WBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[LA RAMS]

I was over at Macalester to witness the shocker.  Not only shocking in just the win itself but also shocking when you take into consideration Mac's horrendous FT shooting last night (had to have been below 50%).  And yes, the officiating was on the fair side of abysmal.   I thought Mac was in big trouble once Danielle Johnson fouled out but somehow they found the big rebounds and shots when they needed them.  And true, the Cobbers didn't help their cause with equally horrendous shooting from the perimeter, either.  Needless to say, a HUGE step forward for the Scots. 

Looks like everything else went pretty much to form as both the Knights and Gusties hold serve at home and CSB thumps the Christians.  Good to see this board finally going again.  Makes the Emerald Bowl fiasco against FSU a bit easier to handle. 

[gacbacker]

Vadnais and Monahan are now #1 and #2 in scoring in the conference after last nights games. I wonder when the last time that has happened this late into the season.

Maybe even more amazing is the fact that the Blazers are undefeated and don't have a single player averaging in double figures. Ellie Boone is the leading scorer at 9.3 ppg and is 25th in the conference. Props to the Blazers and Durbin for their current win streak without a go-to player.

[Ghost of MIAC Past]

Huge blow to the Blazers with their starting PG out for the season.  Do they somehow blame Bethel for that?  They seem to put a lot of blame on other teams when things go badly or they get hurt.

[blazerball]

I'm very pleased the Blazers came out of the break and took care of business at Bethel.  The Royals gave them a tight game there last season but the Blazers blew them out of the gym Wednesday night.  The Royals had no answer for the depth and speed of the Blazers.  The Royals are big and slow...and have no real offensive perimeter threats without  Thielke.  The only bad thing about the game was the career-ending injury to Katie Kempe.  She was making a hustle play and had just stolen the ball when it happened.  She is a wonderful person, great player and a leader for the Blazers.  It will be tough to replace an all-conference player like her - it will be interesting to see how the Blazers respond to losing on of their floor leaders.  I think Nikki Carter is a great player so it is my hope she will step into the starting role and shine.  I also want to send my best thoughts to Katie for a speedy recovery...I look forward to seeing her on the sideline supporting her teammates the rest of the year...she is just a great person and it is a shame when these things happen...

EC - I am not even going to take the bait.  Say what you want about the Blazers.  They are off to a good start this season and we shall see where it leads.  Bethel has been very physical the past few years but it has not helped them become a better basketball team.  The fact is, they have been and will continue to be a bad basketball team.

Like others, I was also shocked at the Mac-Cobber score the other night.  But, I think it will be a nice reminder to teams at the top of the conference not to take those at the bottom lightly.  However, I thinks the Cobbers will be fine as Jess Rahman is a tremendous coach and they definitely have talent on the squad.  It will make the CSB-Mac game next Monday very interesting and while I will be a Mac for the game I will also be very interested in the Cobber-Gustie game that night as I think they play each other Monday night in Moorhead...

Safe travels today for all and I hope for good health and no injuries in the MIAC today!  While I want people healthy---I will hope the teams closest to my Blazers in the standings falter.  I will be in Northfield hoping my Blazers recover from losing one of their floor leaders at St. Olaf today...   

   

[blazerguy]

Huge blow to the Blazers with their starting PG out for the season.  Do they somehow blame Bethel for that?  They seem to put a lot of blame on other teams when things go badly or they get hurt.

Nobody's blaming anything but the law of nature for Katie's knee injury. Bethel was very physical under the basket but the injury happened in open court. Not even the worst coach in the MIAC, Bethel's, could contribute to the injury! He has NO rotation, leaves players in with too many fouls, doesn't sub even when a player is obviously out of gas, and is clueless when to call timeouts. Bethel has alot of talent, fortunately for the rest of the MIAC it isn't used properly.

[Korn Lover]

Cobbers tumble on their own floor with Hamline

Having your former star sitting on the opponents bench as a coach is a real challeng to any team, more so when its Mandy Pearson!

Bright spots were the 2nd half comeback to make the game close and the play of freshman Sarah Sorbo.

We've been here before, Cobbers will be there at the end of the season.

Sorry to learn of the injury to Kempe. These young ladies at the D-3 level play for the love of the game. To have that opportunity taken away too soon is tragic.

Bethel on Monday, where are the shoulder pads and helmets?

[LA RAMS]

Great game yesterday over at CSC as Carleton downed St. Kate's 66-65 on Amber Connor's buzzer beater.  Simply well-played by both squads; even the officiating wasn't that bad save for a couple of calls both ways.  While certainly a tough loss for St. Kate's to swallow they've proven they can hang with the top level in the MIAC and I think they're a solid bet to make the MIAC playoffs this year the way things are shaping up for them.

Hamline over Concordia - in Moorhead no less??    Definitely an eye-opener to say the least.  Sounds like one of the newer kids on the block (Rochelle Sather) got off and dropped a double-deuce on the Corn.  While Hamline (along with UST) seems to be one of the Jekyll and Hyde teams of the MIAC, Concordia appears to be having some after-effects of that morale-sapping loss to Macalester the other night.  Will be interesting to see if and when they can recover from this Dallas Cowboy-esque stumble.

BB, BG, SK, CM, et al; sorry to hear about the season-ending injury to Katie Kempe.  Always sucks when something like that happens.  Beyond the obvious, how much will this impact the Blazers the rest of the way?     

[blazerguy]

BB, BG, SK, CM, et al; sorry to hear about the season-ending injury to Katie Kempe.  Always sucks when something like that happens.  Beyond the obvious, how much will this impact the Blazers the rest of the way?     

Anytime you lose a 4 year starter its a big blow... but, fortunately we have Carter as a backup who is very capable of being a starting pointguard. We also have Mindy Schmitt as a freshman that has great potential at the point. It will hurt our depth and our leadership but with Durbin at the helm we will be just fine!!

[Willy Wonka]

Cobbs knock off the Gusties by 2 tonight. My eyes and ears' phone died before I could come out with any details, including a score.

Bad trip up north for GAC. Worse bus ride home, I'd assume 

[cobbernation]

Cobbs knock off the Gusties by 2 tonight. My eyes and ears' phone died before I could come out with any details, including a score.

Bad trip up north for GAC. Worse bus ride home, I'd assume 

The GAC girls grabbed their first lead in the game with less than a minute to go.  Then with 15 seconds left, my MVP of the MIAC melanie hageman makes a layup to  go up by 1 point. 

At this point I think rahman called a timeout with 9 secs left.  GAC inbounds the ball and tries a handoff.  It was quickly picked off by anne keeley who was then fouled.  She made 1 of 2 free throws and GAC didn't get a shot off as time expired.

All In all a good game, but the cobbers need to work out some issues with their turnovers and fouls.  GAC was in the double bonus with 10 min. left in the game.  Bright spot for the cobbers, freshman standout Sarah Sorbo goes for 15 points in the first half.  Huge game for her, she plays great D and works extremely hard.

Good win Cobbs!

[Korn Lover]

Cobbernation puts it well. Nice to see the Cobbers play like they expected to win and let the defense do the talking.

Monahan and Vadnais played extremely well, shot free throws great! I thought Raymo played very well on the defensive side.

GAC, do you think there is a concern about the number of minutes Monahan and Vadnais are playing? Looking at the stats for the last 4-5 games, they are each playing close to 30 minutes/game. Three games a week for a month will surely take its toll. Your thoughts?

[scorekeeper]

I thought we would be in for an interesting affair at Macalester last night, but CSB was able to cruise past the Scots.  Durbin used 15 players and nobody played more than 18 minutes.  I have to assume that Mac ran out of gas after 3 consecutive victories, but it was clear that the Scots could not handle the speed and quickness of St. Ben's. 

LA Rams: Thanks for the note to us Blazer fans about Kempe.  It's a huge loss.  I still can't believe her career is over.  How will the Blazers be without her?  I think it will hurt more later in the season when CSB is in a dogfight for the MIAC title.  Although she did not routinely score in double figures, she was always a threat to make multiple three pointers and drive to the basket.  She had also improved her defense this year and was setting up the offense as well as she ever had. 

On a positive note about Katie, she has been such a big trooper and great teammate through her situation.  Last night she was standing without crutches during warmups so she could high five all the players in the layup drills.  She is vocal from the bench and so supportive of her team.  She is such a great person which is why it makes it so difficult to see this happen to her. 

How about the games this Wednesday?  GAC at UST, Bethel hosting Concordia and the suprise teams of the year Hamline and St. Kate's doing battle in Hutton Arena.  What a night for basketball hopping around St. Paul. 

[LA RAMS]

Impressive outing by the Blazers last night as Mac came crashing back to earth with a frighteningly resounding THUD.  I didn't get a full appreciation for it when I watched CSB battle GAC up at Claire Lynch last month but I just cannot get over how much size CSB really has - and how they can come at a team in waves like they did with Mac last night.  Whether it's Boone, Falvey, Goehner, or a few of the other newbies they can just pound on a team.  And they've got a nice touch of speed, too, to add to the mix.  I haven't seen the box score yet but I am curious as to their FG% last night.  They were on fire.  Got to say hello to KK after the game and to wish her well.  Hope she recovers okay.

Tough, tough loss for GAC up in M-head last night.  True, it was on the road and both CSB, Concordia, and Carleton still have to make the trek to St. Peter but I wish this squad could somehow find a way to steal a game like this on the road against a quality opponent.

Hope the action Wednesday night is better than last night's B.C.S. Championship game.  BTW, good to catch a huge chunk of the SJU - Mac men's game last night.  Physical.......       

[Cager]

Been gone for a while (I/T troubles, UGH!).

So, will anyone beat St. Ben's?

Also, where are the Hamline and Macalaster posters? Your teams are have great years and there's no one here to brag them up. Come on, create a profile and jump in!

[Willy Wonka]

St. Bens is clearly the team to beat at this point in the season. I'm interested to see how the Gusties respond tonight at UST, who seems to be playing better after a rocky start.

With no SMU rep on these boards, I'll throw this out there myself. The new Cards coach has very little talent to work with down bout. However, he sent out an email to the entire faculty laying out a bunch of guidelines in class for his student-athletes. The only one I specifically heard mentioned was that his players were required to sit in the first or second row of class, but the list was apparently double-digit in length.

Does any other coach in the MIAC mandate such a thing, especially for all to hear? Is this a good or a bad thing? Anyone care to speculate on what other rules he's invoked?