MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Willy Wonka]

GAC game about to start. Jay Stein is starting at the 5 with Philly moved to the 4. Hollerich is questionable with an injury still, game-time decision it sounds like.

[Russian Mig AK47]

There is no excuse for the way Fritz distributed (or didn't distribute) the playing time against Stout.  There is too much talent on the bench to only play 6 guys.  I have to believe in the first game of the season, with the exception of Sweeney, any of those guys were in good enough condition to play 40+ minutes.  Not to mention the point of these preseason tournaments is to explore what your bench players can offer in real game scenarios.  Danny Peterson is way too good of a player to only play the OT after Shimek fouls out.  He also rebounds the ball well, and as you saw in the box score Schnettler had 0 boards while the guy he was guarding had 10.  Since the only thing Fritz now contributes to the team is an authority figure during practice and controls playing time during the game, he needs to either pass the reins to Tauer or get his act together and start using his depth.

[Willy Wonka]

It's quite clear the Tommies are already missing their All-American boxer-outer Neal Anderson 

Gusties up 12-6 already. 9 guys have played already in my unofficial count. Hanson is clearly doing what Mig wants Fritz to do.

[Willy Wonka]

TeBrake has 17 points with a few minutes left in the first half. He hasn't missed a shot yet. Gusties up 34-27. The crowd sounds like it's in midseason form.

For all those that are bashing GAC for scheduling Bethany...they beat St. Mary's 80-74 last night.

[Willy Wonka]

GAC up 48-35 at the half. AT hit a long 3 at the first half buzzer to give him an even 20 at the break. He just got made fun of on the air for not getting a single rebound in 19 minutes The defense sounded fairly poor, though.

[kel_varnsen]

Gusties win 88-65. Both teams seemed to have the offense better prepared than the defense at this stage in the season. Although the lousy Luther defense may be partially to credit for this, the Gusties certainly demonstrated their balanced style of scoring.

[miacwatchmen]

Johnnies win 78-67 over UW River Falls...... An impressive second half for the Johnnies.  They looked good and UWRF's big post got in huge foul trouble and was forced to sit out for most of the game. Henrichs sat for the last 10 minutes of the game which i was amazed at. Overall a quality win for the Johnnies.

[David Collinge]

As expected, St. Thomas easily beat Kalamazoo; the score was something like 70-47.  It frankly wasn't a terribly interesting game, as K'zoo was really no match for the Tommies (or for Wooster last night.)  At least UST used some of their players tonight; 9 of them had seen action by halftime. 

Good luck to the Tommies the rest of the season; we'll see you again in your semi-annual visit to Wooster in 2007! 

edit:  Oops, I mean bi-annual (once every two years), not semi-annual (twice a year).  St. Thomas is now 4-2 on Wooster's court in the 2000s, having won the 2001 Van Wie Classic to go with third-place trips in 2003 and 2005. 

[Gregory Sager]

Not to mention the point of these preseason tournaments is to explore what your bench players can offer in real game scenarios.

Uh, Mig, this wasn't a "preseason tournament". It was a regular-season tournament, or as you put it, a "real game".

In other words, it counts as a loss against St. Thomas's record. Worse, it counts as an in-region loss, since UW-Stout is also a West Region team. The loss could prove to be very, very huge at the end of the season if Gustavus Adolphus (or somebody else) wins the MIAC's automatic bid to the NCAAs, leaving the Tommies hoping for a Pool C bid on Selection Monday.

[Russian Mig AK47]

My bad, poor word choice.  I meant to say pre-conference season, since that is what teams play for -- conference play.  The national seen will take care of itself.

[Willy Wonka]

Pipes - You want to play grammar Nazi here or should I?

If the Gusties get beat down at BV on Tuesday, it will have been a pretty poor non-conference performance by the MIAC thus far.

Rumor says the Oles had their annual alumni game this weekend and it was an ugly affair. Somehow they must have outscored Luddy, because they pulled away to win at the end. If they lose to Luther on Tuesday, they could be battling for an infamous winless season.

[Russian Mig AK47]

Scene* cut me some slack I got a 104 degree fever going

[funbballer]

Wonka...the boy is sick, send him some goodies from the candy shop!

...and you say if STO loses to Luther? Hey, Koz is still coaching, so book it!

Besides GAC beating a subpar Luther team & UST whoopin' up on Kalamazoo, the Johnnies came through nicely and beat UWRF after being down by 5 at half.

I haven't looked at any national or regional pre-season rankings, is BV rated fairly high? Didn't they beat GAC last year?

I see HU lost by 16 to NDSU; the halftime score was 39-35......Jon DeRock led Hamline with 14 points, Joe Smock had 13 points, Chris Babcock 12 and Kory Kelzer had 11. Like I said WW....HU will be better than "some people think!!" 

[megalomaniac]

FBB
Buena Vista lost their starting 5 and sixth man to graduation. Even with that, they still received 26 votes for the preseason Top 25. Ridiculous. Another reason why those rankings mean absolutely nothing. I know BV is a good program, with 6 straight 20 win seasons, but no one coming back averaged more than 3 PPG last year. The Beavers got hammered by UW La Crosse on Friday night, losing by 23. UWL will be a top 4 team in the WIAC, however. Still, it goes to show how little those rankings mean. Gustavus should really take it to them on Tuesday.

[megalomaniac]

P.S. Eau Claire, considered to be the worst team in the WIAC this year, beat Buena Vista by 6 last night.