MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Drake Palmer]

Tomorrow's headline?

Resiliency, Thy Name is Gustavus!

Its' too bad the Gusties are playing the Dawgs, one of my favorite MIAC teams.  Gustavus needs to bounce back in a big way from their collapse to the Johnnies the other night.

On the other hand, if I'm Coach Smith I'm pumping up the Johnnies & telling them they're a team of destiny.  

The Jays nearly pulled off a similar type of upset when they played the Tommies at the Nu-Shoe last month.  Down by 15 pts in the 2nd half, the Jays used a press & a zone defense to crawl back into the game.

Which reminds me.  If the Johnnies finish ahead of the Cobbs, all further discussion of me paying off some bet & buying a MIAC Lunatic some delicious (barely) fried chicken from Kim's is off.   We're even Stephen and the two bets negate each other. SJU will finish ahead of the Cobbs in the standings (+DP) and the Tommies didn't lose to SMU, GAC or Carleton in January (+MM).  

Big showdown at the Shoe tonight.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Week 3 Regional Rankings are out: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3hoops/2011/02/16/ncaa-2011-regional-rankings-week-3/

[macalesterfan]

MAC 35, Carlton 26 at Half.  Carlton seems a little baffled by MAC's matchup zone.  Hopefully they will remain so in the second half. 

[carletonsid]

MAC 35, Carlton 26 at Half.  Carlton seems a little baffled by MAC's matchup zone.  Hopefully they will remain so in the second half. 

No worries. Carleton avoids leftover upset bug from Monday night and hangs on to beat "Macalster," 72-68. Jonker goes off for 24 and now has 999 for his career. Also had 9 rebounds and 4 assists. Sutherland with 18-5-5, Biewen with 11, including a HUGE three that put the Knights ahead 67-63 with 1:45 left. Man, we're going to miss those seniors next year...

UST 82, Ham 60
SJU 74, SMU 67
STO 66, BU 58
Aug 68, GAC 61!! (Aug outscores GAC 45-30 in second half!!!!!)

Carl 16-3
UST  16-3
Ham 13-6
Sto 12-7
SJU 10-9
GAC 10-9
Aug 10-10
Cord 9-10

I know if Carleton wins OR UST loses on Saturday, Knights are top seed. Not sure on tiebreaker (if needed) b/w Ham and Sto, although right now Ham is 1-3 vs. Carl and UST and Sto is 1-2, but could move to 2-2 if it beats Carl on Saturday.

MIAC site says GAC has clinched a playoff spot despite loss. Not sure about that, but too many tiebreaks to figure out. One would think bottom four end this way:

SJU 10-10 (split w/GAC, AUG, CORD)
GAC 10-10 (split w/AUG, SJU, swept CORD)
Aug 10-10 (split w/GAC, SJU,  swept by CORD)
Cord 9-11 (split w/SJU, swept AUG, swept by GAC)

So if Cord can't beat Hamline, SJU falls to UST and GAC beats SMU, no joy on head to head. It'll take me a bit to figure out a 3-way with GAC, SJU and Aug.

[carletonsid]

MIAC site says GAC has clinched a playoff spot despite loss. Not sure about that, but too many tiebreaks to figure out. One would think bottom four end this way:

SJU 10-10 (split w/GAC, AUG, CORD)
GAC 10-10 (split w/AUG, SJU, swept CORD)
Aug 10-10 (split w/GAC, SJU,  swept by CORD)
Cord 9-11 (split w/SJU, swept AUG, swept by GAC)

So if Cord can't beat Hamline, SJU falls to UST and GAC beats SMU, no joy on head to head. It'll take me a bit to figure out a 3-way with GAC, SJU and Aug.

Oops my bad. GAC, I think, wins at SMU and finishes 11-9. SJU could win and finish 11-9 and both would be in. So if GAC beats SMU they're in.

Let's say GAC wins and claims the 5th spot, but SJU loses and ends up tied with Aug. SJU and Aug would both be combined 3-7 vs. 1-5 finishers. In that scenario I think Aug is in based on its win over Carleton. SJU's only 2 wins vs. top 4 are vs. Hamline.

Wins by GAC, UST: 5. GAC; 6. Aug
Wins by SMU, UST and HU: Still GAC and Aug

I think SJU's only realistic chance is to win Saturday. With GAC and Augsburg holding "better" wins over Carleton, SJU loses out on the tiebreak. My head is spinning at this point so I could be wrong. One scenario that would hurt the Dawgs is if Concordia wins and gets into that tiebreaker since  the Cobbers swept Aug. Also, the MIAC site may be correct in stating GAC is in.

[colonelfan]

hangs on to beat "Macalster," 72-68.

My apologies.  No intended disrespect of the school name.  Simply poor review of autocorrection. 

To say that Jonkers went off is an understatement.  He took over in the second half and put the Knights back in the game.

Macalester is a decent post player away from competing every night in the MIAC.

Looking forward to the battle of the basement dwellers on Saturday.

[Drake Palmer]

Sid - my head is spinning trying to follow your posts.  You would think your team is caught up in the middle of a tiebreaker scenario. Come back when you've calmed down & have it figured out.  

Ouch - Where are the Gustie sports shrinks?  

I'll cautiously go out on the limb & post this from the Augsburg website - Augsburg is idle on Saturday and will await the results of the St. John's vs. St. Thomas and Concordia vs. Hamline to determine its playoff future.  
***
As I PMed someone earlier this evening "as goes Teddy, so goes the Tommies."  If Archer is positively engaged in the game, the rest of UST seems to pick up from his energy. He did a number of things well tonight, but the straw that broke the Pipers' back came about 6-7 minutes into the 2nd half. Tommy Hannon tossed a sweet alley oop pass from the top of the key to Teddy, who caught the ball & dunked on an unsuspecting Carl Hipp.  First time all year I almost had to call the medics.  

I'll let Mose or someone else fill in the game detail but a round 3 between these two teams could be a doozy.  Let me just say this, Oles' Stu Neville has figured out away to get in Hamline's Carl Hipp's head, & in turn Hipp is UST's Tommy Hannon's worst nightmare.  Hannon had a  number of shots blocked & or altered by Hipp   (5-6), turned the ball over, or was forced to pass the ball back out of the post. To Hannon's credit, since his shots weren't falling, he did an excellent job of passing the ball & creating open looks for others.

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

First things first... congrats to UST's seniors as they wind down one of the most dominant 4-year stretches in league play. With tonight's win they improve to 76-8 against MIAC foes in their 4 years and 97-13 overall. Here's hoping they have many more games after this weekend.

Second-- as Hamline learned painfully tonight, you can, on occasion, beat the champ, but knocking them off the throne isn't going to come easily. Any time you cough up 17 turnovers (including 13 steals) to a UST team, you can pretty much count on taking an L home.

UST dominated the game-- 45-25 in rebounds, 50.0% to 33.3 in 3-pt shooting, yielding only 8 turnovers. Hipp's double-double had to be one of the quietest double-doubles ever. Purrell and Gullikson, who were both deadly in the Piper win over UST @ HU, combined for all of 1 three (1-6) and 5 points.

Healy had possibly his best game of the season for UST-- 19 pts, 8 boards, 5 assists. Hannon put up an impressive line-- 10 pts, 12 rebs, six assists and 3 steals! Nicolai was his usual efficient self. But as a wise man said to me during the game "as Teddy goes, so go the Tommies". While he only had 10 points and 5 boards, he had a ton of key defensive stops, and harassed the Pipers incessantly.

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

Finally...I have never seen an MIAC coach act more unprofessional than Whitmore's childish antics as the team's returned to the court at the half. Apparently some fan (a gentleman old enough to be the players' grandfather) said something Whitmore found offensive. Rather than following basic coaches's code of conduct and ignoring the heckler, Whitmore and his rabbit ears proceeded to joust verbally with the fan and seemed poised to get physical, if he felt it was needed. It reached a point where the PA announcer had words with Whitmore, which seemed to calm him some.   

Talk about a total embarrassment to a fine team.

[Drake Palmer]

Finally...I have never seen an MIAC coach act more unprofessional than Whitmore's childish antics as the team's returned to the court at the half. Apparently some fan (a gentleman old enough to be the players' grandfather) said something Whitmore found offensive. Rather than following basic coaches's code of conduct and ignoring the heckler, Whitmore and his rabbit ears proceeded to joust verbally with the fan and seemed poised to get physical, if he felt it was needed. It reached a point where the PA announcer had words with Whitmore, which seemed to calm him some.  

Talk about a total embarrassment to a fine team.

Mose - that wasn't you was it?    

Actually I missed it. smirk.

Coach LA did seemed resigned to his fate & was smiling on the bench toward the end of the game.  He knows he might get another crack at Coach Fritz & the Tommies in the playoffs.

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

Mose - that wasn't you was it?     

Actually I missed it. smirk.

Coach LA did seemed resigned to his fate & was smiling on the bench toward the end of the game.  He knows he might get another crack at Coach Fritz & the Tommies in the playoffs.

Nope, the fan in question was much older than  me (I said grandfather, not father)

Bring a rematch on. Whitmore got outcoached in every possible aspect of the game tonight. Im sure Fritz will gladly run another clinic for the Admiral (and give he a pair of ear plugs to shut down his rabbit ears).

[piperinsider]

Mose - that wasn't you was it?     

Actually I missed it. smirk.

Coach LA did seemed resigned to his fate & was smiling on the bench toward the end of the game.  He knows he might get another crack at Coach Fritz & the Tommies in the playoffs.

Nope, the fan in question was much older than  me (I said grandfather, not father)

Bring a rematch on. Whitmore got outcoached in every possible aspect of the game tonight. Im sure Fritz will gladly run another clinic for the Admiral (and give he a pair of ear plugs to shut down his rabbit ears).

Them's fighting words MM! 

I was thinking of making the trek into the cities for the big game, but my better judgment kicked in (I'll be in St. Peter Thursday, St. Cloud Friday and Marshall Saturday) and I glanced at it online watching Modern Family and playing Yahtzee. A true family man now.

Outside of a spurt early in the first half, HAM was cold from the outside and just never could get multiple stops in a row. UST made the big run with Hipp on the bench and that's all she wrote. It's fine to forget about doing the little things when you score 107 on Macalester, but when you're at UST, you have to rebound, take care of the ball, etc.

[carletonsid]

hangs on to beat "Macalster," 72-68.

My apologies.  No intended disrespect of the school name.  Simply poor review of autocorrection. 

To say that Jonkers went off is an understatement.  He took over in the second half and put the Knights back in the game.

Macalester is a decent post player away from competing every night in the MIAC.

Looking forward to the battle of the basement dwellers on Saturday.

No worries. I was just tweaking you a little. Never thought you meant disrespect or anything. You're correct that Mac is close--really like the stuff they run. They also need a bit more depth--the Scots looked gassed those final few minutes.

Funny story--Jonker is actually at 1,001. They credited one of his hoops late in the second half to Rosenow. Our real SID found it in the play-by-play when trying to figure out how many Seth had scored down the stretch. He got an "and+one" late, but Mac credited Rosenow with the bucket and Seth with the FT. So that gave him 26 for the game (plus the rebound made it a dub-dub).

@Drake - Sorry for the ramblings. No time today to go back and make them coherent. I'll leave that for others.

[Drake Palmer]

Playoff Updates.
Brought to you by our sponsors Palmer Productions & CSid. 

From the St. Cloud Times:

...As for St. John's, wow, it could get complicated. But what is simple is this. Win against St. Thomas Saturday and the Johnnies are in the MIAC playoffs for sure. They would be the No. 6 seed if Gustavus can beat St. Mary's and the No. 5 seed if the Gusties lose.

However, it appears if St. John's loses to the Tommies, they might be out. I'll have to look at the scenarios closer in the morning and consult the conference office.

But I don't think the tiebreakers favor the Johnnies in a head-to-head tie with Augsburg or in a three-way tie with the Auggies and Concordia. (Concordia swept Augsburg and split with SJU, so its record would be 3-1 against the other two teams while the Johnnies record would be 2-2 and Augsburg's would be 1-3). It could even be a four-way tie with the Gusties (who are already in for sure) and I'm just not sure right now how that would all shake out.

I will get every possible scenario and what it means up here on Thursday.

Until then, good night everybody.

[AO]

based upon Frank's latest post the necessary results for our playoff hopefuls:

St. John's: Win, or St. Mary's beats Gustavus, Concordia beats Hamline, and Carleton beats St. Olaf.

Augsburg: St. Thomas beats St. John's and Hamline beats Concordia.

Concordia: Win, and St. Thomas beats St. John's, Gustavus beats St. Mary's. or Win, St. Thomas beats St. John's, St. Mary's beats Gustavus and St. Olaf beats Carleton.

Everybody clear?