MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[columbianmaffia]

papahoops you sound like the anti-tommie, what is your deal.  I think UST beat Winona St. when they were number 1 in D2 and not "afraid to take on some tough teams."  Quit being such an Obama and stop it!!!!

Just did a late evening check in on the board and was pleasantly surprised to see GacMan's great opening post. Great summary of potential (hopefully) UST opponents. I didn't realize Gustavus played both of these outstanding teams (UPS and Whitworth) back to back on their non conference schedule. That combined with Buena Vista and Winona State made GAC's non-conference schedule in my view hands down the toughest in the MIAC. I give credit to the program for not being afraid to take on some tough teams.

Que? Tu es loco?

Si, loco en la cabeza.

como estas usted?

yo tengo el caballo en los pantalones y el gato

[Nites]

papahoops you sound like the anti-tommie, what is your deal.  I think UST beat Winona St. when they were number 1 in D2 and not "afraid to take on some tough teams."  Quit being such an Obama and stop it!!!!

Just did a late evening check in on the board and was pleasantly surprised to see GacMan's great opening post. Great summary of potential (hopefully) UST opponents. I didn't realize Gustavus played both of these outstanding teams (UPS and Whitworth) back to back on their non conference schedule. That combined with Buena Vista and Winona State made GAC's non-conference schedule in my view hands down the toughest in the MIAC. I give credit to the program for not being afraid to take on some tough teams.

Que? Tu es loco?

Si, loco en la cabeza.

como estas usted?

yo tengo el caballo en los pantalones y el gato

Creo que tu tienes las boombalahties en los pantalones!   

[Nites]

The whole schedule quality issue surfaced in my mind with highly ranked Buena Vista's failure to make the NCAA playoff bracket after losing in their conference tournament largely a result of a weak non-conference resume.

Interesting thought here.  Might the Gusties win early in the year have cost BV a trip to the tournament?  I suspect so.

[papahoops]

[/quote]

Interesting thought here.  Might the Gusties win early in the year have cost BV a trip to the tournament?  I suspect so.
[/quote]

I had the same thought Nites. In addition to losing to a so/so GAC team, Buena Vista's non-conference wins over St. Olaf and Macaleter certainly did nothing to help their cause due to STO's mediocre record and the infamous MAC winless season. All told, both the GAC loss and who they scheduled in the MIAC this year did nothing to help their lost playoff bracket cause.

[Nites]

I had the same thought Nites. In addition to losing to a so/so GAC team, Buena Vista's non-conference wins over St. Olaf and Macaleter certainly did nothing to help their cause due to STO's mediocre record and the infamous MAC winless season. All told, both the GAC loss and who they scheduled in the MIAC this year did nothing to help their lost playoff bracket cause.

Yes, and the Oles played them tough at BV.  I think they only lost by 5 or so.  I'd forgotten about the victory over winless MAC. 

By the way, how are things going for the MAC alum with Werne?  Is he getting plenty of playing time?

[Willy Wonka]

Anyone see the article in the Strib questioning the recruiting practices at Hopkins University? Gotta love it!

Check out the video, too. The first, uh, highlight doesn't seem to fit

[Drake Palmer]

Double play...

As a general reference, here are a couple of posts that may be of interest -

Using the vast, exhaustive college scouting service at my disposal (not even true  ) I was able to glean this snippet about UST's upcoming opponent - the Aurora Spartans:

I give a lot of credit to (Aurora coach) Jim Lancaster for getting his team this far -- he's a very underrated coach who game-plans very well and has a knack for getting the most out of his teams.

The Spartans do have one of the best long-range shooters in D3 in Chad Trudo, a smallish but tough guard who's one of those seniors who has seen it all and done it all and will never be fazed by anything you throw at him. His backcourt partner in crime, Dusty Magee, is very solid as well. Skyler Ormsbee is a skinny but effective scorer underneath, and the Roland kid on the wing can do a lot of good things -- he's especially effective as a slasher.

One thing UST better pray doesn't happen is that Aurora gets a late lead, because the Spartans are absolutely phenomenal from the FT line. They shoot over 80% as a team, so if you have to foul them late, you're sunk.

[Drake Palmer]

Part 2.

About a month ago I posted this about UW-Stevens Point:

...Sadly, the Gopher game was a rout, I think the Bethel webcast was non-existent, but although fuzzy, the Stout-Stevens Point feed was working.

UWSP is a very disciplined, unselfish, intelligent ball club.  It was difficult to accurately tell from the webcast, but they appear to be a bit more athletic than what I recall seeing from them last year in their NCAA appearance here in St. Paul.  The Pointers are athletic, but other than the diminutive El-Amin, I didn't get the sense they had blazing speed quickness.  They've got decent size...

Khalifa El –Amin 5-8 145lbs PG – SR
Matt Moses 6-2 180lbs – G-JR
Bryan Beamish 6-6 225lbs – W/F – SR.
Lou Hurd 6-5 230lbs F – SO
Pete Rortvedt 6-5 190lbs – F – SR.

The 2 primary guys they bring off the bench -- Jared Jenkins & Nick Krull, are 6-4 200lbs & 6-7 190bs.

However, the Pointers don't necessarily play like a big team. During the first half against Stout – oftentimes they were running a 5 man motion with a player stopping at the FT line, swing through the lane, quick post up, then clear out & rotate.  To my surprise, Stout was zoning UWSP which meant it was time for the Pointers to dial em up from deep, and did they ever.  They were 8-17 from downtown in the first half alone & finished the night shooting 12-27 from deep for a very nice 44% 3FGA.  Doing a little more digging on the WIAC website shows they lead the league in 3-pt attempts with 437 attempts & have converted on 172 of them for a very solid 39.4% completion rate.  Every one of the starters has jacked up more than 20 trey attempts on the season.  By comparison, the Tommies have only taken 318 3 pt attempts this year & have made 37.4%.   

In addition to shooting the ball well, UWSP passes the ball extremely well and lead the WIAC in both assists per game – 16.3 APG, & A/TO ratio 1.68.   Last night they seemed to always make the extra pass to find the open long range sniper, or find the player in the short corner for the easy 10-12ft jump shot.  I didn't see too many lay ups from this team.  Imagine a T-wolves team from several years ago. Very good team scoring balance with their top scorers being:

Moses 15.5ppg
Rortvedt 12.9ppg
Hurd 11.7ppg
Beamish 11.6ppg
El-Amin 10.5ppg

Defensively they're toward the top of the WIAC leader board in most statistical categories i.e. Scoring defense #2 @ 65.2/Oppg & Scoring margin +14.0.   The one area where they seem a bit suspect is their rebounding where they're more of a middle of the pack rebounding team, to a slightly below average team.  They're 6th in Offensive Rebounding, 4th Defensive Rebounding & have a narrow +1.3 rebounding edge on their opponents.  I think a quicker, good shooting team that can penetrate could give them problems but so far, they've acquitted themselves quite nicely & defeated both UW-Platteville & UW-Whitewater in two tightly, contested ball games.

Bear in mind, the stats I posted were just over a month ago, so some of those numbers may have shifted slightly since I originally made this post.

[AO]

Anyone see the article in the Strib questioning the recruiting practices at Hopkins University? Gotta love it!

Check out the video, too. The first, uh, highlight doesn't seem to fit

If Jimmy transfers over to Terhune, we don't have a prayer!

How can you not love Hopkins?  They don't have the best athlete in the state (rodney williams), they don't have the best big guy (possibly brusewitz or dower), and they didn't even win their own section last year.   they're not winning games with the number of stars recruiting services gives the players.   get out and watch the royals play if you haven't already.

[columbianmaffia]

papahoops you sound like the anti-tommie, what is your deal.  I think UST beat Winona St. when they were number 1 in D2 and not "afraid to take on some tough teams."  Quit being such an Obama and stop it!!!!

Just did a late evening check in on the board and was pleasantly surprised to see GacMan's great opening post. Great summary of potential (hopefully) UST opponents. I didn't realize Gustavus played both of these outstanding teams (UPS and Whitworth) back to back on their non conference schedule. That combined with Buena Vista and Winona State made GAC's non-conference schedule in my view hands down the toughest in the MIAC. I give credit to the program for not being afraid to take on some tough teams.

Que? Tu es loco?

Si, loco en la cabeza.

como estas usted?

yo tengo el caballo en los pantalones y el gato

Creo que tu tienes los boombalahties en los pantalones!   

ME GUSTA LAS BOOMBALAHTIES!!!  +K!!!

[columbianmaffia]

Anyone see the article in the Strib questioning the recruiting practices at Hopkins University? Gotta love it!

Check out the video, too. The first, uh, highlight doesn't seem to fit

im suprised a college hasnt thrown some money at him to become an assistant and use his amazing recruiting skills at the next level...or maybe they have and he is afraid that he will be exposed and not be as good as a recruiter when he actually has to go against other teams to get players

[papahoops]

At this point, the ongoing proven success of the Hopkins program is their  "recruiting" tool. If an outstanding player is not happy with his school situation or college exposure, they are clearly a program in the metro that has consistently produced 20+ win seasons and recruited D1 athletes over a long period of time. In addition to a great basketball program and coaching, Hopkins has a good academic reputation and has a good geographic location for drawing students from either the city or suburban locations.
Believe me, I always hated having them in my conference/section and would be frustrated that it didn't seem "fair" that they were always so strong, but I have the utmost respect the quality of their program and there is no evidence they do not play within the rules.

[columbianmaffia]

Believe me, I always hated having them in my conference/section and would be frustrated that it didn't seem "fair" that they were always so strong, but I have the utmost respect the quality of their program and there is no evidence they do not play within the rules.

i dont care about hopkins but the artical sucked and if the local newspapers were not so lazy and dumb they might figure something out...i could have wrote that article for them...personally i think hopkins recruits but i believe a few other schools do as well...the other schools should get looked at just as hopkins does

also...what do people on here consider recruiting?  is it recruiting if someone moves into an area where they can choose between 2 schools and both schools know about it and know the player is good?  is it recruiting if a player wants to leave a school and contacts another school to see if they can play there?

[columbianmaffia]

on a side note...in high school news

Burnsville kicked junior gaurd Devon Knopke off their team last night...he played for 43 hoops AAU squad

Burnsville takes on WW homies (EP coaches) in EP tonight

[Gacman]

Does anyone know if tickets for this weekends games are going to be pre-sold or sold the night of the games?