MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Greek Tragedy]

Changing topics ever so slightly... the Trib adds a bit of fire to the mostly good-natured rivalry and animosity between SJU & UST.  This could be the Jays' year, if they can get past the UMAC rep in the post season.

http://www.startribune.com/coach-from-across-the-hall-extraordinary-wing-from-armstrong-have-st-john-s-soaring-in-basketball/567247282/

That was pretty good. +1k

[jamtod]

Tommies shot the lights out against Augsburg last night. I tuned out partway through the 2nd half (who could possibly choke a 20-pt lead with ~10 minutes to play!! never happens!!) in favor of the women's live stream.

15-33 from 3-pt range, I think 11 of those were in the 1st half. Going to need a night like this the next time we face the Johns.

[Drake Palmer]

Tommies shot the lights out against Augsburg last night. I tuned out partway through the 2nd half (who could possibly choke a 20-pt lead with ~10 minutes to play!! never happens!!) in favor of the women's live stream.

15-33 from 3-pt range, I think 11 of those were in the 1st half. Going to need a night like this the next time we face the Johns.

Since the last time these two teams met back in December it was a close 89-81 win by the Tommies, I thought the second meeting might have a similar result. So, I made my way over to UST to watch the game last night. Nope, I was clearly wrong.  UST was the better team in all aspects, speed, better defense, better ball movement, and better shooting. This recent version of the Tommies lives and die by the triple, and the smaller Auggie defenders were a half step slow getting out to the open shooters. 25 assists on 35 made baskets. Yowch.  Still gotta love Augsburg's big man, James Streeter, and his nimbleness around the basket.

The Tommies are a streaky shooting team, so it will be interesting to see how well they'll shoot against a taller, athletic team like the Johnnies up in C-ville. SJU is nearly as quick as the Tommies, and have the length to defend and get a hand up in the face of the shooter. Last Saturday, SJU's Zach Hanson had a great block out on the wing against Carleton's Kent Hanson after K Hanson had hit a couple of clutch treys to make the Carleton faithful start thinking upset. Eventually, order was restored, and the Jays sneaked out of Northfield with a well-earned victory.

[Smitty Oom]

New top 25 is out and the voters got tired of voting for the same #1 team all season and decided to change it up and give some love to the MIAC! 

In all serious, SJU gathered 3 #1 votes and 10 more total points after another perfect week, stealing some away from the Garnet of Swarthmore, who own the only perfect record. I have been very adamant in letting posters know their first game (and loss) to NWU was without Alade (who I will get to in a bit), but if I had a poll I would have kept my top two the same this week. Swarthmore has played a much tougher schedule than the Johnnies (SOS of ~.570 vs ~.475, respectively) and they have similar PD (16 for the Johnnies compared to 14 for the Garnet). Just find it interesting that there was a couple voters who decided to change things up a little this week, obviously does not mean much in the grand scheme of things.

Another thing to note, is that SJU has a scarily bad SOS for the time being. Another game(s?) against UST will help that but KnightSlappy has them proj for a sub .500 SOS at the end of the season, which is significant because no team in the modern D3 era has been selected as an at-large with a sub .500 SOS.  Now their other main criteria in winning percentage and wins/record vs regionally ranked opponents may be too good to not include them, but it is something that is a decent talking point as of right now.

Lastly, I think it is time to do some preliminary awards talk with 75% of the conf season completed, and Jubie Alade is my current MIAC POY. His scoring has been incredibly effecient this year. He is currently 3rd in scoring at 19.2ppg on just 10 FGA per game with shooting %s of 58.5/56.8/90. Granted he is only taking 2.5 3PTFG. His peripheral numbers are solid as well, corralling 4.5 rebounds and dishing out 2 assists per game. Being the best player on what is clearly the best team in the conference (up to this point at least) gives Jubie enough of an edge over Coplin for my POY vote. Although, Coplin will probably win and he is a very deserving choice as well. Still some time for players to make a final push!

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Despite the SOS, I think St. John's has the best resume of any team in the country right now.  I was NOT one of the vote changes, but I certainly thought about it.  I stayed with Swarthmore because they've yet to lose.  They have rarely looked as good, this season, as they did at their best last year - however, the Swarthmore system is predicated on precision movement and passing, along with avoiding mistakes.  In other words: they're built to win close games.  Yes, I'd love to see them blowing out teams they are capable of blowing out, but the fact that they're successfully executing exactly what they want to do without slipping up, I'm willing to keep with them.

I told someone, if they were playing 100 games, I'd pick St. John's to win more, but if they're playing just one game, I'd make Swarthmore the slight favorite: thus, still number one.

[AO]

St. John's actual SoS isn't as bad as the flawed SoS with the broken home/away multiplier that the NCAA uses.  Massey ranks the Johnnies SoS 140th, and the NCAA has them at 266th.  The broken home/away multiplier punishes St. John's for playing Morris and Willamette on the road instead of at home.  If they played Morris and Willamette at home instead their NCAA SoS is easily over .500.   The Johnnies SoS will also get a nice boost towards the end of the season here since they're all done playing Concordia and Hamline.

[txg]

You'd be hard-pressed to watch Swarthmore's last two games and convince yourself you're watching the best team in the country.  Nor did St. John's look like world beaters when they were trailing Hamline at home midway through the second half, or when they almost lost at Carleton.  It's a long season, and no one is firing on all cylinders every game.  If I had a vote, the Garnet would be at the top until they lost.  And, since they lose at Hopkins 95% of the time, they'll be at the top one more week.

Swarthmore just seems to me like their good shooters haven't been shooting well.  With their rebounding and defense, they are usually in every game even if they don't shoot well.  And when they do shoot well, that's when the blowouts happen.

[Cav-J]

Cause I have infinity amount of time I calculated the winning percentage of each team's opponents the last games.

Easiest:

Carleton [.333]
Hamline [.411]
Concordia [.423]
St. Thomas [.471]
Augsburg [.490]
Macalester/St. Olaf [.500]
Gustavus [.535]
St. John's [.550]
St. Mary's [.558]
Bethel [.616]

Hardest

St. John's actual SoS isn't as bad as the flawed SoS with the broken home/away multiplier that the NCAA uses.  Massey ranks the Johnnies SoS 140th, and the NCAA has them at 266th.  The broken home/away multiplier punishes St. John's for playing Morris and Willamette on the road instead of at home.  If they played Morris and Willamette at home instead their NCAA SoS is easily over .500.   The Johnnies SoS will also get a nice boost towards the end of the season here since they're all done playing Concordia and Hamline.

[Retired Old Rat]

Johnnies win 20th in a row with a 68-53 victory over Olaf.  Johnnie fans chanting "kick us out" in the 2nd half.

[Drake Palmer]

Johnnies win 20th in a row with a 68-53 victory over Olaf.  Johnnie fans chanting "kick us out" in the 2nd half.

Good humor. 

The Jays and Tommies both have similar types of games in their next two games before the big showdown next Saturday. SJU on the road Saturday against currently tied for third place Augsburg, then a game against near cellar dweller Mac on Wednesday.  UST plays the season long occupant of the cellar, Concordia on Saturday, then travel to Arden Hills next Wednesday to play the other currently tied for third place team - the Bethel Royals.

If both the Jays and Tommies hold serve, next Saturday should be bedlam! I'm sure the rat pack will be out in full force with a wild variety of creative cheers.  A decent game might even ensue!

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

The Division III basketball regular season has officially entered it's final month. Where has the time gone?

Seems like a perfect time to take a break for lunch. Chat about what is ahead and teams which have positioned themselves well to still be playing next month.

Thursday on Hoopsville (at a special time), we chat with not only a few of Top 25 programs, but also a team that has seemingly come out of nowhere to be contending in one of the more difficult conferences.

Hoopsville is presented by D3hoops.com and airs from the WBCA/NABC Studio. You can watch Thursday's show LIVE starting at 12:00 pm ET in the following ways:
- Main page: www.d3hoops.com/hoopsville
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- Facebook Live Simulcast: www.facebook.com/Hoopsville
- YouTube Simulcast: www.youtube.com/d3hoopsville
- Team1 Sports: www.team1sports.com/Hoopsville/
- Team1 Sports app (Android TV, Amazon Fire, Apple TV, Roku) - you will either find it under the "live" section or search for the Hoopsville channel
Sunday's show primarily covers the Atlantic, Central, South, and Northeast Regions. All men's coaches appear in the NABC Coach's Corner. And all guests are featured on the BlueFrame Technology Hoopsville Hotline.

Thursday's show primarily covers the East, Great Lakes, Mid-Atlantic, and West Regions. All men's coaches appear in the NABC Coach's Corner. And all guests are featured on the BlueFrame Technology Hoopsville Hotline.

If you have questions about Division III basketball, feel free to send them and we will answer them on a the show. Email them to hoopsville@d3sports.com (notice, we fixed our email system with a slightly different email!) or use any of the social media options to the right.

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Guests Schedule (order subject to change):
- Pat McKenzie, No. 2 St. John's men's coach
- Nate Davis, No. 19 Gettysburg women's coach
- Kris Huffman, No. 4 DePauw women's coach
- Jim Bechtel, SUNY Potsdam men's coach.

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[Cav-J]

February 6:

Easiest:

Carleton [.311]
Hamline [.387]
St. Olaf [.397]
Concordia [.426]
St. Thomas [.470]
Macalester [.500]
Augsburg [.525]
St. Mary's [.538]
Gustavus [.583]
St. John's [.650]
Bethel [.727]

Hardest

Cause I have infinity amount of time I calculated the winning percentage of each team's opponents the last games.

Easiest:

Carleton [.333]
Hamline [.411]
Concordia [.423]
St. Thomas [.471]
Augsburg [.490]
Macalester/St. Olaf [.500]
Gustavus [.535]
St. John's [.550]
St. Mary's [.558]
Bethel [.616]

Hardest

St. John's actual SoS isn't as bad as the flawed SoS with the broken home/away multiplier that the NCAA uses.  Massey ranks the Johnnies SoS 140th, and the NCAA has them at 266th.  The broken home/away multiplier punishes St. John's for playing Morris and Willamette on the road instead of at home.  If they played Morris and Willamette at home instead their NCAA SoS is easily over .500.   The Johnnies SoS will also get a nice boost towards the end of the season here since they're all done playing Concordia and Hamline.

[ronk]

 There's a story in the Washington Post today about the Baylor bball team(#1 in the nation); among their starters is Freddie Gillespie, xfer from Carleton. It looks like he's putting up the same numbers in D1 that he did in D3.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/02/07/baylor-basketball-rises-with-transfers-freddie-gillespie-macio-teague/ 

[faunch]

How good has Zach Hanson been playing? 

[Miacmaniac33]

Smoochie was unbelievably good today against Augsburg. He played like a 1st Team All Conference player which he deserves!