MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[columbianmaffia]

Also, I think I left my Sports Illustrated at Taco Bell in NFLD. It's not the 30 million dollar swimsuit issue, but I'd still appreciate if the Mafia could locate it and burn it, ensuring I don't get any hatemail sent to me over the coming weeks. My cover may be blown, but I don't need my address circulated around the hood, if you know what I'm saying 

haha...nice 

the people at taco bell prolly already chopped it up into fine pieces and used it as salad in the tacos

[Johnnie Red]

I hope we have a great turnout tomorrow for the Stiftungsfestivities tailgate party in the parking lot at St. Thomas starting at 4:30 p.m. Sounds like the weather should be alright.

Bring along a culinary delight to share and the beverage of your choice. If someone has a boom box they could bring for the music, that would be great. I'm looking forward to meeting some of the basketball posters on this board.

[onearmedscot]

To echo Johnnie Red's sentiments, please check out the MIAC Championship Cookout webpage with updated logos of the championship contenders.   Please drop an RSVP from the site so we can guage how many will be coming.

Carleton fans please bring buns, cookies and chips.

St. Thomas fans please bring cheese, ketchup and pickles

oAs.

[shocker]

It was good to be re-inserted into MIAC playoff action last night after a season which has seen me at far to few games. This one lived up to my expectations and delivered, for the most part, a well-fought, entertaining game. Some thoughts:

Wow, Forkrud, wow. He did my Gusties in something special. There's no doubt this is his team, and that leaves them in good hands. I only hope he can repeat his dismantling of the two-headed terror that is Shimek/Rosefelt. I'd even get to see it in person this time 

The wheels definitely came off Carleton in the 2nd half, but GAC just couldn't capitalize. Like Willy said, they had the open looks. Sowden had scored 6 quick (on 3 very tough moves) to get them back within 4, and despite the fact they had good looks elsewhere, I still think it was a shame not to get the ball back to him.

The Gustie offense was less than stellar in the 1st half, and that may be generous. Movement was minimal, spacing was terrible, and no one looked to want to be the go-to option. I realize that making the offense a one-man show is counter-Gustie all the way, but at least someone needed to assert himself a little.

Finally, as always, congratulations to the Gustie seniors on a pretty great 4 year run. 3 NCAA tourney appearances, 3 MIAC playoff titles, 2 regular season MIAC titles, and a career overall record of 91-24 (if I can do my additions right

All 3 of the seniors played minutes as freshmen on JV with the likes of Big Shocker and me, so to see them excel to such an extent was pretty cool. Congrats especially to John Whippler, who although didn't get as many starts as TeBrake and Hollerich, was a great leader and a true class-act.

Go Knights...the rest of the way

[columbianmaffia]

OAS

on your rsvp list who is 2 cars of carls??

[miacwatchmen]

Could some of the tommie posters tell me something. Has Keating put up back to back impressive games this year . I know he played average against SJU the first time and it seemed like he couldn't miss the second game. The first time around against CAR he had 21 points on 9-12 shooting. The second game he had 11 points on 5-12 shooting. Which Keating or more importantly which Tommie team will show up on Saturday. I assume that all players will bring it because the game is so huge.

[columbianmaffia]

if i buy a pet goose today can i bring him to the cookout?

[piperinsider]

"Some beers, some burgers, a few laughs, are (beeping) troubles are over man"

I'm so pumped for tomorrow. Hope we have a good turnout and I hope OAS was already on the phone with UST security.

Second-half scoring 50-16. Wow. I'm glad I went home and watched Sasha Cohen choke at halftime. It was a nice run.

[piperinsider]

I forgot. What does the Piper fan (not plural) bring? Or will there be two Piper fans Loco?

I'll bring some red cups and hopefully a Weber grill. Gotta check with my pops, but if somebody has a truck, we can probably use it. The rents' live like a mile away from the lot. But we wouldn't need it if Pat Russell pulls up like he did three years ago with a gas grill in the back.

I'll call you tomorrow OAS.

[Drake Palmer]

Random ramblings - VERY LONG POST

(Trying to reclaim the longest post award from Greg Sager - don't read OAS)

After a bout of "paralysis by analysis" - hmm let's see ...CARL vs. GAC, HAM vs. UST, CARL vs. GAC, HAM vs. UST, I decided to stay in town & watch the Tommies.  My reasoning was that I'd seen the Carleton play just the week before & I hadn't seen UST play in close to a month.  Plus, I'd have a better idea of what to expect, if as predicted, both teams ended up in the championship game.

Well, after watching the blowout last night, I still don't know what to expect in Saturday's game.   In the UST press release they tried to cut the Pipes some slack & said they looked road weary after playing 3 road games in 6 days.  I think there may be some truth to that angle, but I think the tipping point was the first 5-10 minutes of the game.  As has been previously mentioned by me & other posters, Hamline needed to put together two strong halves in order to pull off the upset of the season.  I'm sure the Hamline coaching staff & players were quite aware of their own tendencies to come out passive in the opening minutes of their games.  So they might have over compensated in an attempt to make sure they were aggressive from the "git-go".  Weel, within the opening 5 minutes I believe they picked up 6 team fouls & by the 7-8 minute mark, Wiener had picked up his 3rd foul.  After that happened, you could just see some of the air go out of the Pipes defensive efforts, & DeRock & crew had to work way too hard on both ends of the floor.

I don't blame them, but it was obvious Hamline had made a conscious decision to not let Rosefelt beat them, as he had torched them for 28 & 31 points in their two previous meetings.  As a result the Pipes were doubling down on Ike, looking out of the corner of their eye at Schnettler to leave ahem – Mike Keating wide open.  Call me biased Willy, but I'm sure other objective observers would agree - Keating was absolutely huge for the Tommies in the first half & opening moments of the 2nd half.  He was 3-5 from the field & shot 3-3 from behind the arc in the 1st half for 11 points. Overall, he was 6-10 from the field, 4-5 from deep, & was the 2nd leading scorer in the game with 18 points. 

Schnettler was the leading scorer in the game with 29 points & was an unconscious 10-13 from the floor, 4-7 from downtown, & 5-5 from the FT line!  For a guard, or anyone, that's out of sight shooting.  An aside, I think both he & TeBrake from GAC are the best in the league at using their off hand to shoot layups or short jumpers in the lane.  Schnettler hit a couple of them last night.

Otherwise, the thing I liked best about the Tommies approach to the game last night was that they didn't try to force the offense (Ike) down the Pipers throat, successfully made some adjustments & beat the Pipes with other weapons.  Ike still ended up with a double-double & had 15 points & 10 boards.

Defensively the Tommies "appeared" to be in synch & the Pipes seemed to be out of synch & playing on rubbery legs.  Again, hard to tell in a blowout.  Sweeney better make the All defensive team, he did an excellent job on DeRock.  Although I missed the Twizzle/Wubbs & Zorro match-up, I think I did get a taste of what we might expect to see on Saturday.  During a 4-5 minute span, Alex "Price Waterhouse" Weaver got called for a bogus goal tending call, a serious block, several steals & a couple of nasty one handed boards.

Lowlight – I think Lewis Garrison, (?) one of the refs is vying to become the next Official Sensation with his tightly tailored referee's shirt & offensive calls & non-calls.  I believe he was the official who made the goal tending call on Weaver & missed a couple of traveling & charge calls.

Other highlights -- in the 2nd half Hamline's Charlie Goode got a steal & goes coast to coast for a two handed dunk with some Tommie defender draped over his shoulders (No call).  As Mose correctly pointed out, the fracas at the end of the game was really a non-issue, although I do think he was bit harsh calling Hamline's #22 – Jesse Hendricks a "punk" – he's a good kid.  Lonnie Robinson was doing a "lil" wolfing at Hendricks after his feed to Worrell for the fast break dunk.  And as a senior or any player, who wants to get dunked on in the closing moments of your last game of the season or career?  To rub salt in the wound, Lonnie was talking smack in the closing seconds of a blowout no less.  If I was playing I might have taken offense too.  Like Rex Kwon Do from "Napoleon Dynamite" might say if he played basketball – "dunk the ball, walk away." 

Nice run Pipers!  You had a great season & things look very promising for next year.

[Willy Wonka]

Rumor has it Ike was pumping classic Puff Daddy - prename change - in the background of a recent presentation at school. I'm not really sure how I feel about that, but I think I like it.

Anyone want to guess at which song he chose? I'm leaning towards the Led Zep stealing Godzilla song

[columbianmaffia]

this board is weak sauce today...its the day before we all go to or get on the SHIP and there isnt much talk


gooooooooooooooooosssssseeeee
neck

UST STUDENT SECTION = WEAK SAUCE

i wonder if they learned any new chants or cheers...prolly not...a monkey can cheer for a cherry pick slam dunk

i wonder if anyone from CAR student section ever found Gus Davis last night

[onearmedscot]

Mafia--

I got a RSVP saying "2 cars of carls" so I assume that's about 8 people...unless they're rolling in Escalades which would make for about 16-20 peeps.

oAs.

[piperinsider]

Don't push us cause we're close to the edge. We're trying not to lose our heads....PHD: player hating degree...Mase can you stop smoking lala...can't nobody hold me down, oh no, I got to keep on moving.

or

It's all about the Benjamins baby. Now, what you want to do, be ballers, shock-callers, brawlers.

I'll be cruising back to the cities with No Way Out on tonight!

C-Maf-
You'll get some talk from me tomorrow at the lot. But to hold you down until then. UST 69 CAR 56. Phone it in. The MIAC gets two in.

CAR to win:
20 from Johnson, 18 from Fork, 16 from Jake, 14 from Drake. Just need 2 from the rest.

UST to win:
Repeat Thursday's performance.

[columbianmaffia]

Mase can you stop smoking lala...

...Puff why try Imma thug Imma die high i be out in jersey puffin hershey...i dont remember the rest but i thought i would add that line

pipes can you specify what kind of talk because if its going to be an emotional sappy thing where you pretend that we are distantly related i must begin to mentally prepare

OaS
word on the street is that there are 2 busses comin up from CAR...ill make some calls and see what the deal is

UST STUDENT SECTION = WEAK SAUCE
i wonder if they will ever do anything creative