MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[AO]

Sounds like Bethel has added Riley Dearring, formerly of Minnetonka HS, Wisconsin (walk on), and Cal State Fullerton.  Believe he just has the one year left.

Riley was not a walk-on at Wisconsin.  From the strib article after he announced he was leaving the Badgers:

Dearring appeared in 18 games for the Badgers, playing 45 minutes and scoring 13 points. After redshirting last season, the door was open for more playing time this season on a young team. But Dearring, who was slowed by injuries his first two seasons, was quickly passed up by freshman Khalil Iverson and has played a total of six minutes in three games for the Badgers, struggling at 6-5 following back-to-back Final Fours.

The 6-foot-5 Dearring was a finalist for the Mr. Basketball award in Minnesota as a senior after averaging 19.2 points while leading Minnetonka to a 20-5 record.

Dearring is the third scholarship player to leave the Wisconsin program since the end of the 2011-12 season, joining transfers Jarrod Uthoff (Iowa) and George Marshall (South Dakota State).

[bball1122]

You're right.   I guess my brain never accepted the fact that Wisconsin offered him a scholarship.  While he was never a Big 10 level player, he should make a big impact at Bethel.

[Smitty Oom]

You're right.   I guess my brain never accepted the fact that Wisconsin offered him a scholarship.  While he was never a Big 10 level player, he should make a big impact at Bethel.

Yeah wow, that will be a great get for BU. The top teams are really separating themselves from the middle of the pack. It will be quite the battle for the regular season crown between BU, SJU and UST with Carleton not too far behind.

[Drake Palmer]

I felt certain that yesterday's post would scare up Drake Palmer.  Now I'm concerned for his wellbeing.   

Ha!

Still alive and kicking, but my own elderly athletic pursuits, such as they are, have mostly kept me off board for the summer. But with the T-Wolves starting up, D3 hoops can't be too far behind. I'd certainly rather be a D3 hoops fan rather than a follower of D1 basketball. Sounds like another big scandal coming down the road with bribery charges at Arizona, Louisville (different charge, same school), etc. Yikes!  If true, let's hope Pitino Jr. wasn't closely following how Pitino Sr. handled certain administrative functions.

It should be a fun year to follow MIAC basketball.  I'm sure Mose might disagree, but this could be the year the Tommies are toppled. 

If the Jays ever learn how to play defense, their offense should be out of sight with Stokman & crew.

The other team that will be interesting to watch is Bethel.  If the Riley Dearring rumor is true, that will be a tremendous boost. Plus, it's my understanding the Royals picked up another player in Matt Ambriz, a DII transfer from Concordia St. Paul.  I never saw him play at CSTP, but at Woodbury HS he was a tremendous shooter with terrific range.

Matt Ambriz

[GoldandBlueBU]

I felt certain that yesterday's post would scare up Drake Palmer.  Now I'm concerned for his wellbeing.   

Ha!

Still alive and kicking, but my own elderly athletic pursuits, such as they are, have mostly kept me off board for the summer. But with the T-Wolves starting up, D3 hoops can't be too far behind. I'd certainly rather be a D3 hoops fan rather than a follower of D1 basketball. Sounds like another big scandal coming down the road with bribery charges at Arizona, Louisville (different charge, same school), etc. Yikes!  If true, let's hope Pitino Jr. wasn't closely following how Pitino Sr. handled certainly administrative functions.

It should be a fun year to follow MIAC basketball.  I'm sure Mose might disagree, but this could be the year the Tommies are toppled. 

If the Jays ever learn how to play defense, their offense should be out of sight with Stokman & crew.

The other team that will be interesting to watch is Bethel.  If the Riley Dearring rumor is true, that will be a tremendous boost. Plus, it's my understanding the Royals picked up another player in Matt Ambriz, a DII transfer from Concordia St. Paul.  I never saw him play at CSTP, but at Woodbury HS he was a tremendous shooter with terrific range.

Matt Ambriz

I'll believe it when I see it - they seem to find a way to win the regular season year in and year out, somehow.  My money would still be on them.

I confirmed with a current student that Dearring is indeed at Bethel, though he isn't on the roster on the website, FWIW. Can't imagine that he wouldn't play if that's an option, and I don't know why it wouldn't be.

Still haven't heard how he ended up at Bethel.  My best guess would be Novak's D1 network somehow linked him up with Bethel, or maybe Tusler, who was also a 2013 graduate, and I'm guessing played AAU basketball with or against him at some point, was able to draw him in.

[Drake Palmer]

As usual, one of the "brainiac" schools is one of the first two schools to post their roster for the season.

Here's Carleton's roster and their hand selected FY.
https://apps.carleton.edu/athletics/varsity_sports/mens_basketball/team_roster/

Feature story on their prized, two newcomers.

https://apps.carleton.edu/athletics/varsity_sports/mens_basketball/?story_id=1570737

I'll have to check with our contact in the Chicago area to see if he knows anything about Matt Stritzel.  Greg, are you still stopping by our board? 

[AO]

A Carleton roster inspired me to see how Freddie is doing at Baylor.  Was very surprised to find that bleacherreport has downgraded Carleton to a junior college.  Will really hurt their academic ranking. 

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2733357-college-basketball-players-tasked-with-replacing-last-years-biggest-stars

If that inconsistency follows him into the starting lineup, other possibilities for the job would include Nuni Omot, JUCO transfer Freddie Gillespie and freshman Tristan Clark.

[Smitty Oom]

PRESEASON RANKS!

St. John's is ranked 19, which is very fair. They return everyone and add some solid transfers. They will be fun to watch!

St. Thomas received 13 votes. As said before, one of the most impressive streaks in D3 hoops is in jeopardy of coming to an end this year... 12 straight MIAC regular season championships!



The Cobbs opened the season last night with a scrimmage across the Red River agaisnt the NDSU Bison. Bison usually finish very high in the Summit league, a good D1 mid-major program.
BOXSCORE
A lot of new names for the Cobbers this year, will be fun to see who steps into a big role!

[GoldandBlueBU]

As a BU supporter, SJU is very troubling...but as a MIAC backer, I'm excited to see just how good they can be.  They certainly seem to have all sorts of potential...a very talented big man in Weiss, a scoring machine in Stokman (who the rest of the MIAC has to suffer with for 2 more seasons!), and a ton of other complimentary, well experienced  guys that I don't know enough about SJU's roster on in order to call them out.

In the end, UST will still somehow probably find a way to win the regular season...

Looking forward to things getting started!

[Smitty Oom]

Dave's Preseason Ranks

Finally got around to reading this and turns out Dave McHugh had the Johnnies at 11 in his preseason poll. I always knew he was a smart man! Fun read with a MIAC flare for you junkies who can't wait 11 days for the season to begin!

UPDATED: Just checked out St. John's non-conference schedule and although they should go 4-0 in the D3 games (one against D2 SCSU, one against LaCrosse and the other 3 against the UMAC), their end of season SOS will not be great. Especially since they will have 20 conference games bringing that closer to .500, as noted before on this thread which puts MIAC teams behind the 8 ball.

St. Thomas on the other hand plays a very difficult schedule in non-conference going to play in the Great Lakes Tourney against top programs in the nation such as Marietta and Dickinson. They will also play UW-River Falls (ranked in preseason top 25) and UW Stevens Point who has a tough schedule themselves and a storied D3 program.

This is way to early but to start the season it looks like our best shot at 2 NCAA Bids is St. John's winning the MIAC tourney and St. Thomas getting an at-large! Sorry GaBBU 

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

I'd like to see the MIAC restructure it's conference schedule to more of a ODAC-style one to give teams more than four or five non-conference games to play each year. Sadly, I think they are only hurting themselves as a conference in terms of getting extra bids with the double-round-robin set-up they have playing 20 of their 25 allotted (by NCAA rule) games in conference.

[GoldandBlueBU]

Dave's Preseason Ranks


This is way to early but to start the season it looks like our best shot at 2 NCAA Bids is St. John's winning the MIAC tourney and St. Thomas getting an at-large! Sorry GaBBU 

Meh...first national tourney appearance (can't recall if it was first ever, or just the first in a very, very, very long time) just last year, so I wouldn't want to be greedy.   

[Smitty Oom]

I'd like to see the MIAC restructure it's conference schedule to more of a ODAC-style one to give teams more than four or five non-conference games to play each year. Sadly, I think they are only hurting themselves as a conference in terms of getting extra bids with the double-round-robin set-up they have playing 20 of their 25 allotted (by NCAA rule) games in conference.

Yeah I totally agree, Dave. I wonder if the MIAC has ever considering lowering the amount of conference games for the men.

What does the ODAC do?

I know the NESCAC has 11 teams but they just play each team once in conference (10 conference games) to allow 15 non-conference games. It is nice to bolster SOS but I personally don't like this as much.

The women's MIAC play less conference games. Due to St. Kates, the women have 12 teams which would only leave 3 non-conference games on the schedule; however, they only play 18 conference games and rotate year-to-year on who they don't play twice (they play each team at least once). I like this option more and it would still free up a couple of non-conference games.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

I'd like to see the MIAC restructure it's conference schedule to more of a ODAC-style one to give teams more than four or five non-conference games to play each year. Sadly, I think they are only hurting themselves as a conference in terms of getting extra bids with the double-round-robin set-up they have playing 20 of their 25 allotted (by NCAA rule) games in conference.

Yeah I totally agree, Dave. I wonder if the MIAC has ever considering lowering the amount of conference games for the men.

What does the ODAC do?

I know the NESCAC has 11 teams but they just play each team once in conference (10 conference games) to allow 15 non-conference games. It is nice to bolster SOS but I personally don't like this as much.

The women's MIAC play less conference games. Due to St. Kates, the women have 12 teams which would only leave 3 non-conference games on the schedule; however, they only play 18 conference games and rotate year-to-year on who they don't play twice (they play each team at least once). I like this option more and it would still free up a couple of non-conference games.

ODAC plays an unbalanced, hybrid schedule. A team will play half the conference in a double-round-robin and the other half only once. The rivals make sure to always play twice every season, but the rest rotates. You may play Team A and B twice for a few seasons and then rotate to playing them only once (rotating locations). Allows them to play everyone for tie-breaking scenarios and still get a good portion of their schedule set for non-conference. Also can help with the SOS as well.

[GoldandBlueBU]

I'd like to see the MIAC restructure it's conference schedule to more of a ODAC-style one to give teams more than four or five non-conference games to play each year. Sadly, I think they are only hurting themselves as a conference in terms of getting extra bids with the double-round-robin set-up they have playing 20 of their 25 allotted (by NCAA rule) games in conference.

Yeah I totally agree, Dave. I wonder if the MIAC has ever considering lowering the amount of conference games for the men.

What does the ODAC do?

I know the NESCAC has 11 teams but they just play each team once in conference (10 conference games) to allow 15 non-conference games. It is nice to bolster SOS but I personally don't like this as much.

The women's MIAC play less conference games. Due to St. Kates, the women have 12 teams which would only leave 3 non-conference games on the schedule; however, they only play 18 conference games and rotate year-to-year on who they don't play twice (they play each team at least once). I like this option more and it would still free up a couple of non-conference games.

ODAC plays an unbalanced, hybrid schedule. A team will play half the conference in a double-round-robin and the other half only once. The rivals make sure to always play twice every season, but the rest rotates. You may play Team A and B twice for a few seasons and then rotate to playing them only once (rotating locations). Allows them to play everyone for tie-breaking scenarios and still get a good portion of their schedule set for non-conference. Also can help with the SOS as well.

I think that would be great for the MIAC.  Not dissimilar to the Big Ten basketball schedule, where you won't see every team twice per year.