MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[faunch]

heard radio call of the game winner on saturday at sju.  nice!     
voj, you should be working for 'cco so a few more people could hear you.   

Nice call...any chance SJU will put a video clip up on youtube?

[Drake Palmer]

Fellas- going into the last two weeks of the season, we've suddenly got a red-hot conference race heating up.

GAC (12-3)

@ SMU:  2/8
MAC:  2/11
@ SJU:  2/13
@ CORD:  2/15
BET:  2/18  (note schedule correction - thanks GB)

This a champion's schedule  – tough but doable.  But I wouldn't be surprised to see them drop one or possibly two games.  They have road games a week from Monday at C-ville and then Wednesday up to Moorhead to play the Cobbs, before returning to play Bethel a week from Saturday. I expect they'll drop one game but will win the regular season title.

UST (12-4)

CORD:  2/11
CARL:  2/13
@ BET:  2/15
SMU:  2/18

Tommies are off until next Saturday.  They desperately need this time to get healthy and get their mojo back.  Last week was not a good week for the men in purple.  A tough loss to their arch rival SJU on Wednesday & a rout turned into a white knuckler against Augsburg on Saturday.

STO (11-5)

@ CORD:  2/8
SJU:  2/11
@ AUG:  2/13
CARL:  2/18

The race for 3rd place is going to go right down to the wire between the Oles and Dawgs, plus an outside chance that the Jays could slip into 3rd place.

AUG (10-6)

@MAC:  2/8
SMU:  2/11
STO:  2/13
@ CARL:  2/15

Dawgs have arguably the easiest schedule in the next couple of weeks.  Games against Mac and SMU to get tuned up and ready next week, then the battle royale against the Oles and Knights to finish the season.

SJU (9-6)

@ BET:   2/8
@ STO:  2/11
GAC:  2/13
@ MAC:  2/15
CORD:  2/18

Murderer's row.  If the Jays want a favorable seed and or just make the playoffs, it's certainly not going to be because someone gave it to them.  They will have earned it.  Aside from Bethel, SJU has probably the toughest remaining schedule. And, they have to play 3 games in the last week of the regular season while most everyone else only have 2 games.

HAM (8-8)

CARL:  2/8
BET:  2/11
@ SMU:  2/15
@ MAC:  2/18

This is a good schedule.  At minimum, I would think the Pipes should go 2-2, possibly 3-1, & no reason they couldn't finish this stretch of games 4-0.  If I was to bet, I'd guess they finish at 3-1.

BET (7-8)

SJU:  2/8
@ HAM:  2/11
SMU:  2/13
UST:  2/15
@ GAC:  2/18

Very tough schedule. My guess is that they would need to win at least 3 games to even sniff the playoffs.  Finishing the season with games against the current top 2 teams in the league doesn't bode well for their success, but stranger things have happened.

At (6-10) there's a outside shot Carleton could work back into the playoff mix, but a whole lot of things would have to break right for the Knights.   

Buckle up,this should be a fun 2 weeks.

[Drake Palmer]

DP,

This is a few days late but I guess I need to apologize...

Your apology is accepted.  Next time it would be nice if you actually saw a player in action (journalistic fact-checking) before you dismissed a player's All-Conference worthiness.  Besides, the last time I checked, it was my understanding that All-Conference awards are based on individual merit, not team performance correct?

And from someone besides me who has actually seen most of these players in person...

Hmmmmm...after a season of relative mediocrity, one big win and all the Johnnie posters come out of the woodwork.

At least there's some action on the board...

Knights go for three in a row, hosting Cobbers on Saturday. As for Macalester, I really like the stuff they run, they have a couple of really nice players, especially Peters (sorry, THFL, that kid is top five in the MIAC), but they just have no depth or consistency across their roster.

[miacsuperfan]

Nice work, DP.  Ten games will likely get you a "sniff" of the playoffs, but from the schedule you posted it looks like 11 wins is going to get you a "bite" of the second season.

The SJU at BU game on Monday is huge, more so for Royals than Johnnies.  A Bethel loss would mean that they would likely have to run the remaining four game table, as 10 wins is going to be about one game short of what is needed.  And two of those remaining games include UST and GAC.  Looking at the remaining schdules, SJU has two VERY winnable games vs MAC and CC(which would give them 11 wins) and the Vipes have three games in which they should be the clear favorite (CAR, SMU, MAC), which would also give them 11 wins.

The top end is where all the action could be.   CC is the only common opponent for each of the current top 3 teams.  It is probably fortunate for the Cobs that they are not having to win those games to make the playoffs!!   

[faunch]

Andy Burns game winning shot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxNk8Y2LNSM&feature=player_embedded

[gacbacker]

Drake, one minor correction to your rundown. The Gusties get Bethel at home not on the road in the season finale.

[VOJ]

heard radio call of the game winner on saturday at sju.  nice!     
voj, you should be working for 'cco so a few more people could hear you.   

Thanks for the props superfan...interesting game.

[Drake Palmer]

Drake, one minor correction to your rundown. The Gusties get Bethel at home not on the road in the season finale.

Thanks Gbacker.  I knew that, but the old cut and paste feature wasn't working smoothly for me, so I had to rely on the less than reliable Palmer keyboarding skills.

One other minor correction to point out.  Supe you've probably noticed this now as well, but in your latest post you said the SJU at Bethel game was "Monday night". That game is actually on Wednesday night, as the entire league is idle tonight.

[miacsuperfan]

Drake, one minor correction to your rundown. The Gusties get Bethel at home not on the road in the season finale.

Thanks Gbacker.  I knew that, but the old cut and paste feature wasn’t working smoothly for me, so I had to rely on the less than reliable Palmer keyboarding skills.

One other minor correction to point out. Supe you’ve probably noticed this now as well, but in your latest post you said the SJU at Bethel game was "Monday night". That game is actually on Wednesday night, as the entire league is idle tonight.

Thanks for the heads up. . . no I hadn't noticed and was ready for a night of MIAC video surfing!

[faunch]

Drake, one minor correction to your rundown. The Gusties get Bethel at home not on the road in the season finale.

Thanks Gbacker.  I knew that, but the old cut and paste feature wasn't working smoothly for me, so I had to rely on the less than reliable Palmer keyboarding skills.

One other minor correction to point out. Supe you've probably noticed this now as well, but in your latest post you said the SJU at Bethel game was "Monday night". That game is actually on Wednesday night, as the entire league is idle tonight.

Thanks for the heads up. . . no I hadn't noticed and was ready for a night of MIAC video surfing!

I too thought the SJU/BU game was last night...I should have figured out to look at the date after I hit the video link about 5 times and kept getting the message, "The event is not yet being streamed.  Please note the broadcast time and try again later." 
The issue was that I kept checking the time but not the date. 

[piperinsider]

Well, Bethel stays alive with a HUGE win over St. John's. Hamline officially eliminates Carleton to stop a losing streak.

Three teams for two spots:
St. John's 9-7 (@STO, vs GAC, @MAC, vs CON)
Hamline 9-8 (vs BET, @SMU, @MAC)
Bethel 8-8 (@HAM, vs SMU, vs UST, @GAC)

Johnnies should finish at least 11-9. Hamline should finish at least 11-9. Bethel needs to beat Hamline and St. Mary's and steal one against UST or GAC to get to 11 wins. A loss Saturday would be tough to overcome for the Royals (unless Hamline stumbles twice)

[AO]

Well, Bethel stays alive with a HUGE win over St. John's. Hamline officially eliminates Carleton to stop a losing streak.

Three teams for two spots:
St. John's 9-7 (@STO, vs GAC, @MAC, vs CON)
Hamline 9-8 (vs BET, @SMU, @MAC)
Bethel 8-8 (@HAM, vs SMU, vs UST, @GAC)

Johnnies should finish at least 11-9. Hamline should finish at least 11-9. Bethel needs to beat Hamline and St. Mary's and steal one against UST or GAC to get to 11 wins. A loss Saturday would be tough to overcome for the Royals (unless Hamline stumbles twice)

Johnnies lost to concordia by 25 last time, 1-3 seems entirely possible for the J crew.  If that happens and Bethel goes 2-2, they'd go to the 3rd tie-breaker which Bethel would win by way of having beaten regular season champ Gustavus. 

[Drake Palmer]

Well, Bethel stays alive with a HUGE win over St. John's. Hamline officially eliminates Carleton to stop a losing streak.

Three teams for two spots:
St. John's 9-7 (@STO, vs GAC, @MAC, vs CON)
Hamline 9-8 (vs BET, @SMU, @MAC)
Bethel 8-8 (@HAM, vs SMU, vs UST, @GAC)

Johnnies should finish at least 11-9. Hamline should finish at least 11-9. Bethel needs to beat Hamline and St. Mary's and steal one against UST or GAC to get to 11 wins. A loss Saturday would be tough to overcome for the Royals (unless Hamline stumbles twice)

Hey PI- before last night I might have said the same thing - "Johnnies should finish at least 11-9. Hamline should finish at least 11-9." But this is not going to be an easy task the next week and a half.  Mac took Augsburg right to the wire last night before falling 58-56 & SMU has been playing well just about all season long. 

I made the short trek over to Arden Hills to watch the Jays and Royals tilt last night.  It was a fun, entertaining ball game that could have easily gone the way of the Jays. For the first 10 minutes of the first half Bethel looked extremely tough and was dominating on both sides of the ball. At various points the Royals had leads of 10-12 points before the Jays gradually began to work their way back into the contest.  SJU SO forward Seth Marx showed a nice shooting touch, made 3 treys and a short jumper to finish the first half with 11 points. Streaky shooting, but talented Andy Burns made some tough baskets to help the Johnnies end the first half in a tie with Bethel 31-31.

In the second half I thought the better overall talent of SJU would take over as they gradually stretched the lead out to 8-9 points, but to the Royals' credit, they didn't buckle under the pressure. There was a sequence of 3-4 consecutive possessions when Bethel would get a big defensive stop and either one of the big guns for Bethel – Taylor Hall or Daniel Baah would turn the ball over on the offensive side, or make an ill-advised pass.  Yet, the Royals were not to be denied.  The remarkable thing was that the Royals mind you- (not the Tommies, Gusties, or the Knights) shut out SJU the last couple minutes of the game. They were down 63-59 and went on an 8-0 run to close out the game 67-63.

I have to admit – I was shocked by this newfound appetite for defense that the Royals displayed. Some of the Johnnie faithful were crying about the foul disparity as at one point SJU had 6 fouls and the Royals had 0.  I got a chuckle out of this, as the Jays were settling for fade away jumpers and the like, while the Royals kept trying to find ways to attack the basket and made the officials make a call.

Bethel did a great job of denying Seth Marx the ball in the 2nd half and for some inexplicable reason, the Jays took Andy Burns off PG and primary ball handling duties, and let Patrick Butcher or one of the other guards handle the ball. As a result, Burns never really had the ball in his hands the last couple of minutes of the game.

For me, one of the joys I derive from watching college basketball is seeing the development of young, talented players, into smarter, talented players.  Case in point – Daniel Baah. No one is ever going to mistake Daniel Baah for Ricky Rubio, but last night he dropped one of the sweetest assists I've seen all year. Late in the 2nd half both Baah & Taylor Hall are trying a bit too much to carry the load for the Royals.  Baah took off on one of his patented wild, jackrabbit dashes for the basket, ran into a double team to the right side of the basket, when he coolly stopped, glanced back to his left, and dropped off a bounce pass to a wide open Kyle Zimmerman who laid in the easy left-handed layup.  Great move and dish.  Taylor Hall is learning how to channel his talent and be effective on both sides of the ball. He should be an absolute beast next year.

Johnnies have got a bench full of talent and just need to find a bigg who can help balance out their outside shooting tendencies.

I don't know if Bethel is going to make the playoffs, but they're now a scrappy, fun team to watch.  Least favorite Bethel PA announcement last night:  After a nice steal, and a breakaway 2-handed dunk by Taylor Hall in the 2nd half, the PA guy calls out – "Taylor in the Hall"  Groan.
He should have just done a Trent Tucker or Jim Peterson – "Get up big fella!" 

Closing thought – is Nikola Pekovic not the baddest big man in the NBA? 

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

Well, Bethel stays alive with a HUGE win over St. John's. Hamline officially eliminates Carleton to stop a losing streak.

Three teams for two spots:
St. John's 9-7 (@STO, vs GAC, @MAC, vs CON)
Hamline 9-8 (vs BET, @SMU, @MAC)
Bethel 8-8 (@HAM, vs SMU, vs UST, @GAC)

Johnnies should finish at least 11-9. Hamline should finish at least 11-9. Bethel needs to beat Hamline and St. Mary's and steal one against UST or GAC to get to 11 wins. A loss Saturday would be tough to overcome for the Royals (unless Hamline stumbles twice)

Actually, Carleton is NOT offically eliminated. They could end up 9-11, as could SJU & Hamline and SMU while theoretically, Bethel could close 8-12. CAR swept BU, split with SJU & SMU and were swept by HAM...so depending who they end up tied and with for what position they may have the tiebreaker.

Although the Knights would be officially out with another Carlie loss OR a win each by SJU & HAM...same for SMU
************
At the other end, GAC has locked up a playoff spot, UST and Olaf each need a win to wrap one up.

[Kilroy]

I played noonball with Seth Jonker this week... what a classic MIAC player! Undersized post player with shooter's touch and good moves under the hoop.