MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[sumander]

J's win 67-61!

[miacsuperfan]

Vipes blow big lead and are 0-1.   
GAC no surprise winning at CAR. 
Shorthanded BU gives SJU a game at Sexton.   VOJ had a tough time hiding his disappointment in the J's play.   
There will be running time in the second half at Ganglehoff.   
There will not be running time at Wisconsin when Duke comes back and beats them.

[piperinsider]

The Pipers are who we thought they were (pre Buena Vista)....Crown Augsburg's ass.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_N1OjGhIFc

[kel_varnsen]

Sam Paulson's double-double leads the Gusties to an early season conference road win. Are the Cobbers ready for the Waseca native and unstoppable force in the paint?

[Gregory Sager]

The Pipers are who we thought they were (pre Buena Vista)....Crown Augsburg's ass.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_N1OjGhIFc

That clip never gets old. They're gonna be playing it at Dennis Green's funeral.

[abominable_snowman]

cobbers making the toms sweat a bit

and with big ten/acc challenge on tonight, i've come up with a genius idea.  WIAC MIAC challenge.  i'll have to flesh it out a bit, and i think WIAC has the edge, but could be fun.

[abominable_snowman]

cobbers making the toms sweat a bit

and with big ten/acc challenge on tonight, i've come up with a genius idea.  WIAC MIAC challenge.  i'll have to flesh it out a bit, and i think WIAC has the edge, but could be fun.

speaking of wisconsin, wow. bo ryan has to be feeling good tonight.

[gacbacker]

Carleton goes 0-1 from the free throw line tonight. When's the last time an MIAC made 0 free throws in a conference game? The Gusties commit only 9 fouls in the game. Now that's some disciplined defense.

[Gacman]

Looks like there were some good games last night. Here's a list of the scores:

St. Mary's 70 MAC 67
Carleton 46 GAC 55
SJU 67 Bethel 61
AUG 76 Hamline 71
UST 73 CON 55

Yeah I can't remember a time a team made 0 freethrows. Van Sickle continues to struggle to find his shooting touch which to me, makes this win and the one against BU all the more impressive since he is the gusties go-to man. He will come around because you don't lead the MIAC in 3pt. % by accident.  It also looks like Carleton could struggle this year. Maybe I'm wrong but when you only have four people scoring, that isn't a good sign. A team with a Zach Johnson could maybe get away with that since he would be scoring at least a third of their points, but CAR doesn't have that type of scorer this year to carry the scoring load. If you aren't going to have that dominant scorer you better spread things out, and I don't see that happening very much this year for Carleton.

Anybody have some insight from last nights games who were there?

[sumander]

How can Fraase only take 2 shots from the field and no FT's attempted? Played 32 minutes so he wasn't sick.

[VOJ]

cobbers making the toms sweat a bit

and with big ten/acc challenge on tonight, i've come up with a genius idea.  WIAC MIAC challenge.  i'll have to flesh it out a bit, and i think WIAC has the edge, but could be fun.

Great idea...but no one will give up their home games even on a year by year rotation and you have some schools that won't play against the WIAC, flat out they just won't do it.  

Vipes blow big lead and are 0-1.  
GAC no surprise winning at CAR.  
Shorthanded BU gives SJU a game at Sexton.   VOJ had a tough time hiding his disappointment in the J's play.  
There will be running time in the second half at Ganglehoff.  
There will not be running time at Wisconsin when Duke comes back and beats them.

Ok first as a fan of the Badgers and believe it or not having something in common with WW in my dislike for Duke...pick out a nice fat crow to dine on...Its good to see Duke take some, I loved how at the end Singler drove, didn't get the call he wanted and put it off the side of the backboard...Duke basketball has become much like Notre Dame football, I can't remember when they were relevant...and what I mean by that was when was the last time I sweated them winning in the Final 4?  Can't even remember.

Now onto the game I saw last night...Jeff Westlund did a fabulous job of managing a very young team and keeping them in the game at Sexton last night...tremendous effort defensively.  Offensively both teams struggled to find a rhythm...Vavra went 1 for 9 in the first half and seemed to be pressing a little...Bethel did not get many points in the paint and in the first half they really played D with their hands rather than their feet ...Despite Bethel's lack of size they were very aggressive on the glass especially where offensive rebounding is concerned.  Danny Baah is an interesting player, streaky...good quickness.  They will be very good when they get healthy...

Interesting to note that 3 road teams won last night...oh and how crowded is that Piper bandwagon now?  You guys who came out to get a front row seat need to stay loyal...

[Drake Palmer]

So I ended up doing the tripleheader by watching the first half of the MAC-SMU game, watched the webcast of the 2nd half of the AUG-HAM game & closed the evenings proceedings by watching CORD-UST.

MAC -SMU:
Both teams are much improved although I don't see either team contending for a playoff spot.  MAC needs a PG, but is improved at just about every other position on the floor. Because of their style of play & scoring needs, Holland at SMU is never going to be a big assists type of PG. Chris Palmer will be a nice player - a little small, but he'll be good. It will be interesting to see if Wright & Holland can learn to share the ball. 

AUGS-HAM:
Even through the webcast you could tell there was great atmosphere at Hutton arena last night. I am still impressed by the athletes the Pipes have assembled, but I am more impressed with the athletic ability & smarts of the smaller Augsburg team. They pass the ball extremely well, played good team defense & limited TOs.  And they won this game with Andy Gresiak Grim in foul trouble all night. Ray Brown was on fire with 22 points. TOs could be a weakness with Hamline team -another game with 17, 18 TOs.  Fun ballgame!!

CORD-UST:
good crowd & atmosphere.  I had no idea there were so many Cobber fans in the cities. You could see the Toms made a conscious decision to not let John Fraase beat them. I think he only shot the ball 2-3 times. Cobbs are going to be tough this season. UST is good but...
***
Game recap & boxscore observations

GAC-CARL
I figured the Carlies-Gustie game would be close but I had no idea the Gustie biggs – Paulson & Ryan McPartland would be the leading scorers.

SJU-BETHEL
An emotional letdown by the Johnnies after 2 big road wins in WIAC country last weekend? There was no way I figured this game would be that close especially when you consider Bethel had no biggs & was missing 6-7 Nate Robertson, 6-7 Taylor Hall, & 6-6 JD Robinson.

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

How can Fraase only take 2 shots from the field and no FT's attempted? Played 32 minutes so he wasn't sick.

Sumander I believe it is called "suffocating defense"... It seemed like he rarely touched the ball in the paint. He only had 2 reb in first half and 9 on the night...testimony to the aggressive play by Eichers Halverson, Peltier, etc inside

[Willy Wonka]

Looks like there were some good games last night. Here's a list of the scores:

St. Mary's 70 MAC 67
Carleton 46 GAC 55
SJU 67 Bethel 61
AUG 76 Hamline 71
UST 73 CON 55

Yeah I can't remember a time a team made 0 freethrows. Van Sickle continues to struggle to find his shooting touch which to me, makes this win and the one against BU all the more impressive since he is the gusties go-to man. He will come around because you don't lead the MIAC in 3pt. % by accident.  It also looks like Carleton could struggle this year. Maybe I'm wrong but when you only have four people scoring, that isn't a good sign. A team with a Zach Johnson could maybe get away with that since he would be scoring at least a third of their points, but CAR doesn't have that type of scorer this year to carry the scoring load. If you aren't going to have that dominant scorer you better spread things out, and I don't see that happening very much this year for Carleton.

Anybody have some insight from last nights games who were there?

It was one of the ugliest, least exciting basketball games I've ever seen. 19-19 at half and neither team looked like it had a clue. The game finished to a smattering of clapping like it was Hole 1 of a preseason MIAC golf tournament. GAC had zero students makes the trip and Carleton's student section didn't "fill up" until after the national anthem was over. I bet the Biewen clan accounted for about 30% of the attendance figures.

GAC had 3-4 shot clock violations in the first half. Carleton was called for 4 charges, three of which were taken by sophomore Seth Anderson. Carleton senior Seth Jonker finally hit a trey in the second half (after barely drawing iron in his first two attempts) and then pimped his way down court like he was DeShawn Stevenson.

(As an aside to the old-timers out there...does Jonker remind anyone else of Mac's Adam Denny? Not necessarily his game, but his face and physique, or lackthereof? All that's missing is the bowl cut...)

GAC's best offense was generally throwing the ball at the rim and letting Sam Paulson do work. He was credited with 5 off boards, but he had at least 3 deflections that led to more possessions and he tied up another loose ball. He's still thinking way too much on his moves, but it was the most aggressive I've ever seen him. He had 4-5 straight rebounds in one stretch. As you might expect, even his huge night (12 and 10 in 19 minutes) came with an asterisk. He got a steal at the top of the key and was coasting in all alone for a dunk in the second half — until his knee buckled and the 6-9 guy settled for an awkward layup. I blame the questionable beard for making him less aerodynamic.

Carleton needs Sutherland to score/do more. The Carlie guards will struggle against pressure, particularly the ones off the bench. Biewen and Davis are great spot-up shooters...but don't really bring anything else to the table. It could be a long season in West Gym.

The Gusties have some nice young players, but I don't expect them to compete with the UST team I saw barely beat UW-RF. That said, they are improved from a year ago and have some renewed hope for the coming years. While I said otherwise to begin the year, I no longer expect Hanson to shrink the rotation — the difference in skill just isn't all that evident and the young guys will only get better. It would be hard for the offensive flow and spacing to get any worse.

[columbianmaffia]

Looks like there were some good games last night. Here's a list of the scores:

St. Mary's 70 MAC 67
Carleton 46 GAC 55
SJU 67 Bethel 61
AUG 76 Hamline 71
UST 73 CON 55

Yeah I can't remember a time a team made 0 freethrows. Van Sickle continues to struggle to find his shooting touch which to me, makes this win and the one against BU all the more impressive since he is the gusties go-to man. He will come around because you don't lead the MIAC in 3pt. % by accident.  It also looks like Carleton could struggle this year. Maybe I'm wrong but when you only have four people scoring, that isn't a good sign. A team with a Zach Johnson could maybe get away with that since he would be scoring at least a third of their points, but CAR doesn't have that type of scorer this year to carry the scoring load. If you aren't going to have that dominant scorer you better spread things out, and I don't see that happening very much this year for Carleton.

Anybody have some insight from last nights games who were there?

GAC had 3-4 shot clock violations in the first half. Carleton was called for 4 charges, three of which were taken by sophomore Seth Anderson. Carleton senior Seth Jonker finally hit a trey in the second half (after barely drawing iron in his first two attempts) and then pimped his way down court like he was DeShawn Stevenson.

as long as he was pimpin it was ok...because don the magic juan told me that "pimpin aint eazy"...don the magic juan and i go waaaaaay back...he even let me wear his green hat once