MBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[sumander]

VOJ, Was Brady as all world as the box score would indicate?

[sumander]

all 5 starters for the Johnnies played at least 30 minutes (40, 37, 37, 35 and 30)...startin to look a lot like previous Tommie teams??

CORD bench out scores J's 33-0!

[TommieHoops4Life]

PI,

Good work on the links. Your boy at the Free Press has some work to do, that story was BRUTAL! The difference was like night-and-day between him and Rajkowski.

I was making phone calls for my Winter preview last night, and Olaf had a nice webcast online from Hutton Arena. It was pretty clean, fast and the play-by-play guy was good. Shocking to see two guys beat Gustavus when they pride themselves on team defense. Not going to be much slapping the floor this year, eh?

Sometimes when you're hot, you're hot. Right now, that's Brink. Exciting first night in the MIAC and good to see the Tommies get the W in Winona.

[Drake Palmer]

Opening night observations: (or, what I did over my lunch hour  )

Phew – I think everyone must be all worn out after a topsy -turvy opening night in the MIAC.  The excitement from the Pipes Oles game was almost enough to ward off the nasty hawk as I was running back to my car.  Almost. 

Wood - glad to see you re-emerge from the woodpile.  Let's see if it's enough to light a fire under the board curmudgeon.  Since Willy's not posted, I'm guessing he's in mourning for the glorious days of yore when the golden Gusties strode the land of 10,000 lakes with a swagger in their stride, a sneer on their lips and a win in their back pocket.  ( )
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Teams should be fined if they don't have their game boxscore summaries up by the break of dawn the next day.  Us armchair point guards, wings and posts need to have the ammo to make our misguided observations.  Ahem – HAMLINE!

Augsburg needs a win in a bad way.  They're too good of a team to be 0-4.  But with the angry Gusties coming to town to play the Dawgs on Saturday, Augs could be staring down an 0-5 start. As I posted on the UMAC board, the Dawgs are shooting, or should I say misfiring from beyond the arc at a frigid 15% clip on the season.  They shot a bit better last night, but still a very cool 26.7% from the 3-pt line. The intermediate game seems to be improving with the slashers (Darren Nelson 16 pts) starting to score, & Cassens doing a better job of taking of the ball.  It seems Carleton made a marked man out of Femi Solaja since he's been carrying the offensive load for Augsburg this season & limited his touches (4-6) for 9 pts.

Carleton is a tough out & don't usually beat themselves – i.e. 9 TO in last night's game. If Griess can keep Augsburg from hanging their heads, they should be alright.  After giving up 84, 82 & 77 points in their first 3 games, their defense looks like it might finally start to be coming around as they limit Carleton to 66 points.

Carlies shoot poorly (42.3%) for the night but manage to sneak out of town with a win.  Looks like the old days, with 6 players in double digit minutes – 38, 37, 35, 35, 22 & 17 minutes. One other player with 8 minutes & the last player with 3 minutes.  Can they go all season logging these types of minutes?
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Gusties – nobody with the wheels to hang with Abe?  Abe:  37 minutes -ONE turnover? And again Conboy.  He must have got the entire Gustie frontline in foul trouble – Wittwer 3 fouls, Paulson 4 fouls, Doble 5 fouls. I'm guessing the guy doing a lot of Abe chasing must have been Mike DesLauriers as he ended up with 4 fouls.

Find the keys for the MAC Bandwagon, & don't forget Trey "Bad News" Mullen.
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UST- SMU The couple of stats that jump out at me: Tommies & Redbirds combine for 40 TOs & 24 steals.  UST 18 TOs & 14 steals/SMU 22 TOs & 10 steals.  Could this be the new look Southern Catholics run-n-press style?
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SJU-COBBS – What can I say that hasn't already been said about Mr. Brink? Ho-hum, another spectacular 40 minute game. Next.    I realize he didn't shoot as well as he did in his first couple of game, but how did Chris Schwartz look?

Cobbs go quietly into the night.  Looking over their roster again it looks like they've lost seniors Brock Citterman, Gavin Ganab, Eric Meischner & now Anthony Boike who played PG for them most of last season.
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HAM- OLES Speaking of former players – at the Pipes game last night, I saw a shaggy looking Sam Wiener (although he did have on a coat & tie), along with Joe Smock who shot off like a sparkler for a portion of his freshmen & soph years  before hanging them up.  Coach/CEO Whitmore might be on to something over at Hamline. He's taking some little used talent, along with an infusion of new players & made a respectable looking team out of them.  FY Carl Hipp has got an excuse for being long & lanky, but Sophs Tanner Anderson & Luke Johansen need to get in the weight room ASAP. Somebody like Wittwer, Brink, Joe Scott - UST, is going to snap them in half. 

Thrasher looked good but tended to force a few too many shots, & needs to learn to trust his teammates.  And, his style of play must have been rubbing off on FY Eric Clute.  Although he was certainly one of the key performers for the Pipes last night, I don't think young Mr. Clute ever met a shot he didn't like.  His release is slow on his jumper, which partially accounts for his poor shooting performance, along with his shot selection.  But the kid was ice at the FT line (13-14).  Soph transfer Nick Carroll played a very solid game & I'm surprised they only had him credited for 2 assists.  I'm putting him on my All-MIAC Tats team along with Nick Otterson from Bethel.  Based on their style of play, I'm guessing Otterson will end up getting more grief than Carroll.  Although they didn't generate a lot of TOs, their defense put alot of pressure on the Oles & outside of Hunter, badgered the Oles into a poor shooting night  - 42.5%FGA, 33% 3s.

Oles - Anybody dogging Steve Banick from the Oles doesn't know what they're talking about, he's a soldier.  He might not put up a double double every night, but he's a very solid, MIAC PG. Last night 11 assists, 4 steals & 1 TO.  I'd take him any day of the week.  Hamline's Johansen & Anderson should look to the Oles' Bobby Hunter & see what time in weight room will do. He's having a very solid senior year. Norberg was on the bench in street clothes. Aside from Hunter, I was surprised that the Hamline interior D did as well as they did against the Oles.  Mitch Haugen & Brady McMahon both fouled out against the skinnier, active, Pipes post players.

[abominable_snowman]

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Gusties – nobody with the wheels to hang with Abe?  Abe:  37 minutes -ONE turnover? And again Conboy.  He must have got the entire Gustie frontline in foul trouble – Wittwer 3 fouls, Paulson 4 fouls, Doble 5 fouls. I’m guessing the guy doing a lot of Abe chasing must have been Mike DesLauriers as he ended up with 4 fouls.

Find the keys for the MAC Bandwagon, & don’t forget Trey “Bad News” Mullen.

Having not seen nor heard the game, this is pure conjecture.  But i could easily envision Abe cruising to the hoop, drawing the interior D- and dumping at the last moment to Conboy, and with the D out of position they come in for a late hack.  Conboy put up 10 FTAs last night.

[piperinsider]

I just pointed out somebody's prediction of 30 points for Banick, and he put up a goose egg. He clearly has a role if he played 32 of 40 minutes last night.

Speaking of skinny frosh, wasn't Wittwer at one point that way? Sometimes kids develop more muscle and bulk in college (is there a correlation between this and pizza and weight rooms?).

[VOJ]

VOJ, Was Brady as all world as the box score would indicate?

In the words of an esteemed coach i know..."he was solid"

[Drake Palmer]

PI - sorry if you thought I was dogging you.  Another nameless poster has held Mr. Banick in low regard.  

[Willy Wonka]

As I drove home from putting in a bid on a house last night (aka not watching/listening to any games), guess what song came on? Bob Dylan's "The times they are a-changin."

In other words, Wonka is getting old, the Gusties can't play defense and oAs is showing the dedication of the worst bandwagon jumper. Oh, and the Gustie women almost lost to a team who had to drop out of the MIAC during the middle of the season two years ago because it couldn't field a full team — which I listened to part of on the perfectly fine webcast, oAs. All in all, just a very humbling night.

I said it most of last year and I'll say it again, these aren't your daddy's Gusties. The best defensive player on the team is simply average and the guards will get cooked by anyone with decent quicks. Heck, our best offensive player (Doble) can't even start as a senior because he still looks like Sam Jacobson during his freshman year with the Gophs on defense. The sad thing is, they're all nice guys — some might even say too nice.

While it's certainly too early to make any judgements on the new assistant coach, I can't help but wonder if Hanson wouldn't have been better off going another direction to offset his personality. Maybe something like this. Just imagine his floor slaps on the sideline! Though they may have to install some ropes behind the bench so he could pump up the crowd then, too...might be too expensive after the new football field and all

Woody - The Wingers will be inconsistent all year. The girls team has only two seniors and plays a TON of middle schoolers; in 2-3 years they could be state-bound. The boys lost a starting post with a torn ACL already and weren't very deep to begin with.

PI - Witter was skinny, is skinny and will be skinny. He actively tries to stay that way, so don't expect that to change anytime soon.

[VOJ]

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Gusties – nobody with the wheels to hang with Abe?  Abe:  37 minutes -ONE turnover? And again Conboy.  He must have got the entire Gustie frontline in foul trouble – Wittwer 3 fouls, Paulson 4 fouls, Doble 5 fouls. I’m guessing the guy doing a lot of Abe chasing must have been Mike DesLauriers as he ended up with 4 fouls.

Find the keys for the MAC Bandwagon, & don’t forget Trey “Bad News” Mullen.

Having not seen nor heard the game, this is pure conjecture.  But i could easily envision Abe cruising to the hoop, drawing the interior D- and dumping at the last moment to Conboy, and with the D out of position they come in for a late hack.  Conboy put up 10 FTAs last night.

Yea and unfortunately for those who have to play him...he made some of them

[miacwatchmen]

all 5 starters for the Johnnies played at least 30 minutes (40, 37, 37, 35 and 30)...startin to look a lot like previous Tommie teams??

CORD bench out scores J's 33-0!

Smith's 5 ponies are going to get pretty tired unless he expands his bench. The two freshies Schwartz and Burtzel may be able to play 30 a night right now but when the MIAC schedule hits full stride 5 guys just aren't going to be able to do it!!  Despite that it was a good win for the J's.

[miacsuperfan]

just a thought or two on last night:
oles get career night out of a guy and lose to pipes.
sju gets a career night out of a guy and struggles to beat a soft cob team at sexton.
mac gets two career nights out of guys and defeats gac at the gus.
ust struggles to beat lowly smu in winona following big win over wsu.
car pulls off the win of the night (imho) by beating dawgs at auggie, and no career nights were necessary.
and gac-guys, i wouldn't count out your gus-tees just yet.   
in the wise words of a previous poster, this schedule is not a sprint--but a marathon.

[gacbacker]

PI,

Good work on the links. Your boy at the Free Press has some work to do, that story was BRUTAL! The difference was like night-and-day between him and Rajkowski.

I thought the exact same thing this morning when I read that story...choppy as hell.

[VOJ]

all 5 starters for the Johnnies played at least 30 minutes (40, 37, 37, 35 and 30)...startin to look a lot like previous Tommie teams??

CORD bench out scores J's 33-0!

Smith's 5 ponies are going to get pretty tired unless he expands his bench. The two freshies Schwartz and Burtzel may be able to play 30 a night right now but when the MIAC schedule hits full stride 5 guys just aren't going to be able to do it!!  Despite that it was a good win for the J's

Watchman...point taken, but Rome was not built in a day, and fine wine takes time... by the way superfan...I think that people are not giving the Cobbs their due...Linz in the first half was making his teammates better and getting them involved, he tried to take over late, but was not able to get his shot to fall...CC has some good posts and they made some nice adjustments at the half, if they can play their game:  slow down, methodical, execute and defend well, they can be in alot of games, however in a frenetic pace they turn it over like I drink Diet Pepsi, in other words, all day every day.
.

[PTPer35]

Zorro goes over the 1000 point mark just 2 games after Drake surpasses the milestone.