this year, but they must have found something resembling an offense that they didn't have in the early stages of the season.  They have a couple very athletic players in Baah and Hall, but the games I watched it just looked like a free for all hoping that one of those 2 guys could beat someone one on one. Hope they continue to improve and make their ascent up the standings!

I was also in attendance on Friday night over at Bethel and can concur with your assessment.  As a Bethel alum who watched many exciting games in that gym during the early 2000's it is very frustrating to watch the deteriorating skill.  There appears to be no discernible offense being played on a consistent basis.  It's give the ball to Bah or Hall and pray they can break their guy down.  No one moves, there are very few screens being set, and overall poor play.  Hall should be able to provide great offense and defense based on size and athleticism, but it doesn't appear he cares much about being out there.  It is quite unfortunate.

As far as UWRF goes I heard that Palmer doesn't have a great grasp of the offense which is much of the reason he isn't playing many minutes.  He was definitely their best shooter off the bench Friday night, but the shots didn't always come in what you might expect to be the rhythm of the offense.  He just knocked down a couple threes standing at the wing.  They could use him getting in sync, because from what I saw he's definitely more offensively talented than several of the guys that were getting more minutes.

I've been watching the Auggie/Johnnie tilt so I have a question about why Ray Brown hasn't even attempted a shot in the first half for hamline.  He doesn't have any fouls listed by him either.  Did he get hurt?  It looks like two solid games are shaping up for the second half with neither of the games having a team pulling away in the first half.

St. Thomas   18-2
Gustavus    16-4
St. John's    13-7
Augsburg    13-7
Hamline    11-9
Carleton    11-9
Bethel    9-11
St. Olaf     8-12
St. Mary's     6-14
Concordia     6-14
Macalester 0-20

I don't know if this is even possible but I'll go with it

Bethel definitely played the best defense I've seen in a while from them.  Zach Hurd gave them some great minutes at the point position.  He really hounded the Gustie guards and made it difficult to get any rhythm on offense.  It was a very physical game all around.  The reffing wasn't great, but I don't think it would have cost either team the game no matter who lost.  There really wasn't one guy on the offensive end that stood out to me during this game.  It was just a little bit here and a little bit there.  Wirjes, not sure on the spelling almost single handedly helped the Gusties pull this one off with 2 huge threes in the last couple minutes, but Bethel was able to get a fast break bucket off of a loose ball scramble to take the one point lead and then made a stop.  Hopefully this game will give Bethel a little confidence going towards the second half of the season.  Even though the playoffs are pretty much out of the question they could go a long way towards rebuilding for next year if the young guys start playing well.  That was a little scattered, but I didn't have much time to provide a more streamlined thought process.

Nebraska had a sixth guy on the bench who added an extra warm up top for his second half on the bench.  They had 8 guys listed in the program roster, but only 6 were there.  Scheduling this team was an embarrassment made worse by the fact that Bethel was still pressing until the score was 64-7.  As a Bethel fan I found this to be totally unacceptable.  It was clear that Nebraska Christian would not challenge you after about the first 30 seconds of watching this game, and even more clear when you went up by 30+ early.  Call off the dogs and just play solid basketball.

In regards to Schmiessing I heard that he was headed to the Saints.  I'm not sure if it is true, but I talked to someone who said they saw that in one of the local papers.  This playoff run should be pretty interesting in the next couple weeks.  As usual it appears there will be a lot of tie breaker talk as the season comes to a close. 

I took in the second half of the double header between Augsburg and Bethel the other day.  It was not too exciting.  Strong pitching, but overall both teams appeared to have a poor approach at the plate.  Bethel took A LOT of pitches and got themselves in poor hitting counts which might be the reason they scored 1 run the entire day.  Apart from Oesterlin, Churchill and Jay Slick the hitting has not been great as of late.

Adams threw another 6 scoreless innings against St. Olaf today in a 1-0 victory for the royals.  If the Royals can continue to get the occasional rainout and adams can pitch in every league double header they should be in good shape.  I certainly don't see them as the third best team in the region, but if they can get some consistent offense and they stop trying to sacrifice bunt every time they get a guy on first base with 0 or 1 out they could make their first run to the conference tourney since 2000.

In regards to the McCoy-Davis bump.  There could have been a call, but from what I saw watching the online feed. Davis was falling backwards as McCoy was back checking and they came to a collision.  I probably would have called a foul on him, but I can see where the refs might have seen davis already starting to fall as they crashed into one another.

On another note, did anyone catch the end of the Bethel-Olaf game to watch Koz up to his old tricks.  Bethel had a 2 point lead w/ about 35 sec. and got a phantom foul call on what appeared to be a clean block and instead of just letting it go and give his team a chance to win Koz goes off and gets a T.  Instead of Bethel knocking down 1 free throw for a 3 pt lead or 2 for a 4 pt lead, Bethel gets to shoot 4 free throws and makes three to go up 5 and put the game pretty much out of reach.  Not to say that Olaf would have ended up winning the game without the T, but it put them in a really bad spot.  They had shot the lights out from three so if Laugen would have only made 1 of 2 on the initial foul, they could have tied it up on one shot instead of having to come back and force the tempo.

I was able to take in my second MIAC game of the year at Bethel today.  I came away more impressed with the Bethel defense than I have in my past years of following the Royals.  Granted, I didn't see much offensive skill from the Cobbers, but I don't know enough about their team to know if that is the norm or whether the Royals really shut them down.  Bethel played very well in the first half when they were getting the ball into moberg who showed a little more offensive aggression.  As usual they did decided that working the ball inside was working too well so they abandoned it in the second half.  Moberg still got some points, but they were mostly off of offensive rebounds.  Concordia got it to six at one point, but couldn't pull any closer than that as the lead hovered around 10 the remainder of the game.

When I look at the cobbers roster they are pretty young.  They didn't have consistent point guard play or outside shooting which hurt them today.  Also, Freese (sp?) was throwing up some out of control shots in the first half which helped Bethel jump out to a lead.  He's a big strong kid that with a little more finesse could be a solid scorer in the league.  Overall, they just didn't have enough offensive talent to make a run at the end from what I could see.

Quote from: Drake Palmer on December 04, 2008, 01:53:14 PM
A couple of random comments & observations

Chairman Yao- Love the name. +k
***

Quote from: Willy Wonka on December 04, 2008, 02:16:26 AM
Is anyone else shocked that the lockdown Bethel defense held SJU to a paltry 40 points in the second half and still lost? I'm surprised they weren't able mount a comeback with a stellar performance like that.

And where's the Nicolai for Future MVP Bandwagon now? 3 points, 4 boards and 0 assists in 29 minutes. Leslie and Waldvogel are lurking, waiting, watching.

Willy - you seem to have regained your usual swagger after your beloved Gusties recovered from a shot to ballast (Bethany Lutheran), and have managed to bail most of the water (upset win over Buena Vista), and straightened out the sail (respectable performance against Winona State)  for this season's tour of the basketball high seas.  I was getting ready to measure you up for a humility suit – about a 46 long?  
*****
I wonder after these many years if the Bethel coaches have started talking among themselves – "Does our cream puff schedule have anything to do with our lack of post season success"? Virtually every team in the conference this year will have played a tougher non conference schedule than the Royals.  Even Northwestern for crips sake!

Oops, O post on this board so much I forgot they're not a part of the MIAC.  But seriously, St. Scholastica, Bethany Lutheran & Northwestern, the 2-3 UMAC teams that are really pushing at the door for D3 hoops credibility have all played much more challenging schedules than the Royals.

In addition the MIAC teams they all play, those UMAC teams will have also played:  Wartburg, Central, UW-Stout, UW-Eau Claire, UW-Superior, St. Norbert, a Holiday D3 tourney in Connecticut, plus D2 MN State-Mankato & SW State.

Compare that schedule to Bethel's killer non conference schedule:

Martin Luther, Mount Marty (they had to send scouts out to find this school), Grand View, & North Central Bible College. 
 

I was going to comment on the terrible non-conference schedule the Royals insist on playing year in and year out but you beat me to it. They used to at least put one decent team in their tip-off tournament, but now they don't eve do that.  This cupcake schedule doesn't prepare them to play any defense once the conference season begins (not that they play that defense in the non conference games either.)  The talent they have should produce more conference wins that it has the last couple of years and I believe the schedule is a big reason.

(modified by GS for formatting)