MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[papahoops]

GAC/UST Preview
Based on the pickums to date, I seem to be the only one giving the Gusties a chance in tomorrows contest with UST. A matchup that we all were looking forward to a few weeks ago has lost its luster due to the GAC's recent slide. Although I don't still think the Gusties will do well in the playoffs, I do think they have another solid performance in them against a quality team, particularly at the Lund Center.

The fact is, if it Tyler Nicolai doesn't hit a huge 3 late in the previous game at UST, the Gusties were in position to win AT UST. GAC certainly has had issues lately, but the Tommies really haven't beaten a higher tier team lately either (my definition of higher tier being UST/Carleton/Hamline/STO based on recent play).
I really believe tomorrow's contest will be a close affair and home court could be the difference. Both teams are due for a "good" game, so it will be interesting to see which team brings their "A" game tomorrow.

[miacsuperfan]

Kudos to Carleton for using students...gotta give the kids their chance, that is how I started back about 20 years ago (yikes) at Ednboro University of Pennsylvania

One of our former students, Jake Zivin, is the sports anchor/reporter at KEZI-9 ABC in Eugene, Ore. He was on the field for the BCS national championship game. I also used to do games as a student at Luther, and our students really enjoy doing it and gain a nice little following among parents who live far away and can't get to but one or two games a year. 

yeah, i remember zivin--he was good, and i also liked the guy the following year that you had.  he had great enthusiasm and was really a fan.   sometimes carleton games had some older sounding fella working the games, who wasn't as good.  maybe he did the road games? 
the two guys working the other night were good.  they were excited and described the action pretty well. 

as for pickems, the ust game is a tough call.  the only way to close the gap on papahoops is to pick the toms----but i wouldn't be surprised to see the golden gusties get the W.  this year's model of the tommies is good---but as been said before, 'these are not your daddy's tommies.'    

[carletonsid]

yeah, i remember zivin--he was good, and i also liked the guy the following year that you had.  he had great enthusiasm and was really a fan.   sometimes carleton games had some older sounding fella working the games, who wasn't as good.  maybe he did the road games? 
the two guys working the other night were good.  they were excited and described the action pretty well. 

The older guy is probably our radio guy, Gordy Kosfeld from KDHL, who does all our road games. Otherwise, it might be me! I fill in when our students aren't available.

Will be tracking the Knights in Winona and the Tommies in St. Peter today from the confines of the home office while watching OSU-Wisconsin.

[piperinsider]

yeah, i remember zivin--he was good, and i also liked the guy the following year that you had.  he had great enthusiasm and was really a fan.   sometimes carleton games had some older sounding fella working the games, who wasn't as good.  maybe he did the road games? 
the two guys working the other night were good.  they were excited and described the action pretty well. 

The older guy is probably our radio guy, Gordy Kosfeld from KDHL, who does all our road games. Otherwise, it might be me! I fill in when our students aren't available.

Will be tracking the Knights in Winona and the Tommies in St. Peter today from the confines of the home office while watching OSU-Wisconsin.

What a second half BABY! Taylor, Leuer and Brusewitz....it's like Team Minnesota for the Badgers. Webcast watching about to begin...

[Drake Palmer]

yeah, i remember zivin--he was good, and i also liked the guy the following year that you had.  he had great enthusiasm and was really a fan.   sometimes carleton games had some older sounding fella working the games, who wasn't as good.  maybe he did the road games? 
the two guys working the other night were good.  they were excited and described the action pretty well. 

The older guy is probably our radio guy, Gordy Kosfeld from KDHL, who does all our road games. Otherwise, it might be me! I fill in when our students aren't available.

Will be tracking the Knights in Winona and the Tommies in St. Peter today from the confines of the home office while watching OSU-Wisconsin.

What a second half BABY! Taylor, Leuer and Brusewitz....it's like Team Minnesota for the Badgers. Webcast watching about to begin...

Yeah baby!  Sweet. 

[piperinsider]

Caught parts of SMU/CAR and HAM/MAC. Clear who the top half of the league is.

Pipes score 108 points in 30-plus point win over Scots. Little bit of everyone. At one point, Taber, Guillickson and Rieg all were in double figures before the likes of Campbell, Hipp and Aguirre. That's a good sign for Hamline when they're getting production from reserves.

How disappointing are the Redbirds this season? I know this question has been asked and answered many times, but wow, for a team expected to contend for a top-four spot, they sure fell on hard times this season.

[Drake Palmer]

I gotta run, but someone run some calculations.  The way I see it, the Cobbs, Dawgs, & Johnnies all could end up tied for 6th at 9-11.  Who gets in?

CORD (9-9): @ UST, @ HAM
SJU (8-9): @ GAC, @ SMU, UST
AUG (8-10): MAC, GAC


GAC at 10-7 is hanging on by a thread.  They've got games against 2.5 desperate teams:  SJU, @ AUG, SMU.  I'm assuming the Jays & Dawgs will come out kicking & scratching, not quite sure how the Birds will respond.

[papahoops]

"Separation Saturday"
Today's results only confirmed what I have been suspecting.....there are only four top tier teams heading into the playoffs. The top four teams not only won, but won in convincing fashion(most of these dominant wins on the road). I would be shocked if the 5/6 seeds won a playoff game, but it will sure be interesting next week which teams nail down (or in GAC's case "back into") those spots.

Congrats to the Johnnies on their big win today giving the Cobbers' playoffs hopes a negative jolt. They certainly have not had the year we expected, but they appear to be gaining a bit of steam Your squad is making some late season noise VOJ

[TheSuperfan]

Just to throw this bit out there, no Piper played clocked more than 20 minutes in the overwhelming win over Macalester today. Is Whitmore resting his men for the tough upcoming week? Hipp was relatively ineffective mostly due to a constant double team moving into a triple if a fellow Piper even hinted at passing it into the big man.

Pipes shot very well especially from the 3pt line, nice to see several guys contributing on the 3's giving them many options come a little more competition.

Rest of the games around the conference appeared to be a little closer than the HU game, but still not nail-biters.

[piperinsider]

BTW, congrats to the Pipers on securing a spot in the playoffs. May be the quickest a Hamline team has done so in a very, very long time! Also wanted to say it was great to see Jordan Schmidt back on the court after missing two months (it looks like he played on Wednesday as well).

Fun week ahead for the Pipers - Olaf at home, at UST, at home vs the Cobbers. Not much travel!

[Buddo]

So is this Piper team better without R. Brown?

[piperinsider]

So is this Piper team better without R. Brown?

Yes and no.

Yes because they are much more balanced this year than they were last year. There's more shots to go around I think the one downfall of the Pipers last year was their outside shooting. They didn't have any dead eyes except for Dan Andersen and Brown. Only those two had more than 16 3-pointers. This year six players have 12 or more 3-pointers with at least four games remaining. And we all know how big the 3-ball can be in the game right now.

No because the Pipers don't have that one person to turn to when trailing by a basket in the end. Do they throw down low to Hipp? Let Campbell penetrate and try to create something. Have Pannell jack up a three? Or maybe Aguirre? Sure, Brown made horrible decisions in the final seconds in a couple of contests last season, but he also won them a few games because he wasn't afraid to take the big shot.

A couple of weeks ago, Levi Wenrich takes the final shot down three against Carleton. Weinrich is 0-for-6 on the season from behind the arc.

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

From the Rumors too good to be true dept...

I've heard that our own Drake Palmer will finally reveal his/her true identity this Saturday at Collegeville. The story Ive heard is he/she will be born into the arena a la Lady Gaga, in an egg. Said egg will be deposited in front of VOJ. One of the guys (possibly Papa hoops?) carying the egg will give VOJ a key to unlock the egg, and DP will step out, in a ref's uniform and will give Smitty and Fritz each a "T"

[TheSuperfan]

So is this Piper team better without R. Brown?

Yes and no.

Yes because they are much more balanced this year than they were last year. There's more shots to go around I think the one downfall of the Pipers last year was their outside shooting. They didn't have any dead eyes except for Dan Andersen and Brown. Only those two had more than 16 3-pointers. This year six players have 12 or more 3-pointers with at least four games remaining. And we all know how big the 3-ball can be in the game right now.

No because the Pipers don't have that one person to turn to when trailing by a basket in the end. Do they throw down low to Hipp? Let Campbell penetrate and try to create something. Have Pannell jack up a three? Or maybe Aguirre? Sure, Brown made horrible decisions in the final seconds in a couple of contests last season, but he also won them a few games because he wasn't afraid to take the big shot.

A couple of weeks ago, Levi Wenrich takes the final shot down three against Carleton. Weinrich is 0-for-6 on the season from behind the arc.

I know for sure that Weinrich was not supposed to take that final shot against Carleton just to clarify.

[piperinsider]

So is this Piper team better without R. Brown?

Yes and no.

Yes because they are much more balanced this year than they were last year. There's more shots to go around I think the one downfall of the Pipers last year was their outside shooting. They didn't have any dead eyes except for Dan Andersen and Brown. Only those two had more than 16 3-pointers. This year six players have 12 or more 3-pointers with at least four games remaining. And we all know how big the 3-ball can be in the game right now.

No because the Pipers don't have that one person to turn to when trailing by a basket in the end. Do they throw down low to Hipp? Let Campbell penetrate and try to create something. Have Pannell jack up a three? Or maybe Aguirre? Sure, Brown made horrible decisions in the final seconds in a couple of contests last season, but he also won them a few games because he wasn't afraid to take the big shot.

A couple of weeks ago, Levi Wenrich takes the final shot down three against Carleton. Weinrich is 0-for-6 on the season from behind the arc.

I know for sure that Weinrich was not supposed to take that final shot against Carleton just to clarify.

Obviously he wasn't. But he did. Is that because Carleton played great defense on the player that Hamline wanted to have the ball, or because they didn't have a player out there that wanted to shoot the final shot?