MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[funbballer]

If Keating puts up the same disappointing numbers next winter after a year of rest for his "bad" hip, I'll continue to wonder aloud how he did so well out east.

Actually, Willie, Keating played very well BEFORE the surgery. He's the first to admit he's not the same player he was before.....he's playing through a great deal of discomfort, but is playing because he loves the game.

I'm not alibing for him...merely stating what is real.   

[sumander]

Actually, the best ornament I've seen in quite a while is Dan Monson at Williams Arena trying to impersonate something called a coach!!! 

Or some one who can recruit!!

[localcoach]

I see that the board has all kinds of discussions currently taking place.   All I will add is that Bethel would be vastly improved with Mr. Moberg in the middle, however the Royals lose some firepower next year - Perry & Bjorklund, along with Fredrickson, and will need to recruit some more talented guards to help out. 

I have some down time this morning so I thought I would offer an early look at tomorrow's slate of MIAC games.

Saint John's @ St. Olaf - The Johnnies should take of business on the road.  Do the Oles have an answer for Mr. Schafer?

Carleton @ Hamline - Looks to be the "game of the night."  I believe that the Knights last loss in conference was against the Pipers back in December  Either way they are a much better team now, with consistent production from Mr. Forkrud and Mr. Johnson.  I think it will be important for Jake Phillips to have a good game for Carleton.  On the other side is a Hamline team that from what I heard from those who attended the Gustavus matchup, looks much better defensively and Mr. Foster seems to be dominating the block against everyone lately.  In what some will call a "mild" upset, I'll take Hamline in a very close game with home court advantage being the tie breaker.

Gustavus @ Concordia - Call me crazy but part of me thinks the Gusties might actually lose two in a row.  It's a long drive north, and while the Cobbers are short handed, the question is what stage mentally are the Gustavus players in after Saturday's loss to Hamline?  I really want to pick Concordia, but I figure that Gustavus will find a way to pull this one out.

Macalester @ St. Thomas - Which UST team will show up?  Having said that I think a 70% UST team can still beat the Scots, especially when the game is at UST.

Augsburg @ Saint Mary's - SMU comes off the bye game and gets a nice win to keep its playoff hopes alive.

[sumander]

It's a long drive north, and while the Cobbers are short handed, the question is what stage mentally are the Gustavus players in after Saturday's loss to Hamline?  I really want to pick Concordia, but I figure that Gustavus will find a way to pull this one out.

Local, IMO Coach Siverson would have to be a magician for this to happen. After watching the Cobbs on Saturday I don' think they can come up with enough offense to stay in the game. The line up they put on the floor was not only young, but undersized as well. They have to find somone other than Miller who will look to score. Miller and Citterman will also have to shoot much better.

I like the match ups the Johnnies have with STO. I think they create problems for STO. The first time around SJU was up 20+ in the first half. STO rallied and had it within 10 in the second half. Hopefully, SJU keeps it's foot on the gas this time around.

[miacwatchmen]

Saint John's @ St. Olaf - The Johnnies should take of business on the road.  Do the Oles have an answer for Mr. Schafer?

What do my eyes mislead me. Is someone else on this board finally giving Craig Schafer the credit he deserves. The guy is averaging nearly a double-double and nobody is taking him serious. Thanks local. I think the Johnnies will roll the Oles tomorrow.

[columbianmaffia]

if the refs let big FORK dogg play tomarra night im predicting domination of foster...and i would love to see FORK crush him and put him back in his place in the basketball world

[big_shocker]

Was at the GAC/HAM game on Saturday, and it was bad. GAC didn't seem to have the get-up-and-go they needed to win the game. They didn't seem to be fully concerned with winning the game. It's like something's missing.

The refs seemed to be calling the game pretty close (plenty of ticky-tac fouls on both teams), and that sort of frustrated me (as well as Sowden, who didn't really play much in the game at all), but still, refs don't win or lose the game. Hamline played better.

GAC needs to do something, get a spark, find an inspiration, something. Tough games lie ahead.

[Drake Palmer]

Sumander - You're probably right about the Gusties vs. Cobbers match up on Wednesday night, & it certainly doesn't look promising the rest of the season for the Cobbs.  With that being said, I think when you saw the Cobbs play, they were still reeling from an improbable sequence of injuries that have plagued them this season.  For the record, Jason Miller has a career FG shooting mark of 60% in his 4 years at Cord.  But, he's never been the "MAN" while at Concordia which is a different type of pressure to adjust to on the fly.  On the other hand, Citterman was the man in high school, but like any other college underclassmen, he's going to have his moments - both positive & negative.  Last Saturday's game against your Johnnies was obviously one he'd just as soon forget.

Speaking of the Johnnies, they shouldn't take the Oles lightly on Wednesday night.  I've now accomplished my goal for the season & have seen every team play at least once.  As it turns out, I saw the more competitive of the two MIAC games that took place in Northfield last Saturday, & watched the Oles beat the Auggies.  It was a pretty solid effort & game from both teams.  Substitutions by Koz were reasonable & for the most part, seemed to make sense.

The Ole Killer Bees were out & about & certainly made their presence felt –
Mark Bergstrom had a career game scoring 24 points
Bain's shorts were a little longer, & he looked like a solid post player with a double-double of 12 points & 11 boards
Jon Butala had 15 points & 2 assists
Steve Banick had a strong floor game with 0 TOs & 6 assists.

Food for thought:  I ran into an Ole football player's father a day or so later, & he was making some of the same comments that Funbb & others here on the board have made.  Koz is a decent enough guy, but the Ole basketball team has enough talent to do much better than their current record would indicate.

[Willy Wonka]

funbb - It's my understanding that Keating was hurt prior to this season starting. Is that wrong? When, then, was he playing well?

When are people going to start the Warren Sapp for All Conference bandwagon? He's averaging 11.9 PPG, 4.6 RPG and 1.6 APG. Besides having the biggest backside in the MIAC for the past four seasons, he also leads his team with 23 steals. Oh, and all those stats are better than Keating's except assists :p

Drake - Is that a subtle way of saying Meidt should be the Olaf basketball coach? Given his zany football methods, I think he'd prolly try to turn Olaf into the next Grinnell. I don't want that.

[Drake Palmer]

Saint John's @ St. Olaf - The Johnnies should take of business on the road.  Do the Oles have an answer for Mr. Schafer?

What do my eyes mislead me. Is someone else on this board finally giving Craig Schafer the credit he deserves. The guy is averaging nearly a double-double and nobody is taking him serious. Thanks local. I think the Johnnies will roll the Oles tomorrow.

From my view point, it's that wild-eyed look, hair & tattoo of Schafer's that's a little unnerving, & not so much his effectiveness as a basketball player.  Sorta like how others on the board call out "Nerd" when talking about Bain from St. Olaf.

I still think it would be funny to see Rosefelt from UST smack Schafer's little line drive hook shot out to about center court.  But then to be fair, Schafer could do a drop step dunk on Ike, knock him to the court & then flex his bicep with tattoo over the fallen Rosefelt.  They would have to cart me out of the gym to Anoka state hospital cuz I'd be laughing so much!   

[miacwatchmen]

Drake: Refering to your last comment about STO and they're poor record. Many people would argue the same thing for the Johnnies. They came in with talent upon talent. Granted they aren't out of the play off picture by any means but with their talent they could and should be 9-2 right now and tied with UST for first. An early season home loss to CON in which they led the entire game except for the final twol minutes and a horrible game in Winona versus SMU. If they had played to their potential in those games they could be in the drivers seat in the MIAC.  

[miacwatchmen]

Saint John's @ St. Olaf - The Johnnies should take of business on the road.  Do the Oles have an answer for Mr. Schafer?

What do my eyes mislead me. Is someone else on this board finally giving Craig Schafer the credit he deserves. The guy is averaging nearly a double-double and nobody is taking him serious. Thanks local. I think the Johnnies will roll the Oles tomorrow.

From my view point, it's that wild-eyed look, hair & tattoo of Schafer's that's a little unnerving, & not so much his effectiveness as a basketball player.  Sorta like how others on the board call out "Nerd" when talking about Bain from St. Olaf.

I still think it would be funny to see Rosefelt from UST smack Schafer's little line drive hook shot out to about center court.  But then to be fair, Schafer could do a drop step dunk on Ike, knock him to the court & then flex his bicep with tattoo over the fallen Rosefelt.  They would have to cart me out of the gym to Anoka state hospital cuz I'd be laughing so much!   

Ike is more of the shot blocking post. He isn't all about power. Granted he has had a few "powerful" dunks this year but does he really work for position and back people down at all. No.   C. Schafer is a very physical post that works very hard inside and yes me does miss a few layups but he works his ass off inside. IKE is much more athletic than Craig but craig has more moves inside than just a dunk like Ike.

[Willy Wonka]

watchman - I'm far from an Ike fan, but - if he shoots 66% with "just a dunk" move - I almost cringe at what he might do next year if he develops any sort of post moves. At 21 and 11, he's hard enough to stop the way it is.

[sumander]

The Ole Killer Bees were out & about & certainly made their presence felt – 

Drake, Hopefully the Johnnies don't take STO lightly. Lord knows they have not played consistently enough to take anybody lightly!

I think SJU's depth on the frontline could be the difference in this game. The numbers you mentioned for the Killer Bees were put up against Auggie! I was not impressed with the Auggie front line. Certainly SJU is at it's best with C Schafer on the court. However, they have been getting serviceable minutes from S. Schafer and Foght. It doesn't look like STO goes that deep. If they let them bang the Johnnies will be OK.

I'm begining to sound like Miacwatchmen with my unabashed cheerleading for C. Schafer.......that's scary

[piperinsider]

Macalester @ St. Thomas - Which UST team will show up?  Having said that I think a 70% UST team can still beat the Scots, especially when the game is at UST.

True.

Only four more hours to BOLD (2-11) vs RCW (3-10) boy's basketball!