MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Buddo]

Interesting story here, though the actual writing is sketchy. It might set a record for most quotes ever used in one article.

http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?z=22&a=435695

I guess they didn't know about the old rule of never following a quote with another quote...

[piperinsider]

Red Hot Vipers 68, Oles 65
Brown 24, Hipp 20

Caught the silent webcast with the camera on the scoreboard

[VOJ]

St. Mary's surprises GAC 78-75...Carleton with a big home win over Concordia and Mac gets beat by Bethel..Tommies beat the Auggies by 11 77-66

[piperinsider]

We comin GAC and we got you at home the second time around 

[Willy Wonka]

St. Mary's surprises GAC 78-75...Carleton with a big home win over Concordia and Mac gets beat by Bethel..Tommies beat the Auggies by 11 77-66

Simply put, GAC had no answer for the 5-out offense. McPartland, in particular, looked very out of place chasing rather than banging. While Paulson did a solid job of holding Palmer in check, McPartland (and Blacklock, to a lesser extent) got torched by whoever he was guarding before fouling out on two silly perimeter fouls in the closing minutes. Van Sickle wasn't exactly a defensive liability, but he was very ineffective and had some costly turnovers late.

Pat Freeman scored most of his 11 in an opening flurry and then 6-7 freshman Michael Burfiend came off the bench to sling unguarded set shots from the hip. I don't think he shot anything closer than 12 feet and he finished with 17 points. Without doing any research, I've got to think those both might be career highs.

SMU finished with 22 assists and got open looks most of the night. Wright hit a couple tough, contested shots en route to 14 points in the first, but the 2-man bench took over in the second half. Sims and Burfiend, both freshmen, combined to score 16 huge points on 6-7 shooting.

The Cards shot 58% on the game, which has got to be the worst GAC defense in years. Outside of a 13-0 run over about 4 minutes in the second half by the Gusties, SMU was in control. That said, I doubt the non Big 3 Cards combined to shoot 16-26 again any time soon.

A sliver of a silver lining for the Gusties would be the offense it displayed Wednesday. It got production from just about everyone, though the lack of a "go to" scorer and/or slasher is reflected in the lack of free throw attempts. Against a more traditional offensive attack, I expect the defense to return.

For all the inconsistency the Gusties have showed - losing to three non playoff teams - they still have a two-game lead for the bye in the conference tourney.

[AO]

From the main page:

St. Mary's (Minn.) beat Gustavus Adolphus 78-75, defeating the Gusties for the first time since Feb. 11, 1987, despite playing just seven players

Wow. I'm guessing their losing streak vs. the Tommies is similar.  How has St. Mary's stuck with it for so many years?  Their last title was 1940. 

[Willy Wonka]

Interesting story here, though the actual writing is sketchy. It might set a record for most quotes ever used in one article.

http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?z=22&a=435695

I guess they didn't know about the old rule of never following a quote with another quote...

Or a quote with a quote with a quote with a quote with a...well, you get the idea. There are TEN straight quotes used in that piece, including 14 in the final 15 graphs. Yikes!

[Buddo]

St. Mary's surprises GAC 78-75...Carleton with a big home win over Concordia and Mac gets beat by Bethel..Tommies beat the Auggies by 11 77-66

Simply put, GAC had no answer for the 5-out offense. McPartland, in particular, looked very out of place chasing rather than banging. While Paulson did a solid job of holding Palmer in check, McPartland (and Blacklock, to a lesser extent) got torched by whoever he was guarding before fouling out on two silly perimeter fouls in the closing minutes. Van Sickle wasn't exactly a defensive liability, but he was very ineffective and had some costly turnovers late.

Pat Freeman scored most of his 11 in an opening flurry and then 6-7 freshman Michael Burfiend came off the bench to sling unguarded set shots from the hip. I don't think he shot anything closer than 12 feet and he finished with 17 points. Without doing any research, I've got to think those both might be career highs.

SMU finished with 22 assists and got open looks most of the night. Wright hit a couple tough, contested shots en route to 14 points in the first, but the 2-man bench took over in the second half. Sims and Burfiend, both freshmen, combined to score 16 huge points on 6-7 shooting.

The Cards shot 58% on the game, which has got to be the worst GAC defense in years. Outside of a 13-0 run over about 4 minutes in the second half by the Gusties, SMU was in control. That said, I doubt the non Big 3 Cards combined to shoot 16-26 again any time soon.

A sliver of a silver lining for the Gusties would be the offense it displayed Wednesday. It got production from just about everyone, though the lack of a "go to" scorer and/or slasher is reflected in the lack of free throw attempts. Against a more traditional offensive attack, I expect the defense to return.

The Cardinals finally played near to their full potential.

Four players were in double figures for SMU, led by Wright with 18, then Burfeind 17, Freeman 11, Palmer 10, and Sims 9 pts and 5 ast.

GAC had four in dubs as well... heck you can just see the box score here, no need to type everything out. http://saintmaryssports.com/custompages/mbball/2009/0127GACM.HTM

Freeman actually has had a career high of 15 earlier this year, but yeah tonight was good for him. 2-4 from 3... Wright was 3-6 from outside and Sims was clutch for 2-2 in two huge shots.

Burfeind shot 8-10 tonight on LONG twos, mostly from the baseline. I knew he could shoot for a 6'7" kid, but he was simply hot tonight.

I wasn't all that impressed by GAC. I can tell they are highly disciplined and that Van Sickle is a good guard. McPartland had a quiet 16 and 8, never would have guessed he had that many points.

The best thing about this game for Mary's is that it brings out two/three more kids that can contribute... besides Holland/Wright/Palmer (three-headed monster), Freeman/Burfeind/Sims came up big. They actually only brought 2 guys off the bench tonight. And if you think about it... of the 7 that played, four were juniors and three were freshman. This will be a nice, experienced team next year.

Two last notes: Holland has to have the nicest pull-up elbow J in the league. Also, this is the first time SMU has beaten GAC since 1987!!

[Buddo]

A few more notes that I forgot:

- Paul Blacklock had a big two-handed dunk off a breakaway. Watch out for his brother who is a junior at Winona High, he's already 6'5" and dunking on kids as a junior. Winona big man Alec Brown was also in the crowd... Brown is a 7-footer with eight D-1 offers right now.

- I thought Sam Paulson was about to take over. SMU needs a true post, badly! As good as Freeman/Palmer/Connelly can be, none of them are true, back-to-the-basket type guys. Paulson ended up with 14 as SMU defended just well enough to make him miss a few times.

- Palmer had a little cooler of a night after a blazing last few games. He had 10 but had a few three-point attempts rim in and out.

- Coach Landrum for SMU had great game management. He took timeouts at the perfect moments, controlling the game carefully.

Overall it was a great decision to drive down tonight and catch a game at SMU, haven't been there in a while!

[bballfan247365]

Koz, Koz, Koz......

Pipes find away to over come 21 turnovers and send the Olies back to the Malt-O-Meal factory with yet another heart breaker to the resume...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyVgBenzGDM

MVP??

[VOJ]

Koz, Koz, Koz......

Pipes find away to over come 21 turnovers and send the Olies back to the Malt-O-Meal factory with yet another heart breaker to the resume...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyVgBenzGDM

MVP??

Guess the old saying of the guy inbounding the ball is the most dangerous guy on the floor?   

Hamline defends their home floor while the Oles will try to bounce back quicky this weekend...

Huge win for the Cardinals, great momentum builder heading into their roady to Collegeville.

None of the other games played yesterday were really suprising with their results.   

[huhoops]

Koz, Koz, Koz......

Pipes find away to over come 21 turnovers and send the Olies back to the Malt-O-Meal factory with yet another heart breaker to the resume...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyVgBenzGDM

MVP??

HU DOMINATED every category on the box score and narrowly pulls it out due to turnovers. Reminds me of another sports team we know and love (had they won!)   

Neville was on a mission on STO's closing possession. Two big offensive boards and knocked down the game tying three.

Fong was lights out in the first half. 17 points in the first 20 minutes

STO relys on the three ball too much. They have capable shooters, but if they're not falling, you need plan B. Jaryan did a nice job getting to the hole in the second half.

HU @ CAR should be a good one. These two teams are both playing at a high level right now and they have very contradicting styles.

[Nites]

Great win by the Cardinals, and a well executed article by the SMU Sports Information Office.  http://www.saintmaryssports.com/news/2010/1/27/MBB_0127101125.aspx

[MiacMadness]

Koz, Koz, Koz......

Pipes find away to over come 21 turnovers and send the Olies back to the Malt-O-Meal factory with yet another heart breaker to the resume...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyVgBenzGDM

MVP??

Great ending to a great game.  Ray Brown is the BEST player in this league.  MVP in my eyes.  Hamline has significantly improved from previous years and he is the main reason.  I also like Hipp as he had a huge game last night.  I think 6th man should go to Dan Anderson.  I've been looking at their box scores and in 4 games this kid shot 12/12 on 3's. That is being productive and playing your role.  He may not average the points Seth Anderson or Sam Blank are who are my other candidates for 6th man but he is playing half their minutes.  Also he's shooting 55.6% from 3 in conference games.  Incredible.  I'd like to see him have a 20+ minute game to see what he can do with it.

[ChairmanYao]

Great win for the Pipes. When was the last time this team started 8-5 in conference? It has to be years. There are still far far far too many turnovers. Brown, as many amazing plays as he makes, is much to reckless with the ball. He could also be averaging 4-6 more points per game if he would just lay the ball in instead of going for a dunk every time and missing. He clanked three last night. Although HU wouldn't have near the success they are having without him, so I guess you take the good with the bad.

Last three years playing at Carleton:

08-09- L 66-82
07-08- L 65-84
06-07- L 61-98

Ugly losses. Here's hoping it's not four and they keep on rolling.