MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[piperinsider]

Concordia 85, Saint Mary's 78
* Fisher 22, McKenzie 17, Lindahl 13, Huus 12, Nana-Kewson 11...five in doubles for Cobbers
Hamline 81, St. Olaf 64
* Campbell 26 pts, Ford 19, Aguirre 13...Vipers shot 49 percent (only took 15 3's compared to 13 for STO...new Hamline?)   
Gustavus 82, Augsburg 80
* Seth Anderson did something big?
St. Thomas 86, Macalester 64
* UST outscored Scots 50-30 in second. Four players in double figures...ho-hum win!
Carleton 75, Bethel 67
* Rosenow 19, Sawatzke 13 ... McSparron 14 points off bench for Knights. Baah 25 for Bethel

[Kilroy]

Concordia 85, Saint Mary's 78

You are forgetting a huge performance by SMU's Mike Burfeind... 38 pts, 7 reb

[Patriot]

I really wanted to go watch the GAC/AUG game but couldn't talk myself into the drive, settled on HU hosting Olaf.

30 seconds into the game you can tell that HU's game plan is to push, shoot, push, shoot, etc.  HU gets off to a good start, thanks in large part to horrible defense by Olaf.  Everybody in the MIAC knows HU's Campbell can not shoot from the perimeter and his game depends solely on a quick first step and driving to the basket.  What does Olaf do???  They try defending him man up and he scores 26 points either off layups or free throws from getting hacked while driving.

Still early in the first half, things change, and not for the good for Olaf.  Gunderson cuts through the lane and literally gets sucker punched in the gut by......I'll refrain from naming the HU player.  My friend and I, sitting behind the HU student section, plus some HU students actually see it happen. Gunderson drops to the ground in pain and its obvious he has the wind knocked out of him by the heavy wheezing you can hear.  For about 30-45 seconds, the gym is quiet except for the wheezing your hear from the Swede.  What do some of the HU student fans do???  They start mocking Gunderson while he's on the floor gasping for air by making wheezing noises and laughing.  It only gets worse - when Pratt, the Olaf SG who transferred from HU this past year reports into the game early on, this HU student in a blue sweater sitting in the first row, starts yelling obscenities directly at him non-stop.  When I say yelling, I mean most everybody in the gym heard this classless twit.  Even the Hamline parents and some of the players that we could see across the floor from our seats were embarrassed by this guy.  During halftime, I asked a couple HU students in our area who this guy is.....it turns out he's the brother of one of their coaches.  If you attend a HU game at Hewitt, you'll realize who he is immediately.

As the second half starts, it's more of the same.  HU's shooters were off tonight but they didn't need them.  I'm guessing that a majority of HU's points came off of layups with Campbell & Aguirre driving to the basket against swiss cheese defense.  The "blue man group" continued with his obscenities from the sidelines and the HU coaches and admin?? did nothing to tone this twit down.  I left the gym with 10 mins left in the game and HU in control.

IMO, if HU can play like they did last night going forward, they should end up in the top six and make the playoffs.  They came out strong, intense, and ready to go from the tip.  Olaf, came out extremely flat, slow-footed, and out of sync.  Campbell & Aguirre are nice players for HU, from there they have 4-5 players who seem to thrive in the up-tempo style they're using.  HU has zero inside game on either end...zero.  It was really surprising that Olaf did not get the ball into Neville more.

[papahoops]

Had a commitment with the wife last night that kept me from checking out the Auggies/GAC matchup. I must admit I was hoping for an undefeated showdown between the Dawgs and Tommies in early January, but I know St. Peters is a tough place to pull off a road win. Last night's results did nothing to change my feelings that playoff teams will likely be UST, Augsburg, Carleton, Gustavus, Hamline, STO. Hamline moves ahead of STO in Papa's current power rankings based on strong win last night. Although Gusties have moved up to my #4 spot with big wins over Carleton and Augsburg this week, I'm not ready to move them ahead of Auggies/Carleton since their wins were both in St. Peter.

[Drake Palmer]

The next couple of paragraphs are strictly tongue in cheek.   

First of all –I need to get something off my chest. Whatever happened to the "Golden Gustie Way"?!?  The golden teams of yesteryear when Gustavus would pass the ball around the perimeter without taking more than 1 dribble, ball fake, the posts would set brutal block to block back screens, & then pop high to set a screen for a cutting wing who would receive the entry from a wing for a layup. Game scores in the 50s & 60s. What the heck happened  - games scores up in the 80s & 90s?!?

Coach Hanson took a nice mild-mannered coach's son, Seth Anderson, from a little bitty town in southern MN, Maple River, & turned him into a shooting monster! The Lloyd "World Be" Free of the MIAC.  For you youngsters, World was a mad gunner who played in the NBA during the 70s. In more recent times think Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant or Gilbert Arenas.  Coach Hanson should be ashamed of himself – ruining that boy's basketball game like that.  Last night Anderson was an incredible 16-26 FGA! That was 43% of all the shots attempted by the Gusties last night! James Hill was the closest teammate & he was 17 shots away as he only took 9 shots all night.  For crying out loud, what happened to the concept of balanced scoring, teamwork, sharing the ball?  For the year, the guy is taking nearly a 3rd  -32% of all of the Gusties field goal attempts.  Anderson has attempted 108 FGA out of the team's total of 340 FGA.

***
In all seriousness, that's fantastic stuff & Anderson is having a simply outstanding season thus far! . Just imagine the scoring damage Anderson could do if he could shoot treys? As a guard mind you, he's presently making 62% of his shots!  That's insane!  Good upps young man.

I'll need to see the Gusties up close & in person first before I offer up a definitive assessment, but I would tend to agree with Pops, and rate Augsburg & Carleton ahead of the Gusties. Those teams have got a more balanced offensive attack & different ways of hurting you.

***
I took in the Carleton- Bethel game last night.  Bethel plays entirely different when they're at home than when they're on the road. If they can eliminate some of the hot-dog type of hoops that slips in on occasion, they could be a solid team.  Although he struggled to score against Carleton's Taylor Hanson, Taylor Hall played a fairly controlled game, didn't try to force his shot- & did a good job of distributing the ball a game high – 4 assists. Kyle Zimmerman is a nice fundamentally sound somewhat undersized post player at 6-3, post Luke Buttenhoff was nice in relief from the bench, & when guard Daniel Baah is on, he's awfully tough to contain.  When he's on.

Carleton looked solid. I wasn't quite as impressed with them as I was with Augsburg, but they still looked very solid.  I need to also temper my assessment of Taylor Hanson's game.  He's still an outstanding, athletic, & strong young post, but his offensive game really hasn't developed as much as I thought it might after a year of playing college out east.  Hanson still tends to rely on his athleticism, strength & quickness to score rather than nice, deft footwork like his front court partner – Caleb Rosenow. Right now he's like a defensive end in football with one, go to move - the speed bull rush, & no effective counter. However, Hanson is a solid defender & tenacious rebounder 11 reb last night.

Caleb Rosenow has really developed into a very nice SR D-3 post player.  Great foot work in the post & is able to score when he has to go with his counter move & very nice, strong hands. 

I also discovered another potential FY of the year in 6-3 wing - Shane McSparron.  He'll end up being a 6th or 7th man if not already for the Carlies this season.  Good athlete, funky jumper, & is a nice slasher to the cup.  Last night he had 14 pts on 6-8FGA & 2-4 FTA.  I imagine he & fellow frosh, wing Dylan Stewart from UST will have some nice battles in the years ahead. Scott Thiesen was solid & didn't force anything, & Tommy Sawatzke was the main trigger man running the point.

But as I mentioned the other day, Knights are vulnerable to the press & even Bethel applied a full court pressure in the 2nd half & got Carleton got out of their offensive rhythm.  The press won't get any easier for Carleton when they go up against the likes of Hamline & UST. But I like what I'm seeing from coaches around the league – it's the anti-Hambone/Tommie initiative. If you press us, we'll develop our bench & go 9-10 players deep so defensively you'll have to resort to something else. Good old Guy Kalland was doing the old hockey line substitution throughout the game last night until it got to crunch time.  Smart move.

[miacsuperfan]

thanks for on-hand game reports from you that were in attendance. i had to settle for on-line visits to lund and hutton arenas (for whatever reason i could not dial in the game at the robertson center.)

great game at gustavus.  as drake suggested, a total break from the basketball that we are used to seeing the gusties play (tongue in cheek noted.)  anderson's play was fun to watch.  he has such a quick release, and is able to get shots off when you just don't see them coming.  he is about as unassuming looking of a player as you can find, but can flat out score. he also had help in the second half with some timely shots and play from biewen and blacklock (amongst others) when augsburg went to truly face-guarding anderson. . . . i am a little surprised that they didn't go close-out earlier.   and let me tell you, augsburg is no slouch either.  they made a great run at the end of the game to pull within one with :20 to go, but gac managed to play lock down defense in the waning seconds to secure the win. 

the vipes/olaf game was much less enticing, though the most obvious difference between them was the disparity in quickness.  hamline has great team quickness, and the oles looked slow and uncertain for much of the game.  i was unable to detect the carnage identified by you in your post, patriot.  am i to assume looking at two of the three officials working the game that the call went un-noticed because of too many guys watching the ball?   

[TommieHoops4Life]

St. Thomas pulls away to beat MAC by 22, but the game was really a lot closer than the score. The Tommies just used their depth in the second half to wear the Scots down, and their pressing up tempo style eventually took over.

Macalester did a nice job overall of playing at their tempo for most of the first half and they have some shooters.

Nance is just an athlete, nice to see him hit some shots and make plays. I also like DeBerg's game a lot, and Leslie seems like a fan's more likable version of Sean Sweeney. The Tommies really got after it in defensively in the second half and that led to a lot of easy baskets on the offensive end. They also made a concerted effort to score by driving to the basket and finishing or using that to create an open look for a teammate. It was good basketball.

A bit disappointed by the atmosphere, didn't appear to be many fans there and that's unfortunate given it's not Christmas break yet. I would expect it over J-term. I also caught a few minutes of the GAC/Auggie Tech game in the 2nd half and there didn't appear to be much atmosphere there either.

Overall last night was about what everyone expected. I'm intrigued for St. Thomas/UW-Steven's Point in a few weeks, should be a good battle.

[gacbacker]

Interesting comments regarding the Gusties, Auggies and Knights. One thing I'll say, is that I doubt Anderson will keep up this pace, but on the flip side, I don't think his supporting cast will be as insignificant as they have been up to this point. What that all means for the Gusties this season I don't know, but their upcoming schedule is favorable compared to some other teams since they already have St. Thomas, Augsburg, Carleton and Hamline out of the way.

[Kilroy]

Interesting that despite Marcus Alipate coming in with two D-1 offers, big man Connor Nord appears to be UST's top freshie right now. The EP product is averaging 14 points a game and seems to be playing well. I still see a bright future for Alipate, but I may have been hasty in predicting Nicolai-like playing time as a freshman.

[aero75]

Interesting that despite Marcus Alipate coming in with two D-1 offers, big man Connor Nord appears to be UST's top freshie right now. The EP product is averaging 14 points a game and seems to be playing well. I still see a bright future for Alipate, but I may have been hasty in predicting Nicolai-like playing time as a freshman.

14 minutes a game not points, 5 points a game

[Patriot]

To MiACSuperFan's question, "am i to assume looking at two of the three officials working the game that the call went un-noticed because of too many guys watching the ball?

Yes, there was no call until they stopped the game for Gundersons injury.

I plan on attending the Augsburg/Central game Saturday if my work schedule permits.  I haven't watched Auggie this year, looking forward to it.

[papahoops]

I just checked the schedule and noted that Gustavus travels to Northfield to play the Oles Saturday. After struggling to beat MAC at home and losing to Hamline on the road this week, I think this a very significant game for the Oles as they wrap up their pre-holiday conference schedule. Although STO is 2-2 in conference play and there is a lot of basketball to be played, their only wins to date were over winless SMU and MAC. If they lose to Gusties at home, they will need to start thinking more about making the playoffs than being the higher seeded team that many thought they might achieve this year after their strong finish last season. I really think this a big swing game for STO's season.

On the other hand, a road win by the Gusties over STO would build on their recent big home victories over Carleton and Augsburg and would provide more validation for ranking them as a top tier team in the league. I went into the season thinking STO would be a top 4 squad in the MIAC and Gustavus would be a 5-6 place team, but a win tomorrow at Northfield by the Gusties would definitely change my thinking on that projection

[Kilroy]

Interesting that despite Marcus Alipate coming in with two D-1 offers, big man Connor Nord appears to be UST's top freshie right now. The EP product is averaging 14 points a game and seems to be playing well. I still see a bright future for Alipate, but I may have been hasty in predicting Nicolai-like playing time as a freshman.

14 minutes a game not points, 5 points a game

my mistake... that would be pretty significant, wouldn't it? Still the biggest contribution among freshmen.

[Drake Palmer]

Heck of a day today if you're a D3, specifically D3 MIAC fan like myself.  I can tune into my TV & watch the UST UW-Whitewater national football semifinal in hi-def, & tote the computer over & watch the best MIAC webcast in the league- the Oles hosting the suddenly red-hot Gusties & "World B Free" Anderson in action. Woo-hoo! 

[papahoops]

Congrats to the Oles on a big 82-59 home win over the Gusties. Looks like they came out swinging with a 14-2 run to start the game and never took the foot off the gas pedal. Given the margin of their road losses to both UST and STO thus far, it appears Gustavus still needs to show they can compete with quality teams away from St. Peters. Unlike typical balanced scoring Gustie squads from the past, this year's squad needs a strong offensive performance from one player (Seth A) to succeed. I'm sure Coach Hanson would prefer more balance, but the offensive skill level of Anderson's supporting cast is forcing Gustavus to take a different approach this year.
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