MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[oleroll]

Opening night tidbits

Well, well, well, interesting and exciting opening night in the MIAC as the home team won 4-5 conference games.  68 was also the most popular number of the night as Augsburg beat the Carlies 68-58, STO knocked off MAC 68-58, & the Gusties beat UST 68-65. 

Jays squeaked by the Cobbs 79-76, SMU beat Hamline 70-67, & in nonconference play Bethel beat Northwestern 84-75.  Early front runner for FY Player of the year, Bridge Tulser from Bethel had a monster night:  29 pts on 10-13 FGA, 4-6 3FGA, 4rebs, 4 assists, 6 steals!

Saturday's game pitting Bethel vs. STO could be a dandy, & I'll have to see if I can sneak out of the house for that one.

Augsburg's FY Collin Olmscheid is quietly putting together a nice portfolio on the young season as he had 13 pts & 7 rebs in the win against Carleton.  I'm guessing he must be the younger brother of the Cobbers' Darren Olmscheid?

Coach R might be getting a little thing going on down in Winona. In their first game of the season they fired out of the gates with a nice win over the Pipes with a mix of mostly underclassmen. All the more impressive since Hamline has a decent squad this season led by All-MIAC performer Dior Ford, and this was the Pipes 5th game of the season.

As I alluded to yesterday, a lack of defensive stoppers & toughness could bring the Tommies back to the pack. Having seen my fair share of talented UST teams and other tourney teams the past 10+ years or so, this year's version of the Tomcats will need to step it up if they hope to enjoy any post season success.

Nice win by the Gusties. This could be a fun, topsvy turvy season for the top two spots.  Could the Lutes - GAC & STO be dark horses for the league title? The Gustie machine keeps rolling along with seemingly interchangeable parts which will always keep them close to the top of the league. The thing they seem to be lacking in recent years is that one star player who can strap the team on his back.  The Oles have got the man in the middle Ben Figini, plus the best PG in the league Sterling Nielsen, along with sharpshooter Justin Pahl.

Jays have got a ton of talent and just need to figure out a way to make it gel.

*****
Shoutout to Oleroll for joining the board, hope to see you on here more frequently.

Congrats AO, wife & Aubrey.  I became a grandfather for the first time in October so I may end up scaling back on my days & nights of following MIAC hoops. Hopefully, we don't totally lose our MIAC, PG 13  version of message board edginess.   

Plus k to the board.

Congrats AO! I have a 4 Month baby girl, it's every emotion you could possibly imagine. Enjoy!

DP- Bethel/STO has the makings for a fun game to watch.

My disclaimer* I didn't watch a single minute of any game. I just went through the stat sheets and summaries to gather some information about the match ups from last night.

MAC/STO- This is a standard Mac game. Get down early (down 13 by half). Get close at the end (6 pts @ 4:37, 3:35// 5 pts @ 1:52). Lose by double digits 68-58.

The thing about MAC is that they have lacked a defensive presence. The type where another team walks into the gym and says, "It's going to be really tough to score tonight." It's the type of defensive psychological pressure STT and GAC have imposed on opponents for about a decade.

Point in case, STO only attempts 7 3-pt shots (2/7), and goes 22-26 from the free throw line, 30 points in the paint (PITP), and 7 team t.o.'s- resulting in only 10 pts off TO's for MAC.

On the flip side, STO created 15 TO, 22 Pts off turnovers,  18 PITP, 10 FT attempts.

STO also had a nice balanced scoring starting five of 8, 22, 10, 10, 12.


--

Hamline/SMU-

The first thing that jumped out was that SMU had 9 guys play over 15 min, while 6 guys played over 20 min for Hamline.

The second thing is that so many of the stats were in Hamline's favor. Hamline outrebounded the Birds 37-24 including 13-2 on the offensive glass. It makes me wonder if the Pipers just missed shots or SMU forced the shots they wanted them to take as the Pipers were 6-20 from 3pt and 2-11 in the first half.

One thing is for sure, SMU can definitely build some early season momentum with this W.

---

STT/GAC

St. Thomas starting 5 was short compared to the Gusties, rebounding and post play seemed to be the difference, and the number of minutes played per guy is interesting.

STT: 6'0", 6'0", 5'11", 6'4", 6'6"
GAC: 6'1", 6'2", 6'4", 6'6", 6'6"

37 GAC rebounds to 24 STT

8-13 GAC FT's to STT 3-5!!!

The most interesting thing is that STT played 6 guys 23+ min, and GAC played 9 guys 15+ min. Two reasons why that is important:
1.) Guarding GAC offense is often exhausting.
2.)STT has the craziest talent of JV/Bench assembled in the MIAC, many of whom might start for a majority of the MIAC teams today...Fronk, Deadrick,Veil, Kuplic, Pagel, Conroy, Burich, R. Johnson, R. Boll... It'll be interesting which ones will take advantage of their opportunities to contribute this year (hint: the ticket to the floor is defense).

Big statement win for the Gusties early on, and a wake up call to STT (I'm not sure i'd want to play them next...)

---

CAR/AUG

No Shane McSparron. Not sure why he's out, but the Knights really missed him.

Noteworthy: Carleton only attempted 7 3-point shots. The Knights went 6-16 from FT. Kevin Grow is a sleeper.
                    Augsburg was lead by Hines (14), Rasmussen (14), and FY standout Olmscheid (13). They out rebounded Carleton  34-27 . Does anyone know how Augsburg got their points (Ball screens, on the break, iso post ups off screen the screener?)

__

SJU/Con

While another similar number pops up, 34-26 rebounding advantage SJU, it was the 16 CON T.O.'s that seemed to due them in in comparison to 7 SJU. I'm guessing we had someone watch this game that could give a better analysis...chirp, chirp...

__

Bethel/NW

Drake, Bridge is not just a candidate for FOY, he could very well be in the running for POY. Notice that he put up that MONSTER state line in only 27 minutes! I know it's early, but I think that's actually the scary part. His biggest weakness will be staying out of foul trouble.

Brycen must of been having his way getting to the hoop and some pull up J's going 10-16 and only 4 3- pt attempts.

Zimmerman 22 points on 7-9 shooting, 6 rebounds, 3 steals. Yup, that's a good night!

__

I'll be busy with RCTC on Saturday, but I look forward to seeing people's responses to the games.

MC

[AO]

...

RE: Bridgeport Tusler - hopefully he can add some offensive spark for Bethel...Wojta was really the only one capable of breaking a defender down in order to create his own shot last year, so it would be good to have an additional player capable of ther.  I've heard that he came out of the football season a little gimpy, so hopefully he is feeling better.

Maybe things will liven up here...

I'd say that was a little more than a spark!

Would be fun to see a rematch in March?  I can't be certain of winning the UMAC again, but I do know that the first round opponent will have a 75% chance of winning the whole thing.

[GoldandBlueBU]

...

RE: Bridgeport Tusler - hopefully he can add some offensive spark for Bethel...Wojta was really the only one capable of breaking a defender down in order to create his own shot last year, so it would be good to have an additional player capable of ther.  I've heard that he came out of the football season a little gimpy, so hopefully he is feeling better.

Maybe things will liven up here...

I'd say that was a little more than a spark!

Would be fun to see a rematch in March?  I can't be certain of winning the UMAC again, but I do know that the first round opponent will have a 75% chance of winning the whole thing.

While they may compete well for the MIAC, I'd be surprised to see BU winning it, which is what it would take for them to get a bid...as they've never made the playoffs before.

Yeah, the UMAC is in sort of a tough spot when the playoffs roll around...being geographically convenient to the MIAC and WIAC makes it hard to advance, where they'd have a good chance at stringing some wins together in other areas. (in basketball anyway, maybe not football)  Northwestern certainly played well in the past against some of the powers in the first round.

[Gregory Sager]

Yeah, the UMAC is in sort of a tough spot when the playoffs roll around...being geographically convenient to the MIAC and WIAC makes it hard to advance, where they'd have a good chance at stringing some wins together in other areas. (in basketball anyway, maybe not football)  Northwestern certainly played well in the past against some of the powers in the first round.

I'd say that baseball, thanks to St. Scholastica, offers the UMAC's best shot at postseason glory in spite of the proximity of the big, bad WIAC and MIAC.

[GoldandBlueBU]

A flurry of activity, and back to silence...

Interested on everyone's take of the first piece of the MIAC season...

BU has won the games that they should, and perhaps surpised me a little with the win vs. St. Olaf...I thought they would struggle more with St. Olaf's size....and they managed to win a defensive battle with Hamline last night, which produced a high school like 55-50 final score.

Hoping to attend the SJU game on the 3rd...might be one of only a couple that I manage to attend this season.  Very appreciative of the opportunity to catch the webcasts.

[jimhoops1234]

Hello All,

My name is Matt Christensen. I've been following the Board ever since my brother,Scott, was playing at Carleton. I am an Ole Hooper Alum '09. I was an assistant at Carleton for 4 years. I am currently helping out in my second year at Rochester Community and Technical College with the Men's Program.

I look forward to contributing to the Board.

Let's get to it!


Bethel- Bridge will make a significant difference to Bethel on both sides of the ball. Bridge's aggressiveness suits perfectly with Coach Novak's style of play.  Paired with Wojta (former AAU teammate- I coached them with the MN Fury), these two will reek havoc on opposing guards.  In fact, these two are so competitive, and so skilled, they may help Bethel contend for a conference crown in the next couple of years. (Not easy for an Ole to say).

Speaking of Oles. The biggest disappointment from watching them last year for their NCAA appearance was that the Ole's got a little gun shy from 3. Their opponent continually went under the ball screen, and they didn't punish them for it. I thought it would be guns-a-blazin'.

With that being said, I am extremely happy for Coach Koz and the program, and am looking forward to watching St. Olaf make another deep run this year. Justin Pahl is taking a big leap forward, Sterling Nielsen is Mr. Cool at the point, and the big X-fer Figini could make all the difference.

St. Thomas is loaded with depth. We all know they are good.

Coach Hayes will have an improved Hamline squad, as he is one of the best recruiters in the area. I'm curious to see how the talent he has brought in pans out this year.

I heard from a lil birdie that SMU is working diligently to bring in talent, and has been hitting the recruiting trail hard. I look forward to watching their progression this year in terms of implementing the system Coach R wants. If SMU can have a competitive season, it could give Coach R the recruiting power he needs to get SMU over the playoff hump.

Gustavus. Do you know I can always spot a Gustie alum hooper when playing pick up ball? The solid defense, disciplined shot selection, tough screening, and they always hustle. It was annoying to play against then, and it's even worse now (c'mon man, it's men's league!). These staples are why Gac is always in the mix, especially for a motion offense that needs time to gel, by the end of the season.

Macalester. They have an underrated coaching staff. They got a few talented players. Depth is always the issue.

Carleton. I coached and recruited a lot of these kids, so I'm rooting for them. As much as the Knights use the 3 ball, post play is really the core of the program. You know McSparron will have a big year if healthy, and Biewen is lights out from 3 (despite the 1-10 game).  I think the season hinges on the growth of John Eckert on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball. 

Couldn't tell ya a lick about Concordia this year. Anyone have insight?

Augsburg. Is it not great seeing Parker Hines healthy and on the floor? Gotta love that. Holy Collin Olmscheid. This 6'7" Buffalo FY seems to be stuffing the stat sheet. Anyone got a scoop on him?

The Johnnies. While I have not watched them this year, they changed up their offensive style of play a couple years back, and I think they may beginning to see some fruits of their labor. A nice 3 point "W" over St. Cloud St certainly is noteworthy. Man, can Mitchell Kuck put the ball in the basket! His quick release from 3, and ability to put it on the floor makes him one of the most explosive scorers in the league.

I'm looking forward to others insights after the first MIAC match ups tonight.

MC

No offense but a little birdie told me every coaching staff in the league is working hard to bring in talent. SMU has more bodies this year for sure, but that was expected. New coach selling his vision. Year 2 and 3 recruiting is when things come back to a more normal number.

Coach Hayes at Hamline will have his team defending, their key and a key for all those battling behind the top couple teams is taking care of the ball. Self inflicted missed opportunities to get a shot are killers.

Watched bits and pieces of Bethel this week, man do they move the ball. Really fun to watch. At times it's like watching an international game.

As you said, great to see Parker Hines playing. One of most complete guards in the league.

Got a good laugh at your explanation of a Gustie...but all true.


Although I disagreed with some stuff, enjoyed your input.

[GoldandBlueBU]

Curious what BU's game with Lacrosse tomorrow will bring...LAX has had some mixed results, knocking off Winona State, but losing to River Falls, who Bethel beat....then a long break until opening the new year vs SJU, which I hope to attend.

[miacsuperfan]

Happy New Year!!  I almost forgot my password, but got it on the third try.  

Hope to get a chance to watch some MIAC in 2015.   Have had limited opporunities to see much action yet. 
As of today the MIAC has fared well in non-conference action (25-4 vs. other area D3 conferences)

     vs. UMAC     15-1
     vs. WIAC       6-1
     vs. IIAC         4-2
     vs. NSIC D2   1-1   (plus 2-0 in exhibitition games v. Mankato and SSU)

Conference play really begins fast and furious on Saturday.  Looks like a five horse race with BU, GAC, AUG, UST and STO leading the pack as ususal.  Should be fun! 

[AO]

As of today the MIAC has fared well in non-conference action (25-4 vs. other area D3 conferences)
     vs. UMAC     15-1

Ouch.

[Pat Coleman]

As of today the MIAC has fared well in non-conference action (25-4 vs. other area D3 conferences)
     vs. UMAC     15-1

Ouch.

The UMAC is 12-64 overall, so there's probably a lot of conferences with gaudy records against UMAC teams.

[GoldandBlueBU]

Attended the BU - SJU game on saturday...Bethel looked like they had too much time off, but managed to claw their way back into it late, and missed a layup that would've sent it to overtime.

SJU dominated them on the glass with their height advantage...lots of offensive rebounds.  Olaf had a similar size advantage, but wasn't able to do the same.

Schmitt (sp?) for SJU really impressed overall...though he had a couple of ugly turnovers late that were no-look passes that went to nobody, and missed the front end of two 1 and 1's late that gave bethel a chance to stay in it, he really played well for for the first 38 minutes of the game.  Great ball handler, distributed the ball very well...didn't have trouble dealing with presses...he's a gamer for sure.

[Drake Palmer]

Hey GBU - it looks like you and me might be holding the fort down, and I'm only partially around. 

Happy New Year and good health to everyone!  Trust the Methuselah (Mose) of the league is back on his feet and ready for some prime time spectating & the occasional posting.  My days of going to MIAC ball games 1-2 times a week are a thing of the past and I'll be making fewer games this season. However, I am hoping to see my first conference game this weekend.

As we near the first quarter of the 20 game road race that is the MIAC basketball season, we have a bunch of teams all bunched up within a half game or so of each other. As expected, St. Olaf & St. Thomas are currently leading the pack at 4-1, Augsburg, Bethel, & Gustavus are 3-1, and St. Johns is in the hunt at 2-2.

Glancing through the box scores from over the weekend, I couldn't help but be surprised by the outcome of the Gustavus St. Olaf game. The Oles manhandled the Gusties 85-61 which was a minor surprise, but the big surprise was how they won. Gustavus committed 27 fouls & the Oles made 34-37 free throws. Was anyone at the game who can comment on this?  The Gusties rarely get called for fouls like that & generally play good solid defense

I was also a little surprised by the Bethel SJU score.   If Brycen Wojta had a good game perhaps the Royals would have won the game?  It sounds like SJU got some good game experience under their belts when they made their trip down to the Windy City & played a couple of CCIW schools right before the Christmas break.

   

[GoldandBlueBU]

Maybe it'll warm up in here now that we're into the MIAC season...

Wojta didn't have a great game, but he also deferred to Tusler a lot, as he was able to penetrate pretty effectively vs. the lighter guards that were defending him most of the time.

Overall, they didn't move the ball as well has they have in past games, missed a handful of layups, and just didn't look crisp.

SJU looked good offensively, I thought...they pulled away by 10 a couple of different times, but couldn't put the game away by stretching it to 15-20.  The Johnnies had a 6-7 freshman (Weiss, I think) who looked solid for being a skinny (6'7, 215) freshman...a year of experience, and an off season in the weight room could turn him into a formidable player.


Ole's > Gusties margin surprised me too...maybe they were having a tough night, but Olaf looked out of sorts vs. BU...or at least their big guy did...if you're a 6'8 D2 transfer, you should have a field day vs. a team with a 6'3 center.

[AO]

Ole's > Gusties margin surprised me too...maybe they were having a tough night, but Olaf looked out of sorts vs. BU...or at least their big guy did...if you're a 6'8 D2 transfer, you should have a field day vs. a team with a 6'3 center.

I wanted to underestimate the Oles after seeing that they put a copy of last year's NCAA tournament program into the trophy case.  "Maybe they're just happy to be here" Hard to pick out a superstar but everybody seems ready to play.   
I don't know if they're going to run out of space on their MIAC banner that reads 1989 - 1930 - 1929  but they're balanced enough to beat anybody by double digits.

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

Drake-  condolences on the passing of your mother ......she must have been an amazing woman
lest you forget, I am a few YEARS younger than you, so watch the old-man jokes     Grand-paw 

speaking of amazing....the stellar play of Saarela continues to draw praise far and wide:
http://www.bennettrank.com/div-3/d3-mens-basketball-5-vital-players-br-top-25-teams/?utm_source=Master+Mailing+List&utm_campaign=ded4711d7a-D3_Men_Basketball_1_5_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0cf50650f8-ded4711d7a-180603601#

and I find these rankings interesting.... not saying a thing about accuracy but at least food for thought 
http://www.bennettrank.com/college-rankings/d3-mens-basketball-rankings/