MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[TommieHoops4Life]

I absolutely want no part of Hamline in the playoffs.

Quite possibly the new preposterous statement of the year on this board. WW, call the Common Man on KFAN with this one between 12 and 3... I always love that one

[Willy Wonka]

I absolutely want no part of Hamline in the playoffs.

Quite possibly the new preposterous statement of the year on this board. WW, call the Common Man on KFAN with this one between 12 and 3... I always love that one

How about you see an actual MIAC game before you continue chirping from the sidelines

[OldUMACFAN]

Rob Lang is to small to guard Brown, although if Hall is out he will get the nod imo.

[miacsuperfan]

if you ever watch bu play, they help and play in gaps as well as anyone defensively in this league.  many times to a fault, leaving shooters open for good looks on the perimeter.

the last time these two teams played, ray brown had 12 on 12 shots, in hamline's two point win over royals.  westlund/perrel will be able to take care of him.  the question will be is if ray is interested in penetrating and kicking to his mates for open looks.  also, there appears to be no movement in returning taylor hall to the lineup (i see from the first game boxscore that he had 17 vs. vipes last time in probably his best outing of the season.)  with only five games under his belt, would not a medical redshirt be in the works?  what is the magic number of games that can be played before that possibility is eliminated?   

as for robertson on hipp?   i will take nate robertson right now over just about any big in the league.  he is playing the best ball of his career.   

vipes beware.   

[Gacman]

I absolutely want no part of Hamline in the playoffs.

Quite possibly the new preposterous statement of the year on this board. WW, call the Common Man on KFAN with this one between 12 and 3... I always love that one

Yeah I doubt it's that preposterous. HU is a scary team for anyone to play in the playoffs inlcuding UST because they probably have the highest ceiling and lowest floor of anyone in the playoffs. A team that has shown they can be really good but is inconsistent is a team I wouldn't want to face in playoffs.  I'd much rather play a team where I know that if I take care of A, B, and C we will win but that isn't the case with HU since in a lot of their losses they become their own worst enemy.

Reason being first, you have to find a way to slow down the best player and biggest missmatch in the conference in Brown. Second, you have to slow down maybe the best individual post in the conference by keeping him off the glass and away from the basket. Third, if you focus on these two players you leave open some really good shooters lead by Anderson. If you ask me this sounds like a recipe for a very tough matchup.

With that said they can obviously be beat. They are 8-5 in the conference for a reason, but those losses have slowed as they have figured out how to play around Brown better. If I'm GAC, I wouldn't mind seeing them lose in the first round avoiding that second round matchup assuming that GAC gets the 2nd seed and that's clearly an "if" the way they have played since their win over UST.

[VOJ]

I absolutely want no part of Hamline in the playoffs.

Quite possibly the new preposterous statement of the year on this board. WW, call the Common Man on KFAN with this one between 12 and 3... I always love that one

How about you see an actual MIAC game before you continue chirping from the sidelines

No keep him on the sidelines...his takes on this board are rapidly approaching AO status

Willy is right, Hamline if they were a little more consistent could be challenging GAC for second...a 1-3 start to conference play with a home loss to Augsburg and a road loss at Concordia take away some of the luster of the record, but those of us who have SEEN the Pipers know what kind of talent and ability are on that roster.  Most of it is Brown and Hipp, but there are other guys on that team that can be a thorn in your side like Anderson, Reig and Wienrich...

I agree with Drake, Lang could matchup with him, there is also Dahlquist, Bauer and Brewer...who can give fouls as well.  Baah is a huge key in a matchup like this...he played well in the first half against SJU but then spent alot of time on the bench in the second half for unknown reasons.  

[Drake Palmer]

For those of you "chirping" (word of the day) about who from Bethel will or will not guard Hamline's Ray Brown on Wednesday, might want to consider actually watching one of their games, or at least take a look at a boxscore. 

After injuries & other mysterious maladies afflicted their team, these are the players who have been starting most recently for Bethel.

SR Nate Robertson C  6-7
SR  Rob Lang F 6-4
SR Chris Vavra  G – 6-1
SO Daniel Baah G – 6-0
FY Greg Myer G 6-3

Off the bench they usually come with 6-2 SO Kellan Dahlquist or 6-1 JR, Zach Hurd 6-1. The losses of Taylor Hall & JD Robinson have really limited their size options in the post so they're forced to come with a couple of FY who're not quite ready for primetime:  6-4 David Burnham, 6-3 David Bauer & 6-3 Chris Breur.

So does someone want to tell me who will guard Ray Brown?  Greg Myer is too slow & the other guards are too small.

On another note, I don't have time to look up the stats but when I checked several weeks ago, Bethel was easily leading the league in being called for the most number of fouls. I don't expect that to have changed.  Rob Lang is a nice defender. He doesn't get the pub other players do around the league, as does a Teddy Archer or Jeremy Sutherland but he's tough.  Because of his size, 6-4, & versatility he's asked to guard everyone on the floor other than a PG. He also leads the Royals in fouling out of the most number of games.  If I'm Hamline I attack at every opportunity I get.

But before Hamline plays "resurgent" Bethel on Wednesday, they have to play the Cobbs tonight.  Which brings me to - what's wrong with Cobbs?? Run some high-low sets & pound the ball inside to the horse Big John Fraase.

[Drake Palmer]

Last call reminder...Get your picks in before gametime tonight. Prizes to be awarded at the Poster's Awards Banquet the afternoon of the MIAC League championship Game.*   

Alright something to think about over the weekend...

Here's a little game I'll call Pickem Roundup.  If you want to play, post your selections by the end of day Monday, February 1, 2010. (Before tipoff Monday night)

Here's the game:

List in rank order, 1-11, what you believe will be the final MIAC league standings.  To the right of each team list in parentheses what you anticipate will be their final league record.

There will be two ways to win:

1) Correctly pick final league standings
2) Correctly pick the final W-L record for each team.

Contest scoring:

1)  Participants will receive 11 pts for correctly picking the first place team, 10 pts for 2nd place, 9 pts for 3rd place, so on & so forth until we reach the bottom & everyone will receive 1 point for accurately picking Macalester to finish last.   
Maximum points = 66 pts.

2)  Participants will win 10 points for accurately predicting each team's final conference record. For example, if I pick St. Olaf to finish 8-12 in conference play, & they finish 8-12, I'll earn 10 points. If they finish 10-10 I'll get 0 points.
Maximum pts = 110pts

* The award committee reserves the right to cancel the banquet due to low registrations.

[Gacman]

DP I think you just hit on one of the most puzzling storylines of the season. With that "great" recruiting class they had a couple of years ago now juniors how are they continuing to regress. Their top four all saw signifcant time as freshmen as some of them started. They made the playoffs that year and their record has declined the last two since then. I suppose it makes sense that the weren't quite as good last year since they lost one of the leagues top players on a young team, but now that they are juniors and arguably have more collective experience than most junior classes their record with that talent is inexplicable.

[Drake Palmer]

All this talk about Hamline-Bethel on Wednesday, we've got a bona fide matchup of 2 playoff caliber teams in Augsburg @ Gustavus tonight.  It's too bad we don't Auggie Dawg, or any other Augsburg posters around to help whet our appeties.  I saw the first round of this game in Mpls, & it was an OT thrilla!

If the GAC bigs can exert their dominance they win (And the S factor- Seth Anderson where are you?). Augsburg guards take over - Dawgs win.  Too bad I can't make it or watch the webcast tonight.

[Drake Palmer]

DP I think you just hit won one of the most puzzling storylines of the season. With that "great" recruiting class they had a couple of years ago now juniors how are they continuing to regress. Their top four all saw signifcant time as freshmen as some of them started. They made the playoffs that year and their record has declined the last two since then. I suppose it makes sense that the weren't quite as good last year since they lost one of the leagues top players on a young team, but now that they are juniors and arguably have more collective experience than most junior classes their record with that talent is inexplicable.

Mebbe Willy can dial up a Cobber connection & ask how the troops are faring under the Glas(s) ceiling administration. 

[AO]

All in all, a good day for the Gusties to have a bye and regroup. Hamline is on the verge of missing the MIAC tournament with Carleton and Bethel both streaking — can we stop the national tournament talk now, please? — while Concordia might be listening to a little too much Tom Petty on its long roadies.

Huge Auggie Tech@GAC game on Monday. A win by the Gusties could go a long way toward locking up the other postseason bye.

Over the weekend the Auggies have moved into the 18th pool C slot.   Augsburg is done playing the tommies and should be favorites in 5 of their last 7.  Obviously if teams like hamline or st. john's win the post-season tourney, this puts augsburg out as the tommies would get the c before augsburg, but as of now, Augsburg is worthy of the national tournament.

[VOJ]

DP I think you just hit won one of the most puzzling storylines of the season. With that "great" recruiting class they had a couple of years ago now juniors how are they continuing to regress. Their top four all saw signifcant time as freshmen as some of them started. They made the playoffs that year and their record has declined the last two since then. I suppose it makes sense that the weren't quite as good last year since they lost one of the leagues top players on a young team, but now that they are juniors and arguably have more collective experience than most junior classes their record with that talent is inexplicable.

Mebbe Willy can dial up a Cobber connection & ask how the troops are faring under the Glas(s) ceiling administration. 

Cobbs are plagued by a few things...one their guards are lacking on the offensive end, Olmshied has been hit or miss this year and slow starts to games and their have been many of them really cause them problems.  Fraase struggles when defending mobile big men and since there are few true post players in the league, he struggles defensively and I think teams are planning better for what he does around the hoop.  You have to wonder about the mental aspect of things with the way their season has gone.

[sumander]

DP & VOJ, my take on the  story in yesterday's Fool-Em was, Coach Glas was calling some people out! This is the abridged version. In the story that actually appeared in print he was quoted at least twice if not 3 times about the "toughness" of some of his players.

[Nites]

Pickem Roundup

1.  UST   17-3
2.  GAC   14-6
3.  SJU   14-6
4.  HAM   13-7
5.  AUG  13-7
6.  CARL  12-8
7.  SMU  7-13
8.  BET  7-13
9.  STO  7-13
10. CORD  6-14
11. MAC   0-20