MBB: American Rivers Conference

[SpartyBlue]

American Rivers Preseason Poll:

1.      Dubuque (8)    64    14-0, 7-0 A-R-C (A-R-C Champions)
2.      Buena Vista (1)    51    9-3, 6-2 A-R-C 
3.      Coe    50    6-5, 3-4 A-R-C 
4.      Loras    47    7-5, 4-3 A-R-C 
5.      Nebraska Wesleyan    34    3-3, 1-2 A-R-C 
6.      Simpson    29    3-7, 3-4 A-R-C 
7.      Wartburg    22    4-7, 2-4 A-R-C 
8.      Central    19    3-4, 2-3 A-R-C 
9.      Luther    8    1-8, 1-7 A-R-C

My American Rivers Preseason Ranks:

1. UD
2. BV
3. Loras
4. NWU
5. Coe
6. Wartburg
7. Simpson
8. Central
9.  Luther

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South Dakota 98  Simpson 47

https://goyotes.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary

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Weekend scores from around the ARC:

Coe 117 Grinnell 82 (A bruise to the system)
Macalester 80 Luther 59
Bethany Lutheran 77 Central 67 (Central goes 4-22 from three)

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Coe 78 Cornell 62  Kohawks have the identical top seven rotation from the spring, physically dominate Cornell in this one. 

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Dubuque 68 Blackburn 52  A very cold first half for the Spartans to start the season, shooting improved in the second half but never really got into much of an offensive flow.  Blackburn played hockey defense for much of the game resulting in UD getting to the free throw line 37 times.  Super senior Peter Ragen led the scoring with 19.  Huge non-con Friday down route 61 @ Augustana.

D-1 Drake 87 Coe 61

[doolittledog]

Curious how Dubuque will do with losing the two transfers.  What veterans will step up, and which newcomers might make their mark will be fun to see as the season progresses. 

[SpartyBlue]

Curious how Dubuque will do with losing the two transfers.  What veterans will step up, and which newcomers might make their mark will be fun to see as the season progresses.

The loss of Mayfield obviously hurts as a bigtime midrange scoring threat off either wing.  Avery Butler's graduation hurts with size depth.  I liked Fitzpatrick's ability to knock down the three, but UD doesn't lose much they can't make up with Snyder. That said, Hammer and Anderson played well off the bench, Anderson in particular should add some scoring depth, and McCants at 6' 6" gives a different look with his athleticism, just has to settle in to the system and pace as a freshman. 

Coe, Central, and Simpson haven't looked like they've taken quantum leaps; we'll get a look at everyone else in the next few days.  UD should be right there at the top all season.

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Waldorf 65 Central 61   Team shooting: WU 34.7% fg 12% 3fg  C 35.1% fg 16.7% 3fg

Loras 84 Monmouth 79  Close game all the way.  Loras looked ok, a couple of newcomer guards who will contribute. 

Wartburg 85 Cornell 70  Drew Olson returns for WC and has a nice game.

Ripon 70 Luther 51  Norse have no one in double digits

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Augustana 80 UD 64  Really a closer game than the final indicates, was a one point game with 8 minutes to go.  UD played hard, couple of blown easy dunks in the first half and a tough night at the three point and free throw line for the Spartans, although they were able to get to the rim a lot and scored on multiple second chances.  Credit Augustana, they made shots when it mattered and guarded hard.  Tough loss when you're ranked, but the experience of playing in that hostile environment will help UD in conference play.

Westminster (Mo.) 70 BV 67  This one is a pretty stunning upset in my book. Westminster survives 19 turnovers to get the win here.

Fontbonne 68 Simpson 61  Another upset of SLIAC over ARC.

Coe 69 Aurora 67  Schmitt, Kruse, and Thrapp with nice games for the Kohawks.

Central 63 Blackburn 59  Dutch salvage some ARC pride over scrappy Beavers team.

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Northern Iowa 95 UD 58  It was 11-8 UNI with 16:00 left first half...

NWU 104 MN-Morris 92  Wolves put up a century in the opener against preseason 5th pick in the UMAC

Coe 89 Concordia (WI) 79  Coe moves to 4-0 with win over preseason 3rd pick in the NACC

Loras 103 Rockford 87  Loars moves to 2-0 with win over preseason 6th pick in the NACC

BV 84 Fonbonne 72  BV picks up first win over preseason 5th pick in the SLIAC

Westminster (MO.) 76 Simpson 74  Westminster, preseason 6th pick in the SLIAC completes ARC weekend sweep. 

Central 72 Illinois College 71  Central moves to 2-2

Luther 64 Hamline 63  Luther picks up first win over the Pipers

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UD 79 Edgewood 62  Not a pretty win, but UD shoots better down the stretch to hold off a not very good Edgewood squad.  UD will have to step it up and get some flow going leading into conference play next week vs. Wartburg.

Principia 69 Central 63  Wow.  The bottom of the SLIAC beating what will probably be close to the bottom of the ARC.  This was pretty much a 3 on 2 playground game with everybody else just there for window dressing.  Huge win for the Panthers.

Wartburg 95 Grinnell  93  This isn't your father's Grinnell team....wait, maybe it is, the Pioneers coming off a win over someplace called Spurgeon College.  I thought I'd heard of every educational institution in the Midwest; I hadn't.  I'll save you the Google: it's in KC, MO.  Not sure what this or any win over Grinnell means or doesn't mean at this point. 

Simpson 101 Faith Baptist Bible 64  This might be your father's Grinnell's team.  The Storm go the route of the bible college to crack the century mark, nice work. 

ARC games of interest.  Tonight: Loras home against Greenville should be entertaining.  Coe should handle Monmouth easily at home.  Big game on Friday as NWU takes on UW-Eau Claire at Wheaton. 

[doolittledog]

Thanks for the updates, SpartyBlue.  Much appreciated. 

[SpartyBlue]

A few thoughts on the ARC coming out of T-giving week into some conference matchups.  Here is my opinion on how the conference shakes out in tiers at the present moment. 

Tier One:  Loras 5-0  The caveat is that this undefeated record comes with zero quality wins.  Ali Sabet has been a solid newcomer for the Duhawks. We'll know more Wednesday after the Coe game.  Coe 7-1 Again this is a team that has yet to be tested at all with a cupcake early schedule. Hard to say.

Tier Two:  Wartburg 5-1 Huge road upset over UD has to be factored in here.  Otherwise, pastries on the schedule,  lost narrowly to a good UWL team.  NWU 3-2  Weird schedule for the Wolves so far as well, lost early to two good teams, but really yet to pick up a quality win.  Freshman Lash looks to be productive already.  Look forward to 12/8 @ BVU.   UD 3-3  UD has yet to click offensively for 40 minutes.  Split two in Memphis vs. a very good Wash U team and a not great Westiminster (MO.) team.  Loss to Wartburg puts them at the bottom of tier two for the moment going into Storm Lake on Wednesday. 

Tier Three:  BVU 2-5 Alone in Tier three after a very surprising start for the Beavers.  Bad road losses to Westminster (MO.) and North Park, although took #10 Elmhurst to the wire. Home vs. UD, Loras, and NWU respectively in the next week will sort out the Beavers prospects. 

Tier Four:  Central 3-4  One decent win @ Illinois College.  The Dutch need to prove something in the coming week vs. NWU and Coe and @ UD or it could be a very deep hole to climb out of.  Simpson 3-3 Zero quality wins for the storm and hammered @ Loras. Luther 1-5  The Norse looking to continue their streak of seven straight losing seasons.

So, a somewhat slow start overall for the ARC. Loras and Coe are storylines as they move into some real competition.   Most of these teams are carbon copies of spring, with a few exceptions.  The newcomers to watch are Sabet at Loras, Lash at NWU, and McCants at UD. 

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UD 66 BVU 51  Huge road win for the Spartans.  BVU was out-toughed by UD, lost the rebounding battle 46-27, 14 UD offensive rebounds.  UD still has lots of room to get better offensively and I think they will.  Bad early loss for the Beavers who have now lost five in a row to fall to 2-6.  Doesn't get any easier for them Saturday as Loras comes to town. 

Coe 74 Loras 63  I said it before, neither of these teams had a quality win coming into this one, so records are deceiving in my view.  Big second half for Coe and let it be noted that Loras's stud McGowan was held to 2 pts. in 28 minutes.  Coe goes to 8-1 and should be 12-1 going into the new year with this upcoming schedule:  Simpson, Central, Cornell, Millikin.

NWU 67 Central 58  Another big game for Lash with 30 pts. 15 reb. Even with that, a bad Dutch team won the second half 40-39. 

Wartburg 73 Luther 57

I think the top six are going to dogfight it out for the top spot, nobody has cleanly separated themselves as being the team to beat in my view. 

[SpartyBlue]

Weekend ARC Update

UD 76 Central 58  Spartans hold court convincingly at home.  Peter Ragen with 24.  Ragen is an interesting player, conference player of the year in the spring, but he is not a pretty watch at all, yet is effective.  Stat line:  17 minutes, 24 pts. on 7-17 fg, 5-9 3pt fg, 5-6 ft, 7 reb., 2 ast. A few other offensive cylinders showing signs of life, UD could be a dangerous team moving into January.

Simpson 74 Coe 64  Storm go on the road in what appears to be a shocking upset, yet lends credence to my theory that Coe hadn't beaten anyone outside of the close home win over Loras.  Still, hard to figure how Coe blew this one.  Key stat:  12 made fts for Simspson vs. 6 for Coe.  Everything else about even.

Loras 73 BV 68  Wow, another home loss for the Beavers drops them to 2-7.  Ugly game, teams combine to shoot 9-45 from three. BV another anemic second half at home, going 9-27 from the field, following a 7-24 second half against UD last week.  Brutal. 

NWU 80 Luther 62 

Wartburg 101 Bethany Lutheran 88 Wartburg moves to 7-1.  Knights have put themselves in the contender conversation.