MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[piperinsider]

Watch Where UST is located hardly qualifies as being "inner city."  Some of the most expensive, historic old homes & mansions are located within 4 square miles of the campus.  The surrounding areas around UST of Merriam Park, Mac-Groveland & Highland Park also has one of the highest median family income levels in the entire twin cities area, if not state.

My family's one income brings down the median. Take that Mac-Grove!

Can we close the book on the Pipers? 20 point losses back-to-back against Augsburg and Concordia.

In speaking with a recent graduate who played under Wohler Friday, I asked him what he thought was the problem over on Snelling. "The coach."

I'm sorry, but with nearly the entire lineup back from a team that made the semifinals last year, had two of the top freshman who are now a year older and wiser and a few additional freshman to contribute a few minutes a game, how are the Pipers 1-5 with the lone win coming against the stinking Oles?

What a shame.

In my best Shooter impression: Don't think losing assistant coach Dan Perrel isn't a big factor in the Pipers fall this year from a contender to a pretender.

[Willy Wonka]

PI - My sources tell me that the debacle against Augsburg had the parents riled up. The self-proclaimed best coach in the MIAC yanked his starters for the final 10+ minutes of the game and then sat leaning back with his legs crossed and hands behind his head as if he were bird watching at the park.

The parents pelted him with "Hey coach, there's a game going on!" and other less-kindly variations as he unabashedly threw in the towel for the game/season. Perhaps PI is right and the Pipers really do miss Loco.

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Meanwhile, down in Winona, the Gusties are going through their own growing pains. GAC has, perhaps, the best depth in the league 3-5, but the guards are struggling. SMU's 2-2-1 3/4 court press with the posts playing up top caused more trouble than it should have.

FY Van Sickle has finished the past few games for the Gusties and I expect him to be playing 30ish minutes a game by the end of the year, even if he doesn't start. Hanson needs more production from the 1-2 spots if the team is to be any threat to the title contenders. The Cards also looked to post up the smaller guards on their flex cuts, getting a handful of easy buckets this way in playing their best game of the season, according to Trewick afterwards.

Doble was nasty and Wittwer did everything. I'm extremely curious as to how Wittwer only managed one shot against Bethany Lutheran, as he got just about any look he wanted against the Cards.

********************

I'll hit the recruiting and "best of" talk later. Off to watch more football now.

[Dawg-Dude]

Sum - On the flip side, I'm wondering if fatigue might be setting in already with Augsburg's Jon Cassens or an injury?  I commented earlier in the season how Coach Griess seemed to be playing the FY a lot of heavy minutes & he was averaging close to 38 minutes a game.  In yesterday's contest I noticed he only played 29 minutes & the other FY wunderkind, Zach Krumwiede played even fewer minutes.  Also, Krumwiede's effectiveness seems to have been diminishing in the last 2-3 games.  These might be possible reasons for concerns or areas to watch as the season continues to unfold. 

Don't read too much into the Mac game. The Dawgs played terrible defense and turned the ball over way too much, period. No help side defense to help the young point guard contain Abe. No team in the MIAC is going to win many games giving up 90 points. Cassens was in foul trouble much of the game. This limited his ability to defend the quick Abe and Abe took advantage of the poor D and a defender in foul trouble. Kudo to Abe, that's smart BB.

As you mention, it's tough to win on Mac's home court.

Coach Griess is an up and coming presence in the MIAC but has to deal with a young teams ups and downs.

[Drake Palmer]

Lack of depth at the guard spot hurts the Dawgs though.  Where was Koslowski yesterday?  And I believe yesterday was the first time in awhile soph D-2 transfer David Olson got any clock.  Earlier in the year, some (ahem  ) poster was predicting that he would be starting for the Dawgs this year.

[Gregory Sager]

-Search for more Dakota prospects

Problem is, there's already an eight-school NAIA-2 league in the Dakotas, the Dakota Athletic Conference. Plus, there's three more South Dakota schools in the Great Plains Athletic Conference, another NAIA-2 league. I'm sure that Concordia has discovered long ago that it's hard to fight recruiting wars against schools that can offer scholies -- and since the Dakotas are sparsely populated, I can't imagine that there's tons of good high school basketball players to go around for everyone.

[Nites]

-Search for more Dakota prospects

Problem is, there's already an eight-school NAIA-2 league in the Dakotas, the Dakota Athletic Conference. Plus, there's three more South Dakota schools in the Great Plains Athletic Conference, another NAIA-2 league. I'm sure that Concordia has discovered long ago that it's hard to fight recruiting wars against schools that can offer scholies -- and since the Dakotas are sparsely populated, I can't imagine that there's tons of good high school basketball players to go around for everyone.

True, but on a relative scale, Concordia has a location advantage for those student athletes looking for the "big" city opportunities.  Fargo-Moorhead is the region's "big" city, and that' the way it is viewed by those living in the surrounding towns and cities.  Consdier the location of the schools in the Dakota Athletic Conference: Spearfish, Madison, Mayville, Minot, Jamestown, Valley City, Dickinson and Rapid City (bigger than the others).  There typically are some pretty good D-III prospects in the area bounded by Grand Forks to the north, Wahpeton to the south, Jamestown to the west and St. Cloud to the east.

[abominable_snowman]

-Search for more Dakota prospects

Problem is, there's already an eight-school NAIA-2 league in the Dakotas, the Dakota Athletic Conference. Plus, there's three more South Dakota schools in the Great Plains Athletic Conference, another NAIA-2 league. I'm sure that Concordia has discovered long ago that it's hard to fight recruiting wars against schools that can offer scholies -- and since the Dakotas are sparsely populated, I can't imagine that there's tons of good high school basketball players to go around for everyone.

Has anyone tapped the Canada market yet???

***********************************
On the topic of ABE.

I'm very happy that he has found a place at MAC.  In my UST experience, it is incredible to watch him school guys everyday.  He is amazingly quick.   And I've yet to see him ever get winded.  He has a floater that has an incredible ability to defy shot-blockers.  And he throws bullet passes after snarling up the paint.

Please heed DP's warning.  WATCH OUT if you are one of the victims walking to into MAC's gauntlet of home games.

[Nites]

***********************************
On the topic of ABE.

I'm very happy that he has found a place at MAC.  In my UST experience, it is incredible to watch him school guys everyday.  He is amazingly quick.   And I've yet to see him ever get winded.  He has a floater that has an incredible ability to defy shot-blockers.  And he throws bullet passes after snarling up the paint.

Please heed DP's warning.  WATCH OUT if you are one of the victims walking to into MAC's gauntlet of home games.

I realize that perhaps there may be a mismatch of styles, but would UST be even better than they are if they had Abe running the point?  From what folks have said, Dwyer is doing a decent job, but he isn't Sweeney and he doesn't appear to be much of a scoring threat.

Interesting stat from the UST-Bethel game.  UST scores 91 and gets 4 only points from the bench, and Bethel scores 86 and gets only 8 points from the bench (all by Vavra).  Starters score 165 of the 177 total points.

[sumander]

CORD score 84 pts despite 24 TO and 13 HAM steals! A 43 -22 rebounding edge helps!

Question of the day......Are the Johnnies ready to go into Abe's house and do battle? As I said earlier, this will be a telling stretch of games for the J's. Can the take care of business on the road and still have enough left in the tank when they host the Tommies on the 17th

[columbianmaffia]

remember GOOOOOOOGS...he was so neato with his barbwire tattoo...i just want to say one more thing.....GREAT GOOGLI-OOGLI-OOGLI BABY!!!


GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOGS

[Drake Palmer]

My man Cmob, that was so totally random!   

CORD score 84 pts despite 24 TO and 13 HAM steals! A 43 -22 rebounding edge helps!

Question of the day......Are the Johnnies ready to go into Abe's house and do battle? As I said earlier, this will be a telling stretch of games for the J's. Can the take care of business on the road and still have enough left in the tank when they host the Tommies on the 17th

If the Johnnies aren't sweating it, sounds like a certain poster might be.    
I've been wrong before, & I'll be wrong again, but I would think the Johnnies depth at the guard spot would help them out.  If Lieser decides to play D he's solid.  When the Dawgs played MAC on Saturday, Cassens was in foul trouble & for whatever reason, Justin Koslowski, the other guard who comes it at the 2G didn't play.  He's a short -- 5-6, muscular, reasonably quick guard who could have got up in Abe's grill a bit.  I'd look out for Conboy & Liddell.  Conboy's been a bit struggling lately & he's due to bust a few noggins on his way to the hoop. 
 

[sumander]

Drake, Once again your assessment is correct. I am sweating the stretch of MAC, AUG and HAM all on the road. I think the J's have enough fouls to give on the inside to harass Conboy. He is going to get his points, but I don't think he is going to be a one man wrecking crew! Lieser and Johnson have the speed to stay with Abe. How much will it take out of Lieser on the offensive end?

The worst part about it is, with the 5:45 start I won't even be able to listen to it! I have a board meeting from 5:30 - 8:00!

[Drake Palmer]

Nites - Nice stat you pulled out on the BET-UST game regarding the bench scoring.  I hadn't noticed that before.  I would say that the minutes from both benches' players were solid defensive efforts, if not on the offensive end of things.  For awhile Bethel was looking like its football counterpart & had some serious heft on the court.  Peter Rolando, Jeff Reck, Andy Cook & their baby faced ring leader Mike Moberg, were doing their best impersonation of the Bruise Brothers. 

In all seriousness, I thought Bethel showed some defensive mettle that one doesn't typically associate with the Royal hoopsters.  I tip my hat to them.  But for a shot here or there, the Tommie game was theirs, as was the game against Gustavus.  If so, they would be sitting at 3-2 rather than 1-4.  (Sorry for bringing the Gustie game up & the Jordan- like call for Wittwer - Bethel 34). 

*** (I liked whoever started using the asterisk divider - Willy was that you?)***

Maybe Dan Perrel's coaching abilities does have something to do with the Royals defensive play, & or the lack of success the Pipes seem to be having this season.  PI -- I don't know if I would be so quick to throw the baby out with the bathwater.  Unless, Wohler really did throw in the towel on the Augsburg game, the season is still relatively young.  You know as well as I do, sometimes coaches will go to extreme measures to get the attention of their teams when things start to go south.

I did some stat checking myself & discovered that in 2 of the past 5 seasons, the 6th & final conference playoff team had a losing record.  In '02 Carleton slipped in at 9-11, & in '04 UST had the same 9-11 record.  Otherwise, in the other 3 years the 6th place team had a conference record of 10-10.

In order to reach the .500 plateau, the Pipes who are currently sitting at 1-5 would need to go 9-5 over the next 14 games to finish up at 10-10.   But looking ahead at Hamline's schedule, if they're going to make a push -- they'll need to start tonight.  Their next four games look like this:

CARL
@ GAC
SJU
@ LION's Den (MAC)

If there wasn't so much extra drama tonight - the Dawgs vs. Toms, Js vs. Scots, Buckeyes vs. Gators, I would consider ambling over to Hutton arena to see what type of implosion or explosion might take place.  Can the Pipes get the trifecta & get blown out in 3 straight games or do they right the ship?  Someone should start a poll at the top of the page. 

Speaking of streaks of 3 -- the Scots have scored 90 points in 2 consecutive games, do I hear 3? 

[concordia of the north]

*Work with admissions & develop an ad campaign selling the idea of a vibrant, safe metro area of more than 160k population.

Or if you want to appeal to a different demographic, elaborate on the wild game and waterfowl hunting opportunities.

****Sum...if what you say is true, then the source of the weak recruiting has been discovered.  In a place as remote as CORD, the players will not fall in your lap.  If were in charge of recruiting, I would be on the heels of Mr. Horan.

Once again, hearsay, but that is how they landed Mr. Eckhoff

Actually, Keith Eckhoff chose Concordia because he was excited about the opportunity to play with Mark Dixon.  He then latched on to Dixon and hung on tight for four years.  Ask him.

As for Palmer's quote a few pages back:

"Article in this mornings Fool-Em on CORDS coach  Duane Siverson's   lack of success transitioning from the women's side to the men's side.

Siverson said he has probably gone head-to-head for a recruit with St. Thomas, St. John's, Gustavus and Carleton more than 100 times in his 15 years with the men and pulled in only one commitment."

That sounds wild to me.  While I was there he took Luke Linz from St. John's, Eckhoff from everyone, Dixon from St. Thomas, and maybe more.  Granted we did lose a lot, but so does everyone.

I would say he generally gets enough talent to win.  His pitches are actually quite interesting.  They relate to the relatively large size of the Fargo-Moorhead area and the potential for media attention in that community.  It's better than playing basketball in northfield or winona is basically his claim.

[Drake Palmer]

*Work with admissions & develop an ad campaign selling the idea of a vibrant, safe metro area of more than 160k population.

Or if you want to appeal to a different demographic, elaborate on the wild game and waterfowl hunting opportunities.

****Sum...if what you say is true, then the source of the weak recruiting has been discovered.  In a place as remote as CORD, the players will not fall in your lap.  If were in charge of recruiting, I would be on the heels of Mr. Horan.

Once again, hearsay, but that is how they landed Mr. Eckhoff

Actually, Keith Eckhoff chose Concordia because he was excited about the opportunity to play with Mark Dixon.  He then latched on to Dixon and hung on tight for four years.  Ask him.

As for Palmer's quote a few pages back:

"Article in this mornings Fool-Em on CORDS coach  Duane Siverson's   lack of success transitioning from the women's side to the men's side....

E-Z there big fella -  I never started this thread. I may have helped extend the conversation but it was Sumander who posted the article from the Forum, not I. 

And, if you talk to this Dixon character, ask him why he chose the bright lights of F-M & not stay close to home & attend Bethel, UST etc.?