MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Willy Wonka]

Regardless of what AO's intentions were, I'm not real concerned about it. Heck, I practically asked for a ribbing by pointing out my terrible shooting percentage. And I probably deserve some heckling after what I dish out sometimes.

But is there any way Pat can ban AO from just the MIAC board? Even if it means editing this to feign anger, I'd support that cause 

VOJ - I'm making this small because I'm an old has-been that shouldn't matter in these discussions anymore. If you saw me tip dunk as a freshie up at SJU, I'm not sure you'd agree that I maximized my talents. I peaked in my first year in both sports and then spent more time in the training room than anyone in league history. Let's be serious...I had the head trainer on speed dial.

[AO]

Oh, and feel free to check this out if you aren't convinced of Hamline's proper place in this fight. I know PI still has nightmares of this one.

And please ignore the chump who almost ruined the game by shooting 1-6  

http://gustavus.edu/athletics/mbb/archives/2001-02/mbbstats/HAM2.HTM

3 steals, 2 assists and no turnovers in 11 min- Hanson ought to let you go 1-11 from the field.
That Hamline team has to rank up there with the recent MAC teams as the worst in conference history.  I looked up the schedule from that year and Gustavus wasn't the only one who came into Hutton and ran it up: Martin Luther 91 - Hamline 46.  I'm starting to understand why the hamline faithful are excited about having 4 MIAC wins over the bottom half of the league.

Why get personal??  I mean really, to be honest BB/WW in my estimation got the most out of his talent, busted his ass every time we we played them, and he would always make some play to help them, so he had a bad shooting night.  I think this type of personal attack should result in a banning by the supreme lord of the boards, Pat C.

Perhaps I'm not reading it right, but it looks to me as though AO was paying the MIAC's favorite eccentric chocolatier a compliment. He was saying, "Hey, Brett, that's not a bad line that you put up against Hamline that evening, in spite of the fact that you didn't shoot well. If you can pick up three steals and two assists in eleven minutes without turning the ball over even once, you're doing your job no matter how badly you shoot."

Gregoire is correct, it was a compliment.  You can shoot pretty poorly if you hit the offensive glass and create turnovers.   I (as some have pointed out), am in no place to criticize another for not scoring enough. 

[VOJ]

Oh, and feel free to check this out if you aren't convinced of Hamline's proper place in this fight. I know PI still has nightmares of this one.

And please ignore the chump who almost ruined the game by shooting 1-6  

http://gustavus.edu/athletics/mbb/archives/2001-02/mbbstats/HAM2.HTM

3 steals, 2 assists and no turnovers in 11 min- Hanson ought to let you go 1-11 from the field.
That Hamline team has to rank up there with the recent MAC teams as the worst in conference history.  I looked up the schedule from that year and Gustavus wasn't the only one who came into Hutton and ran it up: Martin Luther 91 - Hamline 46.  I'm starting to understand why the hamline faithful are excited about having 4 MIAC wins over the bottom half of the league.

Why get personal??  I mean really, to be honest BB/WW in my estimation got the most out of his talent, busted his ass every time we we played them, and he would always make some play to help them, so he had a bad shooting night.  I think this type of personal attack should result in a banning by the supreme lord of the boards, Pat C.

Perhaps I'm not reading it right, but it looks to me as though AO was paying the MIAC's favorite eccentric chocolatier a compliment. He was saying, "Hey, Brett, that's not a bad line that you put up against Hamline that evening, in spite of the fact that you didn't shoot well. If you can pick up three steals and two assists in eleven minutes without turning the ball over even once, you're doing your job no matter how badly you shoot."

Gregoire is correct, it was a compliment.  You can shoot pretty poorly if you hit the offensive glass and create turnovers.   I (as some have pointed out), am in no place to criticize another for not scoring enough. 

Gee guess I won't get the suspension I asked for...oh well

[Drake Palmer]

Some days you just get the bear –and no, not WBHR 660AM out of St. Cloud.  Man, what a day!

I only had a minute to look around at the board today, but look at how the Johnnies get to close the out the first half of conference play & year end.

SJU

1/9/2010       Concordia College Collegeville, Minn.   3 p.m.      
1/13/2010    Hamline University St. Paul, Minn.   7:30 p.m.       
1/16/2010    University of St. Thomas St. Paul, Minn. (CSP)   8 p.m.       
1/18/2010    Gustavus Adolphus College Collegeville, Minn.   7:30 p.m.       

2/6/2010       Concordia College Moorhead, Minn. 3 p.m.       
2/10/2010    Augsburg College Minneapolis, Minn. 7:30 p.m.       
2/13/2010    University of St. Thomas Collegeville, Minn. 3 p.m.       
2/17/2010    Hamline University Collegeville, Minn. 7:30 p.m.       
2/20/2010    Gustavus Adolphus College St. Peter, Minn.3 p.m.       

HAMLINE

1/9 @ GAC
1/13  SJU
1/18 UST @ MAC

2/6 GAC
2/10 @ SMU
2/17 @ SJU
2/20 UST

The Gusties & Tommies don't have slouch schedules either, but looks like a fairly rugged road ahead for the Johnnies & Pipes.

[piperinsider]

PI and roommate are about two hours away from departing for St. Peter for the clash of the century!

No Hamline baseball jersey today - just too cold. Maybe a blue Columbia zipup. Come say hi.

Let's play!

[Drake Palmer]

Tick-tock, tick, tock, upset of the century, or are the Gusties just who we thought they were? Tick, tock, tick, tock.

Some of my family roots are from the St. Louis area & riverboat gamblers which makes me wanna say – "roll the dice, Drake, Pipes all the way!"

On the the other hand, my more modest, self effacing, conservative MN lineage & education tells me, "easy there big guy, there ville always be another day. Percentages say, slow & steady, homecourt advantage, & Sam Paulson style wins the race."

Tick-tock, tick, tock...

Read 'em & weep, roll em Drake!

Yah for sure, Drake, easy there. The nort wind behind those Piper boys ven they leave the Twin Cities vill make them vonder vat happened to them ven they roll down HWY 169.

Shriek!

Have fun fellas!  Even if the Pipers lose, I hope the score is in the 80s! Take that Gustie defense!  

[Drake Palmer]

[MiacLostProphet]

close game in st. peter, going back in forth or the lead.  No Hipp on the floor since i've been watching the webcast, score now is 58-57 gusties. lets go pipes

[MiacLostProphet]

Hipp back in, i'm guessing foul trouble was his reason for being out.  Gusties running an effective offense like usual, anderson has been playing huge for the gusties.  3 min to go, 65-61 gusties

[MiacLostProphet]

UGH, Gustavus sqeeks out a win over the Pipes at home.  I only saw the last few minutes but gustavus had to rely on a few deep threes to seal this one.  That doesn't sound like the gusty way according to Gacman, so i wonder if the Pipers D was doing well tonite. Not that i expect WW or Gman to acknowledge that.  But PI would, what was your take on the game?

Anyone see any of the other games?

[piperinsider]

Lost, others-

What a great game between two playoff teams. Would love to see these two meet in the 4/5 game or even 3/6 I guess. Hamline threw everything they had at them early on and led by as many as nine points. But the second line of Seth "Mr. Maple River" Anderson, Tyler "Trey" Grey, Michael "Shutdown" Crowder and Paul "Look to pass" Blacklock was the difference in the second half.

Ray "Downtown" Brown was spectacular (26 points on 9-21 shooting), but he was all alone for most of the game. For the second straight Saturday Carl Hipp was shaky, posting only seven points. And no, it was not foul trouble. He just never looked comfortable. He refused to dribble forcing him into awkward misses. He was a non-factor. The other two scorers - Aguirre took one shot and Schmidt took only four. Neither really looked for a jump shot and part of that was the defensive pressure outside of the arc by the Gusties.

Hamline was the opposite - outstanding defense inside, but left too much room on the outside. Then again, Seth Anderson did drain a 30-footer and Phil Wirtjes came up big late as well. The Gusties were just deadly down the stretch. Anderson had a fabulous game, going 6-for-8 for 15 points. Wirtjes had 16 points, which made up for Van Sickle's 2-for-10 performance and Sam Paulson not doing much after the opening minutes.

But the player of the game was Michael Crowder - as Wonka put it "the 10th man." The senior's defense on Brown down the stretch was key. Brown did hit one three on him late but Crowder took away his dribble drive which Paulson had no answer for.

Despite all of this, Hamline still had a chance to win, which shows why they are a very solid team. Guard Levi Weinrich missed two free throws in the final minute - can't have that from a guard especially when the guy goes around his body with the ball before releasing his shot. Weinrich struggled from the line against Carleton as well. Dan Anderson also got a look with 11 seconds left from the corner which could have tied it at 69. Not sure why the play was setup to go to the corner as he seems to be deadly from the top of the circle.

All-in-all a great game. +K to the cheerleaders and the dance team.

[Gacman]

Lost, others-

What a great game between two playoff teams. Would love to see these two meet in the 4/5 game or even 3/6 I guess. Hamline threw everything they had at them early on and led by as many as nine points. But the second line of Seth "Mr. Maple River" Anderson, Tyler "Trey" Grey, Michael "Shutdown" Crowder and Paul "Look to pass" Blacklock was the difference in the second half.

Ray "Downtown" Brown was spectacular (26 points on 9-21 shooting), but he was all alone for most of the game. For the second straight Saturday Carl Hipp was shaky, posting only seven points. And no, it was not foul trouble. He just never looked comfortable. He refused to dribble forcing him into awkward misses. He was a non-factor. The other two scorers - Aguirre took one shot and Schmidt took only four. Neither really looked for a jump shot and part of that was the defensive pressure outside of the arc by the Gusties.

Hamline was the opposite - outstanding defense inside, but left too much room on the outside. Then again, Seth Anderson did drain a 30-footer and Phil Wirtjes came up big late as well. The Gusties were just deadly down the stretch. Anderson had a fabulous game, going 6-for-8 for 15 points. Wirtjes had 16 points, which made up for Van Sickle's 2-for-10 performance and Sam Paulson not doing much after the opening minutes.

But the player of the game was Michael Crowder - as Wonka put it "the 10th man." The senior's defense on Brown down the stretch was key. Brown did hit one three on him late but Crowder took away his dribble drive which Paulson had no answer for.

Despite all of this, Hamline still had a chance to win, which shows why they are a very solid team. Guard Levi Weinrich missed two free throws in the final minute - can't have that from a guard especially when the guy goes around his body with the ball before releasing his shot. Weinrich struggled from the line against Carleton as well. Dan Anderson also got a look with 11 seconds left from the corner which could have tied it at 69. Not sure why the play was setup to go to the corner as he seems to be deadly from the top of the circle.

All-in-all a great game. +K to the cheerleaders and the dance team.

Nice recap. I wasn't at the game but looking at the box score, a few things stood out to me that maybe you could comment on PI. First, the leading rebounding team in the conference gets ourtrebounded by 18 and only has 3 offensive rebounds. Second, 18 assists for GAC and only 8 for HAM. Lastly, and you touched on this a little, but Hipp was a nonfactor. Did the musical posts by the gusties frustrate him or was it more Hipp just not being aggressive? These three stat lines seem to be pretty significant.  Your thoughts PI?

[huhoops]

Lost, others-

What a great game between two playoff teams. Would love to see these two meet in the 4/5 game or even 3/6 I guess. Hamline threw everything they had at them early on and led by as many as nine points. But the second line of Seth "Mr. Maple River" Anderson, Tyler "Trey" Grey, Michael "Shutdown" Crowder and Paul "Look to pass" Blacklock was the difference in the second half.

Ray "Downtown" Brown was spectacular (26 points on 9-21 shooting), but he was all alone for most of the game. For the second straight Saturday Carl Hipp was shaky, posting only seven points. And no, it was not foul trouble. He just never looked comfortable. He refused to dribble forcing him into awkward misses. He was a non-factor. The other two scorers - Aguirre took one shot and Schmidt took only four. Neither really looked for a jump shot and part of that was the defensive pressure outside of the arc by the Gusties.

Hamline was the opposite - outstanding defense inside, but left too much room on the outside. Then again, Seth Anderson did drain a 30-footer and Phil Wirtjes came up big late as well. The Gusties were just deadly down the stretch. Anderson had a fabulous game, going 6-for-8 for 15 points. Wirtjes had 16 points, which made up for Van Sickle's 2-for-10 performance and Sam Paulson not doing much after the opening minutes.

But the player of the game was Michael Crowder - as Wonka put it "the 10th man." The senior's defense on Brown down the stretch was key. Brown did hit one three on him late but Crowder took away his dribble drive which Paulson had no answer for.

Despite all of this, Hamline still had a chance to win, which shows why they are a very solid team. Guard Levi Weinrich missed two free throws in the final minute - can't have that from a guard especially when the guy goes around his body with the ball before releasing his shot. Weinrich struggled from the line against Carleton as well. Dan Anderson also got a look with 11 seconds left from the corner which could have tied it at 69. Not sure why the play was setup to go to the corner as he seems to be deadly from the top of the circle.

All-in-all a great game. +K to the cheerleaders and the dance team.

Congrats to Gustavus, not a pretty win, but a win nonetheless. I think we were all interested to see how the rebounding battle would play out and the Gusties didn't disappoint. Not only did they shut down one of the best rebounding teams in the conference (HU), but they made Carl Hipp a complete non-factor in the process.

PI  ...26 points on 21 shots is NOT "spectacular". The Gusties made it clear that they were going to focus their energies on Hipp and let Brown try to beat them from the outside (11 three point shots--made 4). Although Brown was hot shooting in the first half, it was great coaching by Hanson to stick to the script and allow Brown to try to carry HU from the outside, as he went 3-10 in the second half. Every single time that Brown went strong to the basket, he scored or something good happened. I've said this before and I'll say it again, Ray Brown shooting 6+ three point shots per game will end in HU losses.

It looked like HU was almost luring everyone on GAC to shoot besides Grey (3/4--8pts) and Van Sickle (2/10--4pts). It was almost like a match up zone of some sort.

Gacman... GAC kept pounding it inside and got a lot of tough boards for put backs. On the other end, it was a combo of poor shot selection which left little room for offensive boards and very solid GAC box outs. Should be another fun one at Hutton next month.

On to the Johnnies... 

[piperinsider]

Maybe Brown was not spectactular (sp) shooting wise, but he was by far the best player on the court Saturday and it wasn't close. Yes, he forced some shots including with four seconds left in the first half, then again, no one and I mean no one was willing to take a shot down the stretch. Brown was the only offense Hamline had Saturday.

Hipp was being physical down low and getting himself into good positions but A.) Couldn't finish B.) Never dribbled toward the basket, so he would just try these floaters that would usually air ball. He was terrible.

As HUHoops said, tough to rebound when Brown was on the outside most of the time offensively. As for defense, numerous times I saw the Pipers fail to box out and try to jump for the rebound. They also seemed to be too tight to the rim and when Schmidtknecht was shooting (he pumped faked 20x in the game) the ball was coming off hard.

Forgot to mention...great job by GAC to stay with their offense throughout the game. They were patient, passed the ball well and set great screens - moving without the ball - typical Gustavus team.

[Willy Wonka]

You know what's fun? When your team tries a controversial tactic and a coach tells you afterward that he was trying to see your reaction to it from across the gym. Let's just say I might have been making Billy Boy's Peyton Manning Face when Paulson started on Brown...but it's hard to argue with the results.

Outside of his quick start, Brown looked a little unsure of how to react. As has been said, he seemed pretty content to bomb away from deep. When he had some success driving, Crowder came off the bench to play important minutes for the first time this year and was a stud — 6 and 6 in 14 minutes, some much-needed defense on Ray Ray and a sure-to-have-been-ridiculous postgame interview (was anyone listening??). If I still had extra time to run my blog, he would definitely be quoted using some...colorful language. I guaranSheed he's in the rotation against the Tommies, and he should help match their strength and athleticism.

Hipp was worse than a non-factor. I'd go so far as to call him an offensive liability in today's game. He literally looked like he had never touched a basketball in going 1-7 in the first half, mostly on awkward layups that didn't even hit the rim despite being two feet away. I nearly asked this week if a non-AC player the year before had ever made the jump to MVP, but I'm stunned Hipp's in the MVP discussion after what I saw today.

That said, I actually was very, very impressed by the Pipers. They played very tough, physical defense and have better depth around their two studs than I was expecting, though secondary scorers is an issue. Nick Carroll, in particular, had a nice game on both ends of the floor — he guarded Van Sickle. And that offense has the potential to give the Gusties fits if it's run well (see: SJU with Keating, Bigalke, Nester, etc). Avoiding them in the playoffs would be nice, assuming the Pipes don't have a meltdown here...

Plays of the Game
• Seth Anderson is a person after my own heart. Son of a prominent HS coach in southern MN who rarely let him shoot threes, doesn't own a single pair of jeans, Hanson is questioning his 30-foot fling as he lets it go...and then it's all smiles when it goes down. His dad said it was the longest shot he's ever attempted and it capped a ridiculous game — 14 pts, 4 reb and 6 ast in just 20 minutes.

As weird as it might seem, Anderson's bench showdown with UST's Healy could very well decide Wednesday's game. Anderson earned his minutes with defense, but his offensive production has quietly been spectacular. His length, quickness and intelligence could be handy against Nicolai, Healy or even Scott.

• Weinrich's free throw routine is a disaster. He does the Gilbert Arenas thing and then has a terrible hitch in his release. His two misses took some of the late-game drama out of the building...even if the GAC fans barely noticed. After that, Brown nearly fell down trying to make a move before passing to "red-hot" Dan Anderson for the potential game-tying trey in the closing seconds.