MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Hoopology101]

When it comes to Hamline, I saw them play last night against a UMAC team and they did not look good at all.  They will struggle in the MiAC this year they have a couple post players that are ok, and one is a Fresh that needs more experience. The bad thing about them is that their guard play is not good at all, can't shoot or pass no threats at all.  They do have one guard that can dunk and knows the game, but other then that they are young.  They will be at the bottom this year.  They have a great coaching staff with a lot of experience, but that team in the MIAC will have a lot of trouble this year.

[Drake Palmer]

Hoops – thanks for the update.  Which UMAC team did Hamline play or scrimmage — Northwestern, Bethany Lutheran, Crown etc.?  It's not a great loss if the Pipes lost to NW since they're selected to win the UMAC this season, & Bethany Lutheran was picked to finish 2nd. 

I'm sure NW could give the bottom 1/3 or more of the MIAC teams this year all the game they could want & then some.  The leagues will get a chance to compare notes later this month when MIAC contender/pretender (?) Augsburg squares off against NW at Northwestern.  Also, next weekend, Bethany Lutheran plays in Bethel's annual Self Esteem & Team Confidence basketball tournament - 3 slugs & Bethel.    Mebbe, Bethany can make the Bethel scheduling strategy backfire this year & actually give the Royals a competitive game.  Unlikely, but you never know. Bethany looks to have a # of guards, but not the height or athleticism to match up with the Royals.  Now a Bethel - Northwestern matchup that would be a good game to see.

On the other hand, if Hamline lost to the likes of Crown or Martin Luther – ouch, that doesn't bode well for the Pipes' chances this season.  But the season is still young?  By the way, the Hamline guard with the mad dunk was probably "Baron" Kujolic. 
******************

The last MIAC roster was finally posted.  Johnnies' 07-08 roster.  After countless hours of deliberation, sometime later this weekend the Drake Palmer annual MIAC FY* All–Name Team & team captains will be announced.   

* The Name Team may include transfers & players new to their respective teams. 

[Gregory Sager]

..No New Yorkers on the roster, which is interesting in light of all the speculation about where Coach Whitmore would go for his players. Of course, he had only a sliver-thin amount of time to do any recruiting for 2007-08 for Hamline.

Tough crowd from the city with "broad shoulders," or is this just your way of stopping by to say "Hi"?    Considering that Hamline officially announced Nelson Whitmore's acceptance of the coaching position on August 20th, this gave him barely two weeks to fly back to NY, pack his bags, return to St. Paul & get ready for the school year to start on September 4th.   If he had showed up with a heady New York city PG in tow, I would say he's in the wrong line of work.   
Hamline is a reputable NCAA approved university, not some renegade school like World Harvest BC.   

Personally, after the lateness of the Wohler resignation (June) & lengthy delay in making a hiring decision (late August), I think it's amazing that there are 18 bodies listed on the Hamline roster.  It would be interesting to know how many of these FY & other players/transfers were originally recruited by Barry Wohler.  Then, how many of the players are the result of a cattle call audition by the coaching staff after the fall semester began.  A year from now I think we'll have a better handle on the Hamline-Whitmore national recruiting model & results. 

Since your eyes apparently glazed over midway through my post, Drake, I'll repost it again -- this time with the pertinent sentence guaranteed not to escape your notice:

No New Yorkers on the roster, which is interesting in light of all the speculation about where Coach Whitmore would go for his players. Of course, he had only a sliver-thin amount of time to do any recruiting for 2007-08 for Hamline.

(And it's not likely that Whitmore's going to bring in "a heady New York City point guard" even after he's had a year under his belt at Hamline. He's a Rochester guy, and he recruited almost exclusively western and central New York players for Brockport State, so if he does bring New Yorkers to Hamline you can almost guarantee that they'll be from the Buffalo, Rochester, or Syracuse metro areas.)

[d3bballfollower]

Gophs are 1-0...I don't know if they scored today's total of 84 in a single game last year...let's go Tubby! let's go GOPHS!

[Drake Palmer]

..No New Yorkers on the roster, which is interesting in light of all the speculation about where Coach Whitmore would go for his players. Of course, he had only a sliver-thin amount of time to do any recruiting for 2007-08 for Hamline.

Tough crowd from the city with "broad shoulders," or is this just your way of stopping by to say "Hi"?   Considering that Hamline officially announced Nelson Whitmore's acceptance of the coaching position on August 20th, this gave him barely two weeks to fly back to NY, pack his bags, return to St. Paul & get ready for the school year to start on September 4th.   If he had showed up with a heady New York city PG in tow, I would say he's in the wrong line of work.  
Hamline is a reputable NCAA approved university, not some renegade school like World Harvest BC.   

Personally, after the lateness of the Wohler resignation (June) & lengthy delay in making a hiring decision (late August), I think it's amazing that there are 18 bodies listed on the Hamline roster.  It would be interesting to know how many of these FY & other players/transfers were originally recruited by Barry Wohler.  Then, how many of the players are the result of a cattle call audition by the coaching staff after the fall semester began.  A year from now I think we'll have a better handle on the Hamline-Whitmore national recruiting model & results. 

Since your eyes apparently glazed over midway through my post, Drake, I'll repost it again -- this time with the pertinent sentence guaranteed not to escape your notice:

No New Yorkers on the roster, which is interesting in light of all the speculation about where Coach Whitmore would go for his players. Of course, he had only a sliver-thin amount of time to do any recruiting for 2007-08 for Hamline.

(And it's not likely that Whitmore's going to bring in "a heady New York City point guard" even after he's had a year under his belt at Hamline. He's a Rochester guy, and he recruited almost exclusively western and central New York players for Brockport State, so if he does bring New Yorkers to Hamline you can almost guarantee that they'll be from the Buffalo, Rochester, or Syracuse metro areas.)

Sheesh, yeah I noticed "that pertinent sentence" the first time Greg.  That's why I began my reply post with the sentence:  "Tough crowd from the city with "broad shoulders," or is this just your way of stopping by to say "Hi"?  I think it's safe to assume that neither one of us were really expecting him to show up with a NY recruit at this late stage of the game. So I assume the purpose of your post was stop by, say "hi", grab a cup of coffee & help keep the MIAC posting flame lit.   As for me,  I was simply following your lead & keeping the posting flames stoked.     

And yes, you told us earlier this summer about the likely areas Whitmore would recruit in upstate NY.  But outside of NY, I think most people believe that to get a tough PG from NY, you head to the Big Apple. Thus, my creative license with the New York location.   

[piperinsider]

It's Tubby Time!!!

[WXYZ]

here is a link to another free MIAC preview story. This one is from the Carlton - Northland Scrimmage held this afternoon.

http://minnesotapreps.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=737809

[WXYZ]

I wanted to note that Jason Weischedel Fy. G 6-0 Essex, Vt. Essex Junction dropped in a nice string of shots at the Carlton Scrimmage. It might have been the effects of his lucky headband but he is someone to keep an eye on.

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

here is a link to another free MIAC preview story. This one is from the Carlton - Northland Scrimmage held this afternoon.

http://minnesotapreps.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=737809

Isn't it Carleton?...

[localcoach]

MIAC Watch -  Concordia University (St. Paul) defeated St. John's 88-77 on Saturday afternoon at the Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul.

The teams played to a 38-38 tie at the break but Concordia rallied for 50 second half points. The Johnnies were led by Brady Brink's game-high 39 points on 16-22 shooting.  WOW!

[WXYZ]

here is a link to another free MIAC preview story. This one is from the Carleton - Northland Scrimmage held this afternoon.

http://minnesotapreps.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=737809

Isn't it Carleton?...

It sure is. Thanks, I made the corrections.

[South Dakota Gusties]

Drake, I can probably handle the Pick-em side of things. I was not involved in the Y-not contest last years so I will pass on those duties.

I still have the spreadsheets for both the Pick 'em and YNOT.  Everything is linked in Excel, so it makes it pretty easy.  The most time consuming part is putting the results on the board.

[Drake Palmer]

MIAC Watch -  Concordia University (St. Paul) defeated St. John's 88-77 on Saturday afternoon at the Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul.

The teams played to a 38-38 tie at the break but Concordia rallied for 50 second half points. The Johnnies were led by Brady Brink’s game-high 39 points on 16-22 shooting.  WOW!

Wow, looks like I missed a dandy of an offensive game at Gangelhoff on Saturday!  Since I already saw CSTP beat the Oles in an exhibition game last week, I thought I would try to expand my view of the D3 world & see what our D3 WIAC neighbors to the east are doing.  So I made the short trek over to River Falls, WI to watch UWRF take on Bemidji State in another crossover D2 & D3 exhibition game.  BSU won handily 80-61.

Having watched CSTP beat the Oles last week, & looking at the CSTP & SJU box score, I think that if the Js would have had the services of Jason Fogt, the outcome might have been different.  The Bears really play a 4-1 type offense with one semi forward/center in athletic, but skinny Chuol Chany & a bunch of taller guards.   Against a taller team or a team with an established physical, inside presence, I think CSTP will struggle this year.

Looks like Brady Brink was doing what Bobby Hunter of the Oles did last week & then some, going off for – 39 crumbs!  Nice, but 40 minutes in an exhibition game?!?    Johnnies coaches, don't wear your pack mule out in the first game of the season. The Johnnies still have 25- 26 games left to play this year.

Also, nice breakout game by Sioux Falls SD frosh guard – Chris Schwartz.  It seems he was assigned the jr. Brady Brink pack mule role as he logged in a mere 37 minutes.    Schwartz knocks down 20 points on 7-14 shooting, 5-9 from behind the arc, lead the team with 7 boards, 6 assists & 6 TOs.  I did a little checking around this morning on the web & it seems he was all –state in both his JR & Sr. year, & played on the premier AAU team in SD.  Early returns would seem to indicate the Johnnies may have got themselves a keeper with this kid. 

The curse of Tyler Westman must have lingered in the locker room for yet another game as munchkin guards, Ryan Lieser & Nick Johnson shoot a combined 1-14, with Lieser going 1-7 from the 3-pt. Line.  On the plus side of the ledger, Lieser did almost have the desired A-TO ratio as he had 5 assists to just 3 TOs. 

Looks like exhilarating & scary times lie ahead for the Johnnies this season.  Out of the 10 players that got into the game – 4 were freshmen (2 starters), (1) 2nd year eligibility FY, along with (1) soph transfer.  So basically, half the top 10 rotation are FY – Yikes!  Hang on Johnnie fans & get ready for an exciting rollercoaster ride this season! 

[Gregory Sager]

So I assume the purpose of your post was stop by, say "hi", grab a cup of coffee & help keep the MIAC posting flame lit.

Yes. Yes, it was.

[AO]

Hoops – thanks for the update.  Which UMAC team did Hamline play or scrimmage — Northwestern, Bethany Lutheran, Crown etc.?  It's not a great loss if the Pipes lost to NW since they're selected to win the UMAC this season, & Bethany Lutheran was picked to finish 2nd. 

I'm sure NW could give the bottom 1/3 or more of the MIAC teams this year all the game they could want & then some.  The leagues will get a chance to compare notes later this month when MIAC contender/pretender (?) Augsburg squares off against NW at Northwestern.  Also, next weekend, Bethany Lutheran plays in Bethel's annual Self Esteem & Team Confidence basketball tournament - 3 slugs & Bethel.    Mebbe, Bethany can make the Bethel scheduling strategy backfire this year & actually give the Royals a competitive game.  Unlikely, but you never know. Bethany looks to have a # of guards, but not the height or athleticism to match up with the Royals.  Now a Bethel - Northwestern matchup that would be a good game to see.

On the other hand, if Hamline lost to the likes of Crown or Martin Luther – ouch, that doesn't bode well for the Pipes' chances this season.  But the season is still young?  By the way, the Hamline guard with the mad dunk was probably "Baron" Kujolic. 
******************

The UMAC team that scrimmaged Hamline was not Northwestern.  I can tell you NWC looked very good against Olaf after a so-so scrimmage with St. John's.  Fogt played very well in the scrimmage and will definitely be missed by the Johnnies the first half of the season (or however long he's out).

As for the Bethel tournament - Bethany is trying to reload this year, but will definitely be losing a lot with Mayfield graduating.  You might also remember their schedule almost biting them last year when Crown took them to the wire.  As we've seen so far from Kentucky, Michigan State, and Ohio State, anyone you schedule can make a run at you.