Large sigh... It was a disappointing weekend for Lawrence, but I want to congratulate them for a GREAT season. Thanks to the seniors for bringing some pride to the LU program and giving this alum something great to follow. Thanks for playing hard and playing with class. You will be missed!!

Went to the Wesleyan-UPS game on Saturday night. After seeing them play two times this weekend, I am truly shocked at how Wesleyan could have lost 6 games this year. They have great outside shooters and some great post players too. Definitely a complete team. It was very interesting seeing them play two completely different styles (LU - slow-down, hard-nosed defensive game / UPS - almost Grinnell-esque) and be successful at both.

On Saturday, I sat in an Illinois Wesleyan section (well, I suppose that applies to the entire gym) and was getting really ticked off because every other thing out of their mouths was a complaint about a call that went against the Titans that they thought was bad. I understand rooting for your team, but it ticks me off when there are so many complaints about the officiating.

I felt somewhat superior to those fans because I know that LU fans wouldn't do that. Of course, I forgot this board and the most frequent topic of conversation this year. Were their missed calls on Friday - yes! Did they go both ways - YES!! I would agree that the general way the game was called (not very closely) did favor Wesleyan as the more physical and athletic team. However, to say that the refs were the reason LU lost is crazy. Take a look at the shooting percentages (1st and 2nd half) and the rebounding margin to see where the problem was.

LU is a great team and had a great season, but, in my opinion, they lost to a better team on Friday. I'm rooting for Wesleyan all the way so we can have the ignominious distinction of losing to the eventual champion 3 years in a row...

Finally, LU has a very, VERY full cupboard coming back. For those of you giddy that Braier is gone, LU is not going to be an easy out next year! Kroeger, Rosenblatt, Hurley and the rest of the Vikings in 2007!!

Hoops - I was at the game and I would agree with you that the way they let them in at the end of the game was a little disturbing. I actually expected them to be down at half and then pull away (superior depth, etc.). A win is a win I suppose, but it wasn't as convincing as I wanted.

In my assessment (sorry if I am repeating others, but I haven't checked the board since Friday and don't have time to go through all the posts since then), the St. Thomas coach told his players at half to get it to their low post guy (#42) who LU shut down completely in the 1st half. After they got down big (14-15) with about 5-8 minutes left in the game, he switched back and gave #3 more freedom to shoot 3's. He was amazing. LU actually played decent defense on him, but he just got hot. While they made it more exciting than it should have been, I think it would have been much closer throughout had #3 been given the greenlight the entire second half instead of just at the end.

As has been said many times on this board, LU doesn't always "look like a number 1 team" (whatever that means), but they get the job done and that is the important part.

Congrats to them and the staff for putting on a great show on Saturday and being able to host the sectional. It was an awesome atmosphere and very well run. Obviously the team deserves a lot of the credit for earning the right to host, but I want to give my kudos to the Athletics staff for their AWESOME work on Saturday - they did a phenomenal job!!

Quote from: Hoops Fan on March 02, 2006, 09:43:26 AM
Campbell Scott is a trustee?  I mean, I appreciated his acting as much as the next guy, but a Trustee?

By the way wasn't Jeffrey Jones just sentenced to like 15 years in prison for Child Molestation?  I'm sure the LU administration loves people to know where he went to school.

Yeah, the Jeffrey Jones thing recently wasn't good, but at least he graduated from LU (unlike Harrison Ford at Ripon). Now you have me questioning myself - I think Campbell is a trustee, but now I'm not sure.

Just got my Sports Illustrated and Peter Brown is in the "Faces in the Crowd" section. He is a senior swimmer at Grinnell and won a bunch of titles in the latest MWC Championships. I know this isn't a swimming and diving board, but, by my count, that makes 4 MWC athletes in SI this year (Tanney for football, Braier and Hinz - basketball, and now Brown). Good to see the conference getting some national pub...

Quote from: Old School on March 02, 2006, 09:21:38 AM
Anyone famous go to Lawrence?  Just curious.  Didn't Harrison Ford go to Ripon, or something like that?  Like it matters... 

Jeffrey Jones (of Principal Ed Rooney fame) went to LU and the rumor is that he once crashed his car into Sage Hall.

One of our trustees is Campbell Scott, a little known actor who played opposite Julia Roberts in the tearjerker, "Dying Young". When you get to kiss Julia Roberts, that has to count for something ;-)!!

On a different note, all the posts about ticket numbers are making my head spin. This is why I was a history major instead of math - numbers suck!!

PS - Season ticket holders? At Lawrence? I know they've had a good run, but I'm not sure if LU is to the point of handing out Season Tickets  !!

Boy, after some of these posts from JUSTINTYEM, I'm glad I called early and got my ticket  !!

I've got a Golden Ticket
I've got a golden twinkle in my eye

I've got a Golden Ticket
I've got a golden sun up in the sky

I've got a Golden Ticket
I've got a chance to make my way
And with a golden ticket, it's a golden day

(Just some good natured ribbing, Justin - I hope you find one!! - Point Special is right, there will probably be some available after the Thursday game and maybe even at the door - those who bought a ticket and don't show up for the game)

Quote from: mwc4life on February 27, 2006, 05:02:40 PM
If Tharp doesn't win coach of the year, then the system is messed up.  Any coach whose team plays the quality opponents that LU did and goes undefeated is the hands down winner in my book.

I think Tharp should be national COY (especially if the voting is done before the play-offs start), but I kind of disagree with part of this point. To go undefeated is amazing and is a great reason enough, but who has LU really played? Carroll (great team this year) 3 times and UW-Oshkosh (predicted to be good, but fell off the face of the earth).

I am a staunch LU backer, but beyond those two teams, they haven't really played anyone with any kind of national recognition or reputation. When you look at a national COY, you need someone who coaches a team playing top caliber teams week in and week out.

I wish the MWC had that kind of reputation, but past LU and Carroll (and Grinnell I suppose), there was a huge drop off in the conference. Not their fault certainly and going undefeated no matter who you play should be enough to get you a national award, but I would disagree with the "quality opponents" argument... Just my two cents...

I'll be at Alex this weekend for the LU vs. North Central/St. Thomas game. I'm sure I'll swing by the "official" LU party zone afterwards (The Nickel), although I am a bit partial to Dr. Jekyll's as it was my hang-out in college many moons ago.

Quote from: jeffdc on February 22, 2006, 11:11:48 AM
oops! I thought this was the MWC board - it's obviously the Braier/Hinz board.... 

I'm with you - I was surprised to see so much discussion about Braier and Hinz on the "System-Board" 

My grandmother emailed me this morning to tell me the Sports Trivia Question in her local paper (Fort Meyers, FL) -
Question: Who is the only undefeated men's college basketball team in the country this season?
Answer: The Lawrence University Vikings!!

Okay, okay, so it's not as cool as CBS or ESPN, but they are talking about us in Fort Meyers, FL - that can't be bad... Plus, my grandma volunteers to read the paper on the radio for the blind - so there is a whole contingent of blind Floridians who are hearing about Lawrence  !!

Quote from: David Collinge on February 18, 2006, 05:04:24 PM
#1 Wooster falls at Ohio Wesleyan today, 86-83.  So the poll's top spot is free for the taking by Lawrence.

Baldwin-Wallace (the other team to receive a 1st place vote in the last poll) went down today to Capital, so no one should stand in the way for LU to take the top spot next week. Congrats to the Vikings on a great regular season - let's keep it going into the national tourney.

Now, we (LU fans anyway) just need the women to beat St. Norbert to have both MWC tourney's in Alex.

It's funny that we are talking about the 3-on-3 system because I was just talking with a friend the other day who played that style in junior high and high school. She was in high school when they made the switch. She said it kind of sucked because half of the team (she was on the defense) all of a sudden weren't good enough to play because they didn't know how to shoot !! She said it was possible to teach the offensive players to play defense, but it was much harder to teach the defensive girls how to play offense.

Quote from: Sam Johnson on February 16, 2006, 01:44:44 AM
This was D3 atmosphere at its best (minus some of the much less than appropriate chants from the CC fans...nice improv on the chant that Gonzaga banned fellas, I'm sure you administration was real proud of that

Sounds like a great game and a great finish!! I only heard a few minutes of the webcast at the end of the first half (stupid job!), but the LU announcers were saying that some Lawrence fans got kicked out by the Carroll administration for some inappropriate chants/cheers. Anyone know anything about that? Even if they didn't, I'm sure there were some inappropriate cheers on the LU side of the aisle too.

Great job by Carroll - they are going to be tough to beat in the MWC tourney (even if it is at Alex) and in the national tourney... How about a 4th LU-CC game in the Final Four !?!?

Quote from: Sam Johnson on February 10, 2006, 02:11:51 PM
I don't know if anyone else has listened to Tharp's Hoopsville interview, but I recommend it solely for the Hoopsville Jinx section: "I'll send him on a mission like you've never seen!" (you'll get the quote if you listen.  Its probably way funnier to LU fans, but the whole Jinx/Superstition sections was just such classic Tharp  )

Yeah, that was a really funny part of the interview... And, believe me, Big John could inflict some damage! I still remember when I was in school and he was a campus safety officer - he was usually pretty nice to me, but that may have been because I tried to stay on his good side  !!

I still remember when he played on our IM basketball team (all of the football offensive linemen and Big John - I'm about 5'10", 250 and I was the point guard if that gives you an idea of the team!) and the one cold, January day when he gave me a ride to the bar on his security vehicle! Ahh, memories  ...

Re: Grinnell in first or second round

I don't know how much it matters... Obviously if you play GC on Friday, there is a chance that you would be tired on Saturday. But, I would want to get that game out of the way before playing in the title game.

The other thing to consider would be the impact of a GC upset. Obviously if GC makes it to the title game, they will have upset either LU or CC. Mentally, that might make the higher seeded team come out flat - assuming that they got an easier match-up in the title game than they could have (by not playing the 1 or 2 seed). Of course, the coaches at CC and LU I'm sure wouldn't let their players fall into that trap, but sometimes that is hard to do.

Tharp on Hoopsville said,
"I need a good bowl of soup"
Tharp Campbell's ad soon?

Quote from: systemfan86 on February 09, 2006, 04:08:37 PM
Calm down viking...I don't think it's even remotely a slight to LU, so don't act like it is one.

Okay, okay... So maybe I jumped the gun a bit and got a little defensive - sue me - I played on the Viking football team for 4 years and am so excited to see an LU team being successful... I had to defend my football team for years (still do), so I can get a little defensive when it seems like people aren't respecting the Vikings...

My bad, I'm sorry
LU still champs in 06
Vikings to Salem

I admit that I haven't seen Grinnell vs. LU or Carroll this year, but how can anyone seriously think that Grinnell would rather play LU over Carroll!?!?!? Personally I don't think they want to play either, but to insinuate that the Pioneers would have a better chance against LU than against Carroll is just silly.

LU is undefeated (I think a few folks have mentioned this) and if they remain so, will be playing at home (most difficult place to play in the MWC) in the tourney. Plus, Tharp's teams have always played well against Grinnell.

Plus, don't you remember what they did vs. Grinnell (on the road after a tough win vs. Monmouth)? Held them to 30+ points below their average and won by double digits!! I'm not saying Carroll is a bad team, but to claim that Grinnell would rather play an undefeated LU team at Alex is crazy! Screw the match-ups!