MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Drake Palmer]

Finally, the board is heating up a bit. Some notes from my perspective...

Late afternoon work activities prevented me from taking in last night's marquee match up between Augsburg and St. Olaf in person, but I was able to watch the webcast from the last 7-8 minutes of the first half and most of the 2nd half. Oles 66-54.

When Bobby Fong is on, he is probably one of the more exciting players in the league.  I still think it's a shame he never added the explosive drive to the basket that I know he's capable of.  Having said that, he and FY PG Sterling Nielsen teamed up on one of the prettier plays I've seen this year.  Early in the 2nd half Nielson was toward the right side of the key, Fong was toward the left sideline and baseline.  Fong came up high & ran a fade screen, caught a skip pass from Nielsen, and in one motion elevated and made a sweet 15 foot jumper off the glass.  I jumped up and yelled at my computer.  Sweet!! Great play in a series of many for Fong and the rest of the Oles.  Fong scored 21 pts on 9-16 shooting, Stu Neville had 12 pts, and Nielson and Connor Gunderson had 11 points each.  Oles shot 50% from the floor. 

The Oles just dominated the Dawgs in the 2nd half, beat them on the boards 40-33 and shut down the interior attack of Cory Polta and Andy Gresziak –Grim.  I realize I'm beating a dead horse, but the lack of strong guard play is absolutely killing the Dawgs. Tyler Schmidt is a great little 2G but the Dawgs were forced to have him run PG and he ran out of gas in the 2nd half. In the 2nd half I bet Augsburg only got a handful of shots from inside the paint and jacked up a number of ill-advised, off-balance jump shots and shot a miserable 33.3% from the floor.  Ole defense had something to do with this, but the Auggie offensive execution was poor.
 
On the other hand STO must be doing something right.  Since their one point loss to Gustavus on February 1st, 64-63, they've reeled off 4 straight convincing wins. Bethel 74-57, @ CORD 81-64, SJU 72-47, @ AUG 66-54.

*******************

Another team that has been quietly dominating is Gustavus.  On Saturday they held Macalester to 36.4% shooting from the floor which was not unexpected. But then on Monday they go to Collegeville where the Gusties have not been that successful in recent years and absolutely put the wood to the Johnnies 58-40. Forty points?!?

After a decent first half the score was 26-23 in favor of the Gusties at halftime. In the 2nd half the Jays were an ice cold 23.8% in the 2nd half, and ended up shooting 34.1% from the floor.  The Gustavus defense was so tough they even guarded the free throw line tough too.  SJU was 4-12 from the FT line for  33% Youch.  Not gonna win too games with shooting like that.

It makes you wonder what's going on with the Johnnies. This is the 3rd game in a row –Bethel, St. Olaf, and Gustavus, the Johnnies have been shut out in the closing minutes of the game. Zero, zippo, nada points. Not even a FT.

On the other hand, the Gusties seem to be gathering momentum as they head toward the end of the regular season. Defense which has been a trademark of the tough Gustavus teams has been solid if not spectacular, and now it appears they're finally adding some other pieces to the offense to take some of the burden off future league MVP – Seth Anderson.  Tyler Grey, and Ben Biewen have become more consistent, and the Gusties are starting to get some scoring production from their biggs – Paul Blacklock, and Mike Keating JR – James Hill. 

It's a good thing too.  I heard from another MIAC fan that Seth Anderson injured his shoulder in the game against MAC on Saturday which led to his poor shooting performance last night against the Jays- 0-6 FGA, 0 points and 17 minutes of play.  Gbacker, or Gman any word on Anderson?  It would be tough sledding for Gustavus without Anderson in the lineup.

[Drake Palmer]

Before tomorrow night's game against UST, I'll come back with my assessment of the Royals.  Over the years I've never really embraced them, but this is a team a fan of D3 basketball could like. 

[AO]

If the Johnnies do continue their slide and fall to either concordia or mac, this might be the first time in history that a team has swept the Tommies while not making the playoffs.  I suppose if i was a johnnie fan, I'd rather beat St. Thomas twice in a season than get beat by the Tommies and squeak into the playoffs and fail to win the tourney.

[carletonsid]

Couldn't resist posting this. Perhaps UST financial aid is a bit too generous?
St. Thomas student's Lamborghini gets towed

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

Couldn't resist posting this. Perhaps UST financial aid is a bit too generous?
St. Thomas student's Lamborghini gets towed

funny!  but is it as good as the wine & shrimp mention in TIME magazine for another MIAC school:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1921613,00.html

(hmm....no caviar? or just no cutback on the caviar?)  

[GoldandBlueBU]

Couldn't resist posting this. Perhaps UST financial aid is a bit too generous?
St. Thomas student's Lamborghini gets towed

funny!  but is it as good as the wine & shrimp mention in TIME magazine for another MIAC school:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1921613,00.html

(hmm....no caviar? or just no cutback on the caviar?)  

The Lamborghini story trumps the shrimp and wine story, not even close. 

[AO]

I'd find it more funny if it weren't parked in front of $100 Million worth of new buildings.  Not entirely out of place.  Maybe the next $100 Million in donations can be spent on underground parking, or maybe they should just give everybody a scooter and let them park it anywhere on campus.

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

Joking aside, I was (as I always am) impressed with the way Guy Kalland gets his team to play their hearts out, as well as the level of talent he brings in, year after year. Last night, despite being all-but-officially eliminated from the playoffs, the Knights played hard, determined and gritty at the palatial AARC. For most of the first half, they stayed right with UST, despite the slew of injuries that have decimated their lineup. Chalk up another injury as Jonah Herscu (I believe) appeared to dislocate his shoulder battling for a rebound and was out the rest of the night. Theisen was his usual ice-for-blood accurate from all over, particularly beyond the arc. Sawatzke was unflappable as usual, although UST (particularly Tengwall) did a good job limiting his damage.

The Thommies looked as good as they have the past few weeks, cutting down on mistakes, playing solid defense and working the ball to the open man. Nice game for Deberg, who started off on fire, with 12 points in the opening 5 1/2 minutes and ending the night with 17. Good to see Riedeman step up on both ends, and Nance continues to impress defensively and with his ability to drive the paint. Good balance on offense.....hopefully, this game is a sign of things to come the rest of this week and next week.

Big battle at BU tomorrow....UST needs to win out and get a little help in the form of a GAC loss... but it IS possible we could see a 3-way tie.... if BU wins out, UST tops SMU, Cord  upsets GAC and Ole beat CAR...the Gusties, Tommies and Oles would share the top spot! I wouldnt rule that out at this point-- it has been that type of season.

*******
Yeah, the Lamborghini story trumps the shrimp and wine story...I'm still chuckling over it

[Patriot]

2012 Joe Hutton / MIAC MVP Award

DP -

Per your previous post, are you predicting GAC's Seth Anderson will be the Joe Hutton/MIAC MVP this year?  Just curious.  I've watched him three times this year and in those three games he scored roughly 18/ppg with very few rebounds, assists and average defense.  But, the guy can flat out score in a variety of ways.  He's enjoyable to watch coming off all the picks they set for him.

I would think that G-Grim from Augsburg and Neville from St Olaf will be considered as legit contenders as well.  Anybody else have thoughts on this subject?

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

Patriot-
There isnt a true vote on the Joe Hutton Player of the Year (not MVP). The coaches list their all-conference selections in ranked order, similar to ballots for the AP top 25 in D-I. The leading vote getter is declared the Player of the Year. There always seems to be a strong affinity in the coaches' voting for the award to go to a player from the championship-winning team, but that is not a prerequisite.

I'd say Anderson is the leading candidate at this point but is not a lock. My ballot, if I had one, would be:
1. Anderson
2. Neville
3. Nance (assuming UST wins or ties for title)
4. Hall
5. Grzesiak-Grimm

If UST finishes 2nd or 3rd, then I'd drop Nance to 5th and move Hall and GG up a notch each.

[carletonsid]

Couldn't resist posting this. Perhaps UST financial aid is a bit too generous?
St. Thomas student's Lamborghini gets towed

funny!  but is it as good as the wine & shrimp mention in TIME magazine for another MIAC school:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1921613,00.html
(hmm....no caviar? or just no cutback on the caviar?)  

Hmm, spending $3800 to serve 300+ faculty/staff a glass of wine and a few shrimp once a year is a bit different than an 18-22 year-old kid driving a car that costs more than $100,000.

Final home game for the Knights tonight vs. Augsburg. I'm home-bound tonight with the kids so I'll be relegated to watching online, but I want to give a huge shout-out to Caleb Rosenow. This is a player who basically wasn't recruited by any other MIAC school, yet has played at an all-conference level the last two seasons. He was a major reason why Carleton won the title last year and he's carried the Knights for major, major portions of this season, especially once Taylor Hanson was lost to injury. The amount of improvement he's shown over the last four years is remarkable, so big props to him for putting in the necessary work to make that leap and have such a successful career.

[gacbacker]

2012 Joe Hutton / MIAC MVP Award

DP -

Per your previous post, are you predicting GAC's Seth Anderson will be the Joe Hutton/MIAC MVP this year?  Just curious.  I've watched him three times this year and in those three games he scored roughly 18/ppg with very few rebounds, assists and average defense.  But, the guy can flat out score in a variety of ways.  He's enjoyable to watch coming off all the picks they set for him.

I would think that G-Grim from Augsburg and Neville from St Olaf will be considered as legit contenders as well.  Anybody else have thoughts on this subject?

I think Anderson is a lock for three main reasons:

1. It looks like Gustavus will win or at least share the conference title
2. He leads the conference in scoring by 3-4 points the last time I looked
3. Nobody else on Gustavus's team is averaging 10 points or more per game, go back and look at how many games where he was the only Gustavus player in double figures. Biewen and Grey and some others have gotten things going during the second half of the season, but for awhile there he was carrying them on his shoulders.

[Drake Palmer]

2012 Joe Hutton / MIAC MVP Award

DP -

Per your previous post, are you predicting GAC's Seth Anderson will be the Joe Hutton/MIAC MVP this year?  Just curious.  I've watched him three times this year and in those three games he scored roughly 18/ppg with very few rebounds, assists and average defense.  But, the guy can flat out score in a variety of ways.  He's enjoyable to watch coming off all the picks they set for him.

I would think that G-Grim from Augsburg and Neville from St Olaf will be considered as legit contenders as well.  Anybody else have thoughts on this subject?

I think Anderson is a lock for three main reasons:

1. It looks like Gustavus will win or at least share the conference title
2. He leads the conference in scoring by 3-4 points the last time I looked
3. Nobody else on Gustavus's team is averaging 10 points or more per game, go back and look at how many games where he was the only Gustavus player in double figures. Biewen and Grey and some others have gotten things going during the second half of the season, but for awhile there he was carrying them on his shoulders.

I agree with both Gbacker and Mose.  If I was a betting man, I would wager that Seth Anderson would win the MVP award.  If Anderson is forced to sit out these last couple of games due to injury won't help him, but I believe the coaches will decide based upon the entire season and not just this last week.  Anderson's basically had to carry his team all season while his team was trying to find other reliable scoring options.  This was also a team that was picked to finish 5th in the Coaches' Preseason Poll.

On the other hand, Stu Neville and the Oles have talent coming out of their ears. They were also picked by many to win the league title at the beginning of the season.  I believe Neville is certainly the best all around big man in the league and is worthy of strong consideration, but in my opinion, he's not been a dominant player. Anderson is.

I would also agree with Mose's rankings of the top 5 MVP candidates.

[Drake Palmer]

Double play...

Bethel, what can I say? In spite of what I thought at the beginning of the season, they're this year's feel good story.  I still look at their talent level and I don't see how they're doing it.  They've got 2 All Conference type players in forward Taylor Hall and SG Daniel Baah. The rest of the players on the team are serviceable, decent players but not the type of guys one would think you build a team around.

What I do see are two players, Baah and Hall who have sublimated their own personal goals and as a result they've made their team much, much better.  No longer do I see Taylor Hall floating around on the perimeter looking for jumpers, but he's in the paint mixing it up and then stepping out to hit the J, or he's looking to out quick his defender to the basket.  Baah seems to be much more mature as well and is playing so much more disciplined than I've seen him play in the past.  Hall is still averaging 17.3 ppg, 5.6 reb ppg, and shooting 53% from the floor. Baah is averaging 14.1 ppg, 82.9% from the FT line, leads the league in steals at 1.53 spg, and 3pt FG accuracy 44.7%.  However, it should be pointed out that he's only made 17 treys on the season.

Together, both Baah and Hall seem to have improved a ton on defensive end.  And maybe it's not so much that they improved, but their attitude about playing good solid, hardnosed defense has improved. I used to see Hall try to guard out on the perimeter, that's just not where he best helps his team, that's changed as well. Baah used to play lazy defense, not move his feet but try to rely on his hands and then bam! He'd be forced to go the bench with 2-3 fouls in about the same amount of time.

Speaking of defense, the heart of the Bethel defense is undersized power forward Kyle Zimmerman.  He reminds me of a poor man's version of UST's B.J. Viau. This kid does it all. Last week against SJU he looked like a middle linebacker barking out defensive signals.  At one point on a fast break he had hustled back down on defense, grabbed guard Greg Myer by the jersey and pushed him into defensive position, and with his other hand instructed his teammates where to line up.  This kid is only a sophomore.  Needless to say, I loved it! Zimmerman is only 6-3 yet leads the Bethel in rebounding at 6.3 rebs per game. 

Coach Westlund has got his kids playing outstanding defense.  When you look in the various defensive stats categories, you'll find Bethel at or near the top:

1)   Defense Field goal percentage:  41.2%
2)   Blocked Shots per game:  3.11
3)   Steals per game: 7.11
1)   Defensive rebounds: 24.11

On offense Kellan Dahlquist is the drab, unlikely looking PG, who doesn't do much but keep the ball in play, doesn't turn it over, and averages around 2 assists per game. Lanky 6-6 JD Robinson is the other legitimate outside shooting threat as he averages about 2.5 treys per game.  Then they've got a bunch of seemingly interchangeable parts.  JR Greg Myers is showing flashes of his talent that he displayed as a FY when he made the All-MIAC FY team.  SO Luke Buttenhoff is the designated big enforcer in the post, FY AJ Hatchett is a promising FY guard, as is SO guard Quinn Gorski.

During the closing minutes of the game against SJU last week, the players out on the floor for Bethel were SR Daniel Baah, JR Taylor Hall, JR Greg Myer, SO Kyle Zimmerman, and SO Quinn Gorski.

It will be very interesting to see how tonight's game against the former king –UST, turns out.  It should be a dandy.  There has been some monster Bethel – UST games in the past 5 years.  If this one comes even close to expectations I think I'll have to alert Ramsey County paramedics.

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

to put things in perspective, DP-- I am heading to Kims for their "magical" fried chicken. Its been a long time since I was forced to bring this superstition into play... here's to clogged arteries!