Quote from: Drake Palmer on March 16, 2011, 02:50:10 PM
Ha - Sum lives! I though he had joined the virtual resting home for old, retired posters. 

I suppose I am a member of said virtual resting home, I'm surprised my log in still works.

Quote from: Gregory Sager on September 15, 2008, 09:55:55 AM
I'm not trying to pick on Tear Drop or bully him ... honest! I'm just baffled by the whole idea that somehow Bemidji State could give Indiana a good game in November just because Winona State beat Minnesota in an exhibition game prior to the 2006-07 season.

You North Park guys are all bullies.

Quote from: The Roop on March 01, 2007, 10:22:19 PM
If you want to root for a winner, then root for Carroll. The MIAC had an accidental Final Four team in recent years and the conference has ridden on their laurels ever since. Roop Vegas says it will be an upset if Carroll wins by less than 11.5

Accidentally beat teams like Point and Hampden-Sydney before leading the entire game and giving it away to Williams.  Congrats to Carroll on the win over Auggie, but the run is over.

Quote from: Willy Wonka on February 22, 2007, 02:23:46 PM
BG - The SJU crowd was great up through the 2001-02 season.

Willy - I just grabbed a year when I posted that.  But there hasn't been a good SJU crowd for a BU game in a very long time.  It is easy to pull out the big crowds for GAC when they were at their finest or for UST, but the GAC crowds have been there for every game I've been to down there (although they have dwindled in the last couple years, hence my pining for the old GAC student body).  Even before your time when SJU had Bigalke and won back to back titles the crowds were incredibly weak whenever I was at Collegeville.

The atmosphere you described sounds great, but I haven't seen it at SJU for any BU game or any other game I've been up there for.

Now that my team is out (  ) here are a couple thoughts not related to Saturday's MIAC Champtionship.

1.  The 10 finalists were announced for the Jostens Trophy.  Disappointing that Ike or BS didn't get any love, I thought BS had a shot at being a finalist since he is probably the best pure SG in the country.  But I'm not losing any sleep over it.  Secondly did anybody notice that Dan Wheeler is a finalist.  He is from Bloomington Jeffferson.  I know Bethel recruited him pretty hard (along with Ohme), imagine this BU squad with someone like him on the team!  Also, that B-Jefferson team was pretty good with Ohme, Wheeler and Augustine but imagine if they would have been closer in age to Aldrich that could have been an historic Minnesota high school basketball team.

2.  NCAA playoffs, if we assume UST wins on Saturday, I would fully expect they'll be really close to getting a 1st round bye and 2nd round home game.  SJU will get a 1st round home game but both would eventually have to travel to Point for the Regionals.  Unless Point loses in WIAC tourney, then UST would be in the mix but there are still a lot of variables.  Worst case scenario at least we'll get to watch UST in the 1st round at home against a weaker Pool A team. 

3.  There have been a few notes on teams matching up well or not well with particular teams.  Anybody else find that fascinating?  From BU's perspective STO matched up well with the Royals, but I also felt that BU matched up well with SJU and I liked our chances had we been able to beat the Oles.  But then I think BU matched up horribly with UST and that would have been a tough W.  GAC clearly did not match up well with SJU, but they probably would have been relatively confident going to UST.  At the college level how team's matchup based on personnel and off/def systems is SO important and classically undervalued.

4.  I miss the GAC student body.  They really haven't been the same the last couple years, but compared to anybody else's fans they were the best.  Their chants were original and funny.  BU fans do the "left, right" when guys foul out (boring).  BU also loves to resort to what happened during FB.  I support the FB team and the BU FB team supports the basketball team better than any other MIAC school imo, but the FB chants are irrelavent.  I've heard UST with "Warm up the bus" (yawn).  I haven't seen a legit SJU student body since 1999 (to be fair I didn't make it to Collegeville this season, but their FB team probably doesn't know they even have a basketball team).  GAC used to kill me with the nerd chant and "This is our house" isn't completely original but that clearly is their house and is very fitting. 

5.  I'll throw a bone out for the conf Championship game.  My money would be on the favorite.  When UST is focused and motivated I don't think the Johnnies can beat them on the road.  Both teams will still be playing next week (UST students take note and  please don't go with the cliched "Season's Over" cause it is unoriginal and will be entirely inaccurate).  The game will really be about an 8 point differencial but after free throws down the stretch I put the spread at UST -13.

I feel compelled to throw my thoughts out there regarding the BU/STO game...

First of all my hat goes off to the STO seniors.  Saying they wanted it more isn't probably entirely accurate or fair to the Royals cause I don't question their desire to win but you could read the faces of Bain, Batula, Bergstrom and Banic (particularly Bain) that they were not going to lose this game.  They all contributed mightily and earned a nice road playoff victory. 

Bain - was a monster on the boards and obviously hit the game winning shot
Banic - 10 assists
Bergstrom - 22 and 8
Batula - 23 points and great D on Madson. 

When Batula aired the 3 in OT I thought that fatigue had finally caught him and BU was going to pull it out.  But Bain came through in the clutch.

Freebird - I'm not going to get into a time of criticizing individuals at this point as I'm sure they are all feeling pretty bad and wondering what they could have done to change the outcome.  Laugen did miss a lot of shots but in the OT situation at hand I would have done the same thing.  Corey made a great move and got by Banic, but ball just got caught on his hip.  When you want to be sure you are taking the last shot you want a guard to go 1-on-1 like that.  If you work the offense and get a shot for your post you risk taking a good shot but leaving several seconds on the clock.  This obviously didn't work out in BU's favor but 9 times out of 10 you are going to take the final shot and either win or go to double OT.  The way Batula was guarding Madson, you couldn't have Tim take the shot. 

does anybody have a Bethel / AuggieTech score?

I would concur with the Carl SID.  They go to the 4th tiebreaker which is losses in descending order.  Both teams have identical records vs. each team above them and below them until it gets to the 10th team in the league.  Carleton is 2-0 vs. Hamline and the Oles dropped one to the Pipers.  So identical records and Carleton gets the 5 seed and Olaf goes to BU.

This topic may be dying but I want to add some numbers to the discussion...

I think it is inaccurate (an unfair, but fairness is subjective here) to label Meadowcroft as a dissappointment or having a "down" year. 

His scoring has decreased by just over 2 points per game.  But I think MIACFan55 hit it on the head that his scoring has decreased slightly due to to increased scoring from teammates.  Madsen and Moberg combine to score 10 more ppg than the 2nd and 3rd leading scorers from BU last season.  Charles does not need to carry the load this year.  Which is why he is taking slightly fewer shots per game than he did a year ago.

More importantly while his scoring has dipped everything else has increased.  Last year he grabbed only 4.9 reb/game and this year that has increased to 7.5.  His assists are also up slightly.  And his block shots are about the same with games yet to increase those numbers.

Beyond individual stats I think there is a lot to be said about BU as a team this year.  Last year's best player drops his scoring average by 2 points and the team scores 10 more per game, will be a solid 3rd place MIAC team and may end up with 20 wins.

I think saying Wittwer is a disappointment is entirely accurate as he was expected to be the team's leader and best player.  He is incredibly talented but has lead his team to inconsistency and disappointment.

I don't think UST suffers from fatigue.  I have been waiting for fatigue to have it's impact on the short UST bench for the last few seasons and it has yet to rear it's head.  I think UST suffers from disinterest.  They were cruising along, felt the hype of the hot Bethel squad, put the pedal down (for 1 half), then went back on cruise control and got tripped up by GAC (and nearly by Aug).  I think they are clearly looking ahead to the SJU rematch and conf tourney.

With that said, I wouldn't discount Bethel's ability to  beat the Tommies.  The Tommies are clearly the class of the league and Bethel will have to play well to beat them (but not perfect).  It isn't too far fetched to see a Royal W.  Remember that this season they have played virtually even for 3 halves and 2 OT periods.  The 1 half that UST dominated they had to shoot 70% to do it.  If UST can duplicate that, then stick a fork in the Royals, but if not it should be a fun game. 

I haven't looked to verify, but I think the 3 seed would go to GAC.  I think the next tiebreaker is record vs. teams ahead of you, which is 1-3 for both teams.  Then the next tie breaker you start at 1st place and go down, GAC would get the higher seed since they beat UST and Bethel's win was over 2nd place SJU (assuming UST gets finishes #1). 

So I guess I should qualify...

If UST wins the league - GAC is #3 seed
If SJU wins the league - Bethel is #3 seed

So if BU and GAC win out, Semi's would match up BU @ UST and GAC @ SJU (both away teams looking to venge monkey stomps in recent weeks).

Again, this is all without actually looking it up, just going off memory so someone may refute this post.

MIAC Men's Basketball Tie Breaking Procedure
1. Head to head competition
2. Results against all teams above those tied
3. Results against above teams beginning in rank order.
4. Descending order of losses.
5. Best road record.
6. Coin flip.

Bethel up 10 with 30 seconds

I am firmly in the camp of BU has less then a 1% chance of Pool C.  But to give hope to everyone out there remember that UW-LAX made it last year with the following resume...

18-7 regional record (.720)
QOWI - 9.880 (I don't know BU's but it probably isn't this high, probably closer to 9.5 or lower)
4th place in WIAC @ 10-6
Lost in WIAC semis (so didn't even have a big upset to get to Finals and impress the committee)

In their defense they beat UST and Carleton who were the 2 best that the MIAC had to offer, but they were 1-5 vs the 3 WIAC teams ahead of them and 7 in region losses is a pretty low standard. 

BU could finish reg season 18-6 (19-7 or even 20-7).  Ultimately I don't see 7 losses coupled with weak non-conf schedule being nearly enough, but maybe I can stoke the fire a little bit.  They need River Falls to boost their record and a host of other West Region teams to lose (a couple times) in the next week or 2.

those are not officia.  someone has been posting 10-12 of the top teams from each region and it is his ranking system.  He calculates their QOWI, RegRecord and his guestimate of Reg Ranking.  Then he ranks the Pool C teams and buckets the remaining teams as Pool C 2nd tier and 3rd tier. 

It is in the Pool C forum.

DP - GAC has no shot at a Pool C.  At this point BU also has no shot but had they beat UST on Saturday they might be a fringe team that is at least in the conversation.  But they lost and their 5 regional losses + the assumed loss in the conf tourney + their weak non-conference schedule make them more than a long shot. 

I did not spend my lunch hour figuring out current QOWI, it is often posted in other forums so I don't bother anymore.  But I am crunching last season's Pool C teams resumes to get a basic understanding of the basic minimums to get in.