MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

A lot going on elsewhere in the D3 hoops nation, but a pretty cool moment in Moorhead today. Coach grant Hemmingsen, second year head coach for the cobbers, became a dad this morning at 3am. Coach Grant was an Augie basketball player and the wife is a Cobber Alumnus.

She'a an alumna, not an alumnus.  Congrats to the coach and to the Cobbers!

Every time I see the word "alumna" I get PTSD .. walking to class at my alma mater one more, I saw the following sign get placed into the ground ... "Goucher College Alumna/Alumni House." I cringed. The 1970s grads just weren't going to let go a promise no one knows where they were told (that the school would always stay single sex). Until Wells went co-ed about a decade ago, Goucher was the only college, apparently, in the country with an Alumn/Alumni House. Still does. SMH

Well, technically, it should be an Alumnae/Alumni House, since "alumnae" is the plural of "alumna". So you can always hold that over their heads whenever you encounter a Goucher administrator.

It actually is alumnae house. For some reason, I second guessed it at the last moment (after typing it elsewhere to double-check and it didn't produce the result I was expecting).

[AO]

Freddie Gillespie update:  He had 8 points (all in the first half), 7 boards and 2 blocks as the Bears routed Oklahoma and moved into a first place tie in the Big 12. 

Highlights including Freddies dunk here: https://twitter.com/BaylorMBB/status/1090103917847834624

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

The Hoopsville Marathon Show ... is tomorrow!

Tune in starting at 12:00 p.m. ET as we talk to guests from around the country about nothing but #d3hoops.

It is all about celebrating the season, student-athletes, coaches, and an exciting season.

For more information, click here: http://bit.ly/2HGx0N3

We will share more about the show a little later.

[Retired Old Rat]

Freddie Gillespie update:  He had 8 points (all in the first half), 7 boards and 2 blocks as the Bears routed Oklahoma and moved into a first place tie in the Big 12. 

Highlights including Freddies dunk here: https://twitter.com/BaylorMBB/status/1090103917847834624

Freddie played a great first half. Fun to see a Woodbury kid playing big time hoops.

[bball1122]

After a long deep freeze of a week, we finally get some rare Thursday night MIAC action tonight.  Saturday saw Concorida get a huge win at home over Augsburg, while Gustavus took a bad loss at Saint Mary's and the Tommies, Johnnies, and Royals took care of business.  On to tonight.

A couple of big games for the teams fighting for the last playoff spot.  Carleton hosts Augsburg in what is absolutely a must win.   Realistically, Carleton will need to run the table or have at most 1 loss the rest of the year to stay alive. A loss tonight and they can be removed from the playoff hunt.

Gustavus hosts Hamline in the biggest game of the night.  For GAC, they need to recover from their disastrous second half in Winona to beat one of the teams already in front of them (who has already beaten them once).   With St. Thomas, Augsburg, Bethel, and a trip to Concordia still on the schedule, they desperately need this one.  Hamline has 4 of their last 6 at home, but a win in St. Peter would be a huge step toward the final playoff spot.   

Saint John's heads to Bethel to play the red hot Royals, who have won 4 straight (granted, none of those 4 wins was against another top 5 team).   The Johnnies need a win to keep their hopes of a MIAC regular season title alive.   They absolutely crushed Bethel at home in their first matchup.

I fully expect the Tommies and Oles to take care of business against the Scots and Cardinals. However, an Olaf loss would make the rest of their schedule very interesting, as already mentioned in previous posts.  If Vegas were putting odds on MIAC games, the Oles may not be favored in any of their remaining games. Can't drop this one tonight.

Safe travels to all the teams tonight - excited to watch a couple of these games from the comfort of my living room.

[GoldandBlueBU]

Happy for my Royals with the big victory over the Johnnies!  Looked like SJU might come up with a miracle finish at the end, but I sort of figured the whole way that the Johnnies would come up with a way to make it close.

[jamtod]

UST with a nice win and significant bench support once again.
Reviewing the box score, I see Connor Bair with only 3 minutes. No foul trouble or anything, so hopefully it was just precautionary and not a significant injury?

[AO]

UST with a nice win and significant bench support once again.
Reviewing the box score, I see Connor Bair with only 3 minutes. No foul trouble or anything, so hopefully it was just precautionary and not a significant injury?

I watched the replay and have no idea what he injured, they only kept the camera on him for a few seconds after he went down and the announcers had no clue either. 

[bball1122]

With regard to Bair - looked like he was grabbing at his back.   Hopefully nothing serious - he's a huge part of the Tommie success this year.

Another fun night in the MIAC.  As expected, the Tommies took care of business against MAC.  Hitting 13 threes in the first half (17 for the game) will do that for you.   Very interested to see if their transfer from UW-Oshkosh, Matthew Rader, gets any minutes in the upcoming games. especially if Bair is out for awhile.   I don't think he can play Saturday, but after that, he should be eligible to play, with the new semester starting.  One of the Tommies few weaknesses is a lack of size, and Rader is 6'7".

Gustavus with a huge home win against Hamline.  The Gusties shot the ball well (55% for the game) and generally played like a team that knew they needed a win.   Nolan Malo was really impressive.  I still don't think this is a particularly talented Gustie team, but kudos to Coach Hanson for getting them into the playoff race.   They are very much in it for the sixth spot.

Augsburg grinds it out to win at Carleton.  With the Knights loss and the Gusties win, I think it is safe to say Carleton will not be in the post season this year.   Too many teams in front of them with too much ground to make up. 

The Oles get a home win over Saint Mary's, but they really had to work for it.  Eli Cave hit a huge, contested 3 with 5 seconds left in regulation to send it to overtime.  Nate Albers three with a minute left in OT put the Oles up for good.  It was his only make of the day after nine misses.  With the win, I think the Oles are close to a lock for the playoffs.  One more win and I'd say they are in for sure.

Finally, a great game in Arden Hills as Bethel knocks off the Johnnies.  The Royals led the entire game, and spent much of the second half with a double digit lead, as late as with 1:55 to go when they were up 10.  However, the Johnnies chipped the lead down to 2 with 43 seconds left on a three by Oakley Baker.  Alas, David Stokman missed a contested 3 (in my opinion, they could have/should have gotten a much better look) with 5 seconds left and Tyler Barker closed the game out with two free throws.   All in all, I'm a little  underwhelmed by the Johnnies this year. Yes, they're having a really good season, but I guess I thought they'd be able to finish the year with one or two conference losses.  Stokman, Walford, and Alade are great talents, Hanson is having a nice sophomore season, and Codute has been steady as freshman, but other than those 5, they really aren't getting much.  For a team that recruits so well, I'm surprised they aren't able to go 9, 10 deep every game.  I still think they have the talent to make a run in the NCAA tournament, but with last year's early exit, I'm a bit leery to predict a deep run come March.

Three big storylines for the rest of the season:

1.  Can the Tommies run the table?  14 down, 6 to go.  They'll have to earn it, as 5 of them are on the road and the sixth is a home matchup with an Augsburg team that took them to overtime earlier this season.

2.   Who will finish with the other bye?  St. John's looked to be in the driver's seat, but Augsburg is right on their heels and Bethel is lurking and red hot (and they don't face any of the top 3 teams the rest of the season).  Augsburg heads to St. John's Monday night for a chance to pull even withe the Johnnies.

3.  Who will earn the final playoff spot?   Right now, it's a three team race between Concordia, Gustavus, and Hamline.  Concordia has three road games left and three games against the top 5.   They split with Hamline and have a loss to Gustavus.  Gustavus has only 2 road games left, 3 games against the top 5, and have split with Hamline and have a win over Concordia.  Hamline has only one road game, three games against the top 5, and has split with both GAC and CORD. 

Should be a really fun final few weeks!

[jamtod]

With regard to Bair - looked like he was grabbing at his back.   Hopefully nothing serious - he's a huge part of the Tommie success this year.

Another fun night in the MIAC.  As expected, the Tommies took care of business against MAC.  Hitting 13 threes in the first half (17 for the game) will do that for you.   Very interested to see if their transfer from UW-Oshkosh, Matthew Rader, gets any minutes in the upcoming games. especially if Bair is out for awhile.   I don't think he can play Saturday, but after that, he should be eligible to play, with the new semester starting.  One of the Tommies few weaknesses is a lack of size, and Rader is 6'7".

Rader showed up in last night's box score with 3 minutes of PT, 2 boards, and 2 points. Will be interesting to see what he does from here on out. The Tommies aren't afraid to go deep on the bench which I think begins to really show at this point in the season.

[bball1122]

Should have checked closer.  Thank you.  That's interesting.  If he wasn't taking a J-term class, I'm not sure how he's eligible, since he wouldn't have attended any class yet at UST.  But I guess I'm just assuming he wasn't because of the timing of posts on here - it's possible he was enrolled in a J-term.  Alas, he may be in line for some decent minutes Saturday against Hamline if Bair is out.

[jamtod]

Should have checked closer.  Thank you.  That's interesting.  If he wasn't taking a J-term class, I'm not sure how he's eligible, since he wouldn't have attended any class yet at UST.  But I guess I'm just assuming he wasn't because of the timing of posts on here - it's possible he was enrolled in a J-term.  Alas, he may be in line for some decent minutes Saturday against Hamline if Bair is out.

I suspect he's pretty far down the depth chart for now. That could evolve over time, but we haven't exactly been afraid to play a smaller lineup, as we tend to lack overall size.
Bair has really played much bigger than he is, with his aggressive style. It's been fun to watch him this year.

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

it looked to me like Bair landed hard on the floor lower back first.  it was obvious from his actions while laying there that he was in a lot of pain. He seemed to have trouble getting up at first but finally rose under his own power and walked off the court, shrugging off any attempts to assist.  He looked fine after walking around in the corner outside the exit to the locker rooms. I think he stayed out of the rest of the game as a precaution, waiting word from a MD checkup today. No point playing him and risking injury in a game where the outcome is close to a foregone conclusion. I wouldn't be shocked to see him back Saturday, at least 10-15 minutes of PT.

Rader is a nice addition and the improved play in the paint by Hannah helps considerably too.

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

'Back in the fall, when I looked at UST's schedule, I thought the last 2-3 weeks of the schedule were going to be brutal. Now, I actually embrace it as a perfect schedule to prepare them for the post-season (and I'm not talking MIAC Playoffs, which still are important but serve more as a warm up to the NCAA). Consecutive Road games at challenging venues (Hamline, GAC and Olaf), a home game against a very explosive Augsburg team, then another daunting road game in C-ville) followed by a breather at SMU before embarking on the conference and then NCAA playoffs. Talk about a godsend schedule to prep you for the NCAAs! Especially if UST ends up in "the mother of all brackets" (with UST, NWU, Oshkosh, SJ2 & Augustana all within 500 miles of each other I can see Rock Island or St Paul hosting a Final Four caliber 2nd weekend). But now to focus on Hamline and the Hutton Hotbox and what should be a good test.

[Drake Palmer]

Man, take off for a week or so and all kinds of things happen – polar vortex, Cobbs beat the Dawgs on two crazy three pt shots, SMU beat Carleton etc.

Anyway, here are a few ramblings from last night's games:

Bet – SJU: I've thought all season long that Bethel was underachieving, and finally they looked like the team that was picked to second or third in the preseason coaches' poll. They beat the Jays both outside and inside with Derek Magnuson constantly burying his defender on the block, putting his shoulder into Walford, and spinning back to his left to hit the jump hook off the glass. Matt Ambriz was 6-6 from behind the arc, and Hudson Urbanus (who?) was a surprise contributor off the bench with 9 pts on triples. 

I never really thought SJU was 35 pts better than Bethel, which was the margin of victory up in C-Ville. However, Bethel also played that game without Magnuson, but still.

It seems teams are starting to figure out how to slow up the Jays is by clogging up the driving lanes to prevent the drive and dish, but with all that talent the Jays have, they still should be able to spread the floor and get nice cuts to the basket using their superior size and athleticism. I watched the Augsburg -SJU game a few weeks ago, and the Jays destroyed the Dawgs with their size.

Nice improvement with Bethel's student webcast announcers.  They called a smart, fairly objective game without the maniacal yelling and overt homerism from earlier this season. 

Augsburg- Carleton: Booker Coplin for MVP, POY.

STO- SMU.  The Oles must have really missed the leadership of Robert Tobroxen this year, and it's taking them until the first of February to learn how to play without him.  As it is, they barely escaped SMU in OT. The Oles don't seem to have to "it" factor this year, but who knows.

The Redbirds did a nice job of beating the Gusties last week.  If SMU's Coach Fano can continue strong recruiting efforts and retain his players, they could make some noise in another year or so.

Hamline – Gustavus: Tough luck for the Pipers, nice desperation win for the Gusties.

UST-Mac: I'm not at all surprised by the Tommies' overall basketball success, but I still have a difficult time understanding how the Tommies are winning this year.  Cumulatively, they're only an inch or two taller than the diminutive Augsburg Auggies, but UST is still third in the conference in rebounding, and typically hold their own against taller opponents.  Other than Connor Bair, there really isn't an inside scoring threat aside from (gulp) 6-3 forward Elijah Hannah, or the occasional post up from 6-2 guard Thomas Madison. So other teams pack the paint and dare the Tomcats to beat them from the outside. Then Coach Tauer and staff keeps shuttling a bunch of guards in and out until someone gets hot.  One defensive advantage to this style is that it keeps his players fresh and they can continue to apply some strong defensive pressure throughout the game. It will be interesting to see how far this team, or any team from the MIAC can go this year.

Man, if I'm the FY transfer from Oshkosh, do I really only want to play the last third of the season, 7-8 games, plus post season games?  Why not sit out, practice and return next year ready to kick some derriere? Or does he waste a year of eligibility, plus the added expense of tuition for a 5th year?   

Mose, don't sleep on the Redbirds.