MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[localcoach]

Just decided to check in to see how my favorite posters are doing. 

A few topics up for discussion:

1) I wish I could shed some light as to what's going on over at Hewitt and Snelling, but I don't have inside information this time around.  I know Troy Mallat and his wife recently had a child but I can't see that being the reason he left.  What's next? Dan O'Brien fired as A.D.?  I think the issue with the Pipers is simple to be honest.  The President needs to decide whether or not they are going to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to athletics.  Right now it's impossible for HU to consistently compete in the MIAC given the "field of play."  By that I mean they aren't working with the dollars that places like UST and SJU are, and they haven't many of the same resources either.

2) I also haven't heard anything about Barry Wohler leaving Piper land.  That would be interesting though should he do so.  I would however like to see him give it one more go around before he potentially calls it quits.  I really believe he's a hell of good coach who this past year had the unfortunate issues of dealing with coaching staff turnover which was out of his control.  This to me played a bigger part in their ultimate record then some followers might admit.

3) My recruiting tidbit for the day is as follows.  Dan Bonebright, a 6-6 F/C from Redwood Valley is going to be a Johnnie next year.  I think he has a chance to be a Paul Henrichs type of player down the road.

[TommieHoops4Life]

C of N,

That's an unfortunate situation with Ricker. I would've seen something earlier than now, but I was busy following a bit of my own scandal this week. Montgomery-Lonsdale's vball coach was arrested for having sex with a 14-year-old girl, which he didn't deny. I had some local kids who played on a summer team for the guy, and it was very interesting to hear their take on him.

[piperinsider]

I've seen Bonebright (or is it Bonbright?) twice. Nice find.

I've done a poor job keeping up with Troy, but my guess is that he got tired of the drive from Cottage Grove to St. Paul, especially those rides home late at nights. If I had a family, I'd love the 9 to 5. Good luck to him. I was side-by-side with him his first year and he did a great job developing the web site and tools such as the webcasts.

[Drake Palmer]

Miscellaneous

I just did a quick scan of the GAC website & I see that the Local's rumor panned out.  The Gusties have Josh Drinkall listed as their new assistant coach, but no bio is listed as of yet.  Gusties Coaches.

Also, after Local's lament about Hamline's lack of commitment to funding athletics, I tried a different tack & checked on the MIAC schools' endowment funding.  Although endowment size doesn't directly correlate to how each of the respective MIAC colleges fund athletics, nonetheless, I though the list was fairly interesting.  If anyone is interested I obtained my figures from NACUBO 2006 College Endowment Rankings.  For some reason, St. Mary's & Bethel were not listed, or at least I wasn't able to find them on the NACUBO list.  So, I obtained their endowment info from US News & World Report.

Speaking of money, I had to double check around the office & make sure I was reading the figure correctly.  If anyone opens the link, look at the endowment for Harvard: 28 Billion +!!  That could buy a lot of basketballs.

NACUBO 2006 Endowment Rankings

Rank      School                   Amount

107      MAC                        577mm
108      CARL                       571mm
181      UST                         300mm
200      STO                        261mm
314      SJO                        121mm

352      GAC                        96mm
396      CORD                     75mm
418      HAM                        66mm
n/a      StM                        31MM
601      AUGS                     29MM
n/a      BET                       25MM

[sumander]

Drake, Nice work on ferreting out the endowments of the various schools. I would never have guessed the disparity between the top and bottom schools would be that sizeable ($552M).

That being said, it would appear that, the size of the endowment has no material impact on the overall success of the schools athletics! 

What's the M.O. on this Bonbright kid?

[columbianmaffia]

whatssssssssssss goin on in herrrrrrrrreeeeee

what up what up what up

man im tired...i could use a nap

gotta get mentally prepared for another big weekend

this time i will return with a report from new jersey/new york

im gonna go play 4 square

[Freebird]

Drake,

The last official number I received from Bethel is 53 million.  It is interested because the number I had for Carlton was 300 million. There must be a few different ways of figuring it out.

[miacsuperfan]

local or piperinsider--
is the redwoodvalley kid the caliber of current miac stars (and redwood grads)  tim madson and trevor witwer?   if so, sju could have themselves a keeper.   
has anyone heard what gustavus, bethel, and anyone else for that matter have done in the recruiting department?   i have read some of the more recent posts and haven't seen much posted.

[columbianmaffia]

that was a tough game of 4 squre i just played....i had trouble keeping my number 1 king spot when i would get there....it was really a let down and i feel like i choked and just couldnt get the job done when i got to the top....i was critized heavily for not having flexable wrists by professional players who were in attendance...however they were very impressed by my lunging ability...they labeled me as a very raw tallent

[Willy Wonka]

No time for any incite or witticisms, but I did run across something I know will draw a laugh from most of this crowd. I know *I* laughed when I saw it.

Anyway, enjoy this little Star of the North preview.

BASKETBALL FANS TAKE NOTE

Traditionally, one of the strongest events in the Games is the Men's Adult A
basketball tournament, and this year is no exception. Former U Conn and
Minneapolis North star Khalid el-Amin is playing for "Old School" this
weekend. He will be joined by former Oklahoma player Jonnie Gilbert. The
defending men's champions "Boese's Boys" return to defend their title. This
team stars Brett Boese and several of his former Gustavus Adolphus
teammates. Also in the tournament is the "WSU Borats," with some of the
roster made up of Winona State athletes, including some players from the
runner-up NCAA Division II Championship team.

The Adult A men play their games at University Center Rochester and Century
HS, with pool play games starting at 6:30pm Friday night. Playoffs begin at
6:30pm Saturday. Your all-events pass gives you free admission to all SOTN
games, including the Adult A men's games.

[Wydown Blvd.]

Wow El-Amin goes from Turkish League/FIBA star to a basket ball tournament at at high school. Last I heard about him, was two years ago or so reading a pretty large (maybe 3 page) article in ESPN the magazine about how he's still big/wide and how he felt about playing overseas.

[Drake Palmer]

Wow El-Amin goes from Turkish League/FIBA star to a basket ball tournament at at high school.

Not to worry, El-Amin's a hoops hound & he lives for the sport.  This is the off season, so he comes back home to Minny, chills & then plays basketball all over the place.  Typically you'll find him doing a couple of games a week at the Howard Pulley Pro-Am league in St. Paul, late June - mid July.  Then late July, he pulls up his tent & heads back overseas.  Maybe if we're lucky, our favorite poster from Rochester will be able to give us a first hand review of the tournament along with El Amin & other players next Monday. 

[Wydown Blvd.]

Ok that makes sense. He was doing big things in Turkey. (And yeah I figured he'd do some Pro-Am stuff or Summer Pro League)

[columbianmaffia]

OFF TO JERSEY I GO!!

[klomp44]

A couple players from SMSU played in the tournament as well. Not sure who was on the entire Southwest MN Bomb Squad team, but I believe Travis Krenske and Jeremy VanKlompenburg were on the team, as well as Matt Daly. They were the number one team in their pool, but lost in the first round of the tournament 50-67 to the Bethel Boys.