Thanks for the Storm support guys, I couldn't agree more.  We are on quite a roll lately and the senior squad has shown they aren't about end this season without a helluva fight. 

The BV-Coe game is a little tougher to call.  Despite the Beavers amazing postseason play, I'm going with Coe if for no other reason than the fact that I'll be closer to CR for our championship game this weekend;)

Now I'm off for a three-hour road trip to watch the last game ever at the Loras fieldhouse!!

Simpson comes from behind early at Coe, wins a great game 78-73!!  The Storm continue to build their confidence heading into the tourney!

Simpson has their best offensive night (next to the Grinnell game) with six players scoring in double figures, as the Storm win at Cornell 92-78!!

Simpson falls at Loras 70-58

I haven't denied that there has been inconsistent play by the Storm this year, but I DID think they were going to straighten out.  In fact, they did end up reaching .500, but they have been "up and down." The absence of Soppe the last few games is an obvious problem.  In the 20-pt Cornell win Lyndon Hawkins had a career night to pick up the slack and there was a lot of scoring help from the bench, but I wouldn't expect that to happen very often.  The difference in the last game vs Wartburg was that the Knights hit their threes, unlike the first matchup, as well as having a lot more chances at the free-throw line due to an unevenly called game. 

The question about leadership is a good one.  Hittenmiller is a consistent scorer, but Parkinson has been dropping off the last few games.  While some may judge leadership as getting 18+ points every night, I think it is very evident that Simpson looks their best when they have a balanced scoring attack.  The Central and Cornell game showed that.  It seems to me that the seniors lead by example plenty on the court, in knowing where they need to be and what their roles are as well as the roles of the younger kids.  But if anyone steps out of their roles, tries to do too much or gets flustered, and/or dumps the ball to the shooters and expects them to win it for the team, it puts a lot of pressure on them and the team. 

Sportsknight, you're right about Warburg's play.  I've only seen them when they were down in Indianola, but they did attempt considerably fewer free throws and astronomically more threes.  They didn't seem to realize they had an offensive player right under the hoop that they could pass to, so all but three players who saw time attempted more three pointers than they attempted from the rest of the floor!! That also led to Wartburg's 18 points in the paint but 14 2nd chance pts....seems to indicate that they don't count on their young inside players to make the first move, but I can't blame them.

Granted, Simpson has had a tough time recently guarding the perimeter because of the way we double the post, so perhaps they were trying to play to our weakness, but at some point you have to realize that shooting only gets easier the closer you get to the hole.  Our guys haven't been shooting great from any point on the floor, so to win being only 42% from the field shows we just got lucky that Wartburg couldn't hit the broad side of a barn and we could at least hit the front side.

Simpson beats Luther in Decorah 51-50 on Cermak's layup with 0:06 left!

Good evening, IIAC brethren.  I'm a new member, although I've been reading the board for over a year.  I finally just had to create an account for two reasons: 1.) Simpson has been rather poorly represented here for the last two seasons.  2.) One of our only consistent posters is "a little misguided" let's say.  It seems stormtruper doesn't actually "go to the games" or "know anything about basketball" or "have any idea how to state a coherent argument supported by evidence." 

Ok, got that off my chest.  Now, I actually go to the games.  Even some away games.  I live with one of the team members.  I am good friends with most of the team.  I actually know what the #$%@ is going on, as spoken from the mouths of the actual teammates. You get the idea.

Now, I will agree that there have been some disappointments so far this season.  I had high expectations for the team myself, and was surprised at the sloppy play I saw at BV, and I heard Dubuque was the same.  But we also shot 35% from the floor both of those games....makes it hard to win when the ball doesn't go in. We haven't seen the output from Soppe that we have earlier in the season, but he is a little banged up and the conference has started to double team him.  Luckily, Hittenmiller and Parkinson have picked up some slack, and impressive play from some promising freshmen (Dunlavy, Dau) have added depth to the bench.  (Heaven knows how much coach BW loves that....what with the NHL-like line changes as soon as the five on the floor get a rhythm.)  Tubaugh has become  more reliable with better ball handling and 78% free throw shooting, and stellar defense from Cermak with 34 steals has helped turn games around (especially tonight vs. Wartburg). 

Point is, we all know Simpson has the athletes, they way the cleaned up the Cactus Jam was a good example of that, and I think that getting their first conference win against a school that these seniors had never beat until tonight is just the spark they needed to turn their conference play around.  Simpson should be 3-3 by Saturday night when we get back from Luther and Central. 

Ok I'm done.  Too much for a newbie? I promise I'll keep it much shorter from here on out.