Sorry, no Saintscast tomorrow.  The live feed for the webcast hasn't really worked all year but for a couple of games.  We figured since Webster has a webcast that is up and running well, there was no need to do it. 

I'm sure the former players would rather listen to a neutral webcast from a Webster guy instead of Tim and I's meaningless blabber.   

fc, sorry I didn't give you what you're looking for.  I'm pretty sure Hoggatt picked up his 3rd foul early in the 2nd half which may have led to him sitting for a few minutes.  I don't have an answer on the other two for you.

No one said anything about choking, I guess I just assumed some people would think that, since Webster ran the table in the regular season.  I'm just trying to point out that I thought they played well last night despite the loss.  They definitely played better last night, than the game at Maryville a couple of weeks ago.

fc, I'll try to help you out on the 2nd half of the game.  After being down 6 at half, I think Maryville scored the first 5 points of the 2nd half and then it was back and forth until time ran out.  Deimeke came in and did a good job on Hoggatt, he was the only guy that could match up with Darrin in terms of size and strength.  Turk and McGrath both traded baskets the entire half.  Tyler Sxton hit a big 3 with a around a minute left that put Maryville up by 1.  After another Maryville basket, I think Hrdlicka hit a 3 to tie it and Maryville had the ball with around 30 seconds left They ran some offense and Deimeke scored inside to take the lead for good.  He was the last guy I would have expected to score there.  He deserves some credit for being ready to play last night, after barely seeing the floor all season.  I was surprised as you were about the rebounding advantage.  The Saints went hard after every board and sometimes the ball just bounces your way.  I don't think Webster choked or played a bad game at all.  It was just a night where Maryville put everything together.

The Webster/Maryville was fun to watch last night, one of the better ones I've seen in the last couple of years.  You have to feel for the Webster players and coaches, especially the seniors.  They play the game hard and they play it right, and there's never any unneeded bs.  It was good to see Maryville play with confidence at the end of close game.  I'm looking forward to Saturday and hoping to have another great game to see.

I agree with fomersliaccommish's all confernece award assessment.  I think the 3 or 4 things that should matter most are winning, assist/to ratio, fg%, and defense.  For some reason those things tend to get overlooked.

fc, I don't get the hate for the blog and the constant anti-Rogers statements.  I think it's fine to question his subbing, strategy, etc., I sometimes question it too.  But, if you don't like the blog, don't read it.  No need to come on here and bitch about it.  I like reading it and I think others do too.  It wasn't like the two games he didn't have on there were games the Saints lost... they were games they had to win and they did.  Please give the guy at least a small break for being excited.  Wouldn't you be excited about a getting an upset win in the post-season tourney, after having a terrible season last year and having to claw there way to the conference tourney this year?

It was a good game last night at Maryville with Westminister in town.  Like the WU/FU match-up, both teams really got after each other on defense and didn't shoot all that well. 

Maryville came out of the gates strong and held a 5-8 point lead for the first 30 minutes.  Westminister kept hanging around and eventually caught the Saints, and it was back in forth after that.  Maryville had the ball and a chance to win at the end of regulation after Buxton tied it on a nifty back door play.  Freshman Ben Koopman had a pretty decent look for the win, but Dylan Schram played some nice help defense and was able to block the shot to force OT.

In OT, it was all Westminister as they looked like a the more experienced team.  Buxton had a nice game with 15 boards and 15 points which all came after half-time.  Jared McCoy had a good night for Maryville with 12 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists to only 2 turnovers. 

So it's two heart-wrenching OT losses in a row for the young Saints.  I thought they played well last night and they always play hard, they just have to find a go to scorer at crunch time and they have to get more out of their post play.  Here's to hoping that they can keep their heads up and get a win at Greenville to stay in the race for the SLIAC tourney.

The Westminister at Maryville game should be live on Saintscast tonight as well for anyone wanting to tune in.

http://athletics.maryville.edu/webcasts/default.asp

Live Stats -  http://livestats.athletics.maryville.edu/livestats/xlive.htm

As hopefan stated it wasn't a typical up-tempo Maryville game on Saturday.  There was a lot of zone, some shot clock milking, and a couple guys played heavy minutes due to there being only 8 or 9 able bodies.  Aaron Steinke had a huge game in which he put up 30 some points and played 35+ minutes.  I believe it was the first time anyone has had a 30 point game for the Saints since I've been around the program.  It was nice to see someone take over the game and put the team on their back.  The Saints also got some big rebounds from Casey Holland and couple timely buckets from Tyler Saxton and Nick Hentis.  Bryan Waters had a heck of a game for Blackburn with 20 points and 9 assists and only 2 turnovers to keep his team in it.

Channel 5 ran a nice segment on the Fontbonne men's team on the 6:00 news.  The SLIAC seems to be getting a little more pub from the St. Louis media than in years past which has been good to see. 

Received word that the Saintscast should be back up and running today.  If anyone wants to tune in, here's the link.

http://athletics.maryville.edu/webcasts/default.asp

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will work the rest of the season.

My apologies bunchtime, but I don't think the webcast worked again last night, so we were probably talking to no one for 4 hours.  The computer is suppose to go to the IT shop today so maybe we'll have it up and running soon.  I don't know much about the technology, but it looks like it would be a pretty cheap operation to run if any other schools were looking into having a webcast.  

I was impressed with Webster last night.  They hustled and played very unselfish basketball.  They completely dominated the boards, led by Robinson.  Maryville tried to stay with Webster and were down only 2 or 3 a couple of minutes into the second half, but then the wheels came off and it wasn't much of a game after that.  Things didn't run as smoothly for Maryville without McCoy manning the point.  A bright spot for Maryville was big Matt Deimeke coming out of nowhere to provide Maryville with a post presence on offense.  Hopefully that will continue.  Hoggatt shot lay-ups most of the night and Whitcomb went on an 11-0 run by himself I believe, to put the game away.

Webster had a good number of students there, and Maryville brought a few as well.  The two groups had some fun with each other without anyone getting hacked off about it.  It was nice to a decent crowd on hand to watch the game.

fc, I enjoyed the article a couple pages back about the kid in the Military.  It takes a heck of a lot more guts to leave your home and put your life on the line than it does to take a pressure shot in a basketball game.  On the FU/WC game last night, if I'm a Fontbonne fan/coach, I'd be more happy with McCoy's 7 assist/2 turnover game against a good Westminister team in a close game, than I am with a 40 point barrage against an undermanned Prin team in a blowout.

Tim works for the ESPN sports station 1380 AM here in St. Louis.  He actually gets a few minutes of air time on Tuesdays for the stations "On Campus" show in which he does a local d-3 sports rundown.  The show runs from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM, and I thought some who read this might want to listen in.  A little more publicity could only help the SLIAC.

We should be doing the games tonight.  The computer has been struggling the last couple of times though, and I don't think the games came through live and a few may have not recorded at all.  Hopefully it's been fixed and will work tonight.  I know the live stats have been working for the most part, and that's always nice to follow.

If the webcast does work and you happen to listen, be aware that it's by no means a professional job.  I studder and mumble a lot and my little play-by-play partner has a hard time seeing over top the scorer's table which leads to some problems.  It's been a lot of fun so far though.

Maryville came out and played a pretty good first half leading 56-29 after 20 minutes.  It's was nice to see, as I worried they might still be suffering from a hangover after Wednesday night's draining loss.  MacMurray tried to make a game of it in the second half, but Maryville cruised to the double digit win.  No one in particular stood out for the Saints, a lot of guys with 8-12 points.  I'll follow fc's lead in giving Curtis Goodwin some recognition.  He knocked down another 4 or 5 threes today.  I didn't know who he was either until the conference season started, and now he seems to get a bit better every game.

I think some credit needs to go the MacMurray players and coaches of both the men's and women's teams.  In a year where there's not much winning and probably little support from the school, I thought they played extremely hard.  They weren't there feeling sorry for themselves.  Coach Creal and the women's coach Jenson both urged their players on for the full 40 minutes and kept their teams in the ballgame.  The MacMurray women gave the Lady Saints their toughest conference game of the year.

I think I speak for the entire Maryville community (all 11 or 12 of us) in saying that the Saints definitely did NOT get screwed on Wednesday night.  They lost for the exact reasons pantherpride pointed out, and because Fontbonne scored 3 more points than the Saints did.

Understood from both sides.  I guess I just find it hard that people can complain about the refs even though their team came away with a hard fought win.  I would think the focus would be on both teams doing a great job of executing their defense (Fontbonne's zone & Maryville's pressure) and Fontbonne doing what they had to, to win.

By the way, this isn't tiny Tim, it's his partner who's taller than 5'2''.  Tim's probably too busy lifting weights, playing ping-pong, and eating grilled cheese to read this stuff.

FU Fan - It's one thing to say the officiating wasn't the best you've ever seen, but to say that it was 8 against 5 or that the score should have been 72-48 is a little much.  It seems stupid to me that on a night when two rivals played their hearts our for 40 minutes and your boys gutted out a road win, you come on here acting like your team got screwed.

The yelling at the refs was a bit out of hand on Wednesday.  EVERY call or no-call had someone in the stands throwing a fit.  I'm all for raucous crowds, and I think fans should be able to give opposing teams and their crowds a little bit of trouble as long as it's done in good taste, and I think that if a ref makes a terrible call, there's nothing wrong with giving him some grief.  I love seeing crowds getting into a game and having fun.  But to stand up throw an arm flailing temper tantrum at the refs every 20 seconds has to get old.

I used to whine and cry to the refs all the time until I had to ref a mere intramural basketball game for my work/study.  The game moved at a snail's pace compared the college game and it was still an extremely hard job to do.  I got yelled at a lot and I hated it.  After that, I decided not to be such a dick to the refs and I think I enjoy game more now.  I understand it's easy to let emotions get the best of you in hotly contested game, but it seemed once I showed just a tad of respect to the refs, some of the calls I would complain about before starting going the other way. 

I don't think the SLIAC guys do a bad job and they aren't trying to screw anybody.  Sure they miss some stuff, but every single game is going to have missed calls, it's just the way it is.  We should probably thank them for doing such a thankless job because without them, there are no games to watch.  Again, I don't think there's anything wrong with complaining to those sitting around you and yelling every once in a while, but I don't feel there's a need to make such a scene the entire friggin game.