MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Drake Palmer]

GAC-SMU:
Willy - did SMU bench Wright & Holland for the opening 5 minutes or so of the 2n half or did he start them right away?

GAC's Seth Anderson must be going through a sophomore slump?  His numbers have been tailing off the last couple of games.  How do you game plan for Michael Burfeind? I had no impression of Burfeind from Saturday's game against Bethel, as he showed very little.  A serviceable, decent post player.  That's got to be a pleasant surprise for the Birds of Prey & came as a shock for the Gusties. I known I was stunned when I heard that score.
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AUG-UST:  
A new nickname for UST's Anders Halvorsen – "House." As in House Halvorsen -since you never know whether or not he'll be in the coaches' Pent-house or Dog-house.  Saturday = Penthouse -19 points in 14 minutes. Wednesday = Dawghouse - 0 points 4 minutes.

Joe Scott needs to add Augsburg to his weekly schedule. Once again he matched his season high of 21 points that he scored in the first meeting with the Dawgs.  Scott did an excellent job of driving to the cup to get his rhythm & score, & then started taking some jumpers.  UST's Peter Leslie had a solid floor game, distributed the ball well, & provided opportunistic scoring to offset the atypical poor performance by Tyler Nicolai. Each time the Dawgs looked like they might make a run, Leslie scored 3 critical triples. Brady Ervin provided solid defense & surprised Augsburg with 2-3 clutch 12 foot jumpers.

For the Dawgs, Ben Flavin had great chemistry with Andy Grzesiak-Grimm (16pts) & had a couple of sweet alley oop passes. One of the passes must have been made from 25 feet away.   Cassens was solid, 11 pts 4 assists, & Matt Quammen was outstanding off the bench scoring 13 points & 3 treys.  Nice to see Anthony Humphrey back into the mix for the Dawgs he had a couple of nice, flashy layups & pull ups. Unfortunately, the Dawgs just couldn't close to gap to lower than 7 points in the 2nd half & hit that critical basket to start making UST get uncomfortable & maybe start to press.

Interestingly, the Dawgs opened up the game in a zone which may have backfired.  Alex Healy opened up hot & nailed a couple of treys to give them some operating margin. Then it seemed the Dawg zone forced the Tomcats to focus on making crisp passes around the perimeter which got the entire offense involved & looked for ways of getting the ball inside.  This was how Scott & others began scoring some baskets.  Also, the Tommie chemistry/coaching staff just keep plugging different players into the game who provided the right spark either offensively or defensively. Last night's X factors – Leslie, Kaiser & Ervin.

HAM-STO:
Interesting end of game strategy by the Pipes. Playing the game at home, score tied with 15 seconds left in the game, work the clock & then the best shot is a 3 –ball deep in the corner? Hmm, ok it worked.

I know Ray likes that shot as I've seen him take & make that shot before (St. Johns, Carleton), as well as miss it. But I guess that's why I sit in the stands & choke on relatively expensive pop, popcorn & over priced programs.

[OldUMACFAN]

He missed 2 dunks last night but the one he did make was one of the best on the year.  Dunked on Alfred hard, which rose everybody out their seats in Hutton Arena.  He is averaging nearly 18 ppg and 8 rpg in conference which on a 8-5 team is def MVP (if he keeps that up).  Hopefully the NCAA grants him another year!

btw - AO, Stephen Hansen has to be one of the most athletic players in all of D3.  I watched him play against my alma mater over the weekend (UM-Morris) and the kid can flat out fly.

[huhoops]

He missed 2 dunks last night but the one he did make was one of the best on the year.  Dunked on Alfred hard, which rose everybody out their seats in Hutton Arena.  He is averaging nearly 18 ppg and 8 rpg in conference which on a 8-5 team is def MVP (if he keeps that up).  Hopefully the NCAA grants him another year!

btw - AO, Stephen Hansen has to be one of the most athletic players in all of D3.  I watched him play against my alma mater over the weekend (UM-Morris) and the kid can flat out fly.

Player of the year will be Burtzel or Nicolai (best player best team--same as Scott last year).

Is conference "MVP" actually given? I'm just looking at archives on the MIAC site and can't find any recognition of MVP.

[Buddo]

GAC-SMU:
Willy - did SMU bench Wright & Holland for the opening 5 minutes or so of the 2n half or did he start them right away?

I'm not Willy, but the answer is no. They both started each half and combined for 30 points. They sat a combined 5 minutes.

[VOJ]

Koz, Koz, Koz......

Pipes find away to over come 21 turnovers and send the Olies back to the Malt-O-Meal factory with yet another heart breaker to the resume...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyVgBenzGDM

MVP??

Great ending to a great game.  Ray Brown is the BEST player in this league.  MVP in my eyes.  Hamline has significantly improved from previous years and he is the main reason.  I also like Hipp as he had a huge game last night.  I think 6th man should go to Dan Anderson.  I've been looking at their box scores and in 4 games this kid shot 12/12 on 3's. That is being productive and playing your role.  He may not average the points Seth Anderson or Sam Blank are who are my other candidates for 6th man but he is playing half their minutes.  Also he's shooting 55.6% from 3 in conference games.  Incredible.  I'd like to see him have a 20+ minute game to see what he can do with it.

I can see your point about Ray Brown being the best offensive talent in the league and Hipp is benefiting because of it this year...I think Anderson is effective in his role and his minutes probably work against him, I just looked at the numbers of all three and Sam has the scoring edge with most other numbers being equal, Anderson hits a higher percentage of 3's, Blank seems to be stronger in rebounding, and assists...it will be an interesting battle down the stretch.


There is a possibility of Brown getting another year??  Can anyone on the now overflowing Hamline bandwagon comment on this?

[OldUMACFAN]

I guess but I would hate to see Nicolai get it because his stats are just not that great.  14.8 ppg, (not even in conference top 15 for apg and he is a pg) is not MVP even if you are on the best team.  If Burtzel got it, I could actually understand why.  His conference stats are ridic however his team is 5th I believe and HU is 3rd and if they make a nice run could take 2nd (highly unliley).  IMHO it comes down to Burtzel and Brown.

[Drake Palmer]

He missed 2 dunks last night but the one he did make was one of the best on the year.  Dunked on Alfred hard, which rose everybody out their seats in Hutton Arena.  He is averaging nearly 18 ppg and 8 rpg in conference which on a 8-5 team is def MVP (if he keeps that up).  Hopefully the NCAA grants him another year!

btw - AO, Stephen Hansen has to be one of the most athletic players in all of D3.  I watched him play against my alma mater over the weekend (UM-Morris) and the kid can flat out fly.

Player of the year will be Burtzel or Nicolai (best player best team--same as Scott last year).

Is conference "MVP" actually given? I'm just looking at archives on the MIAC site and can't find any recognition of MVP.

The conference MVP is actually labeled Player of the Year award. MIAC 08-09 Hoops Awards
CSN- College Sporting News does both a POY & MVP. We'll let the rep for the publisher list the award criteria.

In spite of my occasional beef with the MIAC awards, its not always a shoo-in that the award will go to a player from the first or 2nd place team. At minimum though, the award is typically given to a player from at least a playoff bound team.
***
Buddo - thanks for the comment.  Do you have any idea why they sat the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half against Bethel last Saturday?  They very well could have won that game if Holland & Wright would played their usual minutes.
***
OLDUMACFAN - New name,old poster? (If you wouldn't shill for Ray-Ray so much in your first couple of posts you wouldn't be so obvious.   )

[OldUMACFAN]

He missed 2 dunks last night but the one he did make was one of the best on the year.  Dunked on Alfred hard, which rose everybody out their seats in Hutton Arena.  He is averaging nearly 18 ppg and 8 rpg in conference which on a 8-5 team is def MVP (if he keeps that up).  Hopefully the NCAA grants him another year!

btw - AO, Stephen Hansen has to be one of the most athletic players in all of D3.  I watched him play against my alma mater over the weekend (UM-Morris) and the kid can flat out fly.

Player of the year will be Burtzel or Nicolai (best player best team--same as Scott last year).

Is conference "MVP" actually given? I'm just looking at archives on the MIAC site and can't find any recognition of MVP.

The conference MVP is actually labelled Player of the Year award. MIAC 08-09 Hoops Awards
CSN- College Sporting News does both a POY & MVP. We'll let the rep for the publisherr list the award criteria.

In spite of my occasional beef with the MIAC awards, its not always a shoo-in that the award will go to a player from the first or 2nd place team. At minimum though, the award is typically given to a player from at least a playoff bound team.
***
Buddo - thanks for the comment.  Do you have any idea why they sat the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half against Bethel last Saturday?  They very could have won that game if Holland & Wright would played their usual minutes.
***
OLDUMACFAN - New name,old poster? (If you wouldn't shill for Ray-Ray so much in your first couple of posts you wouldn't be so obvious.   )

same old poster..obv if i wanted to be sneaky i would make a different name.  I got offbecause this board was becoming to addictive.

[MiacMadness]

I really like the way this year is turning out.  There are a lot of competitive teams and any team (besides Mac) can win on any given night.  This league from 3rd place to 10th place there is only a 4 game lead which makes this year very interesting coming down the stretch.  Personally I like red hot Carleton and their chances to creep on in to the playoffs.  St. Olaf is also a very good team and they are done with powerhouse St. Thomas.  They will be tough to beat out of the playoffs but then again anything can happen as we've seen from Bethel, Carleton & St. Marys beating the Gusties.  Should be fun buckle up and enjoy!

[AO]

He missed 2 dunks last night but the one he did make was one of the best on the year.  Dunked on Alfred hard, which rose everybody out their seats in Hutton Arena.  He is averaging nearly 18 ppg and 8 rpg in conference which on a 8-5 team is def MVP (if he keeps that up).  Hopefully the NCAA grants him another year!

btw - AO, Stephen Hansen has to be one of the most athletic players in all of D3.  I watched him play against my alma mater over the weekend (UM-Morris) and the kid can flat out fly.

If Ryan Coleman has footage of the game winner, perhaps he also could post this ray brown dunk on youtube as well?  -- just noticed that hamline's president commented on the gamewinner on youtube.  I'm going to start searching for Bruininks comments on royce white's youtube page.

Steve can definitely jump out of the gym.(again, we need more d3 dunks on youtube) I got to the game a little late and with the game being pretty much standing room only, you might have noticed me as I found a spot sitting in the Morris section.   ---also, How in the world is Phil Allen getting better every year despite putting on 40lbs a year?  the kid is crafty..

[Nites]

He missed 2 dunks last night but the one he did make was one of the best on the year.  Dunked on Alfred hard, which rose everybody out their seats in Hutton Arena.  He is averaging nearly 18 ppg and 8 rpg in conference which on a 8-5 team is def MVP (if he keeps that up).  Hopefully the NCAA grants him another year!

Given that Jaryan is all of 5'9", I would hope that Brown could dunk on him hard.  The dunk: http://www.hamline.edu/shared/news_items/athletics/mens_basketball/0910/mbb.sto.1.27.10.html

Buddo - thanks for the comment.  Do you have any idea why they sat the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half against Bethel last Saturday?  They very could have won that game if Holland & Wright would played their usual minutes.

Drake - SMU's achilles' heel appears to be its slow starts.  They have fallen significantly behind in the first half of numerous games, as they did against Bethel.  They trailed the Royals by 15 at half so I wouldn't be surprised if Coach Landrum sat them to start the second half because he wasn't pleased with their first half efforts.  That's just my guess.  Maybe Teardrop or Buddo knows more.

[OldUMACFAN]

Yea he is big but he has great hands and great footwork.  I played with him when he was a freshman and jr (year we were 2-1 against MIAC teams and beat preseason number 1 by 10).  

[TommieHoops4Life]

Are the Gusties having trouble with the grind of the MIAC season? A loss to Carleton at home and a loss at St. Mary's in their last three games... How does a team beat UST and fall to SMU in the same season? Maybe there is a little more parity in the league than I thought. They have two very winnable home games on the horizon so they'll probably get back on track.

Brown got that shot off because of a good head fake, but I agree. That's the best shot you can find for a game-winner? He's a great athlete, but someone should remind him if he's missing dunks that D3 games aren't on CBS. It's not about the show, put it in the basket and get your two points.

UST's road is paved to another regular season MIAC title. All games are tough, but their next REAL test will be against Carleton Feb. 6. Augsburg could also give them a good battle if they don't show up ready to play.

Interesting match up on Monday as St. Olaf hosts Carleton. Both are battling for their playoff lives, and St. Olaf will honor Carleton AD Leon Lunder at halftime. The Oles get the basketball goat trophy with a win.

[piperinsider]

Take a two-hour nap and the board explodes...

For VOJ: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG3zeH-eTAY&feature=player_embedded#

People around the MIAC, it's time to start a Viper Love Train

[sumander]

Interesting match up on Monday as St. Olaf hosts Carleton. Both are battling for their playoff lives, and St. Olaf will honor Carleton AD Leon Lunder at halftime. The Oles get the basketball goat trophy with a win.

TH4L, I was thinking the same thing. One would think, if CAR does get at least a split with the Pipes on Saturday and CAR on Monday they are going to be pushing a playoff rope up hill. They would have 9 losses if they don't split and would likely have to go 4-1 over their last 5 games (SMU,@UST,AUG,@MAC,@BET). I am figuring a 10-10 record will get the 6th playoff spot.