Quote from: Into_the_Blue on January 11, 2010, 02:57:25 PM

Does PantherPride post here anymore? 

Into_the_Blue:

I drop in occasionally and leave notes.  I am two schools removed from Greenville now.  I still try to keep up with the ball club, but have done a poor job of it this year as my role at Mesa State (NCAA II) has kept me quite a bit busier than my previous job at Puget Sound.

Great to see all the updates though on the SLIAC.  Lots of eye opening teams with Fontbonne below .500 and MacMurray right there on the doorstep.  Great job for Spalding to come in the league in year one and showing they are a contender. 

I'm pulling for my Panthers hard, just seems like we are always falling just a few points short.  Still bleeding black and orange!  Keep fighting Coach Barber and the Panthers!!!!

Yes, I have moved to NCAA Division II Mesa State in Grand Junction, CO.  Things are great here in Colorado.  We tip off tomorrow on the road.  I get a chance to see the Mavs for the first time just after Thanksgiving.  So we will see how is compares to good old Division III ball.

FYI, I'm Athletic Event Coordinator for Mesa State.

Great to hear from all of you!  I'll drop by every now and them.  Hopefully I can hit a SLIAC game while I'm home over Christmas!

Hey Boys!  Thought I'd drop a line and say hello.

Definitely a tough way to open the season for my Panthers.  Not sure what the case is with Ellis.  I'll have to do some investigating.  Hopefully they can grab some wins at Rhodes against Rhodes and Hendrix.

Hope everyone is well.  I miss the old SLIAC! 

Wow!  Lots to catch up on since I last posted following the conclusion of the Panther Basketball season.  Few things...

1. Sorry EC_SID for what happened.  Very unfortunate.  I enjoyed working with you a little bit on some different things!  I hope you find another gig soon.

2. Speaking of new gigs, I have a new job.  I'm Athletic Events Coordinator at Mesa State College (NCAA II School in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) in Grand Junction, Colorado!  Very excited about that.

3.  I'll get a sneak preview of the '09-10 Panthers this week. 

Hey fc... Good Luck this weekend!  I'm pulling for you.  We are in the same killer bracket!  Hopefully one of us will make it out!

Go Fontbonne (Don't tell me Greenville folk I said that! )

Puget Sound Loggers
Last D3 Poll Ranking: 7th
Record: 24-3 / 16-0 NWC
Conference: Regular Season Champion
Head Coach: Justin Lunt (3rd Season)

Key Wins:
1/16 at Whitworth 89-77
2/13 v. Whitworth 81-71

Key Losses:
2/28 v. Whitworth 90-80 OT (NWC Championship Game)

Notes:
Loggers went 21-1 in NCAA III Games (only loss to Whitworth in NWC Title game 90-80 in OT)
Loggers were 6th in the country in scoring (86.0 pg)

Starters:
2 Nadav Heyman 6'1" FR - 5.2 ppg - 22 steals
5 Jason Foster 6'7" SR - 15.0 ppg - 6.8 rpg
15 Antwan Williams 6'0" SR - 12.8 ppg - 5.3 apg - 71 steals
24 Austin Boyce 6'5" JR - 10.4 ppg - .517 FG%
32 Robert Krauel 6'4" SR - 14.3 ppg - .586 FG%

Keys from the Bench:
3 Steffond Brown 6'0" SR - 7.1 ppg - .440 3FG%
11 Kolin Koach 6'0" JR - 3.9 ppg - .342 3FG%
12 Conner Gehring 6'4" SO - 3.0 ppg
14 Bryce Levin 6'3" JR - 6.6 ppg
21 Kaleb Shelton 6'5" FR - 5.0 ppg
31 James Pinkney 6'5" SR - 2.0 ppg

Interesting Notes:
Loggers played all nine non-conference games on the road (opening games at local high school)
Loggers won 20-straight games and was undefeated during January and lost on the final day of February.
Loggers making their first appearance in the NCAA's since 2006. (lost in Elite 8 to IWU 113-99)

In response to Greenville and NCCAA Post Season:

Greenville has a unwritten rule that a team must be over .500 to compete in the NCCAA Tournament.  Greenville ended 12-13, one game under .500.  Therefore will not compete in the NCCAA tournament.

Congratulations to Coach McKinney and the Fontbonne basketball program for again winning the SLIAC Tournament Championship and the big to the big dance.  Good luck in the national tournament!

Coach Barber is out of surgery and removed the olecranon bursa on his elbow.  As for being in critical condition, I'm confident from what I'm told that he was never in critical condition.

He is out of surgery and doing fine.

As Greenville AD Doug Faulkner would say, "HOLY COW!"  Looking at the results from last Wednesday night does anyone want into the SLIAC tournament.  Fontbonne squeaks by Mac and Greenville nudges Blackburn... And Webster drops a key game to Maryville.

It's amazing!

Since you won't hear this from the Greenville folk, I'll be sure to make you aware of this...

Last night in the loss to Maryville (Mo.), junior LaPhonso Ellis joined the Greenville College 1,000 point club with his 20 points.  Ellis, from East St. Louis, Ill., now sits with 1,013.  He is just 240 shy of joining the top 10 scorers list in Greenville College history.

Do you think Greenville and Fontbonne were uninspired  or let-down going into tonight's games?  Do you think Coach Barber or Coach McKinney went into the games uninspired or let down about the games tonight?  That's what I'm getting at juniormint.  How can you say any student-athlete in the country goes into a game uninspired or even goes and doesn't give an inspired effort.  This isn't the NBA where you can take a night off.

These student-athletes don't play "uninspired."  They don't go into games with their heads hung and let-down about a game.

I'm fine with a post game assessment of "uninspired."  Although I cannot fathom any team playing uninspired.  Can you?  But to say that a team will play uninspired is again bogus.

And yes, I edited my post after posting it.  What of it?  I chose to use words that was inappropriate out of frustration.  Problem with that?

I think it's unfair to say, "Maryville gets a win over an uninspired Greenville team tonight."  No, I'm not saying you aren't able to express your opinion.  But, I am saying to just assume that Greenville or any team is going to come out, uninspired to play is bogus.  What athletic team comes out "uninspired" to play.

Indiana is having the worst season on record and you can't tell me that Tom Crean and the boys are in the locker room in Assembly Hall hanging their heads and "uninspired" to go play Michigan State, or Illinois or whoever.  Arizona played in the Super Bowl and no one expected them to be close.  They didn't play "uninspired."

To say any team is going to go into a game "uninspired" is again bogus.  Seriously.  Give me a break.  You are better than that comment juniormint.

I would agree.  To say that Greenville is "uninspired" I think is an unfair statement unless you watched the team play or was in the huddle.

No one in that locker room from coach to the last man is "uninspired."  I know that from talking to many people close to the team and on the team.

Again, unfair statement.  Standing by it or not.

The NCAA isn't really asking teams to go NCAA II if they join.  That was some of the discussion as apart of the NCAA III/IV discussion last year.  NCAA III wanted the NCAA to steer schools that way due to the numbers.

It actually would make since for these NAIA schools to go NCAA II due to the scholarships.  They wouldn't be losing or changing a lot on that end.  I realize there are differences, however, between the two.

Although the moratorium is lifted on schools allowed into NCAA III, I believe they are only accepted a small number per year.

I realize this is the men's basketball message board, but I want to let people know of a milestone just surpassed at Greenville that you probably won't hear about.

Greenville senior Meredith Banal surpassed 1,000 points Saturday in the 75-61 loss to Westminster (Mo).  Banal, from Vandalia, Ill., scored 22 points in the loss, passing the 1,000 point mark.  She now has 1,002 points in her career as a Panther.  As a Vandal at Vandalia High School, she is also apart of the 1,000 point club.