Scottie: Holy crap!  Who's going to make the next re-appearance???

That sounded like my cue.

Still reeling from the big loss yesterday ... no, not the Pats ... the Illini at home to Northwestern ... ouch!

Just in case anyone in charge of the webcast checks this board, I wanted to say that I watched most of the women's championship game on Saturday, and I had no problems at all. The video was fine and the score was updated regularly. Obviously, there was a high level of excitement in the announcers' voices when St. Norbert did something well, but I thought they tried to give Monmouth some praise throughout the game, too. Good luck to both St. Norbert teams in the NCAA tournament.

Forgive the "off-topic" post on women's basketball, but a great game last night in Monmouth ... Scots 101, Foresters 96 in OT. Best game I've seen in person in quite a while. Freshman sharpshooter Colleen Forrest swished a running three-pointer to force OT and complete a 16-point rally as the Scots kept their playoffs alive.

The Knox report (newspaper's take):

The bright spot for Knox was the play of Carlson, who arrived at Knox via Division III powerhouse Wisconsin-Platteville. In only his second game with the Prairie Fire, Carlson scored a team-best 18 points and, tied for the team lead with six rebounds and played 39 of the game's 40 minutes.

The Knox report (my take):
Carlson looked good. He's quick and get into the lane for a short jumper or a dish down low. With Goedeke on the receiving end next year, that should be a tough combo. Wetherbee made his first shot three seconds into the game, then went 2-of-16 the rest of the way. He'll do much better if he can be Knox's fourth or fifth option next season.

The Monmouth report:
Cogdill and Ott stole the show in the first half, combining for 30 of the Scots' 34 points. What I like about them both is that they can finish with both hands and they seem to have full arsenal of moves to free themselves. In the second half, Cox and Gruber made nice contributions offensively, and Gruber's defense was one reason why Wetherbee didn't get untracked. All in all, a solid win for the Scots, who need to come back from their Lawrence/Carroll trip this weekend with at least one W.

Titan Q beat me to it ... the Carlson transfer means that the "best player" that Fort Knox refers to might be someone who is yet to play a game for the Prairie Fire. If Carlson makes the impact that his All-State status would suggest, Knox could certainly build on that, then make a big climb next season with a healthy Goedeke.

I'm looking forward to the Monmouth-Knox game on Tuesday. The Scots have had it rough so far, playing lots of ranked teams or bigger schools or strong MWC teams (their three MWC foes are 8-0 in the league and 22-6 overall). In other words, I think they're better than a 1-9 team. How much better remains to be seen. No guarantees, but the Scots COULD get well in the MWC in January ... seven of their next eight MWC games are against teams with losing records.

I just heard this morning that Tim Heimann passed away, and I thought the board would want to know. Living near Galesburg, I've been able to read articles about him over the past few months, and it sounds like he really made an impact on the players he coached.

My top five would be Grotberg, Kroeger, Horton, Hoch and Long.

As for Monmouth being a threat next season, they do return a lot of solid players. Perhaps no game in, game out go-to guys, but a group including outside players Grant, Gruber and Tanney and post players Ott and Cogdill. All five started in double-digit games this year. However, in somewhat a statistical oddity, no one averaged double-figure points.

Robbie Hinkle also emerged as a solid player, and there are a number of others currently on the roster who, with a little work, can make the jump to consistent contributors.

And, Monmouth will still be young, as only one of those six players (Ott) will be a senior next year. I would like to think that either next year or 2010-11, Monmouth can crack the top four.   

The 13 points in the second half almost defies belief.

On the offensive end, Eric Grant was tremendous late. A big three, a couple driving hoops and at least 2-for-2 on free throws, if not more. The Scots went something like 9-of-10 at the line to seal the deal.

Against Knox, Coach Vershaw said the visiting Fire "wanted it" more. Not so tonight. I only saw the second half, but Monmouth really got after it. I'm guessing they won 75-80 percent of the loose balls. They were hustling all over the court, and it was great to see.

I typically like my games in the 70s or 80s, but for a low-scoring affair, this one ranks right up there!

Do shoot ... do guard ... just don't press.

Using Grinnell as the example, shooting quickly in the shot clock with a big lead isn't objectionable. The two objectionable parts for them or any team would be pressing when up 30 late and playing studs when up 30 late.

I have seen Coach A take his foot off the gas before. I am by no means saying he is a chronic offender of these "unwritten rules."

When a team is totally helpless and there is no shot clock as was the case in the 100-0 game in Texas, I would think teams could make 10 passes before shooting or some such concession. That would also be a game where reserves could and should be playing well before halftime. Or, as The Roop says, the game shouldn't be played at all.

I can't explain exactly why Ladwig was in the game in the final 9:24. That's the point where a timeout was taken, the lead was 37 -- or 18.5 by "System" math -- and it looks like Hoch exited. But at least nine Carroll reserves saw action during that time, and that's the way the end game is supposed to be handled by a coach with a big lead. So what if they shot threes?

Ladwig was even on the court after it looks like Grotberg and Arseneault had exited. That being said, I still think there is a big difference from how this end game was handled and when Arseneault broke the assist record last year -- somewhere around the 9:24 mark with somewhere around a 37-point lead -- and continued to play long enough to get seven more assists.

That ploy ignited some pretty strong feedback. I think all the Carroll game did was bring up some mild curiosity about keeping a difference-maker like Ladwig on the court when you would think his coach would not want to risk him getting hurt.

I know Scottie was kidding around, but that's always been an interesting subject to me.

What level of boys team would be a good match for a .500 D3 women's team like Monmouth? A good frosh-soph team?

Or, since this is a men's basketball board, how would a middle of the pack MWC men's team do playing women at a higher level. I see there are currently no "middle of the pack" teams in terms of a .500 record, so let's use Lawrence. Would the Vikings men beat a Tennessee or UConn women's team?

If the answer is yes, could they win at the WNBA level? If the answer is no, I'm assuming there are lesser Division I women's teams they would beat?

(You can look at times and distances in track and come up with some sort of comparison of physical abilities, but the team sport aspect adds a different dimension to it, I would think.)

The MWC site is headquartered at Ripon. Much of the writing and posting of boxscores was the task of the conference's SID, Monmouth grad Matt Troha. He did an outstanding job while he was there. Matt left at the beginning of the academic year to take a position with the Illinois High School Association and, to my understanding, a full-time SID has not yet been hired to replace him.

I was also frustrated by the lack of boxscores last night, but I was able to find one this morning. Monmouth's Milroy had all seven of his points down the stretch, and the Scots were led by Cogdill, who scored 13.

For Knox, Wetherbee was 2-of-11 from the field for seven points. Kozak had 12 points and 10 boards and Goedeke added nine and eight.

I was in attendance at Monmouth-Knox.

Some LONG scoring droughts for both teams, including one from the 10-minute mark to under five minutes. For a while there, it looked like we were headed for a winning score of 45 or so.

For the Scots, Milroy provided a big boost off the bench down the stretch. He scored six or seven late points and pulled down some key rebounds. Eric Grant was solid handling the ball, and the team (mostly Cory Gruber) kept Knox's Weatherbee from getting many clean looks.

Weatherbee showed a quick release and NBA range BUT didn't make many shots (read: his 25-footers looked good on the way but rimmed out). He's been up and down from what I've seen in boxscores, and tonight was not an up night.

Goedeke was solid, and I liked one of Knox's points guards (Ortiz?). It seemed like he had a lot of poise, and I think he could emerge into a strong floor leader for them.

All in all, not a pretty win for the Scots, but a win. A weekend sweep at home will admittedly be hard but it would put the Scots right back in the race. 

Crazy, but the Fighting Scots would be the fourth playoff team if they could have reversed the outcome in their two overtime defeats (vs. St. Norbert, at Grinnell). At 9-7, they would have won the tiebreaker by having a head-to-head win over another 9-7 team, St. Norbert.

It just goes to show what a very fine line there is between winning and losing in this league.

Maverick, found out that Eric Grant is ill, which is why he missed the final two games. Fair to say that Gruber (21 points, six boards last night) stepped up and answered the call in style.

Yeah, we noticed that, too, but we don't have the inside scoop.

Looks like Gruber (7 assists, 3 turnovers) did a nice job handling the ball in Grant's place, especially for a freshman.

Really, the Monmouth version of the box score looks pretty darn good in a lot of areas. If you'd told me we'd shoot 39-of-62, 10-of-15 and 25-of-30 on FGs, threes and FTs, respectively, and had only four more turnovers than Grinnell, I might have guaranteed a win.