MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[ron doney]

USTs poor free throw shooting made the game closer than needed to be.

[ron doney]

Amherst looked very tough tonight.  If UST can get by Williams, it will give us a good idea of what the championship game may look like.  Amherst has waxed Williams twice and snuck by on the always difficult third game of the season. 

[oldknight]

USTs poor free throw shooting made the game closer than needed to be.

True enough, but made up for by going 10-20 from the arc. Congrats to the Tommies. You guys have a nice club.

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

USTs poor free throw shooting made the game closer than needed to be.

True enough, but made up for by going 10-20 from the arc. Congrats to the Tommies. You guys have a nice club.

Old Knight- that is one hell of a great team Calvin has!  I tip my hat to the Knights- their coaches and fans and especially to the players. It was an amazing, intense, exciting and well played game! A truly epic battle.  Your #20 was utterly amazing, your defense was frightening.....I cant imagine a championship game topping this one! its a pity one of these teams had to come up short.

The atmosphere in Schoenecker was electric! As amazing as the UST-UWSP game in 09 that was Old Shoe's final game...this one was was even more incredible. I need to go find me a couple gallons of green beer. Wow!

[oldknight]

USTs poor free throw shooting made the game closer than needed to be.

True enough, but made up for by going 10-20 from the arc. Congrats to the Tommies. You guys have a nice club.

Old Knight- that is one hell of a great team Calvin has!  I tip my hat to the Knights- their coaches and fans and especially to the players. It was an amazing, intense, exciting and well played game! A truly epic battle.  Your #20 was utterly amazing, your defense was frightening.....I cant imagine a championship game topping this one! its a pity one of these teams had to come up short.

The atmosphere in Schoenecker was electric! As amazing as the UST-UWSP game in 09 that was Old Shoe's final game...this one was was even more incredible. I need to go find me a couple gallons of green beer. Wow!

Wish I could have been there to see it with you. As for the green beer, Dave McHugh is in Holland, Michigan right now saying the same thing.

[stormyfuture]

was at the game, great atmosphere for/during the final game in the Shoe for the 12-13 season.  Calvin played a great game, and it is too bad these teams had to meet last night rather than in Salem or Atlanta.  Good luck in Salem Tommies

[nescac1]

An Eph fan here, looking forward to the St. Thomas match-up!  Two teams that are really efficient offensively.  Williams can certainly shoot, but St. Thomas's shooting numbers are off the charts, wow.  Looks like Williams has the two biggest stars, but St. Thomas has tremendous balance and a LOT more depth (the Ephs' bench is very, very thin this year).  I remember Nance and Hannon from the 2011 Final Four and they will be tough to deal with for the Ephs.

Like in almost every Williams game, the Ephs will have a size advantage but a quickness deficit.  Should be a great battle and obviously being number one, St. Thomas will be favored.  Williams has really improved since the second Amherst pasting (in part because a key player came back from a long illness, in part because they've become a lot more patient on offense, but Amherst is still easily the most talented team I've seen this year).  If Williams plays as well as they did vs. Midd and Amherst during the NESCAC championship weekend or vs. VWU last night, I think it will be a battle down to the wire.  If they play like they did vs. Wesley, on the other hand ... could be a long day for Eph fans. 

[TommieHoops4Life]

What a great finish to a great game Saturday night at Schoenecker. It truly is a shame that one of the teams had to lose that game. Bryan Powell was absolutely on fire and couldn't miss regardless of the defense. Thankfully one of his few misses was on Calvin's last possession. I forget who was guarding him, but the pressure was enough to force him into a tough shot.

Another very physical game between two very good teams. St. Thomas led by 15 in the second half before Powell caught fire and single-handedly willed Calvin back into the game.

Of all the players to hit a big 3 in a clutch spot, Noah Kaiser wouldn't have been my first pick but what a shot by the senior that turns out to be the game-winner.

That might have been the best defensive team St. Thomas has faced all year. Calvin had very quick defenders with quick hands who jumped frequently into passing lanes. It caused a lot of issues on plays the Tommies usually execute with ease, so they'll need to clean that up this week.

Great to see UST win a game where they were tested until the very end, it hasn't happened a lot this year. It should be an interesting weekend in Salem.

[AO]

What a great finish to a great game Saturday night at Schoenecker. It truly is a shame that one of the teams had to lose that game. Bryan Powell was absolutely on fire and couldn't miss regardless of the defense. Thankfully one of his few misses was on Calvin's last possession. I forget who was guarding him, but the pressure was enough to force him into a tough shot.

Tengwall was guarding Powell:

"He got by me," Tengwall said, "and all I could think was, 'Oh my goodness, he's hit every shot, he's gonna hit this one. When he missed and Zach got the rebound, I was shocked."

Powell's quick move caused Tengwall to fall down, so it wasn't really the pressure, but the quick move might have made it more difficult to regain his balance for the shot.

[Drake Palmer]

My congratulations as well to the Calvin Knights & UST Tommies. That was one heck of a ball game Saturday night! Calvin did not receive enough credit for being such a tough defensive ball club. Although the boxscore only showed 3 blocks, their bigs did an outstanding job of altering shots in the lane & challenging shots on the perimeter. Plus the perimeter guys were tough & played solid defense.  Calvin was not necessarily a physical club, but played outstanding position defense & their length & athleticism was unusual for a D3 team.

Any other club might have wilted under the 15 point deficit, but Calvin kept battling & battling. Bryan Powell was absolutely unreal! Those were insanely deep treys he was hitting & he was being closely defended by one of UST's top defenders.  Tom Snikkers was also a quality player & competitor. My heart went out to him as he was going through the post game handshake line & was crying as he was gamely congratulating everyone on the UST team.  Tough ball game for either team to lose.

I didn't think it was possible for UST to advance this far in the playoffs without really having a go-to man as they did in 2011 with Tyler Nicolai, but so far, this winning by committee approach seems to be working.  Saturday night it was Noah Kaiser providing the unexpected offensive fireworks.  Kaiser hit the ridiculously ballsy trey to close the game, and that Euro-style, Manu Ginobili, l-o-n-g stride layup right before the half.  I was a little surprised the men in stripes didn't call a travel on that basket.

Outstanding UST defensive effort as usual.  I'm sure Coach Tauer & staff will be reminding their charges to clean up that FT shooting & ball handling before Friday. It looks like the experience going up against the Calvin size should help them when they take on Williams. Although not deep, Williams goes 6-9, 6-6, 6-4, 6-3, & 6-3 with their top 5, & the 6th man off the bench is 6-6.

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

Hamline announces coahing hire:

http://hamlineathletics.com/news/2013/3/19/MBB_0319134500.aspx

Congrats Jim!

[nescac1]

As a Williams grad, I'm rooting for Jim Hayes to lose his next game.  As the husband of a Hamline grad who occasionally plays pick-up ball with a former Hamline player, I'm rooting for Jim Hayes to win all subsequent games! 

[oldknight]

My congratulations as well to the Calvin Knights & UST Tommies. That was one heck of a ball game Saturday night! Calvin did not receive enough credit for being such a tough defensive ball club. Although the boxscore only showed 3 blocks, their bigs did an outstanding job of altering shots in the lane & challenging shots on the perimeter. Plus the perimeter guys were tough & played solid defense.  Calvin was not necessarily a physical club, but played outstanding position defense & their length & athleticism was unusual for a D3 team.

Any other club might have wilted under the 15 point deficit, but Calvin kept battling & battling. Bryan Powell was absolutely unreal! Those were insanely deep treys he was hitting & he was being closely defended by one of UST's top defenders.  Tom Snikkers was also a quality player & competitor. My heart went out to him as he was going through the post game handshake line & was crying as he was gamely congratulating everyone on the UST team.  Tough ball game for either team to lose.

I didn't think it was possible for UST to advance this far in the playoffs without really having a go-to man as they did in 2011 with Tyler Nicolai, but so far, this winning by committee approach seems to be working.  Saturday night it was Noah Kaiser providing the unexpected offensive fireworks.  Kaiser hit the ridiculously ballsy trey to close the game, and that Euro-style, Manu Ginobili, l-o-n-g stride layup right before the half.  I was a little surprised the men in stripes didn't call a travel on that basket.

Outstanding UST defensive effort as usual.  I'm sure Coach Tauer & staff will be reminding their charges to clean up that FT shooting & ball handling before Friday. It looks like the experience going up against the Calvin size should help them when they take on Williams. Although not deep, Williams goes 6-9, 6-6, 6-4, 6-3, & 6-3 with their top 5, & the 6th man off the bench is 6-6.

I couldn't travel to St. Paul for the game so thanks for the first hand report. I'm not the least bit surprised Tom shed some tears. I've known him his entire life and he is an exceptionally emotional person. No doubt part of Tom's emotion was due to the realization that his college career was over. He loves playing competitive basketball and striving for a championship. Seeing the dream die is tough to take, especially when you believe your team was one of those good enough to win. Every team in the D3 tournament will suffer the same fate except one.

[TommieHoops4Life]

What a gutsy shot by Noah Kaiser to give the Tommies a 63-62 win over Calvin, and the reward is a date with Williams Friday. I'll be curious to see the matchups as Williams has a very good post player averaging basically a double-double and as Tauer said one of the top perimeter shooters in the country.

This one could be a lot tougher for UST since it's on a neutral court, but last weekend was proof that they can throw a punch back when a team makes a run on them.

MIAC fans should remember Williams well, they beat Gustavus in the 2003 national title game and was in the 2011 final four with a 17 point lead before Wooster (I think) came back to beat them. Should be great game, UST wins it with defensive pressure and getting out and running like they have all season. That, and make your FTs (9-22 last game) and clean up the offense (15 turnovers against Calvin).

I expect it to go right down to the wire. Thanks to webcasting, I didn't fork over $800 for a plane trip and a hotel room with the Big Dance this week.

[stormyfuture]

nice win for the tommies earlier this afternoon.  Good luck tomorrow against MHB or St. Mary's (MD) and get to Atlanta