MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[bethelguy]

Drake was in for Beste last year, Beste graduated the year previous to last year. Forkrud is the only loss for CAR, a big loss too, but should still be good with all the rest of the experience returning from their co-MIAC championship last year

right, I didn't mean to imply that both of those transitions are happening this year.  I was trying to point out that by the time one F is graduating there is another to step in, so the loss of Beste last year was replaced by Drake, then the loss of Fork this year is replaced by a more experienced Johnson. 

The loss of Fork isn't as great, but Johnson a year better doesn't really propell the team to a step forward because he just replaces Forkrud's production.  Which really puts the pressure on their guards to be the catalyst to improving and staying ahead of the teams on their heals.

[Chica yea false identification]

I don't think Mary's is getting some respect that they deserve.  Not only do they return all of the players from last year, but they return all of their coaches too, for the first time in what 3 years.  A lot of teams struggle with the cards partly because of the long trip as well as that big guy down low you guys love to hate.

[miacwatchmen]

I don't think Mary's is getting some respect that they deserve.  Not only do they return all of the players from last year, but they return all of their coaches too, for the first time in what 3 years.  A lot of teams struggle with the cards partly because of the long trip as well as that big guy down low you guys love to hate.

That big guy being Terrance Smith? I think the cards will be tough to beat but there are far better teams in the league. I wouldn't be suprised if they were above .500 in conference this year but a tourney bid is still to far for them.

[BETHEL34]

Their biggest hurdle to overcome is not letting Foster become a distraction, he is the Randy Moss of this team.

Bethelguy – Foster??  The "RANDY MOSS" of his team??  You have to be good to be compared to Randy Moss don't you??   I would say he is more of the "AJ Pierzynski" of his team, hate playing against him...hate playing with him. 

I do like Bethel's chances this year.  Having two 6'10 post players, one being very solid in every aspect, a 6'6  4man in Chuck(pos POY), and then a 6'4 wing in steve strom that can jump out of the gym.  This should make Bethel one of the top rebounding teams this year.  Andy Cook is also looking like he could have a pretty solid year, knowing that Moberg was coming in I really think pushed him this off season and hopefully he can be a consistent scorer off the bench this year.  Moberg will be very tough, very soft hands and amazing touch around the rim, not to mention he has a great shot with range.  Teams will have to pressure him all the way out by the three point line as he will knock down the three if given space.  This should be a very exciting year for Bethel.  I think the biggest question marks will come from their wing play as it is very young.  They do have some great offense of weapons in Tim Madson and Cory Laugen, but I think the biggest thing will be on the defense of side.  Can those guys shut down the other top wings in this league??  If they can make that happen, this could be a very dangerous Bethel team.

[miacwatchmen]

BET34- Is Laugen going to start this year?

[TommieHoops4Life]

Terrance Smith is still playing?! Is he a 10th-year senior by now? Seems like he's been in the MIAC forever.

[Drake Palmer]

Bet34 - Any word out of camp how FY Max Holmgren is looking?  I absolutely agree that one of the key questions for the Royals this year is going to be the guard play – how well Laugen holds up at the PG spot without the steadying hand of senior leadership, can Madson play under control, and did Strom ever learn how to shoot?  If he did, he could be awesome.  IMO, Laugen is another one of those players that has the skills, but needs to spend some time in the weight room to effectively compete at the college level.

If I'm the Bethel coaching staff, I'm drooling in anticipation of having a legit 6-10 post player in Moberg & sr. Charles Meadowcroft in action. (Hmm- the Royals' version of the Twins M & M boys)  But will the guards be able to get them the ball effectively & how well the team performs defensively is the other big question.  Especially when you consider that defense has not been Bethel's strong suit in recent years.

In Collegeville, the Johnnies roster is up.  Sumander or Watch, one of ya'll wanna do the honors? I notice there's a 6-6 FY post player out of Detroit Lakes that made varsity this year.     And highly touted FY All-Stater, Brian Hosfield of Armstrong is currently on the JV squad.   The competition must be fierce up in Collegeville.  I also see that Jr. Jon Kaus is back (?) with the team this year after not playing last year.  Anything noteworthy behind this?

[BETHEL34]

ATTENTION, LONG POST!!!

I played with Laugen a lot this last off season.  And something that he worked on real hard was his shot this Summer.  To me that is where he was lacking most last year as a freshmen.  He is real quick, has great court awareness and vision, and he understands the game of basketball.  He just didn't have the greatest shot.  He is a legitimate threat from three point land now and has improved his shot quickness noticeably.  He could very well shoot around the 40% rang this year which will make defenders have to pressure him a lot more which will make it that much easier for him to get in the paint.  He has put on some muscle this summer as well which never hurts.  Should he start, I would say yes, 100% in my mind he should start.  Will he start, I don't think so.  Wade is a senior captain this year at the PG position.  As he is a great defender and a good PG, he is not the offense of threat that Laugen is.  Bethel coaching in the past gave a lot of ground to seniority as far as who started and who didn't.  They believe that age correlated directly to better leadership out on the floor.  Now that Coach B is out and Westy has taken over as Head Coach, I don't know how that will affect who lands in the starting roles.  If Coach B was still around, not a chance in a million Years would Laugen start this year.  Being that Westy is head coach now, I think Laugen has a chance of starting and in my mind should. 

Then there is the other side of it.  Laugen would be a great threat coming off the bench being able to provide an offense of threat to the second team.  That is something really important to have, like Matt Fredrickson last year.  I just personally think that with Laugen in the game, our transition game is at a much fast pace, and our offense in general is better off.  As Laugen will be able to penetrate the lane pretty much on demand this year if he is determined too.  I believe he should be playing 25-30 mins a game this year.   

[sumander]

Watch will have to provide in depth analysis, but yes things are very competitive in C-ville. Early starting line up looks like the two Schafers, Westman, Lieser and Ohme.

That being said it would appear the Johnnies will be capable of sending in a second line that will be very effective on it's own, Fogt, Kincaide, Brink, Kaus and Conzemius.

It will be interesting to see how the minutes get distributed this year? Lot's of talent in the J's camp. Looking forward to the season tipping off.

[BETHEL34]

Sorry, don't know how to post a short post!

I also played with Max a lot this fall in open gyms.  He is a very nice player and could very well be a great player for Bethel in the future.  He is by far the best freshmen this year for Bethel. But through the first week of practice he was with the JV team.  Here is my take on Max.  Great shooter, takes the ball to the rack very strong and has great athletic ability.  He very well could contribute this year for Bethel and I think he will.  The one thing against him is his strength, but I do feel he plays stronger than he looks.  Everybody on this years roster except for the exception of Moberg, played at Bethel last year.  Then you will have Max and one or two other Freshmen.  Being that almost all the players know the system, Westy likes to put some of the Freshmen like Max, that will be contributing to the Varsity this year on JV for the first couple of weeks so they can learn the basics of the offense and defensive systems.  Then he will pull Max up and one or two others  after the first week or two.  This way he doesn't have to spend time going through it with everybody just for the couple of new guys to learn.  Instead they can just jump right into things and not wasted 2 or 3 practices going over the basics.  So, I haven't heard anything about how Max is looking.  But I know he looked pretty darn good before the season started, but you never can tell whether someone truly can play defense in open gyms.  And that is normally what keeps younger players from playing right away at Bethel. 

Now to answer your other questions.  Madson is looking very very good, lights out from anywhere.  Very well could be a 45-50% 3point shooter this year and above 50% altogether.  Yes, he is understanding how to play with the other 4 players on the floor.  He is understanding how to be a scorer, not by taking a lot of shots, but by getting other people open looks and understand when he needs to create for himself or create for someone else. 

Did Strom ever work in his shot?  Nope, and it sucks that he never did.  Like you said he could be such an amazing player if he would have put time in on his shot.  But he never cared about that.  Plenty of time myself and Travis told him that if he would work on his shot he could be unstoppable.  But, all he said was he wants to dunk and play D, and that is all he cares about.  He loves just playing the game and I don't think he ever wanted to bite the bullet and put quality time in on working on his shot.  He is still going to be a great player this year.  He can get decently hot every once in a while and nock down some shots.  But not 15-20 points a game good.  He will probably be around the 8-10 points a game since he is so active on the boards. 

[Drake Palmer]

Sorry, don't know how to post a short post!

I wouldn't worry about the post lengths.  OAS hasn't been around to bust anyone's chops so I wouldn't sweat it.  I've been known to write a paragraph or two or three, or four... . It's nice to have everyone start popping out of the woodwork with quality info.   Now I can quit making my posts up. 

Glad to know my eye for talent hasn't totally gone down the tubes. Holmgren is a hooper with a complete game.  Like I said in an earlier post, if he puts on some weight he could be a real tough hombre in this league.

I'm looking forward to the start of the season & in fact I think the Bethel tourney unoffically kicks off local D3 hoops in about a month.

[BETHEL34]

This should be a great season for the Miac, too bad it has to be 5:45 pm starts
As Bethelguy pointed out earlier.  There are a lot of contenders this year.

[sumander]

This should be a great season for the Miac, too bad it has to be 5:45 pm starts
As Bethelguy pointed out earlier.  There are a lot of contenders this year.

Looks like the Johnnies only have one 5:45 start!

[Willy Wonka]

Sound bite of the young season.

Gustie manager: Yeah, your name came up the other day when we were talking about a player.
Wonka: Really? Which one is he?
Gustie manager: Oh, he's not here. We cut him.

Ouch.

[Chica yea false identification]

Cards have a tough schedule this year, playing Northern Illinois (although its just an exhibition for them) Winona state (currently ranked 1 in the nation for D2) Wisconsin Eau Claire, then openning up the conference at thomas and at johns.  Then traveling to MSU- Mankato around X-mas time.