MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Drake Palmer]

Ut oh - did I hear the Gusties lost again?  At home no less, to Bethel?!?  I smell another Keating bashing coming from a certain Gustie backer.  Everybody take cover! 

But after looking at the UST/Ole boxscore, maybe some of Willy's criticism is deserved.  Keating continues his season long pattern of good game- bad/mediocre game.  The good news for the Tommies is that they continue to keep winning & hopefully keep improving as a basketball team.  And Willy keeps throwing out red herrings. 

Speaking of teams, I saw two teams go at it earlier this afternoon & watched Carleton pull out a win over Mac, 67- 60.  While they may not have the star appeal of the Tommies or the long standing success of the Gusties, both teams battled hard & competed well.  Tommy Conboy is going to be a star in this league for the next couple of years.  And as long as Coach Kietzer continues to keep everyone buying into the "team" concept, Mac will be a dangerous team.  Carleton has a nice balance of youth & experience in their lineup.  FY Zach Johnson is getting a lot of attention, but Jay Melson is another frosh who was making valuable contributions on the defensive end.

Carleton had the slimmest of halftime leads at 31-30, & stretched to a 7 point lead early in the 2nd half.  That's when things started getting interesting.  Both teams did a good job of shutting down each other's inside game with their team defense, so Conboy & crew went to work nailing treys from the outside.  Up until today, I was never a big fan of Conboy playing out on the perimeter, but he showed me that he has enough of a shooting touch to be an effective inside-outside player as he went 4-5 from behind the arc.

A couple of different times Mac went up by 7 or 8 points during the 2nd half.  Yet, each time it appeared that the Scots threatened to pull away for good, Carleton would make a key defensive stop & timely basket to stay within striking distance.

Big Fork finally got untracked, hit an unexpected three, & a couple of contested shots in the lane.  Then down 53-54 with just under 5 minutes to play in the game, the Knights came up with THE defensive stop of the game.  After excellent pressure on the ball & denying the passing lanes, Mac is forced to call a 30 second TO with about 8 seconds left on the shot clock.  Carleton forces a tough shot & Forkrud gets the defensive board.  Carl comes down on the other end & Jake Phillips hits a trey.  Fork makes another key play on defense & picks up a steal, Tommy Drake hits a 3 & the unassuming Brian Starkey comes up with a huge tripple (burger  ).  Although Mac would keep coming after Carleton the rest of the game, you could just feel the air go out of Mac after that critical sequence of plays.

My hat's off to both teams for their team approach both offensively & defensively.  It's easy to see why both of those clubs played the Tommies tough.  I wouldn't be at all surprised to see either one of these teams knock off St. Thomas the 2nd time around.  The rest of the players in the league should take notice of how these teams collectively maximize their abilities.  Fun ball game to watch!

[localcoach]

Wow, do my eyes deceive me or did Gustavus lose again?  What's going on in St. Peter?  Anyone have more details on today's loss to Bethel?

I spoke with one of my friends who attended today's Hamline/Augsburg game.  He said the Pipers led by as many as 20 points and went on to win by 13 or 14.  I don't see a boxscore on the Auggies site yet, but I can tell you that freshman Tony Thrasher apparently had 26 points for the Pipers and Kyle Foster also scored over 20 and had at least 10 rebounds, or so my friend seemed to think.  No more details yet but I thought that I would at least offer this news. 

So, if I do my math right, that means Hamline and St. Mary's are tied for second place in the MIAC at 4-2?  Could that be right? 

[Willy Wonka]

Drake - Where to start, where to start...wasn't part of that post made earlier and then deleted? What gives?

As for Big Fork...I get the impression you haven't seen him play much before today. He's 11/30 from deep this season and I saw him hit 5 or 6 against Olaf as a freshman. Dude can shoot.

Seems everyone is backtracking on the Keating For President trip they were on when I first started the criticism, except maybe Mig. Maybe I should quit my job and become a full-time scout

As for the Gusties...they've clearly got issues right now. Sowden sprained his ankle against Carleton last week and, after basically getting a bye @SMU, only played 21 minutes today. He wasn't in foul trouble and was fairly effective, but I've got to imagine he's still limited. Compounding the problem was Wippler's absence, who was taking a licensing test to become a teacher.

The box score doesn't show anything glaringly wrong, but something is clearly missing. I'd point to the defense as the absent difference-maker. After being at or near the top of the MIAC since the creation of these boards, they are at or near the bottom in most major statistical categories (maybe they are being updated now, but I can't access them right now for some reason). Until they can come together on defense, they are vulnerable to being beat by anyone anywhere.

Who'd have thought the Gusties would miss Espo's D more than his O this season? Certainly not I.

[funbballer]

It's getting harder and harder to ignore bad losses by the Gusties. In the past, the team has typically had one or two a season, but the 2005-06 edition already has three terrible losses. When diehard fans are bypassing roadtrips to listen on the radio - and then turning it off early - that's not a good sign. No box score up yet to critique.

The Tommies pulled away and won by 10 or so. The Ole announcer is struggling. The Oles failed to get a shot off four straight possessions in the last 2 minutes of the game to make it easy on them. I can't wait to hear what funbb has to say about that

Well, Wonka baby, I'll tell you what. The absolute best thing that could happen for these Ole players would be if the captains told Koz he had no timeouts to use for the entire game and then he couldn't mess 'em up! Four possessions and NO SHOT??!! Unbelievable!!

And your Gusties take it in the shorts again....what's going on with your boys down there? No leadership? Maybe just not as good as people thought? What's up with AT? He was probably a better player when he had upper classmen to lead the way and get all the attention. Now he's supposed to be "the man" and he isn't able to deliver or lead his team. Might be a bad assessment, but someone is going to have to step up and be a leader.

UST and CAR are finding ways to win and playing with some good energy. HAM is hungry and wants badly to win.

Who won the SMU-SJU game as I haven't seen or heard anything?

Looks like the MIAC champ may very well have 4-5 losses before it's all said and done.

What do the rest of you think?

[Drake Palmer]

Drake - Where to start, where to start...wasn't part of that post made earlier and then deleted? What gives?

As for Big Fork...I get the impression you haven't seen him play much before today. He's 11/30 from deep this season and I saw him hit 5 or 6 against Olaf as a freshman. Dude can shoot.

Seems everyone is backtracking on the Keating For President trip they were on when I first started the criticism, except maybe Mig. Maybe I should quit my job and become a full-time scout

Willy - I decided that I needed to post a "kinder, gentler" post from the one I had posted earlier.  So, I pulled it down, modified it,  & added my comments about the Mac-Carl game. 

And no, I haven't seen Forkrud play that many times, 3-4 times tops .  The couple of times I saw them play last year, Beste, Baquero & or Drake were knocking them down from the outside.  The three he hit today was one of those - "aw- what the he!!, they're gonna leave me this open?" So he shrugs his shoulders & makes the shot.

And if you didn't have an axe to grind, you probably could be a decent scout.   Fact is, I've been including a portion of your scouting report in each of my posts for the past month or so. 

[Drake Palmer]

Who won the SMU-SJU game as I haven't seen or heard anything?

SMU won like 69-56. 

How about a Hamline Auggie score?  9:00 at night, & it's still not posted from 4 hours earlier this afternoon?

[localcoach]

Drake - Augsburg has finally gotten with the times and posted the box score.  Hamline won 83-71.  Here's a quick snapshot.  As I stated earlier, Tony Thrasher led the Pipers with 26 points and 4 rebounds.  Kyle Foster scores 22 points and has 10 rebounds and Sam Wiener has 12 points, 7 assists, and 5 rebounds.  Hamline shoots 51% from the field and goes 28-32 from the line.  The Pipers also rebound the ball much better, out-rebounding the Auggies 40-23. 

And I was right.  St. Mary's and Hamline are tied for second place in the MIAC.  Wow, this is rather interesting.

[Drake Palmer]

Thanks Local.  And still no word on whatever happened to Zeph Jones of the Auggies?

Interesting day & standings indeed.   Whatever happened to the poster or 2 from Winona & Augs? 

[miacwatchmen]

Drake i listened to the SJU and SMU game. What are you looking to find out?

[Drake Palmer]

Drake i listened to the SJU and SMU game. What are you looking to find out?

Thanks MW, I knew you listened to the game.  I was just wondering where are the SMU poster/s & Auggie posters? Then I remembered for a # of the schools it's J-term &  many students aren't around.

If you recall, there were a couple of "new" Johnnies & SMU posters at the beginning of the season who were predicting a decent, if not playoff type of season for their respective teams.  If I was from SMU, I would want to at least make note of my team's moment or two in the spotlight.  Afterall, it's been a long time coming. 

If the Johnnies make the playoffs it wouldn't be that huge of a surprise since they've not traditionally been the cellar dwellers of the league.  But in most people's eyes, if the Redbirds made the 06 playoffs, it would be the story of the MIAC season.

[miacwatchmen]

Drake: I remember the posters early predicting a high finish from SJU. I am still pretty sure the Johnnies can get a high spot in the playoffs though. From my perspective only UST has locked up a spot in the playoffs. GAC who i predicted to be 2nd has struggled and the Johnnies have struggled too. I believe its to early to write off anyone in the MIAC though. SJU has played 6 games and the last two have been horrible. A pounding from the Tommies and a bad loss in Winona. Their loss to Concordia was a close game that could have gone either way. I still stand by my thought that if the Johnnies ever have a good shooting night ( i.e. vs. Bethel on Dec. 7) watchout. They are a good team that relys heavily on the mid range and outside jumper. If Ohme, Leiser, and Westman dont shoot well it is hard for the Johnnies to win. The Schafers have developed well inside and now offer another scoring threat but they dont have the ability to carry a whole team. Paul Henrichs continues to quietly average nearly a double double. He has played well for SJU and also pretty consistent.  The Johnnies will be at home this Wednesday versus MAC and i think that the Johnnies will be ready for that one. The MIAC is now a race for the number 2 spot in the playoffs now and i think the Johnnies have a shot at that spot.

[Willy Wonka]

How long have the Johnnies had baby blue uniforms? When do they break them out? Are they alt. home or road jerseys? Strange...

[miacwatchmen]

WW; I dont know how long they've had them. Did they wear them yesterday?? I also dont know if they are home or away I guess they could really go either way but maybe they are alt. away.

[columbianmaffia]

drake-
excellent word play on the sharky hit a big triple (burger) comment

i was also at the game yesterday and Car's defense is getting stronger every game...they got 3 wins in a row and not having games on mon or wed will allow kootsikas to be available to play on saturday which would improve an already solid defense...melson is going to be a good player in the years to come...phillips is doing a great job of controlling the offense and forkrud is holding it down in the middle....i would like to see a little more out of tommy drake i know he is capeable of playing a little better than he is now

shimek is money...hes a tough guy and UST doesnt have too many of those guys

[columbianmaffia]

"We didn't make any adjustments or coach didn't tell us to do anything different."

mo hargrow on dan monson coaching the gophers to an impressive loss against northwestern