MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Drake Palmer]

Nice analysis Bball. +K

It will be fun to see all these teams compete during conference play.  I watched a portion of the Mac vs. Crown game & Cobbs vs. St. Scholastica game last week.  If fans think Augsburg's FY PG Richie Perea is short at 5-7, they should see Mac's Sager "Sensei" Moritzky.  He's listed as 5-9 on the roster, but he looks positively diminutive.  Nice handles & jumper though.  Instead of Sensei we might have to start calling him "Spud Webb" Moritzky.

Cobbs are young, as they start 2 juniors and three sophs, but they look real athletic & appear to have decent quickness. Outside shooting still looks to be a question mark.

But when all is said and done, the big show case match of the week pits last year's conference & playoff champion UST vs. the playoff runner-up Augsburg on Wednesday night.  This should be a dandy. i might have to leave the comforts of home & the webcast to check out this game.   

Other intriguing match ups include St. Olaf @ Augsburg and the Cobbs @ Gustavus on Saturday.

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

you're not intrigued y the Ole/Carlie game tonight Drake? for shame!  I'm strongly considering the trek to Northfield for it

[Kilroy]

Here's some MIAC recruiting buzz I picked up over the weekend...

Jake Knupp (East Ridge) is being contacted by six or seven MIAC schools, with St. Olaf as his leader. Coach Koz has visited his home.

TC Robinson (Spring Lake Park) is being recruited by MIACs and NSICs, with Hamline after him hard.

Derek Magnuson (Roseville) is a post who I believe will end up somewhere in the MIAC. There has also been some contact by Bemidji and a few other NSICs.

St. Thomas spoke with shooter Riley Sharbono (Marshall) after his game on Saturday. He holds a couple of NAIA offers.

Jake Maiers (Shakopee) is down to Gustavus or Southwest State. He will do basketball and track at either school.

[Kilroy]

Cards down by 10 to Bethel with two minutes left. A couple freshmen making a nice impact... of course there's Wojta, but Trevor Hall has back-to-back 3s to keep the Royals in this and Edward Scott guy looks good off the bench. Inglewood, California? How'd he end up at Bethel? Also fellow freshman Bakari Collins starting the game and helping SMU with 14 pts. SMU is led by Wylie Ferron who is a ... you guessed it... freshman with 16 pts.

[TommieHoops4Life]

I watched the first 6 minutes or so of the second half of UST at Auggie Tech last night and wasn't too surprised by what I saw. UST ends up winning 71-53.

Augsburg kept leaving Alipate open, and he made every open look. UST had strong guard play and got good production inside from Nord and Saarela. On the flip side, Augsburg had looks but they didn't fall. Most noticeably Kornbaum really struggled to convert at the rim. I remember him being a bit more consistent inside than that.

While it's early, I would've figured the MIAC opener on the road would've been a much tougher test than that for UST. Augsburg shot 38 percent to the Tommies 59 percent.

[AO]

I watched the first 6 minutes or so of the second half of UST at Auggie Tech last night and wasn't too surprised by what I saw. UST ends up winning 71-53.

Augsburg kept leaving Alipate open, and he made every open look. UST had strong guard play and got good production inside from Nord and Saarela. On the flip side, Augsburg had looks but they didn't fall. Most noticeably Kornbaum really struggled to convert at the rim. I remember him being a bit more consistent inside than that.

While it's early, I would've figured the MIAC opener on the road would've been a much tougher test than that for UST. Augsburg shot 38 percent to the Tommies 59 percent.

Kornbaum went 6-9 from the field, you saw all 3 misses in your 6 minutes of watching.  I also don't give much a home-court advantage to Augsburg.  Wouldn't be surprised if there were more Tommie fans than Augsburg students there last night.

[Drake Palmer]

I watched the first 6 minutes or so of the second half of UST at Auggie Tech last night and wasn't too surprised by what I saw. UST ends up winning 71-53.

Augsburg kept leaving Alipate open, and he made every open look. UST had strong guard play and got good production inside from Nord and Saarela. On the flip side, Augsburg had looks but they didn't fall. Most noticeably Kornbaum really struggled to convert at the rim. I remember him being a bit more consistent inside than that.

While it's early, I would've figured the MIAC opener on the road would've been a much tougher test than that for UST. Augsburg shot 38 percent to the Tommies 59 percent.

Kornbaum went 6-9 from the field, you saw all 3 misses in your 6 minutes of watching.  I also don't give much a home-court advantage to Augsburg.  Wouldn't be surprised if there were more Tommie fans than Augsburg students there last night.

When the Tommies shoot like they did last night, there aren't too many teams that can beat them.  If they're lucky, most teams have one player they can count on to knock down the long ball. UST had 3 guys who were ridiculous from behind the 3 pt line – Marcus Alipate 5-8, Zach Riedeman 3-4, Cortez Tillman 2-4.  Overall, the Tomcats shot a blistering 24-41 for 58.5% FGA.

On the other hand Augsburg has one guy who' s a legit 3 ball threat Andy Seidlitz, and he was 1-5 3FGA last night.  The Dawgs were 3-13 from downtown for 23%, & were a dismal 18-48 for 37.5% FGA.

I'm not sure why UST Soph wing Taylor Montero didn't play last night, but the addition of soph post player Ryan Saarela seemed to open up the floor even more for UST, & the Auggie defenders were forced to cheat off their man to help guard the paint.

Good news for Augsburg is that according to the game announcer, JR PG Parker Hines is scheduled to return to the line up after the holiday break.

[Drake Palmer]

Wow, in a pleasant surprise MAC knocked off the Cobbs last night 79-76.  And mind you, this was without Dylan Kilgour going off for a 20+ points. FY post player Kareem Ismail gets a dub-dub as he scores 27 points & grabs 12 caroms.   Shockingly, the Scots nearly doubled up the Cobbs on points in the paint.  Mac scored 37 while Cord scored 20 points in the lane. Plus, the Scots out-rebounded Concordia by 1, 25-24.  The diminutive one, FY Sensei Spud Moritsky scored 10 pts and passed out 5 dimes. First win by Macalester over Concordia in 12 games. 

For the Cobbs, Jordan Bolger was high man with 16 pts, 6 rebs, Brandon Giese 15 pts, & Tom Fraase 11 pts.  I noticed Ryan Rude didn't play for the Cobbs last night. Based on a very small number of games played, it seems Rude is the team floor leader as he was leading the team in assists and steals, 2.8/spg.

Based on watching a couple of early non-conference games, I really thought the Cobbs could sneak up on some teams this season.  Aside from the beat down they received from D2 UM-Moorhead, the Cobbs have been winning by 20+ points per game. They also drubbed UMAC preseason conference favorite UM-Morris in the first game of the season, 63-39.  Morris turned around the following week and knocked off the Gusties 68-64. We'll get a better idea of where the Gusties & Cobbs are at when they face off on Saturday afternoon at St. Peter.

Who knows, mebbe it's going to be Macalester sneaking up on teams this year.

[Drake Palmer]

Man, even slower board than usual.  The last 3 posts are from me.  Might have to turn this into the Palmer blog, or let this board turn into a ghost town. 



Nice win by the Pipes over the Jays last night.  Hamline drilled SJU 70-52 without JR forward Dior Ford having a big game. Austin Johnson 14 pts/8 rebs, Bennett Cooper 13 pts/3 rebs, Zach Moll 17 pts on 6-9 FGA/ 5-6 3fga, & Marshall Jestings 9 pts, 11 assists, 1 TO.

Gusties put the beat down on the injured Dawgs 74-54. Gustavus shot 60% from the floor & Isaac Tapp led the way with 20 pts, followed by Brain Jacobs with 15 pts.  The Dawgs are missing starters Brett Rasmussen & Parker Hines.

UST handles Mac, STO over SMU, & Cord is winless in conference play & lost to the precocious, surprising Bethel Royals 70-68.

[miacsuperfan]

to avoid a palmer 'four-peat' i will throw some mud on the walls of this ghost town.

bu and gac atop the miac....interesting.  i think they should both take some pictures while they are there, as it may be difficult for both to maintain their current lofty status.  both have played the bottom feeders so far, though gustie's beating of a short-handed dawg team was fairly impressive.  the 'precocious' (nice vocabulary dp) royals are led by a couple of dandy frosh and a new coach.  Rich Glass appears to be sporting a bit more stylish haircut these days, but his team is off to a bit of a slow start.  there really do appear to be some good youngsters throughout the league this year.

i won't get my first live look at a miac team until after the new year, so am relying heavily on video from school websites.  i will need some poster's EYES to see the games until then.

[Kilroy]

How many teams are in official "transition" mode? Cool to see Bethel experience early success in their new coach's first year.

Tobroxen is getting courted by St. Olaf and Carleton, I believe, but also has recently applied to Notre Dame. Olaf is also talking with Cole Northwick, shooter from Rosemount. Koz does a great job of impressing kids with in-home visits. Northwick plays next to one of my very favorite MIAC recruits, PG Garrett Goetz. Whichever team lands him will get a quick, smart guard for 4 years. Better hope an NSIC like Minot/Crookston doesn't sneak in at the last minute.

Apple Valley/DeLaSalle was cool, but kind of disappointing with the lack of Reid Travis. If he was healthy, I think DLS would have gotten the win.

[AO]

Tobroxen is getting courted by St. Olaf and Carleton, I believe, but also has recently applied to Notre Dame. Olaf is also talking with Cole Northwick, shooter from Rosemount. Koz does a great job of impressing kids with in-home visits.

What in the world does Koz say in these visits?  They've never been to the tournament and they average 300 fans at home.  It must be really helpful to point to a couple of recent winning seasons.

Apple Valley/DeLaSalle was cool, but kind of disappointing with the lack of Reid Travis. If he was healthy, I think DLS would have gotten the win.

It's unbelievable that we can't get rid of class 3A with the types of teams that have been there in recent years such as St. Paul Johnson, DeLaSalle and Benilde. 
Also, apparently I didn't get the memo soon enough and I missed my chance to get tickets for tomorrow night's ESPN2 showdown of the future Dookies.  I bet we'll be hearing a lot about the "Tobroxen to Olaf" rumors from the announcers.

[Kilroy]

No idea what he says, but it seems to work. Tobroxen, Knupp and Shanks have all reported home visits from Koz, and they all speak pretty highly of the school. Nice campus, quirky college town, high academics... decent team... seems good to me.

[Kilroy]

Lots of MIAC coaches at the MN Breakdown Showcase in Minnetonka this weekend, including staffers from SMU, Augsburg, Hamline, St. Olaf and Bethel.

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

Merry Christmas to all!