MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[basketballlover]

70-59 Bethel over Augsburg

[Willy Wonka]

Fritz must have got his wish.

Coombs is doing the GAC/UST game. Expect lopsided foul totals and a technical on at least one Gustie.

How in the h -e-double hockey sticks does that guy get to work the playoffs? He shouldn't even be working regular-season games, much less a playoff game. He's the worst. He worked Bethel-Carleton on Saturday and made about 10 calls (both ways) where players (and sometimes his partners) gave him that look, like "Really???" I wish the MIAC would step up and do something about this issue. At least get some new blood in there and get some of these guys that have been horrid for years out of there.

Tech of the Gustie bench. Hate to say I told you so but...I told you so.

Coombe is a joke.

Of GAC staff techs, wonder about percentage given by Coombe's crew. 85 percent?

I'd think that's a good guess. Maybe you even got to see/hear this exchange between the Hanson and Coombe at Carleton last year after Paulson tried to take a charge...and got denied.

Hanson: What'd he do?
Coombe: He said "Are you serious."
Hanson: That warrants a technical foul?
Coombe: He said it in a derogatory manner.
Hanson: ARE YOU SERIOUS?

Somehow, Hanson escaped a matching technical. But that example highlights Coombe's "skills" quite well, I think.

[carletonsid]

Fritz must have got his wish.

Coombs is doing the GAC/UST game. Expect lopsided foul totals and a technical on at least one Gustie.

How in the h -e-double hockey sticks does that guy get to work the playoffs? He shouldn't even be working regular-season games, much less a playoff game. He's the worst. He worked Bethel-Carleton on Saturday and made about 10 calls (both ways) where players (and sometimes his partners) gave him that look, like "Really???" I wish the MIAC would step up and do something about this issue. At least get some new blood in there and get some of these guys that have been horrid for years out of there.

Tech of the Gustie bench. Hate to say I told you so but...I told you so.

Coombe is a joke.

Of GAC staff techs, wonder about percentage given by Coombe's crew. 85 percent?

I'd think that's a good guess. Maybe you even got to see/hear this exchange between the Hanson and Coombe at Carleton last year after Paulson tried to take a charge...and got denied.

Hanson: What'd he do?
Coombe: He said "Are you serious."
Hanson: That warrants a technical foul?
Coombe: He said it in a derogatory manner.
Hanson: ARE YOU SERIOUS?

Somehow, Hanson escaped a matching technical. But that example highlights Coombe's "skills" quite well, I think.

[Insert eye roll and head shake here]
Willy, you and I could sit in lawn chair with beers at each baseline and officiate better than half of the league's officials. Not even kidding.

[TommieFan2012]

Tommies by 40, that was seriously the most lopsided display of athletecism I have ever witnessed.

[raptor31]

How good is St. Thomas for you that have seen them play? What are there big wins this year and how do you guys think they will fair in the tourney?

[TommieFan2012]

How good is St. Thomas for you that have seen them play? What are there big wins this year and how do you guys think they will fair in the tourney?

They are absolutely unreal.  The biggest Win in my eyes is when they came back from being 14 down in the closing minutes against Bethel.  I haven't had the privelage to see any teams outside the MIAC play, but I can definately see UST making a deep run into the tournament.

[VOJ]

Man, what a weak board.  Semis finals tonight & nary a peep? No smack talking, in-depth game analysis & breakdown, nuthin, nada, zero, zip?  Sad.   

AO - You just can't leave sleeping dogs alone can you?  

Northwestern Drops Playoff Opener at Home

Our newest All-American laying the smack down this afternoon!

Tomcats win in a breeze, BET gets the Dawgs by double digits. Setting up the rematch everyone is looking for.

Sum...quite prophetic...although I don't thnk anyone thought a 40 point spread would happen.  Madson puts on a show and will need to do so again on Saturday for the Royals to "steal" a bid...

[VOJ]

How good is St. Thomas for you that have seen them play? What are there big wins this year and how do you guys think they will fair in the tourney?

They are absolutely unreal.  The biggest Win in my eyes is when they came back from being 14 down in the closing minutes against Bethel.  I haven't had the privelage to see any teams outside the MIAC play, but I can definately see UST making a deep run into the tournament.

If the Tommies win out, I will hope the represent the conference well, but lets focus on walking before running in the tournament...

[AO]

How wrong was I..........to question lostprophets prediction of a one-sided, terribly officiated, game.  No doubt that the Tommies came to play last night, but I have no doubt the refs were responsible for at least 30 tommie points.  21 gac turnovers on 8 tommie steals.  fouls get called on half of those steals if you're playing in a different venue or maybe just with different refs.  some of the offensive fouls called on gustavus were absolutely mythical based on how they were allowing the tommie guards to play defense.  I got the distinct feeling that the other refs were ashamed of some of coombe's foul calls.

McCoy was a non-factor as a predicted, unfortunately for the gusties, so was Paulson.  definitely a case of the big game jitters, but to his credit he didn't force it up even though he wasn't confident and ended up with 2 turnovers rather than the 5 or 6 that might have resulted if he had put the ball on the ground a little more.  the gusties reminded me of how the gophers have been playing lately, not taking bad shots, but not really threatening to create a good shot either. 

D- to the game operations crew for not pulling out the baseline bleachers and create some more room for the gac crowd.  there were more than a few unhealthy and unnecessary interactions between tommie fans of various ages and gac fans.  another good reason to set up your new arena like Mac's and have fans enter from the top to the bottom.

all that said, still a fun game to watch.

[MiacLostProphet]

WW- Isn't it sad that the redwing girls hockey game was more interesting than the gus vs tom game.  saturdays game will be a good one, bethel knows they can play at the shoe, but the tommies are just so tough there. i hope bethel pulls off the upset, then there would be two miac teams in the tournament.

[papahoops]

Thoughts and ramblings from last evening at the Shoe.......
No need to dwell much on the action. It was a tough night for the Gusties. UST simply is a superior that plays particularly well at home. Their "second team" had another impressive night, actually opening up the lead on several occasions. My earlier post suggesting UST's bench would have made the playoffs on their own may have been conservative. The way they are playing now, final 4 in MIAC is probably more accurate.

Highlight reel of the night was a coast to coast Magic Johnson like full court dribble drive play by Big Al, ending in a 3 point play "the hard way", bringing the fans out of their seats

My hat goes off to Mark Hanson who showed some real class. Despite enduring a very difficult evening, he sent over a GAC representative to quiet a rather vulgar Gustie student visiting section that was not representing the school in a positive manner. The number of GAC students making the trip from St. Peter on buses was an impressive show of school spirit given the long odds they faced for the evening. Unfortunately, based on their behavior and the mad rush to the restrooms when the buses arrived, I suspect there were significant volumes of adult beverages consumed on the bus to the game. One student received very little value for his ticket, as he was ejected by police within 5 minutes of entering gym!

My tip to fans supporting an underdog team at the favored team's gym.....Don't come in with a bunch of body paint and taunt the other team during warmups. It tends to fire up the opposition even more and removes any possibility of complacency on their part. Although I'm sure the GAC students were making an effort to inspire their team, I'm afraid it inspired their opposition more.

[raptor31]

Can anyone compare St. Thomas to a team like Wash U or the Wisc schools?

[Nites]

Thoughts and ramblings from last evening at the Shoe.......
No need to dwell much on the action. It was a tough night for the Gusties. UST simply is a superior that plays particularly well at home. Their "second team" had another impressive night, actually opening up the lead on several occasions. My earlier post suggesting UST's bench would have made the playoffs on their own may have been conservative. The way they are playing now, final 4 in MIAC is probably more accurate.

The Tommies went 15 deep last night and everyone scored so apparently their "third" team did some damage as well.   

[AO]

Can anyone compare St. Thomas to a team like Wash U or the Wisc schools?

I think the tommies might match up better with Wash U than platteville, whitewater or point. LaCrosse, which is 4-12 in the WIAC, took the tommies to overtime in st. paul.   The intangibles seem to be consistently in favor of the Tommies though.

[Drake Palmer]

Repping the other semi-final last night - Bethel 70 - Augsburg 59

I was at the other semi last night & took in a decent, and at times entertaining game between Bethel & Augsburg.  The first half was a tightly contested game & it was obvious the Royals strategy was to pound the ball inside to Big Mike Moberg.  He responded going  4-8 from the field, 2-3 from the Ft line for 10 points, a handful of blocks & boards. Helped with some timely treys by Laugen & Chris Vavra, the Royals were able to maintain a close, but solid lead over the Royals.

Chris Vavra had an excellent game & showed why he was selected CSN's MIAC 6th man of the year.  In addition to a key trey, he had one of the sweetest right-left–right crossover moves to the basket I've seen this year & sent his Augsburg defender hobbling to the bench to get some ice for his badly sprained ankle.  In the second half Vavra was solid defensively. Although I believe he only scored a couple of points from the FT line, he kept several critical possessions alive with his hustle, & ran down several key offensive rebounds in the closing minutes of the game.   

The other good humor of the night was the 5-6 umbrellas in the Bethel student section which they would open up when one of the Royal would "rain" a triple. And I should add Augsburg's Cory Polta who was wide right on his only FT attempt & drew nothing but air. His form looked good though.

Augsburg's Nate Alm & Jon Cassens both picked up 2 early fouls which may have changed the Dawgs strategy which I sorta questioned, especially in the 2nd half.  I'll come back to that in a minute. 

Augsburg was able to close within 1 point at the half 31-30 because of a nice acrobatic twisting trey that Ben Flavin hit in Tim Madson's face.  Normally that would have been a nice momentum shifter & I thought Augsburg would be able to capitalize on it in the 2nd half, but it was not to be. The Flavin shot must have triggered something in Tim Madson because he absolutely snapped in the 2nd half!  He schooled Flavin & then other Dawg defenders just about every way possible for 21- 2nd half points.  The usual assortment of" how the heck did he do that?" type of shots, twisting turnarounds, treys, draw the bogus contact & get to the FT line 11—11 from the charity stripe.  On any other night I would have been seething – "why are you going away from the big fella- Moberg?!?" but Madson was feeling it & was having one of those Kirby Puckett type of nights.

Augsburg hung tough & kept the game close throughout much of the 2nd half. Each time Bethel threatened to blow the game open, the Dawgs would come back & get a stop, or pick up a basket. Interestingly for much of the 2nd half they lined up offensively with an open post offense with 3 wings across the top & Alm & G-Grimm in the baseline corners.  The Aggie guards would try to run their 3-man weave, beat their defender off the dribble drive, or drive & kick, but they never really got anything inside the paint.  (Bethel 20 –Augsburg 8 ).  The few times Augsburg scored inside were drives by David Olson, Cassens, & a basket or 2 from G. Grimm & Alm.  Other times they would have Alm playing a high post & would screen the ball handler up top & they would pitch it back to him & he made the occasional J, but never had Alm roll to the basket at all.  But props to the Dawgs for a solid season & what should be the foundation of a successful basketball program in the future.

However, last night Bethel was just too deep, big & strong.  And we've got the matchup everyone was thinking might happen several weeks ago – Bethel  St. Thomas. Hang on fellas, I think this one could be a donnybrook!