MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[localcoach]

The rich just keep getting richer - AKA the Tommies.  Coach Tauer will continue to maintain the high UST standard of excellence.  He is the Recruiting Coordinator and one of the nicest gentlemen I have ever had the pleasure of speaking with.

Regarding the Eden Prairie feeder system for the Tommies.  The bottom line when a player has multiple MIAC schools recruiting him is, generally speaking the school with the best financial aid package wins out.  From my experiences, rarely does another MIAC institution put together a better package than UST.  Add the fact that the Tommie program keeps on winning and it's not hard to see why they continue to secure commitments from outstanding local players.

[Drake Palmer]

Ahh, LC still lurks around the board.  

I thought you were going to say that the kids coming out of Eden Prairie said –

"Dude, if I have to go to college and play that same old boring brand of EP/Gustavus type of no-dribble basketball, I'm gonna look somewhere else to get my kicks."

Then UST's Coach Tauer comes along & smoothly whispers in their ear – "son now that you've learned how to play good defense, why don't you come to UST where you'll not only play good D, but we'll teach you how to shoot the rock & play offense."  

***
Who was the man who used to coach at Eden Prairie? – Now those were some deliberate, boring half-court offenses.  Yawn.

Although the financial aid package is certainly a big factor, I don't believe it's the "be all & end all" in a prospective college student-athlete's final decision.  All things being equal, playing time, rapport with the coaching staff, academics, facilities, and social life play just as large a role in a person's decision. Not just the dollar.  Anecdotally, I know half a dozen or so student-athletes who were admitted to UST, had generous F-A packages, yet enrolled at Gustavus, Hamline, Augsburg, Concordia –Moorhead and St. Paul, Macalester, etc.

Having said that, UST is a very, very attractive option.

[Drake Palmer]

Palmer's Grapevine sez- word out of Faribault is that it's not necessarily a done deal that SMU's Chris Palmer will don the blue & gold of the Bethel Royals this fall.

TBD

[Buddo]

This is possibly not relevant to the MIAC at all, but apparently Joe Scott's younger brother Lucas is doing well for Fury Gold 16U AAU and also is attending De La Salle.

Guess what the best part of his game is? 

[localcoach]

I can't let you have all the fun Drake    Life is treating me well as I get older, however I'm still a busy man these days, hence the long layoff from posting.

You make a good point about other recruits choosing another MIAC institution over UST despite a generous financial aid package from the Tommies.  I will however bet the farm that that number is quite low if you actually graphed it out.

Speaking of the Bethel Royals, what has happened over there    Coach Westy's program is 18-32 the past two years and I don't see next season changing all that much, although I also don't claim to know who BU has coming down the recruiting pipeline.  Anyone care to take a guess at this one 

[Buddo]

The addition of Palmer would immediately put BU in playoff contention. Unfortunately for BU, this is still very much up in the air.

Also, PG Evan Pederson of LaX Aquinas actually picked SMU over UST a month or two ago based on playing time. Different recruits react to different pitches.

[Drake Palmer]

Here's some more UST news from a recent issue of the Highland Villager –a local, St. Paul newspaper.

UST hoops coach Steve Fritz sure knows how to make an exit

...Through it all, St. Thomas has consistently been among the MIAC's best teams,  but Fritz and his staff felt something was missing.

"About five years ago, we sat down and took a hard look at the program," he said. "We were winning conference titles, but we weren't going as far as we'd like in the NCAA tournament.  We made a conscious decision to change our style."

That change was to a more aggressive, pressing defense.  To do that meant Fritz would have to use more players.  It lowered a lot of individual statistics, since Fritz would play as many as 14 players per half, but it had the desired results.  The Tommies finished in first place either by themselves or in a tie six years in a row during the regular season.  More important, they won five of the last six conference postseason tournaments.

In 2009, St. Thomas made it to the NCAA quarterfinals before losing to the eventual national champ Washington, Missouri. Last year, the Tommies were upended in the first round by Anderson, Indiana.

However, this year things were different.  The Tommies swept six games to win the NCAA title.  "Each weekend, we played better the second day than we did the first," Fritz said proudly.  That says something."

It's interesting to note that an older,successful coach was willing to risk, and change a winning formula, and because of that change, became even more successful.  And this was coming from Old School Fritz who previously would only play 8 players in a game if he absolutely had to do.

If you look around the league, you can now see a couple of other teams who seem to be modeling their program after UST - St. Olaf in particular comes to mind as Coach Koz previously only went 7-8 players deep.  The Oles are now using a deeper roster, but not necessarily playing a press.  Hamline also uses a large rotation, but apparently Coach Whitmore was using an aggressive, pressing style of defense before he arrived at Hamline.  

[hoopmaster]

There have been conflicting reports on Anthony Tucker and what school he will be attending this fall. He was spotted with the Pipes at the Bloomington Jefferson League.

How will the Pipes do with this addition? Watching them this summer it seems to me that the Pipes have a ton of guards and wings and no real post presence. 

[Drake Palmer]

Hey fellas - time for the occasional RQOTW (Random Quote of the Week)

I spotted this comment about disgraced New York congressman Anthony Weiner aka, Tony Dick:

"If you tweet your meat, you must lose your seat"

[Drake Palmer]

Alright one more - compliments of yours truly.   revised with assistance from my editor.

"The Ballad of Tony Dick"

There once was a rep from New York,

Who had to show us his pork.

So he preened & posed,

Until his member arose,

But now he's post twitter - torqued.

[Buddo]

There have been conflicting reports on Anthony Tucker and what school he will be attending this fall. He was spotted with the Pipes at the Bloomington Jefferson League.

Ryan James has him listed under Hamline in his recent MIAC recruiting post on the Preps message boards.

It would probably be in poor taste to just copy and paste the list, but I'll say that UST and Moorhead have the most numbers on the list right now. Of course this is by no means a measure of recruiting success, as nobody has any idea what sort of outstate (or in Mac's case, sometimes international) recruits are being pulled in.

[Drake Palmer]

Clarence Clemons - may he rest in peace.   One of the all-time best wingmen and assist leaders.

[Buddo]

DP, it looks like it's just you and me holding down the offseason chatter...!

[AO]

i'll help dust off the cobwebs:

I took some video of pulley league on monday night.

http://youtu.be/z8-MqVkl6go

It's mostly of the new gophers, but Carl Hipp looked better than ever and Teddy Archer threw an alley-oop down for good measure.

[Drake Palmer]

Random off-season sports observation

As a very infrequent viewer of women's soccer, I found myself watching the women's World Cup Soccer game between the US & Brazil earlier today.  Tremendous come from behind win in a penalty kick /shoot out by the US.  For all the whiners who used to complain about UST's Teddy Archer flopping after taking a charge, they should watch professional soccer.  Several of the Brazilians were treated for a "major injury" in the closing minutes of the game.  One of the players was injured so badly, she was wheeled off the field in a gurney, yet miraculously recovered and ran back on the field.  For a minute I thought I was watching professional wrestling instead of a soccer match.    You've gotta be kidding me. 

On another note – does goalie Hope Solo not have one of the coolest names in all of sports?  Plus it doesn't hurt she's easy on the eyes.