MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Buddo]

VOJ- easy big fella, easy.  There you go. "And how in the world was I passing judgment?? Helicopter parents yes, specifically Johnnies  - no.  GAWD!!   

SJU has the most annoying parents in the conference.

Buddo just when I was starting to like you...what is so annoying?  The fact that they show up to most road games and support their sons?  If you are talking about comments from the cheap seats, then you might as well lump every parent in the MIAC into your argument..because I have been in every gym and at one time or another in the past 11 seasons I have heard it from every schools parents/supporters.

I'm sure every school has their moments... I probably spoke too hastily. I'm just real scarred from a SJU game a few years back where it stood out to me as some of the worst behavior and complaining from parents that I've seen. Don't get me wrong, I love what they're doing up in Collegeville. There's nothing like Johnnie football.

[sumander]

You can forget about the Pool C bid talk with Hamline....down 45-27 with 3:03 left in the first half at SMU. 45!!!! Play some freaking defense!

I believe we can now lay to rest any Pool C talk about both HAM & GAC. Nice W for Auggie Tech. May have kept their slim Pool C hopes alive.

J's have a tough row to hoe. UST & HAM @C-ville and GAC on the road to end the season. My guess is they get the Pipes with the broken down band wagon next Wednesday and are in the playoffs.

[AO]

You can forget about the Pool C bid talk with Hamline....down 45-27 with 3:03 left in the first half at SMU. 45!!!! Play some freaking defense!

I believe we can now lay to rest any Pool C talk about both HAM & GAC. Nice W for Auggie Tech. May have kept their slim Pool C hopes alive.

J's have a tough row to hoe. UST & HAM @C-ville and GAC on the road to end the season. My guess is they get the Pipes with the broken down band wagon next Wednesday and are in the playoffs.

Augsburg now looks like the last pool c hopeful standing from the MIAC, but unfortunately unlike hamline, gustavus and the johnnies, they won't have any wins over regionally ranked teams on selection Sunday.  Their SOS is going to go down in the next few games with Bethel and St. Mary's left on the schedule, but you've got to think that if they win out and lose the title game to the Tommies, the committee would have to consider that 3 of their 7 losses came to a potential top-seed in the tournament.

[huhoops]

This will/has been the only time all year I won't give any extensive on the HU game. I turned it off at half time in disgust. Totally reminiscent of the early season losses. No defense, too many threes, no regard for taking care of the ball. It's great that Brown scored 33, but 7 turnovers and 7 threes is right back to what he was doing "Pre-California." Possibly the recent publicity is getting to him mentally, it would only be human. 17 turnovers against a sub-par defensive team isn't going to put you in a great position to win.

The boys had better find a way to scrape 1 decent road win together next week in Collegeville, or they are all but guaranteed an away game for the playoffs.

On a lighter note, congrats to AUG on the nice win. If they can find a way to sneak one out in Northfield on Saturday, I think we have our #2 seed.

[piperinsider]

Wonka - I was one of those three that picked Auggie Tech based on schedule.

VOJ - I said fading, not faded. That's two losses in a row....I'd also use the word fading for Gustavus, who has lost three of four to HAM, STO and AUG.

HuHoops - I believe four or five of Ray's threes came with the Pipers down 16-20 points. That's the only way Hamline was coming back. St. Mary's was unstoppable on offense.

I'll say it again, the two most important players on offense for the Vipers down the stretch will be Aguirre and Schmidt. Brown and a healthy Hipp will get theirs, but you need another guys to chip in with 8-10 points. Carroll isn't a scorer, so the two other starters need to step up.

Barring a snowstorm, I'll be traveling up Highway 15 for the SJU tilt next Wednesday.

[AO]

This will/has been the only time all year I won't give any extensive on the HU game. I turned it off at half time in disgust. Totally reminiscent of the early season losses. No defense, too many threes, no regard for taking care of the ball. It's great that Brown scored 33, but 7 turnovers and 7 threes is right back to what he was doing "Pre-California." Possibly the recent publicity is getting to him mentally, it would only be human. 17 turnovers against a sub-par defensive team isn't going to put you in a great position to win.

The boys had better find a way to scrape 1 decent road win together next week in Collegeville, or they are all but guaranteed an away game for the playoffs.

On a lighter note, congrats to AUG on the nice win. If they can find a way to sneak one out in Northfield on Saturday, I think we have our #2 seed.

I'm not normally one to defend downtown brown, but he did take 5 of his 7 attempted threes in the 2nd half after Hamline was well into catch-up mode.  The guy still shot 55% from the field, with the rest of the team shooting 1/10 from three and 40% overall.  Poor defense by the pipers leading to 35 free throws are to blame.  I don't know who was guarding who, but the hamline forwards gave up a career high to gary seifert, and holland and sims were apparently racing around the hamline guards and marching to the free throw line.  

[Drake Palmer]

A night of head scratchers...

STO 77-69 (OT) GAC
I'm wondering if the absence of Stu Neville from the lineup forced the Oles to modify their offense & spread the floor which threw the Gusties' game plan off.

SMU 98-78 HAM
I understand if Hipp was sick, but jeez 98 points by the Birds?? That's a beat down.  Too bad the Birds didn't stop at 96 points, I would have posted a great musical dusty out of the jukebox archives.  

Augsburg 78-63 SJU
Personally, I like how Augsburg runs their offense, but I just didn't think they had the defenders to shut down the Jays the way they did last night.

Seems like the TO bugaboo is starting to bother the Johnnies again.  Not a good recipe for success when you're fighting for your playoff life & your archrival coming to town on Saturday.  18 TOs in the game against the Dawgs & 9 Tos in the 2nd half against the Cobbs last Saturday.

UST 78-55 Bethel  
UST starting to pick up steam? Nicolai, Healy & Scott starting to click to the tune of 46 of the 78 UST points last night.  To paraphrase what Willy has said, UST needs to get Scott going if they're going to be considered any type of threat beyond the regular season.

Other so-called league experts are predicting a one & done type of scenario for whichever team advances out of the MIAC into the tourney.

CORD 76-50 MAC
I took in the CORD-MAC game last night. Sum- the Cobbs need some ball handlers (as do the Scots).  FY Ebo Kweson will be a nice player, very quick, but he needs to work on his shot & handles.  Karl Olson had a nice game (14 pts, 2-5 from 3, 2 assists) but he's never developed as much as I thought he would when he came out of HS, & Darrin Olmscheid had a quiet night with 11 points, 3 rebs. I like John Fraase's hustle & drive, but stats can be deceiving.  IMO he's not a MIAC first teamer. Either one of the Carlies post players would thrive in the Cobbs offense.

MAC needs to get out on the recruiting trail. They've got some nice young players in FY Pierce Peters, Colin Jarvis, Tyler Gubrud etc. But they either need more depth (hard to imagine a deep, talented Mac team) or a couple of D3 blue chippers in the Carleton recruiting model.

***
The next 10 days will be critical for several teams vying for the playoff spots & trying to improve their playoff seeding.

Both the Johnnies & Pipers have their work cut out for them in the next 10 days. At least Hamline knows they've secured a spot somewhere in the playoffs, but all of a sudden, SJU is in real, deep trouble. They're on a 2 game losing streak, have UST coming to town on Saturday, Hamline next Wednesday & close out the season at Gustavus. They could be on the outside looking in if Carleton goes on a roll.

The Knights have Augsburg at home on Saturday, @ Mac next Wednesday, & @ Bethel next Saturday.  Two tough games & one near "gimme" for the Carlies.  

Pipes have made the playoffs, but they need a healthy Hipp to make any noise.  Fortunately they have 5-6 days for Hipp to get well. They play at SJU next Wednesday, & finish the season at home against UST.

GAC: Until Willy & G-man pointed it out, I hadn't noted the recent late season swoons by the Gusties.  I think the OT win over Augsburg earlier this year & the upset win over the UST really elevated everyone's expectations about this year's Gustie team.  And now it seems the pressure of the race might be starting to catch up with them.  Fortunately for them they still have time to turn things around with 2 of their last three games at home. BET & SJU @ home, UST on the road.

[sumander]

The boys had better find a way to scrape 1 decent road win together next week in Collegeville, or they are all but guaranteed an away game for the playoffs.

In MIAC play through last night, The J's are 6-2 in Collegeville this year. The two losses being GAC by 9 and CAR by 11.

HAM is 3-6 on the road, with wins at BET by 16, AUG by 20 & MAC by 27!

Bandwagon should probably have a spare tire for the trip to C-ville on the 17th!

[AO]

SMU uploaded video of a pretty nice throwdown by young palmer on the fast break last night. 

[huhoops]

Wonka - I was one of those three that picked Auggie Tech based on schedule.

VOJ - I said fading, not faded. That's two losses in a row....I'd also use the word fading for Gustavus, who has lost three of four to HAM, STO and AUG.

HuHoops - I believe four or five of Ray's threes came with the Pipers down 16-20 points. That's the only way Hamline was coming back. St. Mary's was unstoppable on offense.

I'll say it again, the two most important players on offense for the Vipers down the stretch will be Aguirre and Schmidt. Brown and a healthy Hipp will get theirs, but you need another guys to chip in with 8-10 points. Carroll isn't a scorer, so the two other starters need to step up.

Barring a snowstorm, I'll be traveling up Highway 15 for the SJU tilt next Wednesday.

AO and PI...2 of Brown's threes were inside of 10 minutes left in the second half, so you can chalk those up as desperation. My point is that if you take out his three point attempts, he is 10-15 from the floor and 7-8 from the free throw line. Why not keep going to the hoop and just keep making plays for yourself and others at the rim.

On Aguirre and Schmidt, I'll level with you and agree on one. Aguirre needs to be much more assertive on offense. He's athletic to the point where he can cause problems for teams when he decides to get it going. Not to mention, he will have one of the weaker opposing defenders guarding him in every game. I've said it before, but I have struggled to see what Schmidt brings to the table outside of an occasional drive to the basket or pull up jumper. Offensively, I like Andersen and Taber.

I'm not normally one to defend downtown brown, but he did take 5 of his 7 attempted threes in the 2nd half after Hamline was well into catch-up mode.  The guy still shot 55% from the field, with the rest of the team shooting 1/10 from three and 40% overall.  Poor defense by the pipers leading to 35 free throws are to blame.  I don't know who was guarding who, but the hamline forwards gave up a career high to gary seifert, and holland and sims were apparently racing around the hamline guards and marching to the free throw line. 

The real question is, when is catch up time? If HU just gets some stops on DEFENSE in this game instead of trying to keep such a high scoring pace, a comeback in the final 10 minutes doesn't seem out of the question. Remember, it was barely a month ago that HU started out the first 6:30 of their game against SMU 15-0. When you're down by 15 and someone takes a quick three, it's deflating to any potential run, and usually ends up in a transition lay-up for the other team.

[sumander]

DP, stranger things have happened but....I would argue the J's won't be on the outside looking in. CORD only has 2 games left so the most wins they could get would be 9. The J's already have 10. STOLAF has seven wins they finish with MAC, @SMU, @CORD. Unlikely they will go 3-0 over that stretch. BET has 7 wins. They finish @GAC, AUG, CAR. Unlikley they will go 3-0 in that stretch.

That being said the J's are fully capable of going 0-3 and leaving room for someone to sneak in ahead of them. I do think they will beat HAM next Wednesday to make all this a moot point.

[Drake Palmer]

DP, stranger things have happened but....I would argue the J's won't be on the outside looking in. CORD only has 2 games left so the most wins they could get would be 9. The J's already have 10. STOLAF has seven wins they finish with MAC, @SMU, @CORD. Unlikely they will go 3-0 over that stretch. BET has 7 wins. They finish @GAC, AUG, CAR. Unlikley they will go 3-0 in that stretch.

That being said the J's are fully capable of going 0-3 and leaving room for someone to sneak in ahead of them. I do think they will beat HAM next Wednesday to make all this a moot point.

Actually I was just trying to get a rise out of the Johnnie faithful few.  
Realistically the Jays are in, but wouldn't you agree they could be looking at a 6th seed? I'm guessing the Jays finish out 1-2 while the Knights end up 2-1, or possibly 3-0.

[AO]

The next 10 days will be critical for several teams vying for the playoff spots & trying to improve their playoff seeding.

Both the Johnnies & Pipers have their work cut out for them in the next 10 days. At least Hamline knows they've secured a spot somewhere in the playoffs, but all of a sudden, SJU is in real, deep trouble. They're on a 2 game losing streak, have UST coming to town on Saturday, Hamline next Wednesday & close out the season at Gustavus. They could be on the outside looking in if Carleton goes on a roll.

Bethel is the only team capable of knocking the Johnnies out.  To do so, Bethel will need to win out and get in a three-way tie with Carleton, Bethel and St. John's.  This scenario requires that Augsburg beats Carleton, and the oles drop one of their final 3 against MAC, the cobbs or SMU as a four-way tie would benefit the J's as they swept Olaf.   This seems more likely than not as Augsburg is probably the favorite to beat Carleton and get the 2 seed, and the oles have to travel to winona and moorhead to close out the season.  Bethel gets the only team of their final 3 that they didn't beat (Augsburg) at home with the game at Gus Young on Saturday being their biggest obstacle.

[VOJ]

DP, stranger things have happened but....I would argue the J's won't be on the outside looking in. CORD only has 2 games left so the most wins they could get would be 9. The J's already have 10. STOLAF has seven wins they finish with MAC, @SMU, @CORD. Unlikely they will go 3-0 over that stretch. BET has 7 wins. They finish @GAC, AUG, CAR. Unlikley they will go 3-0 in that stretch.

That being said the J's are fully capable of going 0-3 and leaving room for someone to sneak in ahead of them. I do think they will beat HAM next Wednesday to make all this a moot point.

Js have swept both Bethel and the Oles this year so in a tie with either single team or both in a three way is a moot point...if the Cobbers can only get to 9 wins then there is no worries there either.  AO has highlighted the scenerio in which the Js would fall short, thanks for that pal 

The Johnnies need to come out the way they did down at CSP when the face the Tommies on Saturday, they were like a cornered animal and for the first 10 minutes of that game they took it to UST, they also finished strong, on a 20-8 run to send it to overtime...time to harness some of the same emotion and fire...not sure if Chris Schwartz will be in the lineup, his effort on D is missing in the overall success of SJU.

Wonka - I was one of those three that picked Auggie Tech based on schedule.

VOJ - I said fading, not faded. That's two losses in a row....I'd also use the word fading for Gustavus, who has lost three of four to HAM, STO and AUG.

HuHoops - I believe four or five of Ray's threes came with the Pipers down 16-20 points. That's the only way Hamline was coming back. St. Mary's was unstoppable on offense.

I'll say it again, the two most important players on offense for the Vipers down the stretch will be Aguirre and Schmidt. Brown and a healthy Hipp will get theirs, but you need another guys to chip in with 8-10 points. Carroll isn't a scorer, so the two other starters need to step up.

Barring a snowstorm, I'll be traveling up Highway 15 for the SJU tilt next Wednesday.

I know what you are saying, I just thought you missed an MIAC team that is also having issues.  Kudos to those of you who picked the Auggies out of the host of teams that are contending for the number 2 spot...but they have a tough game at Carleton this weekend.

By the way IF Carleton and the Oles finish tied for 6th lets have them play it off on the 21st rather than a tie breaker deciding things, a good old fashioned Northfield Civil War complete with the GOAT Trophy on the line

[bballfan247365]

IMHO - The biggest suprise was the Gustavus loss to Koz's Krew...  WOW...
I would of never seen this coming.  Would of bet on this game (GAC WIN) - but we all know how my last bet came out...

HOWEVER I am not suprised by the HU loss. (Point margin yes - loss no..) With all the "Downtown" & "The Beast" talk - many forget that we are talking about a team that is made up of 90% Freshman and Sophomores.

For many it was the First time to Winona as well as the first time for the program being in a position to hold sole posession of 2nd place with 2 games left to play in MANY, MANY, MANY, MANY, MANY, MANY YEARS!!!!

It can also be said that while Ray-Ray is very talented - that this is also HIS first go around as a TRUE contributor as a college basketball player, in more than just being a good athlete. 

And then add Ruesse and the Scarlet letter to the mix....  Well - we saw the outcome.

HU has at least 3 games left and the have already assured themselves of the first winning record since 93-94 and the first playoff bith since 2006. 

The rest is gravey...   

My question for discussion to finish the year - is.....

If Ray-Ray does get a second year, if Taylor Hall is healthy, if Nicoli is finally a senior (he seems to be on the Keating/Sweeney path of feeling like he has been there forever!), if SJU returns all thier players (& parents;D)....  and Given what the MIAC has done this year and with what everybody returns..

(Granted there are MANY if's)  Who is the Conference favorite??

As Arsenio Hall used to say - "Things that make you go Hmmmm..."