MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[piperinsider]

From Shooter's column:

Where are they now files:

U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman's press secretary, Luke Friedrich, who was a basketball guard at Macalester College, turned 26 Saturday and is honeymooning in Mexico with his wife, Megan Johnson.

[funbballer]

....and you got this from whose column??!!!!  (you really should identify your source)

[Drake Palmer]

And as the news slowly starts to trickle in...  I spotted the following post on the Top 25 message board.  I'm not 100% sure if this is the 06-07 pre-season poll or last season's poll.  Does anyone pick up Street & Smith who can verify this ranking? 

One of the reasons I question the ranking is that UST seem to be ranked awfully high - 5th, especially when you consider how much they lost - Joey Shimek, Alex Weaver & IMO the heart of the team, Sean Sweeney.   (Willy - if you're reading I left the gate open so you can come in and stir up some trouble like  - "what, I thought Keating was the messiah?!?," or other such smack -    )

Street & Smith's Top 10 is...

1. Wooster
2. Mississippi College
3. Virginia Wesleyan
4. Baldwin-Wallace
5. St. Thomas
6. Amherst
7. Maryville (TN)
8. UW-Whitewater
9. William Paterson
10. Wittenberg

Their All-America team is:

1st
Brandon Adair, Virginia Wesleyan
James Cooper, Wooster
Tori Davis, Baldwin-Wallace
Isaac Rosefelt, St. Thomas
Tyler Winford, Mississippi College

2nd
Ton Ton Balenga, Virginia Wesleyan
Jon Krull, UW-Stevens Point
Luis Martinez, William Paterson
Tom Port, Wooster
Joe Werner, UW-LaCrosse

"Possible Breakthroughs" are:

Albright, Augustana, Bates, Bridgewater State, Calvin, Carroll, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Cortland, Hamilton, Hope, Howard Payne, John Carroll, Lincoln, Mass-Boston, Mass-Dartmouth, New Jersey City, New York U., North Central, Ohio Northern, Plattsburgh State, Randolph-Macon, Roanoke, Rochester, Rutgers-Newark, Scranton, St. John Fisher, St. John's (Our St. Johns?), SUNY Potsdam, Tufts, Utica, Williams, UW-Oshkosh, UW-Stevens Point, UW-Stout, Worcester Poly, York

The Johnnies could be very dangerous this year.

[Drake Palmer]

Jeez - this is bad, two posts in a row, although they are separated by a day  ...


Sniff, sniff, sniff – with the dropping temps & falling leaves, that can only mean one thing (or countless other things if you don't follow this board) - hoops is around the corner!

I did a quick scan of the high school Preps board & uncovered these latest "unofficial" FY player spottings:

Player                                              HS/Home                      College

Kyle Luebeck  6-5/6-6 forward              Braham                          STO
Mark Torell     6-4 wing                          Armstrong                     STO
Joe Weber     5-10 PG                           Armstrong                      STO

Max Holmgren 6-5 wing                        New Life Academy          Bethel

One certainly can't say that the Oles don't get their share of talent on campus. Mark Torell should be a real nice addition for the Oles.  He was the leading three point shooter, & I believe one of the top scorers & rebounders on his Armstrong team last year.  Plus, a couple of the fathers of these players could also lend a coaching hand to the Ole staff – incoming FY Joe Weber's father, & junior PG Steve Banick's dad.

Up at Bethel, Max Holmgren could be a very good player.  He's an athletic, lanky, skinny-strong kid, with excellent hops, handles, good J & D.  Based on who the Royals don't have coming back this year – Matt Fredrickson, I could see Holmgren possibly starting by the time conference season rolls around.  I won't quite go out the limb until I see all the rosters & teams play, but based on potential, I would say he would have a pretty strong chance of making the MIAC All FY team.  He's another kid whose father was a basketball coach, & if memory serves me right, was a QB for the Royals back in the late 70s.

[sumander]

Drake, Keep posting! I'm reading them. Just nothing new to report from the hinterlands!

I am planning on taking in the SJU's midnight madness this weekend.

[columbianmaffia]

What kind of jeans do ghosts wear??  give up?? BOO jeans!! 

this is quoted out of charley walters column.

"a little birdy told me that columbianmaffia is closing in on milestone post 519.  to celebrate this post he plans on attempting to eat 93468 candy corns in an hour if posted by halloween or if its posted by thanksgiving then he plans on trying to roller skate with a turkey on his head while trying to carve the Santa Maria boat out of an 8x8 piece of wood or the Pinto ship out of a 6x6 piece of wood in honor of thanksgiving"

closing in on 519

[Gregory Sager]

Ah yes, the Pinto. Of the three ships that sailed the ocean blue with Christopher Columbus in 1492, that was the one that would blow up if you rammed it from behind.

[Nites]

The son of Carleton women's coach is apparently going D-I:

Northern Arizona gets guard
Zach Filzen, a 6-3 senior guard for Northfield's boys' basketball team, has verbally committed to Northern Arizona.

[BVHawk]

Go for the candy corn!

[funbballer]

What kind of jeans do ghosts wear??  give up?? BOO jeans!! 

this is quoted out of charley walters column.

"a little birdy told me that columbianmaffia is closing in on milestone post 519.  to celebrate this post he plans on attempting to eat 93468 candy corns in an hour if posted by halloween or if its posted by thanksgiving then he plans on trying to roller skate with a turkey on his head while trying to carve the Santa Maria boat out of an 8x8 piece of wood or the Pinto ship out of a 6x6 piece of wood in honor of thanksgiving"

closing in on 519

Cmob...for post 519, I think you should strap on your skates, head south on 35W and stop at every joint and snarf down a triple burger, with a beer chaser!

Go for it....you deserve the beef!...I mean the best!

[Drake Palmer]

I'm reprising the role of Local – until or if he returns to the boards this season. More grist for the mill:

It's definitely getting closer to hoops season.  3 of the MIAC schools have their pre-season rosters posted - the Dawgs, Pipes & Oles.  In addition, earlier this week Bethel officially confirmed on their website the hiring of Dan Perrel as coach.  It's interesting to note both Hamline & Bethel in their press releases indicated that Perrel was hired as an "Associate Head Basketball Coach."  This may be how his position/s were viewed internally, but from an outsiders' perspective I always got the sense that it was Coach Wohler's teams over at Hamline.  Maybe it will be different for Perrel at Bethel.

The Oles' roster confirms what I had posted the other day about the incoming FY players they were expecting to come out for the team.

The Pipes just seem to keep on recruiting & picked up 7 freshmen, bringing their roster head count to 19 players!  Who's responsible for clock management this year?  They got a few more players from Marshall, MN, previous coaching post of Barry Wohler & home of PG Sam Weiner.  I'm not familiar with any of the out state players, but they certainly acquired quantity if not quality in a couple of the metro based "biggs" they landed.  6-10 Erik Gusaas from Bloomington, by way of Richfield via open enrollment could be a solid player a few years down the road. Another post player they picked up is 6-6 Chris Gonsior from Centennial.  IMO, he is the most likely FY player to come in & pick up some of those minutes to fill Charley Goode's shoes.  Hamline also listed their new assistant coaches, Brady Larson & Jamie Rusthoven.

At Riverside, the Dawgs may not have landed as many new players as the Pipes, but it appears the ones they got are pretty solid, though still a bit undersized.  Some of the "known" prize recruits include FY SG 6-1 Jon Cassens from Prior Lake, 6-3 or 6-4 wing Zach Krumwiede – Martin County West;

Soph D2 transfer from Moorhead state David Olson – Chisago Lakes HS, & Jr transfer from Fergus Falls CC, 6-5 forward, Femi Solaja from St. Paul Harding HS.

If Coach Griess can get his recruiting class to gel with his returnees they might be able to turn some heads this year.  I've heard nothing but good things about Krumwiede's game, Cassens is real nice, & according to Local, David Olson is a legit 3-pt shooting threat.  And if Femi Solaja has continued to improve his game which it seems he did at Fergus, he'll be a serious load in the paint.

[piperinsider]

The only player not back from last year's Piper roster is David Johnson from New London-Spicer.

[localcoach]

Hello to all.  The job has been quite busy lately, hence the absence of posts. 

Great update Drake    I can add that Hamline freshman Erik Gusaas has the chance to surprise a lot of people this season.  I'm told that he has looked great in open gyms this fall.  The Oles added nothing of signifigance in my opinion.  Augsburg on the other hand should be vastly improved.  I think we could see Solaja, Olson, and Cassens all starting for the Dawgs early in the season. 

PI - Apparently David Johnson wanted to get closer to home.  That's why he left, although I've heard he's now attending a community college near NLS. 

[miacwatchmen]

Seems like the MIAC is shaping up to be a conference full of contenders this year..... I haven't heard much from the Moorhead area this fall. Anyone have Cobber updates? Linz and Company should be decent this year barring injuries.

[finsleft]

So, is it too early to jump on the bandwagon this year, or should I wait until we win a game?