MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[cobbernation]

Just catching some D1 scores....One of my preaseason final four favorites Kansas looses to Oral Roberts 78-71, maybe I need to rethink things.

I agree.  I was thinking KU would be good this year, but it's early in the season.  Plus, UNC had to comeback to beat Winthrop last night.  As long as Gonzaga keeps winning, I will have a good day!

[BETHEL34]

Thanks GSager for the enlightenment...that makes a lot of sense!

Anybody know how River Falls is going to be this year??  They are playing a pretty tough William Pen team that won their conference last year.  How does the MCC rank conference wise in NAIA D2??  Should River Falls have a tough time with them on Friday??  Bethel plays a Dakota State team that is picked to finish last in the DAC.  How do these Conferences normally compare??

Should I be expecting a Bethel/River Falls championship game on Sat night?

[Drake Palmer]

I can appreciate you Tommie boosters stepping in & defending Lonnie Robinson, but the fact still remains - he's an undersized 6-2 forward.  As I stated in my earlier post, I'm quite familiar with his athletic abilities & saw him play a number of times throughout his high school/AAU career.  I've gotta believe the Tommies are going to run some different types of offensive sets & defense to take advantage of this year's version of the Tommies if this is indeed the new lineup.  I wish him well.

Unless he's been injured, one name I'm somewhat surprised that isn't circulating toward the top of the Tommie pecking order is Big Al McCoy.  At 6-4, he's somewhat undersized too, but at least he has the bulk - 250lb+, strength & quickness to do battle with the other behemoths on the blocks.  And in the process, take some of the defensive pressure off Rosefelt & Keating so they can do their thing on offense.

...Things that make you go hmmm... interesting development with the Redbirds last night in their exhibition game loss against D1 Northern Illinois last night.  Although they lost, apparently the team was pleased with the overall efforts.  It appears SMU have a pair of FY twins playing for them this year - Josh & Brad Knights who apparently shoot the ball fairly well & shot a combined 5-9 from behind the arc last night.  In fact neither one of them took a shot from inside the arc.    Brensley Haywood also got in on the act & shot 2-3 from deep, & soph newcomer, Alex Washington who sat out last year with an injury, was 3-3 from downtown.  For the game the Birds were 11-20 from the arc & shot 55%.  What ??

Tuber - Mike Sweeney is a solid player & excellent shooter, but if these other kids can continue to shoot like this & they're quicker than Mikey, it might get tougher for him to pick up the same amount on minutes he earned last year.  It also appears that Coach Trewick is pushing his starters from last year.  Guys who were previously #s 6-8 are pushing last year's starters for minutes & the starters' spots.  Dan Cormier for Batterman, Rohr for Terrence Smith, & one of the newcomers for Fiori Bucceri, last year's PG.  This must mean things are looking up for the Birds. 

[Drake Palmer]

Thanks GSager for the enlightenment...that makes a lot of sense!

Anybody know how River Falls is going to be this year??  They are playing a pretty tough William Pen team that won their conference last year.  How does the MCC rank conference wise in NAIA D2??  Should River Falls have a tough time with them on Friday??  Bethel plays a Dakota State team that is picked to finish last in the DAC.  How do these Conferences normally compare??

Should I be expecting a Bethel/River Falls championship game on Sat night?

Bet34 - nothing against you personally, but you know as well as I do that Bethel has never been known for scheduling a tough non conference schedule.  I remember some Bethel fan was squawking a couple of years ago because the Royals were like 8-0 & weren't ranked in any of the polls. The following scholarly article might explain why - 
http://www.startribune.com/456/story/265865.html



I know next to nothing about the other teams & just a smidgen about River Falls.  Longtime coach Rich Bowens retired after a number of years last spring.  Coincidentally his son took over as head coach at D2 Bemidji State where Jeremy Tiers, former assistant coach at Hamline moved on to this spring.  I believe the Falcons also lost two multi year starters from last year who quit for unexplained reasons.  However, UWRF did a nice job of recruiting MN & picked up some quality FY players. The biggest prize perhaps being Nate Robertson a 6-6 post player from Forest Lake.  I know Hamline & Carleton were hot on his trail last year.

[BETHEL34]

Great article and right on!  It gave a great detailed discription of our history of non-conference games!!  

So it sounds like UWRF is going to be down this year?? 

Until Bethel takes Crown and UM Morris off our every year schedule.  Our non conference games will always look weak! 

Suprised to see that St. Johns has scheduled Morris two times this year??  In the last 3 years since we have been playing them, we haven't had a winning margin less than 14 pts.   

[miacwatchmen]

Great article and right on!  It gave a great detailed discription of our history of non-conference games!!  

So it sounds like UWRF is going to be down this year?? 

Until Bethel takes Crown and UM Morris off our every year schedule.  Our non conference games will always look weak! 

Suprised to see that St. Johns has scheduled Morris two times this year??  In the last 3 years since we have been playing them, we haven't had a winning margin less than 14 pts.   

Uh oh the Johnnies are going to have a low oppenent schedule ranking...tough to get a good spot in the BCS with Morris on the schedule.

[BETHEL34]

MW, you just don't see 2 non conference games against the same team that often.  especially since you only have 4 or 5 non-conference games all season!!

[sumander]

MW, you just don't see 2 non conference games against the same team that often.  especially since you only have 4 or 5 non-conference games all season!!

B34, I agree. J's typically had played in a holiday tournament with SCSU. That didn't happen this year, so I wonder if they got in a pickle as a result of that?

[d3bballfollower]

everyone's non-conference schedule-

Augsburg- Home against Crown, Presentation, Bethany Lutheran and Northwestern...Away- St. Scholastica
Bethel- Home against Dakota State, Morris and either UWRF or William Penn...Away- Crown and Luther
Carleton- Home against La-Crosse...Away- Hawaii-Hilo, Hawaii Pacific, Chaminade (HI) and Mankato
Concordia- Home against Moorhead...Away- Maryland Bible (VA) and second round game at Christopher Newport Tourney, Mayville State and Mankato
Gustavus- Home against Buena Vista, Carthage and Morris...Away- Luther and Bethany Lutheran
Hamline- Home against St. Scholastica...Away- Colorado College, Colorado Pueblo, Northwestern and Mankato
MAC- Home against Viterbo...Awaty- Embry-Riddle, Northwestern, UWRF and Concordia-St. Paul
St. John's- Home against Morris and Moorhead...Away- Christmas Florida Tourney agaist Ursinus and Penn St.-Behrand and also at Morris
St. Mary's- Home against Eau Claire and Nebraska Wesleyan...Away- Winona State and Mankato
St. Olaf- Home against Luther, Crown and Nebraska Wesleyan...Away- Southwest MN State and Martin Luther
UST- Home against La-Crosse...Away against Occidental, La Verne, St. Scholastica and 2nd Round matchup at UWRF tourney

toughest non-conference schedules go to Carleton and St. Mary's
semi-tough non-conference schedules go to Gustavus, Concordia, Hamline and UST
not-so-tough non-conference schedules go to St. Olaf, MAC and St. John's
weak non-conference schedules go to Bethel and Augsburg

this is my opinion and i probably have some that most would argue with...what does everyone else think?

[sumander]

St. John's- Home against Morris and Moorhead SCSU...Away- Christmas Florida Tourney agaist Ursinus and Penn St.-Behrand and also at Morris

[abominable_snowman]

What a great day....Johan Santana = Cy Young without a doubt.  It's uninanimous!!!! And Joe Nathan even raked in some 3rd place votes!

[South Dakota Gusties]

I am borrowing this idea from the MN Twins message board at scout.com (which originated on, I believe, the Montreal Expos message board back when they were around).  It is called YNOT, and it is another game that we can play along with the Pick 'em.  I will keep track of the standings (like the pick 'em).  It is pretty simple, but it will require full participation throughout the season.  If you don't think you can commit, please don't sign up.

Here are the basic rules (I will repost them in the Pick'em board when we get that reopened)....
We will have 11 teams/owners in this league.  Each owner will answer 10 questions in regards to that nights MIAC league games.  5 of the questions will be to pick the winner of the nights games.  The other 5 questions will be to pick the higher scorer for the night in each game between the highest average scorer for each team (this sounds confusing, but it's actually pretty simple...for example, using last years stats, if GAC played UST last year, you would have to choose who would score more...Adam TeBrake, Isaac Rosefelt, or tie).  I will post each nights matchup, so there won't be any confusion.  Scoring will be simple, if you choose the winner of a game, you get two points.  If you choose the higher scorer, you get three points.  If you are forced to pick ahead of schedule (due to vacation or out of town), you can pick the top scorer for the night by choosing the team he plays on (if it hasn't been determined who will be going against each other in head to head scoring).  For the tiebreaker, you will also be asked to predict the average attendance for the night.

We will be using head-to-head matchups.  If you score more than the team you are playing, you win for the night.  Like in the MIAC, each team will play every other team 2 times with 2 byes throughout the season.  At the end of the season, like the MIAC, the top 6 teams make the playoffs with the top 2 getting byes.  Ties in the standings are broken first by average points scored (not including byes), then by head-to-head record, then by a coin flip.  In the first two rounds, the questions will be - pick the winner of each game (2 pts each), and then who will be the high scorer at each starting position (3 pts each) for a total of 12 questions with the tiebreaker being to predict the average attendance.  For the finals, the questions will be pick the winner of the game (4 pts), determine the high scorer at each starting position (3 pts), choose the over/under for the game (2 pts), pick the high scorer for the game (4 pts - 2 pts if your player outscores your oppenents player, but isn't the high scorer), the high rebounder (4 pts - 2 pts if your player outrebounds your oppenents player, but isn't the high rebounder), and the high assist man (4 pts - 2 pts if your player outassists your oppenents player, but isn't the high assist).  The tiebreaker will be to determine the attendence for the night.

If you are interested in playing, please post here.  Like I said before, this is a whole season commitment.  If you can't make a night, you can pick ahead.  I will post the schedule when I have 10 more players (I'm taking one of the spots ).  Our picks will be made on the pick 'em board, so not to clutter up this board.  This will not be replacing the pick 'em.  It is just another game to play to pass the time, and to hopefully increase our knowledge of MIAC hoops.  I should add that we are just playing for FUN, so don't get too mad if I screw something up.

Just a reminder, we still have 1 opening for the YNOT.  Please post here if you are interested.  Here is who I have so far...
abominable_snowman
BETHEL34
columbianmaffia
d3bballfollower
Drake Palmer
miacwatchmen
piperinsider
South Dakota Gusties
TommieHoops4Life
Willy Wonka

[BETHEL34]

SDG...Count me in for the YNOT game!

[abominable_snowman]

i can't think of a better way to really get into the heart of the miac season....so count me in!

[columbianmaffia]

i will play in the YNOT game as well...as long as you are not racist to my rollerskates