WBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[gacbacker]

Ok, with the season starting in earnest tonight, I thought I'd make a few predictions. I think Carleton is in the driver's seat to win the conference this year for a variety of reasons. They have a roster with 8 experienced players who can all step up on a given night. You can't shut down one or two players and figure youre going to win the ball game. Their coaching is outstanding and I think Ben's, GAC, and Concordia all suffered significant losses from graduation.

With that being said I think Ben's and GAC will be in the running for the title but will likely find themselves battling for second place.

I think Concordia and Bethel will be comfortable playoff teams, with the sixth spot up for grabs between teams like St. Thomas, Hamline, Olaf, and St. Kate's.

[Nites]

Carleton over Augsburg in a struggle, 74-63

[Nites]

GAC over MAC 54-51.  Vadnais with 24 (only Gustie in double figures)

[gacbacker]

St. Ben's 79 Concordia 71

Nice win for the Blazers as they get almost all their scoring from their guards. 16 for Schmidt and 16 off the bench for Waytashek.

The Gustie win was brutal. 48 combined turnovers. Hopefully the rust will be gone by Saturday.

[Nites]

St. Ben's 79 Concordia 71

Nice win for the Blazers as they get almost all their scoring from their guards. 16 for Schmidt and 16 off the bench for Waytashek.

The Gustie win was brutal. 48 combined turnovers. Hopefully the rust will be gone by Saturday.

Sounds like a good game.  Look for Schmidt to have a great year.

[Collegeville Magic]

Ah, hoops time again.  Of course, posting from the west coast isn't quite the same as posting fresh info after an evening in a MIAC gym like most of the rest of you, but here's hoping that the SIDs all update their stats and pages quickly. 

It's nice to see instant contributions from the new First-year class at CSB, Durbin certainly finds some great young women every year!  I'm happy to see how my Blazers have adjusted after graduating 5 players last spring, although I worry about the lack of post depth.

Any insight as to why the Carleton and GAC games were so close?  Is Carleton that tired after the opening tourney?  Is GAC really going to only be a one-woman show this year -- 48 COMBINED TURNOVERS?!?!?!?!?!

My totally uninformed projection:
1 - Carleton
2 - St. Ben's
3 - Concordia
4 - UST
5 - GAC
6 - Bethel
7 - Hamline
8 - St. Kate's
9 - St. Olaf
10 - Augsburg
11 - MAC
12 - St. Mary's

Bonus prediction - two head coaches of schools in the southern half of the state (and yes, Mpls/StP is in the southern half) will be widely accused of recruiting violations, but nobody will be able to prove anything.  (but yojo will still know all and put us in our rightful places)

I'm cheering for an injury-free season of fairly contested and horribly officiated games, and hoping like heck that the young CSB team can pull off some surprises.

[LA RAMS]

Got to watch both the Carleton - Augsburg and SMU - UST games tonight.  Augsburg had a 37-27 lead at the half and led for a good chunk of the 2nd half before the Knights took things over.  The Tommies were up on SMU by 32 in the second half before the Cards made a nice little comeback to slice that deficit to 12 points but by then it was too late. 

Meanwhile, GAC by ONLY a 54-51 margin over Mac?  48 combined turnovers???  How Dorrellian.  Sounds as ugly as my Bruins 16-0 win over Oregon was this last Saturday.  Pains me to think that KD's version of ugly football has now infected MIAC womens hoops.

[Maroon&Gold]

For all of you Blazer faithful at CSB last night, what are your impressions of this year's Cobber squad???

Just by reading previews and looling at rosters, my take is that this is a very young team who will probably grow and mature throughout the year, hopefully to be playing their best ball come playoff time.

[gacbacker]

I think the Cobbers slow start has to be a little disappointing. While they did lose Keeley, Hageman has to be considered one of the top three players in the conference. Sorbo showed signs last year that she could be a stud, Matetich is certainly serviceable, and they have a couple other players with some experience back.

Back to the Gustie win over MAC, I'm not putting a lot of stock into this final score for a couple of reasons. MAC had already played two games and this was the Gusties first game of the season. Also the Gusties have a history of struggling against MAC due to their style of play. I believe it was just last year at Gus Young Court that the two teams went into halftime with a score of 12-11. I believe there were 25 turnovers and 23 points scored at halftime in that game. With that said, it sounds like Britz has the Auggies playing pretty well right now, so the Gusties are going to have to play a little better on Saturday.

[yojo]

Bonus prediction - two head coaches of schools in the southern half of the state (and yes, Mpls/StP is in the southern half) will be widely accused of recruiting violations, but nobody will be able to prove anything.  (but yojo will still know all and put us in our rightful places)

[/quote]

Uh oh, more baseless accusations with a schnazzy personal attack...not sure if I'll be able to sleep tonight Nice that you have all that inside information...."With well doing you may put to silence foolish men."

[yojo]

With all these conference games it just shows how competitive the conference is now.  I think the days of dominance by four teams is over.  Nice to see some equalized talent on all these teams....

[Willy Wonka]

With all these conference games it just shows how competitive the conference is now.  I think the days of dominance by four teams is over.  Nice to see some equalized talent on all these teams....

Based on what? Four of the top six from a year ago won their opener, with one (CSB) beating another (CC). That's a pretty bold statement exactly one game into the conference schedule...

[yojo]

well.....Gustavus barely beats Macalester by THREE, Carleton over Augsberg by NINE, St. Kates gets smoked by a Coe team that is last in their division, & Bethel, Carleton, & Hamline have a lot of talent on the roster.....
Are you telling me that these games would have been close four years ago?

[PRF2007]

Hageman is clearly the best player on the squad.  However, she won't be able to carry this team.  The young tall posts from St. Bens held her in check the first half of that game.  If some of the cobber guards can develop some outside threat Hageman will put up even better numbers.

For all of you Blazer faithful at CSB last night, what are your impressions of this year's Cobber squad???

Just by reading previews and looling at rosters, my take is that this is a very young team who will probably grow and mature throughout the year, hopefully to be playing their best ball come playoff time.

[Nites]

Carleton over Concordia 84-75 in Moorhead.  Career highs for Annie Isler (20) and FY Ally Weaver (17).