MBB: Upper Midwest Athletic Conference

[Hoopology101]

You make great points,  we will just have to see how things play its self out.  Nothing is guranteed at all thats why they play the games so we will see what happens.  How long has your buddy coached at Rochester? Does he like it out in the city of Rochester?  Are you planning on going to any of the Crown games this year? or any games for that matter?

[Hoopology101]

Here goes the updated preseason rankings from the UMAC, I guess all we can do is sit back and watch what happens! Let the season begin.




UPPER MIDWEST ATHLETIC CONFERENCE
ST. PAUL, Minn., Nov. 8, 2007 -- Northwestern College, the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) champion in 2006-07, was ranked first in the conference men's basketball pre-season coaches poll. Northwestern received seven first-place votes to go along with their 49 points. The Eagles finished the 2006-07 with a 12-2 record in the UMAC, and returns all five of its starters from a year ago.
Following Northwestern is Bethany Lutheran College, who ranked second in the pre-season poll with 42 points, and the College of St. Scholastica, coming in third with 38 points. The Vikings, who went 11-3 in UMAC play last season, received one first-place vote in the poll. St. Scholastica was 9-5 against conference opponents in 2006-07, led by point guard Will Maupins, who was drafted by the CBA's Great Falls Explorers after being named the UMAC's Player of the Year.
After all eight UMAC schools begin their seasons next weekend, conference rotations will begin on January 11.
The complete results of the pre-season poll can be seen below.
SCHOOL
POINTS
1. Northwestern College 49 (7)
2. Bethany Lutheran College 42 (1)
3. College of St. Scholastica 38
4. Martin Luther College 25
5. Univ. of Minnesota-Morris 24
6. Presentation College 22
7. Northland College 16
8. Crown College 8
2007-2008 MEN'S BASKETBALL PRE-SEASON POLL

[d3bballfollower]

big win for Morris over the Cobbers from Concordia...4 guys goin for double figures and the young guys playing well...Martin Luther also took Bethel down to the wire after leading at half...let's go UMAC!!!

[Matt Carroll]

That would have been huge if MLC took down Bethel.  The preseason # 5 in the UMAC takes down the preseason # 5 in the MIAC.  Phil Allen 21 points, 6 rebounds and Will Jensen 18 points, 8 rebounds.  What else happened in the MIAC?

[Matt Carroll]

UM-Morris falls to St Johns by 16 and Bethany Lutheran loses to Bethel by 7. 

[Hoopology101]

Crown played in Chicago this past weekend and beat Moody the first night by 8 points they were up by 23 points at one point, being that they are a young team and still do not know how to win we might see Crown a lot loosing leads. They also played William and Penn a NAIA team that only lost 9 games last year they were really deep they avg 89 points a game this year coming in but Crown held them to 65 points but Crown also shot very poor so lost that game by 20 points.  Keep in mind Crown played with out two of their new players this weekend.  Just giving updates thats all.  I heard Northwestern played really good this past weekend agaisnt Jamestown.  Will see what Crown is talking about when they play Bethel after Thanksgiving.

[d3bballfollower]

on a positive note for Crown, firrt year forward perry blanks-neal scored in double figures in both games...if he can provide scoring from the post it should open up the outside from Kirkpatrick, Hale and others who will hopefully shoot better than 3-18 from beyond the arc like they did against William Penn...

for Bethany Lutheran Andy Wills almost posted a triple-double with 14 pts, 10 boards and 7 assists against a Mike Moberg-less Bethel team...

[Matt Carroll]

UM Morris beats Bethel tonight by 10, the pre-season number one in the MIAC.  Just looked at the box score, it looks like Phil Allen had a HUGE game with 31 points and 6 rebounds....others to score for Morris:
Daniel Fragodt - 23 points 9 rebounds
Eric Dalbey - 20 points 6 rebounds
Will Jenson - 11 points 5 rebounds 3 assists and 5 steals


Bethel - Otterson and Madson had 25 points each.

Huge win for the cougers, now 2-1 against MIAC schools.

[Hoopology101]

Huge win by Morris! thats so tight!  I'm glad the UMAC is making noise out here.  At the end of the day its all good when a UMAC team beats another team from a good confrence because that makes the UMAC look better.  I was at the Northwestern game tonight and watched them handle Augsburg.  They took the lead early and never looked back they won by 12 points are so.  They look really good! their players are so basketball smart, they are fun to watch.  What is up with Bethel? They lost to Morris, almost lost to Martin Luther, and Bethany Lutheren, whats next Will Crown play a good game agaisnt them?  Is the UMAC just getting better?  I hope so

[Matt Carroll]

I think that UM-Morris is very underrated, they have some really good guards and Allen in the middle.  They are 2-1 against 3 good MIAC schools.  They are definitely better than their 5th pick in the polls.  What is the UMAC against MIAC this year then??

[d3bballfollower]

Carleton over Scholastica
Saint John's over Morris
Bethel over Bethany Lutheran and Martin Luther, loss to Morris
Concordia loss to Morris
Augsburg loss to NWC


UMAC is 3-4 vs the MIAC this year...however, the teams in the MIAC that the UMAC boys have played have a combined current record of 7-7 so we can't say much for that...Morris' win over Bethel was obviously huge and showed that the UMAC can play, but I would like to see how the teams fair the rest of the way against MIAC opponents...regardless of the records of the opposing MIAC teams I think that if the UMAC can come out with at least a .500 record it would really show the improving strength of the conference

[AO]

Carleton over Scholastica
Saint John's over Morris
Bethel over Bethany Lutheran and Martin Luther, loss to Morris
Concordia loss to Morris
Augsburg loss to NWC


UMAC is 3-4 vs the MIAC this year...however, the teams in the MIAC that the UMAC boys have played have a combined current record of 7-7 so we can't say much for that...Morris' win over Bethel was obviously huge and showed that the UMAC can play, but I would like to see how the teams fair the rest of the way against MIAC opponents...regardless of the records of the opposing MIAC teams I think that if the UMAC can come out with at least a .500 record it would really show the improving strength of the conference

If you want to do a bit of work looking up scores you might find it's been about even the last couple years, so I'm not sure the UMAC is actually improving relative to the MIAC.  Even crown managed to get a couple wins against augsburg and olaf a couple of years ago.  We'll have to wait and see if Bethany and Scholastica can reload after losing Maupins and Mayfield.

[d3bballfollower]

even? i don't think so...the past couple of years the UMAC has done the following against the MIAC (according to records on D3Hoops.com)

06/07- 5-13
05/06- 5-13

AO- do you think that 10-26 is about even?  I sure hope not...outside of NWC who is I believe 6-0 or 7-0 over the MIAC the last 2 years the rest of the conference has been terrible...

[AO]

try one more year back maybe?  I don't know, it seemed better than that..  Scholastica has had success in the past, and Bethany beat Gustavus last year.   I don't think you can count Crown's 3 MIAC losses last season as they didn't win a single UMAC game......It's also going to be tough for Presentation and Scholastica to beat Augsburg this year as they seem much improved--though looking at the NWC-Auggie score might make you think otherwise.

[d3bballfollower]

I was high on Augsburg in the preseason, but they haven't won a game yet...they did play at least 1 NAIA team that's pretty solid out in Oregon, but you're right about the NWC game, I thought it would at least be a little closer...as far as beating Augsburg, I think Scholastica would have a better chance because they have bigs who can guard Sojala, I don't know if Presentation has a guy that could keep Sojala from getting a double double...