I'm here, (C)Maffia.  I know it has been a while for me, but I have kept my eye on the Knights.  

For tonight's game, I really wish the Carls had gotten the Johnies, but such is life.  I don't buy into the old adage that it is hard  to beat a team three times in one season, but I do believe the Gusties are tough to beat anytime, esp. in the playoffs.  Good luck to the Knights tonight!  Hopefully they can get a good crowd cheering them on.  Congrats to the women on their victory last night as well.  

Willy- I drained four threes in the second half of a men's league game last night.  Maybe after 24 years I can actually play this game!  

OAS- Per CM, Kootsikas broke his hand in Monday's exhibition game and is out 4-6.   Luckily the Knights have a 2-2.5 week hiatus in there, but it still doesn't help matters. 

CM- Way to keep the ladies hot, even if it's cold in MN.

Wow, the board has exploded the past couple days.  A few notes:

Tough road trip for KNights basketball last night.  St. Thomas thoroughly dominated both teams.  I think the Knights will be alright because, and many have alluded to this, they are playing four frosh with regularity, and it takes some time to gel in that situation.  Hopefully the Hamline game saturday will serve as a good chance for the Knights to get back on track.

OAS- While the crowd may have been decent with 35 football team members there, the gym still looked empty, even if they were making (inebriation induced) noise.

CM- Losing Kootsikas will be tough for the Knights.  Undoubtedly the best defender off their bench, and probably one of the best on the team, they will need to work harder and look to other guys for greater tenacity.  If you happen to talk to him   , tell him I wish him a speedy and full recovery.  

Funbb- I realize the Carleton crowd tendencies are the exception to the rule, and completely agree with your point.  I was further delving into the nature of the crowds at the games, and what you would see if you were there.  

With a 1-4 start to pick-em, I can only move up!

I hear you BCHoops, it's tough not being around!!

Quote from: funbballer on November 29, 2005, 12:30:56 PM
Without question, this has to be the exception to the rule.....every place else, the men outdraw the women's games

Funbballer- If you have the opportunity, try to check out a Knights' doubleheader this season, especially on a Saturday.  You will experience this phenomenon of 800 fans for the women, and maybe 300 for the men.  For student support, I think every women's team at Carleton comes for the women's game and then leaves, while maybe half the football team comes for half the men's game.   

Quote from: Willy Wonka on November 28, 2005, 05:09:39 PM
There's got to be some Title IV violation here somewhere, right?

Willy- I fail to see what Title IV and financial aid have to do with this.

In seriousness though, I agree with your point made about women's fans sticking around to watch the guys.  For the home Carleton doubleheaders in past years (vs. Concordia, Olaf, etc), the women would play first and always outdraw the men.  About 2/3 or 3/4 of the crowd would leave when we came out for warm-ups.  Granted the women were always better relative to us, but still.

Good wins for the Knights over the weekend against an above average Chicago squad and a sub-par Lake Forest team.  It appears that many of the problems from the Aurora game were remedied prior to the subsequent contests. 

The Knights have an exhibition game tonight against the South Australia Sports Institute (SASI I think).  After back to back games this weekend, hopefully the starters will play minimally tonight to rest up for their big first MIAC game against St. Thomas. 

East Coast- Hannah Oken-Berg appears to be the real deal for Carleton.  She has contributed heavily in the first three games this year.

It is also tough to determine much from the Knights' loss as there is not a box score anywhere.  However, Kenyon doesn't appear to be a slouch of a team, based on their undefeated status and regular season conference title in 2004-2005.  Granted, I do not know how strong the NCAC is year-in and year-out, but still. 

Tough loss for the Knights.  Good first game effort on the road against a nationally ranked opponent with three games already under its belt.  A few box score observations:

1.  If 1 TO is too many for the Eagles, 20 is too many for the Knights.  Tough to win when giving the ball up that many times. 

2.  At least for one game, there were significant minutes played by the bench, with four players coming off for 10+.  This will definitely shorten as the season goes on, but good to see there may be some options there.  However . . .

3.  Not much production from the bench.  Whether this is a facet of coming in for just a couple minutes at a time and not getting in the rhythm, I don't know, but will be interesting to monitor. 

4. For as versatile as the starting lineup was (6'2, 6'2, 6'5, 6'5, 6'5), no one over 6'3 came off the bench.  Perhaps Tucker Schieck can start getting some minutes to help the Knights out esp. on the glass, where they were outrebounded by 11, and gave up 17 offensive boards.  Drake and Johnson (both 6'5), combine for only 6 defensive boards in 62 minutes.
 
5. Four frosh see action.  Hopefully by playing these tough non-conference games, they will have an idea of the competitiveness and demands of D3 prior to the start of the conference season.


Happy Thanksgiving all.

SJU4Life- It's easy to read what every team's fans/alumni/insiders say on this board, but until the season starts, how can we truly know for sure about any team?  Those four squads you mentioned were all at the top of the conference last year, and until we see another team playing well enough to merit consideration up there, those same teams will remain at the top until proven otherwise. 

SJU has been down for a few years now, so once the season starts (and if they play as well as you think they will) they will then get attention/recognition. 

I feel the same goes for Hamline. 

GoKnights- Welcome to the board.  Will you be like Columbianmaffia, close to the action and around the MN area?  If so, glad to hear the insight you have once the season gets underway.  Hopefully you won't be making wild conjectures and predictions from over a thousand miles away like this guy. 

The bus-rides up north weren't too bad IMO.  While we were never necessarily close with the women's team, headphones and . . . get ready for it . . .homework did the trick. 

There would be some debate on "creative genius" as WW phrased it if/when movies were on.  Why Shrek was and Office Space was not, I will never understand.   

Carleton has an alumni vs. current team game, though it is usually sometime in the week between Christmas and New Year's.  It generally serves as a tune up for the Knights after a bit of a break from game play.  With officials, scorekeepers, fans, regular uniforms, etc, it is taken fairly seriously by all (with the exception of dunking allowed in warm-ups).  The current team usually rides a conditioning advantage to a 10-20 point victory. 

man-child for MVP

Pacific Rim-  Carleton has never listed weights on the roster for whatever reason (thankfully, in my instance. 6'9", 205 never is very intimidating). 

From my time playing with Forkrud, he has always been an extremely dedicated weight lifter both in and out of season.  I would expect he stepped his program up a notch (if possible) since this is his senior year.  Whether he is bigger, stronger, heavier, etc, I don't know.  I am sure he will be in good enough shape to play the 35 minutes Kalland essentially requires of starters though, and barring any nagging ankle injuries, will have an extremely successful season, which will lead to a strong one for the Knights as a whole.

BigS- I don't doubt the bench will be an achilles heel.  Whether it is from a lack of skill or a lack of guys getting valuable game experience and making an impact with those limited minutes remains to be seen.   

Carleton's home blowout from last season aside, the Cobbers and Knights always play really tight games that come down to execution in the last minute.  If that is the case for one or both games this year, the Cobbers will have the advantage with Eckhoff. 

I predict a split as well, with similar outcomes as last season.  With the exception of '04, the Knights always lose a tight one in Moorhead, but seem to rebound at home.

Thanks for that eloquent clarification, Drake!  Karma points for all . . .