MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[VOJ]

Toms 96 Aurora 71...so did the Tommies call off the dogs in the second half?  I thought they were going to play name the score.  Impressive start, hopefully they can keep it up.  Happened to catch the Pointers postgame show and it sounded like the game was tighter than the final margin. 

[TommieFan2012]

Toms 96 Aurora 71...so did the Tommies call off the dogs in the second half?  I thought they were going to play name the score.  Impressive start, hopefully they can keep it up.  Happened to catch the Pointers postgame show and it sounded like the game was tighter than the final margin. 

Yeah, It was way closer.  In the last couple minutes Cornell put up 3 tres when they could have tied it with 2's each time, and they missed all 3 tres.  They gave it away.

[Willy Wonka]

Come around? Scott might be the most talented player in the league...but he had no business winning the MVP this year. After some poking around the MIAC site, I now have no doubt that his stats are the weakest of any MVP winner in league history.

Now stop distracting me...I have state wrestling to write about! 

I agree with you to a point...his numbers were not what Zorro's were or Madson's but he is the best player on the best team, I was only trying to rationalize the coaches thinking on that one...

Isn't it funny how quickly people are ready to accept that Scott is UST's best player after the fact? Does anyone remember the first half of this season, when literally every poster was calling Viau their best player? That includes you, Moses.

Not to pat myself on the back or anything, but it wasn't until the Gustie beatdown at the Shoe that anyone pointed to Scott as their most important player. I stand by that assessment, but still vehemently disagree that he should have won the MVP.

Got my tickets secured for tomorrow night. Please refrain from throwing things at the Gustie fan on crutches.

[Drake Palmer]

Good environment at the Shoe tonight.  Although the games were listed as sellouts, it was near capacity, but not standing room only.  Having said that, it got to be very warm inside the arena. I'm guessing the UST male students will be sporting the no shirts & shorts look, while the coeds will be going with the beach attire look tomorrow night.   

The Cornell-UWSP game was easily the most entertaining, & well fought game of the night.  At first Cornell looked like they were going to get blown out, but to their credit they never panicked after UWSP jumped out to a double digit lead early in the first half.  Very disciplined club.  Cornell was able to close the lead down to 1 point on 2 different occasions in the 2nd half, but the rest of the night they were chasing down leads ranging from 9-11 points.  Cornell had good size in the post but had difficulty closing in the paint against the slightly shorter, but definitely very physical SP team.  UWSP's Bryan Beamish & Louis Hurd do a real nice job clogging up the middle. Cornell guards were athletic, but like their post counterparts just couldn't convert when they did beat their defender. 

It will be a real interesting matchup with the UST & SP guards. IMO, the UST guards are quicker, & a hair more athletic, but the UWSP guards are not slouches at all, & the entire team plays a very, very, solid, hard-nosed position defense. I had to gently scold several UST students I know who were talking smack after the game.  This UWSP team is a very, very solid team.  Their PG, El Amin is waterbug quick, can kill you with the trey, sees the floor well & is an excellent distributor.  6-2 shooting guard Matt Moses is an excellent slasher & can beat you off the dribble.  I think Sr. forward Bryan Beamish is their team leader & does all those things leaders do.  Boards, defends, distributes the ball, & scores – just an excellent player. Their other big forward, So Louis Hurd appears to be Beamish's heir apparent, & is a nice player as well. Pete Rortvedt is one of their big scorers although he had a rather quiet offensive night tonight.  Swingman Jared Jenkins off the bench is also a nice athletic lift for the Pointers. 

No doubt about it, tomorrow's night's game will be the toughest one of the season for the Tommies thus far.

The Aurora Spartans competed well, but didn't have the depth, overall talent & surprisingly enough, the size to hang with the Tommies.  I think the person who recorded the roster heights for Aurora must have attended the same school as UST's Gene McGivern.    This was a small club. One of the offensive highlights for Aurora was the play of 6-3 swingman Lance Robinson who couldn't have been no more than 6-1, or 6-2.  BJ Viau who is listed as 6-3 & Joe Scott at 6-4 practically towered over Robinson.  In spite of his height disadvantage, Robinson had a very effective game driving to the hoop, & tossing up a cross between a funky teardrop, & quick release jumper/layup that he released on the way up. Or dish off for an assist. Nice player.

But in the end UST had too much firepower. Tonight's game was a nice, "get the monkey off the back" win for St. Thomas, but tomorrow night's game night could be a monster!  Recommendation:  If you're going to the game make sure you shower & put on an extra swipe of deodorant cause it's going to get hot, hot, hot , hot.  8)

[abominable_snowman]

Toms 96 Aurora 71...so did the Tommies call off the dogs in the second half?  I thought they were going to play name the score.  Impressive start, hopefully they can keep it up.  Happened to catch the Pointers postgame show and it sounded like the game was tighter than the final margin. 

The UWSP game did get tight for a bit.  But what I came away with from that game was that Cornell did what they needed to to get themselves back into it, but wouldn't have beaten the pointers.  They certainly made some poor decisions, but I saw a very tough pointer squad out there.

  Recommendation:  If you’re going to the game make sure you shower & put on an extra swipe of deodorant cause it’s going to get hot, hot, hot , hot.  8)

I'd also recommend leaving the kiddies at home for this one folks.  It will be a brawl.  50's or low 60's for a final score.  It so happens that I made plans for with some relatives of mine for saturday night. Among the activities, watching a UFC fight.  I'll check in with the board to see which was the better bout - the cage or the Shoe.

[columbianmaffia]

It's true that I am biased in this situation. Numbers get hard to compare when talking about GAC this year because there was so much balance. Actually unprecidented really. To be honest Ryan McPartland was probably our most consistent player and could have easily gotten the nod over Van Sickle. As for player of the year, how the race didn't come down to Madson and Johnson is beyond me. I respect VOJ's opinion that the best player on the best team got it, but the other two players we are talking about are coming from playoff teams, good teams. If you take scott off of UST I think that they might still win conference handly. They are that deep. You take any of the other two off there teams and they don't make the playoffs. People can make the arguement that the came from teams that had less balance or less scoring options than UST which is why Scott averaged less per game, there are other players on other teams in this conference that had the same amount of scoring options as bethel and Carleton but didn't rise to the same level as Madson or Johnson. I mean Madson single handly beat some teams down the stretch including us at Bethel where he outscored Van Sickle's best performance of the year. You had to gameplan more for Johnson than any other player in the conference, period.  So it should have gone to Johnson, but if you argue that they finished to low in the standings than give it to Madson, who's team finished second in the regular and post season.

[
I guess I just have a hard time arguing with those stats. Hipp is the only one of your three that is hard to argue with considering where he ranked in a bunch of categories,
but HU already has Thrasher named to the All-Conference team and SJU had Burtzel as Drake Palmer pointed out. Congrats to all who made it on the AC team and as I said before someone has to get left off.

Gacman,

Fong missing the last 5 games probably does disqualify him and he's a FY, so Van Sickle probably would rank above him.  However, Hipp should have been ahead of Van Sickle.  Schwartz slumped at the end of the year so I'm not sure he is deserving of all-conference, but I would have selected him over Van Sickle.  He topped Van Sickle in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals and blocks (although the differences were insignificant in some categories).  Still, a close call and VS probably got the nod because SJU had Burtzel.  Then again, you're biased because Van Sickle was a teammate, and my opinion is pretty much worthless because I haven't seen either player play!   

Welcome aboard.  What's your take on the POY selection?

GACMAN...your awesome baby with a capital A...in my book you will always be PTP'er...now just get Drake and Willy to come around...

Hey CMOB, next year you need to sit with me during a game and gauge the boombahlaties in the crowd...if they will leave you alone long enough

gauging boombalahties will occur...and we will ask them to serve us drinks and sit on our laps after the game as well...and if jersey chasers are in the stands at an auggie tech game...i will tell them i am D. George and you can be Lute Olsen...they wont be able to resist

[columbianmaffia]

Come around? Scott might be the most talented player in the league...but he had no business winning the MVP this year. After some poking around the MIAC site, I now have no doubt that his stats are the weakest of any MVP winner in league history.

Now stop distracting me...I have state wrestling to write about! 

write about the 2 wrestlers that were grinding away at one another so much that they ended up in the same spandex suit at the end of the match

[columbianmaffia]

finally got it. Thanks Nites.

The Tommies remind me a bit of the Arkansas Razorbacks under Nolan Richardson.  They full court press all game and come at you in waves.  Eventually, they wear you down.

is scotty thurman back? did he get another year for a medical reasons?

[columbianmaffia]

YAY!! UST WON!!

BOOOOOO I DONT HAVE TICKETS FOR THE GAME TOMORROW NIGHT!!!

its okay i guess...

big game for the gophers in the morning....hopefully ralphy doesnt shoot his eye out

we are about a month or so away from full effect boombalatyism...i cant wait

[buf]

while the coeds will be going with the beach attire look tomorrow night.   

Anyone have an extra ticket? 

[columbianmaffia]

while the coeds will be going with the beach attire look tomorrow night.   

Anyone have an extra ticket? 

i heard there was still standing room last night...does that mean there is a chance tickets will still be available for tonights game...does anyone know if it sold out?

[Drake Palmer]

while the coeds will be going with the beach attire look tomorrow night.   

Anyone have an extra ticket? 

i heard there was still standing room last night...does that mean there is a chance tickets will still be available for tonights game...does anyone know if it sold out?

Cmob- where I was sitting last night - across from the team benches, there were seats all around me.  Not tons of seats, but open spaces.  But you know how that stuff goes.  Everyone who gets there early sprawls out so people don't invade their space.  In fact, I had one extra unused ticket in my wallet. 

The ticket office did officially sell out last night, but if you get to the Shoe early say, 5:00 or so today you should be able to pick up tickets from somebody. There were people selling tickets for face value last night, although I had threaten a student myself to pick up an extra ticket for tonight's game.   

[miacsuperfan]

we had lots of room to sprawl last night, unlike the "shoebox" feeling at the miac finals last week. 
cats played tough; first five minutes basically ended the discussion.  tonite WILL be a whole different animal, but tommies will prevail by 10.

watching the first game's officials, a thought popped into my head.  why don't we discuss:

"you are playing the biggest game of the season, the teams have just taken the floor for the warm-up, and the officials for the evening are making their entrance.   what three officials would you MOST WANT to see striding on to the arena floor?"      oh, and you can't select tim higgins, jim burr, and ted valentine.    these must be miac/nsic officials.  i was thinking we should do the opposite (who would you least want,) but let's try to keep this positive.  how about a first team
three-some and an honorable mention three-some?
i'll hang up and listen.

[Nites]

Good environment at the Shoe tonight.  Although the games were listed as sellouts, it was near capacity, but not standing room only.  Having said that, it got to be very warm inside the arena. I'm guessing the UST male students will be sporting the no shirts & shorts look, while the coeds will be going with the beach attire look tomorrow night.   

The Cornell-UWSP game was easily the most entertaining, & well fought game of the night.  At first Cornell looked like they were going to get blown out, but to their credit they never panicked after UWSP jumped out to a double digit lead early in the first half.  Very disciplined club.  Cornell was able to close the lead down to 1 point on 2 different occasions in the 2nd half, but the rest of the night they were chasing down leads ranging from 9-11 points.  Cornell had good size in the post but had difficulty closing in the paint against the slightly shorter, but definitely very physical SP team.  UWSP's Bryan Beamish & Louis Hurd do a real nice job clogging up the middle. Cornell guards were athletic, but like their post counterparts just couldn't convert when they did beat their defender. 

It will be a real interesting matchup with the UST & SP guards. IMO, the UST guards are quicker, & a hair more athletic, but the UWSP guards are not slouches at all, & the entire team plays a very, very, solid, hard-nosed position defense. I had to gently scold several UST students I know who were talking smack after the game.  This UWSP team is a very, very solid team.  Their PG, El Amin is waterbug quick, can kill you with the trey, sees the floor well & is an excellent distributor.  6-2 shooting guard Matt Moses is an excellent slasher & can beat you off the dribble.  I think Sr. forward Bryan Beamish is their team leader & does all those things leaders do.  Boards, defends, distributes the ball, & scores – just an excellent player. Their other big forward, So Louis Hurd appears to be Beamish's heir apparent, & is a nice player as well. Pete Rortvedt is one of their big scorers although he had a rather quiet offensive night tonight.  Swingman Jared Jenkins off the bench is also a nice athletic lift for the Pointers. 

No doubt about it, tomorrow's night's game will be the toughest one of the season for the Tommies thus far.

The Aurora Spartans competed well, but didn't have the depth, overall talent & surprisingly enough, the size to hang with the Tommies.  I think the person who recorded the roster heights for Aurora must have attended the same school as UST's Gene McGivern.    This was a small club. One of the offensive highlights for Aurora was the play of 6-3 swingman Lance Robinson who couldn't have been no more than 6-1, or 6-2.  BJ Viau who is listed as 6-3 & Joe Scott at 6-4 practically towered over Robinson.  In spite of his height disadvantage, Robinson had a very effective game driving to the hoop, & tossing up a cross between a funky teardrop, & quick release jumper/layup that he released on the way up. Or dish off for an assist. Nice player.

But in the end UST had too much firepower. Tonight's game was a nice, "get the monkey off the back" win for St. Thomas, but tomorrow night's game night could be a monster!  Recommendation:  If you're going to the game make sure you shower & put on an extra swipe of deodorant cause it's going to get hot, hot, hot , hot.  8)

Good summaries, Drake.

Admittedly, it was relatively late in the game, but when the camera panned the arena, it looked like there were a fair number of open seats.  I was surprised, but the arena certainly wasn't packed.

[Nites]

The Aurora Spartans competed well, but didn't have the depth, overall talent & surprisingly enough, the size to hang with the Tommies.  I think the person who recorded the roster heights for Aurora must have attended the same school as UST's Gene McGivern.     This was a small club.

The Tommies outrebound Aurora by 22 boards, 38-16.  Of course, by shooting 65% from the field, they didn't leave Aurora with too many defensive rebounds to pick up. 

Surprisingly, Aurora only committed 10 turnovers, while UST committed 14 (a number of which were just very careless passes).