MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[pacific rim]

In reference to Drake palmer's recognizing hamline's trend of improvement in 3 pt shot selection: i think he's alluding to an important truth, which is that these early season games are relatively vague indicators of where the teams will end up.

concordia has improved with every game, though the record doesn't necessarily reflect that.  scoring 80 pts on gustavus' court after opening the season with an abysmal 53 in iowa is taking more than a baby step forward.  i look for other teams to experience this same or similar development.

basically, teams are working hard in these early games to construct their emerging identities.  the teams that finish this process the quickest are the teams that end up on top of the piles.

[Willy Wonka]

pac rim - By referring to "teams" you mean Gustavus and St. Thomas, right?

[pacific rim]

that depends on which use of the word "teams" you are referring to in my message.

[pacific rim]

we all seem to enjoy interesting stats:
through four games Eckhoff is averaging 8.5 fta/game

[sju4life]

well......this monday night schedule doesnt feature much of a showing.  I would assume SJU carleton is going to be the game of the night.  I am first curious as to if anyone is coming to the game?  Second...if SJU can beat carleton on monday night, that leads them to bethel on wednesday (which should be a win) thats put them at 3-1 in the conference and then who knows from there.  At some point Tyler Westman is coming back and i would assume it will be before the conference starts up again so SJU could be in great shape come early january.  With a little luck they could or maybe should have been or be 4-0 come early january and maybe people could start to wonder if they have enough to win the conference or at least finish second above the what people predict is the gusties spot!!!  ONLY TIME WILL TELL FELLAS

[pacific rim]

that post runs more thickly with conjectures, projected scenarios, and altered histories than anything i have ever read.

to look at things in an alternate manner...

imagine st. john's going down and losing to carleton, then travelling to bethel who hits a hot shooting night and takes them out on a home court they defend well.  well that puts them at 1-3 hoping desperately for westman to return in time for the next miac action.  It may take him a couple games to reacclimate to the pace of varsity basketball so they drop their next game at st. thomas (no easy place to play). this really gets their spirits down and prepares them poorly for the longest road trip of the year down to a feisty st. mary's squad.  they lose to the riled up cards and fall to 1-5 in conference and needing a BIG turnaround to try and push for the playoffs.

what-if's, conjectures, and wistful reminiscing lead down very imprecise roads, i think.

[Willy Wonka]

I'm bored, so I'm going to throw out a few more conference stats to chew on prior to Wednesday's HUGE matchup in the hopes the Tommies will forget they have a game Monday

1. UST is currently last in the league in FT attempted with 46. GAC is second with 106. Olaf leads with 123, which could make this a moot point.

2. Two teams are shooting over 50% on the year thus far, GAC (57)and UST (51). They are both averaging 10+ point margin of victory.

3. UST is outrebounding its opponents by 5 a game. GAC is +1.

4. UST has the size and athletes, but GAC is leading the league in blocks per game. The Tommies are third.

5. GAC and UST are 1-2 in assists per game and assist-to-turnover ratio.

6. GAC has four averaging in double figures, UST has three including Ike leading the league at 25 per.

While I generally agree with sju4life that injuries have hurt a number of teams in the league thus far, these stats certainly support the theory that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Restless in Red Wing

[pacific rim]

willy got me thinking and here's what i snooped out.  considering just the two conference games so far, these teams had the following rebounding margins.  i didn't want to slog through all the team's statistics so i just picked out six teams that i think have pretty reasonable shots at the playoffs.  determining which teams will ultimately make the playoffs is not the point of this post, so i'm not trying to stir any stew on that front.

mac +16; ust +12; hamline +8.5; concordia +5.5;  sju +1; gac -4.5

did gustavus just run into some rebounding buzz saws?  is this indicative of a different style of gustavus basketball.  greater emphasis on transition and perimeter play, not as prone to blood, guts, and glory ball under the hoop?

or is the stat meaningless? or will the stat resolve itself over the course of the next 18 games?

[Willy Wonka]

Don't read too much into that, Rim. They were outboarded by 10 against Concordia last game, which put them well into the negatives. It hadn't been a problem in any other game, as their high shooting percentage has taken away much of their offensive rebounding ability. However I'm sure it will be a point of emphasis this week at practice, as the rebounding battle Wednesday may be what decides who's in the driver's seat in the conference race.

[miacwatchmen]

imagine st. john's going down and losing to carleton, then travelling to bethel who hits a hot shooting night and takes them out on a home court they defend well. 

FYY - The SJU game is @ collegeville today not in Carleton like you pointed out.

[columbianmaffia]

what would that do to carleton if they start the season out 0-3??

u think they could still finish strong?

[3m71578]

 PC,

Just like WW said, it's still early in the season that one big rebounding game can change statistics.  While GAC's shooting 57% from the field there is less opportunity for the o. board. 

Look at MAC,  when they played against BET they ahd 58 rebound, including 24 o. boards.  This game alone can change MAC's avg by 10. 

I think these statistics doesn't mean much until first half of the conference games are over, when teams play against each other once. 

[funbballer]

what would that do to carleton if they start the season out 0-3??

u think they could still finish strong?

Sure they can finish strong, but they'll have dug themselves a deep hole to climb out of. It's a long season though and nobody's going undefeated. They would have to win the rest at home and steal more than their share on the road.

On a lighter note.....the word from Northfield is that Koz gave a rip-snorting pep talk to his players about tonight's game and was carrying on at length....until one of  the player's saved him from a stroke and informed him that they don't actually play until Wednesday!!   

[kel_varnsen]

Here are some more statistics:

Team  Record
GAC    (2-0, 5-0)
UST    (2-0, 3-1)
SMU   (1-0, 2-2)
SJU    (1-1, 2-1)
STO   (1-1, 3-2)
HU     (1-1, 2-3)
CON   (1-1, 1-3)
BU     (0-1, 3-1)
CAR   (0-2, 3-2)
AUG   (0-2, 1-4)

Conclusion: Wednesday evening's GAC/UST showdown is big.

I like the story about St. Olaf. How does a player go about informing his coach that there's no game? I'd be sitting there hoping nobody would say anything because then we might get the day off from practice. And it would be hillarious to think of a coach showing up for the game with no fans, opposition, or team. Well, I suppose in this case, he wouldn't miss the fans.

[onearmedscot]

Did MAC get dropped from the MIAC in men's basketball, too?

oAs