MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[UWPSUPERFAN77]

 To Nites: Is that Carroll college of Waukesha beating the Tommies. I am shocked! + Karma and God Bless!

[Nites]

To Nites: Is that Carroll college of Waukesha beating the Tommies. I am shocked! + Karma and God Bless!

It is.  They played great.  They contolled the temp in the first half.  The Tommies came out and went on a run to start the second half, but the Pioneers didn't wilt.  The game was back and forth until about 5 minutes left when Carroll took control.  I think the Pioneers have played 4 games in 7 days and they still were able to dig down deep and pull off another big upset.

[larry_u]

St Thomas blew that game.  Carroll is good, but way too mant turnovers and bad passes for UST.  When they got the ball into the post to Ike, he dominated, but they probably turned itover 50 percent of the time trying to force it in there.  That definately didn't help.

As I posted on the MWC board, this is the third year in a row the MIAC Champ has been eliminated from the NCAA Tournament by the MWC.  Yet the MIAC is still considered a stronger conference, which, top to bottom, I think is probably true.  However, this three year trend shows the MWC can play ball at the big dance.

2005 Gustavus Adolphus loses at home to Lawrence
2006 St Thomas loses at Lawrence
2007 St Thomas loses at home to Carroll

[Greek Tragedy]

Solid win by Point tonight.  St. John's had some good players.  It helped that your big man got into foul trouble early.  You definitely have some shooters, but basically held your boy Westman(?) in check.  Point was up 19 at the break, but thanks to some poor defense by Point, The Johnnies got back into the game and cut it to 12 several times.  Point had FIVE players in double figures, led by 5'8" point guard Khalif El-Amin's 18.  Hicklin had 18, with Beamish, Krull and Rortvedt also getting double figures.  Drew Jackson, our defensive stopper, had 8 with some boards, blocks and steals.  More later.

[Freebird]

Great season for the UST and also for SJU.  UST must be a bit disappointed but it sounds like Carrol is a very solid team.

In other sports news Bethel beat UST 5-3 in the MIAC playoff championship. +K for everyone on the board!

[Willy Wonka]

MM - Still think this is almost the best team in UST history?

[Touchdown Tommy]

Ha good call Wonka.

Maniac: Rough day to be a Tommie.  Sucka!!!

56321: Got your voicemail. 

Wonka: I have pics of you in Oregon.  Be afraid...

[Drake Palmer]

Tonight was an excellent ball game by the Carroll Pioneers & the UST Tommies.  Unfortunately, if you're a UST or MIAC fan, it was a tough season ending loss.  Carroll College was one of the quickest & most athletic teams I've seen this season.  IMO, they effectively lured the Tommies into playing the game at a pace the quicker Pioneers preferred.

In a close, well played ball game such as this, each mistake seemed to be magnified, and the 9 1st half TOs by the Ts were almost all as a result of trying to push the tempo, & beat Carroll down the court.  After pushing the proverbial rock up the hill for most of the game, midway through the 2nd half, it looked like the Tommies would be able to weather their own mistakes & overcome some of the unreal sharp shooting by the Pioneers.  However, I believe the effort of chasing the quicker Pioneers for most of the game led to a few, critical, defensive lapses in the closing stages of the game.

But no doubt about it, Carroll College won this game as opposed to the Tommies giving the game away.  The Pioneers refused to fold under the Tommie pressure & had an answer for practically everything UST wanted to do.  One of the big tactical moves of the night that paid off for Carroll was to have lanky, 6-7 Buck Colomy guarding 6-1 Bryan Schnettler.  Although he didn't shut Schnettler down - 26 points, he harassed Sensei into a 4-15 shooting performance from behind the arc, 1-7 in the 2nd half.  Schnettler was most successful scoring by beating the slower Colomy to the rack or getting to the FT line.   Another defensive matchup that I thought UST could have done a better job of exploiting was to have 6-6 Mike Keating post up his shorter 6-3 opponent – Adam Ligocki.  I don't recall anytime at all in the first half when the Tommies went inside to Keating.  In the 2nd half right out of the box, the Tommies must have heard me screaming (not) & went inside to Keating on two straight possessions.  But then Carroll made another defensive adjustment & shut off that option.

Offensively, Carroll had the best tandem of guards I've seen all year in sr. Nathan Drury & soph Wes Ladwig.  Both of them have excellent handles, could drive to the basket, dish, & were more than capable of filling it up from the outside.  In the first half Ladwig was ridiculous & was a disgusting 4-7 from behind the arc, scoring 14 first half points!  Lonnie Robinson did a decent job of containing superstar Nate Drury – 11 1st half points, so in the 2nd half the Tommies switched Robinson to Ladwig & Andy Dwyer to cover Drury.  Drury ends up with 17 total points & Ladwig with 25 points.  Sadly, Carroll had other scoring options they decided to deploy as the previously mentioned Buck Colomy decides to get in on the aerial attack.  Colomy does his best Dirk Nowitzki impersonation & starts dropping bombs from all over the court & scores 13 of his 15 points in the 2nd half!  In the UST game summary they said he dropped in an NBA 3, which was not an exaggeration. He was a good 5-6 feet in back of the 3-pt line - a disgustingly good shot!   And, it wasn't a case of the Tommies playing that poorly on defense, these guys were just shooting unreal & kept hitting big shot after big shot. Adam Ligocki also proved his mettle & was an effective slasher around the glass, scoring 14 of his 17 points in the 2nd half. 

My props & respects to the Carroll College Pioneers.  I also hope the ankle injury to Ladwig in the closing minute of the game was minor & that he'll be able to play at full force next week.  Well done & good luck!

I'll let those who are UST alumni do the senior wrap ups, but I would like to add that it has been a treat to watch all these seniors play & develop the past 2-3 years.  For a couple of guys like Isaac Rosefelt & Mike Keating, it's been 10+ years of watching them off & on from traveling ball & AAU days, to high school & college. Best of luck to them in all their future endeavors!

[Greek Tragedy]

Very nice review, Drake.  Point played Carroll at the beginning of the year and we smoked them pretty bad.  I also saw Carroll destroy Lawrence and they were very impressive down in Waukesha.  Colomy is a very good player, as is Drury, the conference player of the year.  It's going to be a great game on Friday to see Carroll's stud guard Drury go up against Hope's stud guard Cramer, who also won his conference's POTY. 

Most expected St. John's to lose at Point, but for St. Thomas to lose at home must have been a huge surprise for the Tommie faithful.  I saw the boxscore and I think it said 1200 were there, sounds pretty small for a Saturday home tourney game.

[Drake Palmer]

Most expected St. John's to lose at Point, but for St. Thomas to lose at home must have been a huge surprise for the Tommie faithful.  I saw the boxscore and I think it said 1200 were there, sounds pretty small for a Saturday home tourney game.

All things considered, the turnout was decent.   After 2 days of snow totalling 18+", & Carroll fans having to drive up from the Milwaukee area, it was a pretty good crowd & the student section was fairly raucous.  As one of our Johnnie posters is fond of pointing out -  Schoenecker arena only seats around 1,800.  (Inside MIAC Hatfield-McCoy type joke/rivalry  )

[Greek Tragedy]

All things considered, the turnout was decent.   After 2 days of snow totalling 18+", & Carroll fans having to drive up from the Milwaukee area, it was a pretty good crowd & the student section was fairly raucous.  As one of our Johnnie posters is fond of pointing out -  Schoenecker arena only seats around 1,800.  (Inside MIAC Hatfield-McCoy type joke/rivalry  )

I'm sure 1200 in an 1800 seater (this site lists it as 2200, but that's neither here or there) looks and sounds better than 1200 in St. John's 3500 seater (again, according to this website).  The MIAC site says that St. Thomas averages 841, while St. John's averages 541...541 in a place that seats 3500?  I don't think I'd brag about having a bigger gym.  If that's what the inside joke is...   It reminds me of Kolf at Oshkosh, the place holds something like 5000, but the Titans average less than 700.  Chirp, chirp, chirp.

Looked at your season stats, it says you had 1850 and 1900 at your place for the Johnnie's games.

How many Carroll fans do you think were there?  That's a long drive and aside from the Grinnell (to watch the circus) and Lawrence games (rivalry), I don't think they draw much at home, let alone in another state! lol

[Drake Palmer]

Both numbers, 1,800 & 2,200 have been floating around for attendance capacity for UST, but this year the Tommies seem to have settled in on 1,800 as the official figure.  1,800+ & the fire marshals start getting nervous! 

The Johnnies rightfully claim 3,500 capacity for Sexton arena.  What's been encouraging for the Tommie faithful has been the recent exuberance of the Tommie students.  In the past, they've been guilty of acting & looking like a LA Laker crowd.  But now with the graduation of this year's seniors,  I'm wondering if the lackluster crowds will return?   

I'm not the best at guessing audience size but I would estimate around 200-250  Carroll fans.

[Greek Tragedy]

I'm not the best at guessing audience size but I would estimate around 200-250  Carroll fans.

I'm bad at guessing too.  Probably less than 100 St. John's fans.  Apparently its closer to go from Wisconsin to Minnesota than vice versa! lol.

[Drake Palmer]

I'm not the best at guessing audience size but I would estimate around 200-250  Carroll fans.

I'm bad at guessing too.  Probably less than 100 St. John's fans.  Apparently its closer to go from Wisconsin to Minnesota than vice versa! lol.

The Johnnies' hoops fans don't travel as well as the football team.  And when you factor in the weather & the reputation of the opponent( ),  I can understand why a fairweather fan might have stayed at home.

On the other hand, for the past two weeks, Carroll has been playing the part of Cinderella with Army boots instead of the glass slippers.    So I'm not surprised their fan base is growing.  BTW - I checked the MWC site, & they're 2nd in attendance behind Lawrence & average around 740 or so for home games.

[columbianmaffia]

i also attended the tommies game tonight

im going to give a ton of credit to carroll for their game plan or what i thought they were trying to do...basically it looked to me as if they were daring robinson or dweyer to make a play and it just led to turnover after turnover...also i think i lost track of how many times they just let dweyer drive towards the hoop and then he would pull it out when he got within 6 to 8 ft of the bucket as if he wasnt allowed to shoot

i also lost track of how many times carroll simply just out ran the tommies down court...they worked hard all night and got a bunch of points off laziness by the tommies...give them the credit for attacking

ust also gave up about 8 points tonight just because they would come down court and leave a guy wide open because no one knew who was gaurding him

carroll came up huge when they had to down the stretch and their big time players hit some big shots to seal the victory they very much earned (even though i dont think that UST should have ever lost this game)...i really enjoyed watching carroll play even though i wanted the tommies to win

congrats on nice careers UST seniors