MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Drake Palmer]

Not direct MIAC basketball news, but hoops news nonetheless.

First of all, regarding the little cryptic note posted by Mose- our beloved sage & historian of all things MIAC sports related.  I got a little more info on the "the new coaching addition to the NY Nets coaching staff."  It seems my man, Sean Sweeney, former UST PG, has been able to parlay his limited coaching experience into a position as the video coordinator for the Nets.  He's not quite an NBA coach yet, but he's getting pretty darn close to getting his foot in the door. Who knows, maybe he can pull off a Miami Heat Eric Spoelstra type move & eventually get promoted to a head coaching position. My source wasn't sure how Sweeney went from doing the same type of work at University of Northern Iowa to the league, but good ups to one of my favorite MIAC players.

In other NBA news, I'm not sure how many of you read the NBA preview in the Tribune on Christmas Day, but they ran a story comparing the upcoming strike shortened season to the one that took place during the 1998-99 season.  One of the most politically incorrect characters in all of sports, Charles Barkley had this to say back then when asked about playing a back to back to back series of games.  "I can't play three days in a row. I can't have sex three days in a row."
I howled with laughter! 

Dang Trib, you had to print that story on Christmas day- you couldn't run it the day before?! Dang! 

[USTBench]

RE: Sean Sweeney

Good for him. He was such an unassuming looking guy when he played that people got caught off guard by how dominant he could be. And he could take a lot of crap too. Whether it was for wearing a t-shirt under his jersey or looking a little too much like Neil Patrick Harris, he never got rattled. They even played the "Doogie Howser MD" theme song at Bethel one night. As a Tommie fan, even I had to laugh at that one.

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

RE: Sean Sweeney

Good for him. He was such an unassuming looking guy when he played that people got caught off guard by how dominant he could be. And he could take a lot of crap too. Whether it was for wearing a t-shirt under his jersey or looking a little too much like Neil Patrick Harris, he never got rattled. They even played the "Doogie Howser MD" theme song at Bethel one night. As a Tommie fan, even I had to laugh at that one.

true story about the Doogie Howser theme song....I talked to sean after that game and asked him if he thought it was bushleague of Bethel. I had to tell him what they did, he was so focused on playing that he didnt hear it. He laughed and said "I love it"....thanks for the reminder Bench....hope your Christmas was good and purple 

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

NICE win for Gustavus in Vegas last night! Knocked off previously unbeaten Hardin-Simmon behind 22 pts from Seth Anderson....repping the MIAC nicely!

[piperinsider]

Good to see former poster Westie tonight reffing the Minneapolis South/Chanhassen girls basketball game in Lakeville.
http://twitter.com/#!/scoreboardmn/status/152623525574881280/photo/1

Also good to see Mr. Nick Carroll doing well under Tom Dasovich at Minnetonka. Wow is that bench intense.
http://twitter.com/#!/scoreboardmn/status/152622793509441536/photo/1

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

Additional props to GAC for its late-night win in Sin CIty, this time over Transylvania. WOW both games sound like they were thrillers... this could carryover and give the Gusties a shot of confidence and momentum. Papa- does this move them up in your power rankings? Definitley a sweet win.

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

Happy 2012 to all!!

[papahoops]

Additional props to GAC for its late-night win in Sin CIty, this time over Transylvania. WOW both games sound like they were thrillers... this could carryover and give the Gusties a shot of confidence and momentum. Papa- does this move them up in your power rankings? Definitley a sweet win.

I agree that GAC's nice performance in the Vegas tournament against quality competition is an indication that they are on the upswing. It was nice to see Ben Biewen have a nice 18 point performance to complement Seth Anderson in the championship game to give them some scoring balance.  My power league power ranking for top teams at this point would be:
1 UST
2 GAC
3 CAR
4 AUG/STO TIE
I still believe CAR is potentially more of a matchup problem for UST in a head to head contest, but GAC's early home win over CAR combined with their strong holiday tournament performance makes them deserving of the #2 power rank position heading into 2012 portion of the MIAC schedule.
Upset watch: Augsburg has been slipping and MAC is due for an upset to get into victory column. Keep an eye on this one

Happy New Year  

[papahoops]

Upset watch: Augsburg has been slipping and MAC is due for an upset to get into victory column. Keep an eye on this one

I was right about MAC being due for a win, but had the opponent wrong
MAC BEATS CARLETON 61-59 FOR FIRST WIN TONIGHT
CONGRATS TO THE FIGHTING SCOTS

[piperinsider]

Upset watch: Augsburg has been slipping and MAC is due for an upset to get into victory column. Keep an eye on this one
I was right about MAC being due for a win, but had the opponent wrong
MAC BEATS CARLETON 61-59 FOR FIRST WIN TONIGHT
CONGRATS TO THE FIGHTING SCOTS

Or SJU 68, St. Thomas 66 

[Kilroy]

Nice job, MAC! A battle of the academic giants!

[SagatagSam]

It was brought up on the MIAC football board as to how the Johnnie-Tommie basketball game got stuck on the first Monday in January (when NO ONE is around to watch a game that usually fills the arena). I understand I've got a little Johnnie bias on this one, but how do the scheduling powers that be in the MIAC throw this game into no-man's-land on the calendar?
Perhaps people here would think that I'm only concerned about things that involve the Johnnies, but I think other schools in the conference should be able to pursue scheduling any marquee match-ups for times where they feel they can get better exposure.

I figured there would be no better place to throw the idea out there than the MIAC basketball board.

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

Ive never left an MIAC game early before tonight, but 20 mins of Mac @ Augs was more than I could stomach. The Scots were below pathetic... they scored their first POINT on the 2nd of 2 FTs with 10:49 to go in the half, to cut the gap to 21-1. They finally got a bucket with 8:34 to play, and trailed just 25-3. At the half it was 48-16. Pierce Peters had 13 of Mac's 16, giving new meaning to the cliche "one man team."

[piperinsider]

Augsburg 86, Macalester 50
* Tyler Schmidt posted his third consecutive 20-point game. Schmidt, who finished with 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the floor, while adding five assists and four steals. For the game, Augsburg shot 63.0 percent (34-of-54) from the floor, while holding Macalester to just 31.0 percent (17-of-54).

Saint John's 66, Bethel 52
* Saint John's extended its winning streak to five games. Aaron Barmore led the Johnnies with 19 points and five rebounds. Classmate Andy Burns added 12 points. The two captains combined for a 13 of 14 showing at the free-throw line. Former SJU transfer Kyle Zimmerman, led the Royals with 11 points apiece.

Hamline 92, Carleton 72
* The only road team to win on Wednesday. Bummer. I almost went, but the wife asked me to stay home last night. Carleton lost Taylor Hanson (but an injury to Taylor Hanson on the Knights' second possession quieted the crowd inside West Gym) and Shane McSparron (shoulder injury on a hard foul) in the game.

Ten Pipers had at least five points led by Victor Easter with 15 points, Dior Ford with 13 and Sam Gullickson was 4-for-6 from threes for 12. Hamline was 13-for-23 from outside.

Carleton was led by Caleb Rosenow, who racked up a career-high 25 points and 13 rebounds. The Knights are now out of the top six at 3-3.

Fun note from the CC write-up: It's been nearly a decade since the Knights' defense experienced a game like this. The Pipers' 92 points were the most given up by a Carleton squad since a 93-57 loss to Bethel on Feb. 6, 2002. In addition, Hamline's 51 first-half points were the most allowed in a period by Carleton since Pacific Lutheran poured in 52 second-half points on Dec. 1, 2001.

Gustavus 62, Saint Mary's 45
* The Gusties, who were back at home for the first time since Dec. 7, turned in their best defensive performance of the season, holding the Cardinals to season-lows in both points (45) and field goal percentage (.378). Seth Anderson finished the game with 32 points after going 12-for-19 from the field and 8-for-9 at the free throw line.

St. Olaf 73,   Concordia 57
* St. Olaf trailed 33-32 with 1:18 left in the first half, then rallied for the game's next 15 points to take a 14-point lead with 14:18 left in the game. Stu Neville had 15 points and eight rebounds.

[Patriot]

Made the short drive to Olaf to watch the big man Huus from CC play tonight.  He's been putting up solid numbers this year for the Cobbers.  No Aaron Lindahl tonight or for the rest of the year - torn ACL vs Hamline a few weeks ago according to one of their parents.  Tough break for the Cob's.

Good start for CC as Huus is having his way with Neville.  Huus is ONE BIG BODY!  Couple early fouls puts him on the bench as CC was playing really well.  For a while, their offense resembled the heavy screening that Gustavus has done for years, and they were running it real well.  Had a 7 point lead late in the half only to give it up when Huus sat down, and trailed by 2 at the break.  Kweson & Rude shot the ball well in the first half.

Maybe somebody can help me out here - what offense is Olaf running this year???  They have all these good athletes who can run and push the ball but for some reason, they slow it down and get bunched together and look lost at times!  It was hard to watch - their shooters (Fong, Swede, Pratt) looked out of sorts last night and Fong really had a tough shooting night.  Swede and Pratt only took 8 shots COMBINED.  On the other hand, Kuck puts up 12 shots in 16 minutes!

Neville played well again but seemed a little soft at times on defense.  Also, when I went over the Olaf supplied stats from the game, they're horribly inaccurate.  I try and take stats at the games I attend, I've done it for years.  These guys don't know an assist from a turnover from a rebound.  They shorted Neville 3 boards, Fong 2 boards, Jaryan 1 assist, Pratt 2 boards + 2 assists, etc.  It looked like they had 3-4 students taking stats, and this is the best they can do?  Make it right so the player gets the credit they deserve.

In the second half, CC just ran out of gas.  They only dressed 12? players and couldn't find the energy they had in the first half.  It was a tale of two halves for Olaf - they need to become consistent and play well going into January.

Going off of PapaHoops earlier prediction, here is where I rank the top 6 teams after last nights action. 1) UST 2) AUG 3) GAC 4) SJU 5) STO/HU

Hamline had an impressive win @ Carleton last night.  What's up with Carleton?