WBB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[gacbacker]

Puget Sound beat Pacific Lutheran 67-60 tonight in a game that Gustie fans would have liked to have seen go the other way. With the Gusties really the only team in the conference with a shot at getting an at large berth if they should happen to lose in the MIAC championship game, the more losses to the better teams in the region the better.

Other random notes that really have no significance:

-Augsburg will be the first team to become mathmatically eliminated from the MIAC playoffs today with a loss or a win by either Hamline or St. Thomas.

-Gustavus is currently on pace to break the MIAC record for free throw percentage for a season. The current record is held by last year's Concordia squad which shot 74.1 percent. The Gusties are currently shooting 76.2% in conference play.

[Pat Coleman]

You're really competing with all conferences around the country for Pool C bids, remember, not just the ones in your region.

[Korn Lover]

GAC- If you have games left against Bethel, St. Thomas and Augsburg, you have a shot

Cobbers won't give it up easily though, as long as Hageman gets to the line, she's money! Keely's no slouch either.

Everybody lay off the fouls on the Gusties!

Good luck to all tonight.

[Collegeville Magic]

All you GACsters are way too easily riled up.  We have many weeks left before we can worry about how the NCAA committee will inevitably screw something up, so yelling about the whole voting thing really doesn't help a thing.

Were Monahan and Vadnais overlooked on relatively worthless pre-season lists?  Yes.  Nobody's arguing that.
Predictions for tonight?

GAC at St. Kate's - GAC by 2 on a contested last second shot that will give the Gustie fans a reason to suddenly defend the refs

Bethel at CSB - Blazers by 10, and one of the Christians finally confesses to her muggings in the lane on D, prompting feverish prayers from the Bethel bench

Carleton at UST - Knights by 1, Carleton winning when a last second shot by the Tommies is knocked off the rim by an especially powerful stomp/scream combo from Tammy. 

[Willy Wonka]

CM - Welcome back, buddy. Curious that you'd disappear for four days after a loss only to come back with a snide remark about the team that beat you. I mean, I never would have guessed it

Gusties in a dogfight with St. Kates. It's 43-42 CSC at the half. For reference, GAC only allows 53ish per game in the league and held the Katies to 49 in dismantling them in the first meeting.

I'm home sick and may not stay awake til the end of the game, so this may be my only update. Hopefully I don't miss anything too terrible...

[Collegeville Magic]

Wonks- If I didn't already disregard everything you said in here, I'd be offended.

CSB taking Bethel behind the proverbial woodshed with a 17-point halftime lead.  Mackenzie O'Steal, I mean O'Neil is taking the ball away left and right, and Noreen is 3-3 from behind the arch.  She really sucks.

[Collegeville Magic]

73-47 CSB, nobody injured by Bethel elbows, so that counts as two wins for the Blazers.

Any other updates out there?

[gacbacker]

Gusties win a weird one against St. Kate's...The Gusties pushed it out to around a 14-17 point lead three different times and each time either Berglund, Petrich or Schneider would all the sudden become Lindsay Whalen and single handedly bring the Wildcats back into the game.

Monahan had 28 and was dominant...Vadnais had 22 and 8 assists but I think even she would admit it wasn't her best game, which says ALOT.

Radtke is the best freshman point guard in this league since Mandy Pearson...with the Gusties clinging to a 4 point lead with just over a minute remaining, she drove to the rack for a left handed lay-up and was fouled...made the free throw and the Gusties had it in the bag.

I'm just glad the Gusties walked away from this guy fairly injury-free. For a moment there I thought either Ashley Busch or Trish Johnson was going to decapitate Monahan before the night was over. 

I, like Willy, wondered if maybe the Catholic church up there in St. Joseph had perhaps enacted a no-posting law after the Bennies lost in St. Peter...glad to see that is over with now that Bethel got their pants handed to them.

Congrats to Heather Davis on getting her 1,000th point tonight.

[Korn Lover]

Cobbers cruise in revenge at home against a hapless Macalaster squad. Nice to see Keely back on form. Noted the Scots got a little dirty in this one, be careful all you yet to play them.

Carleton loss makes things interesting and a possible home game for the Cobbers in the tournament.

Don't count us out yet!

[gacbacker]

Not to re-open old wounds, but Simpson lost again tonight to a 9-9 Loras team...further evidence that they didn't belong in the top 25

[Pat Coleman]

Nor did Gustavus beat anyone that improved their Top 25 resume ... though I thought you said we were done.

[gacbacker]

There's a lot of teams in the top 25 without a top 25 resume.

And did I mention anything about Gustavus? Although I think the win over a team (St. Kate's) who beat St. Ben's (a previous 25 team) is a pretty good win.

It's a better result than what #10 UW-Stout got tonight....who by the way has 4 losses now....one to a horrible Finlandia team....and just like the Gusties has only one good win (McMurry)...but hey throw em in the top ten...why not?

Logically, Gustavus should be the #2 team in the nation...since they beat Carleton who beat Ponoma Pitzer who beat Mass-Boston who beat Eastern Connecticut who beat Salem State who beat Williams who beat Bates who beat Maine-Farmington who beat #23 Maine Maritime who beat #2 Bowdoin. 

[Pat Coleman]

And did I mention anything about Gustavus?

Spare me. It's obvious what you were implying.

[Willy Wonka]

CSB taking Bethel behind the proverbial woodshed with a 17-point halftime lead.  Mackenzie O'Steal, I mean O'Neil is taking the ball away left and right...

"O'Steal": 22 points allowed, 4 fouls, 0 steals. Nuf said.

...and Noreen is 3-3 from behind the arch.  She really sucks.

If I needed a basket in crunch time, Noreen would be in the bottom five of the MIAC guards I'd choose to create it. If I needed a player to hit a wide open 3, she'd be top five. If that makes an all-american, I'm in the wrong business.

But on to more important issues...isn't it about time CM calls for Durbin's head, like he did for little Gags on the football board after the Bethel loss? I mean, CSB is only tied for the conference lead, second in assists, third in scoring, third in shooting percentage and fourth in field goal percentage defense. Those are actually much worse numbers than the Johnnie offense was putting up when the call was made. I'm waiting, CM, unless you're still going to claim this isn't the same poster it's been over the years 

Gusties are a top 25 team right now, no ifs ands or buts about it. But I'm not going to keep arguing the point or Pat will start deleting my posts and/or ban me for not agreeing with him.

[Willy Wonka]

I won't be as lame as to quote myself, but I will use some stats to back up my previous post. Noreen has 128 shots on the season, third most on the team. More than 70% of them have come from beyond the arc. She's currently 11-for-37 (29%) on 2-pointers with 25 free throws in 19 games, making a pretty pitiful case for her supposed penchant for driving.

Now, if those stats don't scream one-dimensional player, I don't know what does.

Also, has anyone seen Augsburg's Kristina Lurken play? Until last night she was leading the league in assists at 4.2 to go along with 10+ points and nearly 5 rebounds a night. I realize Auggie Tech is terrible, but those are some pretty nice numbers. Thoughts on her game?