MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Drake Palmer]

I'll be interested in how the Cobb does this year in hoops as former SMSU Mustang Matt Fletcher is now an assistant. I heard Josh Roysland was going to be a Cobber too, but after a few days at ConMoor, he decided he didn't like it there and is now I'm not sure where.

Matt Fletcher should be a good fit for the Cobbs.  He had a solid career at SW State & was an excellent D2 college basketball player.  From what I remember of him, he's a genuine, friendly, salt of the earth type of person and should fit in well with the well-scrubbed atmosphere at Concordia.  He's familiar enough with the cities to get around on recruiting trips, yet because of his background, North Branch, be able to easily relate to the recruits coming from the smaller rural communities.

Now with Fletcher & Brady Larson on the coaching staff, maybe the Cobbs can start developing some guards in Spudville.   Other than the dearly departed Sofa King & the Big E, the Cobbs have traditionally been an inside focused basketball team.

[TearDrop]

The Cobbs were a solid team last year and return a lot of guys this year. Will they be able to continue to build on last years success or will the loss of Linz and a completely new coaching staff set them back?? Any thoughts?

[Willy Wonka]

Linz was the man. I don't know if I ever got to see the Cobbers play last year to know what else they had, but that seems like someone that could be pretty difficult to replace.

As for the basketball game I hyped here a week ago...apologies to anyone who actually attended. It raised around $4,000 for charities, but was pretty lame.

Here's my reaction piece, for those interested in such fluff.

[Drake Palmer]

The following nugget has got to be one of the earliest known "sightings" of a preliminary MIAC roster.  Over the noon hour I thought I would do quick scan of the MIAC website before retreating back into the work dungeon & came across this Carleton roster. When was the last time Guy Kalland brought in 9 freshmen??? 

Also, if anyone is interested, Mike Moberg from Bethel posted a couple of blog entries from their basketball trip to Norway in late August & September.

Finally, is there any significance to the number 1 listed next to Augsburg on the basketball site?  MIAC website I thought I heard Mose was going against the trendy pick of selecting UST or Bethel as conference favorites this year & picking the Dawgs.  Mose & the Twins' Jason Kubel stepping out on a limb bringing home the winners! 

[abominable_snowman]

Quite the nuggets there.

"A bunch of us are capping off the day by watching Pearl Harbor with Swedish subtitles - which doesn't make the acting any better - and going to bed."
-moberg

Wonka do you have secret protege we don't know about?

[Drake Palmer]

Snow – I did a little more digging around this afternoon & the Carlies may have picked up a gem in a FY player who is certain to be a shoo-in for the Palmer First team All-MIAC All Name team.  6-3 guard, Kellan McLemore from Aurora, Colorado.

His name was so seriously deep, I had to do a little Google search, & this kid may be a hooper. A whole page worth of Google listings!  Lets' just hope he doesn't turn out like last season's FY First Team All Name honoree – Trey Mullen, also from Colorado.  Trey was starting to kick butt for the Scots when he decided the land of 10,000 lakes wasn't for him & went back to Colorado at the end of the first semester.

Carleton's got several worthy All name nominees on their roster- "Patrick Philley" are you serious???  Phitty is too D-E-E-P!!   

Willy - what can you tell us about your guy from Red Wing – Caleb Rosenow?

[piperinsider]

Rosenow - 12-10 type of guy in high school, I believe.

Kemper from Prior Lake was ok. Nothing special from those two.

[Willy Wonka]

I practiced against Rosenow about 3x a week for the last two years, but I'm not gonna reveal his secrets. The Carlies are my second favorite team so anything I can do to help them out is fine by me.

(But if Hanson comes calling, I'll spill the beans about how he ALWAYS turns to his left shoulder in the post and has a mysteriously money shot from 15 that is the definition of the anti-rainbow.)

I do know Guy is expecting contributions right away.

[Drake Palmer]

This is an example why the Tribune's Patrick Reusse remains one of my favorite sports columnists.  Here's an excerpt from his column as he interviewed the Twins' Ron Gardenhire after the dramatic win over the Chicago White Sox last night, & Carlos Gomez's great catch of A.J. Pierzynski drive to left-center field in the bottom of the 9th inning:

Gardenhire had a more emotional reaction to the catch.

"I went running behind the dugout," he said. "I screamed, 'Get out of the way, boys. I just ..."

Interpretation: Think dogs and fire hydrants.

Great stuff & even nicer win by the Twinkies!

[columbianmaffia]

The following nugget has got to be one of the earliest known "sightings" of a preliminary MIAC roster.  Over the noon hour I thought I would do quick scan of the MIAC website before retreating back into the work dungeon & came across this Carleton roster. When was the last time Guy Kalland brought in 9 freshmen??? 

Also, if anyone is interested, Mike Moberg from Bethel posted a couple of blog entries from their basketball trip to Norway in late August & September.

Finally, is there any significance to the number 1 listed next to Augsburg on the basketball site?  MIAC website I thought I heard Mose was going against the trendy pick of selecting UST or Bethel as conference favorites this year & picking the Dawgs.  Mose & the Twins' Jason Kubel stepping out on a limb bringing home the winners! 

i think a couple things contribute to 9 FY players coming in (just my opionion as an observer and fan of the CAR Knights program)...

4.  last year or the year before they had a good number of players turned away by the admissions office after they committed so he may not want to take any chances of that happening again

7.  sometimes players decide to go there and get in and then they inform him they would like to play

28.  he has a nice pipeline into the south suburbs of Rosemount, Eagan, and Apple Valley over the last 6 or 7 years now and i dont think he wants to turn away players that are interested in coming

59. they do not have a JV team

1048. he may have realized that more is better after having a couple key injuries the last year or two...im sure it was difficult to run some practices with the injuries they had and the lack of players on the roster

I'M MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

[abominable_snowman]

The following nugget has got to be one of the earliest known "sightings" of a preliminary MIAC roster.  Over the noon hour I thought I would do quick scan of the MIAC website before retreating back into the work dungeon & came across this Carleton roster. When was the last time Guy Kalland brought in 9 freshmen??? 

Also, if anyone is interested, Mike Moberg from Bethel posted a couple of blog entries from their basketball trip to Norway in late August & September.

Finally, is there any significance to the number 1 listed next to Augsburg on the basketball site?  MIAC website I thought I heard Mose was going against the trendy pick of selecting UST or Bethel as conference favorites this year & picking the Dawgs.  Mose & the Twins' Jason Kubel stepping out on a limb bringing home the winners! 

i think a couple things contribute to 9 FY players coming in (just my opionion as an observer and fan of the CAR Knights program)...

4.  last year or the year before they had a good number of players turned away by the admissions office after they committed so he may not want to take any chances of that happening again

7.  sometimes players decide to go there and get in and then they inform him they would like to play

28.  he has a nice pipeline into the south suburbs of Rosemount, Eagan, and Apple Valley over the last 6 or 7 years now and i dont think he wants to turn away players that are interested in coming

59. they do not have a JV team

1048. he may have realized that more is better after having a couple key injuries the last year or two...im sure it was difficult to run some practices with the injuries they had and the lack of players on the roster

I'M MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

i like the numeration mr. maffia, let me add a one more

55.  furious fountains of freshman flooding for first-year faculties as fan-favorites
a.k.a once SJU reached mass capacity on freshman intake, they sent them over to the carlies for reasons we we can only speculate about.

[TearDrop]

So I am being very productive at the office today and noticed that St Olaf has posted their roster for this season.

http://www.stolaf.edu/athletics/basketball/men/roster/

Does anyone know much about the FY guys? I saw the Kennedy kids play a couple times last year. They should add some speed to their lineup. After that I don'e much about any of them.

[localcoach]

TearDrop - I will chime in, seen as how I'm fairly familiar with most of the freshmen for the Oles.   First I will offer up the following statement.  Dare I say that the Oles may have one of the top two incoming recruiting classes this season!?  Yes, the Tommies and Johnnies do not have their updated rosters up at this time, and we can guess who matriculated to those places, but people down in Northfield should be excited about the future.

Both of the Kennedy players (Jaryan and Fong) have a chance to make an immediate impact, IMHO.  Mr. Jaryan is quick, explosive, and can really see the floor.  Mr. Fong is a lights out shooter who, if I remember correctly, had a handful of Division II schools all over him last fall/spring. 

Both Paulson and Ramsay are good "glue" guys that do many things well, but nothing great.  They also both come from excellent high school programs where they have received a lot of teaching.

Mr. Wieloch, much like Mr. Fong, is known for his ability to shoot the basketball.  He can also handle it well.

Stuart Neville was a much improved key part of that talented Benilde-SM team last year.  He reminds me of a Brandon Aukes (Hamline, a while back) type player.  Good size, really a tweener, with length and deceptive athleticism.  He can play both inside and outside.

The final frosh, Mr. Lochner, I've heard good things about, but have very little first hand knowledge. 

All in all, a nice job by our friend Coach Koz and his coaching staff.  Now let's see what they can do with this group.

[Drake Palmer]

TearDrop - I will chime in, seen as how I'm fairly familiar with most of the freshmen for the Oles.   First I will offer up the following statement.  Dare I say that the Oles may have one of the top two incoming recruiting classes this season!?  Yes, the Tommies and Johnnies do not have their updated rosters up at this time, and we can guess who matriculated to those places, but people down in Northfield should be excited about the future....

If only I had adequate time to respond.    At this early stage of the game, I would still rate the Tommies, Johnnies & Carleton FY class ahead of the Oles.  Alfred Jaryan will definitely get minutes & could quite possibly replace SR. Matt Christiansen at the point by the first of the year.  Bobby Fong is a very nice player but I disagree with the "lights-out" shooter description.  If anything, I believe he's an even smaller, undersized Bobby Hunter, who happened to do a great job as a small 6-4 forward.  I think Fong is only 6-3 & has limited range on his J.

I'm not familiar with the rest of the freshmen on the Ole roster other than the Wieloch kid from Rosemount & Stuart Neville from Benilde.  I've not seen Wieloch play, but now I've heard he's a player that can really light it up.  Neville from Benilde played in the shadows of D-1 signees Armond Battle & Jordan Taylor, & the other kid whose name escapes me – "something Thomas" who was a 3-ball threat.

[Willy Wonka]

I saw Fong play a couple times and wasn't overly impressed. I talked to a coach who played against him and he seemed to indicate he was a very streaky player — he'll be solid for stretches but disappear entirely in other games. That hardly seems overly promising when making the transition to the collegiate level.

The Kennedy PG was extremely quick and got into the lane well the few times I saw him play. Will he be able to do that in the MIAC? Hard to say. I envision him as a nice change-of-pace guard this year.

I don't know much about the rest, but history certainly suggests that Koz will feature all his latest prizes right away. That bodes well for any of these guys you think will be solid.

While we're here...are we discounting the Gustie recruiting class that heavily? I know the coaching staff seemed pretty excited this summer. They expect 2-3 freshies to play significant minutes right away, including 1-2 who might start. Clearly, there are some holes that need to be filled, specifically in the scoring department. I can't make my own judgements since I haven't seen any of them play, so I guess we'll have to see how things shake out in a few months.