MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Retired Old Rat]

Any posters planning on taking in Macalester/SJU tomorrow night?

Rat, I think I'm going to stop over. Come and say "Hello",  Look for the old Gray haired hippie with the cameras.

I just got home from the game.  Didn't see this post until now.

I did see you though.  Even though you were in the middle of the thousands of fans at the game.   

Do you publish your photos on line anywhere?

[Retired Old Rat]

Rather uninspired play by SJU tonight at Mac.  I had to wake up Maniac 2 or 3 times when he started snoring so loudly the players were distracted.  With only about 200 people in the gym (counting players and coaches) it was really embarrassing.

Johnnies have some very good young talent.  The player I was most impressed with was point guard Andy Burns.  I expect the Johnnies will be up and down this year with all the Freshmen and Sophomores.  Another good recruiting class and they will be able to compete with St. Thomas.

The Leonard Center at Macalester is quite the facility.  The basketball arena is a nice size.  Not an airplane hanger like the  field house and unlike the old gym has room for more than 27 fans.

Line of the night from Faunch, to the referees:  What youth league tournament are you working on Saturday?  With the crowd of 200 and a less than exciting game to generate crowd noise, you know they heard him.

[Willy Wonka]

Rather uninspired play by SJU tonight at Mac.  I had to wake up Maniac 2 or 3 times when he started snoring so loudly the players were distracted.  With only about 200 people in the gym (counting players and coaches) it was really embarrassing.

Johnnies have some very good young talent.  The player I was most impressed with was point guard Andy Burns.  I expect the Johnnies will be up and down this year with all the Freshmen and Sophomores.  Another good recruiting class and they will be able to compete with St. Thomas.

The Leonard Center at Macalester is quite the facility.  The basketball arena is a nice size.  Not an airplane hanger like the  field house and unlike the old gym has room for more than 27 fans.

Line of the night from Faunch, to the referees:  What youth league tournament are you working on Saturday?  With the crowd of 200 and a less than exciting game to generate crowd noise, you know they heard him.

Was it the Asian Sensation? I'm surprised he didn't give you an answer. Maybe he was thinking about his little dog that likely shares his short man syndrome...

Snow - I got myself into a reffing situation coming up. Any advice for a novice just getting his feet wet? I'd hate to get heckled by old guys like ROR, Moses and Faunch

[WXYZ]

Any posters planning on taking in Macalester/SJU tomorrow night?

Rat, I think I'm going to stop over. Come and say "Hello",  Look for the old Gray haired hippie with the cameras.

I just got home from the game.  Didn't see this post until now.

I did see you though.  Even though you were in the middle of the thousands of fans at the game.   

Do you publish your photos on line anywhere?

Hi Rat,

I'll use them in stories on www.minnesotapreps.com and post them on my commercial photo site at www.mnphotonet.net. I must note that I have my MIAC credential and follow all the NCAA guidelines for photo sales. LOL. I don't intend this as a plug, just an answer to your question. Thanks for stopping to visit.

[Freebird]

Ditto on Moberg for MVP.  Mike Moberg would have to morph into a 2008-2009 version of Isaac Rosefelt to get any serious consideration for league MVP.  Hard to get props if you lose on your home court during a regular season game.

The 2008 MVP Luke Linz lost on his home court 4 times

[VOJ]

Rather uninspired play by SJU tonight at Mac.  I had to wake up Maniac 2 or 3 times when he started snoring so loudly the players were distracted.  With only about 200 people in the gym (counting players and coaches) it was really embarrassing.

Johnnies have some very good young talent.  The player I was most impressed with was point guard Andy Burns.  I expect the Johnnies will be up and down this year with all the Freshmen and Sophomores.  Another good recruiting class and they will be able to compete with St. Thomas.

The Leonard Center at Macalester is quite the facility.  The basketball arena is a nice size.  Not an airplane hanger like the  field house and unlike the old gym has room for more than 27 fans.

Line of the night from Faunch, to the referees:  What youth league tournament are you working on Saturday?  With the crowd of 200 and a less than exciting game to generate crowd noise, you know they heard him.

Was it the Asian Sensation? I'm surprised he didn't give you an answer. Maybe he was thinking about his little dog that likely shares his short man syndrome...

Snow - I got myself into a reffing situation coming up. Any advice for a novice just getting his feet wet? I'd hate to get heckled by old guys like ROR, Moses and Faunch

Pete Vrieze, Curt Seter and Brian Mauer...game was called a little tighter than I thought it would be but overall I thought they did a good job, have not seen the Asian Sensation this year

[faunch]

Rather uninspired play by SJU tonight at Mac.  I had to wake up Maniac 2 or 3 times when he started snoring so loudly the players were distracted.  With only about 200 people in the gym (counting players and coaches) it was really embarrassing.

Johnnies have some very good young talent.  The player I was most impressed with was point guard Andy Burns.  I expect the Johnnies will be up and down this year with all the Freshmen and Sophomores.  Another good recruiting class and they will be able to compete with St. Thomas.

The Leonard Center at Macalester is quite the facility.  The basketball arena is a nice size.  Not an airplane hanger like the  field house and unlike the old gym has room for more than 27 fans.

Line of the night from Faunch, to the referees:  What youth league tournament are you working on Saturday?  With the crowd of 200 and a less than exciting game to generate crowd noise, you know they heard him.

The line was, "What traveling tourney are you working on Saturday?"   
I probably shouldn't heckle the refs too much as I was a high school official for about 10+ years.  I've just noticed that since they went to 3 ref crews they miss a lot more.  My perception is that they are so concerned about making a call out of their coverage zone. 
I'll pick the Johnnies to finish in the top 3 in the MIAC this year and be in the running the next 3 years.  Andy Burns is the best point guard they've had in Collegeville in 20 years (that goes back to about 1987....sorry John Ellis).
Agreed that Macalester built themselves a fine facility....kudos on a job well done.  I wish they would have had an open house for those of us that drive by everyday.   It's also nice to not have construction workers running across Snelling Avenue on my way to work in the morning.  Now I just have to keep my eyes open for the cops (Snelling is speed trap alley!).

[faunch]

Rather uninspired play by SJU tonight at Mac.  I had to wake up Maniac 2 or 3 times when he started snoring so loudly the players were distracted.  With only about 200 people in the gym (counting players and coaches) it was really embarrassing.

Johnnies have some very good young talent.  The player I was most impressed with was point guard Andy Burns.  I expect the Johnnies will be up and down this year with all the Freshmen and Sophomores.  Another good recruiting class and they will be able to compete with St. Thomas.

The Leonard Center at Macalester is quite the facility.  The basketball arena is a nice size.  Not an airplane hanger like the  field house and unlike the old gym has room for more than 27 fans.

Line of the night from Faunch, to the referees:  What youth league tournament are you working on Saturday?  With the crowd of 200 and a less than exciting game to generate crowd noise, you know they heard him.

Was it the Asian Sensation? I'm surprised he didn't give you an answer. Maybe he was thinking about his little dog that likely shares his short man syndrome...

Snow - I got myself into a reffing situation coming up. Any advice for a novice just getting his feet wet? I'd hate to get heckled by old guys like ROR, Moses and Faunch

This adage always served me well when I officiated. 

"Call what you see and see what you call."

Hustle but also be patient and don't anticipate calls.  Keep in mind that every parent there is watching their kid and if little Johnnie or Billy gets knocked down they will go ballistic.  Don't worry about it.  The kid probably had it comin' anyway!   

[Nites]

UST 86-58 home win against Augsburg, 37 assist on 39 baskets.

UST 102-64 in at St. Mary's, 11 assists on 39 baskets

Hmmmmm

Impressive win last night for the Tommies.  Brady Ervin gets some PT and picks up 11 pts. and 7 boards.

[Retired Old Rat]

Snow - I got myself into a reffing situation coming up. Any advice for a novice just getting his feet wet? I'd hate to get heckled by old guys like ROR, Moses and Faunch

Where and when?  8)

[Drake Palmer]

UST 86-58 home win against Augsburg, 37 assist on 39 baskets.

UST 102-64 in at St. Mary's, 11 assists on 39 baskets

Hmmmmm

Impressive win last night for the Tommies.  Brady Ervin gets some PT and picks up 11 pts. and 7 boards.

Nites – If you take a closer look at the stats you can see why. The Tommies had 17 steals & only 13 TOs, while the Birds had 27 turnovers to only 3 steals.

A stats feature that I wished all of the schools used is the play analysis.  In the points off turnovers department, UST had 30 points – to SMU's 4 points.  On the boards UST had a decisive rebounding edge over the smaller Redbirds, 39-26, & collected 17 offensive rebounds.  I'm assuming the offensive rebounds lead to baskets without assists and also filled the "second chance" point's category as well.

Interesting thing about the play analysis is that you rarely see the fast breaks category filled in any game.  Since UST scored a 102 points I've got to believe there were more than a handful of fast break baskets.
*************
Frigid winter comes early and hard to Minnesota - Looking around at other games that took place last night, the other interesting statistic that caught my attention was poor shooting.  Any team that managed to shoot at a 40% clip or better won their respective games last night.  In the 3-ball shooting category, with the exception of the Johnnies in their cruise over Macalester, no team really shot the deep ball that well last night:

Team      FGA      3PT      Score

UST      54.9%      29.4%      102 pts
SMU      39%      25%      64 pts

SJU      51.9%      47.1%      69 pts
MAC      26.2%      9.5%      44 pts

AUG      42.9%      33.3%      52 pts
GAC      33.3%      30%      50 pts

CARL      40%      21.75      65 pts
STO      31.3%      16.7%      47 pts


***
Random stats

Congratulations to the Carleton Knights.  For the first time in 6 games this season they out-rebounded their opponent and also won the game over the Oles.  I'm guessing the coaches have been riding the players hard since their return to earth loss against the Johnnies last Saturday & near loss against the Cobbs on Monday.

The Oles' Bobby Fong is a nice, nice, player but he's a slasher & mid range shooter at this stage of his development - he's not a deep ball shooter. 0-7 last night against Carleton,  26% 3pt FGA on the year.

This many Johnnie posters & flurry of posts on the basketball board must only mean one thing - they think their team is on to something good this year.    Glad to see you all around.  While the Jays certainly do have young talent, they better get their precocious young PG, Andy Burns & others to start taking care of the ball.  In the closing minutes of last Saturday's game against the Knights, they appeared to be turnover prone, and dropped the ball 21 times last night against a team with considerably less talent.

[Nites]

[

Nites – If you take a closer look at the stats you can see why. The Tommies had 17 steals & only 13 TOs, while the Birds had 27 turnovers to only 3 steals.

A stats feature that I wished all of the schools used is the play analysis.  In the points off turnovers department, UST had 30 points – to SMU's 4 points.  On the boards UST had a decisive rebounding edge over the smaller Redbirds, 39-26, & collected 17 offensive rebounds.  I'm assuming the offensive rebounds lead to baskets without assists and also filled the "second chance" point's category as well.

Interesting thing about the play analysis is that you rarely see the fast breaks category filled in any game.  Since UST scored a 102 points I've got to believe there were more than a handful of fast break baskets.

Nice analysis, Drake.

Congratulations to the Carleton Knights.  For the first time in 6 games this season they out-rebounded their opponent and also won the game over the Oles.   I'm guessing the coaches have been riding the players hard since their return to earth loss against the Johnnies last Saturday & near loss against the Cobbs on Monday.

I think what happened is that they passed their ineptness on the boards to the Carleton women's team as the women were outrebounded last night by St. Olaf, 45-25.

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

[

Congratulations to the Carleton Knights.  For the first time in 6 games this season they out-rebounded their opponent and also won the game over the Oles.   I'm guessing the coaches have been riding the players hard since their return to earth loss against the Johnnies last Saturday & near loss against the Cobbs on Monday.

I think what happened is that they passed their ineptness on the boards to the Carleton women's team as the women were outrebounded last night by St. Olaf, 45-25.

You mean BRD (bad rebounding disease) is contagious? Based on what I saw at Mac last night, the Scots could have a fatal case of BRD (and a heaping dose of BSD- bad shooting disorder). Maybr Dr KRat can grace us with his medical knowledge about these maladies.

And ROR-- I was NOT snoring...just not a fan of 1955-style hoops. I still contend a video of the first half would be a guarantee cure for insomnia

For those who haven't seen a game at Mac yet--- the facility is truly a gem and is worth the trip over there. It would have been nice if more tha 40 Mac students, a handful of CSB and 0 SJU students were there last night to make some noise.

[Nites]

You mean BRD (bad rebounding disease) is contagious? Based on what I saw at Mac last night, the Scots could have a fatal case of BRD (and a heaping dose of BSD- bad shooting disorder). Maybr Dr KRat can grace us with his medical knowledge about these maladies.

And ROR-- I was NOT snoring...just not a fan of 1955-style hoops. I still contend a video of the first half would be a guarantee cure for insomnia

For those who haven't seen a game at Mac yet--- the facility is truly a gem and is worth the trip over there. It would have been nice if more tha 40 Mac students, a handful of CSB and 0 SJU students were there last night to make some noise.

+k  Snoring Maniac


Hey, Willy,

How many assists did the GAC starting point guard have last night?  Was is more or less than your buddy who starts for the Tommies?   

[Drake Palmer]

Thanks Nites. I'd give you a karma boost right back but I'll have to wait until someone bumps you up a point or two.  You've got a certain symmetry to your current karma level that I don't want to mess wit.   

Do you ever read a stat or angle in a story, or hear an announcer say something over the air & wonder – "how the heck did they come up with that one?" To a much lesser extent that's what happened to me last night & this morning while reading the various game boxscores & summaries. The first thing I noticed after reading the game summaries was how woeful everyone seemed to be shooting the deep ball.  Players I've talked to have said the new 3-pt line doesn't really make much difference but it does make you wonder. We'll have to check back in the end of the year & compare this season's shooting percentages to last year's.

I also had the opportunity to see the new Mac field house a week or so ago and it really is a nice, new facility.  I'm glad to know the Macalester women's team will have a great gym to play their home games.  It's too bad the men's team isn't quite up to the task.  It's disappointing that after the nice run Coach Kietzer had at MAC over the last 6-7 years that he'll have to endure what is shaping up to be a really rough season.  Here's hoping the Scots get things turned around sooner rather than later. 

Dear Santa – please don't let the Macalester Scots go winless on the season. We don't need or want another Caltech around here.

By the way, a little birdie told me there are rumblings about another new facility in the works.