Willy,

Not classless, just sheer emotions and excitement for the Purple.  I can't always control what my body does when emotions are running high like on Saturday night.

Mig,

Rumor has it that BumKneez has internet connection again and is mobilized.  His appearance on this forum should take place any minute now........that is unless he is intimidated by all the GAC fans on here...oh wait...GAC fans are probably too busy reading the St. Peter best seller "Acting Classless for Dummies" book.   

Columbian: I would take the Mega Bus, but my parents told me it was too dangerous to take by myself.  I Guess that I will just have to huddle in front of the computer to watch the game.

AK47:  You, BumKneez, and myself should head to Hooters Block E and convince the staff there to pipe the UST game in on their big screens.  I am sure the only convincing that you would have to do is just whip out your student ID from 4 years ago (you know..the same one you use to buy the cheaper student tickets instead of the ADULT ones like you should be doing).  You are a legend in local blog rings, so I am sure they will accommodate you in any way--just like the Tommie girls shot putters use to!

What do you say?

Willy,

While The Mig probably did step on your crutches, I know for a fact that I at one point moved them to sit down directly in front of you.  For all these years I have just had a moniker to identity people, now I can  associate a face and a pair of crutches with someone on here!

Drake--It is good to be back in the loop again.  I am instantly reminded just how time consuming this forum can be.  But what better things do I have to do on a Monday night?? Watch the much anticipated showdown between the Wolves and Wizards???  I will pass on that.

Does anybody know if there will be any fan buses headed down to Chicago this weekend, or will I be left trying to bum a ride from fans/students of a college I never attended??

The flat top was a nice touch as well.  I wonder what it will be this weekend?  Shaved? Dyed Puple?  Lightning bolts???  Hopefully the web feed will zoom in enough for us to see. 

One last thing....Did anybody else think that Lonnie's hair-do was bad ass on Saturday night?

Russian Mig,

My track record for "posting up" on D3hoops.com is notoriously late and lengthy with the majority of the content just reworded ten different ways (see my post after Carroll loss two years ago).  However, it takes the playoffs for me to really get fired up and start offering my sometimes incoherent banter to anyone that is willing to listen.

Lets talk about the game on Saturday night briefly.  First, I just want to say you know a team has arrived when fans are left trying to scalp tickets from local ticket brokers to get into a D3 basketball game, so congrats Tommies on drawing a nice sized crowd--albeit half were UWSP fans.  I know the Russian Mig sure appreciates having the "hook up" for tickets to these events.  For those in attendance it was a fantastic last showing at The Shoe.  I didn't think it would be the encore for the nationally acclaimed venue on Sat. night, but as it turned out an exclamation point to a historic site.  I sure am going to miss getting out my climbing gear to summit the bleachers in the "adult" section.  Nothing like being 5 feet higher than the guy in front of you to watch the game!

To further The Migs point about the usually lifeless and easily distracted Tommies fans, it was good to see that they had a little extra excitement to them--even if it was only because it was Saturday night and there were some choice beverages consumed before hand.  For those of you that were at the last Gusties vs. Tommies game in the MIAC semis, you fully understand just how easy the Tommie fans can be overshadowed and drowned out by the visiting students.  I am not saying that Gusties fans are superior by any means, but they do travel well and bring life to any venue.  With that being said, they are still the most classless body of students in the MIAC and quite possibly anywhere.

My prediction for this weekend:  Tommies beat P-Sound, but lose handily to Wheaton.  I just don't like that match up, and I can really see the Tommies get pushed around.  Hopefully this isn't the case, but until Saturday they really haven't been tested.  I wish I could be in the stand this weekend, but unfortunately I will be demoted to hitting the bottle and watching the live web feed....

Mig and BumKneez, you wanna join me? 

. 

The Tommies were able to erase the doubt that they could make an effective run in the tourney after Saturdays HUGE win.  Their track record of early exits made a lot of us Tommie fans uneasy about this weekend, especially the inevitable match up against Steven's Point.  When I first saw the bracket, I was upset that UST would have to face a perennial power house in UWSP in the first weekend.  I knew the match up was going to happen, just not in the first round.  But afterall, the NCAA in the Division 3 realm is all about dollars and keeping travel costs down--thus putting Point in the Tommies regional.

St. Thomas faced their toughest opponent all year in Point, and beat a team and program that has a history of making a deep push into the tourney.  The Tommies missed a lot of 3 pointers that they were nailing the night before, and they never really were able to establish an inside game, but they fought through a hotly contested match up to move onto the sectionals.  

Talk about a nail biter.  The game was never out of reach for Point, and it really could have gone either way in the closing minutes.  I am glad to see St. Thomas get out of the first weekend and move onto Sectional action  in Wheaton, IL--although I firmly believe that The Shoe should be next weekends host.  Again it comes down to dollars, and it is unfortunate that St. Thomas hosted its last game on Saturday night.  The Tommie Fanamaniacs put on a good show, especially the football guys and the fan in the tight shorts that was hoisted up during free throws by Point--very original!!

I loved the full court pass to Scott for the mind-boggling REVERSE dunk to essentially put the game away.  Could you imagine if Scott goes to reverse that dunk and misses and Moses comes down and nails the 3 to put it into OT?  Thankfully it didn't happen that way, but talk about a gutsy play given the score and circumstances.  

It has been a fun run this far, and hopefully the Tommies can have another successful weekend and push their way to the finals.  Lets Go Tommies!!

Columbian Mofia,

Now that I am aware of just how exciting "posting up" can be, I really wish I would have gotten on here earlier.  Bumkneez started posting on here during last season, and everytime he was over at my house I said that I would get involved with it.  I really wanted to start posting after the loss to Lawrence last year, as I was worked up and ready to start getting nasty towards the Lawrence fans.  So I told myself this year that I would get on here early, and I did.  I think I lasted a week or so and then just got bored with it.  But now that I realize just how much time it takes out of my day to get these posts up and stay in tune with what is being said, I was probably better off being MIA.  Right now I am using these posts as a means of therapy for getting back on my feet after the Tommies loss.

Bumkneez,

First of all I am getting a kick out of the fact that we are debating this through posts, as this could easily be done in person, as it already has.  But given the history between you and I of agreeing on things, it is probably much more civil to approach this disagreement on here.  At least we can finish a sentence and start a new one without putting our earflaps down and not hearing the other person speak. 

With that being said Kneez, I want to briefly (you all laugh, but I promise this will be short) touch on a couple points of your last post.  You say that intangibles make a difference, but buckets win ball games.  Obviously it is the buckets that put points on the board.  I think we can agree on that, right?  However, before a bucket can be scored, there has to be a few key factors that determine how and if a bucket is scored.  We have both agreed that execution is a huge part of whether or not a bucket goes in.  There are also variables such as endurance, mental state, desire, that also are important in whether a not a team is in position to score a basket. 

My point was that excitment and energy can significantly influence execution of the game plan, which in turn results in buckets.  For those visual learners out there, it goes somthing like this:

Intangibles (see above) + Game Plan + Exectution = Buckets (a.k.a points). 

Now there are probably a few more things that you can think of that belong in that equation, but those are the basics.  However, the point that I am trying to make is that buckets are the final result.  They are contingent on the preceeding variables.  Without the intangibles and other components, there would be no buckets.  I chose to isolate the Intangibles portion of this equation.  If you zoom out and take a look at the whole equation, your points fit nicely in the summation of the entire equation.  I am simply zooming in on one aspect:  Intangibles. 

While I agree that most teams believe they can win, there are many times that players lose their mental focus and can get caught up in the hype of a given game.  Lack of focus and second-guessing can destroy a team, no matter the level of talent.  I think you should put more of a premium on excitment and mental vision.  I think a lot of times teams doom themselves by either losing mental focus or becoming overly confident. 

In essence, my point is unrefutable, so please stop trying, as I will just keep coming back harder and stronger (and my fingers hurt from typing so much, so please don't force me to keep writing).  Actually maybe we can settle our differences this weekend over a highly contested NCAA Football showdown on PS2, followed up by the consumption of spirits, proceeded by bad decisions and questionable tactics. 

I am not exactly sure how to copy and insert quotes from previous posts, so that is why the above post didn't turn out like I thought.  Also, I apologize for the long posts, but having been absent from the board all season, I have gotten diarrhea of the mouth. 

Quote from: columbianmaffia on March 06, 2007, 03:40:39 PM

Quote from: ustbumkneez on March 06, 2007, 02:56:28 PM
You play hard as an athlete because you know thats what youre supposed to do. If you need a coach to remind you of that, then youre not much of a player to begin with. The game was about execution, not effort. Carroll did it, UST did not.

Furthermore, at no point was I questioning the Tommies effort.  That was never a point of mine in any post.  I fully believe they put all they had into the game (i.e. Schnettler staying on the floor all night).  I never questioned the Tommies effort, as I know they wanted the game as much as Carroll.

  Bumkneez, you completely missed my point.  As I later followed up to my original post, I reaffirmed that I wasn't by any means saying that excitement or energy levels were the difference in the game.  That would be a ridiculous proposition.  When it was all said in done, the Tommies lost because of execution, and more importantly exectution of THEIR OWN game plan. 
     The whole point of my original post is that I think there are certain intangibles in the playoffs that can propel a team to victory--even if it is an inferior team.  Your statement about the coaches and how they shouldn't be responsible for getting their team motivated is accurate.  However, even the most competitive players need motivation and direction sometimes.  That is why there are coaches.  Not only are the coaches responsible for X's and O's, but they are also responsible for preparing the team mentally and getting their heads in the game.  If it always came down to the understanding of X's and O's than it would be a given that the teams with the most intelligent coaches would win.  This is not the case.  That is only part of the equation.  Yes, the X's and O's are important but there are other variables in the equation for a winning performance.  This is where my whole posting becomes relevant.
     You are insinuating in your post that I am saying that the game was reduced to excitement levels.  This is completely wrong.  I just chose to focus on excitement/energy as one variable that could have helped the Tommies pull out a win.  I isolated this variable because to me it is a very important part of the equation.  This is why there are cinderallas and teams with inferior talent making playoff runs in all divisions of collegiate hoops.  This is why there are upsets.  So when Bucknell, George Mason and other small scale teams beat major conference teams in the NCAA tourney, are you telling me that it is simply because these smaller teams have coaches that better understand X's and O's???  I seldom think that is the case.  Rather, these teams that should have no business beating these 1 and 2 seeds are winning because the coaches have installed a mentallity in them that they CAN win.  A positive attitude creates confidence and confidence is an intangible that can single-handedly put a team in the win column. 
     If Schnettler and Ike didn't have confidence, they would never be as good as they were.  Confidence is huge, especially in playoff runs.  That is why teams with inferior talent and with all the odds stacked against them can go on the road twice in a few days and upset teams EXPECTED to win.  Top rated teams sometimes underestimate their opponent and don't really prepare themselves mentally.  I am not saying this is the case in the Tommie game, but there is a reason that underdogs consistantly upset top ranked teams--year after year.  And it seldom is a case of X's and O's.  IMHO, I think the biggest factor in a playoff run is mentality and heart. 
     This was my whole point in my original post.  I think that heart and mentality can be elicited from a head coach that can bring that out of them.  I do believe that the Tommies wanted the game, and bad.  I am not saying they didn't have the heart, but what I am saying is that I think excitement and high energy levels can make a team more focued and confident. 
     The Pioneers had no business coming into The Shoe and winning--NONE.  On paper (X's and O's) the Tommies had a winning squad.  I am not saying Carroll didn't earn their win, but they shouldn't have won.  All signs pointed towards the Tommies moving onto the next weekend.  The Pioneers didn't get caught up in all the hype of playing a top-10 team on the road.  No, they came in and took care of business.  Completely threw the Tommies off their game plan and looked like the veteran team that the Tommies should have been.
     The bottom line is the Tommies lost because they failed to execute.  I just was simply saying that I think that if they would have been more "pumped up" by their coaching staff, they maybe could have stayed focused and stuck to what got them there.  I think that excitement and energy are variables that the Tommies came up short on.  I have seen Fritz snap on his players, and I know he has the ability to get in his kids face.  This is good and all, but like I said in my original post, this doesn't breed confidence but rather a scared team that might become more focused on not screwing up than going out and attacking. 
     Lastly, since you brought up X's and O's, if it was so obvious to us fans that the Tommies were not playing "Tommie Basketball," then why didn't the coaching staff call an immediate time out and remind them of what got them there.  I think they should have made better adjustments in the first half, as it was more than obvious to us fans that they had drifted away from their game plan. 
     I am not trying to bash the coaching staff at UST, as I know they are stand up individuals and Fritz' record speaks for itself.  Fritz has been very successful and at no point was I trying to imply that he wasn't up to the challenge.  I was just simply pointing out an intangible that I think would have helped the Tommies stay true to themselves.  The Tommies had the talent and the game plan to win, but came up way short of their expectations, and in this time of second guessing, excitment and energy is just one thing that I think could have made a difference.

I think I might have openly exposed Bumkneez' favorite movie.  I bet he even had those movie facts bookmarked.  Don't tell me Kneez that you use to measure the hoop prior to UST games just to prove that it is the same height as the hoop mounted on your garage.  I bet you still own a pair of Chuck Taylors and frequently obsess over the hottness of Barbara Hershey.  Am I right???