MBB: American Rivers Conference

[doolittledog]

Major ARC move! Former Wartburg 1st-team all-conference G Jack Molstead has joined Chris Martin and Loras. Big, big transfer get. Duhawks have quite the core heading into 23-24.

Oh, I hope this turns out as fun as the time the All-Conference football player from Coe transferred to Wartburg after having a summer roofing job with a Wartburg alum or something along those lines.  Did he get NIL money?  Something simple like a girlfriend at Loras?  Catholic girls with questionable morals lured him away? 

22-23
Loras 9-7
Wartburg 8-8

21-22
Loras 9-7
Wartburg 9-7

20-21
Loras 3-4
Wartburg 2-4

Facilities wise, I would say Loras and Wartburg are an even split.  Success wise, over the past 3 seasons Loras and Wartburg are usually next to each other in the standings.  Waverly is closer to his home than Dubuque.  Fun wise, there is more to do in Dubuque than in Waverly. 

Will be fun to see how everything plays out on the court. 

[Goldy97]

Loras takes care of business in their first game of the year with a dominant 103-61 win over Principia.

Grad transfer Jack Molstead was as good as advertised, scoring 20 points in his Duhawk debut after transferring from Wartburg. Fellow ARC all-conference guard Ali Sabet added 19 points of his own. That's a talented and experienced backcourt for the Duhawks.

[Goldy97]

Central collects another win after a 96-77 win over Principia in an opening weekend invitational at Loras. The game was actually quite competitive for about 75% of the day. The Panthers managed to head into halftime tied at 40, and Central, clearly the better team, only led by 1 with about 10 minutes to go before breaking away.

The Duhawks handled business against the Panthers Saturday night 103-61.

[Schipper Strong]

Central collects another win after a 96-77 win over Principia in an opening weekend invitational at Loras. The game was actually quite competitive for about 75% of the day. The Panthers managed to head into halftime tied at 40, and Central, clearly the better team, only led by 1 with about 10 minutes to go before breaking away.

The Duhawks handled business against the Panthers Saturday night 103-61.

This has me nervous. I tuned into the game today thinking it would be a cakewalk. Sad to say Principia jumped out to a huge lead 19-4. At that point I was thinking Loras is going to obliterate us. Offense just couldn't get going despite having the conference MVP on the team and a huge height advantage. I think they forgot they had to bring their game, not just show up. I suspect they didn't give the effort they could/should have based on the Loras game outcome the night before. It was a good lesson to learn early.

All that said, it is early and I have faith in Coach Steinkamp figuring things out.

[SpartyBlue]

ARC Power Rankings  (it's early, but never too early)

1. Central W Principia and Conc-Wisc.  The twin towers are going to continue to be a problem this season.  11/25 @ UW Platteville will be interesting.

2.  Coe W Cornell and Ripon  Not overly impressive against weak teams, but Schnurr and Schmitt have proven the can beat anybody.

3.  Loras  W Principia and Conc-Wisc.  Molstead pick up is a huge upgrade to the starting lineup.  Can the Duhawks show the defensive physicality they need to hang with the bigs in the ARC?

4.  UD  W Blackburn  Good returning core and athletic addition in Sunday John.  Spartans are in the mix.

5. NWU W Colorado College  Fun stat:  Lash 5-21 from the field, 0-9 from three point range???

6.  Luther W Grinnell and North Central MN  Like a berzerker from the great white north of Iowa, the Norse are 2-0.

7. Wartburg W Macalester  Wait, Mac had that Williams dude go off against Minnesota...that was impressive.

8.  BVU W Fonbonne and Westminster  Beavers off to early lead in the SLIAC and drop 127 on Blue Jays.  Still don't crack top 7.

9.  Simpson L Fontbonne W Westminster   Storm belong here if for no other reason than ruining the ARC's perfect non-con record

[Goldy97]

It was already hashed out, but Loras picked up their second win in as many days Sunday beating Concordia-Wisconsin 87-75.

Sabet was the leading scorer for the Duhawks, pouring in 23 points. Sharpshooting junior Jared Pearson stayed hot from behind the arc, scoring 19. Molstead had 16 points and 6 assists.

A thing to note — Loras has been down in size considerably in its first two games. Starting junior C Alex Singleton has missed the Duhawks first two games. So far, the guards fast pace of play has picked up the slack, but that's something worth keeping an eye on.

[SpartyBlue]

Major ARC move! Former Wartburg 1st-team all-conference G Jack Molstead has joined Chris Martin and Loras. Big, big transfer get. Duhawks have quite the core heading into 23-24.

Oh, I hope this turns out as fun as the time the All-Conference football player from Coe transferred to Wartburg after having a summer roofing job with a Wartburg alum or something along those lines.  Did he get NIL money?  Something simple like a girlfriend at Loras?  Catholic girls with questionable morals lured him away? 

22-23
Loras 9-7
Wartburg 8-8

21-22
Loras 9-7
Wartburg 9-7

20-21
Loras 3-4
Wartburg 2-4

Facilities wise, I would say Loras and Wartburg are an even split.  Success wise, over the past 3 seasons Loras and Wartburg are usually next to each other in the standings.  Waverly is closer to his home than Dubuque.  Fun wise, there is more to do in Dubuque than in Waverly. 

Will be fun to see how everything plays out on the court.

All good theories...Loras probably did have better prospects of a successful season than Wartburg, but is that enough reason to pull up stakes and transfer?  Much more inconsequential transfer, Cade Daughtery went from UD to Wartburg a few years back, but believe that was girlfriend related. 

[Schipper Strong]

So what, if any, is the connection between Loras getting Molstead and hosting the Mike Molstead Motors tournament at Loras?

Good luck to the Dutch against Waldorf today.

[Gregory Sager]

... and against Statler, too, if he shows up as well.

[Schipper Strong]

Great win for the Dutch today over Waldorf. Kaleb Brand had a great game with a career high 25 points. Joshua Van Gorp scores 22 and Grant Johnson swats 8! Nice win over a team that beat us last year. Simpson up Tuesday night at home. Keep it rolling Dutch!

[SpartyBlue]

So what, if any, is the connection between Loras getting Molstead and hosting the Mike Molstead Motors tournament at Loras?

Good luck to the Dutch against Waldorf today.

Ha!  Surely none at all.  Did they have one of those giant wind Gumbies flying outside the gym?

[Schipper Strong]

I don't know about the giant Gumby, I wasn't there. Hosted by a car dealer though so probably.

Dutch get a tough win at home tonight over Simpson to move to 5-0 on the season. Simpson got hot the second half and sold the flop all night long. Kole Tupa had a great night and Kaleb Brand hit clutch free throws to seal the win. Also some amazing defense by Nolan Brand in his limited time. It was one of those games where I was surprised nobody got hurt. Pretty aggressive play by the team that kept falling on the floor.

[SpartyBlue]

Power Rankings as of 11/27

1. Central  Key wins:  Simpson  Key losses: UW-Platteville Can't fault the Dutch for nearly pulling the upset on the road against a tough UWP squad.  Van Gorp and Johnson are putting up monster numbers, and they remain number one until an ARC team knocks them off.  Coe comes to town 12/9.

2.  Coe  W Loras L Illinois College Coe just a bit too tough for Loras.  Lots of experience and toughness on this Kohawks squad.  They stay poised in key spots and are a physical squad  @ Western IL on 12/6 @ Central on 12/9

3. Dubuque    W Benedictine, NWU 72-57  Spartans have looked solid with a 5-0 start.  McCants remains a very tough guard with his uber athleticism and Kilburg is a master floor general, some nice scoring contributions from a couple of freshman are helping. 

4. Loras  Have not beaten a team in the top 250 Massey ranking, looked good in a close loss to Coe on the road, but Molstead and Sabet couldn't hit shots to close the deal. The absence of 6' 7" starter Singleton isn't helping.  The jury is out on the Duhawks, @ NWU 12/9 will provide another data point.

5.  Simpson W Bethany Lutheran  L close one to Central.  The Storm have scorers but do they have the physicality to beat the top of the ARC?  I don't think so.  vs. Coe and UD this week.

6.  BVU  5-0 start for the Beavers against very weak schedule.  Central and @ Coe this week give them a chance to show if they're for real after last year's abysmal season.

7.  NWU Beat up on weak opposition, got hammered by UD.  We know Lash can score, but the Wolves face the same issues as last season; can they guard hard when needed?  vs. Loras on 12/2

8.  Wartburg  1-5.  Not a good start for the Knights, although 1-0 in the ARC.  Williams is not a bad player, but relying on him as your primary scorer probably isn't a recipe for success.  Newcomers Ladwig and Besh look like they can shoot, so could help make up the offense lost.  Looks like a long season for the Knights, however.

9.   Luther  W Grinnell  L Wartburg  Just not much talent on this Norse squad, many returners but nothing to excite.  That said, you can't sleep on them, will be interesting to watch if the ARC plays them harder after several upset wins down the stretch last year over Coe, Simpson, and Loras sent shockwaves.

[Greek Tragedy]

Good stuff, Sparty!

[Schipper Strong]

Agree! Good rundown Sparty. Tried to post Saturday night and Sunday morning and finally gave up. Haven't checked back until now. The Dutch lost a very winnable game at UWP. They were up by 11 with 4 minutes left, but had shooting issues all night. I haven't checked but I bet it was our lowest shooting percentage of the season. We were getting some open shots from outside as they were completely collapsing in on Van Gorp, but they just didn't fall our way. Van Gorp only had 8 points. He had 0 at the half. Not his fault, we were loosing the ball too many times trying to get it to him. Finally just started shooting from outside. If we played UWO again. I think we could win by a good margin. I give them credit for clawing their way back. The Dutch were without Coach Steinkamp though due to illness. If the Coach was there I think we would have won and the 11 point lead might have turned into 20 instead of disappearing. After all Coach Steinkamp took the team picked to finish last to first place his first season.

That said, we struggled with Simpson and Coe beat us in the tourney last year. The teams that know us the best can be the hardest to beat.