MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[huhoops]

Are the Gusties having trouble with the grind of the MIAC season? A loss to Carleton at home and a loss at St. Mary's in their last three games... How does a team beat UST and fall to SMU in the same season? Maybe there is a little more parity in the league than I thought. They have two very winnable home games on the horizon so they'll probably get back on track.

Brown got that shot off because of a good head fake, but I agree. That's the best shot you can find for a game-winner? He's a great athlete, but someone should remind him if he's missing dunks that D3 games aren't on CBS. It's not about the show, put it in the basket and get your two points.

UST's road is paved to another regular season MIAC title. All games are tough, but their next REAL test will be against Carleton Feb. 6. Augsburg could also give them a good battle if they don't show up ready to play.

Interesting match up on Monday as St. Olaf hosts Carleton. Both are battling for their playoff lives, and St. Olaf will honor Carleton AD Leon Lunder at halftime. The Oles get the basketball goat trophy with a win.

UST is done with AUG for the regular season

[sumander]

tagging off my earlier post STOLAF sits at 6-6 in the conference with remaining games @AUG,CAR,@SJU,@BET,GAC,MAC,@SMU,@CORD. Hmmm, now that I think about it maybe a 9-11 team makes the playoffs

[MiacLostProphet]

VOJ- now overflowing hamline bandwagon? We've been here all year, maybe you are just realizing how good the pipers can be.  Maybe a SJU-HAM showdown is coming in the playoffs again....Hopefully with the same result as last time

Chariman- doesn't the New 15 for Hamline have those same sick hops that the old 15 for Hamline had? He for sure has the shooting stroke.

[VOJ]

VOJ- now overflowing hamline bandwagon? We've been here all year, maybe you are just realizing how good the pipers can be.  Maybe a SJU-HAM showdown is coming in the playoffs again....Hopefully with the same result as last time

Chariman- doesn't the New 15 for Hamline have those same sick hops that the old 15 for Hamline had? He for sure has the shooting stroke.

Hmmm I guess I didn't notice you as much during the 3-4 start or after the game with the Tommies

[Buddo]

Steve can definitely jump out of the gym.(again, we need more d3 dunks on youtube)

Here's a Will Wright dunk in traffic against Carleton, skip to 0:45 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whJnKPdhJug

Also, here's the highlights from the SMU win over GAC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MknL6n5IYGo

[MiacMadness]

Steve can definitely jump out of the gym.(again, we need more d3 dunks on youtube)

Here's a Will Wright dunk in traffic against Carleton, skip to 0:45 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whJnKPdhJug

Also, here's the highlights from the SMU win over GAC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MknL6n5IYGo

That was pretty nice.  He didn't even look like he gave it any effort at all.  Nice dunk over Rosett and Biewin

[miacsuperfan]

veterans of the board,
does gac's upset win over ust weigh more heavily in the (+) column than the two mid-season losses to bu and smu weigh in the (- ) column when it comes to ncaa seedings/at large bids et. al?   can anyone comment?   the balance in the league is fun, but it does create the impression that maybe there isn't another really good team in the league besides ust, at least at first glance.     do we have to hope for ust losing in the playoffs to have a chance at a second ncaa bid?

[huhoops]

veterans of the board,
does gac's upset win over ust weigh more heavily in the (+) column than the two mid-season losses to bu and smu weigh in the (- ) column when it comes to ncaa seedings/at large bids et. al?   can anyone comment?   the balance in the league is fun, but it does create the impression that maybe there isn't another really good team in the league besides ust, at least at first glance.     do we have to hope for ust losing in the playoffs to have a chance at a second ncaa bid?

Not a "vet"... but I'm thinking GAC, HU, or AUG would have to win out and get to minimally the conference semi-finals (probably championship). As OldUMAC said, not likely. AUG might still not get in because their non conference wasn't really tough (best win against UWRF). This is where GAC playing D2's and Bethany Lutheran will work against them. They do have one quality win against Buena Vista (@ BV) but that might not be enough. Objectively, HU's non conference schedule will really work to their advantage with wins against Northwestern and Buena Vista (@ home), then against Wheaton (neutral) and Cal Lu(away). I'd say HU has the best shot to get in on a bid if they win out.

[oldjammer]

Steve can definitely jump out of the gym.(again, we need more d3 dunks on youtube)

Here's a Will Wright dunk in traffic against Carleton, skip to 0:45 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whJnKPdhJug

Also, here's the highlights from the SMU win over GAC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MknL6n5IYGo

Thanks for the SMU highlights---when ww says mcp got torched on defense a person needs to see for themselves if that is a fact as ww has had a hard-on for various folks for a long time.

I think I got my answer

[MiacMadness]

I didn't see much of McPartland getting torched.

I did see 6 shots go in right in front of Paulson and a couple of dribble drives against him that ended up being assists because help defense needed to occur.

I know not everything made the highlight reel but thats what showed up.

[Willy Wonka]

Steve can definitely jump out of the gym.(again, we need more d3 dunks on youtube)

Here's a Will Wright dunk in traffic against Carleton, skip to 0:45 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whJnKPdhJug

Also, here's the highlights from the SMU win over GAC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MknL6n5IYGo

Thanks for the SMU highlights---when ww says mcp got torched on defense a person needs to see for themselves if that is a fact as ww has had a hard-on for various folks for a long time.

I think I got my answer

And who, praytell, would my previous statement suggest I have a hard-on for exactly? 

I'll gladly admit that a few buckets I thought were given up by McP weren't actually on him. A couple were by Blacklock, as I also mentioned, a few were by Paulson and at least one was by Crowder. When the other team shoots 58%, there's really no one who should escape blame.

IMO Paulson was included in the mix based almost exclusively on switches or transition stuff since he was matched with Palmer similar to what GAC tried against Brown and the two played almost identical minutes. Though it doesn't absolve him of blame, the splicing of highlight video makes that hard to understand.

Generally speaking, it was the trio of McP/Blacklock/Crowder that "held" Freeman and Burfeind to 28 points, or roughly 8000% of their combined season average. But, as has been pointed out, everyone contributed to that deficiency.

McP may have stuck out more in my mind because of his poor defensive finish. He had two dumb fouls in the final 100 seconds which led to four freebies. In a close game, that's tough. Paulson or Blacklock (I forget which) had his own about 35 feet from the basket with under 5 seconds on the shot clock closer to the end. In fact, SMU only had to make one basket in the final four minutes because GAC fouled so much.

I'm actually a little surprised that Michel didn't get some burn yesterday. I've only seen him in limited action, but that seems like a better matchup for the perimeter-based "posts" SMU was throwing out there.

[VOJ]

veterans of the board,
does gac's upset win over ust weigh more heavily in the (+) column than the two mid-season losses to bu and smu weigh in the (- ) column when it comes to ncaa seedings/at large bids et. al?   can anyone comment?   the balance in the league is fun, but it does create the impression that maybe there isn't another really good team in the league besides ust, at least at first glance.     do we have to hope for ust losing in the playoffs to have a chance at a second ncaa bid?

I could be wrong about this and I am suprised Sensei' Sager has not addressed this but, I am not sure the selection committee goes that in-depth into who you played or where you played but rather your overall record against DIII competition and your in-region record against DIII competition...that said I would think it works the same as in football where wins over RANKED regional opponents mean more I would say that someone would have to knock off the Tommies to get two teams in

[AO]

veterans of the board,
does gac's upset win over ust weigh more heavily in the (+) column than the two mid-season losses to bu and smu weigh in the (- ) column when it comes to ncaa seedings/at large bids et. al?   can anyone comment?   the balance in the league is fun, but it does create the impression that maybe there isn't another really good team in the league besides ust, at least at first glance.     do we have to hope for ust losing in the playoffs to have a chance at a second ncaa bid?

I could be wrong about this and I am suprised Sensei' Sager has not addressed this but, I am not sure the selection committee goes that in-depth into who you played or where you played but rather your overall record against DIII competition and your in-region record against DIII competition...that said I would think it works the same as in football where wins over RANKED regional opponents mean more I would say that someone would have to knock off the Tommies to get two teams in

Knightslappy over in the pool c board has Gustavus and Augsburg both likely to just miss pool c bids if the season were to end today.  With the st. mary's loss, Gustavus dropped from getting the 14th pool c bid (out of 19) to 29th, while the auggies dropped from 21st to 26th.  Gustavus' Strength of schedule should move up well in the last 7 games with the majority of the top teams left on the schedule creating an opportunity to move up and get a bid even if they lose to the tommies and get knocked off in the conf tourney. 

[sumander]

VOJ, You are on the right path. The NCAA Handbook lays out the primary and secondary criteria for Pool B & Pool C bids. Specifically the primary criteria is:

The primary criteria emphasize regional competition (all contests leading up to NCAA
championships); all criteria listed will be evaluated (not listed in priority order).
• Win-loss percentage against regional opponents.
• Strength-of-schedule (only contests versus regional competition).
- Opponents' Average Winning Percentage (OWP).
- Opponents' Opponents' Average Winning Percentage (OOWP).
[See Appendix B for explanation of OWP and OOWP calculations.]
• In-region head-to-head competition.
• In-region results versus common regional opponents.
• In-region results versus regionally ranked teams.
Note:
• Ranked opponents are defined as those teams ranked at any time of the rankings/
selection process.
• Conference postseason contests are included.
• Contests versus provisional and reclassifying members in their third and fourth
years shall count in the primary criteria. Provisional and reclassifying members
shall remain ineligible for rankings and selections.
Weighted Scale. For a minimum of two championship seasons (2009-10 and 2010-
11), a weighted scale will apply. Once the OWP and OOWP are calculated, they are
to be combined on a weighted scalre (e.g., 2/3 weight for OWP and 1/3 weight for
OOWP) and this combined number becomes the strength of schedule.

The secondary criteria is:

If the evaluation of the primary criteria does not result in a decision, the
secondary criteria will be reviewed. All the criteria listed will be evaluated (not
listed in priority order). The secondary criteria introduce results against out-of-region
Division III and all other opponents including those contests versus opponents from
other classifications (i.e., provisionals, NAIA, NCAA Divisions I and II).
• Out-of-region head-to-head competition.
• Overall Division III win-loss percentage.
• Results versus common non Division III opponents.
• Results versus all Division III ranked teams.
• Overall win-loss percentage.
• Results versus all common opponents.
• Overall DIII strength of schedule.
• Should a committee find that evaluation of a team's win-loss percentage during 25
percent of the season is applicable, (i.e., end-of-seasn performance), it may adopt such
criteria with approval from the championships committee.

[Nites]

USELESS FRIDAY FREE THROW TRIVIA

Without looking, can anyone guess (based upon season stats):

1.    Who is the only player in the league who has played at least 200 minutes but has not yet made a trip to the free throw line?

                 Hint: He is among the league leaders in 3 point field goal percentage.

2.    Based upon a minimum of 20 attempts, who, at 7-26 (.269), is the worst free throw shooter in the league?

                  Hint: He is among the league leaders in blocked shots.

3.    Who has the most free throw attempts on the season?  (I got this one so no hints.)

                 Bonus question: Who has the most free throw attempts per game (50 attempts minimum)?

                                       Hint: He has 1 free throw attempt less (96 total) than the free throw attempt leader.