MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[TheSuperfan]

Pipes win a nail biter vs. Augsburg 102-98 in overtime. As you can tell by the score, not too many shots were missed and a lot of layups were given up.

Hamline lit it up the first half and lead by double digits for a good portion. Second half saw 27 fouls and a very tight game.  Hipp, Grimm, and Polta all fouled out and several others had 4. Any contact in the paint the second half was met with a whistle and 2 shots.

Great to see my pipers finally pull a win out; against a decent team is even better.

I don't feel so bad picking HU for the win for the pick em's either... 

[Buddo]

Tommy Shimek played MAYBE 40 mnutes in his career... do by chance mean his brother JOEY or are your eyeballs messed up from watching too many webcasts and not enough games in person? Opera tonight?

ANd yes, the Cobbers will finish ahead of SJU... they may miss the playoffs, but will be ahead of the other northern school

Wait, so you could see SJU finishing 8th or lower?? I don't know about that...

[Drake Palmer]

Wow - Day 2.  Nada,zippo, zilch. Nobody's got nuthing to say?  Ok, here we go again.  

Pops - you need to get word to Jr. that he owes it to his alma mater to offer his services to work with the Macalester big men over the holiday break.   If the Scots' Andy Bowman could learn to finish around the basket the Scots could be in business.  Bowman's got all the moves & uses his body well to shield his defenders, but just can't take that final step & close it. Last night he was 3-9 & with the exception of mebbe one shot, all of his shots came from within 4-5 feet of the basket. 6-3 FY Lamont Diggs showed some raw power, quickness & athleticism, but needs a b-i-t more work.   But Bowman is ready for a finishing workshop.

Pierce Peters is going to be a star in this league, & if FY Justin Wasik puts a little more effort into his defense, he'll do well too.  Wasik has got decent handles & a very smooth looking J.  The other FY, Chris Quinn should also develop into a nice PG.  He had 6 assists & 4 TOs against a rugged Gustie defense. He had one moment that I'm sure made him feel good & the coaching staff excited about the potential they've got on this squad.  Just before the half ended, Quinn did a tremendous job of backing down his defender & when the double team came, flipped a sweet assist to Colin Keeley for the basket.  I thought to myself – "woo-wee, a Mac player did this?"

Macalester just needs one more consistent scoring threat -preferably big, bruising Bowman, & they'll be in the hunt.  Good, young, talent.

Quick note about the Gusties.  Well oiled offensive machine last night.  Dan Schmidtknecht dropped off 11 assists, 1 TO, & I bet 4-5 of his assists came in the 2nd half when he whipped the ball inside to Seth Anderson or Phil Wirtjes on the backdoor cut & reverse layup.  Mac defenders probably had to ice their necks last night with all of the screens & backdoor cuts the Gusties were running.  Wirtjes was money from long range.  Bobby Johnson will be a menacing, physical presence once he gets his court legs under him.

Final note –The Tommie fans aren't the only obnoxious fans in the MIAC.   The way some of the Gustie parent type fans were jumping up & down, & carrying on in the early minutes of the game, you would have thought last night's game was for the league championship.  Not against the perennial league cellar dweller.

Stay classy Gustavus  

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

Tommy Shimek played MAYBE 40 mnutes in his career... do by chance mean his brother JOEY or are your eyeballs messed up from watching too many webcasts and not enough games in person? Opera tonight?

ANd yes, the Cobbers will finish ahead of SJU... they may miss the playoffs, but will be ahead of the other northern school

Wait, so you could see SJU finishing 8th or lower?? I don't know about that...

maybe not THAT low   ....but I still think the Cobbers are capable of a top 4 finish

[OldUMACFAN]

Ray Brown signed with the Lawton-Fort Still Calvary of the PBL.  The Cavs have NBA Vet Oliver Miller on the team.  Last years roster consisted of all D1 players, mostly high major. 

[miacsuperfan]

anybody know if concordia made it to winona?  if so, that might be a crowd of about 10 people.   will st. thomas slide up snelling to play the vipes?   could be interesting---and a crowd of about 50.
on a positive note, the royals are playing mt. union in ohio, where it looks like perfect football weather---44 degrees and mostly cloudy.  go royals---represent the miac well!   

[Buddo]

Big win for SMU over the Cobs!! 69-55. 18 pts from Holland and WW each. Olmschied with 15 but fouled out. Cobs shot 3-15 from three-point land in the first half.

Hammie/UST has been postponed.

[papahoops]

I see the Cobbers pulled off a big win over the Oles in Northfield in the second game of their 2 game weekend swing. I see this as a big potential swing game for both clubs. Cobber victory gives them a much needed win to give them some hope for the season after starting with 3 conference losses. Ole loss drops them to 1-3 and hopes for a higher level finish dim significantly. Although earlier losses to perennial powers UST and Gustavus were to be expected, beating Cobbers at home was something STO, in my opinion needed to do to show good playoff potential.

[Drake Palmer]

Wow, really dead board.

A shame, looks like the MIAC board is going the way of the dinosaur, the DeLorean car and VCRs.  Nice knowing all y'all & see you around the MIAC.

But before I move to the WIAC board, here's a dunk highlight from the Hamline - UW-River Falls game last night.  Unfortunately, Hamline's Andy Voigt got posterized. Check it Out:

Hamline lost to UWRF 81-74.

[papahoops]

Thanks for sharing the dunk video Drake....you don't see elevation like that over a defender very often in D3 basketball very often

[miacsuperfan]

Thanks for sharing the dunk video Drake....you don't see elevation like that over a defender very often in D3 basketball very often

i'll second that.  that was one kick-*** flush!!   

[RAsportsnut]

WOW that dunk was incredible! Nice find on the clip Drake.

Any pick-ems for this week's non-conference games?

[tomt4525]

Does anyone know of some good bars/restaurants around the St. Thomas campus?  I'm going to the Point at St Thomas game next Wednesday, I'm a Point alum so hopefully you don't hold that against me.

[Drake Palmer]

Does anyone know of some good bars/restaurants around the St. Thomas campus?  I'm going to the Point at St Thomas game next Wednesday, I'm a Point alum so hopefully you don't hold that against me.

It depends on what you're looking for:

All of the restaurants listed below are within 10 minutes of the UST campus. Most are less than 6-7 minutes away.

Burger & Brew

Groveland Tap:  #1 primarily because of location. Less than 5 minutes from UST.

http://www.grovelandtap.com/

Blue Door Pub:  Arguably, Blue Door probably has the best burgers of all the restaurants listed, but the wait can be long because the restaurant is much smaller.

http://www.thebluedoorpubmn.com/

St. Clair Broiler: Good neighborhood restaurant, burgers, across the street from Macalester College Athletic fields.

http://www.stclairbroiler.com/stclair/history.cfm

Shamrocks:  Probably the furthest away at 10 minutes.  Very good burgers.  Their sister restaurant – The Nook was destroyed in a fire early Tuesday AM.

http://crshamrocks.com/

Casual Restaurants

Highland Grill

http://www.highlandgrill.com/

Longfellow Grill.  The two Grills & Groveland Tap which is listed above are owned by the same restaurant holding company.  Good food at all 3 locations. 

http://www.longfellowgrill.com/

Bar & bar food

Tiffany's - A UST student favorite

http://www.tiffanysportslounge.com/

Chatterbox Pub

http://www.chatterboxpub.net/

O'Gara's

http://www.ogaras.com/

[tomt4525]

Thanks Drake...I appreciate it.